skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
as someone who's brought a niche blog into the mainstream (in my niche at least), just use something like WordPress. If you're already worrying about SEO, you're losing. your focus should be nothing beyond generating great content and getting readers.

i stared on Blogger, then moved to WP hosted on a dedicated host, and its never been a regret. focus on the content. if you're talking about writing scripts, you should probably be coding instead of blogging. good CMS systems exist already so don't reinvent the wheel.
I think this is more of a "we reserve the right" kind of thing than a statement of intent.
IntelliVocab for SAT Released to Beat SAT with an Interactive iPhone Application
IntelliVocab for SAT is available on the Apple App Store for free to personalize English vocabulary learning for SAT exam or professional work
@thomasgerbe

You're correct and I get your point. My first statement didn't get out as intended. I think that with those services in its current form it's not so much about where it is now, but where it can get. Ofcourse you don't go out with the 300 friends you have on facebook. But those services aren't focused on such big networks; they are focused on the 25 people you do and can go out with and it is about sharing valuable information and having fun with those. Facebook is great for the 275 other ,,friends''. The network is smaller, but it's really more social.
Why didn't you just say "yes". You can always change your mind.
How about building the achievements around programs that will actually result in real improvement? Or around programs to achieve certain goals?

Everybody always wants cardio. I think because that is what most people do. But that isn't going to make you fit by any useful definition of the word.
Microsoft has been collaborating with Oracle for the integration provided. It's the only third-party database with that privilege.

Doesn't explain the use of MySql, DB2, Teradata, etc... I don't know who MS works with, but I do know that there are shops that use a wide range of database solutions.

What's more interesting to me is that tons of MS shops are using Silverlight, even though it isn't the best solution by any stretch of imagination, having the extra handicap that its reach is at most half than the reach of Flash, even inside an intranet environment.

Kind of like HTML5 features right? :-)

You decide based on the 5 biggies - OS, database server, web server, application server, caching layer.

And nothing replaces SQL Server, Windows Server and IIS. And if .NET shops have been using Memcached, that's because no alternative was available from MS.

You make it sound like there are a million OSes the FOSS community chooses from. It's Linux. Done. Some random bloke uses BSD, but really it's Linux.

And half the time ppl in FOSS talk about databases its key/value dbs, and there are tons on Windows too. Plus they're often written from scratch. Apache works if you use ASP.NET MVC. Memcached, as you note, also works.

My point, virtually everything you mentioned can swapped out. And even the OS can be, with Mono. With that said the MS implementations tend to work well together. But I conceeded that in the very first line of my original post.
Netflix provides machines to Large ISP's to reduce congestion. I don't know the specifics, but I suspect both Netflix and the ISP save money by doing so.
If you start the httpd you can telnet HTTP requests by hand.
Interesting article Flaviu! Well done for winning the startup weekend! :)
I sync all my google calendars down to iCal and my iPhone and have no issues with syncing. Sometimes there will be a tiny window of time where I don't have everything synced on my machine but my gCal is my master calendar. I just installed this app and it's nicer for me than having to open iCal.

Props to the developers!
Editing and deletion weren't $15 / 1.0 features?

I think that I see... You should clarify on the page that this views other calendars, and does not have it's own storage. You say that it "works with your favorite calendar application", but you mean that it "augments" or "views" your favorite calendar application.
The Vista Fix
I actually ended up turning down a google offer for this precise reason -- the questions are biased in favor of a `theory` person over a `practice` person.

Having been through a real interview (where the interviewer went through my resume before the interview and prepared real thoughtful questions that would only be known if you actually worked on the language), I took that offer and now interview others more intelligently.
ASP.NET works with Apache and Nginx. See http://mono-project.com/ASP.NET
FWIW I've had the exact same experience as the author for (I kid you not) a Visual Design opening. Now unless we somehow had the same recruiter, I doubt this is a "one-time" incident.
falsestprophet and amorphid are right, and that was the reason I asked you why you want the degree: If you want to be able to build something, start building it. Read tutorials, guides, how tos, blogs, attend meetups and workshops, etc etc. Studying for a CS degree to become a coder is like using a nuclear bomb to kill a mosquito.
Problem is they can't even copy well. Wave, Buzz - they were terrible.
Is Bitcoin a good idea?
How to SEOptimize a Rails app
Theres also the whole theory about what languages you know indicates what kind of person you are. Even if you are looking for a Java programmer, the guy who took the time to learn languages that weren't required in their class indicates they have drive to learn on their own.

Not a fan of that indicator. I actually know quite a few mega-polyglots. They learn every langugage they can find. But I also know people who know a couple of languages pretty well, but spend their time learning other things. In my spare I rarely want to learn a new language. I'm much more interested in, how did this app solve problem XYZ. I spend a lot of time digging through code that solves problems. In some cases I have to learn a language to learn a solution, but I rarely just grab a book on esoteric language Z, but I know people who do.

If you ran the NY Times would you hire people based on how many languages they spoke? It might be interesting, if that's their thing, but in general its no more useful than asking someone to rate themselves on how many operating systems they know well, how many different kinds of mice they've used, or how many text editors they're familiar with.
I think an underlying reason for so many anecdotes of the sort in the comment threads here is the sheer number of hires the Goog is trying to make right now -- according to http://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html, they've grown headcount by close to 10% in Q1 alone so far.

Life for their recruitment folks is probably fairly interesting these days.
I'd be surprised if other funds aren't using this sort of technique already and just not talking about it.
If users could lead innovation, they wouldn't be users
10% growth every year for a quarter of a century? I regard that as very impressive.

China had the prior example of Taiwan to imitate. And Taiwan had China scared witless by the end of the Cultural Revolution, when it looked like the total size of Taiwan's economy, with only about one-SIXTIETH the population, might exceed the size of China's economy soon.
This article explains why the KISS principle is required for large projects. Since the only thing we can be sure of is that our 10,000 line program will contain bugs, it solves a lot of problems to develop a program methodically as separate modules which can be tested independently on the way to 10,000 lines.

Separate modules allows a developer to test core assumptions on the way to a massive program which ostensibly produces correct answers.
Pakistani and NATO Forces Clash Near Afghan Border
I really wish the mainstream media (oh, and US automobile manufacturers) would use the same calendar that we mere mortals use.
I think webOS is one of the most innovative mobile operating systems out there.

Palm didn't have the marketing and operations muscle to fulfill demand. Even now, the most modern webOS device you can buy in Spain is the Palm Pixi.

HP's been looking after touch interfaces for years (remember the TouchSmart?) and now they have a quite good OS to work with. Have anyone considered what a webOS interactive whiteboard would be like?

The problem is that they are no Apple nor Google in marketing terms, though is soon for them to make a move. I hope that in summer, when the Touchpad and the Pre3 are ready all hell will break loose.

And if things don't go well for them, we should start to think about the BeOS legacy curse.
Netflix uses a variety of CDNs (Content Delivery Network). I think Level 3 is currently their primary provider and they used to use Akamai.
I'd say there's a fat chance of seeing Comcast benevolently caching Netflix traffic.
Yes, because inconveniences aren't for rich people. It's sort of like how kids in college don't get drafted.
I've spent well, well more than $20 on Android apps. But I don't play many games.
From personal experience, I'd say there's more to its "analytics engine" aspect than just pivot tables. (Not that you necessarily meant there was not.) Although it is a hearkening cry for many... "intermediate" level users as well as a significant tool for advanced users.

If people can pivot sufficiently, this is going to provide some significant competition to Excel from the perspective of many reporting demands.

I've already observed Google Doc's word processing component exceeding Word in ease of use to get to an actual, acceptable final result, for non-technical users. At that point, I really started to wonder how long it would be until Docs ate Microsoft's lunch with respect to the office suite market.

A big, conservative anchor still being data privacy and hosting. There's a lot of stuff people (still) simply can't/won't put into someone else's cloud/computers.
I dunno. I get confused, easily. Every few weeks something like this kicks around, I get tricked into saying something unfortunate (but true) about the MS development community, no one changes their mind and the process repeats.

I guess what I keep forgetting to ask is why should I ever consider using .NET for a server side application? I'm totally boggled as to why it's not just a redundant, expensive, risky idea compared to the legions of alternatives. That's very different than suggesting the language or platform is bad... They're not at all. In fact, I think they're great. I just don't understand what makes them worth the trade-offs that come along with signing up.
SSH port knocking script
I've always been put off by people who are passively aggressive in calling their criticism "honest" or "hard truths". It just means they don't understand how to communicate well or induce change and are too lazy to deal with it.
What about inxx.com
In a nutshell: Google has developed a reputation for interviewing skill sets, as opposed to interviewing people. Sadly, that's common practice industry-wide.
We got a call from http://hiconversion.co/ recently. They wanted to sell us on their conversion optimizer software. Their site talks a lot about "Real Time ROI" and "IT-Free Use", but no where on the site do they actually describe what they do. I emailed the rep this question and he basically wouldn't tell us. He would only say "I can explain it with a demo." We were curious to see how it worked, so we said yes. Then we had to schedule a time, call up GoToMeeting, enter the passcode, and listen to a 30 minute presentation.

He was a nice enough guy, but my god, all HiConversion had to do was exactly what Optimizely did: put a 4 minute video on their homepage (which I am seeing for the first time today).

The WYSIWYG editing in both systems is pretty similar. The main difference is that I got a quick and easy understanding after four minutes on Optimizely's site.

P.S. The price is significantly better at Optimizely. 30 Day Free Trial and $400/month vs $3,000/month. We'll check out that free trial version at least.
To those that degraded my comment: what I said is what I believe. Disagreeing is not a valid reason to put down the other person's opinion. If you want a debate, let's have it, but you have to respect what I say unless you prove that I'm wrong.
I would suggest AlphaList except that I just realized I haven't seen anything from them in a couple weeks.

Still, worth a shot.

http://alphalist.co/
Agreed, this is "a great success": my family budget can finally move from Excel/Dropbox to Google Docs.

On a more serious note, this does open up some interesting possibilities for Business Intelligence "in da cloud". Pivot tables coupled with data fed through Google Docs API can resolve quite a few basic reporting needs of my small business customers.
Telling me I need to "invite a friend" to gain access is extremely lame at this stage in the game.

Maybe after I've seen the product and am ramping up my use, this would be ok, but before I've seen it? Poor form.
It's pretty much impossible for a government to remain Communist after formation.

According to Marx, a Communist state should disassemble itself after organizing society in such a way that it can sustain egalitarianism in a classless manner. Because dictatorial power is necessary to reorganize society from the top down, this power will be acquired by a Communist state. Unfortunately, every institution is self-serving and self-preserving, so ostensibly-Communist states are inevitably unable to complete the self-destructive process. When have you ever known a state to give up power? It just doesn't happen unless the state feels threatened in some way, and the state is unable to destroy the threat.

A Communist state will relentlessly attack any non-hierarchical movement attempting to organize a classless egalitarian society, because such movements are a threat to the state's power. Examples of this are present in both the Spanish Revolution and the Russian Revolution.

Bakunin was totally right. http://i.imgur.com/ijQEp.jpg
I think his point was that he acted in good faith -- with the expectation that Google would reciprocate -- and was essentially let down without courtesy. Even a simple "sorry, we're unable to interview you, our apologies for asking you to get an extension" would have gone a long way, even if just for the word-of-mouth reputation.
Ten Rookie Startup Mistakes You Won’t Make
I stand corrected - just read that Havel has studied economcs for only two years before dropping out and that's probably the reason I have remembered him (wrongly) as an economist - I must have read it somewhere and it has probably stuck in my mind.

Btw, the rest of the Eastern European countries can learn a lot of things from the Czechs.
Some (unscientific) evidence of NoSQL adoption
> Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.

The perfect laugh.
Good point, their HR department has lost all credibility with me too.
Awesome. I'm a big fan of Google's feature-by-feature, slow-and-steady approach to competing with MS Office. Excel is the only application that I really miss since leaving Windows (Numbers & Mac Excel just don't feel right) and Google Docs is creepy up on it a little bit at a time.
I would be surprised. There's not a huge amount of trading based on text.
I don't think that's unique to Google. I've gotten the silent treatment multiple times at other large companies, after being accosted by a recruiter. At Intel, it even happened after I received a job offer.

I was on a project that was in crunch mode, so I asked if I could start in three or four months (instead of three or four weeks, like they wanted). Apparently, that was such an egregious breach of etiquette on my part that the hiring manager (an engineer) stopped responding to phone calls or email. And it wasn't as if my start date came out of nowhere -- I mentioned the issue during my phone interview, during my onsite interview, and on the form they sent me where they wanted me to list my availability.
Years of the obnoxious naming convention for twitter-based products are finally vindicated: Two and Twenty.
37signals Customer Support Dip
I Usually see this in the mid 90s. I wonder what has happened to cause 10 'OKs' and 9 'not so goods'?
Why won't Mint make a table of spending by category over time?
From my point of view, they or someone inside clearly thought I was "good", and I obviously passed the minimum clearance test from HR. Since I didn't even get a single technical interview, they could not have developed their opinion on my abilities further. I can therefore be possibly valuable to the company in the future, but as a result of this idiocy, am completely put off by them, especially since I've got offers from the other biggies.

A better approach would be to vet me thoroughly before contacting me. In other words, only contact me if you're sure that you can at least put me through a single interview.
It’s just not true. You can program, it just requires more practice.

Sure you can give up, but that does not mean you “cannot program”.
75% of Tumblr's 250M Daily PageViews in the Dashboard
Since WebOS's app platform is HTML5/JS, an interesting convergence with browser app stores could happen here and allow WebOS devices an easier bootstrap, since the code could also run in the Chrome and (forthcoming) Mozilla app stores without much modification (theoretically, anyway).

They'd be smart to continue and expand upon that thread by working on leveraging existing technologies as much as possible, since smart phone platforms are, much like normal OS platforms, all about the software that third parties develop for them.
A long and arduous process with a job at the end makes it a long fought battle that you were victorious in.

Getting a rejection after that (and all the psychological baggage that comes with a company "rejecting you") makes it a bitter loss.

Same process (just as broken), but the outcome is hugely influential.

I think you're spot on, tho -- the squeaky wheel is the one that complains to internet forums.
What position was the author interviewing for? Google (and most big companies) seem to pigeonhole candidates into a certain slot, even when it is obvious they'd be better off in a different title.

The real way in which their process seems broken is the wildly different experiences people have seemingly at random, depending on who their arbitrarily assigned recruiter is. When I interviewed I had none of this weird "rate yourself" questions, and a mostly positive experience. But it seems like if I had randomly been assigned a different recruiter, or someone tried to fit me into a different bucket, I would have had a wildly different experience. How can you compare candidates evenly when their experiences seem so randomly different?
http://www.freekorea.us/2011/05/16/un-report-implicates-chin...
While there are 3 levels of approval, it's not exactly as crazy as it sounds at first glance.

After your phone interview with an engineer, you go in for your on site interview and talk to at least 4 people, both managers and engineers. They each write up their impressions of you without discussion between them. They pass their impressions on to a hiring board that reviews those, your resume, and what positions are open.

That board passes the recommendation onto a final board who I suspect is largely a financial gatekeeper, just to approve stock grants and controls company-wide hiring rates and company wide strategy.
It's 3 committees + Larry. This was the case in December 2009 when I interviewed there.

Local hiring committee, regional hiring committee, HQ hiring committee then final sign-off by Larry himself.
Can't find the 'pivot table' option from my account.
They said they are rolling it out, any one else able to use it?
"It'll be fascinating to see how the brilliant ideas out of Microsoft research, coming together with Skype, what they can make of that."

Really, I promise.. I'm not trying to be snarky... but can someone point out to me recent examples of "brilliant ideas out of Microsoft research" making a dent in the world I live in lately? I'm struggling.

[Edit - Quora-style-summary]:

1. Kinect, mostly

[Edit - soft apology / further expression of confusion]:

So, ample down-votes so far (expected), and lots of comments.. but still very limited in terms of interesting input about projects that have come out of MSR that have (as I put it) made a dent in the world. So far lots of people pointing at Kinect (and one person pointing out it was acquired), some noise about Surface, a mention of .NET. Honestly, none of which have made my life any better. That's not a bad thing though. I guess maybe I'm in the minority, and lots of you are living in a much better world because of Surface, or something.

At any rate, sorry if I've offended. I really wasn't attempting to call bullshit on MSR at all, I was genuinely curious (and yes, a little cynically suspicious).
Tell me about it :) My co founder and I were both .Net developers before we quit and started working on IActionable. But its worth it in the end!

Edit - Do you have an email where I can reach you to talk about StockYoyo.com?
The whole point is to verify that transactions are legitimate: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Mining
<i>Another reason for why hosting ASP.NET projects on Linux is awful is because ASP.NET was built for Windows.</i>

For some reason I'm reminded of Chilisoft ASP. I know it's not the same, but there was quite a market for catering to people who wanted to run ASP on non-Windows servers all those years ago. I guess it never went away.
Another reason for startups not to use .NET is that Microsoft-based hosting for web apps tends to be more expensive than the other alternatives.
That's not really true. The providers in .NET are similar to the convention over config philosophy present in RoR. IIS and ASP.NET provide a lot of features in what they consider the "most common" manner. However, almost every one of the built-in providers can be overridden with a custom provider. In fact, I've set Wordpress up on IIS a few times and used a custom ISAPI module to allow mod_rewite like functionality to create friendly URLS.

You don't have to rely on the built-in providers any more than and RoR app has to use only the scaffolded views.

Also, the Mono project has made it possible to run almost any .NET app on Linux. There are a handful of projects at Novell that are written in C#, but are served via Apache on a Linux box.
great idea, but it seems like you're making everything look very "stock". i suppose if you want your startup to look like another "web 2.0" company, then great, but I'd like to see some examples of how you took a personalized brand and turned it into something exceptional.

you're also charging way too much, and i hope your ad copy is just placeholder. i spend a lot of time on the internet laughing at LOL Cats (i admit it), but you can really do better than to name your pricing tier "I can haz design". evne for a proof of concept, maybe aim for a bit of professionalism.

i feel like the 3-option pricing tier image is really overdone (guilty of this myself) and you can easily find a more creative way to display, well...your creativity.

in all, i love the IDEA but the implementation is lackluster. you provide an easy way to get a cookie cutter image, which works for some people, but serious startup can afford to pay for a unique design. cheapskates like me can just spend an afternoon in photoshop mocking up the same things that you're offering for well under $400.

keep at it, and keep honing your design chops, because the core idea is sound.
This rocks. I'm going to check this out when I get to work. Thanks!
If they can get a really slick phone out, or a series of really slick phones, WebOS will make a lot of headway, I think. People are attracted by shiny. If they can manage to get an app store of respectable size and put a lot of marketing behind desirable hardware, they have a good chance, imo.
I'm sure you would do fine based on your experience and boyishly good looks.
...or a spin-off of Ludus (latin for game)
Wordpress has been great for us despite a few hiccups — but those are mostly on our end, not really because of the software.