skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"Startup" refers to a certain type of business. You wouldn't call GE a "startup". However, "business" is a broad term (which refers to actions as often as entities), so you often hear things like "corporation" or "company" more frequently when referring to established businesses.
3 Ways To Quickly Shorten URLs Straight From Your Browser
Maybe it is hyperbolic; it's probably obvious that the OP has me pretty agitated.

I won't go into detail unless it's requested, but choosing the wrong corporate form cost my business a multiple of the $9K sum the OP mentions in taxes and legal fees arising from the lack of protection afforded by the right form (which was for us an S corp). If we'd done it right in the first place by shelling out the money to a good attorney, we've have saved some scratch and more importantly, time.

Bottom line, this advice is just really dangerous. The pennies saved by not consulting an attorney or by self-researching can end up being very costly, and the worst part is that you don't know what that cost is until you find yourself with a big tax bill or a liability you didn't forsee when you were trying to play lawyer.

I may be committing the sin of taking my own experience and making a rule out of it. Having been through some nastiness that could have been avoided by paying for good legal counsel makes me twitchy about this issue.
Julian Assange scoops top journalism prize
You should post a link to portfolio/resume/github account to better market yourself on this thread
For what it's worth, we're helping dozens of startups hire, and I think every single one uses source control, some have failover servers, and I'd the majority have dev/staging environments (I haven't looked at their code bases, so I don't know how well documented the code is).

That said, you're right: Startups do focus more on getting things done and making sure people actually want what they're building, sometimes to the detriment of best practices.

On the other hand, startups tend to use use better (and certainly newer) tools. For instance, git vs. svn or cvs.
Burn vs. build: Putting your VC money to work
Software patents are mostly US-only problem. As Efim's probably a Russian, this is not an issue.

And Skype can't really easily alter the protocol because of all sort of skype-compatible devices (IP phones and so on).
Ngmoco prepares for Mobage mobile social game network launch
Facebook Steps Up Attack On Man Who Claims Ownership
So just pile up the infringing sites and put a "SEND" button next to them? Log in once a week, hit the "SEND ALL under penalty of perjury" button?
Android dev creates rogue Starbucks payment app
> Oh really? Public employees are far more likely to have pensions than the rest of us. Public employees earn significantly more too and have greater job security.

Good benefits yes, good salary, not so much: http://www.onlinedegrees.org/calculator/degrees/education

for instance. I really have no idea how people complain that teachers are overpaid. It beats picking lettuce, but consider the opportunity cost of a bachelors and a teaching certificate. They could be making a lot more money if they were doing anything else.
Commission calls drug war a failure, recommends legal regulation of marijuana
What You Need To Know About Touchpads Before Buying Your Next Laptop
You just don't get it, do you. $3400 is A LOT of money for some poor inland kid from rural area in China. His family may never see such amount of money before in their life. People are really bad at dealing with astronomical numbers. Sadly to some boy in China, ￥22,000 is an astronomical number.

I'm Chinese, some of us are getting richer by the day，some of us are obscenely wealthy, most of us are still poor, and then there are young kids in China willing to jump off a roof so that their family will get some $100.000 as compensate.
I bet a similar trick was done to start sites like Digg or Quora. Any social-based site needs initial momentum and content to attract real users, so someone needs to provide it first...

Can you present any other examples, especially re: marketing your own social-like startup in this way? That might be interesting.
Protection from what? Liability to customers, business partners, and people affected by your business? Or liability to company members with equity claims?

I'd like to know more about what kind of legal threat an S corp is specifically better at protecting you against. Were you a C corp before, and had a company officer problem?

You mentioned taxes. Taxes are a huge difference between company structures. But you don't need a lawyer to sort that out; you need an accountant. And you probably don't need the accountant until you have significant or prolonged revenue. Either way, the tax problem with company structures is one that every freelancer has to deal with, and most of them don't spend $9k on legal fees to work it out.

[Edit]: Part of this conversation has gone offline into email, and without putting it on HN, I'll reiterate: get client/customer/partner contracts reviewed. Nobody should argue that you should skimp on contract review.
It would be interesting if Google came out with an Adsense for Content policy which said "We won't pay share advertising revenue on sites which host duplicated or scraped content."

That would put a huge dent in this sort of thing.
Has installing Rails become too complex?

Or have we become more sophisticated in the nuances of maintaining a development environment?
Re: Deflation

>A bad thing if you're trying to replace a country's currency system with it, and excellent thing if you see them as a store of value. This is the same as people complaining that any other asset deflates over time.

Currencies aren't investments. They have little to no inherent worth. They're the medium used to make investments, and the medium that investments pay out to the investors. If you're approaching Bitcoins as an investment asset, you're missing the entire point of creating a new currency.

Assets, on the other hand, have inherent worth. Gold is used for jewelery and in electronics. Fine art's worth is it's existence itself. BTC does not have any worth past the confidence in the other currencies used to exchange for them.

The fundamental problem with deflationary currencies is that there is no risk in keeping it around, which removes a lot of the incentives for investing. People are encouraged to not use BTC because they will appreciate more doing nothing than actively going out and investing it. Instead, they'll hoard it until the point where it becomes too expensive for people to buy. At that point, there will be a run on the exchanges, which will kill the entire worth of the economy around it.
Yep, on average I'd say it's a bad deal.

But if I were dirt poor in China, and I really did think that $3400 would be enough to give me the kick start to lift myself permanently out of poverty, I'd do it.

I suppose the real problem is that there's some minimum rational price for which it's sensible to sell a kidney... and a bunch of irrational people who are willing to sell their kidneys for less than that. So none of the rational people will ever get a look in, and a legalised kidney trade would only lead to misery rather than good deals.
So the only people worth listening to on the subject of bitcoin are people who own bitcoin and hence have an incentive to further talk it up?

Not at all. I personally agree with the author that the whole idea is flawed. With any new system, there needs to exist some sort of vetting process, though. What I'm referring to here is whether or not the author of the post vetted the system. In other words, went through the process of using bitcoins to match their conclusions. A good analogy might be the sample table at the grocery store. If you're skeptical about how something might taste, you try it and give your opinion. Here, it's almost like looking at the food, deciding not to eat it all and then telling people it's complete shit without having ever tasted it. In regard to using the system first, I'm not suggesting that the user put in a large sum of money, but enough to see how it works and what the outcome of that experiment was. I'm not dismissing the points here, but I've always respected the opinion of those who try what their reviewing/opining about first. I don't think that's unreasonable at all.
And, while we're legislating copyright reform, let's throw in a requirement to store the hashes (or other identifying features) of any content that has a DMCA filed against it and check all new content against that list of hashes to prevent infringing content from being uploaded again.

Of course, then there's the problem of people using fake DMCAs to get content removed (which does happen). Allowing profit for that would be a horrible idea, especially on a scale low enough that it would be cheaper to pay than to verify that the person who filed the DMCA does indeed own the copyright.
Why imagination is more important than knowledge
Domain-specific languages bridge the semantic gap in programming
Easy. Lock the guy in prison till be pays you what you think you are owed.
It would, and I think their lack of action in this area makes it clear that google must not want to combat duplicate/scraped content. It's in their best interest (short-term, I don't know if it will be long term) to let people do whatever unsavory stuff they want to, as long as it helps sell ads.
"unravel what logic might have been going through your head when you put things in various places." -> This is the official documentation; those categories are not the author's choice but the ones chosen by the jquery team.

That would make no sense to have a list of 1000 random items not being categorized; just use the search.

When you say "To use the search, I need to know what I'm looking for". Well, usually, when you search the documentation, it's because you know what you're searching for.. right?

But then, I get that you might not know the "best keywords" to search what you're looking for. And, for that, it's so better to have smart category rather than a list of 1000 items.

I mean, you're searching a way to post things using Ajax. You can search for ajax, you can search for post.. but you can quickly look at the categories and see Ajax; and then, instead of browsing through 1000 items, you only have to read a dozen.
As gaius said, it's not about being unwilling to interact as a member of the team. It's about respecting people's "flow" and recognizing the cost of interruptions.

If I'm in the middle of something tricky, it's most efficient if it has my full attention. Once I get everything into an acceptable state, I'll typically check my IMs and emails to answer any questions that people might have for me.

For a couple people working this way, the workflow upon running up against a problem might be:

1. Send IM or email to a team member who almost certainly has the answer.

2. Wait a half minute or so for a reply.

3. (Optional) Seek the answer yourself for a few minutes.

4. If the problem is urgent, make a phone call to the team member.

5. Otherwise, work on something else until you get the reply.
So far they acquired a Germany based competitor to start their european HQ. Guess the next closest step will be expanding in EU market.
They deleted all content attributed to him - which is as simple as just searching for "The Oatmeal" - and then threw in a word filter to replace "The Oatmeal" with "The Fag". Not really the same thing as deleting or banning all his content, especially as he gave them a list of content which was still present (without attribution) which they did nothing about.
What's wrong with the protocol documentation on the wiki?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification
How long until Internet Explorer falls below 50 percent?
I unfortunately do not have much to add by way of recommendations for software to use. However, one extreme painpoint for me as a consumer of eBooks is PDF. PDF documents are bad enough when trying to read them on a full computer monitor; on a Kindle or a Nook they are nearly unreadable, and on smartphones they are a complete non-starter (for me, at least). I would strongly encourage you to focus on formats that can be dynamically be resized based on the viewing area (e.g. ePub or Mobipocket) rather than PDF.
Getting MD5 or SHA1 hashes using Golang
You mean like -webkit-transition?
In a knowledge-based economy, education is critical to keep that economy moving, which is good for every tax payer. Make parents pay the full cost of educating their children, you'll see half the kids out of school, poverty will increase, and crime will skyrocket.

Unemployment would go way up, but companies wouldn't be able to find skilled employees. This is already a problem now, imagine how bad it would be in a society with 1/4 of the current high school graduates not graduating.

Then, coming full circle, we would find ourselves paying $30-40k/year to incarcerate more people we could have paid $10k/year to educate.

Education isn't an investment in an individual, it's an investment in a society.
Was this a real problem? Isn't there something more meaningful these legislators should be working on like jobs and our economy? What a charade.
What It Was Like In TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Alley
What? This isn't true at all. Anyone can buy IDA.

This copy of IDA was probably pirated for the same reason Photoshop is usually pirated: because it's expensive. But you don't know it was pirated.

Also: by editing your comments to account for the responses, you make the thread incoherent. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't do that, or, at least, if you must do it, to do so in corrections at the end of your comment. It's fine to be wrong. I'm wrong all the time.
A pig in a poke: Modern Con Men
Amazon cloud servers as well
That's what I was thinking. He could even have FJ host it for him. win-win.
Ask HN: Open Source Ugly Code?
hi, i have a simple question to the hacker (news) community.

some time ago i coded a simple google chrome web store (javascript) app "Farbzauber"

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ednbfblokipkbkecmfinlfhcikhidnoc

to be honest, the code is kinda ugly, if i now look at i get a strange feeling in my tummy. i don't know if there is a word for it, maybe "codeshame" would be a good name.

anyway, i have no plans to do much more with it, so i can either let it rot in peace or open source it?

my questions are:

- even though i know that the code is ugly (and undocumented), should i open source it - as it is?

- does the world need another undocumented, uglycode open source "project"?

- or wait until i find the time to clean it up and document it? (which will probably never happen)

- or is there a service to outsource proper open-source-ing?
If children were fully the state's responsibility the way prisoners are, I'm sure they would have those things and more.
From the article

"Elop's first stop is the research and development facility in Tampere, the town that houses most of the MeeGo engineers—many of whom left early as a sign of protest on the day the Microsoft deal was announced. After apologizing for the effect layoffs will have on many—Nokia announced on Apr. 28 that it would lay off 4,000 people by the end of 2012 and transfer 3,000 to Accenture (ACN), which will handle Symbian updates for existing models—Elop implores the attendees to wait before meeting with recruiters from Apple or Google."

so he has already decided to lay off thousands of people but wants them to wait till he actually swings the axe and they end up jobless before meeting recruiters? Iow "I plan to fire most of you but please don't try to get another job till I get around to it"

Maybe I am just reading this wrong (corrections welcome) but this makes no sense to me.
Bitcoin is for nerds
"bar none" is a little excessive -- Haskell's syntax is probably even cleaner. Compare

And ditto for Io (http://www.iolanguage.com):

1. 1 to(10) map(*2)

2. 1 to(1000) asList sum

3. tweet findSeqs( wordlist )

4. fileText := File with("data.txt") open readLines join
fileLines := File with("data.txt") open readLines

5. 4 repeat (i, writeln("Happy Birthday " .. if(i == 2, "dear NAME", "to you")))

6. list(49, 58, 76, 82, 88, 90) partition(x, x > 60)

7. results := SGML URL with("http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?&q=scala")
fetch asXML

8. list(14, 35, -7, 46, 98) min
list(14, 35, -7, 46, 98) max

Some notes:

i) For 1 & 2 remember to have `Range` loaded first.
ii). OK I cheated on 6 because there is no partition currently in the Io core lib. Here is a "simple" way I did it for the example:

List partition := method (

returnThis := Object clone do (
passed := list()
failed := list()
)

argSlot := call message argAt(0)
cond := call message argAt(1)

self foreach (n,
newSlot(argSlot asString, n)
if (doMessage(cond),
returnThis passed append(n),
returnThis failed append(n))
)

returnThis
)
apropos second paragraph , at this point i believe that there are more than one way to evolve some organism or many ways to do the same desired mutation. like for example grow wings on giraffe, for example if i just control environmental parameters it could maybe be possible, but nature does it in many ways. (like viruses that inject DNA and what not.)

let us just take mutation by chromosomes (as in Down syndrom and others..), like chromosome deletion, insertion, and other known operations, i believe that by only this mechanism alone its enough power to change any part of DNA desired. (if artificially induced by controlling environmental parameters)but i may be wrong.

what mechanism is most common and most likely to occur in evolution i would like to know.
EFF no longer accepts donations in Bitcoins
Of Hacker News and TechCrunch: Startup stories from Lucas Carlson of PHP Fog
Instead of buying the computer with paper money, consider buying the computer with gold bullions during the commodity boom. Why buy that Macbook Pro with x bullions today if you can buy it with x-y bullions tomorrow?

People have different time preferences. Some value Macbook today high enough to pay y more bullions than they would if they waited till tomorrow. There're many currencies that depreciate faster than the dollar, but it does not stop people stuck with those currencies from buying Macbooks -- even though they could theoretically change their money to dollars (or invest in gold) and wait.

Adam isn't arguing that "deflation is bad," but rather that the supply of Bitcoins as currency will dry up as their value appreciates.

There actually is a possible problem with Bitcoins "drying up" connected with its deflationary nature, but it is not the one mentioned by Adam. AFAIK there's a limitation on the minimal amount of Bitcoin transaction. That means that as Bitcoins appreciate in value at some point it may be impossible to set and pay small enough prices -- and such transactions will require alternative payment methods.

This is a pretty much technical problem with the current Bitcoin implementation. It might be perfectly possible to design a deflationary crypto money system without this flaw.
Feature rich finance package for Golang
I realize that this unfashionable to say, but the ability to finish your degree is a sign of discipline. I come from a creative background so this is critical when I'm looking to work with someone, so perhaps it doesn't apply to CS or business majors where people pick the major as a default rather than out of passion. I think we've prized dropping out of school thanks to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, but I don't think we should view dropping out as a requirement.
Ruby One Liners to Impress Your Friends
Review my social directory for places and professionals(physicist,lawayers,..)
I need someone to take look at my side project website:http://www.finkayn.com

thank you in advance
What's wrong with women studies? One of the fascinating benefits of college is that you will bump into people with completely different world view from yours. Some of them will tell you at the university cafe why women studies is more likely to impact the world than your tech startup.

If you focus only on programming between the age of 18 and 30, you may believe than HN represents the universe.
Can an entrepenurial approach to health care data revolutionize the industry?
Silicon Valley: The Next Decade (Part 1)
Programmers aren't professionals in the sense that he's using. There is no accreditation procedure, there is no regulating body, there is no licensing, there is no code of ethics that must be followed by all programmers, and there is no liability attached to malpractice.
Installing the current, stable version of Rails hasn't ever been too complex, but trying to stay on the bleeding edge can be a bit tricky.

Using rvm certainly helps, since it can keep your gem environments separate, that too involves a bit of initial setup.

Edit: Okay, now I see you're also the author of the helpful doc. And I do agree with your comment as well. I think adding extra steps (like using RVM) do add extra time and complexity to getting a proper dev setup running, but I think it's worth it in the long run.
Successful People Who Started As Interns
It's true. And the current push to record a record while in a busy touring cycle is crazy but apparently working. It's sometimes easy to forget that touring musicians are basically working 15+ hour days of long drives, load-ins, etc -- all away from home and family. I really admire his work ethic, and it's great to see someone enjoy their work so much.
I remember noticing on Google's Q4 2010 earnings report that the revenue they got from Adsense for Content happened to be almost exactly the same amount of 'free cash' flow they had that quarter. So clearly its not something they would be interested in jeopardizing.
"How can having your assets increase in value be harmful?"

Ponder the implications of bread jumping to an effective price of $25 a loaf. That can and has happened in deflationary collapses, as the reserve fraction jumps toward 100% (due to credit panic).
Wasn't Bittorrent just for nerds 10 years ago? You'll find that many things that were for nerds 5-10 years ago, are now being used by mainstream. The Internet itself was once "for nerds".
> If he just wants attribution why doesn't he become a member of funnyjunk and post his own stuff himself WITH attribution?

Because he doesn't want to?

And why should the onus be on him to do this so as to prevent people from taking his work and passing it along with no attribution?
I think the problem is it would be really hard for the Google web spiders to tell which is the real content and which the copy without human interaction.
The Danger of Living on Bread and Circuses
All Good Games Are Tests, But Not Vice Versa
And not all big companies use source control; let alone failover servers and dev/test/prod.
Bitcoin is being criticized for having built in deflation (not incidental deflation), thus comparing it to a category of goods (computers) that is also exposed to almost algorithmic deflation is relevant.

So, given the built in deflation of Bitcoins, if you have some Bitcoins and need or want product X, why is knowing that you can have two X in a year, or four X in two, if you just hold on to your coins, going to keep you from getting your X now?

Isn't that too, as you state, a question of whether "the utility they will derive from it outweighs the monetary cost" ?
It seems to me that you'd be better served by talking to your actual customers than chasing investors, particularly for $4000. Investors will come to you when they see the money/users.
I have a professional copywriter on staff, I can also make recommendations on free lancers that I have used. Drop me an email if you want my help, it is in my profile.
That's an excessively linkbaitish title. Please use original titles.
Google Estimates Facebook at Almost 900 Million Users
That's pretty much what viewtext.org does on my Android HN app.
I would be surprised if this functionality is not included at some point. Don't get too hung up on it.