skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There are some strange sentiments in the announcement on http://www.xobni.com/blog/2008/07/23/xobni-is-growing-adding...

"And while we are sad to see Gabor go, his departure is a big opportunity for Xobni." It's spin to present the loss of a technical founder as an opportunity. The fact that they couldn't keep him in a CTO role, distinct from a VP of Engineering role, speaks volumes. And it's an insult to characterize it as an "opportunity."

The blog entry goes on to list requirements for the new VP "The right person will:

champion our engineering ethos, [CTO]
deliver a fantastic product, [product manager]
on-time. [product manager]
be an able manager [vp engineering]
who excels at rapid company growth. [vp engineering]
know how to ship desktop software [product manager]
know how to add or remove process [CEO]

This is probably at least three people: a VP of engineering, a CTO, and a product manager. And I think the last is more properly the province of the CEO. Their detailed position description at http://www.scribd.com/doc/4062717/Xobni-VP-Engineering has this sentence:
"they must contribute as an architect, but still get their hands dirty coding." Those skills don't normally come in a package with an excellent manager who understands process and rapid company growth. This is the VP Eng vs. CTO split in a rapidly growing technology driven company.
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Well, I'm assuming (hoping?) Google won't tamper with PageRank to give special consideration to Knols (if they did, the backlash would be huge). I don't really see how a Knol's rating would affect its impact on any external pages it links to - I'm assuming their search rank will be determined the same way as that of any other site, based on keywords and incoming links rather than rating.
Yeah. I know some very good developers who were first SysAdmins. Even I have written a patch here and there to various system programs. To 'level up' as a sysadmin, even if you don't want to be a dev, you do need to know some programming. I don't know if I have the attention span to sit down and write a large app from end to end, but many times I've had to hack up the programs a client was using. I once patched courier-imap so my employer could continue to use the same UIDLs

Ugh. nearly all customers were using pop3 like IMAP- 'leave mail on server' the problem was that UIDLS needed to stay the same, (the UIDL value is an identifier of a pop3 message- the pop3 client uses it keep track of what messages are new in the pathalogical 'leave messages on server' scheme. If we changed the UIDLs, all messages would be 'new' to the mail client and customers would scream.) and qpopper UIDLs contain characters that can't be in filenames, while courier-imap's pop3 daemon uses the UIDL for the filename... so I hacked it so that if the filename started with 0x, it treated the filename as a hex-encoded UIDL. (otherwise it acted as normal... that way next time they upgrade the courier server, they probably don't need to include my patch... most of the old 0x mails will be gone in a number of months.) A simple change, but it allowed us to move to maildir (which isn't always faster, but in this case was massively faster) without disturbing the customers. But yeah. as a more senior SysAdmin, you are expected to occasionally deal with that sort of thing. Being able to kindof read debugger output also really helps.

Oh, also the 'got lucky' comment was more about coming of age during the .com boom than about becoming a SysAdmin. The .com boom (and my timing) was luck. Becoming a SysAdmin, well, that was more the 'path of least resistance' at least once I got started down this path.
Think your workplace is creative and fun? (Inside Pixar - A Photo Tour)
Friendfeed Crawls Flickr 3 Million Times Daily
Interesting list... I found myself disagreeing with several items here, but I think it is only because of my focus on programming. Three years of calculus is overkill in my opinion, though I do think that one year teaches you the mindset enough. But I can see that it is only because I do not do scientific programming.

Same with foreign languages: For me it has been a really important tool being completely bilingual. It has gotten me many opportunities, but again, maybe it's because I'm much closer to the business side of systems analysis than the pure science/engineering side.

Good list. Anyone have any opinions on the items?
Microsoft’s Latest Web Stumble: Kevin Johnson Out
Take MySQL and strip out the fat with Drizzle
Another blog entry just posted http://www.xobni.com/blog/2008/07/23/vroooom-%e2%80%93-build... adds the information that "We are pleased to announce that Josh Jacobson will be joining Xobni as our Director of Product Management and Brian Kobashikawa will join Xobni as our Principal Designer. Both of these guys were part of the Yahoo Messenger team..." Perhaps Gabor Cselle's problem was that his last job was at Google and not Yahoo with Jeff Bonforte the new CEO.
Attack code published for DNS flaw
Beyond REST? Building Data Services with XMPP PubSub
At its core, being male or female is a physical / genetic difference. The social side of it is based upon the physical difference (with no physical difference, there would be no genders, therefore no social distinctions to make). The psychological differences (e.g. changes in the wiring of the brain) are based on physical differences.
Hackers start to target Apple Macs
Knowing your startup bet paid off: Priceless.
There are many great contributions by women in all fields of science. Many of the earliest computer programmers were women; indeed, in much large percentages than we see today.

Female behavior is different because males and females /are/ different. If you were to generalize male and female wants and needs, there are clear differences between the sexes in terms of their priorities.

These priorities /tend/ to result in women not entering the sciences, though there are many women who do (and thrive). These priorities also /tend/ to result in not many men entering the caring professions although, again, there are many men who do.

The fact that men and women are difference is not something to be shielded, hidden, or "resolved." As long as everyone has the same potential, our differences should be celebrated and we should focus on what we want to do, rather than what society wants us to do.
And I thought I had some creative ideas for what would make a quirky/fun workplace. Pixar blew em out of the water with that garden shed.

Also, cheerios! Am I the only one that keeps a box of cereal around to snack while trying to solve a problem? Chips just aren't the same.. :p
"... Ugh. nearly all customers were using pop3 like IMAP- 'leave mail on server' the problem was that UIDLS needed to stay the same, (the UIDL value is an identifier of a pop3 message- the pop3 client uses it keep track of what messages are new in the pathalogical 'leave messages on server' scheme. If we changed the UIDLs, all messages would be 'new' to the mail client and customers would scream.) and qpopper UIDLs contain characters that can't be in filenames, while courier-imap's pop3 daemon uses the UIDL for the filename... ..."

Not write a whole system app but the tools (like "duplo") so other devs can use them without shooting themselves in the foot having to learn or experiment in very specific niches.
The Open Source Google Stack
Seth's Blog: Little bits
Google thinks that you can scale only if you use their infrastructure: BigTable + Python/Java and MapReduce when needed. It seems that when you're purchased by Google, you immediately stop working on the "old" codebase and you start transitioning and rewriting everything into Python/Java. This has happened to both YouTube and Jaiku. Now, YouTube transition has been successful and Jaiku... no one even remembers it.
It is an opportunity. Xobni now has the opportunity to offer his unvested options to the three people who will take his place.
Modal overlays beyond the dialog box
4 Ways CSS Can Improve Your SEO
Startup School 2008 Impressions
To my knowledge, this is the first entry in the ICFP contest's history to be written almost entirely in TeX (except for a 90-line perl script to deal with the networking requirement).

</quote> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.text.tex/browse_thread/t...
I'm writing the post now. Check my blog in a few hours :)
The History of Scheme [pdf]
I think what he was trying to say was that selling your startup to a large company is only a no-brainer if you have significant equity in the company. If you don't, selling to another company isn't an exit strategy, it's just a transition to a different, and quite possibly worse, work environment.

I don't know if this is really a valid criticism, since most YC startups don't seem to expand that far past the founding team, but I'm pretty sure that was his point.
I used a laptop with 1024x768 as my primary computer until last year. Those that use the EEE PC or iPhone/iPod touch have an even smaller screen. When you're a startup, you don't have the luxury of picking and choosing who can use your service, at least initially, so it's always good practice to make the experience as functional and consistent across different platforms as possible.
I could be wrong but I thought he was the third member of the company, and also given a founders stake. I'm sure they worked something out to mutual benefit.
I dunno if anyone else saw this when it was first posted but I noticed that there was a comment that said, "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out". forgot who it was posted by. it's been deleted since then...
Everybody should further their education and reasoning skills, even if a system is not perfect. Secondly, college graduates who work at Burger King later decide to get a Masters or get a job at a good company through a friend or when the job market improves. Such work experience is itself not necessarily bad or demeaning.
It's unfortunate that, at least as seen from the outside, the outcome (and the shares value) of a company depends on a single man.

There are a few out there like Steve Jobs. They just don't work any further after the first couple million. It's a matter of incentive and motivation.
Why is it so Hard to Make Products that People Love?
Poor DNS
"What, exactly, do you think biblical textual scholars spend their time doing?"

To be honest, I didn't even know biblical textual scholars existed, let alone what they did with their time. Now I know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textual_criticism .
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You need to take into account "trophy" labor markets. These are markets where a large number of people work insane hours and make a great deal of sacrifice all to compete for that big reward at the end.

So, although it seems like the people at the top are overpaid the position is a sort of trophy that serves as motivation to underpay a number of grunt workers. For example look at corporate law (the number of lawyers, vs. those that get partner and the real money); or investment banking; or the pilot/airline industry. All have a few top positions that few will make, but many will try to and are willing to be economically underpaid and abused for the chance to win that "trophy" at the top.
"Those who know don't talk. Those who talk don't know". I simply hope that his shares were vested.
"... "I think the Mac user base will end up becoming polluted by some of the same people who have been infected time and time again in the Windows environment,” Mr Cluley says. “It's mainly the same people who buy a computer primarily to download porn and visit file-sharing sites." ..."

quote from security specialist ~ http://www.grahamcluley.com

"... 'I think Apple will start to become a victim of its own success. I think hackers will see this community as a soft target.' The particularly craven hackers, phishing fraudsters and malware writers ply the trade for cash, not kicks. They follow the big fish, looking to infiltrate victims' ..."

The article author ~ http://www.bernhardwarner.com/about.html
It's always a good idea to get a picture of who writes this tripe - It's "crackers" not "hackers". Misuse of the term makes the title misleading.
It's worth pointing out that the comment was clearly a joke from a friend of Gabor, and that it was probably deleted because it could be misinterpreted.
Thanks, fixed. (There's an email link on the front page of my site.)
Thanks for your feedback. From being rejected as a single founder, I decided instead it would be better to get some work experience in order to save money while continuing my college education in order to meet cofounders at work or school for another idea that wouldn't compete against eBay, and apply to YCombinator with a new idea, as stated (and with multiple founders). I think that is an excellent plan, and far more realistic than putting myself $20,000 into debt at credit card interest levels. I would highly advise others against doing what you describe.
Apple may be moving the MacBook to sub-$1000 territory
Notice how the work areas are really dark?

I haven't seen a workplace like this in a really long time. I personally love dark workspaces, but they seem to have become uncommon - substituted for "bright and airy" fluorescent lit hellholes. I wonder how / why Pixar went with it.

That whole area with the garden shed, as well as the render farm, look great!
Quote from George Foreman about longshoremen:

Mr. Foreman, who stared down financial collapse as an adult despite a troubled, impoverished childhood, said he knew real wealth when he saw it. “If you’re confident, you’re wealthy,” he says. “I’ve seen guys who work on a ship channel and they get to a certain point and they’re confident. You can look in their faces, they’re longshoremen, and they have this confidence about them...I’ve seen a lot of guys with millions and they don’t have any confidence,” he says. “So they’re not wealthy.”
Really? They're only the most important of all textual critics.
Selling also lets you diversify. That is highly relevant to anyone's peace of mind.
Really motivating, edw519.

It was the kick I needed in a time of life decisions.
Has News Corp. acquired TechCrunch?
My definition of a progressive is someone who wants to use government to bring about the perfection of society. Unfortunately, the track record of this philosophy is pretty awful. Most of the time, top down planning by people who think they know best for society results in utter disaster. Read "The Power Broker" about Robert Moses in New York, or "Urbanism and its End" about urban renewal in New Haven. "The Triumph of Conservatism" and the "Assault on Parenthood" are also very good books on the subject.

I care about helping others, but I don't think the vehicle for doing so is a mega-sized bureaucracy that sits on a former marshland a half-continent away from me. The proper place for help others is in your own community.
I'd rather have natural light than dark, or fluorescent-lit hellhole.
Or maybe he convinced everyone to turn down Microsoft.

In any case, founders and early stage employees leave on their own accord, or get nudged out, all the time.

I've been involved with a number of startups and have seen guys kind of forced out because of conflicts with the investors. I've also seen guys leave for totally random reasons - one guy was a co-founder and wrote 100K+ lines of code in a year, then decided he wanted to go back to south america to work on a ranch. However, the main reason I've seen early stage people quit is simply because they were sick of working on the project.
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
1024x768 is not uncommon on laptops.
If you're not already familiar with screen, it's definitely worth the time to learn it. Sharing terminals is the least of what it can do.
I hear a lot of libertarian geeks complain about the unfairness of the progressive income tax or the welfare state, but not so many complaining about the unfairness of our immigration policy.

Then you must run with a different tribe of libertarian geeks than I do.

I'm a libertarian geek. And I complain about the unfairness of our immigration policy constantly. A few of the best hackers I know are from other countries.

I completely disagree that I'm "at risk more than I gain" from increased immigration. If they can do as good a job as me for less money, then that's the market, and I'll have to accept that. But really good programmers -- the top 5% that are 5-26 times more productive than the rest -- are always going to be rare, and it's worth a pay cut to be able to work with them.

Incidentally, with our current system, tech workers are often given a visa that is only good for the duration of their employment with a single company. That means, if my coworker wants to go to another company, he has to get a whole new visa, which is incredibly non-trivial. As a result, my employer can skimp on his pay, because of the added cost of changing jobs.

If they pay immigrants less, then that brings down the whole market, including my salary. If our doors were open, we'd have more immigrants, but they'd be more able to negotiate, and we'd all be on equal footing. More people means higher housing costs, the weight of which tends to spread out the population distribution and make workers more demanding.
As long as no one was planning to garbage collect based on a reference count, I don't see the problem.
The actual post is here:

http://www.techcrunchit.com/2008/07/16/google-where-companie...
I run a 3200x1200 desktop -- but depending on what I have open, my browser is regularly less than 800px wide. It's actually way more common now than when I ran at 1024x768; I don't have to maximize everything just to have a little working area.
One reason no ones does this is that a game company (3D0?) got a patent in the last 90s on playing a game (I know their game was PSX) while waiting through a loading screen. It was broadly-written enough that they forced a Linux distro (Red Hat?) to remove a game (tetris?) that you could play while waiting on your initial system install. Sorry I can't recall proper particulars or dig up links, anybody remember more precisely?
> What I was trying to explain is a system that stores the data on the server and passes pointers to this data to the client.

What I was trying to explain was to make this seamless to the programmer, i.e. the programmer doesn't have to use a let-like form listing the variables he or she wants to use, he or she just uses them. Basically the base system scans through the enclosed variables, checks if they're trivial, and encodes them directly if so; if not, it puts the data for retrieval somewhere.

Mostly I'm concentrating on keeping Arc succint, and modifying the base system without, if possible, modifying higher-level code.

In any case your suggested implementation does look good.

> if it is you return the existing id (this can be done efficiently by having two hash tables: ids->values and values->ids).

http://arclanguage.com/item?id=3858
There was some interesting discussion the other day:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=251299
I assume that people respond to incentives.

You hit the nail on the head there.

People do what the incentives say they'll do. The incentives may be rational or not, but whatever they are, that's what you can bet people will do, and you'll be right almost 100% of the time. The biggest difference between dogs and people is that people learn faster; but the nature of the learning is roughly the same. Cookie = do that again; swat = don't do that again.

Capitalism protects individual freedom, which is morally right. Incidentally, it also turns the incentives towards efficient use of resources, which is in the public's best interest. I find it mystifying that progressives claim to impose regulation for the public good, when that almost always leads to a very wasteful misuse of resources that hurts the public in the end.
IPhone Ad Hoc Distribution
Can be construed as the same thing.
Those requirements make it sound like they really just want another Gabor....
Even Ayn Rand would probably quibble with that definition.

Really? He was actually paraphrasing Ayn Rand. Although, she would probably put it more like this:

>>>

The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.

Bear in mind that the right to property is a right to action, like all the others: it is not the right to an object, but to the action and the consequences of producing or earning that object. It is not a guarantee that a man will earn any property, but only a guarantee that he will own it if he earns it. It is the right to gain, to keep, to use and to dispose of material values.

“Man’s Rights,” The Virtue of Selfishness, 94

>>>
Ask YC : create a user review generated website
i wanted to create a user review generated website like yelp but for not for the same purposes ,but i t will be on similar lines ,+ its for a local thing so it will be pretty small.
So which cms should i use for it ,one thats clean and easy to use,as i have only used wordpress earlier ?
+1 for a ban on stories from tdwtf.
I first learned something was wrong with Xobni when I recommended it (without having tested it, since I use Unix on my workstation) to some friends who are the perfect target market for Xobni: busy executive users of outlook who have to manage quite alot of email. Next thing I heard back was that it made their Outlook unstable and crashy and they uninstalled it.

Now this...
>I am convinced that many people go to college only to become employable, not because they have any academic interest to pursue.

I know this is true of business schools. B-schools don't really teach anything; they're actually a way to signal to potential employers that you could come up with the 100k and 2 years necessary to go through school, the smarts to get through admissions, the persistence to get through it, and the willingness to absorb bullshit management-speak (meaning you'll be obedient).
I haven't used the product and, like you, I don't really know what it does, so I had to write in a very generalist way.

The key to really good copywriting is a back-to-front familiarity with the product or service you're writing about. If you don't have that, you're just making minor improvements to match a certain sound, rather than actually writing something that can push a product's marketing a long way forward.
there are classy and non-classy ways to say "fuck you".
WordPress! It offers a wide range of extensions - plugins, themes, widgets etc.
Rutgers Graduate Student Finds New Prime-Generating Formula
A Xobni Executive Leaves The Red-Hot Startup. But Why?
People saw the profit that could be gained by controlling their own networks of computers. Thus, before the Internet was open to the general public, there were online services like The Source, Compuserve, GEnie, AOL, which (as far as I can recall) did not interconnect.

The Internet is a network of networks, where I can rent a server on a data center owned by A which delivers bits through a pipe owned by B to a customer whose ISP is owned by C, and if I don't like A's terms of service then I can go buy equivalent bandwidth and access from A-prime. That wasn't possible with pre-Internet online providers.
I was being sarcastic ;)
In the wrong environment a year or two could be soul-crushing.

To quote a certain edw519...'One day you realize that you only have x days on this earth and y of them are already gone.' Sometimes options vesting or even guaranteed money isn't the right path. It may be the easy path though.
isnt wordpress a blogging cms