skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I have mixed feelings about side projects. Sure it sounds good and looks good but let me tell you my own example.

I am a single core processor.

I am pretty much capable of doing pretty much just one thing at a time. I've tried to multi-task to the point of switching off from what I'm doing at work to something else but it just doesn't work. One or both of them suffer.

I tend to be engrossed in what I'm doing at work. If I'm bored with what I'm doing I'm in the wrong job and that just doesn't last long before I throw in the towel.

Sometimes I'll work on that problem more. Sometimes I'll just do research/reading on that or related topics.

But I just don't really have the knack of switching off from solving that problem and picking up something else with equal vigour.

I have the same issue when it comes to learning new programming languages. I tend to have limited success when doing it on my own. Where I succeed is when I HAVE TO learn a new language, typically because that's now my job.

It reminds me of the scene from Swordfish where Travolta and Jackman are being chased in the car by a hit team, Travolta hands over the wheel to man the machine gun. Jackman says "I don't know how to drive this." "Learn!" was the response.

I get the feeling that the US (I'm Australian) has cultural differences that come into play here. For example, the education system in the US seems to have a very strong focus on extracurricular activities, something that doesn't seem to exist (to anywhere near that degree) in Australia. This includes sports, social clubs, community service and so on.

So much so that it can be an important part of getting into the right college and then the right graduate school (Australian universities, at least when I got my degree, typically just looked at your Tertiary Entrance Score and that's about it; in fact the whole system was AUTOMATED on that). The TES being a scaled combination of exam and coursework.

I wonder if there is a culture of multitasking because of this?

Whatever the case... I am a single core processor.
I arranged my commute to be a 40 minute bike ride each way when I lived in Mexico City.

Each day started with a pretty slice of happy city life, a hot tamale, and orange juice or atole. Each evening I stopped mid ride at a different farmers' market (each neighborhood has one on a different day) and picked up dinner ingredients or munched on tacos.

Every day I looked forward to the ride both ways.

The advice from the op is fine and you can design your own fantasy commute how you like, but Rule Number One is don't commute alone in a car.

Don't commute alone in a car.

Because that would stink.
There is more to California than Silicon Valley. Lots of places in the Bay Area you can have exactly this experience, except your mobile data connection keeps working even underground. (Under the bay, even!) Don't get me wrong, I love New York, and its subway, but the particular experience you're describing is available here too. (But with a larger tech industry and better weather. ;)
Ask HN: Does anyone here drive anything exciting?
I mean come on we are just computer geeks right? We have those Honda Accords, completely stock, right? Wrong. Some people here make good money. Let's see what kind of cars you can get being a hacker.
I purchased the Android app, but I find I just don't use it that much. I'm not even sure that it's that the 'mental model' isn't fleshed out yet, it's just that Google got there first. Search, scan, refine. It's how I think now. Maybe there is a space for Alpha at the end of that sequence.
Yeah, nice. "Major version? Minor version? Revision? What're those? I like round numbers."

Why not just go to a basic increment (Linux 3, 4, 5, 6, ...), or a date-based (Linux 2011! Now with new ribbon interface!) numbering instead?

...eh. I dunno why this bothers me so much.
I have actually heard people cursing at others with "you are not even a proper nerd!".

Strange times and strange places.
Ken Rockwell is the king troll of photography.

The most optimistic estimates of 35mm film detail come to around 16 megapixel -- but that's if you're willing to use 50 ISO film. Jump to 100 ISO film and that drops down to an embarrassing 7 megapixel equivalent.

http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/film.vs.digital.summary1...

Downsides of film Ken ignores:

* Film costs real money per shot.
* You can't confirm if your shot worked.
* You have to change rolls every 36 exposures.
* You have to change rolls to change light sensitivity.
* You have to change rolls to change white balance.
* Film is far less sensitive to light; modern digital sensors put it to shame.
* Creative freedom and experimentation is curtailed (for all the above reasons).
* You're limited by the quality of your scanner (good ones are expensive).
* You can't make perfect backups.

In the end though, you can shoot with whatever you want. There's a number of respected photographers who take amazing pictures with cheap pocket compacts.
Who do you see as your "social inferiors" and why?

Y'see, this is why I'm worried that I'm over-sharing and making myself sound like a dick. But it's something we all do, subconsciously, because it's something our brain is programmed to do. It's not that one consciously sits there and thinks "Man, that two hundred pound woman pouring my coffee sure is my social inferior", it's just something of which one is unavoidably aware.

Or am I just a dick?
If firmware is limiting your car's speed, the firmware will get reverse engineered and patched to allow any speed.

Jailbroken cars: mark my words, that will happen the day after automated drivers are released.
Well, having a union at old Ma Bell or at a monopoly utility was/can be pretty lucrative. And there's never a rate cut. Governments are always fumbling their budgets.

The government unions are so bad because we can't simply decide "well, I'll just write letters." And its easier to build in time bomb benefits. All you have to do is steer union dues and volunteer labor to those that play along.
Ask HN: Will IP agreement with holdover period prevent work at startup?
I am considering a job offer from a very large Internet company in Silicon Valley. Here are some excerpts from their Intellectual Property agreement.

"Invention means any invention or work of authorship, including without limitation any and all ideas, concepts, information, improvements, discoveries, developments, designs, formulae, materials, processes, procedures, techniques, mask works, know-how, artwork, data programs, software, source and object codes, and any other works of authorship or other copyrightable or patentable works.
...

During the period of my employment and for six months thereafter, I will promptly disclose to the Company fully and in writing all Inventions authored, conceived or reduced to practice by me, either alone or with others, including any that might be covered under Section 2870. In addition, during the period of my employment and for one year thereafter, I will promptly disclose to the Company fully and in writing all patent applications filed by me, on my behalf, or in which I am named as an inventor or co-inventor."

Will signing such an agreement make it difficult for me to work for a start-up or any other company for six months after leaving this company? It appears that for 6 months after I leave I would have to report to this company every line of code I write at my new company. Is this sort of request common in the Valley?
And yet, somehow, we continue to see psychopaths promoted up the corporate ladder while decent folks - who pass the 'waiter test' with flying colors and are otherwise qualified for the positions - are passed over.
Could you explain what you mean? My understanding was that Attitude indicators solved this problem using a gyroscope a long time ago. Maybe this falls into what you meant by an "outside reference", but it seems to me autopilots would clearly take these measurements into account.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator
It seems we're at an impass.
Oddly enough, there seems to be a really tiny intersection between computer enthusiasts and serious gearheads. Of the computer-automotive enthusiasts I know, they tend to gravitate towards -- heh -- upgrading the computers in their cars.

The "hottest" car I've driven was an Audi TT convertible. I'm currently driving a '72 Jeep J4000, but the rings are completely shot on its original engine so actually I've been driving my girlfriend's car. Got most of a 1917 Model T speedster in the garage, and an '87 AMC Eagle at my parents' place awaiting my attention, hopefully to turn it into my masterpiece car.
What would make you think the people who are waiting on you have any less an idea of social graces? They probably participate in many more social interactions per day than you do.

Oh, I'm not trying to teach them social graces. I'm trying to teach them to be rich, brilliant and awesome like me.

(Again, I must make an obligatory apology for the fact that this thread is making me sound like a dick, by pulling out stuff that I usually only think subconsciously and putting it into words.)
That sounds like too much overhead. This is why laptops were invented. If your laptop is too heavy then get a MacBook Air instead.
Previous plans for the summer:

1. Work hard at job as Java dev (yes, it's not ideal, no, as a high school senior I'm not complaining).

2. Read PAIP; do all exercises.

Current plans:

1. Drop everything and figure out how the heck non-static webpages work.

2. Create "real" pg chatbot.

3. Resume previous plans.

Edit: Ah, brilliant, I just remembered PAIP actually talks about chatbots pretty extensively.
I don't know the difference between reality and illusion, but I do know that status is the key to most human interactions (and now come to think of it, mammals in general. Many birds too. Not too sure about other vertebrates.).
I found a place that matches this perfectly. http://www.AffinityLab.com - a startup incubator/lab in DC. I get a lot of the social interactions that I need to keep myself sane AND I get more work done there. I only joined two months ago, but I feel a lot better about my life and startup is moving forward faster.

People are respectful with you need to get shit done but are also very social when you want. They also host a lot of events (at least one per week doing something - happy hour, game night, lunches, bowling, movies) which allow you to really meet the people working there if you want the social stuff. It's a great model to keep yourself not feeling isolated and productive.
Audiobooks and podcasts make you "productive"
1990 Honda Civic Wagon, Front Wheel Drive, 36MPG, coming up on 180K miles, original owner.

Yeeee - haaa!
This actual test from 2006 disagrees with you:

http://www.ales.litomisky.com/data/projects/Analog%20versus%...
Doesn't the article say that this (forking wikipedia) has been tried several times and never worked?
#1 has been done at least once, but it's not very good. Lookie here: http://asia.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/riotpolice/review.html
I know they invented git, but that website sure is fugly. Time to switch to github, perhaps :-).
The first thing I did upon opening this article was to search for "bitcoin" to find out whether it was going to be a shaggy dog story that ends by exhorting me to buy bitcoin. Turns out it wasn't, so I skimmed it. Quite interesting.
I've read enough of your comments to know you aren't a dick, it just seemed like an odd motivation. I know there as a part of my brain that's getting a kick out of being polite to serving staff because it's thinking how awesomely benevolent I am. It's just that there is also a cynical part of brain laughing at me for doing it, thinking the serving staff must have seen every variation of person a million times and not really give a shit.
It's really tough when you're in middle and high school, and school is your world to look past the mockery and realise that it gets significantly better after high school. Everyone eventually finds their place.
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A ruby-toolbox.com for JavaScript would be useful, but it'll need a bit more organization than this.
Ironically, I think you might want to consider hiring a designer.

The A-number-one thing I notice about it is that it's one of those nice designs that looks like every other startup's templated nice design. My eyes flit around the first page looking for a place to land; the logo and the slogan next to it go unnoticed for a bit. The icons next to each item do not add anything at all to what you're trying to say. About the second thing I notice is the Gmail-like interface; since I'm curious about it, I click through the slides, but none of them are really blowing me away.

To me, there's no ... "pop". Nothing about it blows my hair back.

The bottom text boxes get clipped on my 17" widescreen display. Not sure if that was intentional or not.

Also, what's your target audience here? If it's other startups, then an iteration on this design might work well. If it's enterprise ... then I don't think you're going to get their attention with anything like this design.

It's an interesting idea though! ...I think?
Worldwide Reveal Trailer - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Not really. They do have some cool fabrication tech though. They also run a different ISA and different pipeline which can make a world of difference.

Really though, I wouldn't expect them to hit 10GHz anytime in the foreseeable future.
This suggests that any effort to introduce driverless cars should be preceded by a multi-year ad campaign that (ahem) drives home the >40k dead/yr. figure.

Presumably, it would be paid for by insurance companies. It could be rolled out as a general public awareness effort (i.e. packaged with generic reminders about wearing seatbelts, maintaining proper tire-pressure, etc.), combined with localized elements that included maps highlighting particularly deadly times and places where drivers should be especially vigilant.

Once the figure is widely accepted, the companies who would be offering the technology would have an established base against which they could run ads that credit themselves with lives saved. Assuming that these claims are backed up by public data assembled by trustworthy parties, even the most vociferous "if it bleeds it leads" news agencies would have a hard time terrorizing people BACK to the days of a 9/11 every month.

Also, while I hate to be cynical, there's an upside to corporate mass media, in that a lot of ad dollars spent by pro robo-car interests WILL make news agencies think twice about scaring the daylights out of people just for a ratings bump. After all, the whole point of ratings is to boost the price of ad sales.

I realize that this may seem like a lot of effort, but no industry takes a longer view than the insurance industry. If there's one group that has the time, money, and motivation to make the push, it's the guys who are paying costs associated with all the current grief and mayhem. Moreover, our not-so-clean political system does mean that legislators can be easily persuaded once insurance companies are comfortable that the technology is truly secure.

My guess is that any push would need Federal backing, and would be focused - initially - on the Interstate highway system, where much less reactive driving takes place.
But Ward's wiki is topic-focused, which is itself a good layer of defense. It's full of important (to us) but abstruse subjects like Liskov-substitutability, which simply aren't going to hold the interest of the people who want to maintain exhaustive lists of Pokémon characters.
Video Game Idea: I would love a really good co-op shooter scenario. If anyone ever played Rainbow Six, Crysis or any good single player FPS with a story line/scenarios that had AI help or felt like could use more players.

I would love to talk with friends or even strangers to do certain missions/scenarios.

OK guys, we need to rescue these hostages. There are between 20-30 terrorists holding them in the building. You can enter via doors, roof, sewers, vents, whatever. You come up with a strategy and chat in real time as you all execute. You can be together bursting into a giant gun fight or coordinate really well separately.
For me it was learning Ruby that changed programming from something I enjoyed doing as a job, to something I also loved doing as a hobby and a passion. That was several years ago and since then I've worked on many side projects, many of which are not Ruby-related.
I agree! I put this together in a few hours while spending Memorial Day weekend at my parents' house.

I'm planning on adding sorting/filtering based on browser compatibility, file size, and area of expertise. I'd be interested in hearing any other criteria people want.

The web page is actually a SproutCore 2.0 app, so I'm hoping it can be used to show the flexibility of the framework when it comes to building data-driven apps.
"And one of the most interesting things about power is that if you let someone play the expert and you the pupil, you will become the powerful one..."

Interesting.

Could you be so kind as to elaborate on this?
Object-oriented Programming -- Eloquent JavaScript
Laptops also cost a great deal of money up front. I don't have the funds around to get one, otherwise this wouldn't be an issue. ;)
While I'm loathe to dig up the memories, they did at one point release on someone else's console: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-i_games_from_The_Legend_of_Z...
I live in Sydney. My commute is pretty awesome: I live in Chippendale which is behind Central Station. From the station you can get busses or trains to pretty much anywhere in the city.

I can leave work and be home in 10 minutes via bus or train or 30 minutes if I choose to walk (Although winter in Sydney can be a little reminiscent of Seattle so its not really walking season). Unfortunately, traffic is horrible because of poor planning. The city sort of just "happened" and you can trace some main thoroughfares in the inner city back to the first roads when the colony was just a camp. Your not a real Sydneysider until you've bitched about CityRail and blamed the State Government. In my opinion, if you choose to live in Sydney and you work in the CBD, ditch the car and rent in the inner suburbs. Sydney is gigantic and paying more rent is more preferable than commuting via bus, train or car for an hour just so you can live in a place that has cheaper rent.

The Atlassian office in Sydney is great. Its a brick heritage listed building with very high ceilings and even though its open plan its still mostly quiet. When you leave the office you don't take your work home with you unless you choose todo so (So there is no company subsidized Internet connections because your supposed to have a life outside of work). Desks are huge and there is more than enough space next to you to pair or have someone work on a laptop beside you if the need arises (Did I mention that the people here are enthusiastic and intelligent and the problems engaging? No, really!). Its company culture to eat together in the staff area or go out to lunch as a group.

Life in Sydney is really good - lots of great places to eat in China Town (Australians in the capitol cities probably eat more Asian food than any other Western country I am aware of) or Thai places in Newtown or Glebe (inner west suburbs which are 20 mins bus or train away from the CBD).

Summer is the best time to be in Sydney. When daylight savings kicks in you can wrap up at the office at 5 and still have three hours daylight at the beach. I love my job but its great not to be your job all the time :)
This may seem random, but I'm also in highschool - a junior, actually. Where (if you did) did you apply to college? I'm trying to figure out where I should look for / what I should be looking for, and it's confusing. I'm interested in programming/cs/engineering
added the name :)
Final de la reina del sur - espana tv
Well it's not really about serving staff, it's more a general heuristic which I think improves all aspects of my life. Live your life as if there's a bunch of impressionable young kids watching and learning from your every move.

Are you slouching? Stop that! You'll set a bad example for the rest of the world!

Of course this kind of thing probably comes naturally to those who are parents and actually do have impressionable kids watching 'em.

I've read enough of your comments to know you aren't a dick

Well that's gratifying, because I'm pretty sure I'm much more of a dick on the internet than I am in real life.
Which state do you live in, how rich are you, and what are your SAT scores/grades?
Does Chrome2Phone work with iOS? (Honest question, first glance seems like Android 2.2 push notification + fire off activity for Chrome2Phone.)
Question is "Can you do it better?".
Or that a sunburn is unlikely in Miami, Florida (which is where I am).
A Different Kind of Technical Interview
I understand the issues with being "single core processor" developer. The way to deal with it is to set aside one or two-week time period for the side projects. Use those times exclusively for the projects, doing them one at a time. So far it has work well for me.
"Complaining that wikipedia isn't an indiscriminate collection of information"

Nobody's making that complaint, so that's a classic straw man. The complaint is the legitimate information is being kept off the project by people who don't think it's important enough for wikipedia. I recently argued against the proposed deletion of an article on a charter school at its AfD. Despite the school being mentioned in many articles, people were arguing that elementary schools simply aren't worthy of mention on Wikipedia. It is this attitude that we oppose, not that "that wikipedia isn't an indiscriminate collection of information".
http://gigs.37signals.com

http://www.krop.com/ (more for creative, but dev stuff too)

http://authenticjobs.com

http://startuply.com
For one thing, it implies the ability to work on primary research right there in the site. It would need sufficient justification to be accepted as "true" and it would need a "use" to somebody even if only in the same field, but that covers basically all well conducted academic research.
my feeling is that for side projects, i must finish one sub-task in 3 hours, then things will move on; otherwise it will be a long todo list
Debt Relief Solutions
Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel.
Julius Caesar's Last Breath
Nothing fancy. A 2010 Toyota Prius. Great on gas.