skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
We're launching a slinkset site next week, thought I'd post to HN and ask people the important question: amidoinitrite?

We looked at just putting it out but thought we'd try and build up a community first through a beta programme. We've had some good feedback but to be fair our choice of beta users wasn't very good. We could've easily have ditched 25 of our 30 beta users and had the same amount of activity.

What we did get from those remaining 5 was all the delicious feedback we could lay our hands on, some of which we've passed on to slinkset.

I've also written to a number of key bloggers in the niche we're working in to promote the site, hopefully you'll see some noise. Slinkset have also been very supportive.

I think if we'd have just thrown it out then it'd have been stillborn. I think the fundamental thing is to have something functional 'enough' and to have some users when you start, then go for the launch. What do others think?
I think the regrets come later, when people realize the time they have missed with other things, like friends or family.
Google Chrome code reuse nightmare
Reading it again, I see where the confusion lies - but I didn't even want to get into the issue of ownership.

The $500k is only the "expected value". You have a 50% chance of making $1M, 50% of walking away with $0.

"then you're more than twice as likely to make money on the first deal than on the second."

And that's why I'd choose the first deal, even though the economically 'rational' thing to do is to go for the second, which has higher expected value.
Focused, clean text, sectioned just right, full dedicated page, no distractions. Worth reading every word. A piece of art.

[Like a web page from 1995 but using all modern tools to make it pretty]
Chrome's process model is extremely sophisticated. The web comic only mentions the default behavior, but you can configure Chrome to manage processes differently: one process per web site, or one process per group of connected tabs, or one process for everything.
Or Sony Online Entertainment.

They have many years and many games under their belts where people pay to beta test their software for them.
This one seems like another traffic bait, Chrome has nothing to do with the HTTPS setup of google.com.
But IIRC, windows/IE was different: how easy was it for the typical person to run a computer without windows as their operating system? Not very, unless they bought one brand of product (Apple). However, for every service google offers, there are multiple and easily accessible alternatives. With most ISPs, Google isn't even the default search engine out of the box.
Some users are scared to death when they see "ActiveX Plug-in" in "about:plugins" page while others criticize "the lack of ActiveX support". How ironic.
"Not willing to relocate for 3 months" seems to be pretty critical, even more so than single founders.
I love it because it can upload to my own FTP and paste links from my own site which is often faster than screencast.com for my audience.

Startup time really sucks, though. But once it's running, I'm super, super pleased with it.
You know, there's probably an idea in there.

The stormpulse guys could perhaps build a widget that news & nedia sites could embed into their stories so there is instant tracking for each storm right there on the page.
Check and see what advice they ended up taking:-)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29516
The author is clueless about how SSL works. Barring the newer TLS extensions (RFC 3546), you can only have one virtual hostname per IP address when using SSL. So if the same host IP respondes to www.foo.com and www.bar.com, you'll only be able to get a SSL certificate for one.

The same things happens if you go to e.g. https://paypal.com

You can get around that to some degree with wildcard SSL certificates, so you can have *.bar.com served from the same IP. The newer EV certs can't have wildcards however.
The Elephant: Why is JRuby such a polarizing issue?
Your Money Or Your Life is a guide for reaching your fuck-you money goal:

http://www.yourmoneyoryourlife.org/fom-about-summary.asp
We have that. That's actually how we 'got big' (although we're still very small compared to the NHC, CNN, etc.).

http://stormpulse.wordpress.com/stormpulse-api/
But why would you want to? Other that testing I can't see any reason to switch from Firefox.
My brother recently moved to Ft. Myers, Florida, from Oregon. It's kind of weird because all of a sudden hurricanes are not just some event that is on the TV thousands of kilometers from my friends and family. I actually read a bit about them now rather than just sort of glancing and saying "huh... that's going to be a mess".
Not only did the guy do a thorough job on the car, his forum post and all of the pictures where as thorough as could be also. I never thought I would be so engaged in a post about detailing a car.
He doesn't talk about ownership, those are "expected value" calculations: basically, how much you would expect to make per deal if you did 100+ of these deals.
I've actually never seen an episode. :-)
In a nutshell: the Facebook app performs a DDoS attack on a victim website using the users' bandwidth.
Absolutely. First looks do matter and people will be less inclined to check your site out again if their first experience was awful.

An even bigger issue is that if you're entering a crowded market, you'll be signaling to your competition what your approach and features will be. If you've developed something that's not magnitude better, you will be copied and if they have resources, they will outmaneuver you.

I'd suggest people read some of the Michael Porter books on this.
If it's me, the chance of payoff is a multiple of their expected multiple. I'm in for the 20 mln.
Cuil screwed up by doing the full-court PR press before the product was ready. They could have launched the product in a more low-ley fashion without the backlash.
it's specific to certain types of displays, but Information Dashboard Design is pretty solid. not great for getting customers in, but excellent for internal reporting and tracking. these things make ceo's happy. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596100167?ie=UTF8&tag=...)
Yes, but a workshop-cooperative could outweight both. If patents don't prevent this I'm surprised nobody is doing it already.

Maybe this is a start:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/13/diy-innovation-newton-tech-...
What you want to know but don't about time and your time perspective
Interesting story, but where does all of their non-organic waste go now that the waste dump is gone? They probably just have to walk further to throw it away somewhere else.

Does anyone have data on the economic feasibility of setting up plastic, glass, etc recycling plants in 3rd world countries?
Often, Interaction Design gets lumped in with Interface Design (or simply overlooked). For this I suggest:

"Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Web Sites" by Andrew Chak (2003)

• Similar to "Don't Make me Think", but focuses more on personal interaction & choices more than layout.

"Defensive Design for the Web: How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points" by 37 Signals (2004)

• Error management (not just 404s) is one of the most overlooked UI portions of a web project and are often left up to the developers to "figure out".

http://www.amazon.com/Submit-Now-Designing-Persuasive-VOICES...

http://www.amazon.com/Defensive-Design-Web-improve-messages/...
Socialbrowse (YC Winter 08): Don't Surf Alone
Oh vey, I see I was as impolite 443 days ago as I am today. But I didn't say it was a bad idea, it just is not something that is relevant to me.
Pretty sure the author is Canadian. They tend to say things differently.
When I was in school I 'accidentally forgot' most of my books almost all the time. Worked as well.
If it's a web site, I'd suggest that you launch the smallest high-quality product you can, and then tweak or add something every day until it's where you want it to be. You'll change track along the way, but that's OK because you'll do it based on real user behavior.

I launched Planaroo.com on June 30, and I wish I had launched it two months earlier. Many of my assumptions about how people would use the site were just plain wrong. I spent a long time working on features that few people use, and not enough time on features that a lot of people use.

If your site involves user-generated content, you have no idea how long it will take to ramp up. If your has lots of text, you just won't know how it will do in search for weeks after launch. Planaroo did very well in Google search almost immediately, but it still doesn't show up in Yahoo Search after 10 weeks.
Asynchronous Socket Programming using Non Blocking Sockets
For 3 years I worked on a startup that built SMS applications. Although we did not work with MMS, I am very familiar with the struggles regarding carriers and just getting set up. Ultimately our startup failed - our costs were just too high, our slice of the pie was too small, and to reach the volume that we would need to become self-sufficient would require a bigger financial investment in advertising than our CEO was able to acquire or willing to make. Anyway....

I read over a long email string that I had with reps from several carriers regarding setting up direct relationships with them. At the time, our company was working with the carrier aggregator (middle-man) mQube - they were then the best, but we wanted to cut them out of the picture. If you don't already know this, carrier aggregators are essentially the gatekeepers to the carriers, and if you want to do ANYTHING substantial, you need to go through an aggregator. The alternative is to have direct-binds with the carriers themselves using lease-lines or special relationships. Through my correspondence, direct-binds are no longer offered, therefore it is pretty much impossible to become an mQube (Verisign became an mQube late in the game only by purchasing mQube). The next problem is that mQube's UI and customer service is pretty horrible, and you have to go through it if you want to get your program brief approved. Getting your program brief approved will most likely be your biggest challenge, and program briefs are like $1000/mo at least. The different carriers have different requirements, etc. You'll probably have to peruse and follow something like this: http://www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf

We spent months trying to convince mQube that we weren't going to spam people and that our app was legit. We were a non-subscription based service that supplied information/content only when a user initially requested it. That type of application is in the VAST minority of SMS apps, as most out there are horoscope type subscription services that people have trouble opting out of. In short, you are always going to be playing the carriers' game, and you will probably never win or even break even unless you have BIG BUCKS.

In Europe and Japan, if I remember, and it may have changed, there is only one cell provider ie Vodaphone, and it is much easier to get things done. The CTIA has the potential to create some standardization, but I don't see that happening.

Best of luck
Good point, thanks for the reference.
Just What Is "Singularity"?
An opposing view: http://nion.modprobe.de/blog/archives/651-Google-chrome-code...
The word inflation is conspicuously missing from your analysis. There's a reason why people bother with stocks instead of just plopping all their money in CDs.

(You could buy inflation-adjusted bonds. Last I heard, though, they were running slightly negative yields because of all the other people who want to buy inflation-adjusted bonds.)

The other problem I see here is that this is a steady-state analysis. If you sustain one event that requires you to deplete your capital (like, say, a sudden surge in inflation, a sudden fall in interest rates or market values, an illness... or, god forbid, you decide to get married or have a kid or move to a nicer house) you will immediately suffer an income hit that will require you to go back to work. You should consider budgeting for such things.

Having said that: If you have the discipline to follow this plan, minor holes and all, you'll be in better financial shape than the vast majority of the planet.

(Obligatory investment-book recommendation: William Bernstein, The Four Pillars of Investing.)
Protesters decry NASA hacker's extradition
Nice, that's probably what the St Pete Times was using when I first saw you guys.
This almost makes me want to clean my car
Because it would cost more.

Trivial example: let's say someone wanted a copy of Microsoft word. They could buy it for $300 (or whatever), or build it in a "workshop" along with 500 developers for $50M (or whatever it costs MS to build it)

Same deal with the motorcycle.
Then how do you explain the extraordinary quality of Apple products in the past 10 years?
... certificates of deposit at $20k each. at around ~4% interest, each one will yield an income of ~$800/month.

Shouldn't that be "each one will yield $800/year"? That makes the total $800/month.
I would go with just these Jackob Nielsen's articles:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/tabs.html

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/sales_cycle.html

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/wysiwyg.html

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990321.html
Drop IE6 Support — Give People a Reason to Upgrade
Tufte books are awesome, but overkill for website UI.
Let's not be too depressed :-)
RepRap's main claim to fame is that it is cheap to build. I listened to a podcast (with Gavin Bowman? is that his name) and that's exactly what he said. My employer has a Stratasys rapid prototyping machine that cost about $50,000. You can build a reprap for about $150.

It's a step forward. Like someone said, we're at the Altair stage here, not the Apple IIe.
Exactly. Apple critics are about as hypocritical as Apple fanboys.

Regarding Apple's current problems: I think it's because Apple's getting so ambitious. Right now they're attempting to shut out competitors in a slew of fields at once. Apple has usually done very well at this in the past. However, they launched three things in one (three things, right), and each one has had a set of problems on its own. So it's become noticeable that Apple's products aren't entirely flawless.

I got myself an iPod Touch, and while I'm pissed off at the things that aren't working, and the lagging bits, I at least have some perspective. I know that I'd take the Touch over any other MP3 player in existence, and that includes the 1.0 Touch. I gained more than I lost. And while I want Apple to fix things as quickly as possible, that's not the same as my saying "Apple's doing bad."
I don't know about you, but I sued Apple. >_>
awesome work guys, I admit I only had a very quick skim around the site and couldn't find it.
The hurricanes are covered quite thoroughly in Canada too (including live coverage). I don't think it's sad though since it's something that can directly affect millions of people and can indirectly affect 10s of millions more (fuel prices, travel, relatives). Events on that scale deserve wide-spread coverage.

One aspect that could be considered sad is the relatively low amount of air time international emergencies receive, even ones that are much larger in scale.
Almost as bad as the i.Beat Blaxx MP3 player (http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/trekstor-showcases-i-beat...)
I disagree with you, but I don't think you deserve all those downmods. Upmodded.
Can buying a shoe that fits your feet be so difficult? Actually it is, for me at least... Personally, for me it is the shirt. Even if you find a shoe that fits you there are onlookers criticizing that its not the right fit for you.

Now, how about getting the right operating system for your personal computer? Can some company satisfy every customer find their perfect operating system?. Its a challenge, I would say... and then there are some who want it moist and chewy, not dry and crunchy.

Just my interpretation and a thought that crossed my mind as I was trying to download a patch for my machine...
Google Chrome's about: Pages
I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man (I'm a bit young to be old, I'd hope), but all this newfangled attention on "social" seems a bit misleading. Social shouldn't be a constant distraction. It should be more laid-back. More fine-tuned.

I love Facebook, but I love it because it helps tie together my campus: before I started college last month, I'd given up Facebook as a needless distraction. Now there's a relevant use for it. Similarly, this isn't doing anything other than wasting my focus even further. It's like StumbleUpon only it's always in the sidebar and it updates without my clicking a button.

I'd love to see somebody devilsadvocate me, though. I'd like to see a good argument as to why something like this is not only useful but important.
Well, can they code or not?
We Need a "TRUSTe for SaaS Apps"
Thanks a lot, both of you for your replies. I hadn't imagined that Gould could be on that position. I might have asked the wrong geneticist indeed!
Thanks a lot for taking the time for writing such useful reply.
Game-related services are a different subject btw. Developing games for advertising, doing consulting for game dev companies, etc, is a much more safer bet than making game-based products. However, the game industry doesn't pay as much as other industries, whatever you do in there (at least that was my experience).
As you point out, "social" can be done multiple ways: as a distraction or as a true value add. And I completely agree with you, it must be laid back and natural to be effective. That was our goal from the start for Socialbrowse: not to change your browsing behavior, but to enhance the way you already browse, and improve the sites you like to visit.

Socialbrowse is realtime, but doesn't require your attention. It's like a human powered RSS stream, so you can pick and choose which links you take or conversations you participate in. Or you can choose to ignore them completely if you're busy. We developed Socialbrowse to be there when you want it, but not to interfere when you don't. That's why it feels very non-intrusive, yet when you take it away, the web feels lonely again.
Two days after a product release or for a long standing problem that you could not get resolved?
Actually, arrived to SF :]
Animated Sortable Datagrid jQuery plugin - jTPS
Wow, that's a lot of work. If you don't mind my asking, what's the exit strategy here? Sell/partner with a newscast? Charge for premium data?
Not to sound more successful than we are :-), but since it's the kind of thing folks on here might like to know ... if we made it any more visible it would probably not be a good thing at this point.
All of the above (except selling) have presented themselves as opportunities in the last few weeks.
I disagree with such opposing view. 25 libraries would be a nightmare to get in just the right version, and specifically compiling a program with many libraries that aren't already compiled in Windows is usually a nightmare (at least with VC++, which I guess is what these guys are using together with Scons?), to compile the software. The idea that Chrome would automatically update in case one of such libraries changed, is probably not very convenient either as such updates could also break the code (because of changes in the interfaces for example, or in the behavior of libraries... while it's not very probable for each library, it becomes quite probable when you have 20+ libraries).
testing, for now. I like Firefox, but I if they create a browser which is simpler and more stable and faster with apps, why not?

I like Firefox, but, frankly, not as much as I like Ubuntu, Gnome, OpenOffice or Pidgin. (Anyway, via Wine, it sucks).
We use Hertzner (http://www.hetzner.de/) in my company. Pretty good machines and cheap too.
Cleaning anything for longer than 5-10 minutes seems like the exact opposite of hacking. Maybe that's the point, gawking at how peculiar non-hackers can be?

If he did the exact same thing to a 1997 Ford Escort instead of a new Lambo he'd be mercilessly mocked.
I am infinitely freaked out by the text "delicious" at the end of the clip.
Demo Facebook app creates DoS botnet
Callmeed, I am looking to use Slicehost, how is your experience with them? Thanks.
Props for its mentioning Symphony. Excellent little CMS.
I second. I read "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" after I read "Don't Make me Think."
These are 2 books I not only reread but recommend every person involved with development or design around web to read.
Researchers build malicious 'Facebot' app to exploit Facebook
Good things don't have to be ugly. Pretty things can be quick and efficient. Some don't even require any training.

I've never understood the bias against aesthetic among hackers.
Yeah, we're delighted by the community's response to Tipjoy. I think one reason they are doing well is the blog post about it:
http://stormpulse.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/like-stormpulse-l...

But I should mentioned that you'd need to add at least 3 zeros to that total amount to consider Tipjoy close to mainstream.
Not relocating makes sense, in your case. Not many people in silicon valley care about hurricanes.
One less cool feature doesn't mattter. Take it from Chrome: "we want this product to be ROCK SOLID"
I haven't tried Socialbrowse, since I haven't messed with Firefox. But is there anything that happens visually when you get new stories, or do you manually refresh it? Because I'd imagine that there's something that catches your eye and distracts you when you get new information.

I might check it out, though. You have the right view on the issue, and that's a good thing.
Erlang: Introduction to the Open Telecom Platform
Really good offer, considering that's in Europe.
Unfortunately they only have a German site and, I suppose, support.
I don't know. I just felt like suing them. You know how it is.
we were using Flexiscale (by XCalibre) but their last outage was long, and corrupted all our data. So I would avoid them!
Thinking People Eat Too Much: Intellectual Work Found To Induce Excessive Calorie Intake
Makes me wonder what it would be like for an earthquake startup if NYC were the Valley.
amazing, quite the artist
With Python, there is no real pain that alternative implementations can address. The canonical implementation is good enough, and it will remain a monopoly.

With Ruby, providing significantly better performance and reliability may very well unseat the monopoly of MRI, certainly for commercial applications. Since, JRuby actually looks like it may be able to pull that off in the foreseeable future, it's a much bigger deal than alternative Python implementations.
Ask YC: Do you agree that TechCrunch is getting too heavy to load?
TC pages loads for ever.

Now with the top link on HN being a TC link I got reminded again that offlate TC is loaded with tons of images and display ads which are all too heavy.

PS: Only benefit of being in India with poor bandwidths at home.

Is Arrington ignoring some basics in the rush for money.
Viddler Launches 15s Twitter Videos
Hyperbrain Owner's Manual - 3. Keep tasks closed
The ad is brilliant, but it's even funnier how many people don't seem to get it.

(full disclosure: I loathe MS as much as anyone)
do they come with anti-cavity protection?
I did a course at University called Human Computer Interaction. Essentially it was the science of user interfaces. The course book of the same name by Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale (3rd edition) was really good. It contained a lot of accessible theory and plenty of heuristics too that you can implement straight away. Highly recommended.

http://www.hcibook.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Human-Computer-Interaction-3rd-Alan-Di...