skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I submitted a request for an invite, but I have a couple questions. Do you guys have a "light" mobile-version of your interface? What do you offer over Twitter and other would-be Twitter-killers?
Bill Gates's Secret to Success: Cheating
This will be controversial but there's a good point that Gates benefited tremendously from no one enforcing anti-trust laws. No company should ever get to a 90% market share - that's not good for the public.
I re-read Hamming's inspiring article every 6 months. It's given me a lot of courage.
What about Wii technology? Would you call the Wii outdated? Its CPU, GPU, etc. certainly are. Does that make it a bad console? A bad investment for nintendo?
Crap, I meant to upvote, not downvote, sorry. (I'm on an iPhone.)

I upvoted two of your other (great) comments.
It's all those pesky scientists building HPC clusters from PS3s and not even playing games on them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation_3_cluster
I've been CrossFitting for just over a year. My body fat % dropped from 22% to currently 11-12%.

So for me, it's CrossFit + Zone macro-nutrient balance + Paleo.
IBM's Noise Free Nano Lab
ICANN also moves forward its internationalized domains. Look forward to .測試 in 2009!
Well, yes, but the fact that it even has comments should be a giveaway. People are asking for the shirt two days later.
I bring this up since this news seems to be drowned because of custom TLDs. If you're looking to target an internationalized audience in 2009, make sure you realize that domain names are no longer limited to lower ASCII now.

For more information, check out: http://idn.icann.org/ . They already have some test domains to try out.
More than that, I like my plumbing and my electrical systems to be completely separate. Yeah, Yeah, I know all about GFCI, but how much power does all that stuff take and exactly where is it all pointing???

Plain old flush toilet for me thanks.
The interesting thing is I counted about 17 instances of "make something people want" in pg's essays and the number of times the individual words are used is much much higher:

742 make
753 something
1589 people
719 want

fyi, here's the Ruby code for grabbing the text of all the essays:

require 'open-uri'
require 'hpricot'

text = ""

listing = Hpricot(open("http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html"))

(listing/"font"/"a").each do |a|
url = a.attributes["href"]

puts url

essay = Hpricot(open("http://www.paulgraham.com/"+url))
essay.search("script").remove
essay.search("link").remove
essay.search("meta").remove
essay.search("style").remove

text += essay.inner_text.gsub(/[\n\r]/, " ") + " "

end

File.open("pg.txt", 'w') { |f| f.write(text) }
Seesmic Now Available On MovableType
No,
uo eu oeu oeu oeu oeu oeu ;)
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. If nothing else, PG now has some sweet cover art for his next book.
i'll defend the name, as it passes a few of my tests (here is another list):

First, the name suggests something about the product. When many people hear "office", they think "business" and "MS Office". When i hear zilla, i think of Mozilla, and the connotations are "free" and "quality". these connotations are perfect for a free calendaring and collaboration tool. "sharecircle" wouldn't provide the same associations with business and quality.

Second, the name is spellable without explanation.

Third, its memorable/differentiated

Fourth, you can grow into it. its not "calendarzilla"

fifth, its not too long
Jaguar Marketing Products Revealed
Never before seen product details of the elusive Jaguar Marketing System. The best home business ever to hit the web. With a 45 day, full money-back profit guarantee. Get real!
Hello,
Mr.S78648007

I am come to your life .

i am not professional .
Yeah but that might have been a lucky shot? PS2 maybe has a cult following because of the games, but what does the PS3 have to achieve the same?
Nintendo was way smarter by focusing on the quality of the games. I assume someone buying a PS3 is more interested in the special effects than the gameplay, therefore they would be more likely to switch to more powerful systems. Just my wild guess, though.
I love your page design - it's beautiful. Have given you my email address for an invite & look forward to trying it out.

I think it would have been better to wait until you are allowing users to sign up before posting to news.yc - apart from your very nice design I can't really give you the user feedback you are asking for.
[F(x) for x in S if P(F(x))]
I think recent research has shown that less frequent but longer workouts are as effective as more frequent shorter workouts. Previously it was believed that more frequent workouts are required to improve fitness.
http://kwippy.com/dipankar
We opened our pages for public viewing , sorting out a few things before the big launch
> What do you offer over Twitter

No "fail whale"?
You're right about technology being a lever and the importance of using it. Which is exactly the reason I believe we should try working on designing bigger better levers, and not just applying existing levers to existing problems.
Should you invest in the long tail?
Potential, Ariel Schrag. An autobiographical comic book written by a straight/bi/lesbian/queer girl about her junior year of high school. Totally changed my ideas about honesty in writing.
http://www.amazon.com/Potential-Ariel-Schrag/dp/094315104X

The Eighteenth Emergency, Betsy Byars. Re-read this when I was an adult and realised how brilliantly Byars does dialogue, and how she builds the whole millieu around it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eighteenth-Emergency-Betsy-Byars/dp/...

Goodbye To Berlin, Christopher Isherwood. A memoir of Isherwood's time in pre-Nazi Germany. The most beautiful prose I have ever read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_to_Berlin
Skip Lists: A Probabilistic Alternative to Balanced Trees
Cycling 30 miles a day, and avoiding processed foods.
Yeah, whole grains are good for 'ya. I usually have brown rice with dinner, but from time to time I am in the mood for this:

http://store.kashi.com/heritage_pilaf.aspx?SID=1&Categor...;

It ends up a bit gummier than brown rice, though, probably because I don't have a water line for "7 grain Pilaf" on my rice cooker.
Thinking Like a Programmer
A Student's Guide to Software Engineering Projects - Free eBook
My programming rules 2.2
Building a Python Web Application, Part 1
I bought the PS3 because of blu-ray support, ability to run Linux and built-in wifi. If I was really a hard-core games and wanted latest and greatest special effects I would have built a desktop gaming machine. I expect the PS3 to stay relevant for several years, especially as programmers learn to better utilize the Cell processor.
10 ways to make Mac OS X suck less
So point out a couple for things where he is wrong, according to research? That would actually be interesting. Also, Joel does quote research results in his essays.
Facebook, ConnectU settle dispute
Unless you expect your height to change is there really any point to tracking your BMI in addition to your weight? Wouldn't your % body fat be better?
as an aside, the author of Wordle, Jonathan Feinberg, played drums for Lisa Loeb and They Might Be Giants.

http://www.mrfeinberg.com
But how do you quantify groundbreaking? A lot of research can't be qualified as such until many years later, after a field has built on the foundation laid by the originator.
Interactive 360º Light Field Display
Steven Levy - Artificial Life (still want to do research in this area)

Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide (tipped my decision to study mathematics)

Alice Miller - most of her books (makes me view other people in an entirely different light - maybe these books should be way on top of my list)

Richard Dawkins - Blind Watchmaker (Evolution shows everywhere)

Albert Camus - Myth of Sisyphus (although I only read the first couple of pages, still seems the only approach to the "meaning of life" possible. Helped me against depression)

Walt Disney (or actually Carl Barks) - Donald Duck stories, a very good encouragement for wild imagination. Read those a lot as a kid.

Jules Verne - science and adventure...

...
So basically the judge ordered zuck to give the connectU guys some money and options.
Demon Haunted Word -- Carl Sagan
How to organize the room
Porn turning iPhone into iPorn
Facebook asks users to declare sex
PS sold 1995-2006, Original Xbox 2001-2005.

And don't forget the Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony are losing money on each machine only to make it up in game royalties (except for the Wii which actually sells at a profit), and games are still sold a couple of years after a platform is discontinued.
The XBox still has not made a profit. MS has turned the corner where they aren't still losing money on every unit, but it looks unlikely they'll ever recover their losses on this generation console (the last generation was a money loser too).
It is a cool structure, but not a practical one because it is very cache-unfriendly. I'm surprised Wikipedia doesn't mention this.
I don't think you are a typical customer, running Linux. Cell processor, sure, maybe building clusters out of cheap used PS3s will remain relevant for a while, but that is also nothing that will earn billions for Sony. And even the cell will be improved upon or get competition (like graphic cards)?
Although the article's title is off (no "best question" is ever given), I'll offer up the question with which I've had the best luck.

I ask the candidate to describe what they've currently been working on (sadly, this alone filters out a lot of people). Once I understand, I make up a feature that I'd like to add, and then I ask them to task it out and estimate how long the tasks would take. Depending on how bright the candidate is, you can poke at their suggested implementation to see if there's any good alternatives, if they understand the associated scaling or performance issues, etc. etc.

Interviews are highly imperfect at best, but this has worked well for me. Your mileage may vary...
There are cases in which your dataset is larger than the cache, y'know.
Hi, this is a great resource. Only one suggestion: it would be great to also combine web server access logs with this info. It would allow all sorts of research based on real evidence (traffic).
Wow! Thanks!!
Odd... this page is broken in safari.
Yes, tracking body fat would definitely be better; alas, there is no simply, videogame-like way to keep track of body fat (that I know of).
Find a gym that is on your route home. The days when you skip your workout, you will walk/drive/ride by and feel extremely lazy for not stepping in.
fantastic, and pg's essays are great. but why is this so important? please, please, please, please, please, please, please don't become sycophants. that's what makes these social link sites so terrible.
Looks pretty nice. Twitter clone with a cute name.

How are you testing the scaling ability?
So his device basically detects any "peer-to-peer-like" traffic, regardless of protocol, and caps it, simply because there's a lot of it?

How is this fundamentally different from the current, pretty-clearly-evil techniques employed by ISPs like Comcast to look inside customers' packets and make value judgments about them? I admit I don't know exactly what the device in question does, but how is this possibly a good thing for the Internet at large?
I was at RailsConf as a Rails outsider (and there were a lot of us). Does Rails want to go mainstream? There are only so many Ruby hackers out there; and a lot more Java/corporate programmers.
It really surprised me that full-text search isn't easier on a Google-created cloud solution. Search is their bread and butter, you'd think this functionality would be a part of the default libraries Google created.
I run. I ran 3 miles this morning.

When I'm at my best, I'm eating nearly vegan and I feel great. I also avoid sodas and get lots of sleep.

I'm not at my best right now. :-)
Fixing Internet Explorer & AJAX
I'm a bleeding-heart romantic. I used to be a workaholic - had an emotional relationship with work - now we're just good friends.

If work doesn't make you happy, it can give you the means - it can give you the financial support to do the things that make you and others happy.

I'm learning over and over (loop) that trying to look at things as black and white, good or bad can make you unhappy, which is why reading this essay gives me concern - I think Danielle is much like me - I want to change the world - but I'm starting to think my lever might not be technology - I don't know if I have the talent and commitment to get hired by a startup/start a startup. After doing code for my day job, coming home at night, I'd rather go out and dance Salsa so I become a better dancer (not just a guy who goes through patterns, but one who dances and has a connection with his partner). Though I do think I can make little cool web apps like twistori/twittervision and I will once I become more efficient (e.g. Ruby over Java)). I really think my lever might be connecting with people and telling stories.

Danielle - Thanks for the essay. You are eloquent and understated.
Skip lists are one of my favourite data structures. They're slower than balanced trees, but ridiculously simple to implement.
I meant to link to William Pugh's original paper when posting, but submit doesn't seem to take FTP links:
ftp://ftp.cs.umd.edu/pub/skipLists/skiplists.pdf
The US Navy uses the following equation to determine the percentage of body fat:

%Fat=495/(1.0324-.19077(log(abdomen-neck))+.15456(log(height)))-450

Appearently they did a study on how precise it is, "Comparison of Circumference-and Skinfold-Based Body Fat Estimation Equations", where they compared their formula with several other methods for body fat estimation, against a baseline set by hydrostatic weighting. I couldn't find the full text online (at least not for free), but the abstract is here:

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPr...

Quote: "For men, the Navy equation was the best predictor of body fat determined by hydrostatic weighing."

So all you need to track your body fat is a measuring tape plus a pen and a pad. That's too much of an effort for me, though, so I use one of the web-based calculators, e.g.

http://www.dietandfitnesstoday.com/body-fat-percentage-calcu...

(you need to allow JS to use it).
Wet chemistry on the Martian surface
Opinions differ on the anti-trust thing... Personally, I don't understand it. I don't think anybody was forced to sign the contract.
I would look into Amazon Webstore as well, just to see if it meets your needs. It is less customizable in terms of changing the code, but it definitely encourages purchases, which Amazon has down pretty good, and you can also probably get a few products that you might not want to stock, and sell them on commission. You can always build the social part over the store, with people only going there to purchase something.
I'm glad someone else saw it. I thought it was one of my Greasekit scripts.
I find the controversy around this a little odd. URLs are practically arbitrary strings. All they're doing is generalizing the last bit.
...hordes of unambitious, lackluster people...

Well said! Sadly, this is a fairly common situation for people trying to rise above what's typical and do something great. I now try to be very selective about who I share my intentions with, at least until I have something to show for it; to wit, when they try to persuade me "you can't do that" I can demonstrate that "I already did".
If I was a spammer or SEO, I would be figuring out every possible way - whether shady or not - to get someone to bookmark my page in Google Bookmarks.
Haha.. +1 to the Dead Kennedys video :)
Toronto Indie Game Jam: Office Smash Game! [unity plugin]
Forget native scripts, I lust for dingbat domains. How about http://xn--y3h.com ? Oh look, it is already being squatted.

Darn it, now I'll need to waste an hour trying to register pretty but untypeable domains. Curse you hacker news.
I too live in NYC, recently transplanted from Seattle. I coughed up the (not insignificant) cash in order to get a gym and make sure to work out every morning as a start to my day. Do at least 30 minutes of cardio at a good clip (most machines give you numbers, so try to burn 400 calories at least). Lift some weights too, because it increases muscle mass, which will increase your metabolism.

If you're really into something prescriptive, I highly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Core-Performance-Revolutionary-Workout...

I know the cover looks cheesy, but it's actually really well written and very detailed (it tells you on a daily basis what to do). Workouts are an hour long, six days a week, and they incorporate flexibility and injury prevention exercises, which are quite important.

For diet, here in NYC I stop by Whole Foods or something similar right after the gym and make my own salad. Almost always, it's purely vegetarian. Make sure you get a lot of greens in there, and as many other colors of vegetables as you can.

Dinner is a highly social meal, and I end up messing it up often.

I do miss all of Seattle's outdoors though ...
Five soundtracks for rainy weekends
So... How much happier were you when .info, .biz, or .name opened up? Why would the new TLDs be any more desirable? And, if they are, what stops squatters from snatching them up as they have done with the current set of domains?

As far as I can see, any change in the availability of "good names" is temporary. The long-term effects of new TLDs are (1) more money for ICANN, (2) more confusion on the part of the users as to whether a given piece of text is a domain name, and (3) more phishing sites.
.anydomainnameyouwant soon to be available for purchase
I eat food, not much, mostly plants. And for exercise I do offroad cycling.
The hits and misses of Microsoft
I think they also lost money from people using it as a blue ray player. But they won the HD-DVD war which is probably worth a lot more than 3billion.
Can modern software be snappy?
Money and power are (in most cases) synonyms though.

Converting money into power isn't hard - if you had $100m you could direct a lot of people to your own ends. The fact that most people expend this power on making more money is a correlation not a cause.

Equally converting power into money is trivial, with just a few megawatts available and some crocodile clips you can get almost any banker to agree to hand over his cash ;)
Well, quite. It's worth noting that the anti-monopoly laws are retrospective, which means you can be found guilty of things that were not illegal at the time you did them.

If the democratic will of the People is that the government regulates business that's one thing, but retrospective laws are just insidious. A level playing field up front is the only fair way.
eval(’foo=a’, obj.fn); How you aren’t private in Firefox
Open Source PHP Chart Library: pChart
Antitrust or not, most Gates biographies I've read touch on aspects of cheating or questionable ethics. Microsoft has a history of using predatory pricing through OEM distribution and/or giving products away to establish its monopolies.
Reminds me of John D. Rockefeller's agreement with shippers.Gates must have studied history.

Regardless, ultimately Microsoft lost the US antitrust lawsuit and is no longer dominant in the era of the Internet.

Much of the money he earned would end up funding good causes so I feel there is some justice in all of this.
There is some benefit to having non-arbitrary strings for URLs.

For one thing, if you see the text "interslice.com" on a business card or in an advertisement, you have some reassurance that it is a website. If you just have the text "interslice", the reader needs additional prompting to know it is a website.

Likewise, if you see someone's e-mail address listed as "bob@us.interslice.c", you can tell just by looking at it that there's probably something wrong with it -- maybe you can even diagnose and fix the problem yourself. But you can't do this for arbitrary strings, which carry no such redundancy.
That is the most common reason for using a cache in the first place, so you seem to be stating the obvious. Am I missing something?

If I remember right, skip lists are unfriendly to caches (compared to balanced search trees) because they don't optimize locality of reference. This matters, for example, when your huge dataset is on disk and you're trying to cache the working set in memory. In a skip list, related elements don't end up on the same page as often, which means you have to read more data than you need from disk, and read from the disk more often.
I'm sure no one was "forced" to sign the contract, but by not signing it and agreeing to Microsoft's terms, you could not distribute Windows and other Microsoft products with your computer..
if they're paying out $1M then it's not exactly free, is it?
Skip writing the book - someone already did. It's called "The Hacker's Diet", and the guy who's responsible for AutoCAD wrote it.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/
5 IT skills that wont boost your salary
but he didn't say that all spirits that have found violent opposition were great.
Verizon CEO's plan to beat Steve Jobs - hope he retires
CSS General Sibling Combinator in action
Meet the man behind "zombies": Q&A with Facebook's most popular developer
Even though this decision is way too controversial, I welcome it because (1) it's more democratic and (2) the old situation with limited TLDs can't be justified.

One problem with the existing domain name system is that it failed to provide strict delegation of names the way digital certification does, for example, or the way the IP address delegation works. So why bother having a limited set of TLD's at all?

In fact, USENET's hierarchy has always been more open in this regard and needless to say, it worked.

I just hope they'll preserve .local and I don't care about the rest. We'll surely remember the good names (reddit.com, slashdot.org, etc) the way we remember good USENET groups, and will leave the rest to the search engines.
5 CSS Tips to Make IE (You) Happy
If I could, I'd give you a special present this christmas - I'd tell you how to make IE on Windows behave like a grown-up browser. Sadly, reality sucks - as does IE on Windows - so I can only offer to share with you a couple of CSS tips to ease the pain of working with that piece of crappy software.
idea != execution
Outlook Support
Experience the Best Microsoft Outlook Email Troubleshooting with iYogi on 1-800-237-3901 and get certified technicians to rectify email errors and problems, email troubleshoot, outlook and outlook express email problems, Eudora problems, computer support over the phone and via remote access
A couple GC algorithms in more detail
I'm actually surprised they (ConnectU) won this case (or Zuck buckled), from the sounds of things a new social network idea was "in the air" at the time and several teams were close to launching something similar.

Who's to say ConnectU had an exclusive "right" to this idea? They simply hired a freelance coder aka consultant to hack away and surprise he though it was a good idea and made his own (apparently more popular) version.
Well yes, that is true, but if you happen to know upfront that you're going to be accessing your data randomly, and that for whatever reason you can't cache it all, then you should optimize for that case. If on the other hand, you know that you're going to have hotspots then you can size your cache accordingly. Choosing before you know (or have had a chance to observe) is a premature optimization.