skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My story is nearly identical (US, NY). I left after 5 years. No kool-aid drinking here.

Accenture is a culture you either fit into or you don't - a very 'up-or-out' mentality.

Some of the problems that commenters have noted are definitely attributed to the internal culture: an over-emphasis on face-time, long hours with no real work to do, and occasionally selling work that was undeliverable (technically unfeasible, impossible delivery schedule, etc).

Some management was good, a lot of it was poor, and generally the focus was on selling and looking good rather than delivering a viable product. At all levels, you're ranked against your co-workers for a very small number of promotion slots, particularly in recent times. This creates a strange dynamic: you're both trying to work with people at your level to create something useful for a client and prove that you're better/smarter/faster than your peers, some of whom are on the same project and most of whom you've never met.

Many of the complaints, however, are an effect of having large numbers of stakeholders on a complicated project. Clients are often unpredictable, and incented by a completely different set of goals. There's generally a lot of money and a lot of management involved, and people have their careers staked on these projects - disagreement is normal. Rework was extremely common due to constant spec changes, and I had to go to bat for my developers numerous times.

It's not a great work environment. Low and mid level people are generally dropped into a project with no background and the client has been told that they're experts on whatever giant, 30-year-old legacy system that the client is running. They fake it and learn on the job. There's often a hostile reception from the client employees - the perception is that you're a highly paid consultant coming to take their job or fire them. Travel is the norm, and you're expected to work long hours since you aren't going home to a family - just a generic hotel room.

Ultimately, what drove me out was the lack of interesting and rewarding work, the internal politics, and the isolation. Wish I had left sooner, but I hadn't figured out what I wanted.
Sure they have. 24 secs into the opening of the Siskel and Ebert TV show, have truck with logo saying "Trust Roger Ebert"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDdNVHoalJ0 (O.K., was made up for the show, but illustrates the general principle).
The article isn't based on any sort of objective measurement, so we can't say objectively that europe has less technological innovation, only subjectively.

I live in Belgium, and in my opinion I've had plenty of opportunity to do interesting innovative work. 6 years ago I wrote an SVG renderer in actionscript, on top of a DXF-to-SVG convertor in PHP. 5 years ago I wrote my own rich web grid component, backed by a metaquery system that allows users to point-and-click together arbitrary filters. 3 years ago I switched to a web app architecture of javascript components over JSON-RPC services.

IMHO, that was interesting and innovative work, but you've never heard of the product it went into (myMCS), because the company I work for focuses on the european market and has decided to do that without seeking external financing. That's typical of european tech companies. They operate on a local market, and they take on less risk so they don't grow as aggressively. That doesn't mean there's less innovation, just that it's less visible.
I'm making a huge leap based on the title alone, I'm going to assume that they( and I guess others) knew about this and are just not confirming what everyone believed.
The developer of Sinuous (Hakim El Hattab) was actually a runner-up in Dev Unplugged with his new app "Coil":

https://microsoft.promo.eprize.com/ie9app/gallery?id=212
Indeed.

Take netflix. Setting that in the 27 countries of the EU requires 27 different contract negotiations with the respective copyright organisations.

Another example would be the social web. Suppose a French and American facebook launch at the same date. Given the same growth rate (with the more or less exponential networking effect), the American can simply buy the French facebook after a small amount of time.

(Western) Europe is pretty good in technical niches, which seem to be mostly business to business. Just not quite as visible.

Yet, as a European (through and through I might add) I believe American innovation comes from some superbly creative and inquisitive minority. This: http://vimeo.com/19829560
we do not have in Europe.

Finally, do not forget that European population is shrinking and aging. That has a tremendous effect on all growth figures. Perhaps on innovation too, but that I doubt.
When did I say it's illegal? I said it needs to stop.
I tend to think of "business sense" as basically being equivalent to "conventional wisdom," and then think of the long list of very successful businesses that have been started by people with no business sense. And the long list of "business" people who dismissed them.

I vote for "causing friction internally and hindering productivity."
I think your visuals could be a lot better than what you have now. To me, you have an odd choice of colors and fonts. I also hate reading thin columns of text, your layout is very taxing for the reader because they must scroll up and down for every column they want to read. That might be a design flaw.

So a bit more work into it may be needed.

*Also, getting called out on the TemplateMonster...hopefully you're the original designer? Not sure what to think otherwise.
Congrats Wayne! Keep up the awesome work with this and RVM. Ruby must win :)
I think that idea could actually make some money.
Everyone who had old archives gave them to Google around 2001, and people didn't bother to archive Usenet after that because they knew Google had it covered.
Yes - this is an important concern, I agree. I hope that ratings/comments/reputation for scaffolds can help here. It's actually no different than installing a gem: you rely on the reputation of the gem author or else recommendations from other users to trust the gem will not do any harm when you try to use it.
Arctic white on the back.
Injustice Season 1 Episode 3 : ITV1 (UK) Online
Injustice Season 1 Episode 3 : ITV1 (UK) Online
Watch Online Injustice Season 1 Episode 3 The Real Goodfella June 8, 2011 ITV1 (UK) Free
I would get the .net and not give it a second thought. In 10 years having a .me or .ly domain will look like having knee high socks.
I didn't say they didn't have any industry. Hell, I work for Siemens. So... yeah. Can't comment on anything substantial but suffice to say I stand by my words.
The actual fundamental problem is that in many locations alternatives to driving (drunk or otherwise) take longer or are more expensive. Cities with strong public transit and better city planning help mitigate drunk driving because it no longer necessary to drive after drinking to go somewhere.
Great ideas are only great in hindsight.
In my own experience, if the trust is there that's exactly what happens. When there are disagreements, both parties can at least start with the assumption that the other person probably knows what they're talking about.
I don't see why you're mentioning Textmate as a skill. It's just an editor.

And I wouldn't mention jQuery as a skill. I would instead mention JavaScript. You could still mention the bits about jQuery in the skill description. I am not too sure about Sass/Compass either.

You went through so much trouble and no portfolio?
The video for his startup is awesome:

http://flexmint.com/

Although, I wonder if Mint might have some issues with the domain/name.
I agree with most that reviews are generally prone to abuse. (Although frankly some of the Amazon non-serious reviews are just priceless, like the Cat in the Hat ones [1])

I am also surprised Facebook hasn't jumped in here, seems a really useful product would be 'facebook reviews' which linked reviews to profiles. Then 'the set of reviews you trust' could fall right out of your friends list.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Hat-Dr-Seuss/product-reviews/03948...
However, Asus' tablet is either out of stock or sells out very quickly, so one could argue that there's not much need for marketing from that standpoint.
This is very cool. If you want to play with topic modeling I'd suggest starting with Mallet (http://mallet.cs.umass.edu) For an idea of what topic modeling can do, check out http://bit.ly/wikitopics which provides a web-based UI for browsing through Wikileaks' Cablegate dump (powered by topic modeling/LDA/Mallet).
They're engaged in a learning process, folks. Nothing quite like the App Store has been attempted before on this scale, and you know they've gotta be rather conservative at each step. You would if you were in their shoes.

It never fails to amaze me how early adopters react to new services and technology. Of course it's understandable that devs want to be treated fairly and (notwithstanding Apple's missteps) make a living. However it would behoove us to bear in mind that these services are new and still being developed. It's natural that a system should go through changes some of which are actually mistakes that will hopefully be reversed. Such evolution, one would hope, ensures that at some point an equilibrium is reached wherein both parties interests are addressed. Keeping in mind that the better the AppStore is (for users) the wider the reach will become and in turn this should mean a larger user base for devs.
Apple brought you the customers, Apple adevertised your application, Apple provided you with the bandwidth to distribute your software and updates, Apple provided you with the SDK/APIs to write the application, Apple provided you with support for that SDK and the OS it runs on, and Apple takes on some legal liability for selling it.

How are they not entitled to something?

You wouldn't have the customers if they hadn't provided the market place.
This is a great, concise story.

To me, the most valuable insight in this article isn't that a non-tech founder needs to get super-technical. Rather, it's that he needs to demonstrate a willingness to do everything he possibly can. That is the secret sauce. It's not about being able to talk shot for shot with a super-techy coder. It's about not being the kind of person who throws his hands up in the air and sets limits to what he can or can't do, or will or won't do. Being a successful entrepreneur means doing anything and everything it takes to get to success. And it's a serious red flag when the co-founder, from the get-go, is already broadcasting that he's setting limits for himself (such as not even attempting a prototype).

So big kudos to you for posting this. This is awesome and inspiring.
Geeks don't get to define themselves. The word has clear meaning UNLESS you ask a geek.

The definition of geek being used is one that comes from wider society, where anyone interested in computer gadgets as a primary life interest is generally classified as a geek.

Go meet some non-geeks and you'll quickly learn the proper definition of geek.
Creating these full-time must be an incredible blast:
http://www.google.com/intl/ln/jobs/uslocations/mountain-view...
http://www.couchsurfing.org/ ?
There are many such things.
Ask HN: Foodspotting's recent growth?
I keep getting asked how their growth is looking. It's one of the side-affects of starting a food startup:) Any insight appreciated.
Rebecca Black?
quote:
"I'm extremely pessimistic about the future. This sort of happy, dreamy nonsense gets on my nerves."

The response you were hoping to get was...?

" its ok .. it upsets me as well " ?
I don't know if I would consider learning how to code a waste of time, as it's highly empowering to be able to just take a weekend and bust out a prototype of some random idea whenever you want, without bothering your developers who are likely hard at work on more important, mission-critical problems.

Not to mention it gives you a better understanding of the foundations of your company and might even get you some bonus points from your technical team (as long as you don't start messing around with their code).
There was an ignite talk called "nobody cares about your crappy web app" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bZKPPw4w2c
It really complements this post
They behave well when you give them they want?

No, they behave well in general.

It's more that becoming hungry seems to suppress their natural self control and sense of social balance. (To a certain degree it's fascinating to watch) in much the same way that an overtired child loses a lot of emotional control and sense of perspective about minor annoyances.
For what it's worth, here is the subset of the ideas I came up with from that list:

http://alexkrupp.typepad.com/sensemaking/2009/02/68-free-bus...

The point of the exercise is that most people think of five or ten ideas, and then go with the first decent idea they come up with. But if you actually force yourself to come up with 100+ ideas then it's more likely that your idea will legitimately be a good idea. Which is important since the first .1% of the work you do on the project has a large influence on whether the next 99.9% will make you either millions or zero.

Fred Wilson also recently said that he would use one of the 999 if someone made it, in case that means anything to those perusing the list.
Agree completely, had just copied the quote and was about to paste it to say the same thing. When we consider all the BS patents that have been rubber-stamped by the PTO, this is a very scary proposal.
http://www.librarything.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/

http://www.investopedia.com/

Google Business Biography: http://www.google.com/search?q=business+biography

Amazon Business: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Investing-Books/b/ref=bhp_bb0...

Amazon Business Biography: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D3&fiel...

Amazon Business & Investing › Biography & History http://www.amazon.com/Biographies-Primers-Business-Investing...

How The US Securities Industry Works: http://www.amazon.com/U-S-Securities-Industry-Works-Second/d...

After The Trade Is Made: http://www.amazon.com/After-Trade-Made-Processing-Transactio...
Oddly enough my friend paints famous people as cats. Her Chairman Miaow is incredible and I am sure people would love the prints.
An MIT site, most likely not created by anyone at MIT though:

username: test email: test@tankdesign.com passsord: testtest rest: 06testtest@tankdesign.comtesttest010022003-10-13test@tankdesign.com00

http://tankdesign.com
...also seems to be a different bunch - their twitter is twitter.com/ProjectLULZ and not
twitter.com/LulzSec
I always feel dirty when I read a topical blog post and find out that its actually just marketing material for the author's product.
Should the calculus for banning vehicles or alcohol be any more complicated than whether they enable more drunk driving?
"Microbrewery with high-octane beers with boutique labels that cost as much as good wines"

32% beer at £35 a bottle:

http://www.brewdog.com/
How are the Ruby, Python, Javascript and Clojure communities in the area?

There's a very strong Ruby community here... Lots of companies using Ruby, and a very active Ruby user's group with multiple hack-night events throughout the month, at different parts of the Triangle.

The Clojure community is pretty strong as well, due to the presence of Relevance, Inc. in Durham. Relevance seems to employ almost everybody that's anybody in the Clojure world (ok, maybe a little bit of hyperbole, but it feels that way sometimes) and there's an active Triangle Clojure Meetup. Not sure what other companies in the area are using Clojure though.

There are active user groups for both Javascript and Python as well, in addition to .Net, PHP, Java, a "JVM Languages" hack-night group (for Scala, JRuby, Jython, Groovy, etc. folks), and a number more than I'm sure I'm forgetting.

We also have a very active Lean Startup group.

What startups in the area are in the consumer tech space?

For a list of area startups, see:

http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/content/startup+direct...

I was given the names of a bunch of people in the startup community there by Fred Hutchison, but I was very disappointed to find out that none of them were on Quora.

Hmm... there are definitely some Triangle area startup folks on Quora. I know a few of them offhand:

http://www.quora.com/Phillip-Rhodes (that's me)

http://www.quora.com/Nathaniel-Talbott (runs Spreedly and organizes the Lean Startup Circle and the Ruby Meetup)

http://www.quora.com/Jimmy-Thrasher (another Ruby guy)

http://www.quora.com/James-Avery (founder of AdZerk, is posting on this thread, I believe)

http://www.quora.com/Chris-Redinger (organizes the Clojure Meetup)

http://www.quora.com/Kacy-Fortner-1 (works for AdZerk)

http://www.quora.com/Wayne-Sutton (co-founder of TriOut)

http://www.quora.com/Daniel-Chalef

http://www.quora.com/Glen-Caplan-1

http://www.quora.com/Eric-Martindale

http://www.quora.com/Anthony-Joaquin-Raphael-Deloso

http://www.quora.com/Ryan-Allis

etc., etc...
Are You A Feel Player?
Photo Marketing 101
I agree with most part of this post. However, I think this article gave us an idea that a business co-founder who neither knows technology nor has the determination to learn technology can't succeed easily in today's context.

I don't think it's about overrating or underrating, it's just that technical co-founders don't want to work with people who haven't even tried to pick up the technologies. No one can say which one is more important, technology or business, because both of them are important.

Therefore, saying that technical co-founders are overrated is a bit irrelevant. We can also say that business co-founders are overrated because technical co-founders can pick up the business skills as well?

The world needs both aspect of skills. No matter they are overrated or underrated, both kinds of co-founders need to know at least basic understanding and sense about each other's.
I don't think repurposing your design is a good way to get ux/design job. You'll need a custom design to fit like a glove, see loren's " I want to work for Airbnb ". The template monster thing is a problem. Second your site feels too much like a resume. I think writing and content should have more of a cover letter + resume feel to it. Highlight all the benefits you'll bring to the company.
Oh, I see.

That would be interesting if it were possible. I'm not sure how you would manage it, though. Scientists already have an implicit incentive not to throw their careers away on unimportant research, and one of the major problems leading to the whole "publish or perish" trend is that it's really just impossibly hard for anyone who isn't directly involved in a narrow slice of research to evaluate that slice effectively, while anyone who IS involved in that narrow slice of research probably can't evaluate it objectively.

But some kind of prediction market or 'kickstarter' type model might do a better job than the grant model in figuring out how to dispense limited funds...? I'm not sure how you'd get it up and running with credibility and authority, but it's interesting to think about.
There are only 20 companies listed.
People have been asking for wireless sync for the last decade. Does nobody remember the immortal “No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.”?

That was written in 2001 about the first iPod. (The actual introduction of wireless sync nearly a decade later has been pretty anticlimactic. Apple took so long that no one is anymore very impressed or surprised. I think that it was about 2006 when everyone started believing that wireless sync would be the next big thing for iPods but then came the iPhone.)
It would be socially responsible for Android/Google to do the same.
I disagree. I think the argument is more about who gets to decide what is "moral" and who gets to promote/enforce that morality.
"Being a successful entrepreneur means doing anything and everything it takes to get to success."

I think the world would be a healthier place if we didn't place so much ... emphasis ... on the idea of "do whatever it takes to succeed". Just look at what Airbnb did to succeed, for example.
As a UI/UX guy I don't think the site is particularly user friendly.
Army historian's D-Day notes: Omaha Beach first-wave carnage, and heroics (1960)
Gcc compile error with 2GB of data
Not to excuse the obvious SQL injection vulnerability, but it looks like that is more of design firm than a web development firm. I'm guessing that they don't have the strongest developers (but then again, I would've thought Sony would've had better developers, so what do I know?).
I really liked Netflix's approach to testing backup scenarios by creating the Chaos Monkey[1] (Jeff Atwood had good insight as well[2].) The idea of creating a mechanism to test fail over scenarios is something that I wouldn't have thought of prior to the transparency that companies like Grasshopper have shown. So hat tip to them for opening up on a large failure; It makes the rest of the dev community smarter/better because of their honesty.

[1]: http://techblog.netflix.com/2010/12/5-lessons-weve-learned-u...
[2]: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/04/working-with-the-ch...
I was also able to hit tab 3 times to give the doodle focus and use the keyboard
The Cult of Personalities
Apologies. I have been known to go hog-wild on the italics. It's an addiction I am trying to break. Some people have their exclamation marks. Others have their emoticons. I have my trigger-happy asterisks.
It's not necessarily all or nothing.

Certainly they've already spent quite a lot - trade shows, etc - and have the geek faithful aware of the tablet already. It'd be much easier for me to evangelize this at a lower price point.

A $299 price point would rock. "Correct, it doesn't do as much as an iPad, but it's also not as expensive."

This notion that "the market says $499 price points are what tablets should be priced at" is stupid. $499 is what iPads will sell at - no one else has yet demonstrated that a $499 is viable for any other tablet than the iPad. I will say it's foolish to keep trying this late in the game. If a company as big as HP isn't willing to do what it takes to get these in to peoples' hands (which may include selling below cost), there's little hope this will be a viable competitor.
That, and often I need recommendations when I'm not in my usual place, like when traveling. The odds that my friends would 1) use the service and 2) review a place I'm interested in are very low.

If I want a recommendation from my coffee aficionado friend... I'll just ask him.
Except for the fact that the PTO isn't an adversarial system. It would be different if prior to you getting a patent you had to go to court against companies who think you shouldn't have it.

And now that you have a patent and sue somebody, this other person may be able to put together some evidence that shows the patent is invalid, but they must climb a very high bar now.

In this case MS had prior art in a past i4i product that appeared to have the functionality that i4i had patented. i4i says it was different, but the source code had been destroyed. Had this challenge been brought up during the original patent examination, they could have pressed i4i to prove that this didn't infringe. But once i4i has the patent now MS must prove that it does, w/o the source code.
The Power of a Transformative Idea: Presenting "Singly"
A lot of people were attracted to Rails for a lot of different reasons, but it's pretty clear that people who stay with it and become proficient basically tend to ignore the scaffolding feature altogether.

The people you speak of maybe didn't stay with it because Rails doesn't really live up to those expectations.
You should make sure you get an internship.

I hated school by the time I had my undergraduate CS degree. I took two years in industry, realized I hated it far more than I could have ever imagined, now I am very happy in a PhD program. You need to work to get the perspective (and also to find the useful problems to solve).
I'm an entrepreneur: College was invaluable