skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
They are the ones that got ratings agencies to give high scores to the mortgage backed securities.

And that's an issue between them and the people/institutions they sold those securities to. It does not in any way absolve individuals for making dumb bets, particularly when those individuals often lied on their loan applications.

The housing bubble simply could not have occurred without financially illiterate people making bets they didn't understand in the hopes of getting rich quick. I agree with you that any individual bank had a more harmful effect than any individual real estate speculator, but that's just a matter of size. Collectively, real estate speculators are just as guilty as banks.

I don't disagree with you at all concerning bailouts. We should end "too big to fail".

But on the other hand, try to remember that real estate speculators also received massive subsidies (frannie, mortgage deduction) even before the crisis. The banks, excluding GM, have more or less paid back their portion of the bailout (this even includes the AIG portion). Real estate speculators have not paid back their subsidies.

The anger should mostly be aimed at the banks. Especially in light of their dubious foreclosure practices.

Many loan originators did shoddy paperwork to save a buck, and didn't transfer the lien's to the right party. Real estate speculators are now exploiting the legal problems caused by this shoddy paperwork to break their contracts and squat in homes they don't own. The loan originators absolutely deserve to be sued by the bond purchasers over their negligence.

But the real state speculators are also culpable for exploiting legal quirks to steal homes from their rightful owners [1]. We may not be 100% sure whether BankAm Loan Issuing Corp, BankAm Loan Servicing Corporation or the MBS corporation is the rightful owner of a home - but we are quite sure that the squatters currently occupying it stopped paying their mortgage and therefore do not have any right to it. The squatters deserve to be foreclosed upon, and then the loan issuer, servicer and bondholders can fight over who really owns the home.

Banks are a convenient political target. But real estate speculators are just as guilty as the banks.

[1] Obviously, not all real estate speculators are doing this, but I have read quite a few media accounts of this.
Don't forget the US has tax deductions for home buyers (interest), but nothing for renters.
Things to know before committing Adultery.
Case Study – Page Flip Effect With HTML5 and Javascript
I'm not sure how representative they are, but kink.com, a bdsm themed porn network, pays significantly less than that. Closer to ~$100-$300 per hour according to their site NSFW http://www.kink.com/k/model_call.jsp?c=1 NSFW
Something along the lines of usage centered design?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage-centered_design
From 2006... have things changed since then? I hope so, but I don't think so...
I like humour and satire; but somehow, this one just didn't do it for me. In the back of my mind, it feels a bit sexist and degrading. Perhaps it's the stigma the porn industry had created. As a developer, I feel conflicted :/
Just shot you an email. Gracias señor.
Inline styles, tables, 344 validation errors, no meta descriptions and 88 objects (coming in at 800kb/page) loading. 25,000?

Also why is the blog homepage a single post?
> This is how you make your users upset.

More like he's tired of upsetting users on an interactive, case-by-case basis and has decided to move to batch.
IPhone Pre-Sales Result in Record Day for Verizon
The article was posted after the hack was fixed, obviously.
I agree with this so much I wish I could upvote it more!

I'm a very experienced Oracle developer and Oracle does a really good job, but I need hintsto fix problems more often that I would like, especially on complex reporting queries.
Apple Steps Up Lobbying Effort
Clearly, folks who complain about the locker-room mentality of the tech industry don't have a leg to stand on. >_<

What next, a blog post about fart jokes?
Nokia experiments with Bubbles interface on Symbian cell phones
That would never happen. Huge security concerns.
For the same reason you've been replying in this thread: it concerns you. Similarly, if you don't like peoples' comments here, why refer to them or reply to them at all? Just ignore them. See how anti-social your line of logic is?
You seem to have a general mistrust of others. I've found life is a little better if you don't assume everyone's out to get you from the get-go.
I also considered applying, but won't have my mvp ready yet, so I'd like to spend more time preparing the product before making a trek to the golden valley. Would love to keep in touch though, Jason. (ps thanks for the referral to Joey. Still haven't contacted yet, but am nearing that stage)

Here's my pitch though:

Howas.it makes it easy for restaurants to generate, evaluate, and incentivize feedback. Traditional comment cards are antiquated and a pain in the ass to fill out. In addition, an owner has to order hundreds or thousands of static cards at a time. Howas.it allows restaurants to create custom surveys on the fly, build rewards (like coupons and offers), and attach them to their individual locations. Using a mobile optimized, location aware web app, customers can fill out the surveys quickly and easily on their smart phone and receive rewards for doing so. Howas.it is the only customer feedback solution that adds value on both ends and makes it easy and rewarding for customers to participate.
I guess the bit of substance this article does have is that these names we like to give elite hackers that work at startups are silly. Maybe it doesn't take a short article to make that point, but that is basically what I got out of it.
The more detailed point I'm trying to make is that there's a reason that development is a profession. Even the masters have to spend some serious time to build things.

In CS programs I've seen many students that expect to leave with the ability to just sit down and code up a Facebook clone off the top of their heads. It's similar in IT roles. There is no class that is "what to do when network is slow 101".
Average of 27,000 iPad Edition Sales Helped Wired Improve 'Newsstand' 28%
Be mindful also that this is reflective of the time of day the post gained traction. I'm always surprised by the number of fellow Aussies (though I'm now in London) who read HN - no clicks here represents the fact that the post was submitted about 4 hours ago ... 3pm London time; 2am Sydney time.
Groupon hurting in Japan after New Year's 'Osechi' debacle
We have an ATSC tuner on board, and the transport stream output from that goes straight into the TI processor. We have our own input switcher and media player in Android that processes the video.

However, you have me very intrigued - I think there are ways we could use the hypervisor. Very cool. I'll drop you an email, thanks.
Perfect. This is exactly what I've been waiting for - a low power consumption e-ink input device.
Maybe this story would be better framed as "how to convince people that your $2K redesign is really worth $25K." I mean, if the guy is the CEO and this took two weeks, $22K "savings" over two weeks works out to about $500K/yr, which is probably near the value an average CxO sees in themselves.
I lived in BFE, Idaho until college and didn't have access to a PC most of my time there, and unfortunately, I had access to zero programmers. My introduction to programming concepts was made through trying to figure out and modify crappy JavaScript snippets on websites in 1999 over a 33.6K connection.

When I entered college, I was surprised that most of my classmates have had broadband connections and better computers for years, but never bothered to do much more than receive email with them.
Matt Cutts: My thoughts on this week’s debate
They plan to get it into Java 7.

http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk7/features/#f353
Moderate aerobic exercise in older adults shown to improve memory
It's not "free reign" but "free rein": http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/reign.html
Thanks for the shout out!

If anyone is a ruby-ish person in Toronto, ON and they want to work on Hot Or Not and other similar sites, i'd encourage you to email me at jamie.wilson@avidlifemedia.com
The head of the program was a cosmologist, actually. I know that she taught herself to code, as did the other two profs I worked for. -I think that had something to do with their attitudes. Also, it might have just been from a practicality standpoint. We didn't have the room for multiple CS courses, and the students seemed to be able to pick it up well enough to do what they needed to.

I have to mention, I did take a 100-level CS course as an elective, and personally, it was too basic. I think to get what we needed, we would have had to skip the intro courses, and I it's possible the CS department would have frowned on that. On a related note, my PhD was in medical physics, and our department did have an agreement with the bio department to let us take a 400 level physiology class without the prereqs. It was a point-of-pride in the physics program that our students always lead those classes.

No doubt CS can get deep and anyone that codes could benefit from those higher-level courses. But, I think the situation wouldn't allow for that.

Maybe she was saying that physics students were bright enough to figure out what they needed on their own. From what I saw, she would be correct there. We weren't math majors, but we were pretty able. :)
Hi Perceval,

Sorry for Julie ;)

Seabee is right, the limit of 3 free crushes help to limitate that side effect.

We cant prevent 100% non-good-faith crushes but you could still have answered to Julie that you entered her email because it was obvious that she was in love in you ;)

SecretPoke only reveal identity if it's mutual so if somebody was joking you, you can always answer that it was the same for you. (I know that it's a little childish but it's "effective")

If you have any ideas to prevent Julies of the world to use SecretPoke to break our little hearts please share with me, we would love to implement some to see what is happening :)

Thank for your feedback
While Jarin's estimate was a bit high, that's still a fantastically good hourly wage. The average Goldman Sach's employee makes $520k/year. Guesstimating that they have a 60 hour work week and 4 weeks vacation (fairly typical for the big banks), that's about $180/hour.
This desperation, be it for money, for companionship, or for any other strong desire, is ripe ground for snake oil. And the snake oil is that much stronger if it works -sometimes-... like hoping you win the Power Ball to solve your debt problems and seeing that there are average people like you who are winning it.

One of the best quotes I've seen in a while.
This is why I feel co-op should be mandatory for all CS degrees. I look at some of the people in my program who struggle with even basic programs and algorithms, and I can't help but think they're deluding themselves. A summer spent doing QA, then another as a junior developer, then two more doing real programming work would either disavow them of the notion that they should be a programmer, or give them the skills to at least get a job when they graduate.

I think it's shameful that colleges are perfectly happy to take 4 years of tuition and tell you that your shiny BS in CS will get you a great job when you graduate. A few profs will drill it into your head that co-op is mandatory, but that's only if you get the good ones.
Great submission markkat and don't worry about it too much. Whether or not this specific company is real, I'm not sure, but I am certain the tech to do a product like this exists.
LivingSocial to Buy Super Bowl Ad
I think this post complements the "How Effective are Technical Interviews" post that was on HN recently. A CS curriculum definitely prepares you for the theoretical questions asked in a technical interview, however, neither a CS degree nor a technical interview give you a real sense of how strong that person is at development.

I don't think this problem indicates the usefulness of a CS degree. Instead, I think it says that the only real way to learn how to program is to program.
The problem is that they don't actually have a braveheart type there. They don't have a leader, and they will reach no progress. Eventually the military will take power and that torture guy Suleiman will become the leading figure. He will choose a couple of opposition 'leaders' to talk to, implement some fake democracy simulation and carry on the game.

It's really nice to believe that something is going to change, but there is no reality to it. Believing in symbols of western democracy like mass demonstrations - fine. Those people need a ruthless leader and a march against the current government though. And they won't have it.
Expectations: Follow up to "I'm building a better TechCrunch"
I would also be interested in finding out how you made the video...Thanks!
Oracle removes IBM DB2 support from MySQL - Hides bug history (#58709)
From Egypt to Ecommerce: I Can't Turn Off The News
Some notes on discrete differential geometry:

http://ddg.cs.columbia.edu/
In case you were curious how you can spend $232 million in financing from investors such as Grotech, Lightspeed, and USVP - the answer is selling half price amazon gift cards and super bowl commercials while chasing the market leader.
Pretty much perfect, yeah.

The only drawback to it that I can see is that it doesn't really exist.
Border Stylo: Beacon of LA's Startup Scene
Cool - we are making an Android TV, but no Android market access as of yet - I'd love to be able to bundle something like this in the TV. Let me know if interested.. tx
If we are talking anything 7-figures or above...find an investment bank/broker.

Sure you'll end up paying them a hefty cut...but you won't get screwed.

Plus, if you're getting interest from one large company, there are probably others interested as well and a good broker can run an auction for you to get a much better deal than trying to do it alone.

Selling your company isn't something you should do by yourself in my experience.
I think at many schools, how much you know about programming depends on the electives you choose to take. I could have taken many easy classes and had a much easier time going through school (probably had a higher GPA too). But, you need to think why you are in school in the first place. Are you there to get a slip of paper stating that you spent 4 years or so visiting classrooms occasionally throughout the afternoon/morning? Or, do you want to actually learn something of substance that you can use in your personal/professional development.

I like the first answer on the SO post, developing a website or writing a game will definitely make you a much better coder. When you build something from the ground up by yourself, you learn a lot more than just coding. You learn how to break out of deep troughs of despair. You learn how to work more than 8 hours at a time. You learn why its important to add efficiencies to your work habits. These are a few of the things you learn. But, these are the things that separate coders (the subset) from people with degrees (the superset).
This is an easy one - ask your lawyer. If you don't have one, now is the time to get one. Choose a firm that has a reputation for startups.

Startup lawyers know everything about acquisitions. They see them first hand from a unique vantage point: CEOs tell them stuff they won't tell investors, and vice versa. They are the only people that know the whole picture.
Great point. It's interesting to think of crowdsourcing websites as just another channel through which designers can sell templates.

If the customization/client service end is kept to a minimum, a 10% conversion would probably be a pretty nice, relatively hassle-free business. There'd be an initial investment of time in developing a stock of templates to use, but after that, a designer could probably profit off the same work for quite some time, with a minimum of effort dropping in logos, changing colors and swapping stock photos.

And for every 'contest' won, a 99designer would make way more than they could selling a single psd template—not to mention having a much more aggressive sales strategy and zero advertising costs.

It kind of makes you wonder who's exploiting who.
I've been looking for something to replace pen and paper for quite sometime and have never quite taken to any of the available solutions (Livescribe, Tablet PC) but this looks spot on.

I'd have liked to have seen a video though, too early to tell whether it will actually make it to market, as advertised, as polished looking and as low priced.

Fingers crossed.
This would be actually interesting
I don't think the upvotes were intended as a positive judgment of you as a person, but rather as a positive judgment of the value of your comment. A sort of thank-you for doing the legwork so that the rest of us can simply glance at your comment instead of downloading nginx source and running sloccount ourselves.
Get an outsider who can give you concrete unbiased advice on your process. An attorney is ok, but generally an investment banker who specializes in your size company is best. See the threads listed in previous comment.
I don't have anything to add regarding race conditions. But I do want to mention how awesome the mailinator service is. I've been using it for years and recommend it highly.
Getting Terms & Conditions and a Privacy Policy
Another variation of the "part-time" answer is having a start-up where your pace of development is limited by how fast external people get back to you. In my case, I focus on a start-up when there is progress to be made, but on contract/consultancy work while I'm waiting for others.
On the plus side, HR departments will never, ever jump on this bandwagon.
App is short for application.

People use the same abbrevations for things like applying to university
Hi dkarl,

Thank you for your feedback.

To answer your remarks:

1. We added a copy of the email we are sending in the frontpage (click on "what will they receive?") so you can see by yourself that it is a cute little mail. We are monitoring strongly the pourcentages of the crushes and we are testing some variations to know what perform best. You are right we need to communicate trust and we work toward that.

Although if she delete the email there is no arm for you as your anonymity is still preserved.

2. People are generally not that bad, I cant assure you that it won't happened. But SecretPoke only offer 3 free crushes so it should limit the secret poking ring .

I hope you will be served and that it will be with a person for whom you have a crush ;) Give it a try ... Life is full of good surprises :)
"We noticed over the last couple of years that the Java developer community — unlike the .NET developer community — was starting to experiment with dynamic languages."

What? He must have missed IronPython and IronRuby. IronPython's performance has been far superior to Jython primarily because of the dynamic language support in CLR. Unfortunately, MS seems to have abandoned these efforts.
We launched http://21times.org on HN in November to help developers build and launch an app in 30 days. Subscribers get brief daily lessons pushed to them via email and can track their progress with a single click in the email.

More than 1200 developers have taken the challenge with fantastic engagement scores (95% completed and ~35% reached their goal), and very positive feedback asking for more courses. We're currently working on the next series of courses and some social motivation features to improve those engagement scores even more. We're happiest when our users succeed at reaching their goal, and all of our development efforts are built around that target.

We've been overwhelmed by the great feedback and encouragement we've received from HN, and we'd love the opportunity to share what we're building with a wider audience.
So? What are we supposed to take away from that? They have more numbers? That doesn't extrapolate to better products or better anything.
a) No, NDA's may hurt you in the sales process, as it binds you both. The only thing you need to protect is your IP which can be done through patenting if you want to go that way, but basically it's the execution they should be interested in, not the underlying tech. However, when it comes to facts and figures, you should talk that over with your business lawyer as whatever you represent may become binding.

b) No. Never tell a car salesman what you're willing to pay for a car. That becomes the starting point from which he'll only go up. In your case, the reverse. I'd hire an independent auditor to valuate your business, giving you a high, low and median selling point from where you can intelligently negotiate.

Your diligence needs to be done as to whether or not they're actually a good fit to buy (qualified?) and research them to see if it looks like they may be interested in your company from more than just a buying perspective, because they could just be shopping you and there's no need to disclose everything.
>Looks like a bunch of hackers got really bored and perhaps had a beer too many...

Many, many excellent projects are birthed this way.

I can only hope that one day, when I get drunk, my first instinct will be to start my own TLD. Right now, that generally isn't the foremost thing on my mind four pints in...
Like contracting, there is a lot of non-paid work: finding the next job, doing back-office stuff, paying a manager, etc.

This is why individual contractors charging $100-200 an hour are not actually making $250-500k a year.
IF7's "natural language" syntax is not a pro IME. It often doesn't accept simple sentences, and sometimes rejects previously-valid sentences after a simple change is made. But because it's "natural language", there's very little help in the documentation for figuring out the syntax to do anything beyond the basics. AFAICT most of the good Inform games are made by people who have already made several terrible games. I'll definitely check out Curveship next time because I'm so done with IF7. (There's apparently a way to get IF7 to work with IF6 (code-style) syntax, but there wasn't much on that either, last time I checked.)
The "copy" under the photos is terrible. Doesn't seem real.
Last post on this and I'm finished. Read the comments I was originally referring to. They are not of the "This threatens my way of life and my stream of income, and I'm concerned about it" variety. I would have no problem with that.

Rather, they uniformly denounce the whole practice as immoral and wrong. They disguise their own self-interest as a moral argument. Why? Because admitting that's its their own asses they are looking out for immediately begs the question, isn't that what all these spec designers are doing as well?

At which point the argument is shot, unless you happen to believe that by some preordained right certain people should be allowed to pursue happiness and wealth, while others should not. Now /that/ is anti-social.
Here is the link to the original announcement made on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2153038
If it deprecates their datagrids, it'll be a benefit for the internet as a whole. Those things are horrendously slow and inefficient, it's part of what I've been replacing.
Facebook Revenue Per Search to Decline in Coming Years
As much as you protest this people will still do this.

Coincidentally, this is why I have a separate email address for any site that anyone may look down upon. Figuring out what sort of services you sign up for online is usually as trivial as trying to sign up a new account with your email address.

This is also why if my site enforces 1 user per email address, I make sure I do that check only if all other information is valid. In comparison, most sites let you enter a bunch of invalid information but a valid email address and will happily let you know that person already has an account. If you have to enter fully valid information, theres some risk you will sign the user up and let them know someone is using their email address for things.