skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Computing and comparing salary
A recent discussion about $100K salaries was drawing a lot of attention. However, it isn't clear how should such sum ($100k) be counted and compared?

Do you take a company car into account?

Bonuses?

Yearly stock grants?

Employer deductions into pension?

Or is it just the base salary?

Because all of this can make a big difference. Consider someone with a base salary of $100K. A company car for which he pays nothing but taxes is about another $5K in yearly value. Bonuses of 20% is another $20K. Let's say another $10K yearly bonus grants, and without counting pensions we get to $135K. So is this considered a $100K salary or a $135K salary, or something in between?

P.S. Surely this also differs between countries.
They had the exact same thing on a social networking site called 'orkut.com'. It's surprisingly owned by google, and I mean 'surprisingly' because that site belongs with the scum of the internet. Anyhoo, this idea is not at all original...
Early 2011, as 2011 will experience winter again later in the year. Please stop spamming hn with the same article/new title.
No. But there is always someone trying to pull a fast one on someone else.
First you should ask yourself why you need a cofounder? What will they do?

If what they will do is perform a job than you don't need a cofounder but an employee.

If you already have a stable service I don't see the point of brining in a cofounder because they wont have your vision.

One thing that could be beneficial is if you have a competitor who is at the same level as you, you could merge with them and become cofounders which would help you increase your presence, provide reasonable equity, and offer similar visions.

If you just need a cofounder to reduce your workload you could always hire programmers to do the development work and manage your business yourself.
Graph Databases Intrigue Me
Thanks for the response Matt. As the author, I'm gonna have to disagree about the whiny tone, haha, but obviously you have the right to your own interpretation. I realize the Bueller thing probably came across as bizarre if you're not familiar with the reference (to Ferris Bueller's Day Off), in this case it just kinda means "What? No response?".

The wording on RIM's site sure made it seem like the $200 fee would be coming at some point, so as a new Blackberry developer, I'm not sure you can fault me for not having the inside track on RIM's policies. If they don't want people to get turned off by the prospect of a $200 fee, I would suggest they take it off their registration page.

Overall, you are correct though. I did mention a lot of little things. But a lot of little problems add up to a big problem, especially when those problems aren't an issue with RIM's competitors. You have to keep in mind that RIM is not operating in a bubble. They are the underdog in a race where Apple and Google are pretty far ahead in terms of developer mind share. If they want to lure developers to the platform, putting out inferior tools and processes is not going to help them at all. The underdog never wins by maintaining the status quo.

And come on Matt, where's the national solidarity? We Canucks gotta stick together! :)
A high GPA bar like this has its benefits: Climb over it and you will share access to higher quality resources (fellow students, profs, likely also higher quality teaching facilities, labs, etc.).

I am not an advocate of achieving high GPAs for its own sake, but there is a huge dividing line between somebody in a high quality CS department and somebody who isn't. Trust me, you will learn more from good teachers than you will ever learn alone (libraby books or not).
I've been touch-typing since... um... some time in the late '80s, and I never learned to use the numeric keypad. Did a stint as a copy editor / layout monkey, too.
My TLDR is:

1. Scrum has been the most successful of the Agile methodologies, and people who are having trouble with Agile are often specifically having trouble with Scrum.

2. Scrum is all about moving to an iterative development model.

3. If you move to an iterative development model without the development practices to support it, you will regret it.

4. Scrum doesn't say anything about development practices, so lots of Scrum teams try to do iterative development without the development practices to support it, and they soon begin to regret it.

5. XP is an alternative since it does specify development practices that are designed to support iterative development.

I can't speak to the validity of the author's argument since I don't have any direct Scrum or XP experience, but I think your summary you're not doing it right - you need to be more agile - do it harder!! doesn't do the author's argument justice.
Some MIT and Harvard students recently started a site that does pretty much the same thing but has a way better name:

http://nchoosetwo.com
It costs money to select someone? I had no idea people paid for these kinds of things.
No project is ever finished. Once it meets the basic requirements given to you before starting, it is finished. Bug fixes are an ongoing process.
I sure don't. I'd rather it got out of the way and left more room for the mouse, which I use with my right hand. If there were a USB version of Apple's mini bluetooth keyboard, that would be perfect for my needs.
If you like this, as I do, you could make an extension to fix other subject/object confusion. That would be great for both you and I.
Ah, I meant the controller as chip-set on the SSD itself.

From what I understand, if OSX did that, it would be TRIM, or some other analogous garbage collection.

It doesn't though.
Apple knows that anything in a developer release will be leaked immediately anyway, so there's not much point in keeping things pseudo-secret. Also, there could still be Lion features that aren't in this developer release.
Kotaku Unboxes Its Nintendo 3DS
BMW Car Imgaes Wallpapers 2011 – Best Wallpapers
This is different "You can use nChooseTwo to anonymously suggest matches, and to see matches your friends have suggested for you!" You match potential couples on that, versus on http://crushnotifier.com you pick YOUR crushes. Both are good concepts.
Ask a decent local law firm for a standard partnership or shareholders agreement. Then ask them to handle the incorporation. Neither activity is very expensive (<$1k in both cases usually).

You need to do the incorporation steps anyhow and "internet templates" are never really the best idea for local activities like this (your state/country might have different rules, your personal situation might have different tax implications, etc.)

PS: I am not a lawyer nor usually an advocate of massive lawyer spending. But this is such a key document that messing it up will cause you nothing but pain.
Isn't that what 'Secure Empty Trash...' does? (In the Finder menu)
I absolutely agree, although the iPhone SDK was pretty rough when it started too. Keep in mind that Apple had a massive head start in that department, even at that point, because they'd been putting out OSX developer tools for years.
Putin's Russia: Neo-Feudalism Explained
Social Commerce and Curation Engine
I remember, but can't find, AG Holder saying that the number is between $120 and $150B.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/medicare-fraud-costs-taxpaye... says that the govt admits to $60B/year in medicare fraud.

http://issa.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=... says that the number is closer to $150B .

Meanwhile, the govt recovered $4B in 2010. http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kwgs/news.newsmain/article... .

IIRC, the total profit by private healthcare companies was less than $10B in 2009 and the executive salaries total was under $1B. You've said that the 2010 numbers are somewhat better.
That's not what I was trying to say, but I can understand why you'd think that. The deeper point was this: "Agile" started out as a grassroots movement among programmers. As a grassroots movement, it got enough people excited, and experienced enough success, that it moved into the mainstream.

Now that Agile is in the mainstream, it's attracting attention from people who aren't willing or able to put in the effort required to really understand or do it well. That kind of shallowness has always existed--not just for Agile--but it used to be that the worst those people would do is publish a blowhard essay like the "counterpoint" you linked, then go away.

Mainstream Agile isn't so lucky. Now the shallow people don't just flame and go away. They want Agile, but they don't want to work at it. A particularly poisonous subset sees dollar signs and starts offering highly dubious training, certification, and consulting services. Both groups put in something that says "Agile" on the tin but doesn't actually work.

And, sadly, there are more people interested in quick-and-easy than there are people who are interested in slow-thoughtful-and-rigorous. They outnumber, and outshout, the rest of us. As a result, the quick-and-easy (and non-functional) approach to Agile is taking over, and the original Agile that I got so excited about is going away. The interesting, motivated, exciting programmers I like to work with are moving on to other things.

I wrote that essay three years ago. It's even easier now to see a future in which Agile is just another bloated excuse for managers to treat their staff badly. That makes me sad, but I'll live, and I'll keep fighting the good fight.
The Truth About The iPad, Day 300: I Barely Use It Anymore
well isn't this exactly same as adore.ly except adore.ly has a much better UI?
> men didn't do so until like 10k years ago

This get quoted quite a bit here, so let me point out that in itself it is not a supporting argument.

We adults were not able to metabolise lactose either until we evolved the ability about 8,000 years ago. Evolution is still ongoing, thank goodness.

Yes, all you lactose-intolerant people (including me) are throwbacks.
Profit margins are not generally dependent on the weight of the stuff you are moving around. It is mostly based on risk and competitiveness. Risk increases profit margin (see: software companies, drug companies), while competitiveness reduces it (see: retail).

If there were no competitive pressure, why didn't insurance companies raise prices a lot higher? That's what ISPs did, resulting in a profit margin of 28%.

As for copying the G7, which of the other 6 members of the G7 do you propose copying? And how will imposing their system in the US prevent the overuse of medical services?

Do you think that Americans will say "our health care system is now just like France, maybe I better act like a Frenchman and not run to the doctor because I have the sniffles?"
Vint Cerf: 2011 will be proving point for 'InterPlanetary Internet'
TowrCraft v 1.0
Your site will scale well - as in it will give exactly the same performance for the millionth user as for the first user.

That doesn't mean you will have a fast site, though.

On GAE the datastore is pretty slow (it's a lot better now, but it used to be terrible), so a common pattern it to use a read-though cache to improve performance.

I wrote a thing that touched on this a couple of months back: http://nicklothian.com/blog/2010/11/23/a-pragmatic-approach-...
Ask HN: Technical Cofounder needed 
We are looking for a web developer to potentially join our venture:
www.stickyframes.net
We are almost ready with production of prototypes, but we need a functioning web platform to maximize the potential of our product. We can offer up to 14% of stake in SF project - but we are also ready to discuss other forms of compensation. Essentially we are looking for a website similar in fuctionality to something like this:
http://www.signazon.com/car-magnets/
If interested please contact me via HN or email at computerfix at gmail dot com
and I don't serve ads, and probably never will. But I do appreciate the traffic. Thanks.
Mysterious Galaxy to Open Second Location
I can be a technical confounder! Guaranteed to make even the simplest of projects seem terribly, horribly complicated!

Oh. You meant cofounder. ;-)
I'm 93% sure that this discovery will have a detrimental effect on my bank account.
That may be true, but there have been a number of these that went through unopposed and were therefore granted. I've heard lawyers say that you can get away with an awful lot of things if nobody objects.
Uh, that's no secret. Apple has been working towards resolution-independence for years now. Each of the last several OS releases has added more support for resolution independence, and more tools for helping developers achieve it (you can actually change the scale at which everything is drawn using Quartz Debug in the developer tools, but lots of the UI is fairly broken when scaled up). They haven't managed to quite get there yet, but it doesn't surprise me that Lion gets closer if not finally introducing the feature for real.
All I meant about the whiny tone is that it seemed like it was written in a bit of a sensationalist way, rather than giving both sides of the story. That being said, your intention was to get RIM's attention, and so I think the sensational tone paid off, because it's here on Hacker News and on DF :)

Hah, I know Ferris Bueller, so I get the joke, don't worry, I just thought it seemed redundant after the first one.

I agree that it's way easier to get an app running in the Simulator with iOS development, but to actually test apps on a device, and publish to the App Store, it's an awful process. Apple's been working to improve it a lot in the past year, but it's still pretty painful.

To be honest I think RIM is just trying to make a giant transition. Keep in mind that all the Playbook stuff came from QNX, so I imagine it's a bit of a nightmare merging it all that stuff into RIM's bizarre system. There's a ton of room for improvement, but it actually works quite well once you get it all set up. I think that was part of the idea with the free Playbook offer, trying to make up the gap between themselves and Apple/Google.

RIM's also tapping into the unloved but massive group of Flash Developers out there. You're gonna see a ton of apps from developers that haven't made apps before. These are developers for whom the App Store really isn't an option. A ton of the apps will be total crap (just like on the App Store), but there'll be some gems too. Having used the device myself, I can safely say that the hardware and the OS are solid, and so if the apps are good too, RIM will be doing very well, and the process will only get better.
Edit: Nevermind.
It's virtualized, and considering not everyone plays games at the same time, you would prob get a lot more than 4 players per "pc"
Watch Pakistan vs Sri Lanka Live Cricket World cup 2011
Cmd + S or using Safari
To what extent are people warned about this? If there's not a symmetric restriction on adding - or at least a prominent warning in the interface for adding - I imagine a lot of people might not realize this strategy has problems until they stick themselves with it...
Setting Big Goals, and Achieving Them
"Over 50 friends have been connected on adore.ly"
I would also suggest marking every day that you spoke to at least 3 people on the phone.

Because often, it's good to recognize that we need to involve other people and relationships in getting stuff done, and not just do everything solo. This rule of talking to 3 people a day means you probably won't be talking to the SAME 3 people every day, so you have to keep up your relationships and meet enough new people. Also a great measure of success.
> in such a way that you can apply it to any language

After working through some of SICP, would you recommend then using Scheme for practical projects?
1) Man, people who comment on Techcrunch are mean.

2) Good luck with Crush Notifier.
haha, that is horrible. written agenda? but for my 8 year olds, they get pumped about new challenges and new places to live. i've had success chatting over a few burgers. they dont need to know about cash or conversions. just adventures.
adioso asks you to fill a form* and press a button.

kayak just shows you the map.

* even though that form is really simple and pretty, it's still a mental speedbump

The best interface is no interface.
> Guaranteed to make even the simplest of projects seem terribly, horribly complicated!

That's pretty hilarious :)

Freudian?
Awesome, was just getting ready to send in the yodlee NDA
Be sure to check out LogStash as well. Uses a similar approach with MongoDB, plus ElasticSearch for...search: http://code.google.com/p/logstash/
How much of your Life can you actually remember?
Sure, but I doubt you'd seriously try to handle that with pipes and Unix anyway. 10g warrants someone who knows what they're doing and knows, like you, when the overhead of writing in C pays for itself in faster processing.
I don't have the energy now to debate the merits of grid based designs. I was just responding to the guy above who called the OP's use of grid "rubbish" and "tricks". No a grid is not right for every design.

> Why not a 3:2 ratio in each case? Why not 16:9? Why not 1.414:1? At least the last one has some neat recursive properties, as anyone who works with A4 paper probably knows.

The Golden Ratio goes back to the Ancient Greeks as they discovered that it appeared frequently in geometry, nature, etc. In classical composition, dividing a rectangle (canvas) in thirds vertically and horizontally, the "power points", that is, the place where a subject derives strong interest and "movement" exist at the intersections of these divisions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio has some good info.

As I said, I'm too tired to debate you, but if you don't see the point in using a grid, by all means, don't use it.

> What does that even mean? If I put a block at a certain place on a web page with CSS positioning, will it somehow not be where I wanted it if my styles aren't based on some regular grid system?

Of course not. It is just a tool to help the designer, a guide. You still have to write just as many styles if not more. Grids are just tools that can help make your designs more consistent. A fantastic resource is here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/04/14/designing-with-gr...

> Why are "precise results" even desirable as a general rule? Some design styles suggest a formal, regular layout. Others do not.

Now you're just being a contrarian. Of course nothing is a rule that cannot be broken, but unless you are doing a free, "avant garde" layout, you probably want some precision, some sense of form.
First place I noticed it was "New" Twitter. This article was posted on HN a little while after Gawker changed their design which explains why it was implemented and why it shouldn't have to begin with:

http://isolani.co.uk/blog/javascript/BreakingTheWebWithHashB...

And it's discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2196160
Looking for talented UI designer/programmer
Start Up looking for a talented user interface designer. with some business, marketing experience. We will design some screenshots and prepare a presentation before potential investors by mid to late March, 2011. If you have start up experience is a plus, but not needed, so apply even if you don't have. We are going after a 50+ billion dollar industry -US ALONE- being ignored by big and small companies.
If interested, please contact me at:
valdez.juan30@gmail.com
Hahaha:
ConFounder.
Pun taken. To my excuse, it is really late and I am really tired.
Currently there is me and another person involved. We are very motivated and very easy to work with.
This guy doesn't really seem to understand the bug he's trying to explain or actually what happened in his "accident".
I went looking in the preface for what's new in the 4th ed. - the only thing I found is on the back cover:

"The fourth edition has been substantially revised and expanded to bring the content up to date with the current Scheme standard, the Revised6 Report on Scheme. All parts of the book were updated and three new chapters were added, covering the language's new library, exception handling, and record-definition features."

"The book offers three chapters of introductory material with numerous examples, eight chapters of reference material, and one chapter of extended examples and additional exercises. All of the examples can be entered directly from the keyboard into an interactive Scheme session. Answers to many of the exercises, a complete formal syntax of Scheme, and a summary of forms and procedures are provided in appendixes."
Ask HN: Why is the Internet becoming less usable?
Probabilities tell me you've seen it too;

Usability is slowly disappearing, mailing-lists are being replaced by web based forums who don't support threaded conversations very well and many of their users are not so relevant. These end up out-ranking mailing-lists' web logs threads in Google and make it harder to find valuable technical information for many topics.

Google is become less usable, its default instant feature is annoying and really, it's nothing more than eye candy to normal end-users, who know nothing else but to adapt to programs' behaviors.

Heck, even my keyboard stops responding normally when I'm browsing Google's search results: they bound my arrow keys to some obscure "select-next-search-result" function who selects the next search result in list.

I never asked for this. I still believe mailing-lists are superior to web based forums.

How is the web going to change and will we all, be able to adapt?
How to name your company (or anything)
Lady Gagas Born This Way Fails
Why didn't the Romans have hot air balloons?
he also previously posted the 2 commandments of naming:

http://www.tinygigantic.com/2011/02/18/the-top-two-immutable...

1. this isnt about you (or your wife. or your friend who’s in marketing who really loves web 2.0 spellings. it's about strategy)

2. everything dies in legal (so look for a bunch of names that are good enough)
Half of me says awesome, while the other half is slightly-creeped-out that scammers no longer need to stop at "nah, writing scraping scripts for bank websites would be way too much work!".
Very whiny. What kind of software developer needs everything spoon-fed to them? "unix loving neck beards"? Oh, ok, I understand now.
Testing Google's New Algorithm: It Really Is Better
Yeah, Foxit is getting pretty bloated too. My PDF reader of choice on Windows now is Evince. It may not look pretty, but it's fast and lightweight without any fluff.
tech savy developer person?
Is Apple Prepping for a "Places" Product?
Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate (1969) [video]
It seems like most computer scientists, when observing the general lack of mainstream interest in computer science, assume that there's actually a problem with having a low number of computer science students. I disagree. Why do we ("we" being the computer science community, of which I casually consider myself a member) need more people? Is there reason to assume that there are many people who would be interested in and excel in computer science that never gave it a try? A decent portion of the supposedly interested computer science students I've interacted with don't even seem like they're a good fit for studying CS. If anything, I think we should have fewer CS students (perhaps this could be accomplished by requiring earlier or more difficult weed-out courses like Discrete Math, Algorithms, or Theory of Computation).

Especially with today's ubiquity of personal computing, certainly anyone who's interested in computers or computation can seek it out themselves—I don't think they need CS departments to cater or market themselves to them.

Oh, and about the "CS == programming" debate: If you don't like the act of programming, I really don't see how you're a good fit for studying computer science. This isn't to say that computer science and programming are one and the same. Consider this: biology != dissection, but if you can't stand dissection, I doubt you're a good fit for studying biology.
See above, it is really late and I am really tired. I will get it though. If you need more information, contact me.