skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
From the Harvard Business Publishing Article:

> "Before the 1950s, lending depended on the wisdom and judgment of loan officers. Then, a company called Fair Isaac developed a way to use four simple variables to develop a credit score that reliably predicted the risk of lending to an individual."

That is a very misleading analogy. YouNoodle is not the present-day analog of Fair Issac. This goes back to the idea that while it's very difficult to predict random events individually, you can predict them well in aggreggate. Fair Issac isn't really betting on customer X defaulting on a loan -- they're really betting on a thousand customers like X. Same with insurance premiums. A model won't be a great predictor of one person, but if you have hundreds of thousands of customers, you can have a much more accurate estimate. This is the law of large numbers. For a simpler example, you wouldn't want to bet on the outcome of a single coin toss, but it's a pretty safe bet that if you toss a (fair) coin a million times, the heads percentage will be very close to 50%.

Fair Issac played the game by lending to lots of customers. YouNoodle is trying to play this game for each individual case. They're bold enough to mathematically estimate the value of one individual startup, and say that they have some confidence in it. It's the analog of making a loan to 1 person, insuring 1 person, or betting on a single coin flip. Probability tells you this is very risky. VC don't make thousands of bets like insurers or banks do. For the bank, my individual outcome doesn't really matter to the big picture. VCs on the other hand invest in a very small number of startups - each startup matters.
I'm starting to envy people with even-keeled dispositions the way other people envy the rich.
> "a 500k valuation was the most likely outcome for the profiles of entrepreneurs you entered" (emphasis added)

Exactly my point. Given 100 startups with that profile, you can say with some confidence that the average outcome will be 500k. But you're ignoring the distribution! It's very risky to make the bet that one individual startup will be worth 500k.

I'm not saying you should make better predictions. I'm saying that it's a very risky game to make mathematical predictions on individual valuations at all.

Most machine-learned models aren't better than humans, they're just much, much faster than humans. It's a bold bet you're making if you're trying to be better than humans at predicting valuations. Models don't allow for intangibles like "killer sales ability" that may not be reflected in your degree or past job, but that a VC can pick up on 5 minutes after meeting you.

See my reply to Sam's post here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=272015

Edit: Someone put in the relevant numbers for WebVan or Pets.com. I think those two failed within ~3 years.
Bug: the scribd link seems to point to the pdf as well.
I'm not familiar with the iPhone development platform, so I'm curious: if they distributed the source code for the app, could anyone sign up for a dev account and create a development copy of the application for their own phone?
Cheers.

How do you mean why do you have to login? It's just a little to-do app, like Remember the Milk or Tada List. You sign up, log in and start adding things you want to remember. Keeps things private.

I only built it for myself and haven't actually told anyone about it until I pasted a link here in the last comment. Thoughts and comments are welcome! :)
That's not a bug, it's a feature. I think. :)

I tried the Scribd vacuum link right after posting and I got an error saying that the PDF was encrypted, so it wouldn't be able to show it. I think that result gets cached and Scribd just redirects to the PDF for subsequent requests.
http://web.mit.edu/zacka/www/warcart.html

I want one. :)
It would be useful to indicate that the link was a pdf. Maybe it's because I haven't had a coffee yet today, but the [scribd] in the title made me think the whole link was going to scribd not a PDF.
Isn't the real problem that a lot of people drive to, and then back from, work at the same time?
The Philadelphia Inquirer- How To Spiral Down Quicker | My Philly Network
"people that are insecure or down on the status ladder have a huge incentive to impress others"

One part butt-kisser and the other part arsehole (for lack of better non-slang words).
JavaScript 2: A Perl 6 disaster, that matters so much more, but wait…
Charlie Anzman- The SEO Guru
I read this essay. Then I re-read it. This is a superb effort to analyze the funding experience for startups!

For the last 4-years we lived this, down to moving into a consulting role to survive. If funding ever arrives, we will thrive.

We are lucky to have 2 founders - I focus on fund-raising, business development, IP, and operations. The other focuses on the technology and product development. My keeping him out of morale-threatening situations, we have a kick-ass product. I learned not to take the multitude of rejections personally. The ignorance of the product and market conspires to keep most investors away.

The one addition I would add is this: Those investors who do "get it" and are supportive in both dollars and participation should be treated the highest-level of respect. We are extremely lucky to have a stable of such investors!

There is a great forum at http://thefunded.com/ where entrepreneurs can share their funding experience, terms sheets, and good leads. Also, those VCs who like to rope-a-dope entrepreneurs are highlighted there so we can avoid them.

I highly recommend this essay be linked there!
As far as I understand, the Django app you used has different functionality from Wordpress, so not sure how much this benchmark is useful?

How caching is implemented on each app, how much I/O access the URL you benchmark requires (esp. session, which IIRC may fall into race condition in ab-type benchmarks) can make a huge difference (also IIRC - PHP should perform significantly better as Apache module than under FCGI)

Ultimately it's really an app comparison, I'd guess PHP or Python have relatively little impact on the results. Find a Django app (or RoR, or even another PHP app) that gives you everything you need from Wordpress, benchmark and you'll have useful data.
Ask HN: Ruby on Rails Hosting
I've decided to take the plunge and learn RoR (go me!). I currently have hosting at GoDaddy, which I've read has poor RoR support.

I'm not looking to spend more than say, $15/mo -- just want a place to build some small demo apps. Any suggestions?
I will. That page might have been a nice intro to the field, but there's a much smaller version of it that I'm going to remember and that I'm going to tell other people. That's the elevator pitch.

It also doesn't help that the "what we do" page starts by criticizing people who call them a data mining company. They apparently do make software for use in (one definition of) data mining.
No, visitors to eyesonobama.com prefer FF.
I would love YouNoodle's startup predictor to work great.

Why not? It'd allow the cream to rise to the surface.

Despite the publicity surrounding startup investment, it can be really hard to secure a first meeting and at least this is another way to attract investors who would otherwise not know about, or look passed someone.
Even with the iPhone, carriers have the final say. If AT&T doesn't like an application, it can just ask Apple to remove it from the AppStore. Or, they could just block the network access that the application needs to work (e.g. blacklist websites that the application contacts).

It is true that the iPhone doesn't come with vendor customizations, which is nice. However, none of the AT&T phones I have purchased have been extensively customized either.

Most prepaid phones are subsidized by the carriers that distribute them (e.g. AT&T GoPhone), and those phones are locked to that carrier and have customized firmware. In the US, there are very few OEM phone sales. That is why you only see Nokia stores in the very biggest cities here (Chicago, New York, LA); I don't think there are any Sony-Ericsson shops in the US at all. OEM phones just don't sell.
PingMyMap: Free, multi-search-engine sitemap notifier
This links to a blog with a link to an article. The article itself is reasonably interesting:

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2008/sb20080...
Heroku FTW. (http://heroku.com/)

Especially since you'd be supporting a YC startup and they are great for beginners because of their pretty powerful in-browser editor. You don't even need your own dev environnment if you don't want.

Also the service is free during beta. Not sure if the beta is still closed, but ping me if it is as I'm sure I have some invites available.
If you're comfortable administering a Linux slice, consider Slicehost ($20/month). If you're just learning, Heroku might be a great option.
This server is already painfully slow. Lets not completely shut it down, mkay?
Better strategy: drop MySQL and move to postgres.
Strategy: Keep Memcached and drop MySQL, and get a RDBMS that can handle concurrency without 50 servers.
By the way, the novel 1984 is not public domain.
I wish I had read this before I started studying abstract algebra. Sure it's incomplete and lacking in details but what a nice introduction.
I'm checking it out now. Looks very cool. I added myself to their waiting list, but it says the average wait time is less than a day. Thanks for the pointer.

Edit: Already got the invite. Man they're good.
I don't even know what a Linux slice is ;)

I'm checking out Heroku, which seems appropriate for my level. Gracias though.
Defcon: EFF defends MIT students' right to talk; federal court stops speech
Make sure to pay in cash for any cards that you alter...
"Now I don’t claim it was a fair test"

Right.
Linode.com is a better choice than Slicehost. Better customer service and more bang for the buck. But you do have to learn a bit about sysadmin.
Could universal device operation be the next killer app?
I may get flamed for saying so but Dreamhost support RoR apps, lots of bandwidth/disk space and all for $11/month. It's shared hosting but they support mod_rails / Phusion Passenger which is working out great for me so far (I'm running a Redmine bug tracker on Dreamhost, along with lots of other PHP stuff).

However, I've also got a virtual server from Slicehost where I deploy my own apps... it's noticeably faster than Dreamhost but you do have to deal with lots of sysadmin stuff which distracts you from the RoR learning/development.

My advice would be to start with a shared RoR host (a la Dreamhost) and then migrate to a virtual server host (e.g. Slicehost) once you've got something that's too running slow, getting too popular or is starting to earn revenue.
This seems to be the mantra of the PostgreSQL fanboys.

I use PostgreSQL. I have found, in my experience, that it has superior join performance when compared with MySQL and that's what is important to be in my line of work. That said, I'm not silly enough to think that performance = scalability. Neither MySQL or PostgreSQL scale naturally. They require strategies to be implemented whether that be sharding, caching, replication, etc.

This just isn't a useful suggestion for scaling.
But don't miss out on some kind of 'real' development environment. The usual kind of stuff. Basically it goes down to:

1. Learn to use a real editor. I don't care which. As long as it is either vim or emacs. And maybe TextMate.

2. Get to know your way around the command line. Really.

3. Use a VCS, may I propose: Git

Sure, Heroku got a nice in-browser editor, but that is not the main point, honestly, TextEdit provides more or less the same functionality.

The main point is easy as f*ck deployment. If you are using Git, a simple `git push` will be enough to deploy, run migrations and restart server. (http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2008/3/3/api_and_external_gi...)

Damn it, when is somebody creating a clone of that functionality? It is so pretty. git push, git push, git push.
Windows broken: "browser security set back 10 years," Vista’s security "rendered useless"
To my knowledge, they haven't yet; and as far as I know, they would if they could.
Edit: I only know
Killpg
We did. Made it through round 1 and are still waiting to hear if we made it to round 2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words
I have had a lot of success with WP-Super Cache (http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/) which I believe is different from the basic wp_cache.
I've been happy with hostingrails.com. The support has been very good and accounts start at less than $4 USD per month.
I don't even know what a Linux slice is ;)

It's basically a full Linux server, except it's really a virtual machine running on something else. That's just an implementation detail, though.

Anyway, I use Slicehost and the service is great. Very easy to manage via their web interface, and the price is not bad. $10/month for daily and weekly full backups is also a plus. If I fuck up the server miserably, I just press a few buttons and I am back to last night's unfucked version.
Linode deleted my VM when my credit card expired and didn't respond to my emails about it. I didn't have any important data on it and they're cheap, so I still use them for trivial things, but I wouldn't base an actual business on them.
AlterEgo Shows Off Incredibly Realistic 3D Animated Faces
Exactly. The fact that I assumed this was the case was enough to prevent me checking. I assume this to be the case with most hacker types.

So, is this security through stupidity?
100% gimmick. I wouldn't take investment from anyone who used my company's YouNoodle rating as a guide, and I doubt there are any legitimate investors who would ever do so. So what's the point? Entertainment?
Well I guess my point is that the ability to sign a non compete benefits the person who isn't in California in this case, by way of getting the job.

Whether or not it will benefit the employee in the long run is up for debate:)
If you go with Slicehost and are iffy with your sysadmin skills, take a look at deprec/capistrano, tools that let someone smarter than you handle your sysadmin stuff (at the cost of keeping you ignorant).
WordPress is really inefficient query wise out of the box. The caching stuff really speeds stuff up, but there's no reason why a fresh install takes 20 queries to load a post. Add a few fun plug-ins into the mix and you can see why WP sites often take a dive when hit with unexpected traffic.
they are pretty anal about bandwidth though, I had a file hosted and it hit some popular forums, and they shut my account down after like 50 GB of bandwidth was used up
"... What is it with these people and their obsession for academics and credentials? ..."

Extreme competition, limited opportunity and rigid social hierarchy.
That thing is so obnoxious. The video is hilarious!
One trick is that at less busy Starbucks locations, the regular coffee isn't ordered often enough for there to be brewed coffee ready for you when you order it, especially in the afternoon. Usually they'll give it to you for free to compensate for the wait.
The trouble with math is that the exceptional mathematicians (including theoretical physics/computer science) are the stereotype, and the regular mathematicians are actually quite different from that. So in fact it's the stereotype that's wrong, not the claim that exceptional mathematicians are not very mathematician-like.
Libraries enter the digital age
Something like this would be a great startup business model for digital media. It would allow me to check out a movie or a song for maybe 1.5x the time of its duration.
Indiahacker.com -- request for review
'Powered by reddit', and UI inspired by Hacker News! Thanks.
Release early and release often. They did the opposite.
Thanks to those who came!

http://datainsightsideas.com/post/45336208
Presumably a site that can be taken down by a single simple crawler is guilty of crappy scaling.
My wife and I both have better than average financial backgrounds. She has a couple of finance-related degrees, and has worked as a financial analyst for many years (since a bit before the dot com times). I also have working knowledge of financial operations. So while there was some luck involved, it was certainly not "fooled by randomness".
"... By the way, the novel 1984 is not public domain: 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen' ..."

It is in public domain in Australia ~ http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt
Boxer Rebellion
Katie Hoff
2000 PGA Championship
"... Erdos was a drug user, not a drug addict. ..."

There is no distinction.
I don't think it'll be a failure: I think they've got a good shot with this. What this does, however, is silence critics of Apple's App Store plan. When other companies pick it up, it gives Apple credibility.
There was a whole book written about the failure of Chandler: Dreaming in Code.
I've seen ConnectU. If it launched and Facebook didn't, MySpace would still be number one. Zuckerberg may or may not have stolen an idea, but don't think that the idea alone is what makes Facebook great.
Google's Kevin Marks Interviewed on The Web 2.0 Show
I agree, Mysql is a poorly designed pig. Big count(*) is fast, so people lap it up.
I don't know if the parent post was edited, but I don't see too many weasel words there.
I just finished reading most of this book, didn't make it all the way through. I had a goal of reading it before 1.0.

Interesting story, and I'm sure most people would see at least a few parallels to their own projects.
True.
From the perspective of most advertisers, they only care about their niche. If you your search engine or auction site is the place to go for tradesmen (plumbers, electricians etc.) or some other big money niche, you'd be able to make a lot more then you would with a much larger all purpose engine.
I agree, it is longer than it should be, but it's worth it.
Well, it depends how big you need to scale.

Postgresql can scale far far better than mysql on a single multiprocessor machine. Postgres scales up to about 16 cpu's without much difficulty. If you put heavily used tables on lots of seperate spindles, you can go very far.

Also, postgresql supports partitioning of tables. This lets you effectively 'shard' a single database, without having to change your queries. As long as the planner can determine which partitions the data could possibly come from, it will ignore any other partitions. So if you have your table in 30 partitions, and the planner determines the query could only return rows from 8 of those tables, it doesn't scan/check indexes for the other 22. If you partition the data such that it is effectively 'archive' and 'live' data, in that the 'archive' data partitions are rarely accessed, this is a HUGE win, because the data is indexed per-partition, meaning the relatively small 'live' indexes get kept around in memory, and combining with other indexes for bitmap-indexed joins is therefore that much faster as well.

If you don't need concurrency, use sqlite, if you do, use Postgresql or Oracle.

<conspiracy>Why do you think Sun (a hardware company) bought Mysql? Maybe because you need a server installed for every 100 users on your site? </conspiracy>
Writing games with graphics in QuickBasic 6.5, and learning Visual Basic 4 at the start of high school. Acing AP Computer Science twice in my last two years, since I wanted to learn both curriculums: C++ in Codewarrior in 11th grade, and Java in Notepad in 12th. (Java 1.1 or 1.2, it was.)
Interesting insight on virtual worlds being the next disruptive platform.
Yeah, I thought it was strange when he first mentioned it, but when he put it in the context of a platform, I realized that it might be something bigger than just a place where geeks go and fly around.

There might be some commercial aspects to virtual worlds in the distant future.
Don't worry. You don't need to know what a "Linux slice" is because it's a term barely used by anyone except Slicehost customers. You'll more commonly see such systems referred to as "virtual private servers" or VPSes.

Heck, this very page is #3 on Google for "linux slice" which shows how little the term is used ;-)
Harvard Medical School To Help Build Wikipedia for Medicine
Frameworks vs. Libraries in PHP
Jonathan Horton
Agreed, I think we've been seeing a slight preview of this. The recent google acquisition of lively was what brought the whole concept of virtual worlds to my attention. I'm sure that platform will serve as a testground for some ideas. I also think that possibly social networking will move into this space as well (think friends meeting up in virtual spaces) and advertising will definitely follow.
No editing. I'm not known for being subtle in my criticism or avoiding taking blame for the things I say. As you say, I don't think I was avoiding taking any responsibility for my criticism, and I'd welcome arguments to the contrary if anyone would like to defend Chandler. (And note that I'm not calling the developers idiots or incompetent, and never would...we all probably accept that they're smart folks who lacked leadership and specific vision.)
Yes, I've read some of it (had to put it down because it was simply too painful to think about so much wasted effort). I once followed the project with interest. I was on the mailing lists, read the docs, checked out the early code, etc. I perhaps take it too personally because I did expect great things from the Chandler team. I just expected those great things five years ago.
Thanks, I should have Googled it first...
Researchers Crack Medeco High-Security Locks With Plastic Keys
A better title would be "A thrown-together collection of words that somehow relate to JavaScript 2." The article itself could have been shorter also. "Perl sucks! Javascript 2 is dictated by politics, I think. I don't have any facts to back that up, but this is a blog. Finally, I dislike static typing. The end."

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood, but this article sucks.
The neighborhood I live in is almost exactly 50% Black, 50% White (at least my cul-de-sac is exactly 50%, if you count per-house, probably about that per-person). I have yet to see anybody I would consider scary at all, and that is not because I have a high tolerance or something. So your generalization is complete and utter bullshit right on the face of it.

I think you need to be much more careful in your assertions about race. When people are subsidized into a neighborhood, you are getting people who's life skills aren't up to par with the other members of that neighborhood, race has nothing to do with that whatsoever. If you managed to get some German tribesman in 500 AD and put him up in a well to do Baghdad neighborhood of the time, the hard working Arab neighbors would probably find them vulgur, dirty, and likely to steal when the opportunity allowed for it.

Hell, we Europeans walked on to the stage of history as backward celts getting dumped on by Romans and worshiping trees, or crazed Asian nomadic barbarian hoards smashing the greatest cities and civilization to that point (talk about bad neighbors).

Anyway, I have a title I would like to recommend for your post. "Protocols of the Elders of Africa."
We have had good experience with speedyrails(www.speedyrails.com). They are cheap and their service is great.
"Faculty at Harvard Medical School will be contributing un-editable seed content to the site. [...] Other academic institutions will be also contributing to the Medpedia Project, [...] though all of the content that they provide will be editable."
Like half of Microsoft is Indian. I've heard lots of stories about the Indian Mafia at MS and so on. So, I think Indian Society did produce Gates.
I sorta agree, and I sorta disagree...

Here in Seattle I've been held up for over an hour on the 520 bridge because of an accident THE OTHER DIRECTION. Having screens would prevent rubber necking on the other side of the highway (with a large cement barrier in between).

Also, I think you can do a lot to the screen itself to increase driver safety. Make it 15' high and entirely yellow/black diagonal stripes and it'll catch driver's attention and get them to slow down. TV and radio educational ads can help too.