skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
How I lost 30 pounds in 2010. A simple guide for overweight hackers like me
http://zippykid.com/blog/2010/12/how-i-lost-30lbs-in-2010-a-weight-loss-guide-for-developers/

Having lost this weight has helped me considerably as an entrepreneur as well. I feel more confident, I'm more energetic, and I'm more focused.
Court Refutes Claim that Photos on Twitter Are Free For the Taking
Okay, we don't have an English word for it, we have to use two words instead: quality control. Just because someone decided to publish a book, it doesn't mean Amazon must sell it.

You can address that issue the same way author did it, by stating that Amazon sells stuff like "Hostel 2". Frankly, I haven't read the guys book and I haven't read Amazon's quality control policy (or whatever it's called) either, so I can't say whether the book fails the test. My point here is that most people commenting here can't say that either, for the same reasons. So why are some people so quick to side with the author and cry "censorship", when it might just be that his book is crap?
A poor economy doesn't help either. I think part of the fear is not being able to find other work to pay the bills so many of us settle for the current situation... or work on startups on the side!
The "I Don't Know What To Blog About" Myth
Canon's really come a long way with their software, I remember having to battle a lot of driver issues with their scanners under early versions of OS X.

Their camera platform is a lot more engaging to experimenters, too bad I hooked up with Nikon so early; I can't stand Canon's SLR controls.
Do people want your opinion?
When you say "I don't agree with this," are you saying that she is not reporting her experiences accurately? Most of the technical women I know say the same thing as she does. Body language and tone are a big part of it. Next time you're at a conference, look at how guys interact with your women friends -- and compare notes afterwards to see what you noticed and what you didn't.
You appear to have a very narrow definition of hacker. hh66 is one and so are the women in the Wired article.
I friend of mine at Google UK was issued with a privacy screen for his standard issue laptop and told on day one that he MUST use it whenever in a public space.

It was quite good. Sitting next to him in the pub I could see about 5% of his screen.
If it is simply immoral to you then why all these goings on about censorship and controlling the dissemination of information? By the way, your end piece about books and packets is incorrect. They are not alike at all and the motivations to "discriminate" against packets is very different from any motivation to discriminate against books. If anything, no one is charging you more to read the book with the title about rape than they are to let you read Charles Dickens.
Why Apple Will Be The First Company to Reach a Trillion Dollar Market Cap
WordPress 3.0, hands-down. Easy to install multiple blogs in one platform, each entirely independent of the others (including themes).

Domain mapping: http://ocaoimh.ie/?p=89495930

Getting started with 3.0 multi-site: http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2010/06/02/wordpre...

Another multi-site tutorial, perhaps slightly out of date: http://ottopress.com/2010/wordpress-3-0-multisite-domain-map...

It's easier these days thanks to 3.0's built-in multi-site support.

Hope this is helpful.
I would say that anecdote is more telling of the alleged climate in the United States, depending on how you read it.
Do you inform people of that? I mean, do you inform people that they will be removed for 30 days and unless they put things right they will be banned for longer?

Or do you remove them and not tell them at all, leaving them in the dark completley?
The first result on a Google search, but feel free to pick your favorite as the test still stands:
http://www.google.com/search?q=censorship&ie=utf-8&o...

Amazon is a media outlet but they are not suppressing his speech. They are not stopping him from publishing the work or even stopping him from writing it. They are choosing not to distribute it. Thus the suppression test fails and it is not censorship.
Yeah- the threat is very real for people underwater on their mortages, with huge student loans, or about to put kids through college. It definitely is an awful position to be in, but a lot of people are forced to do this to make ends meet. It's not just psychological disorder.
I'm old enough that my Mom was a keypunch operator and would bring me home bags of "square confetti" from the chads punched out of cards and also discarded keypunch cards to play with.

I may not have written my first program until I was 16-17, but I read my first IBM manuals around age 8 or so :-)

they were needed in the computer room. It was cold in there!

The other reason I liked going with her when she had to work Saturdays: it was always air-conditioned.
You'll probably like http://www.redmine.org/

From the website: Overview

* Multiple projects support
* Flexible role based access control
* Flexible issue tracking system
* Gantt chart and calendar
* News, documents & files management
* Feeds & email notifications
* Per project wiki
* Per project forums
* Time tracking
* Custom fields for issues, time-entries, projects and users
* SCM integration (SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and Darcs)
* Issue creation via email
* Multiple LDAP authentication support
* User self-registration support
* Multilanguage support
* Multiple databases support
This is very dubious. Women are only more "discerning" about men insofar as mate preferences go. If I were at a networking event or party, and I was seeking out men who offered good reproductive fitness potential, then examining the "hotness" of their companionship would be a good way to go.

However, I don't form business relationships based on reproductive fitness. Most people interested in building a successful enterprise don't, either.

I will allow exceptions for sperm banks and male escort services, though.
Reposting the article since it seems to be suffering server problems:

"Who will you French kiss this New Years?

Everyone knows that the week after Christmas (and before the new year) is pretty slow; at Grasshopper alone, I think at least half of our office is on vacation. Certainly a good time for a break, but if you’re like the folks at Moosejaw, it’s also a great time to experiment with some fun (and slightly bizarre) marketing. Case in point is the online retailer’s promotional email sent out today, cleverly titled, “New Year’s Eve Frenching Service.”

Frenching service?! Right away I’m interested, since this is not the typical “10% off today only!” email. Why would a retailer who sells The North Face and skiing gear send this out? Curiosity piqued, I open the email and find this:

So, what is this? This is a stellar example of the kind of creative marketing that everyone is looking for, and can’t figure out. Even though the email had nothing to do with the products they sell, here’s why it worked:

1. Amazing copywriting that grabs you. Groupon’s got over 100 writers. Why? Because they understand that they key to hooking people is with great, lively copy. Moosejaw’s email succeeds because the writing is hilarious, engaging, and completely irreverent. Most brands fail at emails like this because they play it safe with stiff, formal copy. Don’t. If you want to get noticed, include copy that grabs a reader’s attention.

2. Timely messaging. This fun “promotion” would only work at New Year’s or Valentine’s Day so the timing was perfect. Even better that this is a historically “slow” week for email, so I might actually read an email from an online retailer versus sending it to the trash.

3. Brand personality. Anyone can send an email with a deal, but this email is actually in line with the Moosejaw brand (which, if you know anything about their brand, is a little quirky, definitely different, yet still polished). When you get a box from Moosejaw, it is most likely reused (not recycled), the wrong size, and has lots of stickers on it. These people understand how to make their individuality work for them, and they attract customers who appreciate that level of quirkiness.

4. Trust in team members. I doubt this came from some marketing genius at Moosejaw, but instead, a team member that had a fun idea and was allowed to run with it. In a typical company you could never send an email like that to your valuable mailing list, but at Moosejaw, you can do it. Guess what? It works—after all, here I am writing this blog post about Moosejaw.com.

This is creative email marketing done right. Nice job, Moosejaw."

IMO they get creativity points, but it only takes one bad advertising campaign to do serious damage to your brand - think of Acclaim Entertainment's "Name Your Baby Turok" promotion that was run a long time ago: http://www.industrygamers.com/galleries/opinion-video-game-a...
Kevin Drum made a point that stuck with me in defense of TSA procedures (which I am otherwise inclined to find odious.)

That is that the political and cultural environment is such right now that if a plane goes down due to terrorism, the country is going to go crazy and clamp down really hard on civil liberties in a truly damaging way. So we should prefer measures that, while intrusive, are generally pretty limited.

He argues that it is all well and good to say that "planes will go down but that's a small price to pay", but when it actually happens, life will be worse for everyone.

The idealist in me is disappointed to consider this argument, but it seems pretty realistic.

It's towards the end of this blog post
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/11/my-tsa-anti-rant
Groupon Insiders Take $345 Million Off The Table In Latest Funding Round
2 letters.
Mobile Economics Will Trend Toward Web Economics
I think there are a lot of people with this viewpoint, that the current security theater is a waste of effort at best. I seem to read articles like this or articles advocating "Israelification" about once a week.

The thing that bothers me most is TSA has congressional oversight, but its actions are not laws. So who do we complain to? Some bureaucratic process decides we can't wear shoes, bring water bottles, or (the latest new rule) can't bring more than 16 oz. of printer cartridges through a checkpoint.

There's no debate, partisan or otherwise; there's no angry constituents. Instead it is the TSA who decides these things, and no congressman can be anti-TSA, because that's tantamount to being anti-security.

I'm also pretty sure TSA is part of the executive branch - so do we complain to Obama, then...?
Everything you say is true for a free market in goods/services. In that case, rising prices would induce more people to become doctors, thereby increasing the supply.

Unfortunately, there is no free market in medical training - supply is artificially capped. A huge number of qualified people who want to become a doctor are turned away from medical school, and the government artificially restricts the number of medical schools (at the behest of the AMA) [1].

[1] Some numbers. I'll assume the average black medical student is qualified (but the 49'th percentile is unqualified), giving me cutoff of MCAT VR 8.3 for a "qualified doctor". This cutoff is chosen so I can call people who disagree with me a racist. Some gaussian-fu suggests we could train at least 10-15k more doctors per year.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080801022539/http://www.aamc.or...

(Unfortunately the AAMC took the numbers down, but the wayback machine is helpful.)
I'm glad I made the switch - pinboard seems much more responsive, even during that massive spike. The only thing that took a while was importing my bookmarks. That's more than understandable - how many bookmarks were imported over those few days?
Ask HN: Who's hiring (and sponsoring work permits)?
You really are defensive of this whole Balmer thing. Do you have a vested interest in software patents like this or something?

(I was talking to you yesterday about "understanding the world around me")
Maybe I need to drink more coffee, or I shouldn't write things in the morning.

It's immoral to me because they're censoring information based on the content that it contains. And it's not a one-time incident, it's starting to become a pattern. At their size, I think that it's important that they are neutral to the content of the information.

The company's motivations for packet discrimination may be different, but my reason for being against it is the same: I don't think content should be discriminated against.
Choosing good-looking fonts for websites
Amazing, I never thought if that way. This notion really explains some phenomenon that I've seen. Coworkers I knew drove themselves insane programming themselves to death for someone they didn't even like. Leading those individuals to suicide to escape. It never occurred to them that they could change jobs. Stockholm Syndrome definitely affects programmers. If I catch anyone doing this again I'm blowing the whistle.
Welcome To The Hostel Microsoft. Such A Lovely Place
"Amazon is withdrawing these items from circulation."

They are not withdrawing it from circulation. THEY are choosing to not circulate it themselves. The author can circulate it where ever he likes as long as it is not Amazon. If Amazon was the only place that sold books I would be with you.
For the record, Picasso's paintings are horrible. I have no idea why the dude is famous.
Ask HN: What's in an IM?
We're a young startup currently seeking investment from VCs.

What do we need to prepare - documentation wise? We've written a comprehensive business plan, an Exec summary with it and also prepared a Powerpoint Presentation. Most of the structure is based on Guy Kawasaki's advised templates/structures.

What now?

Few questions: What is in an Investment Memo (IM)? Is this required?

What does a VC usually require before they make a decision to invest?

This is the first time I've gone through this so any general advice of seeking and securing VC money is appreciated.

Thanks!
Fonts that render well on the web
How often is it exploited? Are preventative measures, which necessarily get in your way at some times to some degree, worth it given that probability?
There was a very good piece on this posted to HN this fall. Wish I could remember the source...
Oh yes, I recently escaped from a company like this. I'm not afraid to name names: ClickBooth.com, a Sarasota company in the affiliate marketing space.

Myself and other programmers that once worked there all feel so grateful, we all get together on a regular basis and feel so lucky to have gotten out.

Here's a funny anecodote. They were having a hard time finding new developers. About 9 months ago, if you look through my HN posts, I posted to a "Who Is Hiring" thread. I mentioned a few of the cool things about working at Clickbooth and put my work email address in my post.

The next day I was called into my managers office. The HR woman saw my HN post. She was upset. For some reason. Still don't understand why, exactly. But it's not "my place" to post these things, I was told. And I should go delete my post. And my manager, he played the "good cop" routine... "I talked to the CEO and I'm not going to pursue this further." Oh, really? How lucky of me. You won't discipline me for, ya know, going above and beyond and trying to attract good developers to the team. Oh, gee, thank you sir, so much, for your kindness.

I didn't mean to rant for so long, but boy, it feels good.
because that would be fraud.
Skype Banned in China in State-Run Carrier Crackdown
not just simulated, but it's being actively extended in that way. the recent Blizzard v MDY touches on it, there's a SABIP report on contracts and copyright... lots of stuff out there.

but it's not quite the same. By way of example, for breach of contract, the remedies are far less attractive than the US remedy for copyright infringement (statutory damages).
No, I don't. I just get annoyed at all the misinformation that gets repeated about patents in general and software patents specifically.

The discourse around HN is generally of a pretty high level, and it's disappointing to see people just blindly accepting the party line: software patents bad, I don't know how to read a patent and that's ok, and anyone who disagrees is just stifling innovation.
I don't know why anyone would put up with this nonsense. The market for tech is amazing right now and has been for years. It's inexcusable that anyone worth their salt should feel trapped in a dead-end job.
Here's the real reason why: Apple makes products.

Other companies make hardware, and include software. Or they make software to run on some platform. Or something. Apple has realized that large numbers of people want whole products, not bits and pieces. It's not all that subtle of a difference, but it still seems that Apple's major competitors haven't quite got that idea yet.
very interesting ... thanks for the explanation.
Dan Ariely on how we cheat
Has Sharing Gone Out of Bounds?
author's rights / moral rights can subsist if copyright goes...
You forgot RMS.
Agreed that it looks a lot like formspring.

But according to Crunchbase, formspring raised a $10MM series B just over a month ago (well after the decline was obvious). I wouldn't be surprised if some of that went directly into the founders' pockets.
Paul Allen patent suit refiled: App Store, iTunes, Gmail & more all cited
Sebastian has given me personal advice that I consider incredibly valuable, and has changed my plans in the coming year.

Just saying.

Also, I take small issue with this:

> We need to be encouraging productive people into doing more for themselves and their careers,

That's pretty much what Sebastian does, isn't it?
I've been mindful of this since my teenage years, which is why I swore to myself a few things before I had even turned 16:

* If I don't like a situation, I will leave it. After all, the easiest way to change your environment is to escape it.

* Fear of failure is a great motivator. When you quit without having another opportunity already lined up, you have a lot of obvious motivation to find a new job since your income is $0. I've found it easier than lulling myself into complacency by continuing to get my income from the source I hate.

* Don't just zig, zag. I've been programming professionally for 12 years. Eventually I will stop, at the very least from being bored. Honestly, I want to work on Formula 1 cars, preferably before I'm 40. One day I'll stop building massive data engines for finance, and instead work on bleeding edge race car engines for racing teams. In the next 18 months I'm working on chasing another crazy dream successfully enough to have the option to walk away from big finance research.

It's difficult to describe my mindset about this, and being a ruthless, very self-critical perfectionist probably helps tremendously. I always joke that it's my mission in life to prove everyone else wrong.

The one that is hardest to follow is the first. For instance, I've never completely struck it out on my own, and have always worked for startups run by other people. My solution was to create a business that could be successfully run by myself, with no help from anyone. That's in the works... but in the meantime, I'm at another startup.
The thing to remember with China is that there is a law on the books so that practically everything is illegal. The law isn't there to tell you what you can or can't do, it's there so that if you piss off the wrong people they can come down on you like a ton of bricks "legally".
So wait, you're bitching that programmers were forced to think and to proof-read?

Using a pen + paper to write programs isn't a huge deal and I'd do it more often if it weren't for the retarded amounts of API docs you have to wade through nowadays before writing a complete program.
You can become mentally locked into a programming language or development tools or an operating system, or to particular approaches to solving problems, too.

Learning something entirely new is more work, as is spending your own money on this given employers can tend to avoid funding career-unrelated tools and learning.

Corporations themselves can become locked into products and solutions and businesses.

Counterintuitively, there can be value in the bungee boss approach in countering this syndrome; of a policy of periodic and scheduled managerial evictions with business reviews and a review of the bosses, and of institutionalizing some instability within organizational management. A Darwinian policy of up or out; where each middle-tier and upper-level bosses are treated as and measured akin to a self-contained CEO and sales rep, and where each is going to be promoted or pushed out.
My interactions with BizSpark in Silicon Valley have been nothing short of stellar. I organize the Hackers and Founders meetups [1] in the area, and Joel Franusic [2], the BizSpark evangelist for the area is one of the huge reasons that I have nothing but good things to say about BizSpark.

Joel is a Perl, *nix hacker with a dash of Lisp mixed in. He's been working startups for years, and he helps organize Super Happy Dev House in Silicon Valley. He joined BizSpark because he thought he could help a broad cross section of startups.

Joel doesn't push the Microsoft stack very hard. He's very much a soft sell kind of guy. But, if a startup is interested in working on the Microsoft stack, he's a phenomenal resource.

ref:

[1] http://www.hackersandfounders.com

[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jf
http://mises.org/daily/1356

note that the other problems are microscopic next to national defense.
Ad Hominem Day isn't until next Tuesday.
I think imposter syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome) contributes, and a grim view of prospects combined with lack of knowledge on how to find jobs. If all you're doing is reading monster.com postings or whatever then the majority of jobs postings that are out there are terribly written and deeply discouraging.
Dead end jobs destroy transferable technical skills. I've witnessed miserable scenes. Many people are stuck maintaining large pieces of poorly written software. They forget how to actually program because their work involves very little development, and becomes all about knowing how the specific piece of software works (and the company's admin procedures) so that they can fight fires and make minor changes.

Escape involves gathering the confidence and the determination for self study, so that applying for another job is even a viable option. Skunk-works type projects at work are strongly recommended.
The blog is on Tumblr, guess they still have more problems
"is acting in a way that I find ethical."

"But I do find it to be distasteful."

"hold these companies to a higher standard"

Quotes from your comment. Are you aware the title of the book is "How To Rape A Straight Guy"? I mean the book could be about bunnies and rainbows and cuddly kittens, but if I owned a business I am not sure I would want to sell a product that seemed to advocate an illegal, unethical and (universally deemed) immoral act, even if it did not and the title was just for shock value.
http://www.google.com/search?q=stolen+laptop&tbs=nws:1
Free enough that you don't need to think about it as an expense. I think I bottomed out at $0.70 per night for a room in Malawi. Double that if you want to splurge on something nicer.
Thanks for reposting, Tumblr still has problems.

I agree you need to be careful when you do creative marketing and there is a line that can be crossed and will hurt you and your brand. Great example from Acclaim Entertainment.
Amazon is not banning the book, they are a private business that chooses not to carry a product whose title seems to (even though the contents do not) advocate rape.
Is this link meant to intentionally link to the comments instead of the article?