skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Right now I have a feeling most young lispers are at the intermediate stage. Thanks to lots of recent publicity, by pg and not only, people have gotten to know lisp exists. But I'm really not sure how many will go all the way. Even myself, in about a year I'll have to ditch java and if by then I'm not confident enough in my lisp... i'll probably learn ruby in a month.

As for the number of clicks... yes, as far as website design goes of course you're right. What I'm saying is 20 minutes of googling gives you more background. Half a page of text will probably just recommend clisp on windows, sbcl on linux, allegro if you want to pay and mention all the rest. Googling gives you a larger picture.
Ok, in the end of course one click would be better, I just don't think it makes much difference.
"User Interface." How insightful.
This is more than just slice provisioning. It's a flexible automated installation management system. It would be killer if it was integrated with a configuration management system as well. The current contenders in these arenas don't appeal to me very much.
The genesis of rsync - Andrew Tridgell's PhD thesis
Those Wacky Kids: what growing up in the 21st century is turning out to be like
http://thenextweb.org/2008/05/29/the-innovation-problem-no-o...

In this article I talk about how patent's are effectively nonsense for all but a very few who know how to 'work' the law who also have the fat to do so.
"they want to be left alone.

And for good reason. The history of contact, between indigenous tribes and the outside world, has always been an unhappy one."

If they've had no contact, how do they know about that history?
Does anyone know any good resources for game development in Flex, then? A good book, website/blog etc.?
I think it is what you make of it (or, as you say, it is largely dependent on the kind of person you are, and your actions).

I don't doubt that there are lonely programmers. I think that you'd probably find lonely people for any X that people choose as a major pursuit in their life, though. I think that many (certainly most of the folks I know) programmers are programmers because of the fascination/cool factor/feeling of relative omnipotence/etc that comes along with creating and controlling processes that do cool things (whether for you or for millions of your friends). Within that, there's still a lot of diversity.

Also, you don't need to have a homogenous social circle if you don't want to.
Or use "WPDH2" as a promo code and get some additional storage and bandwidth (http://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress.html)

I've been using Dreamhost for a while now (to host my blog) and it has been pretty much okay but I wouldn't host any critical stuff on it.

WebFaction (http://www.webfaction.com) and Slicehost (http://www.slicehost.com) are pretty popular lately (although not _that_ cheap). I would probably go with webfaction for a django app.
Sudo make me a sandwich... literally
Good point. I suppose to elaborate, I want to become a skilled hacker and I want to push myself in a project that I care about with people who are passionate about what they do. :)
Optimize Your Efficiency with 4 Time-Tracking Apps
To answer your questions: PHP is my first (and only other) language. My scope of mini-projects is fairly small.

Thanks for your advice. :)
Agree. I was with hostmonster for a year and was pretty satisfied with their support and services.
Thanks, that's exactly the kind of comments I was looking for. That was exactly what I thought in my head, but it came out very distorted and ugly on paper. I'll update the solution later. Do you want credit?
Is "Scaling Engineer" a new job title?
(1) breadth of system/code understanding, so you can contribute anywhere needed.

(2) consilience, which I will arbitrarily redefine here to mean being able to keep the overall goal/strategy in mind even as you work on every detail. Then, you know when to cut corners and when to spend effort on key differentiators. (Or more generally: able to manage yourself once you know the mission.)

(3) speed, either because you've got such total mastery of some area that you can do expert work at an amazing rate, or because you can immerse yourself in learning something new and race through demonstrable progress, niggling details and usual engineering detours/affectations be damned. (This is a variant of the PG "could you describe the person as an animal?" test.)
Did you ever try regular melatonin?
www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm -- read this.
Well, they just ripped off their application and business model. Why start doing something original now?
Oh man, not the jimmy legs.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=147536...

Just don't start gambling.
I did not. I would if I did not have easy access to the Rozerem. Over-the-counter melatonin is not regulated by the FDA and is of wildly varying quality. The advantage of the synthesized capsule is that the dosage is consistent and effective.
They’re moving in herds. They do move in herds.
I love how you assume we've "fixed" that problem :)

More seriously though, I suffer from the same problem. My issue is that I can't clear my mind - so I'm lying in bed and actively thinking (verses "passively" letting my mind wander) about people, events, projects, etc. until I get bored and get back up.

My only solution (more of a workaround) is to just do the same as LogicHole: stay awake for 36 hours - you'll force your body to go to sleep thereafter.
Then you will gather those skills based on what's interesting to you, not based on what's marketable to a startup.

I have never gone out of my way to learn a computing skill specifically for a job (or even for a "dream"). All was always out of personal interest. By that method, I have accumulated a skill set (including Ruby/Rails programming) that has allowed me to start my startups when the opportunity was there.

You should be wary of even being a programmer if your primary driver to learn new things is what might be useful to your career. All good programmers I know and know of would be learning and applying their programming skills whether or not there was money involved.
no he didn't
Yahoo's New BrowserPlus: Game Changer
Alcohol. To quote Homer Simpson, it is the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
Yes, it's definitely a hoax.
Well, if by skill you mean fluency in a language/framework, Flex hackers are in very high demand right now. I mean, like crack in the ghetto on the first of the month type demand.
While I appreciate the connection with people in a similar situation as myself, I think one of the major advantages of HN, and the hacker community as a whole, is that completely pervasive respect of one another. This community exists almost entirely outside of bias, and I think the first step towards reversing that is willingly dividing people based on their situation. I wouldn't want to risk the benefit of being able to communicate with folks in this forum as peers, I think it's really important to the culture.
Alvin M. Marks, Inventor With 122 Patents, Dies at 97
Alvin Marks >= Hank Rearden
They didn't rip off their application, I think that was a different company from Seattle not Boulder... and that wasn't really a bad thing to do either BTW.

Seed investment for equity is hardly a new business model nor was it invented by YC.
The Even Bigger News About Maglev
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Fascinating idea. It will be interesting to see if the idea of online communities does allow for the kind of synergy (for want of a better word) that you describe in New York or Palo Alto.

I’ve been trying to learn to use online communities to replace the live contact the we used to get from working for big corporations with large campuses. I’ve been at it for the last 9 months or so and I’m not finding the same kinds of feedback or support that I got from lunch with colleagues.

As a kid growing up in the 50’s we were told that if you built a better mouse trap, the world would beat a path to your door. Your essay confirms my life experience, that the world will only show up at your door if you live in the right neighborhood!
That link crashes my browser, any other sources?
"ripped off" is somewhat accusing them of stealing something from YC or taking away from them. "something original". YC started a trend,and you can bet there will only be plenty more incubators with a similar formula. They don't need to be original. They just have to follow the leader. YC can keep being great at recruiting talented hackers and hopefully become the "Ivy League" of incubators.
Start working out and you will sleep well whether you want it or don't. Guaranteed.
It is from the Daily Mail.
<a href="http://www.samba.org/~tridge/phd_thesis.pdf">pdf link</a>
Progress Is N+1
High Shipping Costs Leading To High Shopping Cart Abandonment 
According to a survey by web measurement firm comScore Inc. for PayPal, the online payment service owned by eBay Inc.,
"Shipping costs is the reason behind a lot of online consumers adding items to a shopping cart but leaving before completing the purchase."
Five Principles for Thriving in the Connected Age
I had a tough time sleeping last year, mainly caused by anxiety about work, and the onset of mild asthma which caused me to wheeze as I fell asleep. The wheezing would wake me up, and the anxiety would keep me awake. Incidentally, it took me four doctors to get this point across: I told them my son has asthma, so does my mother, and I have hay-fever, so maybe I had asthma too? Finally, sure enough, it was diagnosed and I was given an inhaler which fixes the symptoms. My point being - whatever your doctor says, (s)he could be wrong, and your problem might lie elsewhere.

Anyway, during the three months or so of bad sleep, I often went for several days (the record being from Thursday until Sunday, ie 4 nights) without sleeping. That puts you in a strange state of mind, believe me. My first, regular doctor told me that I shouldn't worry about the sleep, since after a night I'd be so tired I could sleep through anything. Riiiight. Another doctor finally gave me sleeping pills, which were great - she even said she used them herself quite often. The only problem was getting off the pills after a few weeks, since they're addictive and coming off them causes anxiety and sleeplessness, which seems a bit circular and counter-productive...

Anyway, the lessons learned, the hard way:

* Doctors are fallible and overworked, just like everyone else.

* Alcohol is not the answer. I tried. Sleeping alcohol off is not the same as a good night's sleep, and you'll damage yourself in other ways by over-imbibing.

* Tea is better than coffee. I have one strong, tasty cup of real coffee per day (in the morning) then drink tea. I know many non-Brits complain that tea is a watery, flavourless drink, so I would refer you to George Orwell, who knew a thing or two about making a tasty cuppa: http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm

* If you are anxious about work, relationships, money, your big project, whatever - deal with that. It's quite possibly the true cause of whatever's troubling you. Find ways to relax, especially socialising, exercising, etc.

* Work out for half an hour each day. I do this and the endorphine rush is fantastic. I don't even work out particularly hard - I'm sweaty but not nauseous by the time I've finished. You'll look better, feel better, and probably sleep better too. I use a rower and a bike machine, so I can watch a DVD or listen to music if it gets boring.

* Most of the crap about relaxation exercises ("tense up your toes, then relax, tense up your legs and relax", etc) is just that - utter crap which probably won't help at all.

HTH. Don't just think about the immediate problem. Look for underlying causes and try your best to deal with those. And good luck.
Satellite-TV Hacker Tells All
competence, initiative and reliability.
There's no way coffee has a 10 hour half-life if you're healthy. Unless you're pregnant. See wikipedia or other sources.
If you want to sell this sort of stuff, you should aim it at .Net programmers. As generalising as this may sound, they are used to paying money for software, so are more likely to buy yours. Not so in the open source world. Naturally, you'll want to buy yourself a copy of Visual Studio, probably buy a copy of ReSharper as well, to get yourself started.
These are JavaScript tooltips, it isn't some breakthrough technology. Your company won't collapse if the guy disappears.

If his stuff is better than the open source stuff, go for it.

You can always move to the open source code later. And think, by then it might have caught up with him, and you'll only have to update your code once, rather than each step as the open source code catches up (assuming it does).
As others have mentioned, regular physical workout helps one get in to a good sleep schedule (apart from it's various other benefits). e.g. an hour in the gym in the morning, makes me hit the bed at a very consistent time every night.
Same problem here. I try not to think about the past or the future too much because you can't change or predict it anyway.
I would avoid melatonin as regular use can disrupt the natural release of it in the body, i.e. take too many pills and your body stops producing can stop producing it permanently.

Source: My cousin... he's a nurse, so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt.
Professionalism, Programming, and Punditry and Success as a Metric
Q and A With Jeff Bezos
Google desperately trying to appear like an ‘underdog’
Net Neutrality Finally Rears Ugly Head in Canada
Best programming skill to do things from scratch (that's what startups do): instead of over-engineer get things done in a simple way.
I together with other four friends just launched our new site: smuvi.com (more info in the comments)
Hello, http://smuvi.com is the result of 3/4 weeks of work five people did in order to create a movies-based community here in Italy. We never worked together in the past but we are friends since we were childs. The average age is 30.6 (max age: 33, min age:26)

The site is written in Ruby using mod_ruby. We used our own framework. We tried at our best to make the site scalable from the start, the home page is generated (without caching) in 40 ms, the film detail with 50 comments in 50ms.

One of the most interesting things in the site is in our opinion the recommendation engine: you get user-tuned suggestions after you rate a few films. Another interesting thing is that if you search in smuvi you get results from film transcripts too.

I'm not sure if I can get feedbacks for a site in a language different than English but... I'm trying.

Thanks in advance for any kind of hint.
War Without Soldiers
Phoenix to Earthlings: I've Landed! Awesome!
Webfaction.com
"the test is particularly appealing to people with a certain personality (i.e. "hackers"), and that the test happens to label these people identically (i.e. "NT")."

Isn't this the only claim that proponents of the test make? It's the whole point: people with different personalities are supposed to show up differently on the test. It's not clear to me why you seem to think that the claims for the test are actually claims against it. :)
That is an amazing result, though not surprising when you think about it, few developers are serious extroverts,though if you're NT and an extrovert it is conceivable. you need to be intuitive to develop large software apps, It is difficult to make software by feeling you need to think and both perception versus judging could be considered valid and useful ways to make software.

Most developers would be NT and indeed INT. If nothing else this does seem to indicate there is some validity in the myers briggs tests.

The total lack of S versus N is also fascinating. (for reference I started life as an INTP when I first did this 20 years ago, a few years ago I was an INTJ, now today I'm an INFJ, not sure what this means, maybe I'm mellowing with age)
Blackberry vs iPhone, or why RIM is screwed
It's what his sleep specialist told him, and it's what my sleep MD told me as well. I'd certainly believe what an MD with 12-15 years of education/residency says over wikipedia.

People can build up a tolerance to caffeine by saturating the receptors in the brain that are activated by caffeine. So, after month of daily ingestion, some people can drink 4-8 cups of coffee a day and not have any problems. In this case, it's especially true that your mileage may vary greatly.

I used to be a caffeine fiend. But, when I started having sleep problems, I had to completely quit caffeine, and it does help. I could drink 2-3 triple espresso's in an all-nighter and then sleep like a baby when I was in college. Now, I drink 1/2 a cup of coffee and I'm buzzed for hours, and I don't sleep well that night.
A Letter to Facebook's Founder
Userplane, the Really Big Widget Ad Network
Billboards That Look Back
This is only one step away from astrology surely.
anyone seen minority report?
Google Outed As Anonymous Ebay Critic
Care to share what is so amazing about it? As it apparently describes millions of people to a T :/
Why? Millions of people behave similarly. I don't get why this is interesting... or surprising.
I sometimes cannot sleep because I can't stop thinking about things. For me the cure is reading fiction. I can't recommend it enough. It totally clears my mind of everything that excites/agitates/stresses. Non fiction won't do and can actually make it worse. Fiction!
there are stacks but they're talking amongst themselves at the pub
Ability to learn new things quickly & Fearlessness to fly in the face of conventional wisdom.

I'd say think of a cool project, a cool app you could write, and make it. That will be worth a lot more than learning any specific language.
However, there's been a lot of improvement in things that need a stable foundation, like libraries and APIs and standards (whether defacto or more official).
Doing things right the first time? When does that ever happen?

I guess if you design your code on paper first and write it all out by hand, calculate bottlenecks etc based on cpu timing manuals etc....

Most people take a more iterative approach afaik.
Understanding Amazon Web Services
Gartner Reveals Top 10 Technologies to change the world in the next 4 years
If the 10 hour half-life were true, we'd all be Cornholio by now. A 10 hour half life means at 30 hours, you'd still have 12.5% of the caffeine in your system and at 40 hours you'd have 6.25%. I'd have coffee in me from the last week still in effect. Is there some other half life term I'm not familiar with?

In this regard, I'd go with wikipedia. There are plenty of doctors who are wrong in the world--they are only human.
Fight fire with fire. Arrington is now on WaPo and is widely read as a quasi-reliable source of tech journalism - this is from a blog called "angry drunk." Everything has a time and place.
World's largest and tallest spanning arch bridge (Dubai)
Alcohol generally worsens RLS. It also makes apnea much worse. Most sleeping pills also make apnea worse. The one I've found that doesn't is Trazadone, and it seems to keep working indefinitely. The pills (e.g. Mirapex) for RLS do work, but make me nauseated every night.
Read this:

http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization....
I try to keep a regular schedule and if I can't get sleepy I read a book. Reading puts me RIGHT to sleep.

Note that reading things online (RSS Feeds, Twitter, whatever) do NOT work :) They'll probably keep you more awake. Grab a good, or boring novel if that's your schtik and read it for 20 min while in bed. Puts me right to sleep on the days I can't get tired (Or just have sex that works too)
The site seems pretty cool to me, it looks like an anoobi for movies. Why did you do it in italian only? I would have tried to launch it in english also. It seems fast to me, but probably there is too little traffic right now to be able to judge its performances. Anyway, very slick execution. Congratulations.
These time-sucks will add 3 months to your launch date.
I really am torn by technology like this. On the one hand, force protection is the responsibility of any commander, and anything that contributes to that mission is a valuable asset.

But on the other, if we can go to war with no risk to ourselves, can we also resist the temptation to do so on the slightest pretext?
I always need a good book around for getting to sleep. It makes me nervous if I don't have one.

Of course one of the sleep hygiene rules is to not do anything other than sleep in bed, but I think there has to be an exception for reading.
There is an open source project providing similar functionality
called Mnemosyne that runs on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows.

Its home page is here:
http://www.mnemosyne-proj.org/index.php
Earplugs
As the article pointed out, the adoption of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) is much smaller until now than that of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

If you are interested in UGVs in the military, check out the company iRobot. I listened to a recent webcasted analyst conference from them and they basically think that 2008 is an "inflection year" for UGVs - it's the first year they sell their robots not only to specialist teams (mainly explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams) but to the infantry, which is a much larger market. In September, they await a decision if the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV), a new smaller robot part of the Future Combat Systems, will be accelerated (earlier it was planned to start production in 2013-2015).

The webcast I'm referring to is here (you don't have to fill out the form, just press 'Access Event'. The presentation of the military division is in the second half of the presentation, but it's also pretty interesting to just watch the slides (the presentation of the military division starts at slide 93)):
http://investors.irobot.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=53016
Thinking about Danny Devito
Less like an actual "open letter," and more like a "here's a little lesson on uncommonly performed business maneuvers." The tone is kind of patronizing/offputting.
Assymetric warfare is such that you are mainly trying to not kill civilians. A teleoperated bot that doesn't fear for its life is better suited to storm a city building by building.

Symmetric warfare will always include nukes. There is a huge risk, regardless of the boots/bots ratio on the ground.
There aren't as many obstacles in the air. Line of sight is measured in miles. GPS is perfect. The kinematics are smooth.

The UAV problem from a robotics perspective is trivial compared to UGVs.
1) Be Simple. 2) Be Sparse.

I agree. Google is a good model. It's clear that even now they don't really get design. Their rule is just to make everything simple and functional. This means that even though they never manage to do anything inspired (Google has never made anything people would compare to the iPod) they at least avoid a lot of design mistakes. You can probably get 85th percentile design merely by avoiding mistakes.
I can't believe anyone would take a "sleep specialist" seriously in the first place. What's the education path to that profession?

Looks like about 5 hours:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=caffeine+half+life+...
I know exactly what you mean. I once had a barbarian warrior take out one of my stealth bombers... it was embarrassing.

Civ2 ftw.