skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
People always draw the wrong conclusions in articles like these. He shows a piece of code that uses a regular expression over implicitly-defined variables.

I agree that's confusing; regex syntax is very terse, and there's nothing in there to help you learn it. (In regular code, variable and function names can help you infer from context what the other constructs do.) Secondly, it's hard to reason about code that does things that aren't written. "while(<>)" assigning to "$_" for "/.../" to use is confusing. $2 and $3 coming out of nowhere are confusing.

The problem, though, is not with Perl; it's with the author's lack of knowledge of how it works. Regexes are nice once you learn them. Operating on $_ is nice once you expect that to happen. $1 and friends are quite handy.

Finally, most Perl apps don't look like this. Sure, there may be something like this hidden over in an obscure subroutine, but most Perl looks like every other language.

Here's a randomly sampling of Perl from my git repository:

http://git.jrock.us/?p=Template-Refine.git;a=blob;f=lib/Temp...

Basically, it looks like it would when written in any other language. It's not unreadable or crazy, it's just a program.

Finally, here's a more readable version of his example:

while ( my $line = <> ){ # or "readline" if you hate <>
while( $line =~ /<!--(?<comment_body>[^-]+)/g ){
say $+{comment_body};
}
}

One more thing; from the article:

Even so, I supect that most readers that know both languages, even Perl fans, will agree with me.

Not true. I don't know Python, so of course I'm not going to be able to use it to write maintainable code. I do know Perl, though, and I bet I can write much better code than the author of this article.

I should note that his program doesn't actually work. It won't work across lines, and doesn't allow "-" in the comment. A full-file parser would do a correct job, and one is available from the CPAN, so it would involve less code anyway.
In NYC, they have laws that a renter must earn an annual income that is 52x the monthly rent to qualify to rent the apartment (yes, subletting from someone is one way around it).

In NYC, a 1BR apartment that you live in by yourself is a status symbol. The average monthly rent is north of $2,500. Spending $2k+ on rent just to live in the city, maybe that's more about ego than it is about money..
I wonder if the banking thing isn't as much of a problem as it seems. I work as a financial recruiter, and one of the patterns I see is an on/off relationship with startups and banks, e.g. working two years at Goldman, then one year at a new search engine, then a year at Credit Suisse, then three years starting up a new wiki-based whatsit.

If you know you can quit and -- within a few months -- be earning a great living writing trading algorithms in C++ or reporting systems in Java, a startup is a much saner risk. This also applies to quants and physics majors: many smart folks are lured into the private sector, but many many more smart people can consider a Physics PhD because of the money they can make (if they need it).
Say, well that's odd. My short URLs don't work unless you're signed in. I suspect WP-Supercache is to blame.

Thanks for fixing the link.

This works: http://foohack.com/index.php?p=32
itostr takes time to mentally process (or pronounce), if I had to read your code. integer_to_string takes no effort and can't be confused. To make the point:

itostr - itoaster?

itostr - int to stream?

itostr - internationalize OString?

itostr - The string representation for indium tin oxide?
Sounds like what used to be your hobby has become your job. If you spend your whole day sitting behind the computer and then go home and spend your off hours behind the computer, you run out of time to do anything fun (hang out with friends, read, etc.)

I am a big fan of golf, and when you look at the PGA Tour most of those players go on vacation and fish, or ski, or do some other activity - anything but golf. Golf becomes a job when you play at that level. I think a similar thing happens to good developers when they start developing full time for a company.

If you have a great project idea, try committing one hour a day to it when you have free time, and see if it really starts to turn out how you planned. If you still feel motivated to work on it, start working on it 2 hours a day - if you can make money from it, turn that into your full time job :)
that's right. Youtube is not making any money (so it has no proven businness model), but it's founders are rich. So, I would say it is a huge success for them, but if you look at it in a traditional point of view, it is a failure.

The bottom line, they have millions in the bank, and you don't (ok, maybe you do, I don't know you).

If you plan to build some cool technology, and want to flip it to somebody else, that has the means to monetise it, the SF Bay area is the place to be.

If you want to build something small, and more of a traditional company, then a low cost area might make sense.

But have no boubt about it, some of the best talent is the bay area. It is like the Hollywood for geeks. The place where you can make it big. The place where the gold rush mentality will always prevail, as the people are drawn in here to make it big.

It seems that Web. 2.0 is out, and Green Tech is in. That's the new current bubble.
I suspect it bound them together actually. When a couple shares its labour it can become a important part of the relationship. Also, since they're husband and wife, I suspect that they combine their incomes, and so that partially deals with the money issue.
"I don't have any personal projects anymore, not because I don't have time, but just because I just don't _feel_ like it."

This is very similar to my workforce blues that I got after I finished school. I became very apathetic; being at the bottom of the seniority roster and thinking to myself, "This is what I have to look forward to for the next 40 years." really did me in. That's why I've decided to do a startup -- perhaps I'm being idealistic, but I think I can enjoy what I would consider a better quality of life in that sort of environment.

"I have idea's in my head but can't seem to think them out into a good project."

Do you have anyone to bounce them off of? Say, an old friend from school? I'm in Minnesota and one of my project's co-founders is California, but we've kept in contact since school and tossed around a lot of interesting ideas in that time. It took us a couple years to land on one that we thought was valuable, but I don't think we would've gotten there if we hadn't played with all the mediocre ones first.
Love-Cost Analysis
Programming for a living may take some energy on that level right out of you. I am in a similar situation and currenty trying to find an interesting project for myself. I think it is just natural that you lose interest if all of a sudden you spend the whole day programming. Especially if you have to do bigger portions of trivial work..
I had the same feeling after 2 years of regular job.
My solution was: I've chosen some serious project in the area of my interest and worked hard to complete it. It helped me to survive in this daily routine.
I took up photography for the same reason -- keep as far away from the dreaded monitor while I was off work. If I step back and think about it, it's sort of surreal that all the hard work I do in my day job is just flip-flopping bits of data on magnetic storage in a very organized way. It's nice to do something tactile.
IPhone 3G unboxing?
Software is not a hammer
I 'almost' 'wrote' a 'joke' blog 'post' about their 'stupid' "headlines".
Have you seen rents in NYC, how about try to shop for groceries? That's right, that place is so expensive that it is hard not to be worried about money all the damn time.

So, yes, NYC to a certain point is more about money than anything else.

I have seen it even in dating, when you see so many good looking girls, just dating around so they can have the "Sex and the City" glam life, that they couldn't afford themselves. And this "dinner whore" term (sorry if I am being rude), originated in the east coast.

In SF people seem to be a lot less interested on how much money you make, at least when it comes to dating.
No, it's Iguana to Stretchpants.
You're not making much sense. There's no secret. Nobody's hiding anything. So I would tell them the truth. What could I possibly achieve by lying in the scenario you describe?

You're suggesting that people would rather work for somebody with no experience and no money than for somebody who has already built and sold a successful venture?

I don't get it.
Facebook could see a standoff over Scrabble
Agreed -- that's what prevents the endless rounds of re-factoring, and keeps everyone focused on building a product, rather than drifting off on tangents.

We're saying the same thing, here. :)
Can't retain? It looks like Greene was fired. If they wanted to retain her, they would have.
Thats true. It was not a comment about this article, it was a joke about many articles appearing in a short time frame all disagreeing with PG in some way or another. All the responses seem to have come out at once. Conversations are good, although I have a running disagreement on a different thread over the logic of some comments, I have to say they are enjoyable to read.
Well, do you like writing code? It's a simple question but one that isn't easily answered.

Take a vacation, and think it over, if you were able to do any 'job' in the world, would you still pick writing code?

Does making things still appeal to you or would you rather be out doing event production or be a talk show host of some sort?

If the answer is still yes, you just need to get back into the groove and unplugging for a while on that vacation will help.

Other than that, I agree with @bkbleikamp up there -- start slow, don't force yourself to complete that cool idea you have in a day. Write it up and break it down into tasks, do 1 task a day and then go get drunk. Rinse and repeat. :-)
projecteuler.net is my favorite for sharpening my programming, or for learning a new language.
Working at a startup in NYC I have to disagree with pg as well. I think if anything the vibe is "i am more hip than you are". The place where the vibe is "i have more money than you do" is in Westchester, NY - where all the wall streeters live. They commute in and out, and take all their money to build big homes on the water up there. That has been true since the mid 1800s. The people who are actually into the culture of the city are in the small apartments in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and even within Manhattan.

Read this as well http://shripriya.com/blog/2008/05/29/new-yorks-message-have-...
Dugg! :)
Upgrading to MooTools 1.2 - Tips, Tricks, and True Backwards Compatibility
I don't know if you are still reading comments here but:

The robot the spawns bugs should have a cap on number of bugs. Otherwise you can sit there killing bugs that drop shield recharges as long as you want. You can fully recharge your shield, and also build up exp for free.

If you finish a room you get a recharge, if you kill a box with an ambush you get a second recharge.

The store seems pointless - everything is far too expensive to actually buy. i.e. when you finally have enough money to buy something, it's weaker than the gun you picked up from the floor.

All the extra powerups, like riot shield and the others, are pointless - you don't have enough spaces to actually use them. It's a no-brainer to have the shield rechargers always equiped. Unless you want to constantly switch them on and off, which is a big hassle and detracts from the game. (You get about 1 second after killing everything before it recharges, so you theoretically could swap them every single time, but that really ruins gameplay.)

Have dedicated shield recharger spots, and then spots for everything else. The reasoning is that recharges are used after a room is finished, but everything else is used during a room.

I kinda of enjoyed playing it, but the balance was poor.
I am sure the scale of their applications demands optimizing as much as possible.
I use yaml for this purpose. And find it very flexible and easy to use. It is also more readable than xml.
I strongly disagree with this post. NOLOH is a New York based startup, and after visiting Silicon Valley this past year for startup school, I feel strongly that Silicon Valley would've been far better for us than New York.

First and foremost, VC's in and around New York are not geared towards technology startups at all. Most do not understand technology on the same level as their Silcon Valley counterparts, and if you're so lucky to get a meeting with them they want to see your current business plan along with your current users, and current revenue, and the projections for each. You're not likely to get any funding until after you really need it.

Second, the developer community is scattered and almost non-existent. Feel free to go to meetup.com and search for php/ajax/python/ruby, or anything for that matter and see what you find. What a surprise, the meetup scene is almost non-existent. While New York does have is a vibrant hipster/artist scene, it’s important to not confuse this with a developer scene.

However, due to the complete lack of developer community and funding in New York, we were forced to actually develop our product to a point that we were able to license it to corporate users such as Random House, CIG, and others. This allowed us to generate revenue that funded the continuing development of NOLOH. This also provided us with real world use, and feedback outside of our company and projects. This also has its downsides, since rather than focusing solely on the product, we had to spend a significant amount of time working with clients.

It’s been over four years now, and we now have a solid client base, and a solid product that we just recently released to the developer community as a beta, had we not been in New York chances are we would’ve been able to release within the first 2 years, rather than after 4, albeit with a less stable and field tested product, but would’ve allowed us to iterate more easily, and surely have a larger developer base by now.

Overall, I feel that Silicon Valley would’ve been the best fit. Access to developers, capital, along with people that actually understand technology is truly something that all technology startups should have the pleasure to experience, I strongly suggest staying away from New York unless you’re a financial software startup.
Maybe that's the reason a lot of startup action is happening in Brooklyn, where all the cool designer types and hackers are moving to.

The rent is lower and the people are just nicer, in DUMBO where our startup is based there's atleast 5 other startups in a 10 block radius. Which, while not SoMa is still pretty good :)
"It would have made no sense for me to build Path 101 anywhere else but NYC, because my network is here."

So right... if you have spent your whole life in NYC, went to college there, and spent a year working at one of the most well known East coast VC firms (like Charlie has), then yes, Paul Graham is completely wrong about doing your start up in NYC. But what about the kid who just graduated from college and is deciding where to do his startup? Charlie's New York is not the same New York that a newcomer will experience.

I live in NY and love the city, but I agree with PG on this if your only goal in life is the success of your startup. If you have other goals though - like having interesting and diverse friends, or great experiences, and don't mind having to overcome more challenges than you would face in the Valley - then NYC is a great place for you.
The guy is a total scum bag and just about the last person anyone needs to make a movie about, but it might be worth it just for the "you're about to experience chaos" line. Classic.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/oakland-califor.htm...
I throw myself before the mercy of the court. The mistake is entirely mine. I am unworthy to live.

WHAT? That is terrible! I'm really sorry and we'll fix that word-swapping bug first thing tomorrow. Here, have a free upgrade and a free support call.
I love this article. I have several friends that became frozen because they were bright and afraid to fail.
Sun VirtualBox.
Worked well for me in this case. I missed lots of cool stuff while I was camping this weekend.
Short summary:

Most studies conclude that there is no discernible difference between the legibility of serif and sans serif. Some studies that claim serif is better used poor methodology; however, they are still widely cited as evidence in favor of serif typefaces.
Google Launches Virtual World (Rooms) Called "Lively"
Aplus.Net is the Most Reliable Hosting Company Site in June 2008
The Ten Statistical Commandments of Chairman Alroy
Your first example is nothing at all like the article. I would do some consulting for a law enforcement agency that had a court issued warrant for that purpose, no doubt. I would not, say, break into one neighbor's house to steal back a blender he took from another neighbor.

And in the second, if I were running a Mexican business, and a Mexican law enforcement agency had a valid warrant, again I would consult. It's a simple case of the system working as planned to protect innocent victims. I'd be glad to help.

Those people you cited have no parallels to what happened in this specific instance.
I've programmed in many styles until I read Martin Fowler's "Refactoring Code" and it taught me the best style is simple READABILITY! The only thing that matters is "Is it reabable"? For example, don't be afraid of replacing 5 lines of code with a descriptively named function whose only content is those 5 lines of code. It may seem pointless to have a function that is only called once but if it makes the code more readable then do it.
Three Questions About Each Bug You Find
As I understand it, author tries to demonstrate that Perl is so-called "difficult to learn", and because of that, is not a good choice. OMG!! Something is bad, because it is difficult to learn?!?! For some reason I can't explain, I feel sad about that article.
If you know you can quit and -- within a few months -- be earning a great living writing trading algorithms in C++ or reporting systems in Java, a startup is a much saner risk.

That cuts both ways, though: it's too easy to bail at the first hint of trouble at a startup, which is why there are relatively few great startup stories out of NY.
Well, it looks pretty real - all the stuff you would expect to see on an iphone 3g is there.
There's no such law, it's a general guideline that it be between 42-52 times the rent. Which makes a ton of sense to me.

While rent is "extreme" for people who don't live here, you should also consider that we generally don't have the same expenses as people in the burbs or elsewhere. We don't own cars, we don't buy gas, etc. That right there knocks $500-750 off your living expenses. Furthermore, you need to consider rent in NYC as a culture tax because no where else in the world will you find anything remotely similar in terms of fashion, design, art, food, etc. You might think you're approximating it with the Olive Garden in suburbia, but you aren't even close.

PS. I pay $2550 for a 3 bedroom with a backyard in the second nicest neighborhood in Brooklyn.
I have the same feeling. I sit at work and have lots of ideas for things I'd love to code, but at the end of the unproductive day in the office, I feel so burnt out that I don't have the energy anymore.

I still hope to eventually find the right mode that will work for me, though. Probably that will involve working on my own projects...

Also, I plan to take on a project I can work on from home as my next freelancing contract, where I have most of the responsibility for the design and architecture of the application. What is killing me among other things are many of the unfortunate design decisions in the corporate world.
It doesn't work in quite the same way for physicists/quants though. Once you leave physics and go into finance it's extremely hard to make the jump back -- a few years in finance puts you way behind your peers in the race for publications, and you're pretty much stuck there forever. The startup scene is far more forgiving to its apostates than the physics scene is.

I personally wish it were easier for physicists to spend just a few years in finance to find out whether they like it, and/or to save up some money.
I was thinking more in the lines of killer whales playing with their prey.
When PG says New York City, I usually take it to mean Manhattan. Brooklyn and Queens are both pretty awesome. If anyone here is from NYC, I'd love to start some real-life gatherings for YC'ers.

Edit: on this topic, I believe reddit started in brooklyn and later relocated. Can anyone confirm?
I have to agree with this. It took us (massify.com) forever to find talent.

NYC has an agency mindset which doesn't work in a startup environment. So you hire people from razorfish, digitas, r/ga, etc. but they're expecting the same 9-5 lifestyle and have a hard time adjusting.
The echo chamber effect is overblown. If you spend too much time on Mashable and TechCrunch it will seem like everyone is building the same thing. It will seem even more like an echo chamber if you go to all the "events" because the only people going to those events are involved with desperate me-too startups. However it is the only area in the USA I know of where there are hundreds of thousands of people working successfully on all kinds of interesting tech things, all in one place. Web 1.0, Web 2.0, virtualization, iphones, robots, electric cars, green tech, biotech, animated movies and special effects, microfinance, and so forth. The great thing about it is if you get bored working on Web 2.0 you can go work on something radically different and find a couple dozen people already doing it or willing to help out. Personally, I've been able to work on bioinformatics, tech art installations, robots, desktop software, web software and mobile phones, none of which required a change in address.
Well done, Steve Pratt.

Sad to see the way the discussion around software is moving into Gawker-like territory of empty cynicism and juvenile cliques. It seems owning a Mac now qualifies a person as a UI expert and if you know what's a URL you're a certified geek.

Screw that. Software is not "art" in the pretentious-hipster version and not about cheap "opinions". It's about building stuff. Can we have Bubble 2.0 burst already, please?
That looks really un-googly. The whole idea of chatting with someone using a complicated 3D avatar goes against google's usual fondness for simplicity in interface design. I assume it started out as somebody's side project, but I'm amazed that they launched it.

I'm sure it's a well-polished product, and that it'll be popular with teenage girls, but "popular with teenage girls" isn't usually google's goal, is it?
Ask HN: Good books on computational complexity?
I am curious about computational complexity, P, NP and so on.

Wikipedia gives a good basic insight but doesn't go very deep.

What books do you recommend?
Plus points for one that discusses how parallelism fits into this.
If anyone here is from NYC, I'd love to start some real-life gatherings for YC'ers.

I'll second that.
Approximately 800 vulnerabilities discovered in antivirus products
Picky, picky.

Anyway, as create_account said, that was the idea...
I'm down for that as well. It could be the rotating borough meet-up. The Beer Garden in Queens, a cafe in Manhattan, Brooklyn or the Bronx. Um... whatever is in Staten Island.
I'm unimpressed, I was expecting Google Earth to become their virtual world product.