skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You work in a corporate environment don't you. You had to fill out a "comment request form" in triplicate just to post the above comment

You don't work in a corporate environment, do you?

If you're working for bigco, swearing is probably not going to go down well with your boss, or co-workers

Since few bigcos I've ever worked at ever do code reviews, how would they even know?

After spending many years in corporate environments, it's easy to spot those who haven't when they post comments about corporate environments.
The Kohn article he tries to link to is available here: http://www.msubillings.edu/BusinessFaculty/larsen/MGMT452/HR...
Big Growth for the Internet to Continue, Cisco Predicts
This is a line from our tag unit tests:
@tag.name = "this is a really long tag name that exceeds the maximum length which is set at 65 characters, that should do it! no wait, we changed it to 128 so now it needs to be significantly longer so I guess I'll just throw some more text into here and maybe a gratuitous 'fuck' for the next time someone greps for the f-bomb"
http://960.gs/ is another one. The best thing about both frameworks is the reset stylesheet.
Will 2008 Be Google’s End Of Innocence?
"Pannick said, adding that one threat was to treat the matter as a terrorism case, resulting in a possible 60-year term."

I seem to recall some rhetoric from republicans about how there was, no way, ever, that they'd abuse the Patriot Act.
Apple Adopting SproutCore for Web Applications
Here’s What’s Going To Happen To Apple’s Rivals
Apple's open secret: SproutCore is Cocoa for the Web
Generally, I don't, and my last job was at a hedge fund. (Sailors, I hear, have a reputation for "cursing like a trader".) I get nervous enough about other people reading my code as it is; no need to make the process (imperceptibly) more volatile. In any case, swear words aren't descriptive enough to make for thoughtful comments... usually.
In my CL template, I end up talking about how, in high school, I woke up at 5:00 am to practice for contest math tests

Take that out. It doesn't matter what sort of job you're applying for -- the words "high school" should never appear in the resume or cover letter of anyone who has a college degree.

As for the rest: Dress like the job you want to have, not like the job you're applying for. If I was applying for a management position at a bank (not that I can imagine why I'd ever do that, but hypothetically...) I'd still turn up for an interview wearing a t-shirt and jeans. If my apparel wasn't up to standard, that would be an indication that the job I was applying for wasn't actually a job I wanted -- and being not offered the job would simply save me the trouble of quitting after a few weeks.
Can Hulu Help Struggling Web Series? We Doubt It. - Silicon Alley Insider
Vista's big problem: 92 percent of developers ignoring it
I don't have scrolling issues at all, and I'm currently running Gentoo Linux on a laptop that is throttled at 800 MHz. I'm not sure what exactly I can tell you, though...
Twitter Killed Technorati, Too
Tiger Sinks the Putt; Twitter Goes Wild!
Loopt opens a lead with location-based service on Smartphones
Very cool game, well done.

What language(s) did you use?
could you be more specific? this community loves to help, but you'll need to be more detailed.

what do you mean by checkout? merchant account? online shopping software? RCS? etc.
I gotta tell you, this is good advice for ANY line of work.
Credit-Crunch Angels: They're Still Out There
Ask HN: Please critique my webapp
Please take a look at http://taggl.net/ and tell me what you think. All comments are welcome, don't hold back.

I would also like to know which applications you think are missing and should be added.

There is an example search query on the frontpage, but this seems more suitable:

http://taggl.net/search/?tag=ycombinator+startup+school+2008

Thanks!
If all they have is nonsense, then they shouldn't be able to downvote, right?

If all they have is nonsense, then they shouldn't be able to post a comment, right?

The question isn't, "Should someone be allowed to be stupid." It's "Should we give them an outlet for their disagreement that causes less disruption to the conversation?"

We can't solve stupidity. But, we can make it have less impact. I don't know that downvotes help prevent stupidity, or help reduce the impact of stupidity...but I think it does.

Of course, you're assuming that the post being downvoted or commented on has merit by virtue of someone having taken time to write it. I'm assuming that everybody (including me) says stupid stuff all the time, and a downvote is a low-friction, low-amplitude means of saying "I think this is stupid". It doesn't censor anyone, and it doesn't prevent people from having a discourse with that person if they think it's worth their time.

That's all I'm saying. (Though I could be having a stupid moment right now.)
EBay to open up merchant tool to developers
FCC Chairman Will Back XM + Sirius Satellite Radio Merger | Tech Jaws
Only in blocks that work around Vista's bugs. I do a lot of development for a variety of platforms, but Vista is really something special.

Seriously.

Vista bugs are new, so they are a royal pain in the ass to trace. Microsoft is typically unresponsive at best and in a denial at worst. The most frustrating part is that bugs affect parts that were present in the OS and worked just fine as early as Windows 2000.

Just to give an example - installing a driver or a adding a device instance from a service causes a deadlock in the Setup module that can only be resolved by forcefully terminating the calling process. A deadlock.

They broke basic stuff and these booby traps are sitting in the OS waiting for a dev to step on them. And you bet I am going to leave a comment regarding the IQ of whoever's responsible after I kill two weeks chasing the results of their sloppy coding around this piece of engineering.
http://people.debian.org/~aaronl/Usenix88-lexic.pdf ddescribes non-escaping lexical closures for C++. With a bit of work (automated clone-env-on-escape, for example) you can have efficient closures that don't totally suck.
I do the occasional "here be dragons" and that's about it
The Best of WordPress Plug-ins | Tech Jaws
Spoken language affects thought as programming languages affect algorithms?
What’s next for Microsoft? | Tech Jaws
I thought it was only for special seth godin readers: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/what-dave-ju...
I generally don't (I like my code to be clean), but I frequently swear in commit messages, eg. "No longer fucks up selection in Firefox."
Osama Bin Laden was here | Tech Jaws
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice. Most of this stuff I've read through Nolo publications and other books and the rest I heard while talking to people, so check with your own lawyer.

(3) S-Corp like a C-Corp requires you to act in ways demonstrating that the corporation is a separate business entity, with its own agenda. If it can be demonstrated in court that you are mixing your personal assets in with your corp, then the court can decide that you no longer receive the liability protection of the corporation. This means doing things such as having formal meetings of the board of directors, keeping minutes, having resolutions for the major business decisions (even if it is affirming the "actions of an employee").

LLCs, on the other hand, from the last I've read of them, do not have the case history saying how much formality is required. According to Nolo's book, you're better off running it in the same kind of formality as a corporation, just in case.

One thing LLCs can do well, is that they are meant to offer the same kinds of liability protection as LLPs (limited liability partnerships), which can be often stronger than a corporation. But it depends on how you set up the LLC's operating agreement.

(4) There are more limits to shareholders than just 100 shareholders for an S-Corp. The shareholders must be US Citizens, and a natural person. In other words, if you have a VC fund or an Angel investing money in from their business entity, you will have to convert the S-Corp to a C-Corp.

LLCs may not have the shareholder limits, but selling membership interests over a certain number will trigger SEC regulations -- the same as shopping for angel investors for a corp.

(5) Caveat: distributing profits from the LLC however way you want requires some extra bookkeeping. You will have to track the tax basis of every single LLC member, and track how it changes depending on money disbursed or put back into the LLC. There should also be clauses documenting how this works in the operating agreement. It is something you'll definitely want to ask your tax lawyer or accountant about.

As far as I know, this feature was inherited from the LLP. It lets you defend the assets held by the entity by starving out creditors -- you have to pay taxes (assuming the LLC elected pass-through taxing instead of corp taxing) on the profits regardless of how much is actually disbursed.

But to reiterate: I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice. Most of this stuff I've read through Nolo publications and other books, so check with your own lawyer.
On Wikipedia, storms, teacups, and _why's notability
All shareholders must be US citizens "or residents".
Freeware: Orbit Downloader | Tech Jaws
So uh... what's the alternative?
No. Because it is unprofessional and immature. It adds nothing.
"against evolution"

What? Protecting a story from the social equivalent of ecological pressure would actually be the opposite of what you suggest.

"violation of the first amendment"

No it isn't. Karma isn't in the constitution. No one is deleting your story. No one is forcing you to be silent.

"How can you evolve in an environment where you risk being prosecuted for speaking your mind? This concept sounds like Iraq under Saddam Hussein."

I believe you mean "persecuted". I don't think getting downmodded counts as persecution unless you live an incredibly easy and insulated life. Talk to Tibetan monks or any number of religious or ethnic groups around the world today who have been hunted, imprisoned or killed to get some perspective.
Saddam? Um, no, if this was like that you'd have been killed for your perspective. This is NOTHING like that. Period.
These things depend on location. Where are you? Here's how things work in SV.

Cover letter is exceptionally useful. It should explain in simple English why you are qualified for this particular job, highlighting relevant experience and showing that you actually bothered to figure out what this job/company is about. Doing this well is a huge advantage. At your level 1 out of 100 applicants will do it right. Cover letter should be just natural part of the body of the email and be in plain text. It should not be formal.

Suit with no tie is appropriate if you are interviewing for a job of CEO. Suit with a tie is never appropriate. This is different on east coast.
Joel isn't considering the right incentive: cash.
The way to get someone to perform is to give them a stake in the yield of their performance, i.e. a profit share.
I'm not sure what this has to do with the Patriot Act.
You'd do well to wear a suit to any job interview. Programmer or not, startup or not, walking into an interview in a suit conveys a sense of professionalism. First impressions are hard to change. So start off well.

Also, I'd take the advice of those who who say "Wear sandals and a t-shirt" with a grain of salt - I suspect that the majority of people who give that advice are not (and haven't ever been) in a position to hire.
I saw this a few months ago, and I thought it was highly impressive.
God, news agencies are so gullible these days! First it was BBC swallowing the story about the magically-regrown finger via "pixie dust" hook, line, and sinker and now we have Reuters equating DNA to life........
Programmer quality follows the bell curve like anything else. For every "good programmer" I've met, I've also met 10 extremely mediocre programmers. You know who I mean. They don't want to learn anything new and they find roadblocks much more easily than they find possibilities.

Nothing stunning at all.
Read this twice, still not quite sure what it's trying to say. But I'll add: the _why debate closed this morning, and the article isn't being deleted.
Most Google users only look at the first three results
I'm not a mobile developer, but if I were, that wouldn't bother me. The concept of an app store shipping on every iPhone and Apple doing the marketing for you... it's pretty enticing and IMHO well worth that 30%. I'd imagine a high-profile application (read: fad) would gather more money, traffic, and downloads on a forced-down-your-throught app store on the iPhone than on Android where your users have to go more or less out of their way to get it.
I've always thought for most hackers that the only thing you'll need aside from a shirt and jeans is your brain.

B.Y.O.B.

:)
I'm in New York, where dress is a bit more formal due to the Wall Street sphere of influence. However, the position I have in mind has nothing to do with finance.

What defines a good and bad cover letter, in your opinion? What mistakes do the writers of the 99 bad cover letters make?
the flickr preview functionality thing is a little wonky. probably not buggy, but the way it works is weird, especially if you fly over all of the links with your mouse.

since the search functionality is the core of your app, you should focus more on the search box. its a little hidden inside things. put the search functionality inside the central blue bar on the main page, google style. make it clear what the users are supposed to do, and then leave the supplemental register/login stuff where it is. imo, that is.

since its tag-centric, perhaps integration with technorati?
P2P uses a significantly greater amount of bandwidth than online video does. Take, for example, iTunes. It takes about 5-10 minutes on my connection to download a movie. A typical movie lasts 1-2 hours. So assume there are 5 people in a "household" using an internet connection, each of whom spends the entire day watching movies. That's 15 movies per day per person, which is 75 movies. Assume 10 minutes per download and you have 750 minutes of 100% bandwidth usage, which comes out to 12 hours, or half the day.

This means that under this extreme scenario for internet video usage, the connection is only utilized at 50% of downstream bandwidth in a 24 hour period.

With p2p software, it's typical for 100% of the upstream and downstream bandwidth to be used all of the time.

Typical usage (which is what the cable companies look at to determine how much to charge) is much less, which is why the price is around $60/month for 16 megabits/second of download speed.

A 100% usage 16 megabit broadband connection costs significantly more than this. Even a T1 which offers far less bandwidth costs at least $250 in most markets.

My point is that there is not an issue here of excessive market power, it's simply that residential broadband is priced based on a workable usage pattern, and people who leave their p2p software running 24/7 make the model that works for everyone else stop working.

I'm not opposed to p2p, but I think it is reasonable for ISPs to charge extra to to those who need more than what the $60/month connection is intended for.

It's not monopoly pricing power, the service simply can't be offered profitably if someone is using 100% of the bandwidth. I've paid about the same for bandwidth since I first got broadband in 2000. I went from having 256K to having 16 megabits. The service is getting exponentially cheaper and better in quality every day.
Seinfeld on Marketing
My last job was in a corporate cubedom for 4 years. Not a massive company, but a few 100s of employees. We held weekly code reviews at one point. Also bosses do have a habit of suddenly believing that if they help code the project might run quicker, so they ask for svn access etc, then break everything :)
It hasn't been every company for me, but I've been through that a few times now... and I think it fits every BIG company I've worked for, and it happens a lot less at the smaller ones.

Part, probably most, of the cause for me has been that the bigger companies have invariably had a much higher requirement for maintenance work than the smaller ones. At the big companies, I find that the senior and newbie developers are sharing the same tasking, so the newbies (and the less capable seniors) are generally satisfied, and the talented folks are underutilized and bored, and end up leaving.

That also means that the higher the bar for hiring at the larger companies, the higher the percentage of dissatisfied developers.
In Japan, Cellphones Have Become Too Complex to Use
Apple's iPhone 3G Is The New iPod, Sales To Triple
Alt.blocked: Verizon blocks access to whole USENET hierarchy
This isn't Joel's opinion. He's rehashing Alfie Kohn and Tom DeMarco. I'm guessing they have, in fact, considered "cash", as both have been published on the topic in peer-reviewed venues.
This article didn't talk about incentive pay, it talked about incentive superficialities. Which are of course generally degrading.

IMX, incentive pay isn't the same way—provided that it's actually significant, as opposed to a largely-meaningless couple hundreds of dollars or something of the sort—because it's so useful that it's an end in itself. "Don't make your employees feel like they're jumping through hoops" is a good point, and companies would do well to remember it, but when rewards are substantial in and of themselves that problem doesn't come up that much. (Real incentives can still have a bad effect on morale, but in my experience their positives outweigh their negatives.)
This is it in a nutshell. The practical problems like ObjC aren't an issue for OS X, so there's no reason for them to be so for the iPhone. It's largely a similar environment.

And the more high-brow arguments about lock-in and freedom are true, but obscure the simpler point: sorry, but I'm just not interested in paying $99 and waiting on a list for months just to run a program on my own phone!

Android has the distinct and notable advantage of actually being a working target platform for the people who want to play with it. Apple will no doubt attract a few established developers to the iPhone, but all the cool stuff will be happening on Google's platform.
Increased project responsibility, less micromanaging, team-based recognition, fair and consistent compensation, and companywide profit sharing.
I have never used Twitter and most of the folks I know don't use Twitter either.

Twitter could throw away everyone using the service now and still be able to market to the millions not yet using Twitter.
So you have worked in a corporate environment. My mistake.

But tell me, when did you ever have to fill out a "comment request form" in triplicate?
I've never interviewed in a suit, and I've been offered every job I've managed to get to the interview stage for. The most I've worn is formal shirt, slacks, nice shoes, and a tie, and that was once for a temp agency (and it was probably too much), another time for an event production company (it was DEFINITELY way too much), and a video game QA company (I could have worn less but it didn't seem to matter).

The event production company was pretty close to being a startup, and it was clear from the moment the door opened and I saw the place and the employees that I was overdressed.

I don't remember what I wore to interview for the video game company I worked for a few years ago, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't too fancy. If I was interviewing for a startup with less than twenty employees, I'd be pretty comfortable showing up in jeans and a collared shirt of some sort.
"Dress like the job you want to have, not like the job you're applying for."

Very nice. Put into words my vaguely-formed concept of why I won't be pulling out the suit for future interviews.

For interviews, the best advice I've heard is to remember that you're evaluating them as much as they are you. If they demand/care that you dress a certain way, perhaps it's a good sign you don't want to work there (unless you're into that kind of thing).

I have read posts that hint at a bit of hypocrisy in startups, though: "We wear t-shirts because clothes don't matter, but if you wear a suit you're unfit for startup hacker life." Bear that in mind if you really LOVE wearing suits. :P
http://gigaom.com/2008/06/15/venture-capital-angels-or-boots...

http://glinden.blogspot.com/2008/05/starting-findory-funding...
I'm not sure that the examples you cite make the point you want to make.

Objective C 2.0 just introduced properties. One of the main reasons for this is to avoid manually writing accessors.

I'm pretty sure that in Rails, you just give an annotation (I probably got the terminology wrong here) indicating what attributes you want to make accessible. Again, no manually written accessors.

I suppose this is different from the argument made by the article, but it is still an argument against WRITING accessor methods. Whatever benefits there are for having some kind of accessors mechanism, certainly there is no good reason for having to explicitly write methods to implement them. I never saw the point in writing "private int theNumber" immediately followed by "public int getTheNumber() { return theNumber; } public void setTheNumber(int n) { theNumber = n; }"
Agreed on taking out high school. I'm 28 and recently began taking out all references to college as well a couple years ago (my resume lists my degrees).

I agree dress like the job you want to have, but I disagree with the t-shirt bit. I've worked at 4 different companies, and always show up wearing professional, clean clothes to my interview (suit and tie the first time, since then just button down shirts and dress pants or khakis).

The t-shirt and jeans can wait until you've proven yourself for a few months. I go to work now in shorts and a t-shirt, so this isn't some sour grapes rant. Though I dress casual for work, given a choice between two identical, impeccably groomed, candidates one who came professionally dressed and one who came in shorts and a t-shirt (and that being the only difference), I would be likely to hire the one who came like he was here to interview.

Of course, I would hire someone casually dressed who knows their stuff over an idiot who happens to be wearing a suit, but I don't think there's any reason to put yourself at a disadvantage. Don't overdress, don't underdress - wear clothes appropriate for the interview.
I replied to you because I was curious what you'd say. I am interested in human psychology.
In the Asian countries as well. China has extremely advanced mobile phones that are absolutely everywhere.

Who knows how the iPhone will affect them? I think it'll have a pretty big impact, in terms of the UI, design, and application support. NTT DoCoMo, the (I believe) first to implement the 3G stack and system, and I don't know how their mobiles compare to the iPhone.

Mobile is a much bigger part of culture in Asia than in the US. It's not like the regular iPhone/Crackberry addiction and people obsessively reading BGR - it's simply a piece of technology inseparable from some of them, even more so than the US, especially in the city.
Suits harmful (although only nominally). The suit says, "I mostly interview at places where suits matter".

Cover letters extremely valuable. Cover letter says, "I gave your company 5 minutes of thought before I clicked the button that sent my resume".

Best possible thing you can do prior to an interview? As in, the single best possible thing you can ever do that will raise your chances more than anything else you do? Research the company. Hardcore. Everyone who worked there, everything those people have done, and on and on. Come in knowing everything about them, and armed with a litany of questions.

#1 criteria for hiring: smart, gets things done, competant.

#2 criteria for hiring: committed to working here.
And you have confirmed how easy it is to bait me into snarky responses. Congratulations!
Tech: Not As Green As You Thought.
Investors: We'll Always Throw Money At Beer