skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
OP overlooks one critical counterexample: Southwest Airlines.

They are excellent. They pretty much blow everyone else away. I won't fly anyone else anymore.

Why?

- I can buy one way tickets and get full credit back anytime

- They are very often on time

- Customer service is excellent, they are upbeat and positive

- The website is excellent

- Their prices are very competitive

- I can choose my own seat away from the children and talkers

My advice to any other airline: Figure out what Southwest is doing and do that too. Stop complaining and looking for government bailouts. If one airline can be successful (60+ consecutive profitable quarters, growth, and raving fans), more than one can do it.
Jets can also fly higher, which means smoother flights.
Looks like Bill and Linus are pretty similar, both hardcore coders with no heart for competition, which explains why they have both been so successful. Steve is just from another planet altogether!
> The theory classes are there, you just have to take them.

You're absolutely right, I should have been more specific - I was talking about the required classes, which are mostly taught in large lecture halls (Intro, Algorithms, OS). Another great advantage is how accessible and helpful the professors are, esp. in the smaller classes you mention.
Just grind it coarser and coarser, increasing the time or heat with each grind, until you get no grounds.
How exactly does it work (the article doesn't say)? How do they prevent phishing?

Also, you'll need the blurb for the Facebook button, too.
wow, that's a really awesome video series.
Boeing Laser Guns Truck for Iraq
Guerilla Documentary Series about North Korea
mechanical_fish described a site owner's problem. I described a site owner's solution. How much luck does it take for site owners to act in their own interest?
ProBlogger - possibly the worst blog on the Internet.

It's a blog about blogs that writes nothing but pointless, stupid articles, and poorly at that. Grammar and punctuation mistakes run rampant. But not to nitpick, looking at the actual article itself:

First, it asks a question that it doesn't actually address in the article. Its first point is a question based on a nonspecific concept of "media," then ignores the point and starts talking about small publishers versus Wikipedia. Then it brings up spammers, for seemingly no reason. Then it brings up Squidoo and points out, unnecessarily, that there's a similarity between the two sites, only there aren't, because the two are designed differently and have different methods of achieving the goal, only some people can't look past the user name's being in the article because fuck it, few bloggers actually care about thought anymore. The Squidoo reference, of course, is another diversion from the original question, which is never addressed.

Can people please stop posting links to sites like this and TechCrunch? In a world that has a shitheap of bland and generic trash, HN ought to PROMOTE the good stuff, not just mix it in with all the crud.
Download Weeds Episodes - Watch Full TV Show Online
Weeds TV Show, a golden globe winning comedy drama, which moves around widowed mom Nancy Botwin. After her husband’s death and economical sufferings, she adopts a new profession. Nancy Botwin resorts to selling marijuana (a type of drug) to support her family in the fictional suburb of Agrestic, California. It apparently seems that every one what she’s selling also including a city council man.
Incidentally, a lot of the traditional culture in most countries is fictional. In Europe in particular, a lot of it was made up in the nineteenth century, when there was a huge wave of antiquarianism.
Amazon's doesn't, I don't think. iTunes Plus is DRM-free as well.
With the beating my site review took yesterday, I'll clearly be spending a ton of time in your design section, and I clearly need help in the marketing as well.

Great resource.

Your javascript scroll-up (I'm assuming that's what it is) isn't working on my XP/Firefox 3.0, so the page is littered with lings and huge.

Assuming this is your site toddo...
No you don't. With Facebook, you hit the button, Facebook asks if you want to link your account - that's another button - and from then on it's a one-button login. Users are so used to the Facebook login button that you don't have to explain it, you just put it there. (I'm pretty sure the button says log in, too.)

And Facebook doesn't ask you for your user name or password - you can't phish if the site doesn't ask it to begin with. It just matches your cookies. If you haven't logged in yet, then you need to go to Facebook and log in first. But most people are logged in constantly, so it works out.
The quote "Do you pine for the days when men were men and wrote their own device drivers?" by Torvalds is not from 2001. Its around the early 90s.
Because not all site owners care enough about OpenID to spend time finding any workarounds for implementation. Especially not when easier channels already exist.
I seriously contemplated making a 'rate my doctor' type site for doctors here in the states. All the sites that existed at the time were poorly designed, had a slimy element to them, and you had to pay to see a physician's review. Then ZocDoc.com launched... I'm not sure how well they're doing, but there's a lot to be improved in the medical field.
Want Water? Pay the Price: An Interview With Aguanomics’ David Zetland
this is key. Look at Google. they target technical types, but for joe average, their product is just as usable as the compitition, who explicitly targets the average user.

Joe average is going to have a technical person setup his computer- If that technical person, say, makes firefox the default browser, assuming it mostly works, joe average is going to use firefox. This might also be why OSX is doing so much better than previous macOS versions. Whenever a non-technical person asks me for a laptop reccomendation, I tell them to get a mac, in part because I know they might come to me for help (and I'll be damned if I start rooting around in a windows box that isn't properly backed up. Reboot, reboot, then format and reinstall, I say.)

the other side of this is that it needs to work for joe average... this is why Linux on the desktop took so long to take off (it looks like it's getting a toehold in the low-end- by 'just working' for simple tasks) even now, linux on the desktop only 'just works' if you don't need commercial software.

so yeah, you must target the early adoptors, but targeting the early adoptors alone is not enough. You must make it usable for the average person.

(which is funny, because I've put almost zero effort into the usability of my product. I don't have a support budget, so if you don't know UNIX well, eh, for now I'm not the best product for you.)
One Fewer SUV: You Decide What Happens to It (Blow it Up? Donate it?)
Visiting or moving to Orange County? Check this out.
While it might be more of a derivation than an essay, it was still surprising, and that's one of the best parts of PG's essays.
There hadly ever is, but as this is what life is like at 95% of companies (including small companies) the probability of this being correct is pretty high.
Ask HN: Feedback on our startup - http://12seconds.tv
http://12seconds.tv/

One of the things I've been working on for a while is bootstrapping a video status startup with a group of guys from Santa Cruz. Call it 'video twitter' or 'microvlogging'. 12seconds a service that lets you send 12 second video updates about your life, your status, what you're doing, or anything you'd like from your webcam or mobile phone. Your friends using 12seconds can follow you to receive your video updates, and we also integrate with twitter and a few other services (soon).

We're currently still in private invite mode, but I've got some invites to give if people are interested - just leave it in the comments and i'll try to accommodate as soon as I can.

I have a lot of respect the HN community and look forward to some great feedback, both positive and negative!

Note: we're running a bit slow this morning thanks to a techcrunch spike. We're working on it!
Looking beyond the why - I think what Gabor did is smart, but it takes a lot of balls to leave something that you were instrumental in building, and all your stock options, and saying: "If I did it once, I can do it again"
This could revolutionize social news sites. Imagine if the average reddit/digg/slashdot user were to actually read the article he was commenting on first.
ICANN: Yes, we're toothless (response from ICANN in comments)
Up to now, it has not hurt them in their fuel hedging:

http://www.247wallst.com/2007/04/southwest_airli.html
Even though the prices are great, #1 and to a lesser extent #3 are why I will ONLY fly SouthWest.
FWIW, I don't have an MBA. I am an entrepreneur for 15 years. Nor am I a "marketing type". I am a classic geek and a product guy. I started coding when I was 11 on an Apple II+. I have spent every penny I have made on gadgets and computers since I was 13. I coded into college and then focused on product management. I have founded two startups, headed two and worked for one other. I have worked in the Valley for 12 years.

Nor do I think there is that attitude at Xobni of anything other than love and respect for engineering. We are an engineering and product focused startup. Our head of marketing is one of the founders who has a degree in engineering.

Gabor is an ambitious, super smart guy. He wants to do his own startup. We can look for more sinister motives, but it is just that simple.

As far as "the same condescending attitude", I think you are misreading my comment. Gabor wants to do his own startup. I don't blame him, and as an entrepreneur I admire his gumption, which in this case is even bigger, as he is leaving a startup that is doing well. He certainly passes the first test of being an entrepreneur...he is consciously and rationally adding risk into his life.

I do tell anyone that asks me about doing their own startup, "It is harder than it looks." I think most founders would agree that behind all the sexy stuff, startups are physically and emotionally draining, and for many they are financially taxing, too.

It is fun to think there is great drama happening behind close doors. In this case, it just isn't there. I consider Gabor a friend. I would work with him again. And I suspect there will always be a job for him at Xobni if he ever wants to come back (or not leave).
> deliver a fantastic product, [product manager]

Yes.

> on-time. [product manager]

> know how to ship desktop software [product manager]

No, no, hell no.

Product managers define what they think the customer wants (scope creep). Project managers get something that is good enough out of the door (scope supression).

It's possible for one person to do both jobs, but that doesn't make them the same thing.
Good freaking luck trying to sell half-speed flights. Maybe as part of a national security deal - less oil used for airline fuel due to slower flights in exchange for removing some painful, slow, ineffective security screening.
Actually, that's an issue of design choice, not fundamentals. Turbojets fly higher because they fly longer (so don't worry as much about inefficiencies due to climbing to alititude) and want to fly faster (up to the tropopause, temperature is dropping which results for mildly complicated reasons in power dropping more slowly than drag does).

But there's nothing inherently "lower" about a propeller. They work just as well at altitude as they do as sea level. It's just that market forces have dictated that props are better suited to low-altitude, low-speed commuter routes. But you could design a high altitude prop without difficulty.
I wish Live Search wouldn't suck so much, seriously.
I used DCU for a car loan a few years ago. The rate was great -- 4% better than I could find anywhere else -- and they were really friendly.

My only complaint was that it was kind of a pain to get to a branch. (I think the closest one to Boston/Cambridge was in Waltham.)
Why Do We Love Jason Fried? [Video]
OSCON day 1: Beyond REST? Building Data Services with XMPP PubSub
Ask YC: "Rock Star" Job Titles
So someone mentioned to me the option of working full-time for a period of time on a very exciting project. The cost benefits would simply yield supplementary income, nothing super spectacular, so not getting the gig doesn't immediately mean I'll be shit out of luck with money.

But then I saw the job post and it said "ROCK STAR Developer" and immediately I didn't want to work for this company. I was asked why by a third party, and I explained how the whole cliche of calling people ninjas and rockstars is pointlessly chic, and trivializes what you want the person to do because their name "looks" hip and trendy.

And dear god I know one thing if I know anything: trendy fails to deliver.

Anyone else here have an opinion on the whole "rock star" job industry mentality?
Maybe a brave professor will set down a Team of 6-7 skilled graduates and hack out a language of the future again. It is about time it happens. When I see around the world of academia I am not seeing that happen that much though as good old software engineering on creating a good compiler will not produce any articles.

It is sad though.
I'm not sure I agree with this description.
In my experience, there are quite a lot of people sharing photos online.
There are very few people willing to pay for software (that is not already bundled with their hardware).
I chalk this one up to the anti-intellectual barbie doll culture here in the U.S. There are plenty of girls studying computer science and engineering in Asia, for example, where academics are valued over sports and fashion attire.
I've found that if you go the french press route you still end up spending a fair amount for coffee, with the french press being a minor cost. Still less than $4/cup, but not nearly as cheap as a drip coffee machine and Folger's.

You'll still spend $8+ per small bag of whole beans, and french presses LOVE using lots of beans... then you've got $60+ for a good ber-grinder (sp?), then you need a $40+ hot water kettle. Plus you've now got a ton of stuff to wash and it takes 5 minutes of attentive time to make the coffee.

I love myself some properly made french press coffee, but it's a different kind of thing from the Clover. Both are good, they are just different.
RE: Bill Gates, 1983: "We will never make a 32-bit operating system."

I have to admire a guy that makes a mental mistake (or rather, limits himself, as in this case), and then goes full-on to prove himself wrong.

I think if you were to look at quotes of people who failed, you would see shortsighted statements like these, with the huge difference that they never changed their minds. They held their ground all the way down to failure (Sun comes to mind, there are countless others).

So I see these statements here as badges of honor of these greatly successful people. It takes a big man to say something and hold your ground, but it takes an even bigger man to recognize you were wrong and then pursue a course of action that contradicts what you used to think. Not only that, but with the conviction that they have. Cool quotes.

PS: And let him who has never guessed wrong cast the first stone.

PS2: The Linus quote about masturbating monkeys made me spit out my coffee :-)
That is very cool. I always enjoy reading the comments of the article after I read it and this makes it a bit easier. I'll try it out
Your credit score isn't just how well you pay off credit cards.

I have a "check card" (draws directly from my bank account, has a Visa/MC logo so I can use it anywhere). I assume this doesn't affect my credit score much, if at all -- it's rejected if I don't have the money in my account, so it's not really "credit" at all.

In fact, I've never had a real "credit card", but that didn't stop my bank from loaning me money for a car (they could see from my paychecks that I could afford it), or from me renting apartments (my current landlord did a credit check and said I have "excellent credit").

I think "you need a CC as soon as you go to college!" is mostly a scare story. Admittedly I'm not a big spender (e.g., I'm not buying a condo on credit), but I have yet to see any case where I was turned away from something due to my lack of a CC.

While it's not a silver bullet, I see how they can be really handy, so if you're responsible about paying it off, go for it.
Hmmm... sounds like the next step would be to make a cross between twitter and tumblr (twimblr?) that lets one do micro video, audio, or text updates.
Amazing that Microsoft has done all this pushing for Live Search lately when it's such a small player in the game. I guess they got a plan that doesn't require tremendous market share
Ask YC: What are your views on hardware/sofware startups?
We are a small start up not even sure if we can call ourselves startup cuse we just went from idea to started working on the idea. We are building the complete software for the hardware devices too. What do you think about these companies?
For better or worse, the "piggybacking" loophole described in 5(a) has been (or soon will be) closed.
It seems to me that you're refuting things you imagine I said, but that I didn't actually say. I certainly wouldn't claim that my "school of thought" was an optimal extreme of DHH's. (In fact, I can't even imagine what it would mean for that to be true.)

I mean what I said, and no more. So please, if you think you disagree with me, find the actual sentence or sentences in the essay that you believe are false.
A less-known employer looking for talent on a job board has very few ways to distinguish itself from the pack. Looking for a "rock star" may be one of the ways it tries to do so. Tacky? Most certainly. Effective? Probably not. I don't know if it should be discounted because of it though. The only way to truly determine if it would be a good fit is to talk to the company.
I wouldn't say just yet that DRM is in it's final days. People have downloaded over 5 billion tunes from iTunes, and it's the US's biggest music retailer with something like 80%+ market share.

Yes, Apple does offer DRM-free tracks, but those have only been available there for about a year. And does anyone know if they're yet doing this with any labels other than EMI?

DRM use does seem to be declining, but it's going to be a while yet before it disappears completely.
I always liked emusic.
You might be right about that. My comments are a bit obsequious. I am a big fan of Gabor, and I don't have a bunch of bad stuff to say about him. But I can see how it might come across as fawning.
I agree that it is pointlessly chic, however have you ever thought about it from the point of the people hiring? It is difficult to find good people to hire, and this company isn't making any bones about what they want. Also remember to separate human resources from development. What you are getting, unless the company is tiny, is HR spiel.

I would use something like that as a flag of caution but I would want to see the job description/website/product information before making a final decision.

The Omni Group calls their support staff, "Support Ninjas", and I thought it was humorous the first time I saw it a couple of years ago.

http://www.omnigroup.com/company/people/

If it's a churn and burn shop that pays nothing then yes, stay away. If it's an over zealous HR person, than give them the benefit of the doubt. :)
This could just as easily been titled "Another Music Store Falls to the iTunes Juggernaut"
Plasma TVs draw more juice from Grid than plug-in vehicles
I think the "rock star" mantra used to work well when everyone else had dental job postings and a standard application form that had to be faxed in. Now, though, marketing and recruiting people are clued in on the "ninja" and "rock star" terminology, so abuse it to no end.

I too am turned off by these titles for this reason. When I'm recruiting I just go for what seems honest and appealing -- nothing overly flashy or trendy, but not boring either. I think the best positions combined with the best companies will always stand out in some way, but that way will probably continue to change.
Really? Is it an urban legend that jet engines work better at high altitudes than propellers? I wouldn't be surprised. Anyone else know about this?
I don't understand how the transformation from plaids to kilts (a component of plaids), in response to a changing environment, is not 100% Scottish culture? It seems like this is just hairsplitting. An incendiary version of events with the goal of obtaining a catchy book title.

P.S.

I am not even a little bit Scottish.
"Today, in terms of numbers, women have outpaced men in biological and agricultural sciences"

Then why not equal concern about men falling behind in these sciences, as for women not keeping pace in computer science degrees?
If they figure out a way to attach one of these lasers to a shark I'll take three...

Once they get finished blowing things up there are bound to be tons of civilian uses for the kind of power supply that will most likely be required for these things. It's kind of disappointing that the article doesn't go into much detail.
Like another poster stated, debit cards don't build credit, but there is one HUGE problem with debit cards.

If someone steals your card (or number) with a credit card and spends money with it, the credit card company is out the money.

If someone steals your card (or number) with a debit card and spends money with it, YOU are out the money until your bank is benevolent enough to return it.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather have someone steal Visa's money than my money.
Hindsight analysis of the infamous DNS issue
If you use Metasploit, you can use the following formula to calculate your probability:

P_cs = 1 - (1 - xids/2^16)^A

where xids is the number of fake responses you want to send for each query. Remember to consider your bandwidth capacity when choosing xids. If you choose the default value, i.e. xids=10, then you can expect to poison successful after A>4000.
you mean a company that builds the hardware and software for a product?

depends on the product. in general, though, with hardware, economies of scale will tend to outweigh what you're doing unless its a seriously custom piece of hardware. the less customization you need to do, the cheaper it will be to produce.
> Reduce speed with 30%, and you'll reduce the total energy consumption by a considerable amount.

This is one of the (few?) cases where government regulation is appropriate, one airline would go out of business but if every route changed there would be a month of griping and folks would get used to it.

The re-scheduling, route planning, change in maintenance schedules, etc would be a one time cost, but if that's true I can't imagine the airlines are not secretly hoping for something like that to give them some help.
Schoolgirls' math skills now measure up to boys'
Look at it from the perspective of the customer rather than the owner. When my apartment switches managers I see no difference. I am not forced to move to a different location, nor do I have people reordering my furniture or changing my lease agreement.

When Viaweb became yahoo store it's possible it got a lot more users, but I'd bet existing users weren't as happy anymore. They got shitty yahoo service.

Perhaps in this industry management companies just haven't gotten very good yet. More likely, the difference in scale breaks the analogy from the user's point of view.
1) Because I don't think you want anything more "powerful" than defmacro-style macros. 2) Because at this stage I'm focusing mostly on making programs shorter.
lets hope, because when I was in college I was an AU (authorized used) on my parents Amex and that haunted me for years (my parents have poor fiscal responsibility).
Or thet HN is the ultimate Digg.

We appear to be entering very dangerous waters.
Mortgage.
Agree, stay away.
Rafat Ali talks about going from being broke to selling paidContent for $30mm
Actually, a really good way to grab attention is by not doing what everyone else is doing. So, NOT looking for a "rock star" would be a good start.