skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
First and foremost, trade secrets and trust. Don't tell anyone you don't trust. I know that sounds lame, but it is true if you are serious about protecting a secret. It is better to prevent the action in the first place than having to deal with litigation. Trade secrets are enforceable in court, though you basically have to be trying to keep them secret, prove it was secret, etc.

So that effectively means beyond just keeping it secret, it's all about contracts. NDAs, non-competes, etc. You can sign your rights away to almost anything in a contract, though non-competes are notoriously weak in California.
Any advice on making widgets in general? I'd like to make one for my site in a few months and I don't know the first thing about them.

How can a javascript widget even work with the browser restricting javascript to access other domains?
Any chance to see this on YouTube? I learn from this that jumpcut doesn't work very well...
Your link goes to the 1 year chart, but I think you meant the 5 day chart. I dunno how to hotlink to specific ranges in the new Y!Finance charts; viewer should click on 5D.

Anyway, the stairstep is at 4:00 AM GMT, which happens to be midnight EDT. I don't know about the intricacies of currency markets, but I'd imagine there's some sort of daily currency balancing where the main banks buy all the currency they need to settle international transactions on behalf of customers. Note that there's a sharp gap downwards between 9:00 PM and midnight GMT (when European banks would presumably be buying dollars to settle international transactions), and a sharp gap upwards at midnight EDT (when U.S. banks would presumably be buying euros to settle international transactions.)
wow, very interesting. I guess I'll have to read up on NP-hard problems then, no?
Good ideas and products are born everywhere in the world. At some point in the life of a product however you do need money to grow, compete, etc. At this time if your idea is significant enough you might need investment and Si Valley is a good place to be. Lately though VCs have been setting up shop in India and China. So really if there is a critical mass of talent, ideas and a market to boot, Silicon Valley will come to you.
It's the "plunge protection team" at work.
Patents only allow you to sue people later. The main barrier to entry for most folks is attention span. If you're really worried about it, you should get the contracts, etc. mentioned by others.

We've used contracts once in the past 2 years. And that was only because we were recently went open kimono on the technology side for a potential acquirer.
What's Wrong with CS Research
one of the conveniences of starting up in SV is that the resources are all close by, which makes going to a lecture, attending a meetup, meeting with investors etc., etc, less of a big deal. If you travel in for these events on occasion you have much higher expectations of what you get from them and you don't get the benefit of at least being that person that saw whom ever you want to talk with a event x, y, and z.
Switching from the 5 day view to the 3 month view, you tell me what's behind this chart, and I'll be impressed:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=EURUSD=X&t=3m&l=on&#...
i'm waiting for the first service pack to be released before i install it.
An efficient house is one you get to and from by rail and foot. It's also a bit on the small side. Sprawl is the efficiency problem in housing, not so much the materials and construction.

I get the feeling Woz is missing the forest for the trees. Efficient housing is not a technological problem. Many very old houses are quite efficient. It is a political problem:

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/local.html
http://www.sprawlkills.com/files/jeb_bush_leading_land_glutt...
I always thought that young software creators could do with a bit of a mandatory apprenticeship program. Having the spirit to do things right which wouldn't regularly even be noticed is so very important. So, having someone look over your shoulder and notice all the shortcuts you take and berate you for them would be nice :)
Chicago Hackers & Entrepreneurs
Wanna get together sometime? I saw a few "we're from Chicago" refs in another thread.
This is particularly interesting because I find myself in somewhat the same situation. I've been working on a startup idea (http://www.scriggle-it.com/) with a team that's never taken (or sought) VC funding. The only investment we've put in has been time, and expenses paid for out-of-pocket, for things like the domain name, hosting, SSL certificate, payment processing gateway, and the like.

I'm our sysadmin and backend programmer, and then another guy does graphics and site design, and we have an ideas/customer relations/PR-type guy. We've also got a guy working when he can on a Java-based client-side application that syncs with our site. We launched the site last October and have netted a few thousand dollars in profit, thus far. We're still totally committed to our idea, and it's occurred to us that seeking/taking VC funding might be a smart next step. It would keep me from having to work a second, "real" job, and allow us to hire a friend of mine, who's a top-notch coder but is married and can't quit his current (barista) job unless it's profitable for him to do so. Furthermore, we're trying to expand into in the cell/SMS arena, and VC funding would allow us to pay for a short code, an SMS gateway, etc.

Having no VC experience, however, we're wondering whether venture capitalists would even consider us, what their terms would be, what VC "stage" we would apply for, etc. Any comments, suggestions, or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
If your choices are "The world is complicated," or "The world is simply controlled by powerful, evil forces," why would you choose the latter?
When I saw this title, I expected the post to be about enterprise software. How, instead of buying and installing enterprise software that costs millions and never works, an entrepreneur could just offer to dig them into a hole for a third of the price.

But surprisingly, Scott Adams actually meant real, genuine, physical holes.
Dean,
I agree with your on the un-equal votes and I can appreciate your point about losing startup related content. But I think that it may not come to pass. Only time will tell...
:)
I've read that Estonia is quite startup-friendly these days. Is your experience different?
I dont want to hear advice from people who are successful only at writing and selling books that tell you how to be successful. including Dale Carnegie, Steven Covey etc.

I would rather hear it from those who have done - Marc Andreesen and others.
I don't know if the PPT is doing anything with the USD-EUR, I was only being cute. But if you're implying the PPT does not exist and is not active, you are naive. Its existence is fact. The evidence for its manipulations in the past is overwhelming.

"State Sponsored" manipulation of currencies explains a lot of weird forex chart patterns. It's hardly a secret that the BoJ manipulates the Yen, for example.
Kenan Systems. See elsewhere in this thread.
The currency markets work 24 hours. Yahoo plots the intra day voltality but the graph that yahoo shows in that link does not chart all 24 hours and that is why you see a break which causes it to look like steps. The steps are going down because the currency seems to be on a downward trend.
I'm not sure what your point is, but I'll take the iPhone the way it is now rather than chance even more bugs. There's no reason to need copy and paste except under extremely specific circumstances that don't come up often.

It's not a laptop.
The central banks are flooding the markets w/ currency right now to try and bail out the banks who took on bad debt.

The European central bank floated more currency(~100bn) than the Fed did(~60bn), so I think that is why the dollar gained a little on the Euro over the past few days.
How to stop pollution and destruction of natural resources
Murray Rothbard brilliantly analyzes the issues in conservation, ecology, and growth and presents realistic solutions. This is material you won't hear from either political party.
Reading the comments here, I don't think the commenters are fully grasping Adams' point. Especially interesting is his desire that the hole-digging robots be self-replicating, so as to allow for ever greater numbers of replacements, lower costs, and so on. It reminds me of a post I read regarding the feasibility of space colonization written by an engineer who went on and on about the "long tail" of industrial production -- basically, there are so many thousands of parts in any sufficiently complicated piece of technology that there are whole billion-dollar industries employing thousands of people just to create a subset of the required components. Cars are a perfect example, although the idea has implications for many technologies we use (computers, anyone?). An interesting approach to this problem (I read about it in Make magazine) is the RepRap Project, at http://reprap.org. They are trying to solve the "long tail" manufacturing problem by creating an inexpensive machine that can be used to build almost anything, including copies of itself. Perhaps something like this will lead to the future Adams is hoping for...
I would agree. To some degree. There are certainly hackers whose grasp and love of their subject is so deep that seeing the non-expert perspective is difficult. But usability can be learned and taught, and non-hackers (who don't have usability experience and/or training) are even more likely to design a stupid interface. Have you ever built an application to non-technical user specs? Without care, it'll turn out like the Homer (see: http://images.google.com/images?q=%22the+homer%22&ie=utf... ). If you're a hacker who only wants to think about hacking, then sure...you're not cut out for building the whole product and business, and you'll need some help. But hackers are not precluded from loving any of these subjects enough to take them seriously. I'm spending more time on design than ever before, and actually getting pretty good at it.

Paul Buchheit (AKA paul here at news.yc, AKA GMail creator, AKA "Don't be evil") is positive proof that one can be both a good developer and a good usability guy...first time I met him at YC, I thought, "Hmm, seems nice enough. Pretty smart fellow. But I'm surrounded by folks who are smart and likable, and they're also really driven. What is it about him that helps him build GMail while the rest of us haven't done anything nearly so big?" A few weeks later we were chatting about usability, and he described his interaction with a Bittorrent client...and it all became clear. He's happy to drop the smart on the floor and be a really dumb user who just wants to get something done--the kind that doesn't read documentation and doesn't care one whit about how things are done behind the scenes. It was eye-opening. A few weeks after that at Startup School, Max Levchin described the exact same process (a bit more concretely and perhaps offensively by releasing his inner 13 year old girl). Nonetheless, it's something that everyone building software for users ought to be a thinking about all the time. But again, hackers can think that way two.

pg harps on the same stuff, too. Whether intentionally, or not, his attention span is about that of a four year old, so when he looks over your shoulder and gives an opinion, it is nearly always one of "I don't understand what's happening there", unless you've done everything right...and that's exactly the sort of opinion you need. Your software is never going to be someones sole purpose in life, and you can't expect their undivided attention. They're talking on the phone, eating lunch at their desk, worrying about remembering to pickup the dry cleaning, and trying to figure out where they put that really important email. Some of them will also be really stupid, on top of all of those problems.
http://xkcd.com/258/
This material can also be accessed in audio form at http://www.mises.org/multimedia/mp3/audiobooks/rothbard/fora....
Flash Games Community Kongregate Gets $5 Million To Bankroll Key Developers
Thanks to whomever posted this... I love getting the chance to poke through someone's code and (hopefully) learn from it.
iPhocal Uses Yelp API for Local Search on the iPhone
Skype's Outage Another Example of Why Current Mahalo is Doomed
You're exactly right - [argh] it's not at all the traveling salesman problem. Thanks for the correction.

In any case, the thesis of my post was that it's a totally solvable problem and that you could use other factors to reduce the number of nodes - like looking for shared group or network memberships.

I think this is the relavant bit? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra's_algorithm Except that the Facebook thing wouldn't be a weighted graph - unless you wanted to consider length of time people have been marked as friends, or count "worked together" more or less than some other form of association.
I'm impressed. :)
PingMe Annoys the Hell Out of You To Make Sure You Get Things Done
<i>as my girlfriend put it, "most small businesses fail, but if anyone can succeed, it will be you"</i>

That's funny, that's almost exactly what my girlfriend said too... Must be a girlfriend thing :)

The reactions I've received have either been support mixed with a bit of admiration and envy, or "ah yes I've been through that 10 years ago, if you ever want to do it now's the time" followed by some advice. Only one person reacted with "why would you ever want to do that".
Truveo: AOL Takes a Swipe at Google and YouTube
It seemed somehow relevant to the discussion. ;-)
great, I'll be there. although I second the vote for Andala's, as it is a block from 1369, larger, has better coffee, and free wifi.
<Once you get so good at anything, including hacking or, more specifically, software development, it becomes hard to think about usability, design, business development, etc.>

Wow, I really disagree. While some programmers aren't especially good at those things, I don't think that there's any reason a top hacker couldn't be good at them. Actually, a good hackers have such a drive to create that they are forced to deal wth design and usability. They may not like business development, but if the drive is there, they'll do it.

I will admit to having poor aesthetic ability, though. I do need a designer to make my interfaces look good. But that's quite different from fundamental issues in usability and design.
Winamp. $0 outside investment, was making $1M/y off of advertising at time of acquisition, $100M exit.
del.icio.us. $0 outside investment, $15-$30M acquisition. (rumored)
You can include most software companies that started as shareware vendors: id Software, Apogee, etc.
Startup Funding from Family?
>"Personally, I don't care about startup news..."
This begs an obvious question. Why visit a site on a topic you have no interest in?
oh, man. now there is a bet i would really, really like to take.

i used a motorola razr for a year, then got an iphone as soon as possible. i wouldn't go back for any reason.
The making of criticat
The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race (by Jared Diamond)
I don't doubt that states manipulate currencies when they can, and that they aren't always open about it. I just don't think it's useful to attribute moves to that. "Noise" might be a better term than PPT. As far as analysis is concerned, they're synonyms.
This pattern is anomalous. It cannot be explained by normal daily activities because it does not happen every day, just for the last five.
Hot or Not. Made the owners enough free flowing cash, in the millions every year, that they certainly weren't even looking for an exit.
HA, I know the author. He taught Software Engineering at NYU. Very smart guy.
Bad idea. What distinguished this site was the news on startups. If you want tech news there are hundreds of good sites out there. This becomes one more. Look at dzone, slashdot, and many more.
How to create a startup in 10.5 hours
I just launched FEEDJIT. It took me about 10.5 hours (4pm until 2:30am) from the first time my hand touched the keyboard until I fixed the last bug and went live. I got a question on the Seattle Tech Startup list about how I spent my 10.5 hours. So here's a brief summary....
>"interesting things on the edges/fringes of markets, society, and technology. Imo, those are what you have to pay attention to"

Well, at least the new direction will give you one of those three things.
Good reads on Ubiquitous Computing
> I just don't think it's useful to attribute moves to that

Over the last couple years I have seen analysts anticipate and detect concerted manipulation of the gold market and profit accordingly. The proof is in the pudding. It is useful to attribute some major market moves to manipulation by the elites. Though, as I said, I actually doubt there's anything conspiratorial going on in this particular chart.
Of course it's a parody.
I think that would violate the TOS ( http://www.facebook.com/terms.php )
"In addition, you agree not to use the Service or the Site to: ...use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Service or the Site;"

The developer TOS don't, as far as I can tell, provide exceptions to this. In fact, the following seems to quash the whole idea of crawling:

"4) You may not store any Facebook Properties in any Data Repository which enables any third party (other than the Applicable Facebook User for such Facebook Properties) to access or share the Facebook Properties without our prior written consent."

But perhaps they would be willing to consent if you asked?

I think it's a good idea.
The thing that I like about this is that he distilled it down to a hypothesis/test.

Hypothesis: Bloggers/site owners would like a stream-like display/understanding of who's visiting, where they come from, and where they leave to. Something a bit lighter and more fun than a standards analytics package.

Do you need registration/passwords to test that idea? Focus groups? Customizable widgets? Public profiles? Fancy graphs? Historical data?

Nope. Apparently all you need is 10.5 hours. ;-) If he sees any traction, he can start piling on cool features based on user feedback. If not, he can let it be as is.
Google has loads of stuff just like this going on, too. Last time I was there (my girlfriend works there, so I'm there every couple of weeks), they had an intern talent show going on at the main cafe. During the company picnic they did the same thing. "Googley Blues" was the winning performance...it was fun and well-done. Most performances, however, were in the same class as this rap. Silly, poorly done, just about exactly what you would expect from a nerd rapping.

It's stupid to pick on Yahoo for an employee having some fun. Thinking back, there was an all-office video from the College Humor/Busted T's folks, that everybody here LOVED. But when Yahoo brings it, they catch flack. It's just people being catty. Have fun. Get over your too-cool-for-school selves.
The Giver is a good choice. I would also say that it is better written than Atlas Shrugged as well. All the characters are one-dimensional characters and Rand keeps beating us over the head with her ideas and doesn't allow us to make our own conclusions when all her "good guys" do no wrong and everyone else is a parasite. I read The Giver in the 8th grade and put it in my list of books that have influenced me.

>All this in a book that is shorter than John Galt's speech.

This is what happens when you don't have editors.

I would like to add 1984 and Animal Farm. I think the time that Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead capitalism was already (or soon to become) the de facto economic system of the world. I think that it is a good book for the time it was written when communism was still popular in some parts of the world. 1984 and Animal Farm were true when George Orwell wrote them and they still are today and in the foreseeable future.

I don't think it is a good idea to choose a fictional book as the greatest book on economics. The book in its greatest potential can persuade people to follow or accept the ideas expressed in the book but it is a means to an end. The end is the actual theory.
Are downarrows even necessary?
I think Microsoft only took investment before it went public. It was already a very successful company by then.
Is there a way to get historical intraday data for currencies, beyond the last 5 days?

I'm just going by what the data shows - this is a plausible explanation given the times and known facts about the domestic financial system. (For example, domestic banks have the balance all deposits daily to ensure they meet reserve requirements.) If you can find data that refutes this hypothesis, be my guest. Simple assertions don't count, though.
I've never seen criticism of Haskell that was at once so well-informed and so stupendously misguided. It gets under my skin even more since every other point made in the article had my total sympathy. Now I'm going to have to somehow find the time to write a detailed rebuttal.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/04/delcious_invest.ht...
Money tends to find success. Not the other way around. Money is put into companies that are already on there way to be "successful" (assuming they are not already). The money just expedites the growth.
Good things happen when you put everything aside and really focus on getting Version 1.0 done. Imagine what you can do if you did that for 3 months and had YC's advice.
I started 9 companies with no outside cash. The first one i started I sold and then joined the parent company which had not taken in any outside cash. We grew that to $600m in revenues within 5 years.

All that said, I would still say that if you were a BETTING man, your bets would likely go on funded companies.
I liked the point Paul made about too many negative comments. It seems like the only time people comment anymore is when they want to complain.
This goes in the "wish I thought of that" category. Not many things do.
Yahoo revamps local, but needs work - Google's door-to-door campaign
Same business plan as Scribd, Anywhere.fm and, oh yeah, YouTube. In this case it happens to be Flash games. Take something that's spread out all over the net and hard to upload/create/host, put it all in one place, make it easy to view in your browser and add browsing and community features. I love it. I think these are pretty solid propositions.
>Astronomy taught us that our earth isn't the center of the universe but merely one of billions of heavenly bodies. From biology we learned that we weren't specially created by God but evolved along with millions of other species.

Neither of which would have been possible if we were too busy hunting for food every waking hour.
i am down.
Digital Korea - The future exists in South Korea
New book from tomi ahonen. sounds interesting.
Productivity News
Help! I am looking for more hacking blogs to add to the productivity news section.
>>It turns out that these people have plenty of leisure time, sleep a good deal, and work less hard than their farming neighbors. For instance, the average time devoted each week to obtaining food is only 12 to 19 hours for one group of Bushmen, 14 hours or less for the Hadza nomads of Tanzania.

FTA... please read it :p

You can make the argument that by increasing population size and crowding, it also made collaboration, partnership, and the growth of ideas easier but the article itself debunks the whole "they spent their entire life looking for berries" argument.

Jared Diamond is awesome.
How not to buy happiness
You know, I've been doing some thinking about that. I'm about to kick off a community site and I'm debating whether or not to allow downvoting at all. I think I'll only allow downvoting to 1 karma (meaning a comment is only downvotable if it's above 1 karma), and see how that turns out.
Debunking The Myths of Innovation
Right! When you're moonlighting, it's difficult running on 6 hours sleep each day while managing 2 projects. Being able to focus on one thing 24/7 would be great.
What contributes most to reading speed: letter-recognition, word-recognition, or context?
I really dig your site.