skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The only thing that makes learning Objective-C difficult for me is availability, because AFAIK I can't compile Obj-C code on anything but a mac, and I don't happen to have one.

Other than that, I agree... it's just another programming language, and from my experience spending a little bit of time learning it when I worked for a company that provided me a mac, it's a pretty nice language. (That was v2. I hear v3 is significantly improved.)

Some day I might add a mac to my computer lineup, but for now it's not feasible, largley due to financial constraints... meaning that although I'm not exactly struggling to make the mortgage payments, my budget is finite, and I have other priorities besides yet another computer at the moment :)
Wow. What a day. I have to thank all of you for sending this question to the top! It overtook a Flash game and even battled off an iPhone reference for a while.

I certainly ended the day smarter than I started it. I found the Atlanta SCORE branch and scheduled an appointment with a counselor to start with. I'll get an attorney involved if need be.

Of all my business ventures/attempts, I feel the best about this one. I'll keep people posted... Thanks again and feel free to keep the comments and karma coming. :-)
See also:

The Pmarca Guide to Big Companies, part 2: Retaining great people:

http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/07/the-pmarca-gu-1.html

"Don't do arbitrary large spot bonuses or restricted stock grants to try to give a small number of people huge financial upside....It sounds like a great idea at the time, but it causes a severe backlash among both the normal people who don't get it (who feel like they're the B team) and the great people who don't get it (who feel like they've been screwed)."
More importantly we're in London, England - not the West Coast :-)

There are a lot of ex-City people here, which may be where the expectation comes from, but even so...
Little Bobby Tables, we call him.

http://xkcd.com/327/
Award-winning Shareaholic Firefox plugin now with Hacker News submission
I am not interested in someone who writes "creative" code that someone else has to debug.
This is the most informative and helpful comment in this whole thread! Thank you!
I doesn't seem to have changed. I meant to have the pop-ups/previews only when you hover over the actual blue link and not when your mouse goes over the whole grey box background around the link. That way the user hovers over the link and can preview it before clicking without having the pop-ups everywhere.

The pop-ups seem to come up in the same place and if one comes up before another, which is a problem caused by having the pop-ups come up when you go anywhere near the grey bar, it becomes difficult to know which pop-up is for which link. Personally, I would have the user hover over the blue link, then have the grey background box come up as a sort of guide for the eye to follow towards the pop-up, and have the pop-up surrounded with the grey background box as well (at the minute it has no background 'frame'). This way you guide the user from the link to the pop-up and they know exactly which pop-up relates to the link.

Also, I would reduce the size of the tag cloud. I just searched for Adobe AIR and the cloud was huge. Perhaps have the top/most occuring tags and the ability to expand the cloud if you want to.
The slowness can be well justify here, given the early startup stage the lack of powerful server to drive the search is acceptable. Search requires considerable Disk+RAM power.

Overall the idea is very good!!!
We had so much Sarbanes-Oxley bs anything seemed possible. "Oh you can't use an IM client that isn't approved by us, as it's against S-OX". (Approved by us meant that they paid some inferior crappy IM company to install their client on all company computers. Then they paid a fee per user) Nothing like corporate waste :)
Kids Bedding,bedding soft and home furninshings from Dunelm
That's not what I mean. You are deliberately taking the worst possible interpretation of what I wrote. No one wants typos in code. But, a programmer who's written english is bad, but who is highly intelligent will probably not evidence the same typos in programming as in typing written english.

It's the same sort of thing as dyslexia being different at a neurological level in chinese then in english. English dyslexics who learn chinese aren't dyslexic in chinese. Likewise, people who are messy in their english might be extremely good at code. People sure like to hang onto conventional wisdom even when there is plenty of scientific evidence to suggest that they are wrong.
This is exactly why I don't put curse words in code, even in comments. This stuff really does happen, and the results can be awkward. It just isn't worth it.
A kind reminder to the community: please (re)read the HN guidelines
I would also add a tutorial vid or a video description. I watch those before i make a decision on using a site or not. My two cents as well. That makes 4 cents
you'd be surprised at the number of people who don't sanitize their inputs, even good developers. sometimes you just forget unless you have the concept drilled into your head.
I just found internetsecure.com when I was looking for the same. Best I've found so far.

Paypal makes me uneasy because they've already locked my account once "for suspected security reasons". If I'm running a business, I can't just have my payment processor arbitrarily lock my account without further explanation.
How not to apply for a job
You're assuming that a suit always provides a good impression. That's not automatic, especially if you're interviewing at a small, casual company that is trying to maintain a specific kind of casual, fun work culture.

Like, say...a startup.
Even this scheme is quite clever from a self-marketing pov. He's got people with popular blogs giving his book away, which will get his name around. I wonder what the incentive is for bloggers to mention his book. The url tracks the src after all...
Yes, and yes. The last time I worked at a company where people didn't feel comfortable swearing in meetings was probably 1997. Honest and casual communication is faster, friendlier, and more enjoyable.
Honda hits the hydrogen highway
Like the article said, if consumers want more features. I think it's just that Asian consumers are willing to pay for a premium for more and more features in a mobile phone, while that's not necessarily the case here (simpler phones, etc.) With this, the mobile telecom companies can implement more advanced systems and features into their mobiles. That's at least my speculation.

Also - forgot to add. Micro-commodities are KING in Asia. QQ, the AIM of China, offers a MySpace-like social networking system built on top of their 160-million-subscriber instant messaging system, where micro-commodities like profile customizations for x RMB are just a no-brainer: it's cheap, buy it. Of course, this generates more sales, which thus generates more profits.

QQ even has their own "currency" - QQ Coin, a virtual currency, a 1:1 coin:RMB exchange for purchasing virtual (or sometimes even real) merchandise. [1] 2008Q1 revenues for Tencent were $204mln, profits of $77mln at a margin of 38%. [2]

This is definitely evident in the mobile market. Mobile subscribers in the US are prone to buying some ringtones and customizations, but in China these micro-commodities generate a lot of purchasers - and a lot of money. It's not something that we can completely imitate in the US, since it's part of their culture to purchase these micro-commodities.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QQ#QQ_Coin

[2] http://www.tencent.com/ir/pdf/news20080514a_e.pdf
Heaven can't wait: A conversation with angel investor Ron Conway
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=200920
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=79066
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41303
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=125097
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=116503
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33505
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=73736
...
Not Your Father's Space Program
I would look into Aria Systems: http://www.ariasystems.com/product/billing They have an implementation fee but they have outstanding services
Work for a startup. Second startup actually, both successful. Wore a suit to both interviews. Results paint a pretty clear picture.

Even companies looking to maintain a casual, fun work culture should appreciate their candidates attempting to present themselves in a professional way. If an interviewer casts someone in a negative light because they wore a suit... I'll go out on a limb and risk getting flamed by saying that this person probably shouldn't be responsible for hiring in the first place.
Attention to detail is important.
You can't stand people in suits? Why do you even care?

Let actions speak rather than clothes. I've known programmers who wore fastidiously cut suits and programmers who wore birks and cutoffs. Both clothing classifications produced fast, capable, flexible programmers who could think on their feet, and both classes also produced morons who couldn't code their way out of a paper bag.

Look beyond the surface and you will end up hiring a much higher quality programmer.
This text, especially arguments against, bases on the strong distinction between programming languages' syntax and semantics. Let me come up quickly with two examples of fuziness between syntax and semantics of programming languages, how the syntax affected the semantics.

While the semantics frequently does not vary within a given paradigm, sometimes a different syntax gives you completely different point of view. For instance, Polish notation, also known as prefix notation, makes it easy to come up with s-expressions, what turns out to change the way we think about programming.

Also, programming languages' syntax can work as reward&punishment tools. A hash is slighty the same hash in all programming languages. Neverthless, dynamic languages made it so easy to manipulate on them that in many ways they've dominated the programs written in those languages.

It is also important to remember that a language is not an abstract contruct. It has its uses, existing design patterns, good practices, as well as existing libraries. "Meaning just is use". Even if you can say nearly everything in all languages, sometimes it is harder to say one thing in another.

(as a boring guy I must say that I feel sorry that such indirectly thought provoking post got only 7 points, lossing popularity with the Vista problem)
It is interesting what is fair for the Drudge Report is not fair for the Drudge Retort... I doub't if they can have it both ways unless if the Drudge Report has a sepcial license, which I am sure they don't.
I'm not arguing anything about P2P efficiency. Whether or not it's comparatively efficient, counter to a particular network design, or even "fair" to the ISP, it is the case that its use is growing. In a competitive market, those ISPs who update their networks to accommodate the growing appetites of their users (just as is happening in every other industrialized country) stand to gain a competitive advantage.
Folks, read and re-read this comment when you are firing up a shiny new web app.

What problem are people waking up with who can't wait to give you their credit card numbers for you to fix? If that isn't a problem you are solving, it may be a long slog uphill.
Exactly my first thought. Funny how little things get noticed first.
Location Tracking on a US Map and of San Francisco Nightspots, with [video]
Back in the day when the source code to portions of Windows (2000?) was leaked, the first thing many people did was grep for swear words. It turns out there were quite a few.

Just Google "windows source swear words" or something.
Man, wouldn't it rock for Y!Hack to have a resource section?!
Is the Google Toolbar a Trojan Horse for Ad Targetting?
DBpedia Mobile:location-centric DBpedia client application for mobile devices
I haven't figured out why it's so hard for people to do this by hand, althought I'll admit sometimes it's a challenge. I think they miss tables.
There is a weird font issue with Opera on Linux with your site: all fonts are not anti-aliased...
Linked Data Leaders: The Semantic Web Is Here
Ah, a PHP site.
Right. It's vital that incentives are not made to feel like "awards," but are instead seen as part of the compensation structure. (I think that the "incentive pay" Joel's talking about really means "public awards, possibly with cash associated.") "Incentive pay" in the simple sense of "pay tied to performance" is not necessarily divisive if it's handled tactfully and can be a substantial motivational force. I mean, that's what PG's always writing about in his essays—the power of a startup is that it harnesses pay very directly to performance.
Looking at the source code:

- minimize CSS & JS (especially the 124kb prototype.js file). You are using 257kb ONLY for javascript.

- gzip

- Why load each company logo on the top separate? put them all in one image file and save HTTP requests

- Unicode error in line 6: "copyright � 2007 J2Solutions" therefore not valid XHTML
Using Brainwaves to Chat and Stroll Through Second Life: World's First
Could you give more details what's wrong?
The only universal rule is that there is no universal rule...

Companies, at any stage, are made up of a (semi)random collection of individuals. You can hardly predict their expectations, likes, dislikes, and expectations accurately.

Dress-code wise, I would say dress in whatever YOU feel most comfortable in. When in doubt err on the side of over-dressing, but for almost any "hacker" type role you would never go beyond a sport-coat (possibly with nice jeans and a dress shirt). As someone who has interviewed many people I would say that one thing that seems to negatively affect the dynamics of the interview is when you can tell the person is just not comfortable (and therefore not themself).

Along the lines of not being able to predict how people view your CV, I personally would rather see blank space on a resume instead of blather about what you did in high school or college, which is almost never relevant to what I am interested in. I also personally don't like people who send the followup emails of "It was such a great interview I can totally see myself making a huge contriblahblahblah". Save it, I get enough air-filled emails already, I don't need yours.

Despite what many people might say, there are a LOT of jobs out there. Wear what you want, and handle the process (cover letter, resume, follow-up) however you feel is most appropriate, and iterate rapidly over the feedback (or lack thereof) to adjust your approach.

Personally, I like a brief 2-3 paragraph high-level cover letter that is targeted to the specific job (matches your skills to my requirements) and a resume that is readable and underscores key accomplishments. Dress decent, no matter what position you're interviewing for (if you're at a startup you might have to present to a board or potential customer one day. Having a "nice" set of clothes is a good sign of preparedness, IMO).
I'm in NYC and was going to go to the SCORE center in the NY Public Library. I'll check out the book you suggested. I didn't want to write a business plan at all, but I went to a free Business seminar and there was this young girl who was starting a hair dressing business who dressed me down in front of the class for not writing a business plan. It was an infinitely humbling experience since she was spot on.
In the context of web-based startups, you can assume 99% of the time content will dictate the design, and that the site will grow in content rather quickly. That said, the grid is one of the most modular structures for plugging in content without disrupting or rebuilding the entire flow.

Why re-invent the wheel? The grid concept is universal, and certainly helps during planning for prioritizing real estate and architecting your information properly.
you are kidding right? HN front page?!
I would always dress "professionally" because I do not know what the guy on the other side is going to think. I don't want the start of the interview to be the end of it. When I talk to the interviewer I can know if that person is someone I can be working with, I always ask what the dress code is like and I assure you it makes no difference.

One company was 100% casual (don't wear a miniskirt and you are fine). The company was the biggest POS to work for.

Another company is business casual (occasionally they don't mind me wearing a t-shirt and jeans) and it is is just a pleasure to work at this one.

Edit: I actually like wearing business casual, very comfortable cloths.
I'll summarize the article for you (312 words):

when applying for a job, check spelling for the company and its products names. We don't want to be grumpy, but... we are! Kthxbye.
That sometimes works, if the company is large enough to have real profits but small enough for the individual's contribution to matter.

There's nothing wrong with incentives, really, as long as they are (1) meaningful, and (2) fair. But in practice, they never are, so Joel's points are all valid. Really, this is just another special case of "bad management sucks". A good manager in a good system is capable of providing incentives that motivate her employees. A bad one can't, but will do it anyway. So it looks like the bad incentives are the problem, when really it's the process that's flawed.
It's easy to love a platform that hasn't shipped yet. There's no ugly reality to interfere with your beautiful dreams.

As long as Android has no paying customers, it's easy for it to be great. There are no tough compromises to be made. There's no battery to be drained by your resource-hungry app, and no customer to complain about that drained battery. There's no need to broker deals with carriers (who, incidentally, have stricter and stupider rules than Apple ever will), no need for effective marketing, no need to worry about market share or competitors or profits or even prices. There isn't even any need to fix your bugs. You can live happily in cloud-cuckoo-land; a place where your apps can do anything they want (take over the phone? use 85% of the available bandwidth? accidentally overwrite other application's databases?) without ethical, legal, or physical constraint; a place in which you don't even have to study anything in order to develop gorgeous, easy-to-use, insanely profitable mobile applications.

Meanwhile, Apple is very, very likely to do to Android what they did to the Linux desktop: Deliver 85% of the features and 175% of the usability in a consistent, beautiful, well-marketed package that will promptly become the platform of choice for users who have any money... who, incidentally, are also the users that are most likely to spend money on third-party software.
Marketing maybe yes, but telecom probably not.. The era of the telecom "deck" will die July 11th, 2008.
The job I would like to have required me sitting around in my underwear and possibly a shirt. Joking aside, I don't agree with the dress like the job you want at all. It's important to convy professionalism. When you go to a wedding do you wear shorts and a tshirt because its comfortable? No, you want to look the part. A job is no different. I think its better to be over dressed then under dressed.

I work for a super casual company now. I wear a t-shirt and jeans to work every day. They actually asked me on my interview why I was wearing a suit. As soon as I spoke, they could tell I wasnt a stuck up stiff "suit". I showed some personality, smiled and laughed a bit. On the other hand I have seen people come through here in hoodies who get the job. But I would personally never wear anything less than a suit to an interview.
"The following blog post is from an independent writer and is not connected with Reuters News. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by Reuters.com."
The guidelines are short enough that they could go on the actual http://news.ycombinator.com/submit page or at the very least there should be a link to http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html there.
Most of the advice here is bad, IMO. It reminds me of the 'build it and they will come-- marketing, messaging, and salesmanship doesn't matter" advice you see from a lot of neophyte product developers.

Find out who you're interviewing with and learn about the company. Founded by a hacker or MBA? Are they casual at work or no? Do they like golf or D&D? A 20 person company should be quite google-able-- learn about your audience. Hell, find an excuse to drop by and look around.

A bit of research and salesmanship isn't a bad thing. You can call something a "steak" or you can call it a "muscle tissue sample from a castrated bull" (apologies to Robert Heinlein) -- which sounds better to you? There are great studies that indicate that the more you look like a person, the more they'll trust you. You don't have to be totally fake, but you can choose wisely within your wardrobe.

In terms of CV and cover letter, again-- do the research. If the reader has an MBA, err on the side of a bit more traditional. If he/she is an anthropology school dropout whose blog is vulgar and fun, be a bit more casual.

And-- what's wrong with asking questions? Call and say, "the places I'm considering positions at run the gamut between casual and formal in terms of attire. What's your company like on that front? If I wear slacks and a dress shirt to the interview, am I going to be the sharpest dressed person in the office?"
right off the bat, where tags meet did not make sense to me, i get the concept but that sentence needs to be clearer.

then i did a search for "hoodie" and was returned a whole list of tags, I didn't know what to do next. Then I scrolled down and saw the public tags from all the social sites, and clicked around a bit. I think these are the most relevant results. Then the second tag cloud could appear. Also it needs to highlight or emphasize the relevant tags, staring at a huge cloud of world is not intuitive and forces me to figure out what do do next. The concept has legs and could be very useful, U/I needs work to make it easy and useful.
I like the preview feature (when you scroll on a link and it displays the media)

I would work on communicating your idea to the user. What is this website about? What problem are you trying to solve (like others have said)? I wasn't entirely sure until after 4-5 minutes. Many people will probably spend less time trying to figure stuff out.

Finally, from a design perspective, the website looks kind of bare. Splash it with complementary, warm colors (instead of having white space and standard formats for hyperlinks all around). Users will be more inclined to explore the rest of the site that way.
Pinker seems to be on the other end of the academic spectrum from the SWH. For those who don't know linguistics, Chomsky was the driving force in modern linguistics. Last week I stumbled across this video, the first 15 minutes or so of such are a pretty good, easy to grasp intro to his ideas on universal grammar and the language faculty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnLWSC5p1XE
If I had to guess, I'd say he is sanitizing before it hits the database. Not cleaning it up before displaying it to the user, though.
Yes, that's the source of the symbols. Some people like them, some think they're unprofessional, yada yada. But I've never once had someone try to interpret "foo" as profanity...
would have more effect if written by PG or nickb, instead a person who has 12 karma and created their account an hour ago. I'm not saying this community doesn't need a refresher in discipline but who is this guy to give it.
guys, downmod him to -10, as a demonstration.

edit: or me, whatever floats your boat.
I woke up this morning with a very itchy and painful case of tags. I must have been surfing a particularly seedy corner of Web 2.0 last night.
his account name says he's not karma whoring. in other words, he made a new account just to avoid getting free karma on his main account.
Is it just me or do the 'references' bear little relevance to the post? I think I'll wait for more details to be released in a peer reviewed journal before I get excited.