skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Some jobs are just jobs. Do job x for pay y. But in many employee/employer relationships, there is a tremendous opportunity for the employer to have a lasting impact on peoples lives beyond the paycheck, and its more than a career path at a company. Is it just a job, or a building block of one's career that ultimately impacts the employee, and his/her family for years to come?

Whether providing a career path at the company, or providing employees with improved skills and marketable experiences that will set them up for the next step in their "portable career path", businesses should recognize there is social responsibility in the employer/employee relationship. As an example, the career positioning and experiences gained by a 25 year old employee can have tremendous and direct impact on their life, and that of their families.

With that said, there are certainly limits to what a business can sustain. Some forethought in employee selection (right people on the bus), a little bit of coaching and mentoring, and understanding the goals of the employee can go a long way to creating a work experience that goes beyond the basic career path.
They care more whether the site has been covered by someone.
In NYC? How?
Some of the most heated, seemingly-intractable arguments I've participated in have led me later upon reflection to change my mind. I'm thankful the other party didn't take this viewpoint that arguing is pointless.

Also, a just society needs to operate by certain fictions: for example, that people are innocent until proved guilty or that all men are created equal. Among those should be the assumption that others can be persuaded through logical means (as opposed to say force or habit). I think it's somewhat akin to the principle of charity.
I hate it. In a decreasing level of importance:

- I hate that they removed the contact list. There is an online contacts window, but it stays always on top and can't view/change your status from there.

- You can't pop a video call window out. This is insane, you can't video chat with someone and text chat with some one else at the same time. Screen sharing is almost unusable. This is actually reduced functionality compared to 2.x.

- There is empty space everywhere.

- It feels like they are pushing you to buy stuff everywhere.
TC is great but is waiting for TC coverage worth waiting on getting users? Esp since there is no guarantee you'll get TC coverage.

I don't think so.

TC Coverage < Real Users
That is true. I know someone else brought up integration with version control systems (Edit: I see from the blog it's something they're working towards). Furthermore, I'm curious if it allows for offline work on the code as well (if you're going to be riding a train, and you want to download the latest version, edit it, and then reupload). Though I guess with the increasing availability of internet access everywhere this might become less of an issue.
If you're a first-time entrepreneur and haven't gotten traction, it's going to be really hard to get you or anyone like you as an angel, mentor or advisor.
I just installed it and my initial impression is that a lot of work went into this new UI, and it's not bad. I think it could use a few changes, but I'm not complaining. Personally, I don't like how big all of the windows are, the fact that I haven't figured out a way to hide the contact sidebar, and when I open the Contacts Monitor window (command + 3), it uses a large font which can't be resized. To someone who uses Skype frequently, this might be nice. Maybe I'm not the typical use case, I generally use Skype as IM or voice only and not that often, but I like to keep it running all of the time. Now I will, but I'll keep it running hidden or in the dock, not on the screen.
There are advantages to an online IDE. Being able to code from any computer or mobile device without synchronizing your code is a nice one. No hardware issues, like coding for a Windows system on a Mac and vice versa. At some point we'd like to integrate the ability to actually code for mobile devices, for example coding an iPhone application all from your Windows computer.
thats a really interesting article, thank you! How did that work for you?
Oh no.. universally, everyone thinks Skype 5 is a total cluster f.
Interesting concept. I definitely could have used some extra motivation to practice piano as a kid and this looks like it could almost be a Pomodoro timer for studying music. Some points:

1. The tagline mentions Nike+...what if people don't know what Nike+ is? I've heard of it before but am not really sure what it does.

2. Mobile app would be ideal but it looks like that is already in the works.

3. Uploading sounds clips might be something to look at...
AirG - the world's largest mobile social network?
They raised a 2.5M friends & family round? Need you call it a friends & family round when they're all accredited investors? :)
They may or may not, but I would put money on a majority of them not paying income tax due to the large number of homeless and vagrants.

But that is beside the point. Paying taxes does not give you the right to a) break the rules (surfing porn IS against the rules) and b) causes an environment that is not conducive to the intended use (i.e. a filthy environment that drives away legitimate users)
I tried, I honestly tried. The result was they have really uncomfortable chairs and the bandwidth is really bad. The silence and concentration is good but I have a headset anyway.

The chairs are not really a deal breaker, but the bandwidth totally is.
That's very useful information - I didn't realize some institutions worked that way. Do you have any insights with regards to getting the attention of a specific prof?
My statement would still be true in that case. You would just be proposing a shortcut because "rationally consider how to persuade" would be a constant function that always returned "apply raw social power".

However, as can be pretty clearly seen from psychological literature, neither making emotional and oppositional statements (what I was saying) or "raw application of social power" (whatever that means) is the most effective method of persuading someone. Here is a list of 18 studies demonstrating the subtleties of persuasion (3rd google result for "psychological studies on persuasion")

http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/01/the-psychology-of-persuasio...
I agree that there are certainly plenty of opportunities presented by developing a technical skill. However the unemployment rate is only 4.5% for the college educated vs 10.7% for high school only and 8.4% for an associate degree/some college. So maybe college is not as much of a waste as you might think.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm
Roboguice: An Dependency Injection Framework for Android
Any hackers heading out to this? I'm looking at getting a flight up from LA... I have such love for the EFF.
First, the healthcare provisions intended to decrease cost have yet to go into effect. You're right about costs being too high and hope that this law has a positive impact. Here is the implementation timeline: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/21/90794/when-health-care...

Second, this comment offers a valuable non-tech perspective on Startup America and thought it was worth pointing out: http://steveblank.com/2011/02/08/startup-america-dead-on-arr...
Thanks for the feedback. I definitely need to work on the copy.

I made a simple mobile web version using jQuery Mobile, wrapped it in an Android WebView and put it on the Android Market. Could use some more work. Also need to do an iOS app.

I like the sound clips idea. I'm using jPlayer for the iTunes previews. Pretty nice library.
This is another great idea. It would be cool to create a sort of paste bin like ideone.
If the software is free, b) doesn't really apply. But I agree that a major version number should mean something - see http://semver.org/

Why not do fast development cycles that result in point releases? That, combined with background updates like Chrome does, would be great.
The nice thing about page numbers would be the ability to discuss things with people reading the same book in paper format (think of using it in a class for example. "On pg 3, John said...")
Gov jobs are great! When I was a contrator I saw ladies browsing internet, playing computer games (like Sims), streaming video. It was fun!
Correct with most (all?) browsers. Though the code presented would still be faster ignoring the reflow issue because is is calling document.getElementById("content") in every iteration of the loop where the optimised version calls this only once. Of course yuo could cache the reference to the element to avoid the repeated getElementById calls but affecting the DOM via the innerHTML property on each loop is still going to be at least marginally quicker than affecting a local string variable.

This is all beside the point though: that example is for a specific part of their API. Keeping the example short by not adding more lines in order to optimise an unrelated area makes it a better example in the intended context even if not a complete show of general coding "best practise".

The original link's "better" option is bad for its own reason: it misses the glaring opportunity for reference caching. If you are going to call one example bad because of a missed optimisation make sure your counter example does miss an even more obvious one!
Are there really government granted monopolies in the wireless space, or is the infrastructure cost too high of a barrier of entry for new participants?
I don't see how them being disadvantaged exempts them from library rules. Does being disadvantaged exempt people from the law. Of course not.
I'm studying computer engineering, and I don't feel that I've learned all the much that will help me in a career. We've had one large software project which taught us a lot, about version control and testing but other than that we're on our own. Most of my 'marketable' skills are things I've picked up coding on my own.
Matt,
What caused the signups and new orders to go up compared to an year ago? Other than AdWords, are there any strategies that worked well for you?
Lunching with Silicon Valley VIPs
If these people would otherwise be unemployed, and if their wages are modest, then it doesn't destroy any wealth, and if what they do is even slightly useful, it creates wealth.
The Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Valium, Klonopin, Xanax, Adderall, Ritalin War
If you use semantic versioning (http://semver.org/), switching from 2.95 to 3.0 means you made backwards-incompatible changes. Major features could still happen in a point release.
Best. Slides. Ever.
Traditionally, "Greed" has meant desire for gain out of balance with external costs.

I mention it not to pick a nit, but because I often seen the "greed is good" idea justified in the same way you (rightfully, in my opinion) justify "Gain is good".

Greed, by definition, means the gain which is no longer good!
Here's an interesting article by Jessica Livingston (author of Founders at Work) http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2011/01/what-stops-fema...

This was featured here recently and there was a lot of great discussion, but I'm having trouble finding the link.
That's how we got started. Our university let us book private rooms for 2 hours in a row, so we reserved 6 hours every day (we're 3). We did that for 3 months. The library manager thought we were doing some class project and helped us get a good room every day :)
One example I ran into is "techstar network" hosted by techstar (http://www.techstars.org/network/) which is a partnership program of Startup America. It is still a little bit vague. But my understanding is that the startup America is a loosely connected network of orgs each working on its own ways to nuture entrepreneurship in US.
Cool, that is also encouraging. I'd like to work for a while to gain experience and hopefully pay off some debt but most people say it's harder to get into grad studies when you've been out of the system for a bit. As long as harder != impossible, I'm okay with that.
I suppose that we'll have a revival in the way we measure employees. Not everything can be put into neat metrics but there are probably lot of factors and outputs we haven't even begun to put together in a systematic way.

Knowing who your "Guys Who Quietly Gets Things Done" are would be invaluable for any enterprise. Would they pay for a tool to help them identify and retain these quiet superstars? I think so.
It may be more of an aesthetic preference, but the pricing signal makes more sense to me on a per-service basis than it does on a tiered internet service basis. Tiered bandwidth plans are inexact - should I buy the 250 MB plan or the 5 GB - and require a lot of thought as to what you will actually use. If the charge is per-service, you know exactly what you're buying with each additional service you consume. That's my thinking anyway.
Hipmunk’s (YC S10) Site Targets Travel ‘Agony’
I'm one of the people that works in RevenueLoan's DropBox structure, and I have to say that it has saved my butt a number of times.

I work on a laptop, and largely work remotely, so the obvious benefit of being able to access the latest files all the time is tremendous. (I use GoogleDocs with another organization I am a part of, and the DropBox interface and user experience is superior in every regard. Especially with my non-technical compatriots!)

I also have Growl notifications turned on for DropBox, so I can see the activity that is happening within the company even if I am not in the office that day. This is a surprising benefit.

And finally, having naming conventions (like the YYYYMMDD format) that we rigidly adhere to, ensures that I can find anything anywhere: The folder hierarchy is clear and concise, the file names are standardized across all folders, Etc.

All of this increases efficiency, and just has to have saved me all kinds of time... and that is one thing every startup company in the world could use more of!
A Book That Uses Actual Threads As Hyperlinks
I don't think the numbers add up since MANY businesses are not the types of establishments that Groupon would do a deal with like let's say a personal accountant or a B2B focused operation. Also, my understanding is that Groupon has a ridiculous backlog of merchants waiting to get in hence the ease of entry of competitors since there's a high demand to test daily deals and Groupon has a waiting list. I think for a lot of sales reps, a lot more time is spent negotiating the right offer, terms, and closing the deal than on cold calling.
We do have a feature that allows you to Import and Export from the IDE. So before you get on the train just export and once you have internet access just import.
This doesn't prove anything about the quality of a 'startup idea' It just proves that you are able to convince a small number of people to drop five bucks. I don't see how that has a correlation to the future success of a business.

This would be much more interesting if it were pitched as a way to build a group of active early adopters. Pledging to an idea should give the user some perks from the start, and you should make it easy for the companies collecting pledges to incentivize these users.
It's similar to how it was (and probably still is) for anyone coming out of undergrad in the early 2000s. Every employer seemed to want someone with experience, but how is one to get experience without being employed? The top angels/investors/mentors seem to want entrepreneurs with experience or traction but it's awfully tough to get to that point without a good angel/investor/mentor helping along.
It worked for Jesus...
The last time this kind of thing was being analyzed in detail, Apple's market share of the PC industry was insignificant, but it earned something like 35% of all of the profit of all PC manufacturers combined.

Anybody care to chime in with some citations supporting/refuting this?

I found: http://gigaom.com/apple/mac-lands-one-two-punch-against-pcs-...

But it's a little confusing. It says Apple's unit share is between 4% and 5%, but what they call its profit share is its share of revenues, which depending on how you count seems to be 20%-25%. Given that Apple's profit margins are higher than PC manufacturers, Apple's share of the profits has to be higher than its share of revenues.

This is actually astounding, it's the opposite of what you might naively assume: In most markets, you would expect the revenue leader to be the one with the lowest prices and thinnest margins who tries to "make it up on volume."

Apple has either slightly more or approximately the same revenues as Dell and HP, while selling half as many computers at (obviously) higher prices and higher margins.
Part of being a good boss is removing barriers so your staff can be productive. So I'd say it's not a stunt at all.
You're confusing "quality literature" with "books people like to read." They aren't the same (though they may overlap).

The Da Vinci Code keeps a frenetic pace that makes "quality" secondary, and quite difficult to achieve. (I would submit that The Bourne Supremacy is superior in both pacing and quality, however).

Harry Potter is insanely accessible and easy to read, and has a very surprising amount of internal consistency, even over 7 books (which is in stark contrast to most mainstream sci-fi/fantasy series).

As for Twilight, I don't know what makes a book appeal to that demographic, but it seems pretty different than any area I've dabbled in as a reader.

(I worry that giving opinions like these opens me up for some interesting flaming, but whatever.
Nice catch - there's good discussion there, too.
Consumers lack the context to communicate their issues in a technically correct way. My parents don't complain about bloatware, they complain about having lots of warnings and popups they don't understand showing up every time they sit down at the computer. They don't complain about increased boot times, they just say their computer is "slow".
I've confessed to the time in college. Lost me a shot at the 4:30-9 (or so) shift at the local coffee place. The manager had been kind, friendly etc. before I said that.

To mix it up I've also said I'm in school now, hence some hours I can't work, and don't show the degree or say that it's for a grad program. Just let prospective employers think it must be undergrad.

Really since losing my job (started grad school part time before then) as tough as it is being "over qualified" people don't want students either. A number of places have said they require "full-time" availability even for part-time employees because the hours change week to week.

For those who say the jobs are out there and that Gen Y is lazy, try losing yours. It can suck. Bad.
Good point. Apple is winning in the personal computer consumer products market, not the business one (where MS and the hardware vendors are).
> or many of those outside "A" in ASCII (euphemism for America :)

Abbreviation for 'American', in fact. No euphemisms needed.

(ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

> there were already a ton of problems, so endianness was the least

I can appreciate this. However, UTF-8 also has desirable properties like 'dropping a single byte only means you lose one character, as opposed to potentially losing the whole file', and 'you can often tell if a multi-byte UTF-8 sequence has been corrupted without doing complex analysis'.

> i'm not that serious about predominance of Latin script, this is sorta irony

Heh. ASCII can't even encode the entirety of the Latin script: Ask a Frenchman how he spells 'café', or a German how he spells 'straße', and notice how important characters are missing from ASCII.
Oh, there's no problem, if the are determined and work hard enough, they can all be entrepreneurs...
The government should create jobs to solve this problem. Unemployment is cruel and inefficient. Prioritizing reducing the national debt over employment is short sighted.
The traditional notion of a career path is that you get promoted from job x to y — this works in large organization. However in a small biz a career path is taking on the extra work load and creating the job you want to grow a business. That atmosphere must come from the CEO, however the employee must have an intraprenurial mindset.
San Francisco: Trove Hackathon this Sat 2/12/11
Bolla says that alioth blew it, by not asking SBCL for full optimization --- and he does in fact get different timing with the optimization in place.

From the original post:

N=500
gcc 0.15u 0.00s 0.17r
sbcl 0.08u 0.02s 0.21r

N=3000
gcc 5.60u 0.00s 5.69r
sbcl 5.18u 0.01s 5.41r

N=5500
gcc 18.81u 0.01s 19.12r
sbcl 17.42u 0.02s 17.76r

I mentioned the alioth page mainly so people could see how gcc was being run.
such a motto is actually an easy trick that skillfull leaders utilize to make their reports wash the dishes. To maintain its magic, you actually need to promote only one of the 100 dishwashers into a leader once in a 100 years, and fanfare that fact for the rest of the time.
My favorite quote from that article is "That made for an interesting job, but it wasn’t efficient enough to support living wages and benefits."

It points out a real contradiction. If you want to be able to pay people a lot, you need to create an environment where they can be highly productive. The answer for that, in industrial systems, is specialization. If the people are having to think a lot about what they do, they'll spend their time thinking, doing different things, and fixing problems caused by doing things differently -- this work isn't paying work since it comes off their wages.

Another part of the problem is that there are fewer spots the higher up you go on the pyramid. The other day I was browsing the remainder rack at my local Uni's bookstore and found that there's now a "One Minute Manager" book about managing yourself.

I guess these days organizations are being hollowed out, so that few people have a chance to be promoted to management and that many of us don't get the managerial attention we need.
So your saying as a bonus to the library your first class is only $450! :D
You're misunderstanding the Peter Principle. It's not about promoting incompetent people, it's the phenomenon of promoting competent people into positions where they're no longer as competent.
I think it's definitely a myth that you can get a richer client-side experience with thick-client software than you can with Web-based software. If you asked me that same question four or five years ago, I'd say you're absolutely correct. If you ask me that question now, I'd point to a variety of the applications that are out there that are built in HTML5 and have tremendously rich client-side experiences. The benefit beyond the tremendously rich client-side experience is you don't have to download anything.

Is this true? For really rich client apps don't you have to download substantial amounts of Javascript/CSS/HTML? Once you factor out the respective runtimes (browser/CRT/JVM/CLR), what is the size delta for comparable applications?

IL tends to be denser than code. But HTML/CSS push a lot more to the runtime than most code/runtime combos do (Silverlight and Flash probably being the two big exceptions).

I guess my uber question is are we really moving to a thin client world, or are we moving to a world with a really huge runtime, data in the cloud, and non-trivially sized apps that still get downloaded?
This reminds me of the litmus test my father had in his small business years ago. Every new employee, no matter where they worked, had the same first task: clean the bathroom. Lots of people never made it through the first day.

I guess he figured that the best way to have employees who would "wash the dishes when nobody else will" is to only hire those who would.
I'm sure there will be a ton. I'm considering it.
The Great Budget Balancing Interview
A pool of places is probably a good idea for third-place workers. Renovations, etc. can make any particular library or cafe unavailable.
Introducing the Google Translate app for iPhone
On http://keynotopia.com/ your "Browse the UI Libraries" button needs padding! No point in making a nice CTA button like that if you still can only click the actual text.