skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You say the only reason you struggle with the decision is because of the honor you feel in the validation of your work that Google is giving you by providing the job offer. Well if that is the only reason you haven't turned them down, then you have already answered your own question on whether or not to accept, don’t.

In your situation, based on what you have shared I wouldn't take the job. It sounds like you took the interviews to acquire the personal validation a job offer would represent to you and now that you have it, there seems no real reason to up root your life.

I hope my interpretation of the situation helps and I wish you all the best no matter what decision you may make.
> Echoing my post in another thread, Apple received $150 million in financing from Microsoft back in 1997 in exchange for including IE on the Mac (among other partnership goodies).

Actually, based on my hazy recollection, someone at Apple had discovered an IP violation by MSFT (something to do with QuickTime code having leaked over to MSFT). Apple at that time was in pretty dire shape. Steve basically called up (Bill or Ballmer, not sure which) and said here's the deal..., after which it was decided that rather than protracted litigation, Apple would take a $150M investment from MSFT, and would issue a special class of stock, which could be convertible to regular stock at a later date. I do believe there was some kind of agreement to include MSIE, and/or that MSFT would make Office for the Mac a guaranteed product for a certain period of time.

From what I read, no one lost money on the deal. The cash investment helped Apple survive the rough patch, MSFT sold off their investment at a later date, Office moved on to be a solid product on the Mac, etc.

I do not believe that MSFT would have done any of this without a little persuasive arm twisting.
Peter Norvig: The machine age
Saw this a couple weeks ago. But you can't really blame them. The internet is probably the greatest revolution of our lifetime and it would extremely be difficult to begin describing something you haven't even used yet that would lead to such a dramatic impact. Even if you could describe it back then, I'm not sure many people would have understood.
He really does not understand Internet marketing. Long tail is not dead and the reason Walmart will never dominate the Internet is the first law of Internet marketing. Build trust often and early.
I love Quora but also agree with David Pogue. I find lots of great answers but there's a lot in the UX that's overwhelming and confusing to the normal user. If I was Quora I would reach out to David Pogue, fly out to NY, meet with him for a couple hours, and pick his brain on how to make Quora easier for the normal user.
J.P. Morgan Plans a Fund Geared to Firms Like Facebook and Twitter
That clutter is only necessary in cluttered languages like Java; it is only necessary to learn it if you're using one. It's perfectly safe to put it off until you need to.

Passing around objects without having to understand their innards is part of what's generally thought to be good about most definitions of OOP. Being able to understand them is part of learning the language, of course.
Google will let you work from home if you've got special skills and negotiate.
An increasing average does not mean that the extremes are more extreme. That's a possibility but definitely not a certainty and it could easily be the case that neither extreme changes while the average varies arbitrarily close to them.
If you count Woz as "still at UCB" because he was on a leave of absence, then you have to count Gates as "still at Harvard" and Page & Brin as "still at Stanford" even today. Officially, they never actually dropped out of their universities - they just remain on perpetual leave of absence, and could go back next semester if they wanted to. Woz was at HP because he didn't have money for the next semester of Berkeley, and he thought he would always be at HP, and even after Apple started selling things and went public, he remained officially on a leave of absence, and actually did go back after his plane crash.

It's actually really hard to drop out or fail out of an elite college - I tried a couple times when I was still in undergrad. They always want you to take a leave of absence because then you don't show up in the dropout statistics that drag down their U.S. News rankings. This is why it's not really all that risky to drop out of college; you can always go back and pick up where you left off, but you'll have a much better idea of why you're there.

I was definitely thinking about Evan Williams for Twitter. He dropped out of college because he always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, but had no idea what sort of company he would start. I don't really know about Dorsey and Biz Stone's backgrounds.
I'm preparing to put in my 2 weeks notice this upcoming week, too. I'm expecting a job offer that will require me to move out to LA, from TX, on Monday. My current job is similar to yours, minus the family friend aspect.

I am one of 2 developers at the 7 person company. The company is full of enjoyable people, for the most part. The job itself is one that I've wanted to quit for the past year and a half. Perhaps worse in my scenario is that when I leave, they're going to be pretty much left floating dead in the waters until they find another developer. And, even when they do find a replacement, it'll take a few months for that person to get up to speed. I've been there a year and a half and I'm not even 100% knowledgeable about everything there. So, I'm a little nervous about when I put in my 2 weeks notice.

To answer your questions, though - I'm just going to do it. I'm the kind of person that usually stresses out a ton, and would probably be closing to passing out due to stress within the moment prior to putting in my 2 weeks. It's all going to be fine, though. It's not up to my boss, it's up to me. It's my future. So, with that in mind, I'm just going to notify him as soon as possible and that'll be that. I'm going to be polite and thankful for the job, since it has been very accommodating. (they let me finish up school part time while working)

In your case, I'd just be extra friendly. If he's a family friend, then he will understand.

Good luck.
Thx for this link, very kewl talk.
What if you're writing your own music?
Obviously at least quite a few people from Google seem to agree with Bindu - http://mylikes.com/team
I can't really see any lying being done here. Is microsoft lying to people when it's selling windows 7 home edition to people for less money than the ultimate edition even though it wouldn't cost them any more to make copies of the ultimate?
How to spark real student venture creation
It's very possible that low-end smartphones will take over the dumphone market soon

Unlikely. There's a few elephants in the room here, the biggest being battery time. You'd be surprised how many people would give you a blank stare if you told them their next phone needs to re-charged almost every night, in exchange for being able to play angry birds...

Also take a close look at the issues of your (presumably) high-end smartphone. Now, when was the last time you tried to use a low-end smartphone?
Well you have two primary types of non-technical people. Those who understand tech but can't write code and those who don't understand any of it at all but have ideas. It's the ones with just ideas that rarely (although it does happen) succeed. Your relative seems to be the kind that doesn't understand.

But I think there is a bigger problem here. Even if he doesn't understand the technical stuff, he SHOULD be able to understand what it should do, how it should solve the problem, and ways he can make money. You don't need to know a lick of code or any technical stuff to know what you want out of your product. I think the problem is a bit different than just feeling out of element.

As long as he genuinely wants to solve a problem and is actually innovative and passionate about doing it, money or not as a primary motivator is not the issue. The issue is whether or not he can figure out all the things he need to figure out as the business guy.
This is really good advice.

I took a job for the big G a few years back, and although I don't regret doing so (it was a fantastic learning experience), I was never really happy in the role they had chosen for me.

Once you're in, it can be surprisingly difficult to change teams and geography plays a major role. Google has many offices, all over the world, and they do specialize. This means the team of your dreams may not actually have presence in the office you are hired into and you'd have to move again even if you did successfully navigate the politics of getting transfered.

Ultimately, that is why I left.

Related to this, there is one related thing to beware of: each recruiter is "owned" by a particular department and compensated at least partially by results. This means your recruiter will have no motivation to bump you to some other department, even if it would actually be a better fit.

Note that I left G well over a year ago, so my insights may be a little dated.
TL;DR: We invest in brilliant people who get things done, we don't mind if they're jerks as long as they get things done.
No one imposed my first language on me, it was the environment that did (you turn on the computer, there was BASIC; why yes, I did receive an 8-bit computer in the 80s). Worse, the only sources I had were books and magazines, since no one I knew could program (okay, I had two friends with computers, but we all had different ones, which made it difficult to swap programs).
Going places :)
Yes, I've done this. I would add that it's also very easy to get at least unlimited 2G Internet access in Thailand or Malaysia, especially Thailand. Bali/Indonesia seem to suck for connectivity as there's a serious bandwidth shortage out of the country. There was a previous attempt on HN at doing this in an organized fashion that didn't take off a few years back.

Also, there's this, in Central America: http://www.cocovivo.com/

My best advice is that you just book a ticket to Bangkok or Singapore, and start hanging out with people in hostels. It's excellent.
> That is the biggest pile of bs I have ever read.

And they say civility's dropped on HN.
The Significance of Watson
So the guy's basically asking for a manual when we all know generally, people don't read. Why doesn't he just click around and see what happens?

The entire article baffles me.
If lisp was invented by the Japanese, perhaps instead of:

(((4 5 +) 3 *) print)
((((make-hash-table) table)) let ((table "one" gethash) 1 setf) table)

we'd have:

(((4 5 +) 3 *) 打)
((((做井卓) 卓)) 让 ((卓 "一" 拿井)1 放f) 卓)
The Big Boffin experiment
I have a good technical understanding, but am no developer. That said, I am jumping into the start-up world and here's how I'm working at it:

Step 1: find a cofounder who is as excited about your ideas as you are with his, and whom you enjoy working with and vice-versa.
I am still new to the startup world, but am working well with my co-founder. Hiring someone to code every time your product has a problem is not the correct way to go about it. You have to be able to constantly work and change to keep pushing something forward.

Step 2: immerse yourself in technology
Really, I don't feel out of my element because I have surrounded myself in my life with technical people and technical things (went to MIT, have taken tech classes, worked at [stereotypical corporation] doing design and working closely with developers, and am learning how to dev in the process).

Step 3: learn your product and learn it well (including the technical parts)
You have to understand your product in and out in order to make sure you are able to speak to those who need the product. If someone asks about security: know it. If they ask about a specific API you don't want to have to "get back to them."

Step 4: find a good balance between what you're doing, what everyone else is doing, and what needs to be done.
I think the hacker/hustler combo is really valuable At some point the devs will be way too hosed in the development of the [product/site/whatever you're doing] to go out and find funding/sell the product. You need people who are confident to talk about what you're doing and will have fun doing it.

and Step 5: have fun.
Getting into the start-up world is hard. You really have to enjoy taking risks, moving around, getting out there, and meeting people.

I'm sure I'm missing steps in all of this, but the steps above really help.
I've been on HN for years and read it daily, but I comment very rarely. I can't answer your question but I suspect there are a lot of others like us. Perhaps some traffic stats would shed light on the number of lurkers vs contributors.
Yes. That is what I am advocating. Or, to hit my sentiment more precisely: I'm advocating not spending 50-75% more per month on working space simply for the benefit of hanging around like-minded people.

I'm not advocating avoiding like-minded people; that would be silly. I'm saying there are ways to get that benefit without shelling out cash for it, and, for that matter, the control and stability that comes from having a 6mo or 1yr lease instead of a month-to-month arrangement.

If it's so hard for you to get the networking and cross-pollination you need that you have to pay $150/mo(!) to get it, I have bad news about how hard it is to acquire customers, partners, and investors.
I've got a better hack for you.

Buy a $20 pair of Koss KTXPRO1 http://amazon.com/dp/B00007056H

Read the reviews. They sound almost as good as $200 headphones.

I own a couple of Sennheiser, and I prefer the Koss unless I need closed cans for some reason.
Sounds similar to IBM's practice of inserting 'nops' into software of the AS-400s on otherwise identical hardware to create price gradations.
I'm interested in trying it, mine are beat up as is. How do you get the ear pads off to be able to unscrew the parts shown in the pictures?
Interesting point with regards to functional programming, although it's worth pointing out that at least some functional languages have operators that allow you to do what you're describing. For instance, in F# instead of writing "f x" you can write "x |> f"
Why? Why not replace posix? It's not easy, but it's doable to modify the kernel so you can ditch it (or at least implement non-POSIX compliant structures) if you want. You can't do that with closed source OSes (except for A/UX which was posix, non posix and simultaneously painful to use).
I'm a bit suspicious of your claim about it being that easy to have a career in tech. (But also a bit intrigued -- I'm in academia and looking for a plan B, given the state of the job market...)
Are we worse off than in 1973?
> If you've taken elementary Math you'll understand that if an average increases that means the extremes of the dataset have gotten more extreme (more extreme colds, more extreme heat).

Um, no, it doesn't. It's perfectly possible to raise the average and reduce the extremes. You can tell nothing about the variation in a dataset from the average.
Wait, they do? I can easily understand thinking it's more harmful, but deadlier? In what way would someone think it's deadly?
I just went through something very similar. I had been working with a smaller company all through school and for a while after I graduated. The people I worked for were family friends and just great to have as employers. Then, I had the opportunity to join another company that I felt would allow me to do more of what I enjoy and had more room for me to grow, so I went for it. It was quite difficult telling my boss that I was leaving, no doubt about it. He offered everything he could to get me to stay, but in the end I knew that it was time for me to move on to something new.

That being said, here's a few tips that I think could help you.

1. Remember that this is business. That doesn't mean forgetting about the people involved, just that the most important thing in this situation is your career.

2. Do as much as you can to help the transition. The new company that I went to work for wanted me to start asap, but I was willing to give my previous employer 2 full weeks of my time since I did value the relationship and wanted to leave on the best terms possible.

3. Just be honest. While they may not want you to go, they should understand that this is what you need to do.

Good luck! Hope it all goes well.
Climate change is not logical nor is it scientific, whatever happens is construed as evidence of 'climate change'. There's no falsifiable hypothesis.
It is not only about feeling personally cheated, it is about observing such a glaring inefficiency of the economy. Sennheiser expended a lot of effort to create a perfectly good product, and then our economy stimulates them to waste a part of this effort by crippling the product just to create... a kind of pay-what-you can scheme.
I hope it's obvious that I agree strongly with that. It'd be hard to imagine a bleaker space than we started out in (the unventilated warehouse attic of the Haymarket Square building in the West Loop). It was still fun to have a space.
I'm sorry and I mean this in the least insulting way I can manage but how on earth can you not see the contradiction there? You actually said...

The weather is not the same as climate. When climate changes (and it has always changed in the past) some places become hotter, others become colder.

And then one sentence later say...

The ice core drillings in deep layers of ice are a great way to learn about the history of climate

An Ice Core is a snapshot of conditions present in the area where the snow that makes it up froze. Weather readings from an Ice Core are only accurate to determine the weather in that one area not the overall climate.

I don't even care about the Global Warming angle (every HN thread I've ever seen on the topic just devolves into partisan bickering) but the fact that you can't see that contradiction is disturbing.
You know what else is scary? Waking up in a country where you don't know if you're going to live or not that day. Count your blessings and see the world.
I would try to be polite and as emotionally neutral as possible. People don't always react the way we think they will but, at the same time, if you broadcast your negative expectations too much, some people will react to that even if they would otherwise not have been all reactionary. There is a scene in "While you were sleeping" where the character played by Bill Pullman finally tells his dad that he doesn't want to inherit/takeover the family business. He has been avoiding it for years, while pursuing his real dream on the side. His dad is like "If you had told me sooner, I could have sold it to your uncle". It's very, very anticlimactic, involving none of the emotionalism or drama that Bill Pullman's character feared.

Good luck with this.
If it is such a good thing, they should clearly describe what they are doing to potential customers.

People who are not given all relevant information before they buy are product can legitimately feel upset.
Ultimate hoarding: Study finds mankind could store 295 exabytes of data
Those are indeed the best $20 headphones (and the same drivers are available in all sorts of different form-factors) but they only sound better than the $149 Bose headphones, not anything remotely audiophile quality. I definitely prefer certain $60 Sennheiser headphones (HD497, which I don't think they make anymore, haven't listened to the equivalent from the current product line) to the Koss drivers.
There's no tedium of writing everything out with parentheses, so you don't need to worry about that. You aren't writing everything "as a procedure call," or at least I wouldn't put it that way. For example, if you write babby's first recursive function in Scheme,

(define (factorial n)
(if (= n 0)
1
(* n (factorial (- n 1)))))

There, the procedure calls are (= n 0), (* n (factorial (- n 1))), (factorial (- n 1)), and (- n 1). You are not writing "(define ...)" as if it were a procedure call. You are writing it as if it were a special form (because it is one). That's a description of how it psychologically feels. Writing the (if ...) special form feels no different than writing if (...) { } else { } in Java.

Lisp and Scheme are not tedious at all. I'd say Common Lisp is one of the least tedious languages.
"...scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe."

Names? Papers? Dates and predictions?
someones not allowed to say bs?
I just pulled them off. They are attached with small plastic clips but luckily not the nasty ones that break. The fabric mesh under those also comes off just by pulling. You should probably be careful with pulling the ear pads, they are glued to a plastic ring and apparently it is possible to just pull them off the glue (my friend did that to his ones).
I feel I add value. But gravity here loves me much. Happy V-day HN.
Brilliant. Brought my HD-555 alive.
True, often high end hardware can be snake oil. It is like using gold in HDMI cables, a basic copper cable does just as well but companies still tout their stupidly expensive cabling.
It's still ad hominem, even if it's also inductive reasoning.

I'm still hoping for a follow-up addressing the claims, rather than the person making those claims.
> using infix notation or prefix notation. Aside from grammar, there is really no reason to do things that way.

Even grammar isn't a reason to do things that way. In English:

"2 eggs with 1 cup of flour are to be mixed" =passive (postfix)

"Dinner we ate" =topic fronting (postfix)

Subject, verb, & object are a feature of the grammatical (transitive) structure of English. The order the nouns are introduced is a feature of the thematic structure. They're orthogonal to each other (though some combinations are less common than others). English lets us mix the two structures any way we want.
Glad it helped. One tweak: you should definitely discuss anything that seems out of place. If you did something great that seems to not be mentioned, or your boss considers it minor, look genuinely puzzled (because you are) and say "huh, I thought I did a really great job on X, and it was really important. Did I not do a good job? Was it not important?" Something like that. Again, you're information gathering, and trying to shift your boss's opinion by discussing the difference between your impression and your boss's. At this point, you're not trying to affect the overall summary.
True. Japanjure needs a lot of work before it's enterprise ready.
re: CL package problem: you might want to give it another try, using Quicklisp
What designers at Quora (& web designers in general) should know; MOST "normal" or "novice" users are often afraid of "breaking something".

I've seen it in everyone from my Uncles, to my girlfriend to my grandfather.

If there are no guides, or instructions; then users will be afraid they will accidentally click into a irreparable state.
I was not aware that weighing up advice, and sometimes taking it, was an inability to make challenging decisions.

I am glad you were successful, however your experience remains only anecdotal. I have one too: my father did not go to university, worked hard at his trade, started a business, and went bankrupt.
Developing iPhone applications in Haskell
Product Marketers: Learn from Facebook's Photos Rollout
HTML5 FileSystem API tutorial (Chrome only)
> What you've done is no different to this scenario - your at school, your one of the popular guys

But this is exactly the kind of thing he's referring to, sloppy writing and sloppy grammar generally mean sloppy thinking.

If you're going to take the time to write something, you must want it to be read; have respect for your reader and use proper capitalization, punctuation, and correct contractions. There are a lot of people who won't even read what you have to say if the writing is lazy and disrespectful to the reader.
Sin & Cos: The Programmer's Pals