skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Electrification is critical, but this article fails to adequately explore the issue of where all this electricity will come from. North American natural gas will be in rapid depletion within 15 years, probably sooner. The high quality anthracite coal is pretty much gone. Claims of the US being the "Saudi Arabia of Coal" are unfounded and net energy from coal mining will probably start to decline within 20 years. Never mind that coal mining is extremely oil intensive. Talk of more electricity starting right now basically means nuclear, and some say the uranium situation isn't as simple as you might assume. You could also begin highly uncertain bets on solar and tidal technologies. He kind of understates the challenge.

This talk of electric cars is also a bit silly. Electrifying transport means RAIL. Don't open the issue with electric cars. Electric cars will probably only ever be good as short commuters due to the physics of battery energy storage density. That's just a small piece of the transportation challenge. Might as well just get people to drive much smaller, more efficient cars, and more mopeds and motorcycles; that's just as good a solution. There will probably never be electric trucks. There will never be electric passenger planes. As indicated above, our capability to substitute electricity watts for our current gasoline watts is not nearly as certain as he seems to assume. Rail is far more efficient and lessens this risk. The proposition of sinking massive amounts of capital into new experimental infrastructure for mass use of electric cars just as we're taking trillion dollar write-downs on gasoline and car related infrastructure is a also bit far fetched. There are no ifs or buts about rail. It's a simple, known quantity.

Anyone talking about electric cars and not rail deserves to be hit in the face with toy train.
I think the reason that they can get away with this is this motto of excellence. Yes, the iPhone is perilously deficient in ways we traditionally identify quality with smartphones.

But everything it does do, it does so damn well that it's hard to argue with it. Apple is really good at honing down to a core feature set and making that perfect to the deliberate exclusion of everything else. People recognize this and it's a somewhat unusual feeling.

It's kind of like hacker-driven code shops. Someone may run off and ignore your in-shop standards and make something using weird tech or using a different protocol, but if it works like a well-oiled–perhaps magical–machine, then its likelihood of getting adopted is surprisingly high.
Computer Programming and Precise Terminology
yes. 75 ms communication between earth and mars is physically impossible according to general relativity. Seeing as how nobody (including NASA) has found a way around this limitation, messages back and forth between earth and mars will always take on the order of minutes.
19 Cool Watches that are Impossible to Read
If your the kind of guy that likes to "figger things out" and never have to be anywhere on time, perhaps one of these ultra-geek (yet cool) watches should be on your shopping list.
Oh. That's cool. Obviously the SDK has the emulator. I didn't realize you could compile and install yourself on the actual phone.
Wherever.tv bring international channels to your TV
I think it's more likely that they haven't been on handsets that their target audience owns. They just added iPhone and Blackberry, and I can't name one of my friends who has a location-enabled smartphone that's neither a Blackberry nor an iPhone. For a while they were just on Boost, and don't know anyone who uses them as a carrier either.

In any case I look forward to trying out the service with all of my friends who now can actually use it. Big congrats to the Loopt team, especially Sam and Alok who I know from school.
Your first idea in only the beginning..
"comfort is the last state of mind before death."

Does this mean that being comfortable at a company that it's about to die? Not sure I understood this one, explain please!
I spend some of my time teaching at a private university. During a discussion with one student he said, "All I really know about Plato is that he thought the forms were transcendent whereas Aristotle thought the forms were immanent."

"Oh," said I, "that's interesting. What does it mean for a form to be transcendent or immanent?"

"I don't know, I just know that's what they thought."

We then had a discussion about whether or not he really knew that, and whether or not he was OK with paying over $25k a year to learn how to be a parrot.

The sad thing: he was OK with it, and probably rightly so. He realized that mostly what people want are parrots and you can get paid quite a decent amount of money for being a good parrot. Not a bad gig if you're fine being a cog. There are certain comforts it provides.
They didn't launch the first one simultaneously in every market around the world.
There are huge variations depending on your expertise and any unique skill sets, title, etc.

At a startup that has received a first round of funding from a top tier VC, a VP could expect something in the 1.5% to 3% range (more for marketing & technical people, average for product and business, less for finance and support). Directors might get between 0.5% to 1.0%. Manager levels half that with technical and marketing people higher in the range, product in the middle and everyone else lower. More for earlier in the product lifecycle (pre-prototype, pre-funding, pre-launch, etc.).
You live in Dallas right? Good luck finding anyone here that hasn't been raised to climb the corporate ladder. I'm still in school, but I also find it pretty depressing to be around so many people that don't like thinking big or taking risks.
"The (few) students who make an effort to discover and think through something on their own are criticized for wandering from the beaten path, even on the occasions when they're actually right."

I remember I just -couldn't- accept that we can't take square roots of negative numbers. I mean, sure, two negatives multiplied together is a positive, but...there HAS to be a way! Numbers, to my 6th grade mind, weren't arbitrarily going to deny your ability to manipulate them.

Fortunately for me, I happened to be reading a book on Mandlebrot and in the course of discussing his work the author introduces the concept of imaginary numbers. So the next day in class I asked: "Are you suuuure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Well, I was reading in this book and so-and-so says you can take the square root of negative numbers, you get 'i' for the root of -1 and..."

"Why don't you go wait outside."

Where I got told that although I move to the beat of a different drummer, when I'm in her class, I really just need to be quiet. That's when public education and I had a falling out from which our relationship has never recovered.

All of that to say: I think part of the 'problem' is that kids who do try to think on their own are often in a situation where they're challenging accepted rules without the social grace to do so constructively. But rather than being taught the social skills, they're just shut down. Very sad, actually. They could be taught how to 'wander well'.
any of them. Just get started.
Bezos isn't lying. Though it's true that the article's author is exaggerating things a bit, the reality is that Kindle's doing fairly well. I personally believe that the primary roadblocks it's facing are the lack of color (which I believe is due to cost issues with the technology, since the e-paper stuff is pretty new), and the price tag.

However, it also hasn't been on the market for very long, so I'd say that although it hasn't so far been a "killer" product, it HAS been generating enough revenue that it will probably justify a v2. (That's what I'm hoping for, because I'll probably be in line for a v2 model... though if the price tag came down to $200, I might get one now.)
The best advice I can give is to go out to local industry networking events and turn to groups like HN to join discussions and engage other people. By doing this you're more likely to find someone who is truly like-minded and knowledgeable about the same space you're looking to get into. You're also more likely to find a technical co-founder, which undoubtedly expedites product development because you come from a business background.
Ask PG/YC: Why a Delaware C-Corp?
Why are most start-ups structured as Delaware C-Corps as opposed to LLCs? I am in the early stages of my start-up and we are trying to decide the best route to take to incorporate. Today, my co-founder spoke with a lawyer who specializes in technology companies, and the advice given was to begin as an LLC without a doubt. I haven't really heard the reasoning behind this verdict, and I was wondering why most tech start-ups (at Y-Combinator at least) are actually structured as Delaware C-Corps. Any useful insight or advice would be much appreciated.
I should clarify: actually GM's problem is not that their sales are low or that their gross profit per vehicle is particularly low either -- their problem is that they have enormous fixed costs (including, but not limited to, pensions for retired employees) which makes them particularly susceptible to small sales downturns in a way that many other car companies aren't.
I remember the first time I got an F on an assignment even though I'd gotten the correct answer to every problem.

I hadn't reached my correct answers the "right" way.
Releasing the 2.0 firmware for existing users on Wednesday would have solved this problem. Releasing the new phones and the new firmware on the same day was incredibly stupid and irresponsible.
Three.

The ad I placed was not for a co-founder, but for someone to pair-program with me. At my cube-farm day job at the time, I hadn't found anyone willing to try pair-programming. I missed pairing, and I knew from past experience that I'm way more productive when pairing. I figured that with a pair, I would likely get one of my personal projects done. So I placed an ad looking for a student to pair-program with me on my projects. I offered to pay $15/hour, since the main compensation for a student would be the technical know-how he'd pick up from someone with more experience (I've been coding for roughly 20 years).

After about one session or so, though, $15/hour seemed stupid. It made more sense that we would each have a stake in a product. It's been way better to have someone who takes initiative than a student who waits to be told what to do.
The Web development skills crisis
I can't imagine using loopt. Anyone here a fan? I don't want anyone to be able to snoop in on my location let alone broadcast it. And then have a firm sell ads against it.

But maybe I just need to start wearing another polo and I'll be in the target demo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamb/2565911988/
Every Cause Wants To Be A Cult
NASA Image of the Day Gallery
They didn't. Instead, they took market protectionism from the government, and lived (unhappily) in denial.
And the JS code for anyone that's interested: http://www.nasa.gov/js/207516main_imagegallery_club1.js
also see http://www.snpedia.com

"SNPedia is based on a wiki model, in order to foster communication about genetic variation and to allow interested community members to help it evolve to become ever more relevant. We anticipate that as the cost of genotyping (and especially of fully determining your own genomic sequence) continues to drop, we'll all want to know more - a lot more - about the meaning of these DNA variations. And SNPedia will be here to help."
Clearly, it's a Rails problem.
I loved calculus because about 4 weeks of teaching provided the foundation for everything else. My tests usually involved me having to derive something that was apparently derived in the book and then 'applied' on practice questions that got the 'right' way of doing things in by rote. I lost points for that.

I would also lose points for "not showing my work", but if you can't factor, say, x^2-9 in your head, maybe you have deeper issues.
FSF claims to be about choice. Well, I exercise my choice by choosing to buy the phone that I prefer.

Theoretically, by buying an iPhone, you are giving power to people that want to make sure you can only use your computer to run "approved" programs. Those people will then use their power to make sure that things like the FSF go away, and then there will be no "choice" for you to make. Then you have this:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

It's probably not going to happen quickly, but every time closed platforms get good press, we're one step closer. As a programmer, it's not "good for business" for me to support people that want to regulate my trade. So I have an OpenMoko phone instead. (I don't care what you choose, just as long as you're aware of the potential long-term consequences of your actions.)
preface: i'm not an expert and i've not started any companies.

you incorporate in delaware because it has, by far, the most robust and established corporate laws and legal system.

you go with c-corp because they're the easiest entity to run with established legislation with respect to selling interests and tacking on investors. if you want to get funding and stuff, c-corp is the way to go. from what i've seen, you "can" do it with an LLC, but the laws and protections and precedents aren't really established for that route yet, and most VCs want something safe and inexpensive.
I just want to use my phone.

You know, you can get "just a phone" for about $5 these days. Why are you shelling out for an iPhone? (The answer is because you don't want "just a phone".)
Speaking of precise terminology, I doubt the OS is involved in assigning addresses to C variables.
Myself I am not an expert either, but I believe it is easier to raise funds thru issuing stock and so on as a C-Corps than an LLC. An LLC is normally for "small business". If that is your objective, then that might work. However if you want to envision doing multiple VC funding rounds and try to sort of get into the "major league" then I think C-Corps is better.
Maybe. I have Rockbox on my 4G iPod, and the battery lasts plenty long playing Ogg (and FLAC) files. It may be an hour shorter than MP3s on the stock firmware... but you only pay for what you use. If you don't have Ogg files, you don't drain the battery.
I highly doubt that we're in an exponential technological curve.

But it might be nice if we were!
GoodGoin Link Directory
Exactly. Fact is, there are more men interested in computer science than women. In my year at uni, of a starting cohort of 120, around 15 were women.

I know it's not politically correct to say, but maybe men generally have more aptitude for the subject. Larry Summers, former president of Harvard was fired for saying this a few years ago. Camille Paglia, or some one else said "There are few female geniuses for the same reason there are few female serial killers."
I hate articles that whine about female or ethnic under-representation in any field. Here in Jamaica, 80% of uni grads are women. Yet no one complains that men are under-represented.

"Google and Hewlett-Packard are examples of companies that generally do a good job of supporting and promoting women managers, according to Beecham and others. There are smaller companies and start-ups run by women, as well."

This is what I dislike the most. No one should be promoted because they are a woman. The best person for the job should get it, period. And women should be careful that they are promoted but not respected, like some of the 'token' black people at some firms. And from what I've seen, real geeks tend to be very meritocratic. Promotion based on gender can only cause problems. and these problems will seethe, because no one who wants to keep their job is gonna protest it.

Logically, if we hold that women and men are equal, and both equal under the law, then it should not be a big deal if a female CEO leaves, or if the number of female CEOs in a particular field is low.
If your account is an anonymous account, can you disclose how much cash you were offered? Or an approximate amount. It makes it easier to evaluate the entire offer.
Apple twitters
Find your IP address At Maddogranger.com
The #1 way to find your IP address.
I have the older version (Neo1973). It works fine; I can browse the web and make phone calls. The browser is WebKit-based, so it's basically like the iPhone browser. Same codebase.

But basically, OpenMoko's icons aren't quite as pretty as the iPhone's. I know most people value icons more than their freedom, so that's why the iPhone is doing so well.
But, I couldn't figure out how to buy and use one. There seems to be no actual way to purchase one, or any way to activate it with any carriers.

Here's the page to buy it from:

http://us.direct.openmoko.com/products/neo-freerunner

(It's linked from the main page, BTW.)

Once you have one, get a SIM card from your carrier, and put it in the phone. That's it; GSM doesn't require that your carrier has any idea what phone you have. They only care about the SIM card.
I think the quality is lower, and I include in that my own contributions to those debates.

The other thing is: if you want to discuss the election, or Iran, or Iraq, or unions, or the economy, you can do that on just about every forum on the internet. But if you want to discuss, say, VC-backed vs bootstrapped businesses, or how much stock an eighth employee should get, or [I dunno, insert third example here], there are very few places where you'll find a critical mass of people who know what they're talking about.
Thank you thank you for that link. On the Wikipedia page, I found this:

www.lionev.com

Which is perfect.
This seems like a good starting point to do research into multi-shard queries with Data Fabric.
Yup. It's just in the water, I think. It's starting to get better, particularly in the East parts, like Plano and Richardson. There's an incubator in Richardson, actually - it's called Star Tech Early Ventures (startechev.com). I've been talking with them, but it's not quite the same model as YC, as best I can tell (i.e., their interests are a little more diverse than those of YC, I think - make what you will of that).
Simple. Girls are different from boys. Regardless of what we've been told that male/female differences are simply matter of socialization, men and women are different.

Let us reason together:

If you believe in God (at least the Christian God, as I do), then you accept that men and women are different, with different social roles.

But even if you believe in evolution, why would the species have physically different members. Evolution teaches that those more suited to reproduction survive. What's more reproductively efficient than binary fission?

Men and women are intrinsically different. It's as simple as that.
Sacramento is out.
hmmm... i like some of the f5 posts, but it's beginning to feel like Hacker News is an RSS feed reader and i'm somehow automatically subscribed to the f5 blog.
I thought this was going to be an article about the singularity.

I believe reincarnation is the most likely afterlife, so I'd much rather have a young, quick death than rot away slowly, in order to occupy the smallest proportion of my time with bodily failure. Frailty I can deal with, but dementia sucks. On the other hand, I don't want to die too young, because I haven't lived a complete life yet.

I think the reason why cancer gets a bad rap, even though it has the most desirable dropoff curve, is that it can strike anyone at any time, regardless of age and lifestyle. Therefore, it scares the hell out of us, all of us, in a way that heart disease doesn't. (I'm 25.)

I expect to live to be about 80, working and exercising the whole way to that point. I think that the lifespan itself won't have increased by much by the time I get there (average will be 85-90) but that late-end quality of life will be a lot better.
I'm in a similar boat, in a way. I'm currently playing with the idea of founding a web service-based company but as I research the technology behind my concept (I would be a non-technical founder) I continuously come across accounts of how difficult it is for people in my situation. If you come across an engineer ready to take the leap into the world of start ups, odds are pretty good they intend to work on their own ideas. If you come across an engineer who's already been in the fray and is ready to do it again, (s)he has no interest in talking to someone like me.

I'm a marketing / biz dev / product dev guy and I can spec a project, help lead a project, manage a team, compose great copy for the site / service / collateral, get the word out through a fair network I've built and market the out of it, make use of some contacts to pitch for funding, etc etc. These are the things I've been doing for the past nine years. What I can't do is build the product myself.

It's a tough game, and it's all about networking. I'm talking to friends of friends of friends but little has come of it to this point. So I'll keep at it and be persistent in the hopes that one day soon I'll have a conversation with a skilled engineer looking to lead instead of follow and we'll see eye to eye.
I should have said this in my post. I'm going to join as a Sr. software engineer. I have around 8 years of experience and a MSEE. I wouldn't say my skill set is unique, honestly, especially here in Silicon Valley.

The product is in stealth so I can't disclose anything about it.
Early YouTube Engineer Tells All
I agree, that headline is just trolling for traffic. 6 million? Come on. Settle down.
Official announcement regarding my retirement from blogging.
We just got one. Co-founder isn't about the title, it's about the state of mind.

Our company started with having a local dev firm doing initial coding, then we got him to do some work on the site on nights. Then he decided he really wanted to give it a shot, and I welcomed him with open arms. He gets a ton of equity and is a co-founder in my mind: there are no secrets, no employer/employee relationship. Yes, I spent a ton of my own cash to get the business off the ground, but it only has a chance at success with a full-time partner. So he's a co-founder in my mind, and publicly.
Gentoo team hopes developers know what they're doing
I think you underestimate the power of denial, as I did before I read Sherwin Nuland's book, How We Die. In a lot of terminal cases, neither the patient nor the patient's family know that the case is hopeless, because the doctors don't want to break the news, and may not have accepted it themselves, since doctors often tend to regard saving the patient's life as a matter of success and failure and will try nearly anything not to fail. There are clear-cut cases, but most people die in cases where the probability of recovery is very low but not zero.
Sounds like a great course. How exactly did that course fit into the Cornell curriculum? Was it an elective for most people or could it substitute for algebra/calc based physics?
The black and white XO screen doesn't have a backlight. When you turn the backlight on the screen becomes lower resolution and color. Not to get into a spitting match about which screen is more unique, but the XO screen is pretty damn unique.
No response. I get the impression that they are still in research mode and don't want any clients other than OLPC. Disappointing, but not surprising.
big up to seth roberts. good job man, good job.
"You submit your entry using the web form at http://icfpcontest.org/submit.php"

It's a little ironic they use PHP for a contest that is supposed to demonstrate the viability of functional programming languages.
I don't think this article was particularly useful -- a snapshot of their business model, and a few SA quotes confirming that the iPhone was fairly important to the company (this should go without saying for a mobile social networking startup).

Personally, I don't/won't use Loopt, but I think the discoverability of others around you is probably the most interesting feature.