skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's funny, when I went to visit a friend at Etsy after work hours, we were chatting in the kitchen and their CEO, Rob Kalin was washing dishes. My friend said to him, "That's awesome that you're the CEO and you're washing the dishes, Rob." And he replied, "Oh, it's better than when I was cleaning the bathrooms."
True, but so does my telephone. The reason reddit wins is because the experience is better there. Since this is a B2B (in my case) model I consider this a regression in the solution I'm paying for. Luckily I have the option to not upgrade.
CompanyLine joins AngelPad
I think this has a ton of potential. Coding is one of the few things now that I don't do directly in the cloud, and keeping my various systems' development environments up to date is something I'd rather not deal with.

Something that'd make this perhaps awesome would be the ability to invite people to your editing session and collaboratively edit and debug code with them. My ideal IDE would be one where code is stored in an abstract syntax tree format internally rather than files, and I could define my rules for how I like code formatted independently of other people who want to work on my code. Also, have you looked at the Bespin/Skywriter editor?
I'll probably be going
Using 10x more data has only very tiny additional costs to the bandwidth provider.

Just out of curiosity, what sort of calculations went into your result of "tiny additional costs"?

The reason that I ask is that bandwidth is finite and shared by all of the provider's customers. If one person consumes a lot of bandwidth, it will be to the detriment of the provider's other customers if the sum of all requested bandwidth is greater than the finite available bandwidth. Customers will eventually notice this, and the provider will lose those customers.

How did you account for this in your estimate?
It would be helpful to know how many others believe its a good idea. I might be on the cusp of thinking an idea is good, but I don't want to back a dead horse.
Here's the thing about that joke: you could tell it no matter what the standards of people at medical school, and no matter what the difficulty of passing the examinations.

If medical schools are good at accepting only people who are likely to make good doctors, and at failing students who turn out not to be good enough after all, I'm not all that bothered by the prospect of being treated by someone who just barely passed. (Of course that's a big "if".)

The same goes for the OP here. How do you define that ten-point scale? If, e.g., "6" means "doing a good job, but there are other better people around" then firing your sixes may be a lousy idea: perhaps all the better people are much more expensive and you get better value from a cheaper 6; perhaps all the better people are off working for other companies; perhaps in this particular job the difference between a 6 and a 10 doesn't really matter all that much, and the cost in recruitment effort and training will outweigh the benefits of firing your 6 and getting someone better; perhaps the person currently in the job is a 6 who's working his or her ass off to turn into a 7, then an 8, then a 9, then a 10.

... Or, of course, perhaps not. The original article does specify that it's talking about people who "cannot do the job". But what sort of scale are you using where 6 means "cannot do the job"?

I think there's something badly wrong with the idea that Only The Best Will Do. Because (1) for a lot of purposes, someone who's not The Best can still be plenty good enough, and (2) there aren't enough of The Best to fill all the jobs, and (3) if enough companies start firing everyone but The Best you're left with a large number of people starving because no one is willing to employ them to do the jobs they could do perfectly adequately if employers weren't all insisting on getting The Best. Oh, and (4) guess what, these companies generally aren't keen on paying every single employee a superstar salary.

There are jobs for which you absolutely need the very best people you can get. In, for instance, a new startup, that might be all the jobs you've got. In that case, by all means insist on hiring only the best people and firing anyone who turns out not to be. But in that case, you'd better also be offering rewards commensurate to your demands.
I can see myself using such a web based IDE. However, I dont know what I'm buying at compilr. There is no demo of the product. How it works? a video presentation or screenshot presentation is needed on home page.
I think the porn thing (which is as much about rules not being enforced as anything) can be separated from "facebook and myspace pages, and youtube", which were part of your original point.

Is it just the vagrants watching porn that pisses you off? That's maybe caring too much about the topic, but it raises a fair point.
I tried to click the Android image and since there was no link, assumed that the mobile app was still under development. You might want to consider linking to your Android Market listing.

Also, to clarify for sound clips, I meant allowing users to upload recordings of their own practice sessions / performances. The previews on Itunes seems like a good idea as well.

Btw, I'm viewing on IE, so I might not be seeing everything correctly...
Ask HN: Review my startup. Loqly - QnA for Local Businesses
We request HN member's feedback and suggestions for our new product Loqly (http://loqly.me). After 8 months of sleeping 2 hours a day our iPhone app is finally out there and our website will be out in a few weeks.

Focused on QnA around local businesses, Loqly allows you to get answers to what "you want to know" instead of being forced to read what "others want you to know" (Foursquare tips + Yelp reviews, anyone?)

With Loqly you can ask questions about a local business, eg "How is the grilled chicken sandwich?" @ a burger restaurant near you. "Has anyone tried the new Cafe Machiato?" @Starbucks near you "Is it a good idea to bring my 3 year old with me here?" @a fancy restaurant where you have been dying to go. "Can someone suggest a good stylist here?" @a Salon near you.

We are now introducing business referrals too. You can now ask questions like : "Can someone suggest me a good dentist in Las Colinas?" "Can someone tell me where I can get cheap tires for my Nissan Murano"? and locals will start referring businesses to you.

Please download our free iPhone app: http://bit.ly/e5u4jv. We are launching our website in a few weeks. Leave your email address at http://loqly.me and we will notify you when we go live. Or send an email to support@loqly.me with subject "Signup request".

Also, since Loqly is community based, please help us build the community by tweeting about us. You could post something like "Check out Loqly, a cool new service, where you can ask questions and get answers about local businesses - http://loqly.me"
Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket to carry moon rover to historic Apollo 11 site
Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
It seems that every where I am still seeing php GET variables in URLs (including on HN) and there is just so much support out there on the web for PHP. Big companies like Facebook and Wordpress still use it. Is Ruby on Rails really that valuable to learn?
It's funny/interesting how trends emerge on HN. I feel like I've seen at least 5 of what I'd call "meta" projects/startups on the front page over the last week - sites that help a minor piece of the puzzle for a startup.
From what I can tell, a 'location' is a block-level tag within the document html... <p>, <h2>, etc. Not that that's a helpful representation in any conceivable way for documents longer than a few paragraphs.
It's a browser extension, so will work on any Google Apps account - your colleagues will just need to download the app. Email me at: nic@taskforceapp - and we'll get one over.
Maybe he's on a train. In a personal compartment.
You're completely right, and also just described Kickstarter.com :)

Although... kickstarter does seem a bit more oriented to creative and industrial endeavors than, say web app startups.
Well I guess HN sees too many submissions, and rather often posts get lost.
Defeatism at its worst. If arguing is pointless, why even have your own opinion at all? And what point does democracy have?
Android Apps Get Virtualized to Run on Other Phones
I'm not waiting; I have users. But I don't have 1000 users and would like to. The only suggestions in the list I haven't implemented yet are TechCrunch coverage and a (good) demo video.
I knew a secretary at a big telecom equipment company that had been paid in stock back when the company was just getting started. Twenty-five years later, she was worth over $10,000,000 and still working the same job. She didn't have a career path, she had two things:

-a job that made a difference at the company

-a share of the rewards

Give your employees those two things and they'll stick around.
Both great answers. Thank you!
Yeah, I think Android Market recently added market listings. I'll link to that shortly. I've never viewed the site in IE. Hope it works!
I liked, it seems to be nice to use.
A requiem for the engineering dream.

Next we will hear that HP is using VAX as the name of new printer ink
"I suppose that we'll have a revival in the way we measure employees....would [people] pay for a tool to help them identify and retain these quiet superstars?"

Perhaps, but I don't think it would help. The way things are isn't necessarily bad...it's just human nature. Give a cage full of monkeys a new incentive system, and the monkeys will learn to game the system in order to get more bananas. Give them a tool that lets the quiet monkeys make more noise, and the loud monkeys will use it to make themselves even louder.

Generally speaking, hyper-rational people (like most geeks) try to fight this trend at first, but they eventually come to the conclusion that it's easier and better to just play the game.
I've worked from two libraries near my house quite a bit as well as a couple sandwich shops. (I can't stand the smell of burning coffee.)

The sandwich shops are less distracting to me. All the conversations and background noise blend together for me. I try to avoid rush times and busy days so I'm not tying up a table when they need them.

The libraries are ok but have some problems. Neither really get many homeless guys but both have a lot of kids, especially in the afternoon. With big open floorplans, that's more noise than I can ignore. The availability of books sometimes distracts me, but to be honest, the book collections are now so old and unimpressive that it's not a big deal.

The other problem is that the libraries block a number of things on their network, like most webmail, instant messengers, and most VPNs. I'm still able to use https for GMail and my work tunnel so I can work there, but it seems unnecessarily restrictive.
So far (a) it's super buggy (e.g. clicking on one of "my projects" sent me to someone else's project of the same name). (b) it's very slow (it took something like a minute just to get the IDE running). (c) with a PHP project at least I have no earthly idea how to actually see it running.
I think much the same dynamic is in play in the average developer's career.

Think of all the job postings you've seen asking for 5 years experience in language X and 10 years experience in platform Y. Employers seem to want ever more specialization out of their developers, which for the most part is exactly the opposite of what is in the developer's own best interests. What developer wants to end up wedded to a single platform or language - if they're smart, or even just ambitious, they'll know that technical knowledge has a frightfully short shelf life. Not to mention that the only way to get a promotion or raise as a developer is typically to jump ship and go somewhere else. So it seems to be in their own best interests to branch out and try new things, which typically involves going elsewhere.

In the software industry, at least, employers by and large feel little if any obligation to give their developers a career path, and that's why most developers move around so much. Not that I don't understand the employer's motives as well - especially in a field as in demand as development can be, why should they feel an obligation to give us a career path when we can essentially write our own ticket if we choose to?

Don't feel any obligation to give your employees a career path, then - but don't expect them to stick around either. And no, it's not because they're lazy or spoiled or entitled or disloyal - it's a simple matter of economic incentives.
"unemployed psychology majors" could do some work in special education or nursing homes for disabled and old or half-way homes for addicts, etc.. . Their skills would definitely be of much help there.
SHDH was there a couple years ago, and it was a great venue. Maybe facebook will get brave enough to have a SHDH on its turf one of these days.
The article mentions 1,000 visitors is fairly easy and getting them to stick is the hard part. But what is a good number of users that stick around? And how about what is a good benchmark for visitors as well?
Or, to simplify:

Does it solve a relevant problem for people who have money? If so, you're probably in the clear.
La Quadrature on EU consultation on "Information Society Services Directive"
Carnegie built beautiful libraries all throughout the mid-west and northeast. Most universities and cities that were around in the late 19th to early 20th centuries have a Carnegie library or a building in town was a library at one point in time.

The small liberal arts college I attended in PA had a Carnegie library that was converted into an art museum. I took photography and other art classes in the building. It was very small, but an inspiration.
Galapicon Valley and the Rise of Black Frankenswan
I think we fit in the middle between the two. Obviously not necessarily local or exclusive, but mid to high grade content. I think the important part here is that most of the content will be a la carte and not leave media companies paying for a subscription that they don't or at least under use.
If you're still around: did you evaluate flapjax? And if so did you find it lacking, or just not a good fit for your needs? I'm curious about FRP, but don't have any experience with it.
In my mind, you're making the case for debate. Argument has an emotional connotation, where as debate is more educational in connotation.
The fact is than even the educated kids are unemployable. We constantly try to hire graduate developers here in London but the fact is that most of those kids are simply unemployable. They have impressive degrees from the best universities, but I simply can't hire someone who can't code a simple Fibonacci algorithm at the whiteboard in the interview room. In the language of their choice. I'd even accept an only marginally working solution with a few bugs. Still, most of them just can't do it. They don't even know how to start.

Universities simply don't prepare kids for the needs of the industry. After 3-5 years of higher education, many of the graduates can't solve even the most basic programming problems. I suspect that this must be the case in other professions as well. Something has to be done about the completely defective higher education systems.
I had my doubts about Ruby too, but we built the entire backend of our iPhone app (http://loqly.me) on ROR and our website is going to be entirely on ROR too. The amount of time it saves you as compared to any other language is nothing short of mind blowing.

Of course I am just sharing my 2 cents since you asked. Others could have a different experience. But we started out with php and 2 months down the line changed over to ROR and boy were we glad we switched!
University libraries are generally well kept. They are better funded than the public libraries, and (often) being private property they have more discretion as to who they can throw out. Unfortunately the advent of magnetized key cards seems to be resulting in an increase in the number of libraries that require you to "swipe in".

However, you'll have to find the quiet corners because roudy college kids can make the main areas distracting.
GET variables aren't unique to PHP. They're simply a means of passing data through on any HTTP GET request. HN itself runs on [Arc](http://arclanguage.org/).

To answer the question, Rails is certainly worth learning if you're interested in web applications development. It has, for better or worse, set the benchmark for interpreted MVC web frameworks, and a lot of the design decisions being made in other frameworks are heavily influenced by it.

(Also, it's fun.)
Fellows, a social experiment
Sort of on the same note as providing a good environment... at probably the best company I've worked for, my boss wouldn't blink if I came to him with a request. Be it a software package, new machine, more hours/machines on EC2.

He realized that compared to what he was paying me to work, these were small costs to make sure I could work effectively and to help build the company. Consequently, I had enough respect not to abuse the privilege.

I'm always shocked when I talk to friends at other companies who bitch about working with shitty machines or generally not having the right tools. Generally my rule of thumb would be 10% of salary for upgrades/tools/software. Think about it: for a salary of $50k, what's adding another $5k/year to significantly improve an employee's productiveness?

Also important is to let them make the decision, not just arbitrary upgrades.
Arguing over minor differences in words when a person's intent is sufficiently clear ... really is pointless.
I don't think most people (myself included) realized you were asking a sincere question. Usually one-liner questions with that.... tone are snarky replies and not genuine questions seeking genuine clarification/answers.

Just a suggestion, but if you try to flesh out your queries a bit more you may find them more likely to be answered. Not your fault, but when every other poster is being ironic/sarcastic/sardonic, you have to take the extra step to make sure you're not mistaken for one of them :)
Yes, most of the big OEMs pay around $20 per license [or they did back in the XP days].
Ask HN:  Please complete survey to help price our product
Getting ready to launch an unsubscribe product next week and we're doing final price testing. If you can fill this out, I would be extremely appreciative.

http://bit.ly/fH00re
Ask HN: What Programming Do I need for a Startup?
With posts today on the youth employment crisis and "why you need a startup" I want to know what I should focus on. In high school and college I did a good bit of HTML on my own. I took C++ classes and decked out my TI-83 with calculator BASIC. I was 1 class short of a CS Minor. Not a complete noob at least.

I've played around with iPhone programming and Eclipse for Android but haven't gone full-bore. What I really want to know is if I have a few ideas, what do I need to realize them?

Say I wanted to make an Instagram clone (I don't). I'd need to know the App OS language and then MySQL or another database for the app to access? Plus a web interface of some kind to also interface with the database. And I feel like PHP or Ruby come into play.

I want to learn and have some background to build on but don't have any idea what it is I need to learn to actually go through the process.
Why is there no FAQ / Help page. I was looking around to figure if the site helps to run / debug as well. After 10 minutes of searching, i was still not able to locate this information.
> doesn't consider himself too high to do the grunt work too

go read 'Up the Organization' by Robert Towsend (written many years ago when he was the CEO of Avis Rent-a-car). Everyone at Avis (janitor, receptionist, CEO, all the way down the line) was required to work 1 or 2 days a year at the counter, renting cars. Helped everyone what business they were in, and why they had a job.
Crazy and delicious essay.
Rediscovering WWII's female 'computers'
AT&T support page shows Captivate running Android 2.2, proves it’s possible
Pizza delivery guys with PhD's used to be common in Bloomington, Indiana in the US. I'm not sure if that's still true, but if I were an employer there, I'd try to find out if I already knew their thesis adviser in order to get some clue about how long they'd be sticking around and if they were about to get a grant that would let them stop working.
I kind of thought this was the real point of the app. They have an idea for a great not-Ruby framework and investors said "platform plays are non-starters...build an app".
Celery and Sentry – Recording Errors in Django
I prefer to find a nice quite place at the local college (which I graduated from years ago). Its got highspeed and unrestricted internet, since its a learning environment its generally distraction free and usually somewhat quite. And no one frowns at you if you've spread paperwork, plans, books, a laptop, etc. all over a desk or table. And I for one seem to be highly productive doing work in a learning environment.
Thanks for the feedback. Will fix.
Yes, SFPL wireless network internet is terrible.
$25 for $50 worth of ad credit at BuySellAds
Let's say you have a new product or service and want to reach Mac, design or another vertical. BuySellAds gives you a huge selection of sites for you to reach your target audience. No black box hiding or complicated algorithm. Pick, choose and you are live on super targeted sites the same day.
For me, CEOs also need to enable their staff to produce their best performance. If the dirty dishes are getting in the way and the staff are honestly pushing to the limit elsewhere, IMHO it's a sensible enabling behaviour for the short term at least, regardless of who sees it.

I know if I have a busy few days and the housework starts piling up my heart sinks a little when I get in and see the task ahead; I'm quite sure it'd be the same in an office if I had that problem. That can just as easily be the point of this sort of action.
What? A government program that encourages malinvestment?

Say it Isn't So!
Meetup's Serfs Sling Mud at CEO Scott Heiferman

http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/more-tribulations-meetup-d...
I'm about to avail myself of some cognitive behavioral therapy.
Thanks for the link to Arc! I've heard it's fun, but for a newbie is it a concern that there is not as much support? I've heard there is maybe less quantity of support but the support online has more quality than php because of the quality of users.
If I were you, I'd pick a project and then cater your learning to that project. with mobile vs web apps, we're talking about completely different languages.
The Big Mother Shucker
I do enjoy the new layout. The "iChat/AIM/ICQ" UI paradigm was due to be re-invented eventually. I think the only thing that is really missing is the "full-screen" video. Either that or I just haven't found where they hid the button...
Presumably skills for nursing the mentally infirm, as the account of her employment after her education indicated. The statement that she was a honors student has nothing to do with her education, but is an expression that she's devoted to her tasks.
"infographics" display statistics in a meaningful and visually attractive way.
I love to do the dishes. Does this make me a natural born leader?

In seriousness though I feel like the best way to manage in situations of ambiguously shared responsibility is not to be afraid of getting stuck with it because the slackers start to feel embarrassed around you and either pitch in or leave.

There's little more cathartic in life than actual physical toil and while doing the dishes isn't all that rough, it presents an opportunity to occupy the hands and let the mind wander.