skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My suggestion is pick job B, but keep a hobby project on the side.

The internet makes self learning easier, but then again, mostly all you'd learn from job A you could learn from hobby projects anyway. Face to face interaction with other programmers is harder to substitute.

Just in case you haven't read this already:

http://www.norvig.com/21-days.html

[Sorry, meant to post this as a top level reply.]
microPledge pre-launch -- put your projects on now!
You may find it easier to convince everyone else to revise the qwerty standard. ;)
But isn't Facebook just a single example of anything viral? More generally, I'm interested in hedging bets against capital costs.
Nice parody. :)
Programming has more than enough challenges to fill a lifetime.
See http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/DjangoPoweredSites
The Teqlo Adventure
I thought it was worth a try. It just seemed so.. natural. Not to look at, just to type.
This is getting out of hand.

People are reaching into the web 2.0 hat, drawing out some features or another niche they can build a "social networking site" around.
I still wouldn't trust the small print not to taketh away. Typically it involves something like accelerated vesting as long as you're not fired "for cause"; but who's to say what kind of charges might be trumped up to get around it? In which case, you'd want a clause covering departure for any reason -- but then you might as well be vested from the start anyway.
would be an alright facebook app...
wow...i totally missed that boat... things look a lot clearer when you are not reading it thru a mobile phone browser
agree. thats why i enjoy it so much. personally, i don't want to program all day. variety is the spice of life. thats just me though..
I do a lot more looking than typing.
YC Startup Adpinions Launches
This depends entirely on the sort of code I'm writing.

If it's throwaway code -- that is, stub functions for use while I'm writing and testing other code, and which I know I'll replace before production use -- I can easily end up writing a thousand lines of code a week, or even more.

If I'm writing good, solid code -- that is, code which I expect to write once and then use for the next 20 years without ever making more than cosmetic changes to it -- I'll generally write about a thousand lines of code per month.

If I'm writing best-of-breed software -- that is, code which comes with a proof of correctness and at least a very strong argument for being the optimal solution (e.g., code which computes a roots-of-unity table in linear time with O(1) maximum error, and will thus never be surpassed by more than a constant factor) -- I'll typically write 100-200 lines of code AND a 5-10 page paper in a month. Of course, this last sort of code falls into the "yes, I would trust this to operate a nuclear power plant" category, which is a rather higher level than most applications require.
If they require you to activate your email address, it's probably to reduce spam. That, I think, is a very good reason to require registration.
This seems like an extremely futile attempt to fix something that isn't broken.

You can already access most properly-managed sites without the www.. This "initiative" is just going to confuse people.
If you've got a Sony-Ericcson phone, you can use Float's Mobile Agent. It's open source. Lets you download/upload your contacts, texts, photos, etc. via bluetooth.

It can also do cool-in-theory but useless-in-practice things like use your phone as a remote control for your mouse or monitor the temperature of your phone battery (???). Oh, I think it'll fade the music and pop up caller ID on your computer if you get a call.

Main page: http://fma.sourceforge.net/index2.htm
List of supported devices: http://fma.wiki.sourceforge.net/Supported+devices
Looks cool! I'm eager to give it a try. Maybe we'll get the YC alumni discount (or maybe just priority on the invites).
It's obviously a huge, huge market, but I just have to greet this with some skepticism: "Adpinion's solution is to empower users to choose their advertisers.". I think...people who are cognizant of ads in any way other than background noise usually "choose" to get rid of them. But then, maybe there is a good PsyOps way around ad blockers. There are other companies doing similar things, like adkrakr. I tried that today out of curiosity...it brings up a tag cloud, and I clicked on (among other things) "bird seed". What do you know...I got some bird seed ads. Wow.

But hey, if you can increase CTRs by 0.01 percent, you'll be billionaires.
echo -e "keycode 18 = 9 bracketleft\nkeycode 19 = 0 bracketright\nkeycode 34 = parenleft braceleft\nkeycode 35 = parenright braceright" >> ~/.Xmodmap

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

Cheers! 8)
Faceball: your face, our balls
Trailing slashes (or forgetting them) can also lead to problems. Luckily the guides are pretty explicit about telling you to specify them. (RoR at least)
I dunno, possibly it could use more polish? (not my opinion, just theory on what they might not like about it)

It'd be nice if the books on the main page all had thumbnails at least.
The Hidden Costs of Open Source
I couldn't help but wonder how many companies there were on the page, so I added a Count column - the page has 43 startups so far :)
I voted up the ad with desktop to S3 storage :)
Venture capital falling from their palm trees
Maybe it's the sand and surf, or the proximity to Hollywood, but venture capitalists are waking up to Southern California.
Lisp hackers spend so much time various participating in flame wars they have neither the time nor energy to make a good web site, or application, change clothes, do the dishes, move out of the graduate dormitory, hold down a job, etc.
Teen's social-networking site a hit with high schoolers
Don't be alarmed: 29,000 sex offenders on MySpace
Judge unimpressed by ConnectU's case against Facebook
FCC shuns Google plans for open mobile network
High-tech startup garners $4.5 million (Zipit Wireless Inc.)
Streamload Upgrade Goes Very Wrong; Some Users Revolt
San Diego based storage service Streamload is having a hellish summer. On June 22, more than a month ago, they began rolling out "significant improvements" to the service.
Don't lose your pre-sleep ideas
The fastest growing Online Fitness Community is a startup worth observing
Do you really have 1 million readers? That's incredible! It doesn't seem like the site has been around that long. I remember seeing that byline for many months, however. Did you multiply 10,000 hits per day times 365?
That story sure brings Gates down another few notches in my book, as a programmer at least. Predicting how long it will take to implement a totally new program with lots of unknowns is crazy in itself. Trying to estimate how many LOC it will take _another_ programmer and then estimating a schedule on the fly like that is just pure fantasy. It's also unbelievably aggravating to be on the receiving end.

John Carmack's permanent answer on projects is "When it's done". The only truthful answer when developing anything new and interesting.
Just a couple of notes about this pre-launch (yes, our help's too long/complex, and we'll address these things soon :-).

1) The money's real money. You can deposit (from PayPal), pledge, get paid, and withdraw (via PayPal). All real dollars.

2) If you've got projects you've already mostly finished, you can easily start a project as sole developer. If you just want a simple donations-only project, type in $0 for the quote amount after you've created it (it shows you how). Yes, we know this is klunky -- fix coming soon. :-)
MediaTemple on your iPhone
The Seven Essential Milestones Every Startup Must Focus On
According to Guy Kawasaki, "If you miss any of them, your organization might die."
Adobe Scientist @ India: Advice to Young Programmers, A Speech A
The Rules essence (applicable for YC too)
3 easy steps for a European Silicon Valley
Very true. I can spend weeks researching and analysing the most import 100 lines in most of my apps.

no one uses LOC any more - that article is from 1984! I'm pretty sure Gates would have a different answer if asked now.
I once touched 2,700 lines in a day in a grand feat of manual code manipulation. That certainly made me want to code differently.
As I'm sure everyone will say, this heavily depends on what you are writing. If you are writing Windows Forms in C# using Visual Studio you could easily write 1,000 lines of code in an hour (because the IDE makes them for you). Similarly, if you are merely typing up what should be done by an ORM product, then you can easily write 1,000 lines of code in a day. I've had 3-4kloc days doing the combination of these two. It's possible because the coding is easy, and you have tools to help you do it.

Also, are we counting things like macros in this estimation? I mean, a single line macro could yield hundreds of lines of code once through the compiler.
Mobile Internet Radio web app
Was thinking of submitting this!

I have used this for 9 months now and a month into I canceled my XM subscription. What I depict is only 10% of the concept.

Any parties interested in teaming up to help revolutionize Internet Radio and in turn the music business?

Hit me up at ryanspahn < at > comcast. net
Yes, A for sure. The guys at B probably have some actual work to do other than teaching you all day long.
This is a good idea, so long as you don't get discouraged when many of your midnight ideas don't turn out to be so great when you look at them the next morning.
Cure Office Boredom by Adopting a Cute Cat Pic
I can't believe I'm doing this! I'm sending more traffic over to the idot savants at I Can Has Cheezburger? And this isn't the first time, recently I had my entire office on that cursedly cute site. My boss was about to tape a page from another coworker's cat calendar to her office door. I told her about Cheezburger and the other lolcats/lolpets and we got the idea to each adopt a cat (or rabbit or guinea pig) and hang it on our office doors and guess what?
Chinese iPhone Copy (Fake Knock-off)
Hi Paul, another Paul here. We're interested to know if we can integrate Adpinion with AsiaPay.Com maybe you can email me at paulpajo [at] gmail
Congress: P2P networks harm national security
Thanks for all of your responses! I am leaning towards Job A, but we'll see whether or not the offer officially comes through. I'm hoping that I can teach myself. I'm also thinking that the other programmers at Job B might not really play as much of a role as I might imagine . . . that I would still be on my own in a way--self-motivated, self-taught . . . they would just be there to get me through the tough(er) parts.
Second Life Bans Gambling Following FBI Investigation
Business.com Sells for $350 Million
I wish it wasn't invitation only. Yes, I know, you've made it easy to obtain an invitation. Still, why bother? For a while, I signed up for lots of "invite me when we're ready" startups. I rarely ever heard back from them, so now I don't really want to waste my time with that anymore. And every email-address I give away will eventually yield more spam (at least with a certain likelihood).
Thanks to everyone for all the great feedback. You all present really good arguments on the topic... I think the "best" solution for my app would be to create the temporary account converted to a registered user upon save. Like some of you mention, I will probably end up registering users at some point but I don't think what I'm offering now justifies a sign up...

I was thinking about making it very basic, no registration, user can create and save but they have to take care of tracking their own edits... bookmarks or taking the embed for a one time use. I realize it would not be all that feature rich but does it need to be?

Light, nothing to commit, like tinyurl with video edits...
That's probably when the ad is the most useful, because they can get you to buy it sooner. It's a pretty good deal for VW if a few cents' worth of internet ads can cause you to make a $20k purchase a month sooner.
no one uses LOC any more

I feel obligated to mention the classic LOC management story: http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...
Finally, accurate iPhone numbers (270,000)
The Loser in Amazon's Results: EBay?
Are they kidding?

I just moved from LA and So Cal to the Bay area. There is no comparison in tech culture.
German court convicts Skype of GPL breach
A German court has ruled that Skype violated the General Public License version 2 by selling a Linux-based phone without access to the source code.
Perhaps "Refactor %" would be a better measure than LOC. Turn 1000 lines of code into 100 lines of better code. Then we can talk.
Some thoughts:

1) Lower taxes on software companies, and make it easier to fire people
2) Lower capital gains taxes to let big wins offset losses for VCs
3) Less government involvement in companies. It was mentioned recently how governments giving hundreds of millions to companies will not replace google.
It may be the best answer is to change the question. Why do people measure LOC? Because they're trying to measure the productivity of programmers. Why are they doing that? Largely to decide how to reward them. So that is the ultimate problem. But it goes away if the programmers work in smaller groups, in the form of startups, because then the market decides how to reward them.

So odd as may seem, the answer to the question of how to measure LOC is: startups!
Video for Merlin's "Inbox Zero" talk at Google
This is an exceptionally good talk.

What is especially interesting is in the QA session, we hear about how dysfunctional team communication is at Google. The current practice is an email question is sent to the entire team on a project of 20+ people. Then people play the waiting game to see who will reply first to the question, etc. The result is that googlers get hundreds to 500+ emails internally that they have to cope with - a productivity nightmare. Also one questioner pointed out, in spite of the email information firehose, critical information is not distributed. She mentions the example of a random encounter with someone at lunch, and finding out that a person in NY is working on a very similar project to hers and she having no clue about it.

Also interesting is that Google hosts a seminar series by David Allen on "Getting Things Done" for their staff on a regular basis. I guess they are trying to start solving the problem.
I have seen the 'control issue' play out first hand. I was the outside computer consultant for an accounting firm that merged with a larger firm, I was assured from day one that I was going to stay in my position. Five days after the integration was complete they changed the administrators password and told me that they never give that password to outside consultants.

... and that's how I lost a client I had been working with for 10 years ...

The previous owner, now a partner, had no control over my status and was told that the issue would be brought up in committee. This was the first of a line of major issues that happened like this.

The bottom line on this is if you like the way your company runs, don't put someone else in charge of it.
Fantastic article . . . I think I'm going to be engrossed in the rest of Norvig's site/articles for a long while now.

That article included a link to the video lectures of the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by A&S themselves, given to HP employees back in the 80's:

http://www.archive.org/details/mit_ocw_sicp
See, this is why I just never sleep:)
are you guys planning on letting people actually input their ad preferences? or are you just going to determine them based on what they vote on?

i wrote this in another thread, but i would gladly spend a few minutes telling an ad-server what i'm interested in so that the ads are relevant.
Consumers got screwed. Damn shame.
Although I focused a lot on control, which is a very big issue, I think it comes down to trust as well, which is very difficult to understand until the deal plays out.

Having sold a few companies myself I can tell you it's nearly impossible to know for sure until you live it for a while.
Digg chooses MSFT over GOOG
I agree, this story is completely disheartening. The fact that ego's can get in the way or a better more elegant design is basic human behaviour. I'd hope to think that anyone who is designing a product for their end user would be Abel to recognize that, but I suspect that is a bit too optimistic.

Although I think splitting the kernel into separate products for different applications is a problem as well. What it really comes down to at that point is where are you planning on taking your product?

Are you satisfied with a big market with large customers, or do you really want a huge market with nearly unlimited small customers. f Linux really wants to be on the desktop, they will have to moderate some of their features that are enterprise only to make the desktop experience better.
A dynamic startup allows real time price comparison
s/chooses/is bribed to choose/

Fixed it for you.
If by "accurate," you mean "not even counting through the first weekend of sales."

It's hard to get a sense of how many people out there have iPhones based on the initial spike.
So buyers couldn't figure out how to activate their phones? Or they didn't care, they just wanted to have it to look at it?
Why Britain has lost out to the US in the battle for Indian students and entrepreneurs
While I'm a firm beleiver that LOC are not a good measure of anything anymore ... The YC as this question:

"If you've already started working on it, how long have you been working and how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written?"

I guess it's important in some places still .... :-)
They're moving product. It's not bribery, it's business...
Why do people measure LOC? Because they're trying to measure the productivity of programmers. Why are they doing that? Largely to decide how to reward them.

Yes.

But if I'm an IT manager at a large company, the answer to that question is not startups (it's not LOC, either).

(I know this site is all rah rah startups and I'm not trying to harsh anyone's mellow, but this question is still largely unanswered)
They'd be better off asking: you much have you done, how many more weeks until you can release a prototype, etc.
What would -2000 get you if you used it in YC's application form?
Microsoft's desperate... they probably gave them guaranteed yearly revenue just like they gave it to facebook.
That story sure brings Gates down another few notches in my book

It seems he was a bully, too, at least in the early days: http://blog.tomevslin.com/2007/05/microsoft_memor.html

Then again, most people probably don't care, given Microsoft's financial results.
6 Steps to write a better Windows setup.exe
Sprint teams with Google to build an open WiMax portal
Ask YC: What are the best open-source business models?
I'd better start collecting ideas to post as projects.
Startup Epicenter Offers Arsenal of Tools for Entrepreneurs
Scott Lane of SF Bay Ventures has once again brought entrepreneurs up against feisty angel investors and renowned venture capitalists. Some of them even got personal onsite coaching with experts that cater to the startup community. This is yet just another example why these events make Silicon Valley the place for serious entrepreneurs to plant themselves in this fertile soil.
YSlow Review and Tips, add-on for the Firebug add-on
Ajax: A Sequence Diagram for Scriptaculous
Pattern matching with Ruby
It's not how many lines of code you write, it's how effectively you both turn out features and leave the code base in a clean state. The folks I've worked with who crank out lots of code tend to be the ones who missed reuse opportunities and did't refactor, leaving a mess for the people who came along later to extend their work.

Measuring by lines of code is silly unless you also have a way to measure code debt.
Liskell - Haskell on the inside but looks like Lisp on the outside
I dont understand what your (pg's) question is.
Eliminating FORMAT from Lisp
Mozilla Ponders Thunderbird Spin-Off
Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker has called for community feedback on the future of the open source email client Thunderbird, with consideration to spinning Thunderbird off into a separate entity.
Stopping The Google AdWords Morphine Drip: How We Saved $183 Last Week
Based on Facebook's own estimates.
Why Ruby on Rails Succeeded
The software development framework has earned a vocal following and created loyal users. One Ruby expert explains what this community did right, and how others can learn from it.
Heh, that works too. Unique solution.. Thanks.
$100,000 in funding.
To be fair, startups are one way to measure productivity. But since it takes 2-10 programmers for most startups to be successful, there's no way everyone can start a startup (at least right now).

So I was wondering more about what everyone's ability to pump out code is, in the simplest metric: programming language plus line count per day or week. And sorry, but I don't think auto code generation is fair to include unless you're coding the code generation (that is, you've set up a Lisp macro or something similar).

Here, I'll go first: In the last three days, I've built a 1200 line system which is of medium complexity. The language is C++.

Shawn
Didn't you just publish an essay about deciding how much equity to give someone, and step one was putting a value on the recipient's potential contribution? Sure, the market evaluates a startup, but the market doesn't evaluate a programmer...except for single-founder startups.
>Also the prototype is not strong if it rides on the back of some service (facebook app, myspace widget) or has no personal value for single user (requires spontaneous collaboration from the beginning)

Wiser words have never been spoken.
Truemors for Friends
If it's reddit for ads, then I'd think it's based on what you vote on. The process seems to work well enough that you shouldn't get too many ads for Ron Paul's site.
I got a chuckle out of that one.
We are using Django.
The full text of the book is also available online.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
an online survey and user account would make sense for this. I'm not sure how many people would use it.
By my definition of "success," Ruby on Rails is not quite there. I'm unclear why the author assumes it's a fact.
I have a degree in CS and it taught me very little about how software is developed in the real world. I would choose A mainly because the chance to work on an interesting project and enjoy that level of freedom rarely comes along in a paid position. Having to deal with all the decisions that go into a software project will help move your skills forward much faster than just being able to ask the nearest "guru". And besides, with the web and Google you have access to the best minds in engineering and can easily compare approaches to common problems. There will always be plenty of "B" jobs around.
Google was making a similar offer. Why dog MSFT?
Speaking of the best minds in engineering. Here is some good advice:
http://norvig.com/21-days.html
The original text:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/210467/Speech-by-Alex-Stepanov
Where is the SF news.yc meet? 
If I remember it was supposed to be some where around North Beach on Friday 27th July 2007 between 7pm and 10pm. Where exactly?
What's more important in business than making money and increasing value?
(One Way to Monetize Facebook Apps) Xuqa becomes Peanut Labs, targeting online market research