skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm not on Quora, so I can't answer there, but here's my take ...

School/College/University is an unparalleled opportunity to learn stuff. If you're bored, it's your problem, and you need to take control. If you're convinced the existing classes only cover things you already know, go and get an exemption. Perhaps you can choose not to attend, but then ace the exams. If so, do that.

You need to find interesting stuff. Audit, and perhaps take, classes that are a year, even two years, beyond where you are. If they have prerequisites that you haven't done, get an exemption.

Believe me that the professors will want to keep you, and if granting a probationary exemption will do it, they'll do it.

But you need to take control. You need to show them that you understand their concerns, and that you will not fail and flunk out.

Yes, this is hard work. Yes, this requires initiative, but if you're the kind of person who will do well at a startup then you've got initiative in bucket loads, and you're not afraid of hard work.

So here's a challenge - go and get your degree in one year instead of four. That would look good on your resume, especially if you also have a side-project to demonstrate.

Note: Some of the above might be bad advice for you. But what's certain is that if youre finding college boring, the future is in your hands.
Exactly. The goal of dress.me is to be a replacement for a spouse/mom/metro friend who is always available to help you with your purchases. Since I'm a woman, I understand this whole process pretty well. It's how I came up with dress.me--I was sick of helping out my significant other and guy friends when it came time to shop. With dress.me, they'll have the service they need whenever they want.
"Curing" other peoples sexual inclination is just as offensive as "curing" their religious inclination. You are not really free to choose your own religion (or sexual orientation) if you are constantly ostracized by the community for your choice. Ostracization removes choice, i.e. freedom. So to ensure freedom of expression (for other people than yourself), there must be some limitations so people with non-mainstream choices are not ostracized.

An effective method to ostracize other people is to provide a lot of "help" to "cure" them for their "choice". This creates a common perception that some choices are less valuable than others, and that people choosing those less valuable choices are less worth and it's ok to beat them up. And this method is particulary surviveable as it can hide behind "freedom of expression".
May I kindly ask to not pick on Germans in this context?
Those guys are too smart. When you start to write programs that are too big to understand as one lump, you start to learn to decompose your code and organize it in ways that help you understand it a little bit at a time. They never do that; they just keep the whole program in their head at one time. Tell them that a function should do one "simple" thing that makes sense as a unit, and they have no problem putting the whole program in that function.

Actually, I shouldn't say they are too smart, because they will continue to program like that even when it causes them problems....
I need to do a better job of finding even more black founders for Mixergy. If anyone wants to help me connect with successful, please email me: http://mixergy.com/contact
I'll try to address both of these points, but forgive me if they aren't too helpful.

Your issue is a fair one, and my only response is that I assume that those who sign-up away from home are in a the minority. Of course the statistics will be slightly skewed, but I still believe that even when taking this into account, the winning city will have won fairly.

To be able to answer your question, I'd have to give away a bit more about the concept than I'm willing to at this point, so I hope this explanation helps:

Advanced metrics don't work. Long, boring resumes don't work. Nothing can be more helpful than just getting into coffee shop with someone and having a chat about ideas that really excite you. GetFounder is about getting entrepreneurs and technical people who share the same vision into that situation.

We have one or two 'profile' fields that overlap with those found on sites like StartupWithMe, but I believe that GetFounder's true potential is found in its simplicity.

I don't think you'll have seen matchmaking like this. I really cant wait to show it to you!
Carpentry is a super power. Just about every girlfriend I've had has been very turned on by guys who can build things with their hands; my brother made a (successful) engagement ring out of 5 different kinds of Amazonian hardwoods that looked amazing. I think people like _why would agree that learning to create things, regardless of the medium, is so cool that it's like having a super power.
Its pretty fascinating to think that in the US there will now be really only one GSM choice until 4G is ubiquitous. Only one carrier where you can use unlocked phones etc.
How Did Uniqlo Become the Hottest Retailer in New York?
There's also a nice book about it (The Shadow Factory by James Bamford): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9568943...
thanks. I think your post + the others makes me realize that everyone prefers different things.

what's hard though to figure out what those things are in the hiring process :) I think people often say everything about the interviews, or sometimes they dont realize what they actually want.
Submit Questions or Answers about StartUps for March 23rd White House Panel
We will share it on our blog and mailing list. It's quite simple, only 200 lines of code.
With WM 3 seconds? It takes only to boot up 3-4 minutes. Emulator is painfully slow. Whole internet is full of complaints about it...
Natural Language Processing, I think
Confession: When I read something online that I know was written by a black person, I am significantly more critical of grammar and usage. I sometimes read sentences twice simply because I expect errors.

I consider myself to be a good person and I don't actively discriminate against people based on things like race, but I simply can't help this reflex. Sad, huh?
See also the article "College Dropout Factories".

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/colle...

The problem of low quality schools screwing over students who are not college material (and a few who are) is hardly limited to for-profit colleges. For-profits just got a lot of press because various parties (short sellers, non-profits worried about competition) pushed the story.
Ask HN: Tools for (re)learning Java
Hello HN-

I have a pretty solid programming background, but I have been working as a network engineer for the past 7 years. In some ways building and maintaining the network requires a totally different mindset, and I feel like I have forgotten quite a bit of what I once knew.

I'm particularly interested in Java because I'm particularly interested in Android development.

Are there any favorite tools / books out there that would make a good refresher course? The problem I have of course isn't a lack of information, but an overload of information - a quick Google search will give me far more than I need and it's difficult to figure out what not to read and where to start.

Thanks all
Should I remove my wedding band before a VC pitch?
The Entrepreneur Rollercoaster [VIDEO]
I'm white, so take what I say with a grain of salt. In all honesty, I feel bad for black people who must always wonder if they're being judged solely on their merits.

That said, I can't think of a better industry for a minority to be in than technology and entrepreneurship. The only color that matters here is green. Skill talks and bullshit walks.
iPad 2: Thoughts from a first time tablet user
About a month ago I wrote on Twitter: "Does your IT company provide drugs, alcohol, and groupies? How about katanas? No? Then you aren't hiring rockstars or ninjas."

As you can see I'm the first one to be oppose to meaningless names. However the point of the article was not about labeling ourselves as super heroes. It was about inspiring new comers to take the plunge because programming, in this information age, allows you to do incredible things as if you had a super power.

This is akin to a doctor blogging about how you can be a hero and save lives if you go into the medical field. It's supposed to inspire new people, not putting ourselves on a pedestal and literally say "I'm a super hero because of my profession".
Existential Type, new blog by Bob Harper (of CMU) on programming languages
I do not email any friends. I am in my twenties. Before Facebook it was another social network, before that it was IM.

EDIT: I do chat to friends on Gmails chat.
Gah why doesn't that site let you post job openings?

I got some great advice from a Berkeley professor about increasing diversity in the workplace. I had issues giving preferential treatment to resumes that came in just because I thought diversity was important and he suggested I post job openings in places that are already heavily black/latino/etc.

I thought it was a great idea, but they aren't easy to find.
Yes, we think about it. CoffeeScript support should be easy to implement and seamless to use.
If you're subclassing to dodge a simple switch you're in serious trouble.
Show HN: Please review my app tagsono.me
It's a simple app. I use node.js, express, redis and mongodb.
Goto isn't completely bad. It's used all over the FreeBSD kernel to bail out in error conditions.
It was an argument for filtration, not specifically for xxx. There will still be trick site in the com space; fortunately, lemonparty and goatse, at least at their canonical domains, are easily and quickly blocked.
AT&T (formerly SBC) bought BellSouth to gain complete control over Cingular.
Then you split according to value and what can be agreed upon. It's not always natural to have or assume even splits.
We'll meet in the labor camps one day and have a good laugh at each other's expense.
12m cell-IDs in the Mobile Location API
Brilliant. I've been dreaming about this the last 10 years. I hate going shopping. Whatever I buy always looks a lot better in their mirrors than it does at home anyway, so I don't see the advantages of fitting something physically in the store.

If the website included a little "3d model" of a person, customizable to make it my size so I can try on different clothes, that would be ideal.
Facebook Received 250,000 Job Applications In 2010
Time savers:

Mac (en-US): ftp://mozilla.fastbull.org//mozilla/firefox/releases/4.0/mac/en-US/Firefox%204.0.dmg

Win32 (en-US): ftp://mozilla.fastbull.org//mozilla/firefox/releases/4.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%204.0.exe

Linux x86_64 (en-US): ftp://mozilla.fastbull.org//mozilla/firefox/releases/4.0/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-4.0.tar.bz2

Linux i686 (en-US): ftp://mozilla.fastbull.org//mozilla/firefox/releases/4.0/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-4.0.tar.bz2
From the SO page: "I just thought that if the arabic transcription says Qaḏḏāfī, the regex should check for Qaddafi too."

Would any of these searches find an article that solely uses a phonetic spelling with diacritical marks as opposed to a "standard" alpha only transliteration?

I guess it depends on the engine used - in which case the question is do any regex engines do such automated conversion?
"Today we are standing on the shoulders of giants, and are able to access amazing development tools, frameworks, and libraries "

Being able to make an impact mostly depends on how many other people have the skills you have. So while I am still optimistic, I still like programming, etc... I think making an impact today as a programmer is not easy. Me, who has been programming for more than 20 years from now (I started at 12) I think my business and product design knowledge is what is to be developed further to be able to have a more balanced knowledge. It is not easy, I am better and better, but my ideas are still too technical. I have to concentrate not to be too technical. Of course for a business guy the other direction makes sense (to develop technical knowledge besides business knowledge to be more balanced.)
DesignSvn: Version control for designers
Day's till Demo Day
People still call them "Berkley sockets"? Isn't that akin to calling your "Von-Neumann Machine" something like "Turing complete"?
Twitter Turns 5 & Produces Star Studded Video
As a black programmer with about 5 years of professional experience, I've always asked myself the same question. Throughout all the job interviews, conferences and meetups I've been to I've met no more than 3 other black programmers. One is my dad while the other is a friend and his dad. I still haven't come up with an answer but I do have two theories:

Role Models:
There is no black Bill Gates. Not everyone is a trailblazer and for the rest of us role models play a huge "role" when choosing a career path. This is especially true for the black community. It becomes much easier to convince yourself, and your parents, that your passion is a valid career choice if you can point to an existing success story.

Access to technology:
When I was a kid growing up I was the only one of my friends whose family owned a computer thanks to my dad being a programmer. Kinda hard to develop a passion for programming without one of those. Before tech skills became a requirement for any decent job computers were seen as expensive and unnecessary so everyone else was told "we'll get you one when you get to high school / college."

However, as I apply these these theories to today, Obama is president and just about every kid, rich or poor, has daily access to a computer. I'm guessing in 5 years time, when the next generation begins their careers, the number of black programmers will increase drastically all on its own.

That said I do know a good number of black network engineers and sys admins so I'm completely lost as to why programming is the only IT profession with such a huge discrepancy. Any theories?
In this case if you're running the RC, you're already running 4.0.
"Looking at photos is not the same as looking at the real thing;"

You'd say the same thing about jewelry (BlueNile.com: 58M quarterly revenue) and shoes (Zappos.com: bought by Amazon for ~$1B).

(note: I edited this to say "jewelry" instead of "diamonds")- I agree loose diamonds are a commodity. An wedding ring you're going to wear the rest of your life is something I'd imagine people would want to see/wear before buying)

I don't think that's the barrier for clothes.
Thanks! I like that analogy that culture of the company is like a personality and how it is perceived rather than enforced :)

From your experience do most of the companies care about surveys and culture?

My problem is that I never saw how this was done successfuly, as an employee in previous companies, we had some performance surveys etc.. but the reality was that it was just a time-waster for everyone involved. As a business owner now I can't loose focus from the core business with unneccessary distractions. Altought I have a feeling it may bite me in the a.. in the future :)
Yes. As I mentioned above, I think it will become the friendly thing for commercial, bona fide purveyors to do, just as it's friendly now to have a page that says "If you're under 18, click here to leave!" I think any page that currently has such an intro will move to xxx for the social goodwill, and that any page that doesn't won't.
The EU? The UN?

Wales is a constituent country of the United Kingdom and has some devolved power. However, it is the United Kingdom which is internationally recognised.
No pressure. Also, I feel like it should start counting down the hours now.. Good luck everyone!
Oh wow, thanks for the info!
Warning Danger Aviso Avertissement
A History of the World in 100 Seconds
Girlfriend: Your wardrobe needs updating. (I love you but you look like shit.)

Me: No it doesn't. (Yes it does, but I have no idea what to do.)

Girlfriend: There are some great sales at the mall. (I'll appeal to his sense of financial responsibility.)

Me: I'm too busy right now. (I really am busy and I hate going to the mall.)

Girlfriend: You would look so much better in a palette more suited to you. It seems such a waste to not take advantage of your dark eyes and olive complexion. (I'll appeal to his vanity.)

Me: Wait, what? Dark eyes? Olive complexion? (She may be on to something.)

Girlfriend: Everyone thought you looked so cute in that shirt I got you last month. And the haircut, too. All my girlfriends thought you were so hot. (This works on ALL men...)

Me: No they didn't. (Hmmm...her girlfriends think I'm hot? Whoa.)

Girlfriend: And you can't go to that party in the same jeans and t-shirt again. Every picture of you on Facebook is in the same outfit. Potential investors might think you're a flake. (Threaten his start-up; threaten his baby.)

Me: OK, OK. (Good point, I keep hashing to the same frame.)

Girlfriend: I'll get dressed. You get the car. We can stop for a couple of drinks to celebrate on the way home. I'll probably love how you look. (Moving in for the kill...)

Me: This is so superficial, but you win. (Thank you, thank you, thank you.)

There are still some experiences that just can't be duplicated on-line.
A history of the world in 100 seconds
By this standard, pretty much anything that doesn't involve trivial desk job paper pushing is a super power. Bricklaying? Check. Welding? Check. Mech eng? Check. Digging ditches? Check. Everyone's special, Dash.
It’s You China Blames Google
You right stranger, but whartarewegonnadeuh? What do you think of avoiding frameworks and just going with the servlet spec?

I'm not kidding here. I got fed up with Java about 5 years ago and taught myself Rails and Ruby, but I kept programming in Java largely because of work requirements. Every time I got to write nice, clean POJOs, life was pretty good, and I felt productive and enjoyed coding for long stretches. Every time I was deep in frameworks (spring, struts, hibernate, etc), I felt like checking email or HM or just going home.

I like Rails, but even then I find myself fighting with the framework eventually. I'd say with Rails, the trade-off is easier to stomach - I get so much out of Rails that I'm not as unhappy when I have to figure out how rails does something. With Java, I'm even more tempted to just use the lowest level I possibly can, in the belief that the up-front cost to productivity will be offset when I need to do something that isn't easy with the existing frameworks. Another factor in all this is mental space. I can keep the core language in my head, but I can't possibly keep all the frameworkish stuff in there, and in Java, even if you find an article on using spring to do something, the example never works (strangely, in Rails, it usually does).

The problem is... I still do need these things in Java as well. It does feel a little dumb to write my own MVC framework. I like auto-generating the dev database from annotations. I don't like Spring, but Dependency Injection actually is pretty damn useful for swapping out different implementations of a constant interface. I could go with something else, I guess...

This is a tough one, and it's typical of complexity creep. Each individual decision makes sense, but after a thousand little tiny pieces of complexity are added, you step back and realize you have a monster on your hands.
Ruby’s Enumerator Demystified
This is kinda funny, but I actually love this idea and have asked out loud why someone hasnt done this. BUT only if it's what I think it should be.

The one area that I have most trouble with isn't types of clothes it's the color coordination. I've had hundreds of comments like "oh your shirt doesn't match." To me it looks perfectly find. Or one that's strange to me is "that color is not you." My answer is always, "I have a color?" but no one clarifies.

Or I'll buy a dress pants in one color, and have no idea what color I should buy for dress shirt and other stuff like coats or sweaters to match.

I imagine something like saying hey I have so and so pants what color or shirt best matches it?

Something that works with your exist wardrobe, or teaches you how to color coordinate would be great.
There's a reason the programmer stereotype is t-shirts and jeans. These clothes are comfortable, require very little maintenance, are cheap and require very little thought.

And they are simply always stylish, fit perfectly and you can hardly go wrong in them. Right? RIGHT???
Snoop = Priceless in this video. Eyes are nearly closed.
Are Enron, Bernie Madoff and Worldcom really your clients? Might need a fix up there :)
I'm not sure there is one perfect 100% answer for that question, but I might suggest "that was then, this is now?"

https://twitter.com/#!/moxie__/status/48185775111684096

It is probably worth noting that the speaker (and tweeter) has had some significant delays in the last year while clearing customs.
My cofounder is a black female. She is an economist and we worked together in the financial industry, so while not a programmer, she is certainly technical.
So T&AT&T
These actually work:

OSX: http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefo...

Win: http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefo...

Linux: http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefo...

However, they're the same as RC2 (sha1sum confirms). Not uncommon though for Mozilla to release a RC as stable version without any modifications besides the version bump.
Not really on topic, but I'm in Atlanta too at the moment and when I went to the game developers meetup about 5 of the 20 people who showed up were black & other game development events I've been to in Georgia Tech had a few black people in them too (less than their proportion of the population, but still a good 1/4-1/5 the attendants).

Don't know what that might say about the games industry, if at all, just putting it out there.
I guess I should update that and add Bear Stearns.
You may not need a "strong role model" that you idolize and learn everything about and consciously structure your life after, but a "weak role model" that demonstrates that yes, it's an option, can be helpful. I'm not sure I've really read a lot of stories about "role models" in the strong sense but I've heard a lot of people over the years make comments about the weak case.
PHP coders needed for Lingerie.com Weekly Picks
PHP coders needed for Lingerie.com Weekly Picks..for our http://WatchPickWin.com Games (YC project)

Join our Linked in group and our FB page if you are interested at WatchPickWin.com, or would
like to learn more about our project partner program.

Must be able to code http://www.google.com/fusiontables/
updates..to show U.S. retail mall game locations
The Bandwidth Barn? I'd like to see this barn and maybe borrow some, because bandwidth is something I don't see much of here in Cape Town.
On the road to Scala 2.9
You might consider contracting for a big company rather than being a bigco employee. More time coding, less time in meetings/politics, etc. I did that for a few years before focusing on founding startups of my own.
I think that's a good idea but I don't know if it would work. Some of these questions would take a TON of work to actually complete. I think people are answering them in the way they would answer it in an interview.

One of the questions is 'Design a Twitter-like social network web application'. This is obviously not a small or quick project. I'm guessing Google asks this in the hopes of getting a hand-wavy answer and analyzing you based on that. I'm not saying your idea shouldn't happen (it would make an interesting site) but I don't know that it would work for all the questions.
Facebook has FQL and Yahoo has a YQL console that's wired up to lots of different sources: http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/
8thBridge Raises $10M