skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I've been developing software for a long time. I'm saying this as a someone who has been a technical cofounder and watched the CEO judge me without being a coder himself. I was very surprised at how effective he was at doing that.

Btw, there is a giant flaw in your logic. You assumed I couldn't judge a programmer, but you then assumed I would successfully judge a technical cofounder.
Hate to do a me too post, but I'm going to anyway. I made a very similar app for a weekend project back in early march of 2009. http://www.fileinaflash.com I used TFTP as the transfer protocol and it's not encrypted like Sendoid, but it works. Ultimately, although it costs next to nothing to run, I couldn't think of a good way to turn it into a business so it's just been sitting there for the past 2 years or so. Sendoid is way faster and prettier than what I made though. Great implementation. Good luck!
ESPN gets a cut for every Comcast internet subscriber, that's why I get to enjoy ESPN3 (their streaming service). They also tend to do things like mandate that ESPN be available in the lowest level cable packages. Have you ever had to pay extra to get ESPN? If you buy more than the local channels, ESPN comes along.

It's obviously not exactly analogous, but volume licensing based on the number of consumers/seats/etc is pretty standard. We grant people a monopoly over their IP and it turns out they want to extract as much value as they can from it.
The more I read stories like this, the more I realise how random I have been with my pricing. Time to test some prices :)
In the short term, I bet a greasmonkey script could accomplish this fairly trivially.
AT&T needs T-Mobile most for its WiFi
Some of the best programmers I've worked with will say that the code they wrote a few years ago is bad code... I don't think it's a sign that ojbyrne is a bad developer or that he actually wrote bad code, on the contrary the worse developers are often the ones who are convinced that they are good.

See the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
I have Firefox "3.6.16pre," through Ubuntu.

When I try to access the app, it tells me that my browser isn't supported and sends me to mozilla.com to download... Firefox 3.6.15

Version check bug?
Man, I am no engineer but I can say with GREAT confidence I know bad engineers.
Everyone makes mistakes in the early days of startups and digg was no exception.

If you're here, you've probably heard that Ycombinator favors determination over talent. I kept the site up and made things work with extremely limited resources.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer discusses Google Android (2007)
I was kind of thinking the same thing: Can't find one? Make one. Whoops, now you need HN again cuz now you're an entrepreneur...um, then what happens to the board aimed at employee hackers? (Then if it dies, you go back to being an employee...at which point you need it again...etc. So if you need it, you won't make it and if you make it you won't need it.)
Been using the Alpha for the past few weeks, and the product is super slick and polished for the first release.

I'm not sure why people are talking about the landing page, domain name, and other irrelevant stuff. Dropbox is really good at syncing files across systems, but not that great for sharing files quickly and effortlessly. Receivd in my opinion is trying to solve this problem.
Hit me up. Email in profile.
Assuming it's my blog that we're referring to, I mirrored the relevant bits on the slice that hosts the static files: http://toys.euri.ca/
I disagree. Every programmer I know thinks the code they wrote 5 years ago is bad because they've learned a lot in the years since writing it. The site worked and and worked well, even if the underlying code wasn't as elegant as it could have been. So many sites go through this pain, just look at twitter with their rewrites of job queues and what not.
Everyone knows the "App" in "App Store" is short for "Apple".
I think that statement is upon reflection. Everyone looks back at previous code and thinks they could have written it better. That is just the progression of a developer.
The shotgun can work. Put them to work as interns, then mentally review their performance at the 2 week, 4 week, 2 month and 3 month anniversaries.

If at any point you find that they are significantly underperforming, go and find out why. E.g. maybe for the first 3 weeks they were on database stuff, which they love, but they've been reassigned to UI which they hate. Maybe their dog died.

If they underperform at any two of the reviews stages, get rid of them. If they are bad for morale, get rid of them. A great coder that is an energy vampire for your good coders is a net loss.

One place I worked we had a guy who was supposed to be a good programmer. The first week there he was really depressed about Michael Jackson's death. I tried to cheer him up and he perked up for a couple of days in the second week. Then in the third week I discovered he was actively looking for work elsewhere (and telling other devs about it). I pulled him aside and told him to pull his head in. He came right for a while but the next week he was down again. He broke the build every second day, and nobody ever chastised him for it (there might have been some playful ribbing along the lines of 'you broke it, you bought it') but the one time I broke the build he lost his shit and started screaming at me, telling me (in front of managers) that I was incompetent. He had epic mood swings, when he was up he could be the most charming guy in the world, when he was down he was evil up to and including physically attacking and bullying other devs (but never in front of the managers).

Naturally, the managers loved him, so I left.
And if everyone had guns, you could cross off dictatorial. Thugs, both state and tribal, don't bat an eye when thinking about getting their hands on a gun. For peaceful, law abiding folks, however, it's a huge hassle.
I think many of them are. The topic comes up every couple of weeks in various forms. The ones that seem to do well, however, are more specific and link to well written external posts rather than "Hey, how come there are only X women in Y Combinator?" chatter.
Ask HN:  Revenue Ideas for Hacker Stay at Home Mom's
Ok, she's not a hacker, but I am. This is an anonymous account, due to the subject matter.

My Ex lives away from me, with my children. She has no formal education she can put to use, no job at the moment, has some knowledge of some random topics, and is eager to start generating some income. She can obviously go to school for something... but, her goal is to work from home, so she can spend the days raising our kids, and the evenings generating income. Her technical capabilities are minimal, but mine are great.

My only ideas at the moment are:

- Marketing. Blogging/Creating a site about something she is passionate about. Generating income on content via Affiliate Marketing or Search.

- Teaching. Holding classes in the evening about a specialized topic. She knows a few subjects in depth, and if she was to focus on them, I believe she'd be able to start teaching them.

That's all I have. The reason I posted this on here is that I'm a hacker by trade. I've been involved in a couple startups, and have the knowledge to design/build/deploy websites/applications quickly. I can support my family with the income I currently have, however, she wants the piece of mind that she's generating her own income (even though I'm going to play a big role in getting her bootstrapped and teaching her everything I know).

Suggestions/Ideas welcome!
Hmmm mac only for now. I'd be able to try this out with Linux and Windows versions. I have a mac, but it usually sends files to non-macs.

What's the advantage over Dropbox? Does your service go through a central server, or is it more p2p? Or both? Are my files encrypted on your server? Storage or bandwidth caps?
This is the kind of question which should be asked over in Quora, because you can have a wiki edited list of schools.
Iterations Are Dead, Long Live Iterations
Digg's code wasn't the problem.
Lawyers get outsourced. Usually just the routine paperwork stuff that the associates would otherwise handle, but they don't get off scot-free.
No, the lesson is if there is a revolution in your country, dont try to wipe it out with brute force. At least be mkre sneaky about it.
Speak. Don't Tweet
I have been vigorously developing SpeakBin - http://www.speakbin.com - we are one of the only services that allow you to easily record to our site through your smartphone. You then can post it either on your Facebook wall or Twitter feed. We are developing the iPhone app and have released version 1.3 of the Android app. Simply put, what do you think of my startup? Can you see Ochocinco making speaks instead of tweets?
Thanks. Now that you mention it, digg spy circa 2005 was a thing of beauty. Concept by Kevin, Design by Daniel Burka, making it all work by me.
Japan's Nuclear Nightmare a Wake-Up Call for US
GMail periodically filtered in China
what do you mean, email@domain.com +hn?
Hey Jason,

I remember your name from back when you were working in the employment industry (I worked for a competitor back then.) Glad to see you have a new concept and it's starting off well.

Thanks for sharing what you've learned so far.
Early Web Startups: Building or Selling
That's fine. I guess I (and others?) misread your tone.
Just one city or one metro area? And if the latter, do you count Silicon Valley in the same area as San Francisco?
The Canadian regulators are trying very hard too. If it was only up to them, we'd have 60 gig caps and no viable indie ISPs...
Targeted Website Traffic.
Google, Facebook, Microsoft Back Open Networking Standard
There's no shortage of good domains that the squatters haven't gotten to. Just use combinations of two words, something obvious and easy to spell from sound.

I've purchased 2 domains in the past 3 years: hackerstream and readwarp[1]. Perhaps you think they both have something wrong with them. But I contend that they're both better than del.icio.us or receivd. (Too bad that isn't all there is to a project.)

[1] In general I've been pleasantly surprised at how much of the namespace is still available. Both times I thought up a name in the shower after a few weeks of building it, and was pleasantly surprised to find my first attempt was available. Take it, done, and "find a domain name" was never even on my todo list.
Letscrate makes you wait for the upload to finish before you get the link. Sendoid gives you a link instantly, regardless of file size.

The free version of Letscrate limits files to 50MB and your library caps out at 200MB; the $9/month plan allows larger files and caps out at 10GB. Sendoid is free for all file sizes and imposes no caps on the size of your library.

Letscrate offers no security measures. Sendoid creates an encrypted link between sharer and receiver, and has options for password-protection and one-time usage.
I like WhileDile later more, or at least the way the "see ya later alligator" idea was heading more. People are bear biased.
My comment was a little tongue-in-cheek.
I do still follow slashdot's RSS feed, but I tend to only notice stories because I remember having seen them elsewhere a few days before.
I don't remember Slashdot ever really having much in the way of enlightening discussion.
Seems pretty reasonable to me. It might not have been what everyone wanted to hear, but the truth of the matter is that there are a lot more mediocre developers out there than outstanding ones, and if you're not careful with your hiring, you'll wind up with a lot more of the former than the latter.

It seems Kevin wasn't blaming any problems on his team, but rather on their lack of attention in selecting that team. Whether he's able to select better will soon be seen, but I take his comment as more of a mea culpa than anything.
Enter in email+hn@domain.com and we'll give you access right away.
Are they trying to trademark "jobs" as well?
Site Targeted Traffic for Beginners
Depends on your definition of Selling.

For us, selling has always been about customer feedback. The reality is that customers are you best product managers, their feedback should build your product.
Personally I think historically one of the problems with Flash games was getting paid. Most people would love the revenue stream from an ad supported version of Bejeweled... but what else in Flash games is there that makes money?

There's farming games on Facebook I guess, but to read the devs blogs you'd think it was a never ending series of the playing field being moved all the time, and dodgy APIs.

To monetize their skills most of the Flash devs I know went to work for ad agencies, or switched to a different language and Flash became a hobby.

I think this is one of the "eleven secret herbs and spices" of iOS development, why they had an absolutely massive number of devs and apps, because there was this pent up demand from the indie devs, and no really good or easy way to fulfill it.

--

You say "perhaps they (the iOS and Android games) will encroach on the handheld market (PSP, 3DS)"

I'm confused, didn't that already happen? Haven't the handhelds been in a death spiral since the iPod Touch took off big time?
Things like this make me wish I had more spare time.
Thoughts on the Cr-48, cloudbooks, and the future of Chrome OS
There's nothing to indicate that 3rd party developers aren't happy and profitable. With as large an audience as Nintendo's it seems unlikely that studios with the capital to enter that market would walk away. While I totally relate to the indie dev perspective (being an indie dev who'd love to make something for the DS), their Hollywood high barriers to entry do protect consoles from some of the ridiculousness that goes on in the mobile app stores.
That said, consoles are definitely missing out on many small and wonderful things that are handcrafted by small teams.
Hobbyist in need of a Project
I've been programming in my free time for about 6 years. Self educated (well random web article educated). I can say with confidence I'm fluent in php, css, sql (all sql's), javascript, jQuery, ajax (I don't undestand why people always list this seperate) and actionscript (would say flash, but I can't draw). I spend the majority of my free time reading/studying trying to duplicate everything I can from database optimization to github's document rev monitor to css layouts practices to web protocols to compilers. I browse the web with firebug on.

The kicker is I really don't have much to show for it. Once I learn a tech or method I'm on to the next one because it's a hobby. I've never really taken the time to make anything. I did a project for a friends company that involves product demonstration organization across the U.S (36 tables). But due to what I will call "complications of business morals" on there part, I resigned. However they still use it to this day 2 years later without fail with over 1k users, 1k customers, and 3k products to which no one has monitored the site minus the host and an automated db backup. Small I know, but for my first project I'm happy.

I have a full time job 7-4 mon-fri in industrial sales that I enjoy and is very solid so I'm not looking to dedicate a full time job to web dev. Maybe someday, but I'm only 25 so I've got time.

I want to do something. Even if its borderline useless. I don't want to make money off it as long as it's not costing me an arm and a leg to host.

So I'm asking for suggestions/requests/challenges/something. I want to be tested. See where I'm at.
Please.
Thank You.
Drug trafficking Jacksonville
Gmail allows tagging at the end of the address like me+tag@gmail.com. This is what he is referring to.
Agreed. Look at reddit's current codebase. It's such a mess that the OSS platform is all but worthless. [1] Nevertheless, it's handled the incredible demands placed upon it with something approximating success. When your team is too strapped for time to refactor the code that's causing problems, and instead builds hacks upon hacks in an effort to keep the site up, it's a testament to their ingenuity if it's still running years later with millions more customers.

[1] http://www.deserettechnology.com/journal/reddit-the-open-sou...
Secure Wordpress and SSH with Two Factor Authentication
Ideal first round funding terms
Your confusing # of prices with the simplicity of the pricing scheme. With Apple, I can justify to myself why I'm paying more for a product (eg. size increase, 3G). With the NYTimes, its hard to justify why I should pay more for (1) a digital copy and (2) the same content on different platforms.
Kassam rocket lands in Eshkol Regional Council; none hurt
Its even worse in the car. Ever tried to start a Disney movie for a 3 year old while driving?

For our own safety, every movie in the car is HandBraked from the original so it starts instantly when inserted.

I can just about guarantee that a serious accident has been caused by those damn menus.
I use Notifo to get notified of responses on HN: http://notifo.com/hackernews
There are patent defense organizations like Allied Security Trust, RPX and the Open Invention Network but it seems like these are for major players and/or have very limited scopes
Because the iPad doesn't have a real fucking keyboard[1], or a port to add one.

[1] - http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/05/30/bye-apple
What is a "C" or "D" coder? Is it somebody who writes bad code that works? Somebody who takes forever? Somebody who doesn't care?

I figure I'm probably a "C" coder, I get stuff done, and I'm always improving, but I know there are better coders out there than me.

Does management take any responsibility in driving C's to be A's??

Apparently not from Rose's point of view. What does HN think?
Are you referring to computer engineers, or other kinds of engineers? (Electrical, Mechanical, Civil etc)

I was talking to an older guy the other week, he didn't seem particularly "switched on". Turns out he makes well over twice what I do, because he predates COBOL, the people that he works for a terrified he'll leave/get hit by a bus etc and nobody will have the skills and knowledge to maintain the systems their business runs on, because all his compatriots got wiped out by an asteroid.

I wouldn't say he was bad at his job. If I was to guess I'd say he was 'okay' at his job, but he didn't seem to have that spark that I associate with greatness. But as his take home packet proves, sometimes 'good enough' is great too :D
I don't understand why we should wait. Why?
Do you live in or nearby Silicon Valley(/Bay Area)?
Is It a Good Thing We Can't Predict Earthquakes?
I don't think he throws them under the bus as much as he shows his total lack of understanding and involvement in a key part of what would have made his business successful.

Based on that anecdote, I'm amazed that Digg got this far.
What if Google acquired Sprint?
The hardest part is convincing someone to spend any money. If you've done that, the difference between charging $1 and $5 isn't going to be much.
Oh, snap! [1] Sorry to hear that, and [2] probably wise.
One of the things I found kind of weird about this whole argument is that Joe Stump, basically made an argument in 2009 that amounts to "hire shitty programmers"

http://vimeo.com/3571817
I've been hurting since drop.io shut. This sounds like a good replacement.

EDIT: Functionality is quite different than drop.io and less anonymous in terms of sharing (though powerful for sharing with small groups or individuals). It would be great to get a private URL for each item shared, a la google docs.
Some money changed hands too. http://wxwidgets.org/about/name.htm

No doubt there was both a carrot and a stick, but who knows whether the stick would have held up in court. Trademark law could also well be different in the UK.
This is a fine idea.

I think, along the same lines as a talent revolt, an organization wherein developers can pool a monthly fee to push our interests as an industry that thrives on actual innovation might be in order.

Say $30-$50 a month/dev or other interested individuals to go to funding a 'Patent Defense Fund' for members, building and maintaining a prior art database, and buying useful patents for the use as the little guy's nuclear deterrent.
Senator asks FCC & DOJ to examine AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile
Dilbert Link:
http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=confusopoly&x=0&y...
I thought sexist jokes are supposed to be downvoted on HN.
I've built many large and small engineering teams. One of the most important lessons I've learned is "A players hire A players. B players hire C players. C players hire D players." It is a fact.

Sometimes you can't avoid hiring B players. But if you do (either by mistake or because you explicitly decided to) you need to be disciplined about either turning them in a A players or ensuring they are not responsible for hiring. If you find you have C or D players get them to move on IMMEDIATELY.

Kevin says something here that is really important, and I think it is part of the lesson he's learned: "It was really hard to get rid of the C & D guys".

This is why I now try to work on the principle that I am far better off not hiring someone than compromising on quality. I have learned the hard way (multiple times) if I don't live by this principle, I WILL pay later.
So from my perspective (having no internal knowledge) while Digg may have had its downtime, there's no technical reason why it's failing right now. Digg's biggest failures seem to be 1. it doesn't make enough money and 2. its product re-launch was a failure of epic proportions.

Blaming this on the B&C level programming talent is a bullshit way to deflect mistakes he made.
It seems to be a compile time only tool. Does it let you safely deploy application code separately from its dependencies? Does it let different applications share libraries when possible? Does it come with tools that let you query the version and dependencies of a deployed library and see how those dependencies are satisfied? Can you push a security fix for a library to servers in the field without completely rebuilding and redeploying every application that uses the library (if you can figure out which ones they are?)
Show HN: Like a cross between IM and a Forum.
The article focuses on Libya and Iraq, but forgets about Pakistan, whose nuclear weapons have done little to prevent CIA drones from killing terrorists and the occaisional civillian within pakistan's borders.
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At bluray bitrates? Typical iTunes HD bitrate is 4, vs the 20-40 you get with bluray movies.
I had this conversation at work last week. Google makes trivial data trivial to find, and yet mildly less trivial questions like "what is a good introductory textbook on typography" result in pages chock full of useless link spam. You struggle to find mention of anything predating 1998, before which a few useful things happened... even by Hal Varian standards.
I think the moral of the story is that there is no point in going gaga over the numbers that hardware manufacturers serve up unless and until you can get your hands on the actual device (whether that be phone, netbook, CPU, GPU or plain old desktop) and try it out for yourself.

I think this is a problem that has long been embedded in tech journalism. We go all breathless over an extra 10% mega this or giga that, but 99% of the time that extra 10% doesn't matter.

But if they weren't getting excited over the latest fraction of an increment, what would they report on?
Yes, exactly. Perhaps the 4 weeks approach is to link it with the existing home delivery system (which is also calculated by week), but it sounds strange in practice.

I guess we'll see how it turns out, though. Maybe most customers won't actually mind these irregularities.
That's what Mark Twain (purportedly) said: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/twain.htm