skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm surprised nobody so far has mentioned Agda (http://wiki.portal.chalmers.se/agda). Not only does it allow the use of unicode in identifiers, but it uses them extensively throughout its standard library. After using Agda for a while, one quickly realises that most of the issues raised in this thread are rather unimportant. Having extra brackets, more equality symbols and greek letters available really does make code nicer to read when used judiciously.
These are details I did not know. I suspected it would come to that point in most cases, but perhaps not all. It was because of those "not all" cases that I wanted to give some people the benefit of the doubt, at least for the first. If it's an "all", or at least very close to it, as you're suggesting, then I understand the need and revoke those parts of my statement.
Barter Offer: Need designer.
We developed a small app called CinEight (http://cineight.com). I am a coder and my friend is an investment banker, with little to no design sense. This led to our users complaining about the look and feel of the site, and more importantly, bad UX.

CinEight was made to solve a problem which we face regularly. Getting reliable movie recommendations, and managing our movie lists.

For CinEight to be useful, its important that more and more people use it. This would increase the probability of us and other users finding people who have similar taste, people whose recommendation they can trust.

Which again brings us back to the fact that the design is bad. Since this is not a commercial project, we are running the site out of our own pockets, and we are unable to afford a good designer.

So here we are, offering our services in exchange for the services of any of our fellow HNers who can help us make CinEight look and feel better.

I do not know if this makes any sense or not. I hope you guys can point us in some other direction if the idea of bartering services sounds ridiculous to you all.

Apart from CinEight, I have also developed http://lazyzach.com. I can get shit done. I would be able to help with all development needs.

My friend is an investment banker with Merrill Lynch. He can offer finance related advice to people starting up a business.
I think this missed one point: Secondary market is not as efficient as real public market after IPO:

Both supply and demand would be much higher on real public market,
and demand would be much bigger than supply. Meaning: ipo price would be much higher than current secondary market price.
The app store only increases your sales by any significant amount if you get featured by apple or you break into a top 100 list. Now a days, to reach the top lists and to show up on apples radar, you need some sort of external marketing and exert a downward pressure on your prices. If your going to do external marketing you might as well try selling through a more profitable venue.
You are depressed. You are not seeing things clearly. You are being much harder on yourself then you need to be. There could be one million and one reasons you are depressed. Be open minded to the fact that maybe the mistakes you made in the past aren't as bad as you think they are. You are a human being, like everyone else, and you aren't perfect. Also, try to judge other people less harshly. I often find that I must judge myself with the same strength that I judge other people. If I can't forgive others for their errors, how can I forgive myself? Know that you aren't the only person has had these feelings. They are normal, and they will pass. Try and use it as motivation to do things that will make you value yourself more. Only you know your own values, so no one can tell you what to do.
vWorker is one the safest resources in the business. If you were asked to refund an escrowed payment, it was because you committed fraud. I read your web page, and it looks like you put your buyer's source code on the internet. That's against the rules. And I'm sorry, but copying and pasting old complaints doesn't support your actions or your case.
> The cost of your rent is directly tied to the amount of property tax that house owner is required to pay. All the goods you purchased would have been taxed as well.

Well, we were talking about federal taxes. That's why I listed services of the federal government. Property and sales tax are state. Social security and gas axes are supposed to be a closed systems. None of those pay for the military, interstate commerce regulation, or medical research.

But the important thing is that I wasn't claiming I didn't pay taxes. (I did, although not much.) I was challenging the notion that I shouldn't be paying taxes just because I make less thank $30k.
For more specific advice, drop out of college and wonder why you are pursuing 'success.' Until you have an answer for that, don't feel obliged to do anything other than survive and not go into bad debt.
Reminds me of Gary V's line: "stop watching 'effing Lost"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4
StackOverflow's New York Datacenter
> I'd be willing to pay for this privilege - aka watching in the comfort of my own home - but they leave me no choice in the matter.

I'm always stunned by this argumentation - because in fact there are other choices: you could just not watch the particular movie at all or wait until it's available for home entertainment. Both perfectly legal and (what I think is the key point) in the latter case the people who worked to produce the stuff you're so eager to consume get some kind of compensation.

But you go the third way and choose to watch a pirated copy - that's up to you, but please don't tell anybody you're "forced" to do that.
I think that Github is a big factor in git's success. If you use git and stick a project on Github, you just send people the Github URL, and BAM! they see your code and README file, neatly presented on one page. And since Github is so popular, this lowers the barrier to entry for other people to contribute patches, which is always nice.

If Github is bringing people to git, then it stands to reason that a seemingly disproportionate number of git users would use Github.
He's not a therapist, and likely this is exactly the type of advice this kid needs.
"client-side" doesn't mean "in-browser", desktop and mobile apps are clients too.
The Linux kernel has its own fairly elaborate and entrenched system for handling their source; Github, as lovely as it is, just wouldn't be a good fit for them.
I think USB-based DMA attacks were used against the Xbox 360, but I don't have a source off the top of my head.
So if somebody comes up with the greatest script on earth, but doesn't work 17 hours a day as a slave for some TV producer, his script will never be made?
You're so good.
This is such a turn off.
Loved this message. Some of the most successful people I know fucking figured it out and just got shit done. Here on HN, we're exposed to countless stories of people with five kids getting shit done, and introverts making sales and getting shit done, and people with no money finding money to get shit done.

Anyone can think of 100 excuses to not push forward, but in the end, we all have problems, failures, and setbacks, and a lot of life is about silencing our own excuses, fucking figuring it out, and plowing ahead.
A corollary to the entrepreneur's mantra, JFDI: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/19/what-makes-an-...
Oh no, not again ...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=61831

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=132026

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=167076

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=367418

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=668087

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=716219

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=769769

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1209378

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1525445

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1734122

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1833040

-----

And again, from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=716262 - one of the many times this question has come up ...

None - I can't code while music is on. Ditto conversation, and ditto doing math.

There was something in PeopleWare (I think) about an experiment done with people listening to music. Those listening to their preferred music performed about as well as those who preferred silence and got it, and about as well as those who preferred music, but had silence. The group that preferred silence but had music performed, unsurprisingly, comparatively badly.

The sting in the tail was this. The task they were given had an "Aha!" insight buried in it. Namely, the full set of transforms they'd been asked to implement turned out to be trivial, although the individual components weren't.

All the programmers who had the "Aha!" moment had silence, regardless of their preference. No one with music saw the short cut.

I've since tried to find concrete evidence to support this anecdote, either papers, or first hand accounts, but the recounting in PeopleWare remains the only reference I have.
These are just flash drives. They get power through your USB port.
Ok, thanks.

IIRC, the exact mechanism for piracetam isn't fully understood either (something involving acetylcholine) - they decided to create the "nootropic" designation for it rather than classify it as a stimulant. The general consensus is that it's safe (no known LD-50, relatively mild side-effects) and makes orange juice taste horrible.
> PG's argument appears to be that the error in your estimate of p is almost always larger than the value of p and one should invest as long as 2*p is also within the estimation error.

I don't think this is correct under canonical Bayesian reasoning. All uncertainties (whether because of ignorance or "objective uncertainties") can be bundled into your probability assessment. There is no "error" on your probability.

I'm not expert though. I'm only....80% sure.
similarly. if you create the best web app on earth, but don't spend any time marketing it and nobody sees it, chances are it will fail.
First, How is that you believe "the professors themselves dont know anything" while at the same time your "grades were horrible".

The question is not to pick on you, but rather I really just don't understand. Aren't the professors the one's grading you? If they are giving you poor grades, would that not indicate they know many things while you do not?

Onwards, in my opinion, I think you're pretty selfish. And that's ok, we are all more selfish than we realize. We've all been caught up in ourselves to the point we become really self critical.

I hate to sound cheesy by quoting JFK - and I'm not American, but he said it brilliantly:

"... ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

Not to say I want you to help your country, specifically, but rather it might be worth choosing to spend your time finding other people who are far worse off than you, then direct your efforts into helping them. I think you'll discover more about yourself in the process, maybe find your true identity and become more than someone who's overly self-concerned.

Also, maybe to help...: I travelled a lot growing up. I did notice one peculiar thing in my travels. Often I'd move to a new school, and fit right in. From school to school the crowds I'd fit in with would be different. Sometimes I'd fit in with the jocks, other times I fit with the nerds. Very rarely, only one time in fact, I found myself not fitting in with anyone.... and boy that was a doozy. It was like someone reached down from the heavens a decided to destroy my very identity... I was starting to think like you, but then I moved.

So maybe you're actually in one of these black hole pockets where you truly are surrounded by all the wrong people, all the wrong things.
I'm not religious, but maybe the heavens are reaching down to you and saying - you're not where you should be.
Twitter Analytics Lead Kevin Weil Interviewed at Hadoop World
Hmm... much like coding experience, design starts with doing. So grab a paper pen and make something. make a brochure, poster whatever. (Paper is to throw ideas together and give them structure)

Now recreate it in Gimp or Photoshop or whatever software you feel easy with.

just keep making stuff, keep getting feedback from designers and all.

The best way to learn is - see the work, see how things are working in it and do something.

Following blogs comes much later - when you are following thoughts of industry leaders.

Get started already!
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

I always found the reverse, from Star Trek III, more thought-provoking: The needs of the few, or the one, outweigh the needs of the many.

While our government is ostensibly decided by the majority, our system also recognizes and guards the fundamental rights of the minority.
Why Evan Williams of Twitter Demoted Himself
Think of a shrink as a better version of what you've already done in asking for help. He's an pretty smart guy(hopefully) who you can tell shit to that you would never tell anyone else. And he'll give you an honest 3rd party perspective, which is exactly what you need. You need someone to tell you that it's not as bad as you think it is. You need someone to tell you that the way you are seeing yourself is complete bullshit. You need someone to help you figure out what actions are going to make you start feeling good about yourself and encouraging you to do them.
I don't think you understand his argument fully: he would like to be able to do it the legal way, but it is simply not possible at the moment. In other words, there is demand which is currently filled only by the illegal channels. While it isn't the most noble way to go about it, it's the only option possible in his case. Compare that to iTunes, for instance: music available at greater convenience than through torrents and the like. Or to games: an easy worry free download versus having to look for ways to obtain the game, wait for it to download, and often mess about with copyright protection.
It's yours. Just emailed you.
It's http://www.paylane.com/ - I've also heard good things about http://www.adyen.com/
Horrible advice. If you need a drug that makes it easier to talk to people, Alcohol is one of the worst choices.
it's the entitlement defense. He feels that it's his right to watch the movie in any way that he sees fit and because it's so easy to just download it, there isn't much incentive to wait for it to come out on legally.
PCKeyboardHack for mac (i have caps mapped to esc for vi)

http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/extra.html
I don't care too much about the character set, but I do want additional structure semantics - namely trees.

As it is, parsing is ugly because we'll write 1D text visualized as a 2D projection; then we use parse rules to blow it out into a tree so that your (parens and {braces}) can work properly; and then (if writing a compiler rather than an AST-walking interpreter) we collapse it again into a 1D executable format after one or more rounds of semantic analysis. It's a lot of steps, and there's plenty of room for error. It offends my minimalistic sensibilities.

What would the alternative be, though? It's nice to be able to just type out code, and to copy+paste the data from other formats like HTML documents. So in the end you still want to have an editor that can deal with plain text, even if it is "natively" aware of the AST rules of the language.

My other alternative is to write more assembler or Forth-style languages that don't have to be parsed as a tree. Not what most people would want...
I'm not following Phone7 closely enough to have noticed that. So, if the absence of HTML5 is not a "strategic" decision what is it?

I don't mean to be inflammatory, but it strikes me as being a completely barking decision. The world and its developers' army is writing for HTML5, especially in the mobile space. Folk are openly talking about dedicated apps going the way of the dodo, and that's because of what HTML5 brings. Sure it may not all be here today, but get the weight of the World's developers behind you and, frankly, nothing is going to stop it.

I do expect WP7 to support HTML5. I'm utterly amazed that it doesn't.

Does Microsoft really believe that it is bigger than the Internet, the mobile space, and all those that develop for it? Has it lost its way so totally and utterly? Has it lost its marbles?
sure, this will help me learn how to design but I want to learn how to implement that design.

what to use to implement that design.
> None - I can't code while music is on. Ditto conversation, and ditto doing math.

I'm the same way. I have to turn it off or it distracts me and breaks my focus.
Greg Egan's novel Diaspora has some mind-bending scenes set in 5 dimensional space. Imagine orbiting a 5 dimensional planet and trying to scan the entire surface. The surface itself is 4 dimensional. Lots of area to search.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that quotes Star Trek all the time. I can tell my wife and friends that even Judges uses Star Trek to prove points.

Live long and prosper. That should be a ethos for startups.

Also, maybe someday people won't laugh at me when I tell them Star Trek invented the future.

--Trekker/ie
The root of the problem is that conventional programming languages are designed to be written by people and read by computers. With ascii it is arguably easier to do both... So for a solution to be found, priorities need to shift even more towards making it easier for people to read.
"6. Do not seek professional help - you are normal for your age."

But people throw years of their lives away thinking this when, in fact, they have a real problem. Seeking consultation from a professional is the low-risk, potentially high reward choice.
Whilst it doesn't really support or refute any points, economists and interested people might be interested in the light-hearted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVp8UGjECt4
"I'm not advocating any kid or anyone try anything or be told they should. I'm advocating a policy of drug legalization based on facts, not fear or the assumed "common sense" of the current prevailing religious hedegmony. In any case you are confusing correlation with causation."

No, I'm not. I've seen a change that went directly from productive and ambitious individual to not giving a fuck only wanting to get high asshole. No confusion here. The pot is what did it. When some of those people quit, the were themselves again.

"I'm advocating a policy of drug legalization based on facts, not fear or the assumed "common sense" of the current prevailing religious hedegmony."

Ok, as long as we actually outline the adverse health effects of pot and mention stories like mine. You seem to eager to brush these things under the carpet. I feel that pot advocates don't want "facts", they want the public to be told that pot is alright to use. Pretty much all advocacy sites are completely biased and only told about the rainbows and kittens. Even people telling the truth about pot on here are immediately down voted.
No need for sarcasm. I was just making the point that getting something done requires commitment and often sacrifice.
Deadweight Loss
Cell phones let touchscreens know who you are
This just could've been about Python or some other dynamic language.
Best Cydia Apps And Rocks Are Merge Together | InfoMov.Com
I have thought for ages of something like this, but instead of usb drivers, a wifi box with a big harddisk. You would connect to the wireless network, open browser at 192.168.0.1 and instead of a router's page, you would get to a website, with a nice interface, where you could select the files you wanted to download or upload others.

I even did some drawing and thought of solar pannels and batteries to keep it going non-stop. What demotivated me was the fact I'm living in Brazil and normal filesharing is still much easier and non-risky...

Anyway, a wifi box like this would be much more secure if done right. A complementary idea I also thought of was to make the boxes communicate with each other, much like a cloud you could access from any reachable access point.
I send 1900 USD now he is telling 50% of any company i do is urs
direct to dvd is back
Power tools for programmers
Google-funded startup builds search engine + API for predicting the future
mrjob doesn’t contain any Cython. The author was just stating it was a challenge getting Yelp’s codebase (which contains some Cython) running on EMR.
Freemium, Panacea or Parasite?
Surely you mean θ as in theta.
I'd imagine its hard to convince a sales guy who now has more money than he knows what to do with to stick around. There are vacation homes and boats to buy. Hackers are a little different if you can keep them interested (the YouTube guys haven't left Google, just YouTube).
How big a file can you share over this USB?
Lots of good (and bad) advice here already, but here are my 5 cents:

Being more outgoing. There are two steps here that need to work for that to happen: you need to like the person you are in social situations, and you can't care about what people think of you.

To elaborate on the first point, you need to enjoy social situations. Don't go into social situations to "meet friends" or get "rid of you social anxiety" - go into them to have fun (here the second step needs to be in order, but more about that later). If you have fun, you'll meet people who you think are fun to be around with - and there's a good chance they think the same of you at that point. Also, liking the person you are usually includes things like not being arrogant etc (for most people anyway).

The second point: don't care about what people think of you. This doesn't mean you shouldn't care about what people think - they can have interesting, magnificent, cool ideas, but it's just their opinion of you that shouldn't matter. As long as you like the person you are (see point above), no one else's opinion should matter. I have maybe 5 people in my life whom I'd listen to if they said seriously commented on something about me. It's very hard to express yourself openly and have fun if there's something in the back of your mind telling you how you should care about what all the people present think of you.

In my experience, you can't have one without the other. Both of those need to be in order to actually enjoy being around people.

Then, your study habits (remembering crap when trying to study). I had (well, have to some degree) the exact same problem as you. I can't say I've found the magic bullet, but I think I've got the basic psychology down. Think about what you do when that train of thought starts to appear? I'd bet good money you hold out for a while, but eventually give in and watch a movie/new episode of House/play WoW/etc. That's a pattern your mind has learned over the time: if you start thinking about crap you'll eventually get rewarded with the latest antics of that funny doctor. Breaking that pattern is hard, but if you have got the socialization part down, it becomes easier, as you have much less embarrasing things to care about. As soon as you start thinking those thoughts, you need to redirect them to the task at hand. And again. And again.

Throughout all of this, one important skill is redirecting your thoughts. Find yourself at a party, thinking if the thing you just said was maybe a bit awkward? You need to redirect your thoughts to the task at hand, having fun. Talking to a new friend, thinking how you should respond so he'd think good of you? See previous action. Thinking about crap while studying? Redirect your thoughts to that funny thing that happened last week or the task at hand.

Obviously it'll take a long time before you change your thought patterns permanently, but don't despair, you're only 21.