skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm enjoying this series, but it's not really a review (in the sense of "book review") as much as a detailed summary.
OK, Now Gas Prices Are Really Too High: P. Diddy Now Flies Commercial
As someone slogging through company-mandated management & financial training, I'd skip both and take an introductory Finance course instead.

If you only have those two choices, then go with Management. The problem is I've found that the best learning experiences of my management training comes up in the role-playing parts (e.g., employee conflict resolution) or the preparation for them and a single one-semester Management course isn't likely to do anything like that.
I read most of them; I skipped a few chapters, which I can't now remember.

It helped once I saw a video of him lecturing: it made such a strong impression that I can hear him as I'm reading. He was quite the showman.
That's 500 lines of code per hour. 8 per minute. 10 seconds per line.

I'm not sure what to think of it. Can someone really be that productive in producing (mostly) debugged quality code? Or maybe he did a mostly literal translation so that the logic wasn't refactored much.

edit: yeah, he cut-and-pasted, that's what I was hinting at when I said "quality code". He could have taken two days to do it instead and properly abstract out the relevant parts. Otherwise, it's not a rewrite, it's just a translation from one language to another.
2004 Prius Worth Twice as Much as 2004 Ford F150
Blogging is the hardest “conversation” I’ve ever had
What benefits can you offer that help recruit good talent?
Apple App Store Versus Facebook Apps
Something similar happened.

I initiated, built and launched this application over a weekend. I evangelized it within the company (so that I get time and resources) and grew this application on facebook to a strong user base ~.5 M in 2 months. The company even changed track from their original business.

The founders refused to spare even ~half percent stake in the company. I quit. David Maestri did otherwise.

The application got acquired for couple of million dollars. And I made $1000. The size of deal was definitely because of the strong founding team. But I am confident I would have driven it to a self sustaining business or sell it for may be a million or close.

The company definitely deserves a lump sum. I used their resources. But I was the one who really bet big and convinced everyone when people actually opposed on time being spent on a facebook application. I largely contributed to the vision - which they eventually are getting to. All I expected was some gratification for myself.

How does one deal with such a situation?
That completely sucks. I can't believe that some company thinks they're entitled to what a developer built in his spare time, using no company resources (assuming that's the case, of course). Fuck being owned by some piece of shit corporate machine.

I feel like I read somewhere that these types of agreements are usually not enforceable in California, but Freewebs looks like they're headquartered in Maryland (though SGN is in CA), so it might depend on where he was working when this occurred. Regardless, it sounds like bullshit. Hope he fights and wins.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/index.h...
You do what you did: you quit.

You will never get rich working for someone else. You may make a few million over the course of years, but without ownership, you'll never build true wealth.

Chalk it up to learning, start your own thing, don't look back. Or come and work for me ;-)
This is a great resource!

I've run a couple of draft essays through it, and it has helped speed up my revision quite a bit.

Just FYI, about 50% of the suggestions are useful. It's particularly good at picking up the passive voice. I find the word suggestions less useful. They work okay on relatively unpolished bits of my writing, but are mostly superfluous on the more polished bits. The reason, I guess, is that in the more polished bits the word choice is already quite careful.

I'm spreading word around on my blog, and on FriendFeed.
he said he cut and pasted code from other projects, so no way to know how much code he typed in that day.
If it's very cut & paste code, then large amounts of code can be rewritten with appropriate tools. The Rewrite Tool from the Smalltalk Refactoring Browser can be used this way. I once rewrote 2500 "Database Transformers" for a single "change request" this way in just a few days. Each one of those took up 2/3rds of a page printed out. I decided to do this, because these "transformers" were defined with code blocks, and clueless programmers were shoving business logic into them. I discovered that about half of the blocks fit about a dozen repeated patterns. The Rewrite Tool lets you do syntax directed translations with wildcards that can be used in the generated code. I wrote a small hierarchy of Database Relation objects that also understood what to do with simple attribute values, and created syntax directed rewrites.

We put the thing into production next release. Something crashed every client on the production floor -- we discovered that clueless programmers had put a fix to the business logic (1) into the guts of the "Database Transformer" framework. We moved that code over, and after that everything just worked!

(1) - On top of that, this case wasn't covered in the tests! I was glad to have left that shop.
I don't think that he wrote ~6k lines of code in 12 hours. He said that he "will cheat a bit and just wholesale steal entire chunks of code from my other projects." If you look at the first two hours of time they were not spent writing much code at all mostly debugging sql schemas and the like.
This is true, but there are many people who will always pirate no matter what. I know people who pirate everything from Photoshop and Windows to music and movies, not because they /can't/ pay, but because they simply don't want to.
1 million - for 6 years worth of work - is that good? Seems like not much.
Start-Up Offers a Way to Pay Workers Abroad
> The noe-facing side of the mission around dolores park is quite nice and fairly inexpensive. I like it, and a lot of my friends live there and like it. And I am definitely not a wannabe hipster. So please, keep your baseless opinions, but don't try to sell them off as facts around me.

> I love the food in some places, though. But definitely not an intellectually stimulating area.

What does this even mean? A lot of startups were born in the mission, and a lot of hackers live there. Further, there's easy access to the rest of the city, and it's much less expensive to live there than many other parts of the city. What more, exactly, do you want?

With respect to the coffee, I just want to go somewhere next time that has good coffee, and in the mission that means nd or ritual. I just got back from the actual meetup, and the coffee was the worst part. Maybe we should go to the bluebottle downtown next time. It's expensive, but it has terrific coffee.
What is needed is someone to give permission to ignore all the other details and just get one item done. The INTP is a commando problem solver killer... he just needs someone to "cover" for him so he can go in and tackle an objective.
The utility of GIS (mapping) systems for a large metropolitan police department
He did copy code from another project. But still...
One of the perks that more companies should start providing are incentives to workout. Providing a gym or subsidizing a gym membership for an employee will not only benefit the employee's health, but with a healthier employee there is less of a need for sick days. The employee can concentrate their paid time off on vacation. When the employee is feeling good about themselves, the quality of work and their attitude might improve as well.
Opinion: Why Google has lost its mojo -- and why you should care
Are you running it yourself? :)

You seem to be implying that my argument is invalid unless I am running OpenTape. I disagree. I am presenting an argument, not professing my belief system.

That's what they said about P2P and RIAA is still suing hundreds and hundreds of people.

RIAA is suing hundreds of people. Considering the hundreds of millions of people sharing mp3s, that's down in the noise floor. It's more likely that you'll slip and kill yourself in the bathtub than get sued by RIAA (National Safety Council says the odds of a fatal fall in the bathtub are one in 11,469).
Bye Mom | A Mom's Life
You spend another weekend and write a competing application that solves all of the problems of the original application.
I predict SGN doesn't want the application but is instead looking for an out of court settlement to grab a piece of the pie.
Why couldn't you do it similar to how google adwords works..?
:) Thanks Ryan.

I never regretted that decision of mine. I believe the dots will connect going forward. If things go well I should be bootstrapping my firm by Oct-Nov.

But this incident disturbed the faith in me about work, people and trust. It has been hard to get over it completely.
Apparently NY Times is trying to enable blog comments better. Disqus should really contact them about being the backend software for this.
http://soundcloud.com is very cool too.
Ask HN: HN like forum software?
Anyone know of forum software that works similar to HN, including: up/down voting and threaded discussion?

I'd write it myself, but well, I figure why reinvent the wheel?

HN itself is closed source, I take it?
I looked at it a while back, and it wasn't feature complete enough for me to really play with. It's probably worth another look.

For a more complete impl, look at JRuby. You get the nice benefits of a larger virtual machine (the libraries!), but it's been tested heavily.
I probably could have done that.

Unfortunately I was burnt out and just went into recluse at the end of that episode. The traction on these quick evaluation startups (apps) had died down too. Somewhere something did not work.

(launched early June, decided to quit in Aug, quit in Oct after mandatory transition period)
While I agree a fuel efficient vehicle is going to hold it's value better, the article neglects to mention that F150 trucks are generally used to haul heavy loads, plow snow, and otherwise be abused in order to get work done. A Prius on the other hand will probably never be put through the same abuse an F150 will endure so it will be in much better shape -- thus giving it a much higher resell value.
What if this described me to a (lower-cased) T? Would you want to read my current, second application for funding:

http://listenlight.net/media/ycombinator_funding_application.pdf

It's been superficially updated, but it's a great fit for a 30ish, internet-efficient communicator, in especial regard to their own "what if" question.

For maximum efficiency, my user name is 'many' and my password is 'pass'. Go ahead and tailor the application, and I will run it by you this time next month. Cheers.
http://code.reddit.com/
Data Portability: Carefully Chipping Away at the Garden Walls
First, great pay, and a good amount of stock options, interesting work, and good work enviroment.

After that.

4 weeks of vacation --- minimum.

Good health care

Real dental coverage

Gym subsidy

Comuting help (shuttles, or public transport subsidies)
HN is open-source: http://arclanguage.org/item?id=3426

There's also Pligg (open-source PHP) and Slinkset (hosted).
Gears for Safari – Google releases a beta of Gears for Safari
Why Can't I Use My Cell Phone on a Plane? Ask Call Carriers
Schemepy: embed a Scheme interpreter in your python app
It comes down to petty greed. But it's even worse than greed. It's unbridled greed with no integrity whatsoever. Why build something solid that adds value when you can steal it from someone else who toiled and risked to do so?
New Beginnings with Peace of Mind | ServiceLive Blog
Invention: Exercise bed
Is Peter being dishonest, or just glossing over things?

Basically creating this new payment system from scratch, which was one of these Holy Grail type of things that a lot of people had been focused on. The basic thought was if you could lessen the control of government over money and somehow shift the ability of people to control the money that was in their wallets, this would be a truly revolutionary shift.

He makes it sound like that's what he intended from the get go, but it took them a bunch of major changes in concept to land in the business they're in.

Regarding technological singularities, even super-human intelligences remain bound by the laws of physics, and therefore laws limiting computational complexity.

Why are the concepts 'the singularity', standing for an endless, unpredictable period of technological growth, and the more reasonable advent of super-human-AI, munged together?
Ask HN: Legal timeline for a successful web startup?
I'm working on a webapp and there are a lot of legal things I'm confused about that am hoping you all can shed some light on:

- At what point after you launch should you consider forming a company? My understanding is that if you do it correctly with a lawyer this could cost several thousand dollars, so I'd like to wait until I know the startup is successful before I go through the paperwork. Is that the right way to look at it?

- What is that type of lawyer called?

- How does your timeline change if you're planning on charging your customers a monthly fee?

- Seems like a lot of people just throw a copyright symbol at the bottom of their work. Does that actually mean anything if there isn't any accompanying paperwork?

- When you launch a site what's stopping someone copying you idea and design and launching their own site? Is this what the Intellecual Property paperwork is for?

- On the flip side, what if your site is building a concept that someone else pioneered?

(For the last two I realize the answer might be "talk to a lawyer" but any general pointers would be helpful at this stage)
I agree with this. The hour spent working out is regained in productivity.
Article removed. Read it here:
http://209.85.215.104.nyud.net:8090/search?q=cache:www.compu...
These are really good :-)
Agreed. The article fails to normalize working trucks vs. passenger vehicles as you note. One way to correct for this would be to compare four year-old fuel-inefficient cars to the Prius.

Another aspect ignored by the article is the Domestic vs. Import issue. No matter what Jay Leno says, there is a perception that domestic vehicles fall apart more quickly than imports. You could correct for this by comparing imported fuel-inefficient trucks to the Prius.

All in all, I found that the article pandered to my pre-existing prejudices. When I stepped back and thought about it, the article said nothing more than Green tastes better than Heavy.
I'd agree with all this, to the letter, and I'd add one, because aside from a signing bonus, it's relatively cheap:

Moving assistance, both in the financial sense, and in terms of connecting people with necessary services and utilities. This is especially salient in a place like New York where life is not as "convenient" as one might expect it to be.
nearby, quality childcare
We're based in New York, so this interests me. What sort of extra help do you think we should give to people relocating here?
Obligatory !HN comment: Despite having nothing to do with hacking or startups, this could be intellectually provocative, but it just isn't. A far more HN-appropriate post about vehicles is Gladwell's post about automobile safety:

http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

Still lots of debate in the HN comments about Gladwell's methodology, but the underlying proposition is a lot more interesting to contemplate.
8 utilities for filling in the Vista/Server 2008 gaps
Envy Casts - Screencasts to make your friends envious.
never said anything about being paid more. being a google alumni doesn't make you gold. however, it does look quite good.
I always think of it like this when I get truck hate... You have your prius, me, my ford. The task at hand is to move 2500 pounds of cinder blocks 10 miles down the road to a building site.

Which is now more fuel efficient? F150 or Prius? It all comes down the right vehicle for the job. Thats why its great to have a choice.
3 Electric Cars Meet for Lunch at Buck's (pic)
Considering that the norm for startups is zero?
No, my argument is perfectly valid. You're implying that running OpenTape is easy. So I asked you where is yours.... to see if you practice what you preach. Running OpenTape is not easy at all. You need an ISP account, some knowledge of how to upload stuff, knowledge of how to set up a web app, some knowledge of PHP also might be necessary. So the number of OpenTape users is very small indeed.

And not to mention the EASE with which you'll get your ISP account shut down. An ISP will shut you down faster than your cable company would over using Bittorrent. So that's why I don't buy your argument about RIAA having 'hard time' shutting down OpenTape users.

The whole point of my post is that OpenTape is solving the wrong problem. It's a typical techie trap: trying to solve a social/legal problem with a technical solution... it almost never works.
Hey, I wouldn't do it. I'm just saying, sometimes when HR tells you they have an official policy of paying 60% of market, they aren't kidding.
I do have such a choice: I own a small, fuel-efficient car and I rented a pickup the last time I needed to move anything like that. I mean, duh, if you are a landscape contractor or a home renovator or you operate a farm, buy a truck. I don't think anyone is arguing with that.

But recognize that you are now the exception to the rule. Do you really think that half or more of the F-150s on the road are "working trucks"?
Cows graze aligned north/south - found by studying Google Earth
A four day work week.
http://www.reddit.com/comments/6l9t9/best_background_music_f...
One of Thiel's most recent investments is the anarchist seasteading project run by Patri Friedman, Googler and grandson of Milton Friedman:

http://www.reason.com/news/show/126198.html

The Seasteading Institute's homepage is here:

http://seasteading.org/
Great to see this kind of discussion with insight and foresight.
I like the mission, but it is hard to argue that the 16th and mission area isn't dirty and seedy. Also, the mission does indeed have the city's highest crime rate. You can verify this with everyblock or the city's own crime mapping system. I'm surprised you consider it inexpensive... I moved out of the mission because I thought I was paying far too much to live around so much noise. Somehow I ended up with a cheaper place in one of the nicest (but non-hip) neighborhoods in town. The upper mission by dolores is great but that is more like noe valley lite and is definitely expensive.

Finally, Muddy Waters has some of the worst coffee in town. Ritual is probably the best choice for a mission meetup. What is "nd?" There is a coffee shop in town that I don't know about???
They're called corporate lawyers, but many small firms and individual lawyers do corporate law along with other areas of practice.

There are tax issues on what you get to deduct before and after starting a company, but really I think your main concern should be the reason why you want to start a company. If you have considerable individual assets and your venture might be risky in terms of owing people money if it fails, then you would want the strong legal protection a company can provide. If you're doing something very benign, like starting a blog thats unlikely to get you into trouble, well, you can wait.

It also matters how much capital you have. If you spend it all on a lawyer you might end up with a nice document and not enough capital to carry on a real business. On the other hand, you can have a great business and get caught without legal protection.

This question was much more easily answered before the internet when people started businesses with real profit estimates and business plans. Its a little harder now with the "build first, worry about profitability later" attitudes because you might build a web 2.0 business and it never takes off, so you'll come away thinking your thousand dollar investment in a lawyer was wasted. It probably wasn't, but you'll think it was because the venture wasn't successful.

When actual money starts to change hands, the legal protections become more easily visible and the value they provide is clear.

If you're not sure you'll make money, i.e. you're building a website and hoping it will take off, my down to earth advice is to get a Nolo book, pay the $200 to incorporate an LLC somewhere, and live with that crappy legal situation until you start to make money. Its at least some protection at a cheap price.
Maybe help finding a place? I've heard horror stories, and mainly its due to ignorance of the market. So perhaps have a friendly real estate agent available?
Ask pg: How good is this YC application?
In another thread, hn user "many" posted a link to his Winter YC Application. As I read it, two things occurred to me: that this was the first time I had ever read a completed YC application, and that I was underwhelmed. (Sorry many, I really don't mean to pick, and maybe I don't understand your app, but you posted it, so I guess it's fair game.) Here is that link:

http://listenlight.net/media/ycombinator_funding_application.pdf

So, pg, I thought it might be helpful to others considering applying if someone from yc could provide a little constructive criticism of this (now public) application.

Of course, if my request is out of line, or unnecessarily hurts many's chances, then never mind.

Any thoughts?
If I was going to go back to working a fulltime job - those are a list of requirements I would have.
I have a similar work flow to yours and I experience many of the same problems you do with DVCS. I'm currently thinking about just using rsync to keep my development environments the same. I haven't made this move yet but, I can't think why I couldn't.
Arguably, there wasn't any copycat Java nonsense in ECMA 4. And even if there was any, it was all entirely optional. (And if you're allocating a huge number of x,y coordinate objects, it would be kind of nice to use specialised two-field objects rather than hash-tables, wouldn't it?)
Greenland Ice Core Reveals History of Pollution in the Arctic
This is an excellent idea. Do you know how much decent child care for school age children costs? ~$20/hr, fully loaded.
Pitfalls to avoid when designing forms
I was there.

Sure you went to the right Hobbies? http://is.gd/1SOa
The current object model is theoretically more powerful than class-based objects, but no one has found a way to implement it very efficiently yet. Thus, for performance, it would be nice to have a more static alternative. (Though I suppose they could have come up with a static prototypical system, rather than classes. Classes can be pretty nice though, when they are not Java/C++/C# classes.)
We're in NYC and Chicago, and NYC lost an employee to the Chicago office because finding an apartment was such a nightmare. So, there's that to deal with.
We're based in New York, so this interests me. What sort of extra help do you think we should give to people relocating here?

twenty thousand dollars! ha, ha... just kidding! (only not really)
Well, if you want to get a clue about how molecular biologists think you could do a lot worse then read "The eighth day of creation." It's a general history of molecular biology. If you find any of it confusing then a good introductory text book may help; Molecular Biology of the Cell or Stryer would get you started (and will be available in any decent college library).

As for the protein folding or the protein function question google around computational chemistry, but be warned -- this is tough stuff! But if you are shit hot, please come as we need the help...
I don't tweet, but I might update my .plan. I'd even hack something together to generate RSS from it, but Firefox and Safari don't support finger:// so it would be kind of useless.
Barcamp Atlanta registration now open
Wow - so that's what you guys have been working on :). I'll play with this tonight. Cheers Songkickers.