skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm just starting to look into image processing / search myself, don't really know all that much about it yet. But I got in with some computer vision research for the upcoming school year, so I'm hoping that will bring me up to speed pretty quickly.
Are you still looking? We should talk soon, get in touch with me at harish[at]techcrunch.com
Well, I suppose he'll never know. Euthanasia is always an option. Why pessimize prematurely?
"if you don't like Apple's system, don't buy it. Buy the phone that's better."

exactly what i will do with the freeruner. Screw apple :D
One of my favorite stories from my grandfather was how he used Fourier transforms to calculate the weight of cotton on the fly as it was being processed in the machines he developed. This was high technology in the 60s!
I thought it was a pretty civil exchange. All of nickb's points are fair and valid. Just wanted to put in my 2 cents.

I guess 'linkbait' is kind of an inflammatory term, especially on a site with karma points, but it ought not to be.
ContentNext 2.0: Life With The Guardian Media Group | paidContent.org
In other words, Yahoo! is making more money than ever from shameless celebrity gossip.

My thoughts exactly. Rather sad though.
I'm inclined to agree, but then you have to say things like "Take Andreessen away from OpsWare and it's just a datacenter company" and "Take Andreessen away from Netscape and it's just a browser company". It's kind of hard to argue with the success he's had - maybe he had something to do with it.
I think there's a growing trend towards awareness of multiple languages, and Smalltalk may be seeing a share of that. For whatever reason, developers are starting to be (a little bit) more open to expanding their language horizons.
Do you have line-of-sight to anywhere with better service, and/or some friends who like to tinker and would go in on a t1?
In the movie "Big Fish" by Tim Burton, an excellent film about father-son relationships, there is a scene where the son goes to an oracle and learns how he is going to die. After learning how he is going to die, he takes on various death-defying stunts without consequence - for he knew that was not the way he was going to go.
It's probably a cognitive bias that would not be hard to correct by making arrangements in advance. I've made it clear to lots of people that I'd much rather be killed cheaply than be a burden to everyone -- almost certainly not the choice I'd make in the last few days of my life.

It might help for insurance companies to make it even more broad: to ask people "Do you think people should spend tens of thousands of dollars on living another agonizing week, or that they should die?" and use the customer's general answer as a guide in specific circumstances.
Right, the problem is, people blame the quality problems on Microsoft no matter where they originate. It's not worth going down that path for Apple, as they've somehow built a reputation around "it just works" despite the fact that it doesn't seem to be any more true from them than anyone else.
That's not bad - smart/wealthy/connected enough to get in, smart enough to pursue something good, gutsy enough to leave a safe bet.
Cleantech Entrepreneurs: Resources for funding
You wouldn't happen to have better examples?

No. These weren't "examples". They were caricatures.

Because the statement is absurd. What difference do your margins make if no one wants to buy your stuff?

We're all so good at tech and so used to eyeball driven apps that it's easy to lose sight of the single most important fact of business: sooner or later someone has to be a customer.

I never entered the "labor vs. management" debate here because it's a complex issue that won't easily be resolved here (or anywhere else). Instead I offered a play on pg's "Make Something People Want," slightly modified for Detroit.

I don't know whose fault it is (nor do I care), but face it: hardly anyone wants Detroit's cars. They've delayed the inevitable by bolting 4 door bodys onto pickup truck chasses for 15 years now without preparing themselves for $4 gas. Duh.

Look out your window right now. After the first 100 Camrys, Accords, and Altimas drive by, do you see anything from Detroit that you'd rather have? Neither does anyone else. That's Detroit's biggest problem, so I'll restate my original, they need to "Make Cars People Want".

I know this is Hacker News (thus the questioning about the applicability of this post). We must not forget that the business aspect is just as important as the tech aspect.

No matter what your other financials are, without demand, you have no sales. Without sales, you have no business. Then all of this is just one big hobby.
Lets face it, we are in an exponential technological curve,
go back 100 years, and probably 90% of stuff in your house
didn't even exist back then.

Actually, I think there are very few things in my house that didn't exist a century ago. There are a few important items, for sure: refrigerator, AC, microwave, computer, cell phone, CD/DVD players and associated media, automobiles. There are probably a few things I'm forgetting, but there is so much more than that in my house that's virtually no different than what was around in 1908: clothing, wood floors, ironing board, closets, stuffed animals, blankets, plates, silverware, drawers, photographs, tables, chairs, beds, doors (my house was built in 1924, so this list could go on and on and on). For that matter, I think the vast majority of things in my house would have been present in similar forms in any number of centuries past.

I think the prospects of medical advances that will lengthen lifespans is fascinating, but I also think people tend to lose perspective on how the times really aren't as different as they think they are. We end up thinking we're special because of the times we live in, and it's just not the case (no special criticism of you, of course - just an observation spurred by your remark).
We use Django, a Python framework.

Here is a quick installer I wrote up.
http://wiki.slicehost.com/doku.php?id=install_django

You might also consider building on Google App Engine, which uses Django. There are parts of Django you can't use that aren't a big deal if you start with App Engine. Basically there is no MySQL, but that should be fine for most applications.
Darwin at least has roots in BSD which does not obligate the user to open derived works.
I was quite surprised that it was driven by dead-tree attention, too. It's not as if the NYT said, on their front page, that people should take the poll and vote Chomsky.
> and I have yet to hear anyone explain to me what OGG gives me that mp3 doesn't

The right to use - or as a developer, create - a program that can play/record music in that format without permission from, or payment to, the people who developed and patented said format.

The right to read the file format specification and change it to suit your own use without consulting or paying anyone or breaking the law.

You are explaining how you download music in MP3 format to avoid DRM restrictions - but the MP3 format itself is locked-in and restricted.

Yes things are innovative and interesting while being restricted, but they aren't free if they are restricted. That is, they can't be used to build more innovative and interesting things (without permission or payment) if they are restricted.
Chasing the Dragon
post about Mike Butcher's inaugural TechCrunch Pitch and a few tips on helping startups pitch their ideas to investors.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=173475
It seems insane to me that the overall editorial conclusion is "we need to do more to fund public pensions". The entire rest of the article seems to be to the point that "pensions are an artifact of sky-high prosperity that ultimately rob the future". Maybe I am just misreading the article.
Last point sounds like Yahoo.

Google should actually setup an incubator for external extrepeneurs, providing funds, infastructure and a supportive community - imagine the dealflow and ideas it'd receive.

It already has a VC:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2007/tc200...
They're shooting themselves in the foot with their poor communications. I'm basically in agreement in that I don't want some proprietary system I can't fiddle with, but they need to cast hackers as people who want to have fun and create cool things, not as a bunch of venomous haters who are jealous of Jobs' (well deserved, IMO) success.
Well technically it's AT&T's fault, but it still reflects very poorly on Apple that they weren't able to foresee this. After all, even the coverage viewer takes about three minutes to load:

http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/
I'll be presenting at Webinno!
Thanks for keeping an eye on it.

I actually think that 'boring' isn't the problem though. Boring stuff is easy to ignore. Political stories, on the other hand, are easy for everyone to have an opinion on, and get excited about. This tends to draw people in who otherwise might refrain from commenting... basically what happened to the reddit community. There were initially some political articles with the rest, and they were pretty good, and a decent mix of liberals and libertarians. Then it hit a tipping point, and that stuff completely drowned out the rest of the site.

I trust that you'll ensure that doesn't happen, but part of the equation isn't necessarily better algorithms, IMO, but trying to foster a community spirit of "let's avoid these things for the sake of the site's quality".
Guessing the Teacher's Password
Someday, one of the big studios will adopt blender internally instead of paying through the nose for Maya, and Blender will get really solid.

Frankly, I'm surprised that medium sized studios haven't realized that working together on Blender is a great alternative to the closed proprietary packages or building up a huge in-house dev team.
Calling all hackers at UIUC
Just arrows is often seen in custom Flash scrolling UIs. I find it even more annoying. Some you have to click repeatedly, others you hold down (and the rate-of-scroll is always too slow or too fast), they vary in positioning and appearance. Standard, predictable scrollbars are good.
Peer reviewed startups
In academia, when you submit your paper to a journal, it usually goes through peer review.

It would be cool to have a site where you submit a business plan (along with web prototype, if it's a web business) and the plan is given to 3 random people from a pool of entrepreneurs, who write a formal review of your business (and perhaps sign a digital nda).

Maybe Ycombinator can sponsor something like this.
That's the interesting thing.

The amount of desire for market reforms is inversely proportional to how well the public's portfolio is doing.

Noone wanted market reforms when their Enron stock was up 300% or when they owned a sizeable chunk of pets.com.

Hopefully this time we'll start to see some reforms that make sense.

Also of note: I don't think the legislative branch has any call on whether these shit companies get nationalized... it's up to the Treasury (exec branch) and the Fed (off on its own).
From your own link:

Stock Price History: 52-Week Change: -74.19%

I wonder if their owners would agree with you.
How can the market "be open for everyone" if they stop trading by big firms?
if it were a prototype or demo, it would be even better. i'm trying to figure this out right now.. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=243760
Bacteria evolve; Conservapedia demands recount
What type of attempts? Have you tried going to events, meetups, and (un)conferences etc.? It is a great way to start. Meet people, learn what they do, let them learn about you. Once people see you at several events over time, and you get a chance to bond with one another, they are more inclined to take you on, especially if you can demonstrate skills/portfolio (even if, for example, it is just your own personal projects on a blog).

If you are in London, email me and I'll see what I can do to help. There are several startups here that can always use extra hands.
Meta casual gaming startup - PlayCrafter Teaser
New iPhone 3G Sold Out
You are asked before the first time any application is allowed to use your current location. So, this point is ridiculous.
I want to die like my grandfather: in my sleep, not screaming and yelling like everyone else in the car.
I know two other husband & wife teams not in YC.
PlayCrafter
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=243769

And Sproost
http://www.sproost.com/
Reminds me of this quote by Nash in the movie The Beautiful Mind

"Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity."
Yeah, from what I can tell, ad-hoc distribution will take care of a lot of the issues. My understanding is anyone can develop any application and install it on their own phone and up to 100 other users, without authority from Apple. You save the $99 fee, and you can make whatever you like.
Six Million iBricks… and Growing
From Meebo's hiring tricks to Genome's Modular Innovation Contribution
Har har. Old joke.
You've got it right. Its all about value. If you value having a phone that can play OGG files, then you won't buy the iPhone. If you can't stand iTunes, you'll do it different. The original author's argument would only be compelling if there were no other alternatives. But with Android coming out, his argument falls short. Just don't buy it.
re: free software, he probably meant this

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/16/1435254...
Monthly bandwidth plans are the future! Were used to that now paying for our cellphones each month - will suck, but it's in AT&T and their ilks best interest to make their 3g & 4g networks open access like the net now. From here capitalize on our bandwidth usage.
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying"
Been trying on and for the past few hours, no luck so far :(
I'm not convinced that online activities are replacing genuine human interaction. Displacing TV time, sure. But if anything, my human interaction has been expanded due to online activities. A week ago I flew across the country to Los Angeles to see friends I developed online. Next month I'm doing the same again, but this time in Seattle. I met the members of the local Ruby Users Group through its online site.

The human need for in-person interaction is deeply rooted and is not so easily cast aside.
The more interesting analysis is why do girls want to be CEOs of fashion mags rather than computer companies? At what age do they make this choice, why? Does it carry across different cultures? etc
This seems incredibly dangerous, a bunch of smart, tech-savvy people are exactly the last people I want seeing my site.
You forgot the super important invention called doors, roof, and windows.

But that's the thing our sciences have taken a huge leap forward in the last 100 years. Another 100 years should bring plenty of new inventions. I mean look 200 years ago, if you got sick they tried to exorcise the sickness away.
Every major tech release is the same thing. Everyone raves over how wonderful this new piece of kit will be, a few morons line up for hours to give their money away, and then comes the inevitable pile up of rants because things don't work as advertised.

Seriously, you'd think people would learn that it simply doesn't pay to be an early adopter, but no, every release is the same tired bout of whining.

Never buy version .0, that goes for everything - from cars to iPhones.
The line between potential customers and potential competition is razor-thin in this case.

Still, as soon as you go live you'll be hanging out in the wind for all to see anyway.
FWIW - I had a JB iPhone. I reset it to factory 1.1.4 (w/ backup). Then I manually installed the early 2.0 release. During reinstall, process stopped so I could answer the phone (2x).

All seems to work fine.

Disclaimer - iPhone fan. Not in any rush to get 3G.
and shrinking... Just keep retrying. Took me about 30 minutes.
Yes it's a pain, but what do you expect when the world all wants the same thing at the same time.
Don Knuth's Non-Tech Reading List
FUD. MS wouldn't have to worry if they're not linking to it. Distributing Paint.NET is fine so long as the source is available. Using its APIs is also fine.

Not to mention Paint.NET's license is MIT which is GPL compatible .... That Microsoft insider's talking out of his ass.

And the injunction wouldn't prevent selling. It would prevent distributing.. which is a moot point because the source is already available...
Startups often start in "stealth mode" for a reason.
Speaking of expendability at the end of one's life, I just finished Scalzi's _Old Man's War_. Don't settle somewhere, join the army!
As of now, this submission has 49 points. That means that its point total is 2.5 times higher than the number of words and half the number of characters that the original post had (before the "postscript" was added). Does anyone else think that's a bit absurd, especially considering that its not some timeless piece of advice or pearl of wisdom?
The idea of a Sun-Apple combination goes way back....

http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-03-1996/swol-03-...
Which is to do with their financial situation, not with their sales. Sales are down slightly, but GM still sells more cars than anybody on Earth (except maybe Toyota, I haven't kept up with the sales figures for this year). Every time they sell a car, it's because somebody has decided they want the GM product instead of any of the many other products they could have.

There are weak spots in their product line (especially not having a decent entry in the small car market for the US) but their problem is that they have massive debt, not that their sales aren't strong.
I thought that posting here for feedback on your startup already accomplished this?
This sadly is how the world works. In school, even in high school and college, the students who guess the teacher's password are rewarded. 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.

High school science competitions (school science fairs, all the way upto Siemens-Westinghouse and Intel STS) particularly guilty of this.
OK... It sounds like you are actually in violent agreement with josefresco's statement that both demand and profit margin are important. :)
T1 in these parts is prohibitively expensive (Cape Cod). Mostly seasonal homes around me so not many uber geeks to share the load (plenty of old people and asshole tourists from CT/NY though!)
Another tale of woe of Apple
Ask HN: What's Your Favorite iPhone App (new or JB)?
What's your favorite iPhone app? Are there any that you really respect / enjoy /use often? Any surprises?

Options include new Apple Store apps and 3rd party JB (jailbroken) apps.
Which is to do with their financial situation

What could possibly matter more than their financial situation? Honestly, ownership actually paid management to lose 75% of their equity in one year? That's only a little better than playing the lottery.

especially not having a decent entry in the small car market for the US

What else is there now? Don't you think it's been management's responsibility (maybe their biggest one) to forecast the price of gas? Who does it affect more?

This is like saying, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"
Peer-review works in academia as generally the goal is not monetisation but the pursuit and quality of knowledge.

Don't think it translates well to startup culture (people with good ideas tend to just do them) and besides, when you look for funding you often get peer-review of sorts from angels/VCs/Banks.
Why Is Venture Capital Still A Boys' Club?
Last month, GM sold 262,329 vehicles in the US alone. Toyota, in second place, sold 193,234. Ford and Chrysler took the third and fourth spots, with Honda in fifth. You can't claim that "hardly anybody" is buying Detroit's products.

And that's just in the US. You wanna know what the top-selling car in Europe is? It's the Opel/Vauxhall Astra -- a GM product -- with nearly half a million sold last year. The Ford Focus comes in third, after the Renault Clio. In Australia the top-selling cars are almost always GM's Holden Commodore and Ford's Falcon.

If you think nobody's buying American cars, that might just be a function of where you live (Northern California?)
to be fair, a lot of them were originally available on jailbroken phones. I can't believe three of them are not free though. (and well, I'm quite fond of erica sadun's flashlight app, especially the screenshots ;) )

But..you just don't even need to buy it, and if you do cough up money for that it's really your problem. I'm just appalled at the idea that certain other applications were approved by apple (triplog/1040 and the 99 cent ebooks come to mind...).
Of course they're both important. No accountant could possibly argue with that.

But that's not what josefresco said. He said that profit margin is just as important as demand. I say it's not. Nothing "violent" about it.

A huge corporation has violated the most basic business rules, including perhaps the biggest, "Make something people want." And we debate about it.

But if GM was a web app and this was a "How do you like my app" posts, we would be shredding them here. You lost 75% of your equity in one year?!? You have no small cars to sell?!? We'd be telling them to go to barber college.
I thought the article was pretty terrible, but not because of the spelling mistakes.

As an aside, just because you're not a native speaker of English is not an excuse for poor spelling: a foreigner can use a spellchecker just as well as a native speaker.
I disagree. I assume you're afraid they're going to steal you're idea? The only way that would matter is if they care about it enough to do as good a job as you're going to do. I could hear a thousand ideas and probably none of them would be so compelling that I would drop my own projects to work on it.
IPhone Launch Grips Boston
If SENS is successfull to any degree, it may be possible to live "young" to a very old age.
I definitely agree. Nice to see that smalltalk is still being used. I haven't worked with it for over 20 years and predicted it's demise back then even though I thought it was a very powerful and useful language. Fortunately I was wrong.
What else is there now?

I'm looking at a list of the top ten cars sold last month. Four models were small cars (Corolla, Civic, Cobalt and Focus), four were mid-to-large sedans sedans (Camry, Accord, Altima and Sonata) and two were big trucks (Ford F-Series and Chevy Silverado).
Great Wordpress Plugin: Redirection
I recently installed Wordpess on an older flat-file website that had a massive amount of seperate pages. The owner would occasionally shuffle his content around (manually archiving) and he’d never heard of a redirect. As soon as I started working on the project, I noticed all the 404 traffic he was getting (not caused by me!). Since I installed Wordpress for him, I was able to find a plugin to fix this situation. Enter Redirection.
Someone should write a book like the little schemer but for physics. One of the best classes I took in college was somewhat like this. We measured the period of the pendulum using our heartbeats, and we also measured how long it took things to roll down differently sloped ramps. From this we derived the period of the pendulum and the relationship between slope and speed. Eventually we used this to derive the universal law of gravitation using the period of the moon's orbit as the only given. It was pretty cool because there was no math involved. Instead of using calculus to derive the equations, we instead found them inductively by iterating over a couple thousand lines in excel and then looking for the pattern. The idea of the class was to understand physics by deriving all the equations the same way the people who discovered them did. It was pretty cool.
Liking http://www.tapulous.com, and their business model too.