skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Yes, I'm playing with an collapse/expand button for that widget right now...
6. I jumped right in without watching the video, and I got pretty frustrated when I wanted to type text and didn't see a toolbar option. I didn't even think about just typing. I do think you should add it, then "power users" will figure out that you can just start typing.
Why use a database at all?
What's Common Lisp?

I'm thinking either Barry Goldwater or Eugene McCarthy, kind of a toss-up.
I faced the same choice last month and went for the Macbook black. Mainly because of the better specs for a lower price.
Yeah, I'm sure his VCs are happy with that statement and they'll go along with that plan...

If you're a VC-backed company, you usually have a maximum of 7 years to make an exit. The clock usually runs out much faster since the company is either acquired long before then or it slumps and VCs take what's left of their money and put it into something else. As for IPO market... it's dead for majority of companies until SOX is overturned.
"In the past 3 years Dell has been producing junk laptops."

Counter anecdote: I'm very happy with my Dell D830, with 1920x1200 WUXGA screen rez, running Kubuntu 8.04.

Reasonable weight, decent battery life, no complaints about construction.
Ralph Nader.
... he says.
Ha! It's true! Except instead of an army of social news up-voters, it's mostly just the one guy and his blog.
Now that's just cold.
Dunno if the latest versions of the black MacBook still have this problem, but I had one of the first (Core Duo), and that thing picked up grease like nobody's business.

If they still have that problem (which I think they do), you're better off going with a white MacBook. But personally, if you're not going the Air route, I'd opt for a 15" MacBook Pro: it's only 0.4 lbs heavier, with more screen real estate.
You might be able to do that with Stackless Python. But it will be a bit wordier.
you're going to need a lot of contacts - as a VC, you're a matchmaker between investors and capital-needy high potential businesses. Have you got enough contacts that you can access the best prospects, and turn away asshole investors and only work with the ones that trust you and won't be breathing down your neck for returns?
If not, do something to get all those contacts, and a reputation. Work for a VC, go do an MBA, go to ever goddamn OpenCoffee that's out there (and ideally infiltrate the comp sci campus at your local universities).
The difference is that you can't benchmark Ron Paul, George Bush, Barack Obama, and John McCain. (You can look at voting records.)
You forgot to mention the obligatory beers at each event.
The MacBook Air is slow. Go for Black.
Hanging with the young may lengthen lifespan
The grease issue sounds like a problem. I have been trying to look it up but all complains are from around 2 years ago. I wonder if that was solved.
looks like you've made up your heart and now you're trying to make up your mind and/or wallet.

It may seem silly, but for me the main reason to choose a computer is what I call "the regret factor" (i.e: how much you'll miss the one you didn't choose)

No amount of processing power or future expandability can compensate just a single "I wish I had bought the other computer"

Just my .02
Mostly for convenience. ErlyDB makes working with databases very easy. I didn't see a compelling reason to use any alternatives.

Although I use MySQL, I haven't used any relational features. The app doesn't do any joins.
Has it been picking up grease like walterk mentioned?

If I go for the black I'm pretty sure I will be getting the same model you got.
Do you know if historical level II quotes are available? That data seems like it could be interesting (and profitable) to explore.

If the data isn't available, do you think it is possible to collect market-wide level II quotes from a commercial source?
That's a pretty good point. I have been in love with the air since the day it was announced. I just want to make sure I won't eventually regret not having a little more flexibility.
Twitterbucks
Peter the Great: His Life and World, by Massie (this book won a Pulitzer but all his histories are very good)
The key thing is to differentiate between a biography and a hagiography.Oppenheimer is a must read let it be "American Prometheus" or my favorite "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195166736/qid=1151026828/s...".

This guy is awe-inspiring in almost every sense of the word.Despite reading all biographies you still feel a sense of enigma about his personality. Try understanding why the american government revoked his top secret clearance despite being "da man" at Los Alamos. He could walk into any deep technical discussion and lead them through their blocking situations.He can write poetry and amazingly well read about other cultures and still finding time to deliver more than expected results. Thats one heck of a biography to write..
"... WalMart can help by offering inexpensive pharmaceuticals. ..."

Inexpensive yes, effective maybe, probably no. Walmart works by dictating the price a supplier sells. This is how it gets things so cheap, screw the other guy hard. So the question is "do you want the cheapest drug or the most effective?". By effective I mean, "it does what it claims". There are huge quality problems in outsourcing pharma-products to China, India and other non-first world states. If you want to Walmart exerting it's control on drug price, the likely result is cheaper but an inferior outsourced product.
Chicago Lisp Workshop: May 31
Chicago Lisp is hosting a half-day Lisp Workshop for beginners this coming Saturday, May 31 at 3:00pm. More information can be found on our wiki (http://tinyurl.com/55pvt9). We do hope you can join us!
Why not get it directly from the source?
"This is precisely the thinking that leads to getting disrupted by a different business model."

Please re-read my whole comment (and the one above it). I've explicitly discussed paradigm shifts that change the shape of the industry. A "different business model" is obviously one such type of shift. But given the description of the situation, I don't believe the OP is in such a moment in the history of his industry.
The path is the goal, or how is that saying translated to english?

While thinking about an impossible problem, you can discover lots of other things. Also, who says that it is impossible?
A friend of mine bought a MacBook Air. It is nice if you don't have to high expectations performancewise. Another problem is, that the Air gets very warm. All the other limitations you can work around.

I would get the MacBook Black because it is more bang for the buck.
I have a MacBook black, and I'd go with the MacBook Pro - the more screen the better.
Looks cool...but not exactly what I had in mind.

I'm thinking actual tools for producing real original music. I'm the kinda guy that loves tinkering with analog synths, odd analog drum machines, acoustic instruments of many types, old amplifiers and effects devices, recording gear. I've owned and played some lovely and bizarre stuff...Chapman Stick, Synsonics Drums, accordion, banjo...as well as normal stuff. I just think there's an amazing amount of fun one could have with entirely novel input devices like the balance board and Wii-mote.

But I'll definitely be buying Wii Music.
I read single quotes as quoting someone too (and in my reading that's what the article you linked to is doing).

I'm pretty sure you don't "need" quotes to "paraphrase" someone, you could just write the characterization, in, you know, words.

Anyway, I agree: very weak, tabloid-esque title.
It's a bit more than a biography, but I'd recommend "The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America" by Louis Menand. It's about the lives and history surrounding Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles Peirce, and John Dewey, and the pragmatist philosophy they were involved in creating.
The Effects of Moore's Law and Slacking on Large Computations
And they ruined a bunch of debates on the Internet!
Black background? There's only 2 shots that Dell released:

http://yourblog.direct2dell.com/2008/05/28/something-from-de...

and they're both on a backgroung that looks pretty white to me. The other ones are some gizmodo dude talking phone pictures afaic see.

I'm writing this on an XPS M170, incidentally. I don't love it, but I'd recommend them based on overall value and tendency to just work.
Iacocca: An Autobiography
He was responsible for the ford mustang, and later went on the revive Chrysler.
You can find a list of countries that deny citizenship to people born in that country of parents who are not of the "right" blood, yet have lived in the country for many years. It is one of the strongest indicators of institutional racism I can think of that is still in practice in many modern nations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_sanguinis
North America was overgrown with "super-flesh-growing-bovines" until white men up and shot them all.

Miracle game-changing technologies have been endemic in the history of human civilization. In fact, our current level of population wouldn't even be possible without a bunch of these happening. (From the "Green Revolution" of the 60's back to the development of the plough.)
Writing Bad Unit Tests
On Reddit, Digg and Hacker News
And indeed for a long time there was no feed, despite him getting probably hundreds of requests for such.

Happy to hear there is one now!
Ditto. When I hit the main TC page, most of it seems like banal self-involved crap. But, if it gets past you guys first, it might be worth reading.

I'm certainly in the 10%. I bet >10% here don't even open/visit an RSS reader every day.
The wheels of history grind slowly, and if you want to see your ambition result in actual movement forward, it pays to be somewhere where the forces in play are already in your favor, not pushing against you.

If you want to improve the place you are, great. If you want to create a new system that improves the lot of many many places that suffer from the problems that affect your area, moving to a place that has great innovative energy and people with connections to try new ideas is probably a good first step.
Robotic construction of homes and buildings
I agree with what you say, but that list seems mostly to be about countries that grant citizenship to people of a given "ethnicity"/stock that weren't born in the country itself (for instance, if you have an Italian grandparent, you can get Italian citizenship, even if your parents are, say, Brazilian). That's in contrast to countries that deny citizenship to those who are born in the country in question, which is what strikes me as too exclusive.
MD5 Collisions, Visualised
My black MacBook greased up a little bit at first, but it doesn't even pick up finger prints once I cleaned the whole thing with Brillianize. I'd say stay away from the Air until v2 or v3, the MacBooks have already had most of their issues sorted, plus you can get a sweet handle for it.
Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin. Such brilliant minds with some many little anecdotes us hackers can relate to.
I would dearly like to be able to create links between objects, which follow when I move the objects around. I've tried about a jillion whiteboard/flowchart type apps and none of them do this, but yours could!

This is because I often find myself trying to mock up a graph of some sort and not know where the objects are supposed to go when I'm drawing them, and then it's impossible to later move them around.
Bingo. I grew up in Silicon Valley and most friends I retain from there are in software, and frankly while hanging out I don't really want to spend my time talking about software, windows, mac, startups, ANY OF THIS STUFF.

In Tokyo, I find in my circle of friends perhaps one or two programmers, but also financial services folks, a painter or two, several DJs, advertising, designers, there are so many and no one actually cares what your job is when you are socializing, though perhaps a few of the poorest dis-invite themselves from dinner out more often.
good luck remembering it.
Here's my attempt (I wrote this 8 years ago and the code has rotted) http://chat.axod.net/draw
Still works though, realtime multi-user drawing. Java applets eh hehe
Why not have "Save as image" and "Save as PDF" to make things less confusing for users?
Really? Do they _ever_ stop having stupid ideas? Not that I'm much surprised...
why not reuse the bags? way more efficient.
Congratulations on pointing out the emperor's lack of clothing.

I have a question for you. If the VCs are the Medicis of the modern age what would our Da Vinci look like? Or our Michelangelo?

How would we recognize greatness amongst us?
Lip Sync Coming to Second Life… And Why This Could Be the Most Important News All Year
This is the best news I’ve heard in a while in regards to Second Life. Lip sync is going to be available to anyone using the official Second Life client. Its also possibly one of the most important innovations to come to SL in years.

Mike Monkowski, IBM speech group programmer, has been has been diligently incorporating lip sync code he developed at IBM into the Second Life client for over 6 months. According to an announcement from Mike a couple of days ago, his lip sync code has been added into the official Second Life client.
I enjoyed this piece of intellectual writing
If you intend to do heavy lifting in OSX and VMWare/Windows concurrently you either need "patience" or 4GB of RAM. If you only need one OS at a time 2GB should work. This advice is specific to my type of software work. Depending on your specifics the RAM issue may be the decision point or it may not be.

BTW, the RAM upgrade to 4GB right now is ~ $100 (see crucial.com).
The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser cleans all those greasy areas and makes it look like new. I use it to clean the keyboard and touchpad on my black Macbook all the time.
The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie- there's an unmistakably personal feel to it, as if Carnegie is sitting right there imparting the lessons and stories of his life to you and you alone. He's an incredible writer and it shines through in every page.

Free download link (don't you love the public domain?):
http://manybooks.net/titles/carnegiea1797617976-8.html

Richard Branson's autobiography, Losing My Virginity, is also a great read even discounting the perfect title- together, Branson and Carnegie really drive home the importance of taking risks and leveraging up at every opportunity.
I don't hate it, it's just that Adobe's Linux implementation of Flash is very bad.
"7: Being a niche

Not many of the people I know, know how to program or let alone setup their computer. If they see you work with the computer, they are awed (and think you're a geek). It's the same kind of 'aw' as when I see a physicist work on or with a formula. For me it's total incomprehensible, for him it's easy as pie. Because many people are still mystified by computers, you are the one they call when something goes wrong. Repairing a computer per week means that once a week I don't have to bye a meal. It also means that I can be of positive value for my sisters. "

WTF?

I'd count that as a reason NOT to be a programmer!
very very cool.
This is stupid. What possible incentive would he have to announce an exit intention prematurely other than to sabotage the perceived value of his company in an exit?
Primates Capable of Controlling Prosthetic Limbs via Thought
what a load of crap.
Typical coming from a VC though.
Add WYSE to the list - some really intriguing problems there.
Cool trick to extract only what you need using regular expressions
Some very cool trick using Regular Expressions to extract only what you need from the code you wrote.
This seems like a low-end disruptive innovation. Neither 1 or 2 have to be true for the upstart to become a problem. I don't advocate over-allocating resources towards a competitor who may or may not be a threat. But submitter is already losing business. It may be time to be aggressive.
How do you get money from the outside?
That the application process opens to those ouside the traditional "funding circuit" brought me appreciation for the ycombinator program.

But now, one rejection and one awesome demo later(I think not having the latter lead to gaining the former.) questions arise.

How on earth does one get funded?
As an outsider?

If anybody has any advice or thinks their advice might flow upon seeing a good demo please please say something.

collintmiller@gmail.com if wishing direct contact
Ask HN: Shopping in the US from Europe (Shopping-Proxy)?
Hate to admit it, but in some respects we are still in the stone age here in Europe (Germany specifically). One major sore point is video on demand, something like Netflix or iTunes Video simply is not available, and I expect the same problem with the upcoming Amazon Videos (their MP3s are also not available afaik).

Just wondering if any technical solution comes to mind? Could I trick those stores into believing I am from the US somehow?

Hardware is another problem, Pleo won't ship outside of the US.
I did, it's just that I agree with josefresco's comment, or at least see that scenario as more likely. We have different interpretations of the same information. My other point is the firms that get disrupted always see the alternative as less attractive.
I thought that was Forth.
Secure Passwords Keep You Safer
This is an interesting observation. I don't watch basketball, but usually when I watch sports, I watch for skill, and don't really care who is performing it. If you see a brilliant shot it doesn't matter who did it, so the names and faces might as well be blurred out.

That it would be unpleasant to the watcher if the names and faces were blurred out, implies that the celebrity nature of the activity holds much importance.

Haha, just saying, FWIW, because your comment was interesting.
I took a macbook black around Eastern Europe last year, and it was invaluable, however - it was quite a weight to lug around.

I assume the Air is a lot lighter?

If it saved me a kilo I'd seriously consider it. Battery life is important too.
Yes, the Mac version could be better too. I'm curious if you're seeing issues with Dabbleboard in particular. If not you could still un-adblock (or un-flashblock) it :).
sorry but that format is not interesting to me. bullet points, headlines, something needs to be in there for me. just my opinion.
I have a black MacBook and unless my laptop-lugging habits change, I can't go with the Pro. I used to have a 17" aluminum PowerBook G4 and that thing dented like crazy. I see the MBPs still dent fairly easily. My MacBook Amateur tends to be a lot more cosmetic damage-resistant. :)
I just recently got the top case of my blackbook engraved and nobody pays attention to the grease marks anymore. ;) (Arguably the engraving may or may not detract from the overall beauty of the laptop, but that's a personal preference to me)

In fact, the only time anyone does pay attention to them are in my flickr photos of the engraving, because I didn't bother wiping off the laptop before taking pics. Oh well.
The Innovation Problem, no one else cares.
http://thenextweb.org/2008/05/29/the-innovation-problem-no-o...
I give Apple a lot of credit for making a product where it is really worth paying extra money for a different color. Has anyone else ever done that? I would get a Black Macbook if I was getting a Macbook.
Accessibility features are important
I am sorely tempted to tell you to wait just because WWDC is around the corner. Not much chance that the MacBooks will be updated, but you never know..but given your timeframes it seems you don't have a choice.

My two cents: black MacBook and get extra ram and battery for the same price as an air. The air is a nice machine, but if it's going to be your only computer on the trip, you might want to reconsider (taking into account your budget, length of travel, et cetera).

On a sidenote, I've been sorely tempted to buy an air but I've been sidetracked by the vastly cheaper ultraportables (like the eee and hp mininote 2133) that fit in my purse. Something to go between my blackbook and my iPhone. The air doesn't quite fit that niche well and I would be pretty mad if someone stole it or I lost it, while losing an eee wouldn't be as tear-inducing. They don't run (unhacked) OS X, so I can't do some development work (iphone iphone iphone ;) ), but I could do other things on there...and they all do email and web and what have you.
Microsoft Tech Support - Humor with Pic
I missed some blogs. So, now after updating the total number of must visit blogs for Indian entrepreneurs stand at 13.
Looks really nice.

Coincidentally, I've been working on something extremely similar the past week, though my project has a twist that I think Twitterers are going to enjoy. I'm going out of town for a few days, but hopefully I'll be able to release early next week. And it's in Django.
Wrong. If we were to choose one message for Moscow it should be: "you must be powerfull."

If you are merely rich, your money can be easily taken from you by more powerful person in Moscow.

And if you didn't know, Russian is a second class citizen in Russia.

All in all, one message per city is insufficient. It all depends on the people around you.
He's said this before (for example, in the interview with Sarah Lacy at SXSW). His statement echoes Larry and Sergey's 20 year commitment to Google.

It seems reasonable that Zuckerberg is telling the truth. He will get rich no matter what, and the desire to Do Something Great is an almost overpowering driving force for some people.
I have a white MacBook that's about a year old, and it's already taken quite a beating. I've been in school, and admittedly I have been pretty rough on it. But there are scratches in the white lacquer, and more disturbingly, there are some cracks in the case, near the trackpad.

Since the black MacBook doesn't have the same glossy finish, you won't have the same type of exterior scratches. But I doubt build quality is actually much different between the two. I'd be wary of buying another MacBook.

The MacBook Air is only about $300 more, but all reports indicate that the build quality is phenomenal. (Same with the MacBook Pro.) If you're going to be using the laptop on the road, and you want to keep it a few years, then I'd spend the extra money for the Air.

Plus, you're clearly more excited about the MacBook Air... so go for it! :)
Not that it's an actual autobiography, but "Journey to the End of the Night" by Louis Ferdinand Celine was based closely on his own life and was really something to read, albeit a tough something to get through at times.

I was warned that it would be difficult to relate to as a "modern-day young democrat" and in my case at least, they were right. I've since bought two more of his books though (all of which seem to be fairly autobiographical) and can't wait to read them as well now.

A word of caution: Not very inspiring material, just interesting literature. And it definitely had a profound influence on many subsequent authors.
I was so sick and tired of being able to choose between only silver (the pro laptops) and white (the iBooks) that I vowed my next Apple laptop would be a color I want (black) no matter what. Apple thankfully came out with a black MacBook when I was finally getting sick of my iBook after having sold my PowerBook G4 (it was 17" and too big). I hounded the salespeople at the local Apple store until they had one in stock.

It ended up being cheaper than a "professional" paint job (which usually doesn't include the keys) and cleaner than a paint job done by yours truly. The whole laptop is black, including the colored parts of the ports that you can see and the keyboard. I know it doesn't cost them that much to manufacture a black version, but I thought it was well worth it.

I don't think many others have been able to pull off charging for a color option, but it's not exactly unheard of (think cars and metallic paint).
I'd be reluctant to be an Air just yet as it's still so new.

If you ever use ethernet, remember, there's no port. It may be compact and light but as you mention, it doesn't have as good a spec and costs more. You're paying for style and size, and unless you travel a lot, is it worth it?