skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think we'll see greater use of type-inference in statically typed languages. I hope that we get rid of the "kinda strong" type systems (like C++). While I appreciate the convenience of such type systems, I think greater type safety is a worth the trade-off.
Thinking long term isn't the same as scaling a site up for occasional increased traffic. The vast majority of the time, the traffic is extremely light on this site and the server (and its network) is more than adequate.
To me, YUI smells like a big bloated "Enterprise software" while JQuery is small and "Made by hackers".

I have used them both and when I run into bugs, the ones in YUI are still open and waiting for the time until their "paid" developer has time to fix it..
There is no pipeline. I see lots of comments about how entry level developers are useless. No one wants to train the next gen of developers, so companies are fighting over a smaller and smaller pool of people.

The only way to get any experience seems to be to start your own company. Which is great for the person who goes off and does it, but not smart for the company trying to hire them.

If employers don't want to waste money investing in entry-level positions, why waste it investing in someone who has made it clear they want to work for themselves?

Pay less, train more.
Excuse me, but why does this have 320 points if everyone thinks it is garbage?

As a newbie entrepreneur, I am utterly confused as to whether these steps really are helpful/necessary or not.
What you do is who you are.

It was a surprise to me that not all fathers read math books for enjoyment in their spare time.

It was a surprise to me that people study things they're not interested in.

I've noted elsewhere in this thread the difference between doing things "because it'll be good for the kids", and doing things that are good for the kids because it's what you do every day.

So it could be that parents who do these enrichment activities but don't "live it" are dragging the average down.

I'm not sure how you'd test for "preach it" vs. "live it", though.
A lot of employers will match your contributions up to some limit ($10,000 seems pretty standard), so if you do this, make sure you get your employer to match. You can actually get people to write some software with $20,000.
You didn't give a lot of hard details to work with, but based on this post, I would say find work outside of software. It's clear that you're not well suited to founding a startup - you don't have the a vision and lack motivation - and you probably are right that you wouldn't do well at a larger company.

A number of people I know outside of software have great ideas for startups because they run into hard problems in their fields that they recognize could be automated, but they lack the technical talent to solve the problem. Maybe you'll be in a position to find one of these problems and be motivated to solve it if you find something you're passionate about.
This is a good description of what you're doing, but it needs to be made more prominent.

Try it directly under the "Hiring. Made Simple." header instead of where it is now:

"Stop collecting resumes in your email inbox. DropJobs organizes all your applicants into an easy to use interface that lets you make better decisions. "
Actually, I think that most people overestimate performance of C++. Using C++ the way authors intend almost invariably leads to gigantic binaries with large amounts of duplicated and also unnecessary autogenerated code. It is not too hard to believe that reasonable JIT can outperform that.
He was being ironic. Are you being doubly ironic? Am I not seeing the iirony?
Yep I am specifically focused on small to medium sized companies. Large companies already universally already have giant enterprise HR systems installed as is anyway.
How much 'real-er' does FB messaging need to get?

I ask because FB messaging, like Gmail, is already available on the two platforms that matter today - web browsers and smartphones. Yeah, you need a FB account to use FB messaging, but if you don't have Facebook, you're not a real person, at least according to Quora (along with any other FB-connect only site). (Quora has since backpedaled on that stance.)

The obvious interoperability move - letting you reply-by-email to FB messages is something they'll never do, because it means you don't have to sign into FB, which they can't have.
Mirage: A New Multi-Scale Operating System for Clouds and Crowds (tech talk)
Completely agree about "models.ForeignKey(on_delete=<CASCADE|PROTEXT|SET_NULL|SET_DEFAULT|SET()>" - really looking forward to that, it would have saved me a bunch of time and hassle in the past.
The business side I can't really comment on, so best leave that to someone else more capable. UI wise I would suggest you really work on your typography to improve the overall feel. At a glance a few pointers would be:

1) far too much of the real information is off the bottom of the page... I don't really care so much about a screenshot of a fairly dry and grey page product shot.

2) the vertical space above and below the yellow sign up button is different and is slightly awkward because of it.

3) right aligning the features|pricing|signup text needs rethinking, also give it vertical space away from the image.

4) you need more variation in your headers/body/navigation text styles. The features|pricing|signup and also the pricing structure table really need more impact and are currently let down by how they look.

5) be more generous with the padding around the text in the pricing table.

6) using bold white on the blue is completely lost.

7) your underlying grid changes between the light and dark sections and needs to be rethought. Overall I think you need an extra column so you can get more relevant info into eyeline.

8) your remember me option needs styling and also be more generous with the space around it

9) the space between headers and paragraphs should not be the same (it's fine below headers, tighten up between paragraphs in my opinion) also the space below "Great Features" is not the same as other headers.

10) you have too many font styles and sizes in the blue BG area which is making it feel unstructured and hard to read.

It's a good start, and any design can be picked apart so hopefully any design comments will be taken as my own subjective feelings rather than true criticism, but if I was to say any 1 thing really needs attention I would get an extra column in there first and foremost.
It's great how they used check boxes to make the submit button appear. It makes it more likely that people will actually read the warning.
>Can I just "get out" all of my personal information from Google?

Mostly yes. http://www.dataliberation.org/
NY Times single page link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html?r...
I would be interested to see what the completion rate for this is versus, e.g., the Yahoo captcha. My intuition is "not that great." (You require reading on the Internet... uh oh.)

By the way, picking one token from the captcha and returning it beats the captcha 7% of the time, if the examples are representative. Spammer wins, since he can generate requests by the hundreds of thousands.
How accidents of geography contributed to the domination of The West.
I find it hardly a modest raise, but I do agree with your point.
Django's ORM existed before SQLAlchemy, and ActiveRecord existed before DataMapper.
Of course; I was just saying that when binging is normal (i.e. 8 to 12 drinks in a short night, no house party afterwards), blackout isn't a whole lot further; a lot of the time, it's just being a little faster, not more, or drinking something you're not used to (such as poitín).
There are other data types besides pointers to structs. Specifically, stdint.h data types are a good example (on linux).

int
myfunction(uint64_t arg0);

When writing cross-platform code, there are typically a lot of these kinds of things going on.

Also, I typically include data type definitions in header files if they're used in more than one context. If I define a new data type in a header file that depends on other data types, I have to include those headers in the header file.

Let's say I'm writing an encoder/decoder for a protocol and I want to separate the encode functions from the decode functions. Maybe they're in separate programs. They'll both use the same data structures for the most part.

It it's a network protocol the layers of dependencies can get pretty deep.

This isn't a problem with a one-liner solution, it's "how do you structure a huge project to reduce weird dependency issues when compiling while keeping the code readable?"
Ok, I thought it was interesting enough to do my own take on it:

http://journal.dedasys.com/2010/11/10/the-future-of-programm...
The Fascinating Story of the Twins Who Share Brains, Thoughts, and Senses
Wow, actually had an article starred on this in the trusty Reader. http://jmoiron.net/blog/about-sqlalchemy-and-djangos-orm/

Money quote for me: "SQLAlchemy is a toolkit for python programmers who want or need to use a database to write programs that do so. Django's ORM is a tool for python programmers to quickly model business-level data relationships and use a database for persistent storage. This is really an important distinction; the Django ORM interface is focused on the application's data model, whereas SQLAlchemy's interface is focused on the underlying data store."
Personally, I think you should come up with what exactly you plan to do if you stop programming. I realize you may have a lot of things in mind, but eventually you'd have to pick one and try it. Try picking one now.

Does that job seem particularly appealing to you? Why? If you can come up with good reasons, by all means go for it. If you can't, why go do something you're worse at (and presumably will be paid less for) if you're going to be similarly unfulfilled?

Your feelings are totally understandable. I just think you're giving your current occupation short shrift if you're weighing it against the abstract concept of "doing something else", even if you have a general field in mind. Every job has its downsides, and you need to be able to weigh those against the ones you're painfully aware of with programming. Until you have a concrete idea for another job, you can't do that.
Resume - and the direct personal experience in the right department of the company you're smearing that resume includes - trumps unsourced (and frankly, hard to believe) hearsay.
Provability Logic
Will E-Readers Eat the Tablet Computer?
Ask HN: How can your WiFi life be made better?
Lets say, hypothetically, that I could change anything* about the majority of wireless hotspots you folks visit to work at (or just incidentally end up using, like at a bar or an airport).

What would you like changed?

*Within reason. Everybody involved in the hotspot, from the hosting business to the ISP to the provider, are a business. This isn't your neighbours linksys.
In my experience, the generic term was "face book" (two words) but that could vary geographically. (Actually, where I went to school, it was known as the "frog book"-- don't ask.)
Not in the original context, but in the realm of social networks, it's trademarked. Apple and Windows are good examples of this. I can start a company called Apple Miniatures and sell plastic miniature of soldiers, but I'd have trouble starting a company called Apple Computers.

You seem to make the case for this as well: "the social networking website Facebook" as opposed to the other facebook, which was commonly an actual book of pictures.

IANAL
You can follow the google referral to see the article without logging in.

http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&...
Personally I like screenshots, and if they're there, I don't see them. If there was a "tour" or "screenshots" or "demo" or something, you might convert me.
jajajaja Gmail rules!
I think that it looks overall very good- but under "Great Features" the page doesn't look very polished. The white on blue headings don't differentiate well from the italicized white on blue. And, it's tough to get a feel for the main features at all. Clicking the "Features" link only takes my to this cluttered section. I think if you had a link to screenshots/ more clean features page that would help.

Also- I think the "Integrates Seamlessly" section is too wordy. Simply saying
"If you can copy and paste, you can use DropJobs. Similar to Google Analytics, simply copy and paste the DropJobs widget code into your company's existing website and we do the rest. Listing jobs and accepting applications has never been easier."

With a link to your other features somewhere would get the major points.

Overall, I think this is a really nice idea for small to midsize businesses and seems like a really great service!
You should put together a screencast demonstrating the product. A few paragraphs and a brief, general description of the product didn't convince me to sign up to check it out. People will want more information on what they're signing up for. You should put particular emphasis on how easy it is to review resumes.

Also, make sure you point out what differentiates you from Monster or Dice. You don't offer job listings, just application tracking, and people will be unsure of why they should use your service rather than a job board.

Great idea though.
The Future of Programming Languages: Economics
Women2.0 Pitch Night Video
I got a great laugh from this. I think anyone that has experienced the full life cycle of an enterprise level web app can relate to this article.

The good news for the author is it gets better. The bad news is this takes time, a lot of time.

Disclaimer: It was a long article, so I skimmed it instead of reading in its entirety, but here is some general advice none the less.

Advice (from a front end guy):

1) Stick to what you know, and sprinkle in new stuff as you go. (Just get something working)

* If your a backend programmer, go balls out on this part of the app. For the front end, keep the code entry level. Use tables, embedded CSS, and case specific JavaScript (for example a jQuery light box) when needed.

2) Start using jQuery or MooTools pronto (solves that pesky browser compatibility issue)

* If you haven't started this yet, do so as soon as possible. Don't worry about creating an entire JS framework until you are very comfortable with jQuery or MooTools. This will save you many hours of bug fixes on code that you are going to have to rewrite anyways.

* I prefer MooTools because of the way the code is structured. They have a function called Class() which gives you the ability to Extend or Implement (to a certain degree) other MooTools classes that you create.

3) CSS oh no, I feel bad for you.

* CSS is a complete shit show when you are just starting out. Keep it entry level with fonts, colors, images, backgrounds, borders. If you get stuck, solve it with JS or embedded styles and fix it later when you have a better understanding of CSS.

* Also, avoid padding where possible and stick to using margins. This will save you box model complications.

4) CSS floats warning, if you must

* If you end up using floats, don't forget your lil buddy, the div.clear hack. This kind of works like a line break.

* div.clear {
clear: both;
}

* <div class="floatLeft">stuff</div>
<div class="floatLeft">more stuff</div>
<div class="clear"></div> <-- (I know it feels dirty introducing a seemingly unnecessary element to the DOM, but hey, it WORKS!!)

5) Be ready for a long UI/UX journey

* It takes time to get cozy with this stuff, but when you do you will feel like a geeky rock star. It is a lot of fun when you get to the more advanced UI/UX stuff. Enjoy every little UI/UX mile stone along the way, they are fun. You will feel like you are programming at a turtle's pace, but a few months from now you will look back and think "Look at all the cool stuff I can do!"

6) Good Luck!
I was quite surprised at Ask.com closing down. From what info I found on the web, they were making hundreds of millions in revenue yearly.
YouTube Remote for Android
The great debate: Do you start with 30 minutes of twittertime or do you start your day working?
C++ was designed in a way where only the features you use have overhead, so it is fairly easy to write the most computationally intense parts in C while using higher level abstractions everywhere else. This is something I missed a lot in Java when trying to write high performance code.
1. The tagline "Hiring. Made Simple." communicates well.

2. Add a newsletter subscription field at the bottom of your front page.
"Hyper-texting" teens more likely to abuse drugs, alcohol
My googling skills are failing me, but there was an article that had some data on the number of people in the "hard" sciences moving into the "soft" sciences, and the number of people that went the other way.

Not surprisingly, it was basically a one-way street.

(It also reminds me of http://xkcd.com/435/ )

Addendum: For the difference between hard and soft science, see http://clustertwo.org/articles/Strong%20Inference%20%28Platt... - the hard sciences are the ones based on the "strong inference" defined there
What does it do exactly?
I feel that Django's ORM is one the main reasons for its success. Yes, it's limited and simplistic compared to something like Hibernate -- but that's actually a blessing in this context. People love Django because it makes it so simple to build an application quickly. Without the built-in ORM, things like admin and generic views would be harder to implement and certainly wouldn't work anywhere nearly as nicely out of the box.
A bit confusing: You click on pricing, and see the pricing table. You click on signup, you see the same. I realize it was your intent, but it feels broken, especially since the table has "Select" buttons, not "Sign up".

Regarding the signup form: The hints' font size is too small unless you have perfect vision. You can increase it by 50% without changing the layout. Also, I think you can drop this: "First user's personal information.", "You can add additional users once logged in." seems enough.
Is it just me or did this seem completely inevitable and kind of on the cusp by 2002? We were building fileserver-based VOD services just to save our Internet connection from the torrenting masses in shared housing situations around this time.

This seems like a risky one to bet against, at least from a technical perspective.

I suppose it is true that it was still a pretty open question whether anyone would manage to negotiate licenses with the media producers to do VOD, but Bell doesn't even touch on that issue.
It seems pointless to mandate it, but I don't think it'd really cause a problem for most real-world clojure programs. For one, cyclomatic complexicty measures independent paths, and I don't think that's what most people are complaining about when they say "lisp has too many parenthesis". They're complaining about how the structures expected require a lot of (sometimes arduous-seeming) complexity.

Indeed, I suspect that the cyclomatic complexity of an average lisp function will be less than that of, say, the average Python function. It'd be the same with any functional language; they encourage you to only have one or two conditionals per function.
"No files to manage or download, view applicants right with their resumes online."

This sentence doesn't make sense.
Sounds to me like burnout. If you have been freelancing or doing some enterprise/LOB apps you are probably solving the same problem over and over again. That gets old fast. IMO, there is no way you have seen it all yet if you are just a year out of school.

One way I try to stay interested is finding a segment in which I have no business knowledge. My most recent change was commodities trading software. Using the same tools and language that I have for the last 7 years or so(C#, winforms/ASP, sql) with much more complex problems, so I stay interested.

That may or may not help, but it sounds like you are still young-ish, so maybe you just need a change of scene? vacation? time to experience life? recharging your batteries may do you some good.
Does HTML5 make mobile app downfall inevitable?
Adwords Is Dying and Google Knows It (and they are doing something about it)
Yes. And here's a picture of some tits (http://www.btinternet.com/~micka.wffps/great_tit.jpeg).
502 Bad Gateway

nginx/0.7.65
1 picture = 1000 words!

Start work on that picture.

Edit: Oh by the way I love the concept!
It's hyperbole, dude. Sarcasm to make a point. This is certainly not something to be taken literally. The idea is to not sit around and analyze ideas for 12 months.

I've done it. I've seen others do it.
I for one don't think this is a very good idea. Firstly, I'm reminded of Jeff Atwood's article in 2008 (http://bit.ly/d82uSD) where he talks about discovering that the open source project he donated $5000 to simply had no way to use the money.

More over, as a developer open source software has never sat well with me. I don't understand how it got so hip and cool. I don't understand why anyone would want to participate. I'm damned good at my job... but I don't do it for free for anyone... My time is too valuable and my friends and family deserve to have as much time with me as possible. I know I'm mostly alone in this around these parts... But maybe someone can explain why so many people give away their free time using their hard earned, and valuable, skills for free.

Though I do appreciate all their hard work, and I use open source products, I just don't understand why they do it.
But Google lets you export your data. So if Facebook exports to Google, then your data can go anywhere, and we've won!
One could make a case for deliberately weeding such people out of whatever system the CAPTCHA is intended to protect.
I very much hope you turn out to be right. Unfortunately I'm afraid the momentum of the web client platform will be so strong, the impedance mismatch between client and server such a pain, and the progress of JS as a better compiler target so slow (the pressure to interoperate with existing JS libraries may also be a factor here) - that the dominant trend will be towards using JS as a source language everywhere.

So the turn to the web will set back the state of the art in programming by a decade, as the turn to microcomputers did.
A lot of research has not made its way into any language yet. In particular, the data models and optimizers of current languages are woefully inadequate. Most mainstream programming languages are still in their infancy, being nothing more than glorified assembly.

The future will be more about declarative programming - write down a mental model of the program, and the language/compiler will do the rest. A simple restricted example is SQL - you write what data you want and the optimizer figures out the best "program" for the query, using even genetic optimization in the case of PostgreSQL.
Another example is data binding - you write down what data connects to what part of the GUI, and the framework figures out what to update and when.
The problem with SQL, data binding etc. is that they are not tightly integrated into a general purpose language, and do not have clear theoretical underpinnings.

A good language will have simple, compact theories and abstractions as general as possible to reduce the mental baggage necessary for programming - instead of remembering hunders of special cases, you should only work with a couple of general constructs.

Optimizers for these languages will have to be far more advanced - remember state between compilations to reduce the impact of whole program optimization, have advanced specialization and type checking capabilities using abstract interpretation etc.

Data models will have to grow too - they will have to be high-level and low-level at the same time to cope with the onslaught of data. The semantic web provides a fairly universal data model with RDF/OWL, but this again could be simplified and abstracted. A data model should also have the capability to specify the physical layout of the data down to the bits, but also at the higher level, such as distribution between disks and machines.
Ah, finishing now to avoid tl;dr.