skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Because it is either the startup scene is in such a bad state that Pownce (which is one of the worst me-too startups I've seen) is among the exciting startups to watch or the writer of the article has little knowledge of startups and innovating technology in general.

I prefer to believe the latter, I believe there are quite a few exciting and innovating startups to watch out there.
Defense industry brain drain: the Pentagon can't hire or retain engineers
I have to admit I was more than a bit shocked to see that Bezos co-led this round. Unless he's really hoping that since it's one of the most visible sites using AWS he really wants to see it succeed?
What I love about this story is that a Lieutenant in an out-state Sheriff's department saw a hard problem that needed solving and wrote software to help solve it and save lives. The guy is one of us and probably doesn't even know it.
I'm always amused when someone uses the word "intuitive" to mean "familiar to me".
The truth is that computer programming skills are a commodity and that the silicon valley culture is no longer relevant to big problems. The world has moved on, the same way it has moved on from industrial and agrarian economies. These silicon valley folks are as desperate and clueless about solving todays big problems as the corporate people were about solving the big problems silicon valley sprang up to solve.

Getting them to understand is like yelling at water not to flow downhill.
Is anyone else trying to bridge the gap between sms and the internet the way twitter is? I can't help but think Bezos sees twitter as an infrastructure service and not a micro-blogging service.
Right. They don't perfect everything. But they always do an impressive job. Far better than most. Here's something Raph Koster recorded Rob Pardo (Blizzard VP) saying at a conference once. I thought it was good:

"The Blizzard polish. Polish is the word associated with us in reviews. There’s this big assumption that polish is something you do in the end. That we’re successful because we spend 6-12 months at the end polishing. We do get more time, but we do the polish right from the beginning. It’s a constant effort. You have to have a culture of polish. Everyone has to be bought into it and you have to constantly preach it. if you leave it to the end, it’ll be more difficult.

You’ll get a lot of “why does it matter that this feature is polished? It’s so small.” But people notice 1000s of polished features, not the single polished feature."
HP Scrawlr: Harmlessly inject yourself to find your sql injection vulnerabilities
"... most artists would rather their work be widely appreciated than it make a lot of money (any money?)."

On what do you base this claim?
i think it's simply that Blizzard actually thinks about what they're doing. i played various MMORPG's, and many of them had such obvious game design no nos -- like losing experience upon death

it's as if the companies were just shoving together a collection of "challenging things," and thinking they were making a game

so i guess those companies were trying to manufacture games, while blizzard crafts them
I'd say "entertainment" is a service. Although entertainment can be a distraction, it's a) not necessarily a distraction; b) a component of being entertainment. Purely (or at least mainly) being a distraction isn't a service. And it's hard to think of most "social networks" as much of anything more than a distraction.

Really, of the major social networks, I can't think of one that does anything that's not done better somewhere else. And, at least so far, no social networking site has combined those services in a synergistic way.
There are very few newspapers or magazines that don't rely on advertising revenue, why shouldn't websites? Advertising isn't something that was invented on the web.
If anyone is still using my splitview tool: http://www.nirmalpatel.com#hnsplitview I've fixed it as well.
Supply and demand.

The same survey showed the average annual starting salary in finance and high-tech was more than $70,000, compared with $37,000 at the Defense Department. The average in the defense industry was $61,000.

Beyond salaries, I suspect bad workplace environments can have their toll.
Thinking about relocating for work? Some pros and cons...
I agree it's better to be concrete. Do your research ahead of time and see what you're worth!
All for the want of a cellphone pixel.
Let me know if you find some better ones too!
The map is tiny for the task. When I click on a pin for a company, the info bubble fills the screen, invariably moves the map, and it's difficult to get back to map without the bubble.

They need to make the map much bigger for this to live up to its promise. It really detracts from an otherwise excellent idea and implementation.
Hey Andrew, can you please add a "Hide 'flag' link" option in your GM script?

(we can reduce clutter when we don't need to see this)
Is that Leah Culver on the cover?
Having spent half of the past 10 years addicted to MMO's, I can tell you:

Addiction via immersion and frequent incremental rewards.

One: you immerse the user in the game environment so that all of their attention is focused on the game world.

Two: using that focus, you provide a system wherein there is the constant availability of incremental rewards. In games like WoW, every single minute spent goes toward achieving a specific incremental reward. You kill a monster: you get a reward (loot + experience), you go to the nearest town: you get new quests. The key is to have a near-term action (< 5 minutes) available to the user at ALL TIMES where they can achieve some kind of small reward. Larger incremental rewards (levels, skills, raids) are available to keep attention once the smaller rewards become rote.

Look at anything that's ever been called addictive- not just video games. I bet that they share these two traits, and their addictiveness is directly proportional to how well they accomplish these goals.

Can these be applied to a facebook app? Maybe. Would you look sleazy trying to do it with a facebook app? Definitely.
they add instances occasionally and new gear every 5-9 months, and there's another expansion pack in the works (wrath of the lich king).
High-technology brain drain takes heavy toll on U.S. military projects
Should have used weebly.
Compact Oxford English Dictionary, I think.
That's Unicode 3.0 if you are referring to the shelf on the left, above the stereo.
The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn't Just More — More Is Different
The Margin Manifesto: 11 Tenets for Reaching (or Doubling) Profitability in 3 Months
Sorting the World: Google Invents New Way to Manage Data
Have you ever used meebo?

It's one case where I think the metaphor works quite well.
This article seems more like PR on behalf of Doostang than it is an analysis of the business models of Doostang or LinkedIn. The HN community seems to occasionally discuss LinkedIn, but I have yet to read any analysis/ discussion on Doostang. Does anyone out there use Doostang or know anything about their business model?
I was invited to join about 9 months ago, but soon found the site to be not quite as elite as they professed due to the fact that I was expected to spam my friends with Doostang invites in order to gain access to other parts of the site. This was quite annoying and I quickly dismissed Doostang as illegitimate. Thoughts on the Doostang model?
Yes, but not Valley hipsters so no one pays attention. SMS isn't even a big part of Twitter--most of their traffic goes through the API.
Yes. There wasn't any responses from YouNoodle + I'm hoping to find a Co-Founder for a new project that is non-related to Simplebucket.
Why is WoW successful?

(1) They started with the successful and highly addictive Everquest format.

(2) They used a small number of classes, carefully and creatively allocating abilities to each one in order to make that class fun to play: either solo or in a group. They also tweaked the mana/melee balance to be more flexible and interesting and combat was generally faster paced than in other MMORPGs.

(3) They set the bar for failure lower, and the penalty for failure was less punishing. This encouraged less-hardcore players to experiment more and try different things, rather than always sticking to the safest tactic.

(4) They designed for PvP from the start.

(2) + (3) + (4) = Replayability. People log in to play WoW because it's fun to play not just because they want to hit the next level.

(5) They used frequent, incremental rewards so that players logged out always having felt as if they accomplished something.

(6) They started with a huge Warcraft fanbase, and marketed to their audience with hip, exiting videos and information.

(7) They kept system requirements LOW. They focused on getting realism through animations and colorful symbolism rather than high poly counts. They avoided the "uncanny valley" of character models while delivering a game that players could play on the hardware they already owned.

(8) They marketed the game worldwide.

(9) The game loads quickly, once it's patched. You can decide you want to play WoW and be online in a minute or so. (Others may be better now, but when WoW came out EQ took 5-10 minutes from desktop to spawning in-game)

(10) Instanced content made it easy to avoid the more annoying social aspects of an MMORPG. Fighting for spawns was fun in EQ, but that's not needed in WoW because the combat engine is better.
Thank you for the great article. One of the best in while.
That's because you aren't going to a new page. The entire interface never reloads.
Indeed, the sickest thing about this story is that it's the missing dot that's emphasized instead of mass killing with knives over words.
TSA's New Queue Sorting Methods: Great UE Case Study
It is nifty, it's not mine however. It was made by Xichekolas http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Xichekolas
I couldn't agree more. I call this ORYO: Only Repeat Yourself Once. Actually, I often put comments in my code marking places I've already repeated myself (saying 'ORYO' plus a reference, if needed).
Crucial:
Very fast (especially international)
Great Quality
Great Prices
Genuine Guarantee
http://www.realitywanted.com

Read about them in my local paper. They actually charge for premium features.
What You Can't Say Will Hurt You
I agree with most of this. EQ's "hell levels" are something of a red herring, however, given your point about the game becoming dull. Hell levels were more of an annoying glitch. Everquest didn't become dull because of hell levels, it became dull because most classes didn't have enough to do in typical combat situations.

Big penalties for failure, a low tolerance for minor mistakes, and a limited set of tools for players to win with meant that typical combat scenarios tended to have very little variance. Players usually did the same thing every time. In WoW there's a lot more room to experiment and recover from mistakes without losing the battle. The result is that for most people, battle tends to be more dynamic.
Ubuntu mobile 8.04 first public release
Twellow: The People Search That Twitter Should’ve Built
Unicode is good for your health.
I would suspect that many people object to working on projects that ultimately wind up being used to kill other people.
BarCamp Nairobi Technology Survey
My girlfriend did just that. The band's first show is this Saturday at http://www.creepycrawl.com/ (her band is called Mondair).

I hope that it's still possible to "make it" in today's music world.
I use newegg.com, mostly because I'm really, really picky about ECC- I use unbuffered ECC in everything. Only a little more expensive than non-ecc- the biggest problem is that most places don't stock it. newegg does.

If I was using non-ecc, I'd wait for a sale at Fry's (though I'd still make sure to buy corsair or crucial or some other reputable brand) - I get most of my hard drives at Fry's- I tried ordering 'em from newegg, and the packaging (on the hard drives) was horribly bad. the drives were ok, but that was luck.
Permission Marketing, Success Magazine Interviews Seth Godin
"... Here's a random idea... Display a text box that requires a reason for flagging the post or comment. ..."

It's not a bad idea but it has the same problem as trying to describe why you like something instead of agreeing. I know there's a talk by Barry Schwartz on decision theory ~ http://www.google.com/search?q=paradox+of+choice that argues against explaining instead of just choosing. A flag is enough. People around here are pretty smart. The reasons why will mostly be obvious.

The only thing I don't like is it ius close to the "delete","parent" tag. My clumsy mouse-hands might hit it by mistake.
I understand the technical reason for the behavior. It'd be awesome if the back button worked anyway.

http://www.contentwithstyle.co.uk/Articles/38/fixing-the-bac...
"A: Over the last several months, hackers have been using automated tools to perform mass exploitation of hundreds of thousands of websites. The attackers are using Google to find web applications built using Microsoft’s Active Server Pages and then performing SQL Injection attacks against these sites injecting various types of malware which are subsequently served to unsuspecting visitors. Scrawlr was specifically designed to help web developers test their website for SQL injection vulnerabilities that could be exposed to an attacker through a search engine. As such, Scrawlr crawls a websites using the same techniques as a search engine: it doesn’t keep state, or submit forms, or execute JavaScript or Flash. To fully test your web application for SQL Injection and other web vulnerabilities requires the use of a full featured web vulnerability scanner such as HP WebInspect."

Surprise! A vulnerability is in the news, and a product company has released a teaser product to address 5% of it!

HP Security is SPI Dynamics. SPI WebInspect was the best-regarded web security scanner. But WebInspect is also the bane of the industry; as with all scanner products, charlatan consultants run them, interpret the results, and call it a (billable) day. Scrawlr looks like a fiercely cut-back version of the same product.
TC: Send Us Your iPhone App Demo Video
However, there's not really a "go-to" place right now with a large amount of traffic from people looking for independent music.

I've been "going to" emusic for years for all of my music. And it's the third (was second before Amazon moved into the market) largest vendor of online music (in volume, I think).

That doesn't deflate your argument, at all, I just wanted to mention it...as I absolutely adore emusic. They also seem to have good relationships with very small labels and wholly independent artists (i.e. artists not even signed to an "indy" label--they just make it themselves and sell it through emusic and other online stores).
Hmm... The software apparently didn't pass the Turkey Test.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001075.html
Anecdotal evidence in support of your request, I just had the following happen:
Read a headline I'm interested in. Looked at the flag button because it's new and interesting. Decided to check out the comments for the headline...And clicked flag.

Maybe incidence of this will go down in the future, but the link I'm least likely to click is right next to the one I'm most likely to click, so the mistake is easy.
I think one could look at some of the VC industry in the same way, though most entrepreneurs I know are not quite as wide-eyed or ignorant about the industry as most musicians. And, of course, VCs don't ask for 85-90% of the companies they fund...which is roughly the deal record labels offer bands.
Baby's 60th Birthday: first stored-program computer
Ah, now see -- this is the kind of creativity the article was lacking.
Evil Captcha
From the site:
" * Will only crawls up to 1500 pages
* Does not support sites requiring authentication
* Does not perform Blind SQL injection
* Cannot retrieve database contents
* Does not support JavaScript or flash parsing
* Will not test forms for SQL Injection (POST Parameters)"

I'd say items 2 and 6 on that last make this tool pointless for the majority of Web apps...
Next 10 people to upmod me? Free SQL injection refrigerator magnets. At least as useful as Scrawlr, if not more so!

http://www.matasano.com/log/1073/the-web-pest-poet/

I'm not above buying my karma! =)
Create a righteously awesome blog that really shows your spirit. All serious employers are going to hit it up and that's what they want to see: is this dude going to be a blast to work with or a freaking nutjob?

Definately get to work on the portfolio, but you don't need two dozen pieces. Two great pieces are plenty.
The Napster of Medicine
Nice to see Wired dialing back up the naive techno-triumphalism. How long until the next bubble bursts?
It appears both comments and posts have the "flag". I can understand flagging spam posts but comments already have the upvote/downvote mechanism.

Does it really make sense to "flag" comments?
Firefox 3.0 boosts Mozilla's market share
I hope that it's still possible to "make it" in today's music world.

It's more possible than ever, but the definition of "make it" has changed dramatically. 20 years ago, "making it" meant "millions of albums sold"--think David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac. A few others eked out a decent living, but the people getting rich had to sell a lot of records and fill a lot of stadiums. And there were only a handful of artists that got that chance.

Now, it's possible for someone to sell a few tens of thousands records, fill a few mid-size concert venues, and make an excellent living. One can entirely skip the music industry BS. You still need to book shows, and you still need to promote, and you still need to work hard...but it's now possible for a middle tier act, with recordings to sell, to come to the end of a tour and be in the black.

Superchunk are a great example of just this shift in the industry. They started indie, signed to a major, and went back to being indie because they made a lot more money that way (and now they own/run Merge, one of the more successful truly indie labels--Spoon, Arcade Fire, She & Him, Destroyer, etc. are all Merge bands). A lot of acts since then have followed their lead. The second and third generation of punk rock bands, as well as independent hip hop acts, kind of paved the way for this and there are now plenty of examples of acts that make a good living and don't have to answer to a major label. So far, it doesn't seem to work for pop (in all its forms...country pop, electronic pop, rock pop, etc.) and those genres still require a sales channel that can be stuffed and a hype machine in order for anyone to make any money. That'll probably die eventually, as the mainstream buyer strays into more widely varied territory due to ease of access on the web, and good riddance to bad rubbish.
all barriers to doing something do, in fact, matter. the more barriers, the less people will use the flag.

just like any tiny barrier to signing up for your website is important.
how about un-upvote or un-downvote? can we have that please?
There are some things man was not meant to know.
Austin may have lost thousands of high-tech jobs, but remaining ones pay well
yes, so spam comments can be deleted and the account banned.
I shouldn't have to unlock my garage; it should identify my car by the same way my car identifies my keys as soon as it gets within range, and open automatically.

Think about this for a few more minutes and you will figure out the failure modes. Here's one for free: You can no longer drive past your house without the door opening, at which point you will have to press a button to close the door.

I guess you could have the door close itself when it senses that you've gone out of range. But: what if you own two cars, and the other one is parked in the driveway? Consumers are not going to want to have to solve a logic puzzle to figure out if their garage door is going to be open or closed.
YDN: Yahoo Developer Network
I can relate. My parents have always taken great pleasure in telling my girlfriends how I was "diagnosed" as mentally retarded in the first grade (I already knew how to read at a 4th grade level, and they mistook my boredom for something else).

But hey...someday you'll be able to take some pleasure from this. Whenever your son does something stupid as a teenager (and he will), you can just trot it out as evidence that "the teachers were right all along". Works like magic. ;-)
I won't go into stuff on what's wrong with the industry, etc. But do want to share that there's a really good resource that has been embraced by the industry for many years called "All You Need to Know About the Music Business" by Donald Passman:

http://www.amazon.com/Need-Know-About-Music-Business/dp/0684...

It has been revised recently (i.e. for the "internet age") but may require another update soon.

Nice find on the ol' Negativland tho =)
I am always looking for some API and can't seem to find it. This is a nice collection of all that yahoo has to offer.
not reading the social web? (I kid)
Disney Looks to Make Its Site Young Again
Girl Talk is an artist from Pittsburgh that has "made it" by the new definition. He doesn't sell very many records, because they are kind of illegal so he intentionally stays under the radar, but he can sell out 2000 person venues. His new record came out -- it's a meticulously edited pop/hip-hop mashup album. It is as mainstream sounding as something solidly outside of the mainstream can get.

http://74.124.198.47/illegal-art.net/__girl__talk___feed__th...
The mythical "Vista application" -- why lack of .Net adoption is Microsoft's real app-dev problem
But that's the "fun" part. People brutally stabbing each other is booooring!

In reality, I'm sure this guy would have murdered someone else anyway. I don't think one text message is enough to drive a sane person to attempt murder. The phrase "ticking time bomb" comes to mind.
Sometimes my mouse slips and I accidentally downmod an excellent comment.

Would you write better code if your text editor didn't have undo and you didn't use version control? Probably not.
> Now, as to whether there's a benefit to learning an entirely new language in order to do this, I'm not so sure. Why not extend (and simplify) PHP while still using PHP syntax and grammar, the way jQuery does for JavaScript?

jQuery can do this because, despite its quirks, JavaScript is actually a well designed programming language. It has goodies like closures, anonymous functions, and first class functions, so it is fairly extensible. PHP is just a glorified template language with wrappers to C functions.
Right thats the point to some degree. The technology won't be mind reading perfection, some effort on the part of the user will still be required. Without an affirmative user interaction, devices won't do anything be a ridiculous amount of pre-configured scripts which will become more cumbersome to manage than helpful.

The article could have been about how in the future everyone will live in floating bubbles which will wireless control everything in the world, but that is simply extrapolating on the on a trend that humans will physically interact less. This analysis takes into account what might actually happen on the horizon and what technologies are likely to make that happen.

It would be nice if the fridge had told the guy before he got home though.
The t-shirt idea is really good -- the website adds a lot of value at low cost.
This is hacker news (in more ways than one).
Amazon Shrugged?
If you want to get people in large corporations using your site, you have to support IE6 for a while longer I think. I've worked in a few of these, and they all move extremely slowly in upgrading. I can see some of them keeping IE6 for at least another year or more.