skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
See also: http://github.com/tlrobinson/wwwoosh

It includes a netcat-based webserver written in bash (that speaks CGI) as well as a Sinatra-like micro "framework" for shell (that also speaks CGI) that lets you do things like this:

get "/DeanMartin.jpg" dean_handler
function dean_handler () {
header "Content-Type" "image/jpeg"
cat "DeanMartin.jpg"
}

Unfortunately I haven't figure out a way to get rid of that placeholder function name (e.x. "dean_handler" above). Ideas?
Thanks, this is perfect. (I wonder if you should add this to the Wikipedia article? It would make it a lot clearer.)

I can definitely see how it works now. I'm still not sure on why it works. I guess it's just a probability thing? I.e., each hashed insertion is very unlikely to collide with another?
Agree with you and the GP. Both well said.

It wasn't until my fourth start-up job that I found one that I loved and stuck with for more than 1.5 years. Luckily, that one worked out and I was rewarded for it. Not as a founder, but as the GP recommended: work at it and find a key role. Work up from there and get your efforts recognized.

You won't make millions this way but you will learn a lot about business--mainly, how to recognize the good and bad things in your environment, and how to navigate those issues. You also don't have to risk your savings or livelihood. Unless you have a clear or novel idea about what you want (which I didn't), it is a great learning environment.

One thing that I have always known is that I'm not a natural business-type person. After having the safety blanket of learning through 6 years of funded start-ups, rather than on my own dime (and thinking I could do it myself "because it's so easy"), it really helped my long-term prospects of running my own business. One day I will but not yet.
I didn't know Luke or his family, but as a private pilot and father/husband, this story saddens me for the non-zero possibility that my own wife and kids would be left in a similar situation.

Because different people grieve in different ways, and I suspect a non-zero number of "us" will want to know more about the incident, I offer the following two resources, not for macabre voyeurism, but for those who want to perhaps understand more of the technical details. I know that these sites have been helpful to me in the (fortunately very few) times in the past when I've lost pilot friends of mine.

The FAA site will likely have the basic data posted tomorrow:
http://www.faa.gov/data_research/accident_incident/prelimina...

The NTSB will have a preliminary report in a few days, and a final report will be months in coming:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/AccList.asp?month=10&year=2010

If those resources are helpful to just one person close to Luke and family, it was worth the 5 minutes it took to post this.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm still in a pretty good mood despite being declined.

I quit my job yesterday and I'm going to be working on my (3rd) startup full time.

It's liberating to become completely dependent on your own ability.

Bootstrapping: "a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help"
Okay, replace the first line with:

sudo apt-get install lighttpd
Python could certainly use a generic payments library—like what libcloud has done for cloud providers. And I don't want to demoralize you or ridicule the work done already. However, there are a number of problems with the implementation as it stands that make it a bad idea to ask for contributors at this stage:

1. There are no tests. How can I be expected to contribute to your project when there's no way I can ensure a change doesn't break existing functionality, or even works itself? Testing remote APIs is a bit of a hassle, but it's what mocking was made for. Short of signing up for multiple payment gateways, there's no current way to test any change I make.

2. No setup.py support. This will likely further limit the number of people who contribute as it increases the barrier to entry. A proper project structure is a relatively easy thing that saves you a ton of time in aggregate.

3. There is no coherent developer API. Why does XMLGatewayInterface exist if only one gateway uses it? Why isn't there a generic GatewayInterface that abstracts things further, for non-XML APIs? If you're not going to use ABCs or strict interfaces (like zope.interface), you should at least have well-formed documentation: most ivar conventions (Foo.API_BASE, etc.) aren't mentioned anywhere. Why are there exceptions in the lib module that are only used by one gateway (or none)?

4. There are a multitude of minor design decisions that, if followed by contributors, will likely cause you pain down the road. Using print for debug output, relative imports, random error handling, "entrapping" functions (why would a function take two optional parameters that are immediately checked for non-None status?), etc.

To be clear, I'm very glad you're working on this—it's a difficult (at least incredibly tedious) problem that I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate a Python solution for, myself included. But I don't think this is a very good time to be asking people to fork and contribute. You need a proper foundation built before trying to solicit contributions or you'll end up with a bunch of code you'll need to rewrite later instead of a comparatively small amount you should rewrite now.

As the library author, it's your responsibility to build a cohesive, general-yet-customizable, clear interface upon which people can build and test their own gateway drivers. If you do that, I promise you you'll have contributors in no time. It's exactly what we did with libcloud and we now support almost every cloud provider out there and even have a nearly API-compliant Java fork (just to lend some credibility to my rambling).
Congrats for the launch! Sweet project =)

Can't wait for being able to edit/delete crates. Would be nice too to be able to edit profile.

By the way, Let's Crate email list that I subscribed to a couple days ago failed to send me any news at all, if I hadn't checked here I wouldn't see the launch.
Wow that's cool...what other tools do that sort of thing?
It's weird that the lack of portable phones requires more suspension of disbelief than time travel. Maybe that's a testament to the writer. In Doomsday Book there are a few plot points where even an answering machine would have helped.

Excellent books though, despite that.
Or when I first opened GMail! Don't take all the credit!
When a company might suspect a class action lawsuit is coming, wouldn't the prudent thing be to have some friendly lawyers represent the Class of everyone that could ever possibly sue and settle for something a minuscule as this?

It seems like I've likely been included in Classes without knowing it in the past, what is the legal recourse if you decide to sue after a catch-all like this has happened and you never received the mail/email? (Like say you stopped using gmail after this?)
Having been in a similar circumstance, the answer is pretty much 'yes' to all of the above. Expect it to be very much like a programming interview for a job.
Google App Engine Hosted SQL Preview Signup
I agree with this completely. This is one skill I don't have that I definitely wish more emphasis was put on when I was younger.
According to "Mercurial: The Definitive Guide" by Bryan O'Sullivan [1], it might make sense to use Subversion if you are collaborating with others on said binary files:

> Because Subversion doesn't store revision history on the client, it is well suited to managing projects that deal with lots of large, opaque binary files. If you check in fifty revisions to an incompressible 10MB file, Subversion's client-side space usage stays constant The space used by any distributed SCM will grow rapidly in proportion to the number of revisions, because the differences between each revision are large.

> In addition, it's often difficult or, more usually, impossible to merge different versions of a binary file. Subversion's ability to let a user lock a file, so that they temporarily have the exclusive right to commit changes to it, can be a significant advantage to a project where binary files are widely used.

[1]: http://hgbook.red-bean.com/read/how-did-we-get-here.html
We went from basic monochrome computers that could barely hold the text of a single book in memory to having instantaneous access to the sum of human knowledge from a device that fits in your pocket.

Perhaps my definition of revolutionary is different than his.
Continuous Deployment of Clojure Web Applications
> join forces with like-minded citizens in support an idea that you believe in

That looks like the definition of a political party to me. Saying that creating more parties is a solution to the current 2-party situation (which, I agree, is bad) doesn't seem right to me. I don't really have a solution, though.

Voting for someone outside of those 2 parties is only a waste of time because so many people are doing such a good job of convincing everyone that it is. If the >50% of the population that never votes all went out and voted third party, even if they were different third parties, then maybe some of them would qualify for government $, and then maybe one of them could get even more supporters in the next election with that money.

By not voting you're taking away your .000001% influence on the outcome. By not voting and telling everyone it doesn't make sense to vote, you're taking away the influence of everyone you convince not to vote, and making it that much harder for anyone trying to create the kind of movements you suggest.
I received my rejection notification at 7:27PM Pacific time. I'll work on my startup anyway, and see how I go.
Typically a payment processor has a certification process to validate code talking to their system.
We already have huge negative repercussions. Climate change, mass extinction, overpopulation thanks to industrial agriculture.

Now it might be more dangerous if tech slowed down, because we need new tech to fix disasters caused by the old.

In some industries, like energy, automotive, people have been catching their collective breath for decades and now we're in trouble.
Man, I hate when larger companies do this. It's understandable when barely anybody uses the service, but I know quite a few people that used this service on a daily basis who are really pissed off at the news. It just doesn't make any sense.
Kudos to you for not wasting time right now on the stuff that doesn't matter yet.
If getting rejected by YC is going to stop you, consider that you might not have the determination needed to found a startup.

I'm considering putting together a friends-and-family round for my startup now. The YC email was just one data point on the path.
... with your payments system?

At any rate, happy to talk: scott (at) marksmenus.com

EDIT: Ah, I'm guessing you're thinking for FaceCash? Sounds good -- shoot me an email!
I just got my rejection letter too. I have to say, though, that the whole experience has been great. Filling out the application really made me think a lot about my business, and what my pitch is.

It's amazing the clarity that comes from writing the answers to those questions down and making that video.

Good luck to everyone who hasn't been rejected yet! :)
This is very much an interview-type situation. They want to kick the tires a bit on your company -- and quite possibly suss out whom they're going to be serious about retaining, if and when a deal goes through.
The secret about rejection is... succeed in spite of the people that rejected you!

:-)
I'll have to give a plug for my company Indaba Music here - http://indabamusic.com

Our site was pretty much designed exactly for this use case - the free account allows for private sessions, in-song commenting and in-session discussion.
Looks like my left cerebellum and my right hand is winning, not sure if it's because of HTML5 or not. Flash is using less CPU, Ubuntu 10.10 64bit with Chrome 8.0.552.23 and Flash 10.2 d161.
For other people? None. For myself? Three.

They've all been as easy as piss to change RAM/HDD. Though I'm not sure if this is what you mean by 'service'
Startup Quote: Tim Westergren, founder, Pandora
Don’t be shy about believing in your ideas - even if folks around you think you’re crazy.

- Tim Westergren (@timwestergren)
I question that was bothering me: where does the test drive fit into your model? Are you supposed to go to dealers beforehand to do that?
It's pretty sweet. I wrote qoobster.com/bieber to get Antoine Dodson's sweet headband instead of that silly red square plastered on my friends.
Taking POS to the Next Level
Don't forget about physical development! I think Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a great martial art for kids. It teaches discipline and because you can spar at 95% without hurting your opponent it is very practical in real life self defense situations.
Hey folks, we are looking for co-founders, and would love to get with like minded people to shoot the sh*t. I have an email going around for a potential meetup in SFBayarea. Let me know if any of you are interested. rahulsharma2001@gmail.com

www.ikonblvd.com
Percentage of immigrants who are job creators, versus percentage of native-born citizens who are job creators would be interesting. To be worth it to the economy, immigrants don't need to create more jobs than they take, they just have to be better at it than native-born people.
When I got rejected from the MassChallenge business plan competition, I made a proposal that they didn't take but still think it might be valuable.

A "Best of the Rest" that could happen near the same time as maybe Demo day. Just adhoc come online and display the application video and details, and then show what we have done in the same time we would have been in SV.
That's a reason I put this out, to get harsh realistic feedback. You're right, I do need tests - someone has come forth & offered to write them since I put this online.

I want to improve what I've got but, IMO, I cannot do so by myself. Hence my call to arms. If you want something like this, please help improve it!
Apart from the internet itself I think digital content distribution is revolutionary, it certainly has drastically changes the way we acquire games, books, music, movies etc.
Although there have been projects (like Celery) that have started as Django projects until they achieved relatively maturity, at which point they were broken out into more general libraries.
I know getting rejected brings disappointment. Hope this quote can cheer you guys up:

Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.
- Drew Houston, co-founder, Dropbox (@drewhouston)

http://startupquote.com/post/604060576
is it just me who finds drag&drop is harder than selecting files for file-uploading?

Maybe it's just my workflow but every time i have to use drag&drop for a webpage, i have to align file-browser and web-browser manually. I find it cumbersome.
I would prefer to say 'not seleted' instead of saying 'rejected' . Getting not selected giving me lots of energy and Ideas for future. This is amazing.
"...which were populated by ads for nine different brands in the three new formats."

Does anyone know what the three new formats are? I didn't see any mention of it in the article, but it's written as though the reader is familiar with them.
Is Our Digital Society Losing Something?
They're now SSL only: http://twitter.com/#!/github/statuses/29534618326
Hi, I put an introduction to the particular implementation behind it:

https://github.com/liuliu/ccv/blob/current/doc/bbf.md

You can checkout the first paper, it is a light reading.
I didn't apply this year. Looking for a co-founder and just become a partner at my day job.
That said, it's hardly a "vacation"
Yet engines are actually getting replaced by other alternatives, but those alternatives require different sets of infrastructure which are non-existent (such as for fuel cells or electric cars) Also, there are external forces driving the way to the opposite side of the story (aka keeping combustion engines, for money, of course)

Sometimes I just think that the Americans use too much cars (one person driving a car with four seats is an insult to the nature.)
Fixed. Thanks for spotting it and mentioning it.
I don't know how good the new Office for Mac is. It does look a lot better and early feedback has been positive. Having said that I run Windows 7 on a VM for one and only one reason, Excel.
haha, nice!
Thanks, it's tough but it must be done!
I doubt that PittPatt uses NN. Here is the reference I found:

Feature-Centric Evaluation for Efficient Cascaded Object Detection, Henry Schneiderman

Maybe Schneiderman himself can clarify this :)
Ahh, if it costs money, probably not.

If it doesn't, I don't see why I wouldn't try?
inDinero saw rejection many times before getting into Y Combinator...

We applied (and got rejected in the first round) from the U.C. Berkeley Business Plan competition first in spring of 2009, then again in the spring of 2010. We also got turned away from TechStars during Spring 2009. We also tried raising angel money in the summer of 2009 and couldn't get a single commitment.

It's not all fun and roses.

This kept us going for a while:
http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html
It's an aside, but I hope they were paying you a huge amount of money to restrict your activities so severely, for such a long time.
I have a friend who had the same name as his boss, so he would have to use an alias whenever he spoke with customers, so customers wouldn't get mixed up with who they are talking to.

Its probably easier than you think to get used to an alias, but I don't know how it would work in terms of the legal name to use on your corp. papers.
You are about to get served, Foursquare “Check-In Cheats”
This theory seems out of fashion, but I still feel like learning to play a classical musical instrument, like the violin or piano, helps develop both the analytical and creative sides of the brain. Plus, you end up with a skill that you can do outside of using the computer.

Of course he's still a bit young, but it helps to start as early as possible, especially with the string instruments.
Thank you, the link was gratuitous.
Why not create a peer review, recommendation type system? To post an RMS post, you need an "OK" vote worth 1000 karma points. If you have more than 1000, you can post. If not, you need to to show your post to other people you know or met in HN and if they "OK" vote it, their karma gets added to your post's karma tally.

People can "OK" vote your RMS post by visiting your profile.
I received the same exact letter lastyear for my music related startup. Word for word. You can email them directly to get more detailed info on exactly why they rejected you. I did it and got some good feedback.
Facebook now testing smaller fonts for News feeds and Status updates
I think it depends a lot on whether the acquisition is based on their desire to have your product or their desire to acquire your team or both. The reason the potential acquisition is taking place will have a lot to do with the experience you have.

As far as the questions go, I would expect them to be appropriate to your role and contribution to the organzation, however assume that everything will be fair game and be sure to review with the founder of your company where the off limits zones are.

I know it sounds bad, but if an offer doesn't materialize and they acquire some piece of critical information from you your business could risk losing some edge that you currently have in your space.

Good Luck!
We haven't used the list yet, as we want to open it up super slowly and the hundreds of people on the list would be too much. Editing/deleting crates should be implemented today/tomorrow!

Editing your profile is unessential right now, but it'll be coming soon too.
Pagerduty told me that they applied 4 times. They eventually got in and also got funding after Demo Day.

There is always next time, and then 2 more times after that. :-)
Aye Aye Aye deal with it dude, quit whining. Use a good VPN and you dont have to worry!

www.web-privacy.edu.tc
Interesting. I'm working on broader-scope UX design for the next week and will try to figure that problem out. You can email me (in profile) if you have any suggestions.
The big problem I see is that not only do you have to explain the whole concept to your potential senders, but also to the recipients. A major reason I see for why Google Wave failed is that it required all parties involved to have signed up (and while your service might not require the recipient to sign up, they still have to know what's going on...or maybe it doesn't? I'd like to see what explanation you'd give to the recipient along with the message or lack thereof).

Actually, as I sit here overthinking things, I think your target audience is not people trying to avoid awkward social interactions, but people trying to avoid awkward social interactions because they overthink them, and what's to say they won't overthink past becoming a customer?

If I send one of these things to my grandmother, I'm fairly certain she's going to not understand whatever explanation you provide in the email and try to ask me about it. Then, once I've explained that I tried to tell her something I don't want to say in person, we're already having a conversation about it, and I would have to say it directly to her, which is what I was trying to avoid. That's the kind of overthinking you don't want, because it takes away customers.

Edit: having said that, I think it's a pretty neat idea and worth developing if you're still interested in it. Not sure I would pay money for something that could just as easily put me into the awkward situations I'd be trying to avoid.
Wow, so they are. I can't keep track of the players without a scorecard.
Thanks Adamgedde for posting this on HN. I'm from Minneapolis and we lost a great figure in this community.

R.I.P Luke you were an inspiration.
Not appropriate for HN
Thanks! We're super excited too.

More features are in the pipeline. Working on some of 'em right now. :)
If your into this space, I'd highly recommend Dee Hock's book: One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization

it tells the tale about how he created VISA

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1576753328?ie=UTF8&tag=...
http://wiki.s4.io/Manual/S4Overview
The system just needs to remove the possibility of a closed loop that could be entirely automated. Some part of the loop of gaining or loaning karma must involve content creation that is rated by known good human actors.

Timing is actually one of the simplest techniques to game. Create the account and wait. Content creation is one of the best ways to ensure no gaming is happening.
Why? Is it not interesting? Not a good discussion? I thought that is what HN is about, smart people discussing interesting topics.
My only gripe are the icon overlays. I still get randomly missing overlays.
Sign the National Entrepreneurs' Day Petition to Obama