skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Yeah, you're right about being enthusiastic and professional. Thanks for the feedback.

As for stats and data, I tend to buy Chris Dixon's argument that narratives are more important than numbers: http://cdixon.org/2010/04/03/size-markets-using-narratives-n... Nevertheless, some statistics are useful.

I included additional details about potential users and what not in my application.

An example use-case, which I didn't get into in the video, is an entrepreneurial designers and developers event.

Here's how it works:
1) Designers and developers RSVP in advance for an online event that takes place at a set date and time.

2) Upon joining the event, each designer is presented with a list of developers in the event with basic bio info from their LinkedIn profile. Each designer can then check off who they want to chat with in the event. The same happens for developers.

3) Once the event starts, they are placed in a series of one-on-one chat with a designer (or developer) that they've previously indicated that they're interested in meeting. During the chats, each participant can view the other participants LinkedIn profile. These chats last for a set time, say three minutes, like speed dating. In the event, participants meet a lot of people that they're interested in meeting in short one-on-one chats. That's the general idea.

There are a lot of flaws with this concept. And I've actually started working on a different idea shortly after I submitted my Ycombinator app, but I still think this idea has some limited potential.
Is the trip really needed at that cost though?
Ask PG: Should we expect two reject emails?
I submitted two applications through two different accounts with same email address. Should we expect two reject email repsonses? We've received only one.
Definitely don't be upset if you're not selected. There are quite a few YC funded startups that failed and I'm pretty sure the same could be said about some startups that were rejected by YC and ended up becoming very successful. Remember YC isn't a necessity, it's just an advantage.
Error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 513, in __call__
handler.post(groups)
File "/base/data/home/apps/moustachewars/2.345943956888778510/main.py", line 126, in post
winner.elo_score = Rwinner + Kelo(1-Ewinner)
File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py", line 542, in __set__
value = self.validate(value)
File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py", line 2804, in validate
% (self.name, type(value).__name__))
BadValueError: Property elo_score must be an int or long, not a float
How about WePay support? Documentation is at https://www.wepay.com/developer
Rough Python example code at
https://www.wepay.com/developer/python
OpenCV supports Android
works fine for me in chrome stable branch on ubuntu 32bit
edit-- no i'm in 6.0.472.14 dev
> 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.)

I'm guessing that you'd be mad if more of us had multiple cars, one with one seat, one with two seats, one with three, and another with four. (An extra car just for gas mileage rarely saves money because $5-7k buys a lot of gas.)

I would like to know how you know how many other people that driver will transport before returning home. After all, if they're going to need four seats at any point before they return, they need to start with four seats.

BTW - most of those "four seat" cars actually have five seats.
GitHub is now SSL only
I'd also like to recommend an oldie but a goodie:

Calculus Made Easy, 2nd Ed (1914)

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283

One of the best explained calculus texts I've read.
If you have already looked into this (and decided to write your own), it would be great to see a blog post or similar on the current state of payments in Python (and what you intend to do differently).

It seems like there's Satchmo, various Satchmo forks, and GetPaid, but I can't tell which are directly or indirectly tied to various frameworks (Django, Plone). Are people just coding directly to payment APIs? Is everyone running on Django or Plone?

http://www.satchmoproject.com/

http://bitbucket.org/bkroeze/django-bursar

http://bitbucket.org/diefenbach/django-lfs/

http://www.plonegetpaid.com/
Ask HN: Why is there no standard way to display PDF documents in all browsers?
You'd think that it would be possible to display PDF documents in web browsers by now.

But there is not yet any way to build a web application that integrates PDF documents, because it is not safe to assume that any browser can display PDF.

Why is this? Surely it's in the interests of Adobe to ensure PDF documents can be seamlessly integrated into websites?
Yeah I have parents who, like all good parents would say that it's good to read, but didn't do a lot of reading themselves.
Fedora 14 Linux Released
Wait, What Does Your Startup Do?
E-Book Buyer's Guide to Privacy
I think this could work. If you make it something like 60 days that's not too harsh on new users, but will slow spammers down. If a spammer does wait 60 days and post an obvious spam link then gets banned they are stuck waiting again.

The only problem here is a spammer that creates a ton of accounts and then uses them all at once after the 60 day threshold.
How fast do you forget the 2000 election:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_elec...

If you want something less editable than Wikipedia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1013552.stm

from the outside it looked irregular at least (and some of the voting practices seem very bad).

Here in Uruguay we have a very reliable manual voting mechanism... but if you want electronic, it seems Brazil did it reasonably well (didn't follow the elections that closely, but there's no contest to the voting methods), so you can copy them instead.

Not to mention in the US you don't have direct representation (for the presidential elections), and there are several shenanigans with the voting districts, so, I'd say that voting works less in the US than in several other places.
Ubuntu and chrome on older laptop, flash runs noticeably faster, and has odd accelerating effects on flash side. So, Flash is faster but not a consistent speed?
You don't have to change paper ballots, you merely have to replace or "find" them.
I recall some Google engineers complaining that brute force was so much more effective than their cleverest algorithms. Work data not smarter.
People feel threatened? Grass is always greener, etc. Each path has its pros and cons. People would prefer to feel more comfortable in their choice. That's why they do, not why they should though.
Work in constructed bacteria is revolutionary.
I don't think PG or anyone is peeved by it. It's just that if your email isn't in your profile, you won't get notified.
Paul, I understand that you consider Hacker News your baby and are loathe to relinquish some control over it. However, because you have other obligations that are more pressing than playing with the News.YC code, maybe it is time to start considering moving this "site" in the direction of well-established open source projects. The Python model in particular comes to mind as reasonable.

As issues arise on the site, some form of public debate on the issue ensues and someone is tasked with implementing the change to the Arc/Hacker News site code based on the final approved solution. You give the submitted patch a careful look over and once everything is satisfactory, it goes live on the site. Just something to think about.
It's not frivolous because fundamental research often leads to unexpected commercial benefits. One example - Japanese physicists doing research into quantum tunneling led to the shrinking of satellite dish antennas from 2m to about 30cm.

On some levels I think Kasparov is right. You could fly from London to New York faster in 1977 (on the Concord) than you can today.
I think it all depends on if the kid is happy with occasional computer and TV use. Personally I think I would give my kid easy access to the electronic devices they want. If they want to do a lot of reading that's great and certainly encouraging, but there are more paths to achieve similar intellectual curiosity than just reading, computers in general, programming, games, certain TV shows, movies and documentaries.
You're thinking of Reddit
"In the private sector, the energy industry collectively invested 0.3% of sales in R&D."

Does anyone know what that would be as a percentage of profits?
IANAL.

I think we'll actually see more and more pen names and aliases as people try to brand themselves.

Basically, just pick a name and go with it. I have mrnoahc.com and noahc.net. I want to brand my self as one of those two. I think mrnoahc is better, because it's almost always available as compared to noahc.

Either way, buy the domain ending in .com that you want and you'll probably end up towards the top of search results. It shouldn't be too hard to get the top result for mrnoahc or technologysteve.com or something of that effect.

Not sure what 'online presence' means, but once you brand your self as something just run with it and introduce your self as Noah of MrNoahC fame if you want people to know your first name before a speech or something. I would suggest staying away from names like floppyRabbitLover and HairyLemonBalls for branding purposes, but depending on your purposes it might work.
Isn't he just saying in a roundabout way, the new elite are defined as rich, educated and successful (rather from aristocracy)?

If one is in that position, why would they need or want to relate to the poor and uneducated?
In a way you are both right. There are currently two aspects of the American space industry.

One, the moribund aerospace giants that are largely just making the same old rockets, entrenched in their job creation programs.

And two, the new space companies, which are making suborbital rocketplanes and cheap boosters. At present, they may not look impressive because of small steps they are taking, but you just have to look at Scaled's Space Ship Two to realize that radical innovation in their design is not dead.

This has been a long time coming, and there has been a dark age in aerospace.

If you are interested, in my view the seminal event in the new space industry was the Delta Clipper Program (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X).

And now there are some really impressive companies trying to make space truly viable for everyone. Some of those companies are.

XCOR Aerospace: http://xcor.com/
Scaled Composites: http://scaled.com/
Masten: http://masten-space.com/
Armadillo: http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home

Aside from aerospace. While I agree that there have been game changers like the cell phone, I do agree with Kasparov that there is an atmosphere of risk aversion. For instance I don't see any daring research programs like when DARPA funded Engelbart's augment research that led to Human User Interface objects like the mouse. And that disturbs me. Often visionaries look very crazy or at best very hard to understand because they are operating out of the scope of our context. I don't see people having the patience for these visionaries. And the people who do claim to be visionaries seem to have very conservative imaginations.
It's been a traditional courtsey in the Senate for the party in power not to shove through votes often, in respect that in the future they would eventually be the minority party, and occasionally need to filibuster as well. The possibility of removing the ability to filibuster has been discussed, but not undertaken for this reason.

By filibustering so often, the Republicans are showing that this is no longer the custom. Which is fine; I think it's a silly custom, and we'd benefit as a nation if blocking legislation like that were impossible. But it is absolutely a break from common procedure.
Fed Easing May Mean 20% Dollar Drop: Bill Gross
Good luck to all applicants!

--tip--
Lunesta is thought to activate the part of the brain that induces sleep.
> If you have a real product you want to rate, and you can't post it, just find someone who posts regularly and who has their contact info in their profile. Then: send them an email and ask for help.

I like this idea, and from what other have said about this, I got the following idea: How about letting regulars promote/vouch for RMS posts. That way, the person behind the site can post it and it will still be clear that it is not spam.
This isn't the issue in a filibuster; the cowardice is on the part of the senator who refuses to give up the floor. The whole point is that you talk until the bill expires, and so cannot be voted on.

Filibustering senators are declaring that they are unwilling to allow the issue to be voted on, not that they think their voice hasn't been heard enough.
Thanks for posting that clip of Richard Feynman, pretty cool - solid response too.
Sort of kit based, but there aren't that many lego pieces that only work for one type of thing, everything can be repurposed if they have enough other bits and pieces. (though frankly, right now all thelegos in my house are in dump truck form)

Konects are kinda cool, but the variety of what's straightforward to make is lower than Lego.

Plain old blocks are the other big construction thing around here, supplemented with some rough cut rounds from our forest. Overall though, I'd say that the legos are used at least as much as all the other construction stuff combined. Ymmv, I've got three boys, 6,3.5 and 1.
What resources for finding meetups, events and conferences do you recommend?
USB glory holes: anonymous, offline file-sharing in public space
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woOu_4l3lio
also, it says, "Your business needs be on facebook"
No, was thinking of like minded, intellegent, rounded, technology, internet startup founders that are interested to discuss a wide range of interesting topics. If I want to discuss with the general public, yes I would be a member of reddit. Maybe I have the wrong idea of HN then.
Facebook Is Fastest Social Network, LinkedIn Most Reliable
PDF is a standard, see ISO/IEC 32000-1:2008.

And Adobe has done some work to make it work everywhere. There is a PDF plugin for the big three OS's (and Solaris). However, no one ships an OS with this plugin installed by default.
Definitely will do tomorrow!

Thus far, Paython is standalone. Planning to add tests, unifying conventions & wrapping all gateways up into something much easier to use.
The "Invite Code" field on the registration page is required but it looks like anything will work. This seems a bit weird, am I missing something?
Destination Dispatch
I still can't believe that RedHat/CentOS is used so much in businesses over other distributions. WTH? I've not installed Fedora intentionally in a long time, and would stay the hell away from it if I weren't forced to use it at times. Many of its packages aren't that up-to-date so they contain security issues as a tradeoff for "stability". Is there any chance that others might have recognized this also and Fedora is in a slow decline?
We'll provide invite codes publicly/privately on occasion (more and more frequently as time progresses). Look out for them, and then you'll be able to enter them there.
First, I'd say, be flexible. No learning plan survives first contact with the child.

Reading is critical, but I wouldn't push it till the child is ready. Once they're ready to read, it comes quickly when taught correctly. But both you and they need to be willing to put in 1/2 hour a day, every day, for a few months.

My kids love knowing how stuff works, and as a engineering type, I'm pretty well situated to give them some good answers and point them in the right direction. David Mcauly's books are good, esp. The way things work, and Castle.

Finally, throw away your tv. It makes them do other things that take brainpower, even if it is just playing with dump trucks in the sand box. Also, when there's no tv, the stories come from books (and from their heads), so there much more of a pull to go digging for hose stories in a way that will help them in the long run.

Also,YMMV. Kids are all different, and will respond differently to the same people and stimuli. So you have to change and adapt.
Cognitive Biases - A Visual Study Guide
Not the voice of experience here, but has anyone considered pitching on an iPad? I did demos of Appointment Reminder from one and the user experience was awesome: they hold it and are in control, you have physical proximity and can say things like "... and if you tap here, you'll see..."

Plus, geek high. (The I wouldn't try it in a room full of people obviously.)
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask them.
Check out http://MicroMobs.com. They do almost exactly what you're talking about.
International applicants allowed ?
1. Make it possible for them to take the survey in less than 60 seconds.

2. Only ask questions you actually care about (and have the power to do something about). If someone isn't active on the website or doesn't find it useful, they probably won't reply to the survey. Also, even if they did does knowing this allow you to make any meaningful changes at all?

3. With the features question, this is what I would do. Think of 3 - 8 features you think they want. Then put an other box. Have them vote on what the most important feature they want implemented is. If someone writes something in other give it a multiplier 3x or something like that. At the end of the day you'll have 1 or 2 ideas that lead the way. It'll be obvious what wins out, but don't make them think of what features they want.

4. I think you should ask, "Would you ever pay for features on our website" and just get a feel for if your typical website user expects to pay for stuff online or not. If the culture to pay for stuff isn't there, then it will be a hard go.
why the $150 fee? lol
If you can get to Miami Beach, FL on Feb 25th & 26th. I encourage you to apply!
Request HN: What everyday thing should I redesign?
I am a computer science major focusing on interaction design at Georgia Tech. I am currently at a situation where I have very little time commitment for the next month or so and am embarking on a project to redesign everyday things. Current ideas in my head include resumes, boarding passes, maps, etc. I would love your suggestions.
Baby Einstein is crap, like most of the stuff which is forced on parents: http://www.google.com.au/search?q=baby+einstein+is+crap
Should I say it's lucky not to have Class Action in the place I live so that nobody could sue anyone one my behalf without consent and can ask for 25% of the settlement for a settlement that doesn't benefit myself? IS this democracy or what?
Actually this is false. I have actually read the 802.11i spec and I think the way the key exchange is done is same regardless of whether TKIP or CCMP is used.
The Google IPO Skeptics
Aspose.Newsletter November 2010 Edition is out now
Aspose Newsletter for November 2010 has now been published that highlights all the newly supported features offered in the recent releases of its JasperReports exporters, SQL Server rendering extensions, .NET, Java & SharePoint components. This month’s technical article shows how to embed an Excel chart as an OLE object in a PowerPoint presentation. Also examples of rotate text in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet cell programmatically and a demo to create ad-hoc reports and great looking charts.
I like your website.
This website reminds me of a Nigerian scam, at first, I thought it was due to its 2001 style !
It also sounds better when you consider that the booleans are called True and False:

isUserAMonkey -> Yes/No

userIsAMonkey -> True/False
While I doubt they will fail, they may become less relevant over time due to people not caring to do search since everything they care about is in their facebook. Why do you use google? Why does your mom use google?
I'm running Safari 5 on an older Macbook, and the Flash side is noticeably faster/smoother. That must be the 'known issue...?'
Yep, if you are wondering what Hole196 was about, it was about this kind of attack.
uh, yeah, i know what a filibuster is. try reading again in light of that fact.
Angel Dave McClure discusses Angelgate, Y Combinator & investment thesis
So we need to buy a ticket, apply and come all the way and see if get selected ? and there are just 9 slots, right ?
I wonder if he built a state machine and then converted it to a regular expression.
I am not allowed to have any online presence using my real name for the next five years (I was working in digital intelligence, it's complicated).

This confuses and intrigues me. What does an "online presence" mean? Can you have a personal website? A Facebook account? An e-mail address? Did you accept these terms when you started or were you given the restriction when leaving? Are the consequences of breaking the contract civil or criminal? If you legally change your name, can you use that new name online before the 5 years are up?

It doesn't make any sense. How do they expect to recruit talented people with such a restriction? The mind boggles.
Kids Timberland Black With White
My team tried to use Bursar, and found it wasn't really viable as a standalone project w/o a Satchmo store in front of it.

At this point, we've created our own payment gateway wrapper. At an API level, it doesn't look terribly different from Paython, so I'm cautiously hopeful that we'll be able to port our PayFlow Pro and stored credit gateway backends if it looks like Paython is gaining traction.
In the summer of 2008 I asked out two girls and promptly got rejected by both of them ironically on the same day.

A few months later I asked another girl out.

Two snowstorms and a few years later, the third girl is now my wife.

Rejection isn't always bad.
Ask HN: New York Hacker News Meetup - Extending "Offers HN" in Person
Hey I just created a HN Meetup for New Yorkers cause I've been having the hardest time finding one. So, why not just start one?

The meetup is to meet new friends and extending the Offer HN trend to personal interactions!

I'm going to be the first to extend the Offer NYHN: Tax Help for Startup Entrepreneurs. This is a standing offer in general for the HN as a whole but now you get to SEE the boring beancounter say it in person!

Format Meetup

I want the HN community in New York to meet each other and get to know each other personally cause it's always cool to meet people with similar interests but different ideas. I've found the best way to make fast friends is to help someone, so our format is "Offer HN Meetup Style."

The format is 5 Minutes to ask your question or issue to the community or whatever. After those 5 minutes, we the audience, get 5 minutes to give you feedback and help.

Other than that, there are 2 rules:

(1) No Startup Pitches

(2) Don't be a dick

We're looking for people with issues they'd like to discuss and people who'd like offer help (sans Offer HN style in person). We're looking for 5 people who need to help to discuss their issue and 5 people to offer this assistance.

If you wanna present, contact me (contact (at) thekenggroup.com), or better yet, fill out the RSVP question. Leave a link if relevant!

Props to Hack and Tell because I stole their format because their meetup is awesome. Lol.

Linkage: http://www.meetup.com/NYHackerNews/
GG Firesheep
I feel better after finally receiving an answer. This quote comes to mind:(Heheheh)

"I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER". - Groucho Marx
For those who prefer all on one page: http://jottit.com/txq4v/