skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I respect both PG and DHH and i think that they are both right from their experiences. PG seems to be older and with more experience though. My thoughts on the situation are simple. Why not be flexible? Why not start a business and work on it as long as its rewarding to do so? If your company gets rally big and you think it wouldn't be as fun to manage it, as coding all day, then sell it, if you think running a big business is for you go for it. If you company doesn't grow, but guaranties you an income you can choose if you want to sell it and do something more interesting, or if you want to take it easy and just enjoy working. Are these men blind to see this as an option? Why is it supposed to be one way or the other? Flame wars on technology are annoying enough, but on business strategy they are annoying and boring too.
Basically that they run 37signals in pretty much the opposite way to most startups. Which isn't surprising since 37signals isn't a startup.
Multiple copies of derivative articles all gathered together by some blind automaton. Heck, there are even duplicate articles in the special bolded headline sections.

There is no more utility here than subscribing to a dozen RSS feeds.
Way not take these titles literally?

Rock star: cocaine and alcohol habit; cancels important engagements at the the last minute; often uncommunicative / in stupor; always followed around by a gaggle of loose women;

Ninja: Hides from colleagues; carries deadly weapons; often surprises you with unpleasant experiences; uncommunicative; can't work with others; only ever seen at night

I'm sure, if questioned, most companies using these titles are not looking for these attributes! Seriously, why not ask for "Code Vampires" or "Project Pornographers" :-)
"Although it wasn't my intent, Python programers have told me this page has helped them learn Lisp." Yes it did in my case it helped. Im reading SICP right now and trying all the stuff in python and in scheme at the same time. I am still at the beginning, but i already have some knowledge of scheme from another book and it seems fun. Python and scheme are both my favorites.
Ask YC: How to write a java app for the cell phone ?
Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone had any clue of how to do this. We're trying to create a java (MIDP?) app to be able to show articles from a website on the cellphone.

Any idea or references of where to start ?

Thanks
It's like popurls for Apple news.
My impression: "You should make a product to sell rather than making a company to sell."
Knol pages are probably optimized and tuned heavily for Google search results, but I doubt the indexer/engine itself has any "if (IsKnolPage) rank++" kind of code in it.

When I started a small travel blog, after about a week it was quite well indexed for some terms, but I'm guessing most of that was the fast that I registered it on Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools, and submitted a sitemap, etc.
Python vs PHP benchmarks - Computer Language Benchmarks Game
This is interesting. Twitter limited the length of its posts (i believe) due to limitations in SMS and Texting.
What you have done is to put a limitation on users just as a product differentiator (I believe).

This is actually more innovative than I believe you will probably be given credit for. Forcing people to be concise and get to the point, but now allowing for a new medium.

Nice work
This, like many of the other questions in the list, is a very leading question. It appears to coyly approach the topic of legalized prostitution, possibly legal age of consent laws.
Well, this is only an anecdote, but a close female friend of mine went to college to study CS. After two years in the program however, she switched majors. The vaguely hostile social atmosphere and the impression of a programming career as lonely nights sitting at a computer monitor contributed greatly to her decision. She was very competent in the field but those external factors were enough to push her away. It was probably the right decision for her, but it was definitely a loss for computer science.
It's a tiny thing, but in your introductory paragraph you use [1] twice where the second instance should likely read [2].
What I don't understand about the airlines is the completely arbitrary weight limit/fee structure.

Why is it that if I have two bags, one weighing 60 lbs. and one weighing 40 lbs. do I get charged an excess weight fee; yet if both those bags weighed 50 lbs. I would incur no penalty.

One ticket agent explained the issue was related to fuel consumption, but charging me for my bag does not make the bag weigh less (and let's not mention my above point that the total weight of the bags -- if distributed evenly -- would cost me nothing extra).

Another has explained it as being an issue with weight distribution, but I'm sure if they put one heavy bag on the left (or front) for two light bags on the right (or back) that the overall weight would distribute fairly even (not exact, but this is a jet airliner not a game of Jenga).

Truly its sad that the airlines have to resort to such penny-pinching measures.
No. There are many reasons why it isn't free to just fly the airplanes slower, all have to do with the opportunity cost of time.

If an airline now flies passengers 20,000,000 miles a day (100 flights x 200 passengers a plane x 1000 miles a flight) and needs 50 planes to do it, cutting the speed at which those planes fly in half will mean that the airlines need twice as many planes. The fixed costs on the planes are the same whether they are going 500Mph, 300Mph, or sitting on the ground, either way the company is still paying the lease or mortgage on the plane. Flight attendants and pilots have to be paid regardless of how fast the plane is moving.

Additionally, for passengers, arriving later isn't merely an annoyance to be endured, it will change decisions. People have alternative uses of their time, mechanics can't fix cars when they are in the air, doctors can't save lives. The (possible?) reduction in ticket cost wouldn't adequately compensate some people for the additional time that they lose. What your proposal just did was to take a private decision (for the airlines - how fast do I want to fly my planes, for the consumer - which ticket do I want to buy from a market of airlines that compete to get me there the fastest, cheapest, or some combination) and have taken that choice away by making a government mandate.
It was a hidden test: we only hire people that spot this. Joking, of course.
This trend of girls outpacing boys is apparent in the US even in elementary school. This is a big concern for a growing minority of educators. The gap widens as time goes on. We may be starting to see the effects of this current phenomenon as the first of these students enter higher-level education.

http://parentzone.babyzone.com/school/a2316 contains an article summarizing the situation. The general tone I hear is "we've saved our daughters, but are failing our sons."
Basically that they run 37signals in pretty much the opposite way to most startups.

Huh? They run 37signals exactly like most other startups. Find a market, build a product, sell it, grow, expand.

If you mean the opposite of the "Web 2.0 monetize eyeballs and get acquired" lottery, then yes. But make no mistake about it, this model is definitely not the norm even though we talk about it alot here at hn. I know many millionaires that have happily built what we now call "lifestyle" businesses. Except they never called them that. They just made money they only way they knew how because they never knew when or if an acquirer would ever come along.

Which isn't surprising since 37signals isn't a startup.

Then what is it?
Dang, this sent my page visits through the roof. So maybe some useful information - I put the open flash chart (version 2) plugin out on github - http://github.com/pullmonkey/open_flash_chart/tree/master
> Yes, he admits, the English "have created one of the great literatures of the world. Yet, have they a single myth that they can call their own?"

Yes, Beowulf. There were probably many others of its kind that were lost when the Anglo-Saxons became Christian. It would violate a lot of what we know about psychology if there were any culture that never had any indigenous mythology.
Bashing the Awesome Bar
It seems to me that, for one reason or another, airlines that fly to the US have to adopt the US' draconian pre-flight policies in order to be allowed to make the trips.
Sounds like a short list for potential .com's. :)
I find it hard to believe working on the projects they do is the most interesting thing those guys can think of to do for 30+ hours/week.

I don't.

Sometimes the real fun comes after the business passes its first few milestones. Lots of people bust their butts building a business in order to get it to the point where it will be a lot more fun to run.
Try google or the Java docs http://java.sun.com/javame/index.jsp
If you have a way to make multi-core processors improve the speed of day-to-day tasks, then all the "average Joe" has to know if that it makes his computer faster. And because that's something that he does care about, you have a $100 million idea.

It's absurd to think that there are no real-world problems which have interesting solutions. To say that you can't understand what more "average" people would find useful is not an assertion of your superior intelligence, just an assertion that you're not particularly perceptive or curious.
What I don't get is why aren't housing prices falling even further? In my recent memory (I moved to US in 2000) house prices rose by 200-400% and they haven't fallen nearly as much lately.

A decent houses/condos in all interesting US metro areas are still in $400K+ range, which is absolutely insane, considering median family incomes.

Even most financial planning books/sites will tell you that it's "normal" to spend about 30% of your after-tax income on housing. WTF? Since when it's been "normal"?
In 10 years the 37Signals crew might not enjoy the work as much as they do today. People change over time, interests shift, they might want to join the hypothetical pg co-op later down the line.

However, if you can make a nice wage like 20k a month, work when you are in the "groove", have all of the things you want in life, take some nice vacations I don't see why they would need to make any changes until there life's interests shift focus.
Just a bunch of nutcase, leading questions.

"If IQ doesn’t matter or doesn’t exist, then why is it the single largest statistical predictor of life trajectory?" Who says it's the largest predictor? Who says IQ does not exist or does not matter?

All of these "questions" were made to fit this guy's pre-conceived answers and arguments. And why can't you ask these questions in "modern political debate and polite society"?

Then you see the guy's blog subtitle: "Driving my truck through the flaws in capitalism" and you realize you've wasted your time reading gibberish from a guy people usually describe as "nutcase."

Creating questions to fit your pre-conceived answers is a cheap mental trick, nothing even close to the Jedi mind trick :-). I figure since nobody was asking him, he chose to ask himself the questions.
Another reason is that exponential growth on social networks works both ways.

One user who stops using a network decreases the value for everyone else, which makes other users more likely to stop, etc.
[REDACTED] for [REDACTED] Source Code [REDACTED] :)
Get it while you can!
As War Nerd said, the enemy of your enemy is usually also your enemy. It's fine to hate the occupiers, but the real enemy is the rival militia.
Some people may think that doing pleasant work where you have total control and make lots of money is indeed the most interesting thing you can think of. Especially if you have the freedom to tinker with random ideas and enjoy the people you work with.

I am in a similar situation (well, probably not making as much money) and I do find it very interesting. At this point in my life I wouldn't want to lead a company with a limited runway and investors eager to find a buyer for it.

I still get to play and experiment with new technologies, and I use some of our profits to fund at least a couple of interesting projects per year. I could do this for decades.
more info on Facebook Connect here:
http://developers.facebook.com/fbconnect.php

and here:
http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Conne...
We're in YC Summer 08, and our goal is the model spelled out by DHH in this post...with slightly less arrogance.

Wufoo has a somewhat similar model to 37signals and they're unbelievably profitable.
When does a company cease being a startup? Is google a startup? 37signals has been around quite a few years now.

Sure, they've found some product niches which are profitable for them. But I don't see that as being extremely applicable or related to the newer crop of startups. If you want advice on maintaining a software business, then sure.

The impression I get is that most startups work hard and get things done. They pile in new features. They work really hard to grow, make deals, etc etc. That might mean working 7 days a week, maybe a few all nighters. I don't get that impression from 37signals, which is fine. They are not building a company, they are maintaining one.

For me, it's products seem quite minimalistic with the bare bones amount of features, also in my opinion 37signals having ruby on rails is a unique situation. So any advice given that worked for them, may well not work for anyone else.
>huge wave of antiquarianism

I would call it nationalism. Medieval Europe had no notion of nations. The Dutch national hero, for example, is Prince of Orange, a small sunny principality in South of France.

Throughout the history people associated themselves with their Sovereign, who could be a Spanish king in the Dutch case, or some German duke in case of Italians etc.

Then suddenly in the 19th century there was huge social demand for an independent nation-state. And that demand has met its supply in the form of national legend building.

Scots got their kilts (tartan originally was cloth supplied to colonies), Finns got their national epos written by a single guy, Russians got their national literature written by people who spoke French most of time.

An important lesson is that perception is reality and the one who controls (writes) the history can shape our self-identify.
I've been following Silverback for a while. The parallax effect on their site has kept me entertained for hours (just resize the window, it's crazy).

But the app will be an invaluable tool to user experience designers. It works well, it's simple, and solves a serious problem that the developers had themselves at Clearleft. Those are the ingredients for a successful product.
Mandatory Fun Day: You Know What to Do
lol! you're so funny!
Sure, in the same way that being located in San Francisco instead of Oakland is part of the value of a company.
Upon hearing this i was enlightened.
"Desktop" is too broad of a definition. Gnome/Nautilus already kick Finder's ass, but is it enough to recommend Ubuntu over OSX to my parents? No.

What Linux needs, is PC manufacturer's support. I am not talking about drivers here, I'm talking about quality pre-installs done at the factory. Once suppliers see this, they'll provide quality Linux drivers in order to compete. And for users stuff "will just work".

ThinkPad T61 running Ubuntu is in many ways superior to MBP/OSX (and 30% cheaper), but only because I deliberately configured it with only Linux-compatible components and spent a weekend tuning it upon arrival.
I don't buy that. The excitement for a lot of people is in building. Creating. Once a company is self sufficient where's the fun in that?
I prefer to use JSON but your API should provide multiple appropriate formats. What's the actual data?
>"The challenge for us is to figure out how to deliver something which is crisp and clean," without sacrificing the community process, he said.

There are multiple architectures for open source projects that run the spectrum from anarchic to authoritarian. If a founder has a particular artistic vision that he feels passionate about, nothing is stopping him from forcing it through and then releasing the source code.

Personally, I love using my Ubuntu desktop. The team has done a great job on meeting the usability challenge. The days and weeks spent troubleshooting hardware problems were ugly, horrible, and frustrating (I would love to have an Ubuntu "Installs for sure" hardware list somewhere), but the Ubuntu user experience is a delight compared to Windows.

A caveat: I've never used a mac for a significant period of time so I can't say how it compares to that competition.
I think both are valid business plans. There's not all that much difference apart from the sums involved, and your potential market size.
"Rock Star" in a job ad should only be used for Rock band auditions.
Why would you want to call me?
Scientists Plan Interplanetary Internet Protocol
I have an XO (not the same, but same form factor and screen size as the smallest/cheapest Eee). The only thing that makes me hesitant to say, "Hell yes!" is the tiny screen. It's usable, and has pretty good resolution, and maybe my 33 year old eyes just aren't up to the task, but I find it uncomfortable to use for anything serious. Catching up on email or the news is fine...hacking, not so much.

But when I was a kid, I loved tinkering with various computers--including limited ones like the Timex Sinclair and Tandy portable computer line (I couldn't afford the model 100, so I had one with like 2k of memory...basically a calculator with BASIC). But I had my first computer (a C64) when I was 8 and loved computers pretty much all along.

I think it's gonna depend on the kid, but I'm guessing anyone without a laptop would be very pleased to have a laptop, even one with a few limitations.
I'm always surprised at these claims of women getting over 25% of all CS bachelor degrees. I've given a couple of one day courses to CS students and there weren't any women. In my college days there was one girl (and she considered getting a masters in CS a hobby next to her main occupation, which was med school.)

At conferences with hundreds of attendees I see less than a dozen women, more than half of whom turn out to be the friends or sisters of the organisers.

Is that just my experience? I'm Dutch, but this includes my experiences at JavaOne, RailsConf and EuRuKo.
I'm more of a roadie.
An Open Source Project Called "Failure"
What does my blog subtitle, which I merely found amusing, have to do with the content of my musings and/or ideas?

You're right, some of the questions are leading -- though I really doubt you can predict my views from them, even though I am sure you think that you can. And, yep, it's my blog and that's the way it goes. However, they are questions that people shy away from, even though they matter.

But, if you require peer-reviewed evidence that IQ is a pretty good predictor of life trajectory, there's plenty of that for the IQ question you cited:

http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/intellig...

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/322/7290/819

http://ijo.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/5/574

And then, anecdotally, there's people like Feynman who didn't have a particularly large IQ who still excelled. Make of that what you will.

I asked the questions not to satisfy my notions of their answers, but to get them out there. If the evidence is against me, then so be it. When the evidence changes, I change my mind. What do you do?

And, you're the first to call me a nutcase. Congrats! From you, it's a badge of honor.
Most likely NoScript. I had this same problem when I installed it.
Microsoft Scores Facebook Search Deal
LinkedIn profile: updated.
Great idea - get'em while they're young...

:-)
Oh, wow! That's unfortunate, yet slightly amusing.
Perl Pundits
On the same subject - does anyone find "a fun place to work" to be strangely unappealing ? I just can't help imagining myself rolling on the floor with laughter after seeing their existing code :) In the end it should be an interesting place to work rather than anything else.
Why is Intel getting so worked up about LTE?
Well residual = salary you pay yourself, and yes you can put away a large chunk, but you'll never catch up to a guy who just walked away and sold his company for 10 mil. Well not in single life time.

i.e. lets say your friend gives himself $250,000/yr and he grows that by 15% every year and then gets another 10% as a return on his investment, and then lets compare to a guy who just got his check from Google and put it in the same investments to get 10%.

So I threw this into excel:

Row 1: $250,000x1.15 <--this is his company growing at 15%, so he can afford to give himself, a bigger payout(15% more per year)

Row 2: $1,000,000x1.1 <--this is his 1 million he currently has saved, gaining the 10% from investments

Row 3: Sum of 1+2 <---both numbers combined

Row 4: $10,000,000x1.1 <--the guy who took the 10 million, and invested it

After 20 years:
Guy who is still running his business 24/7, growing it at a magnificent 15%: $10.8mm
Guy who is doing absolutely nothing, or started another company: $67.2mm

Now I'll grant you that the guy who is still running his business, also has his own company that is probably worth more than the 57 million difference. But to get that, he has so far worked non-stop for 20 years.

After 40 years:
112.2mm
vs
452.6mm

After 60 years
1.4bb
vs
3.0bb

After 80 years
19.986bb
20.484bb

So as you can see, it'll take him 81 years, before the guy who wants to keep his company gets the same amount of cash, as the guy who became millionaire at the age 30.

Thats the whole point, you sell your company as soon as you are offered a large enough chunk of money, so that you can start investing it. The whole "the rich get richer", is possible because money makes money. And that 10% is pretty average, usually possible even if you are risk averse.

And even if the person is COMPLETELY risk averse, and put that money into different ING Savings type companies, which give you like 4.7%, it'll still be 39 years before the residual guy catches up.
I don't know what you mean by "self-sufficient". Neglect a stable company and it will go out of business. The technology market is always changing and you have to keep an eye on your competitors and new technologies.

Sustaining a business over the years and making it through the ups and downs of the economy can be an extremely interesting challenge.
I don't like apple that much. I like the fact that they are good. Microsoft spoiled us, we thought that just because its open source its automatically better than anything else. Apple showed us that open source is just automatically better than windows, not better than anything else. Its good to finally have good competition.
Yes, but to some "sustaining" is very very boring.
Anchoring. It takes time for people's expectations to adjust to a new reality. Folks are still saying "Well, if I can't sell for $400K [or $1M in my neck of the woods], I'll just take my house off the market and wait for the market to turn around." This'll continue until they realize that they're paying more in taxes and mortgage payments than their house is likely to appreciate in the forseeable future.

A good leading indicator for home prices is home inventories, which are still at record levels (though they've seem to have stabilized for now). The inventory report is a measure of how many homes are nominally on the market but aren't selling because the price is too high - the price has to adjust downwards until inventories reach normal, frictional levels.
The thing that drives me mad is that if my bag is over 50lbs, I have to pay. Yet someone who weighs 200lbs (60 more than I do) can fly for the same price. You should be charged for total weight of the stuff you put on the airplane!