skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Tell me, what do the following have in common?

- Paying with a credit card.
- Going to the emergency room.
- Adjusting your 401k.
- Using your insurance card at the dentist.
- Shopping around for the best car insurance.
- A BNSF train pulling a Union Pacific coal car.
- Transferring money between banks.
- Filling a prescription.

All the above industries are billion dollar players in our economy. All of the above industries write new COBOL and mainframe assembler programs. I’m not making this up, I work in the last industry, and I’ve interviewed and interned in the others.

The question to ask is: What are the economic and social forces keeping the COBOL code base alive? Seeking to supplant a long-surviving language in a particular niche without first asking this question is a fool's errand.
The reason companies funded by YC are often called out as such is that this site is run by YC. But almost all startups have multiple investors, so it would get pretty unwieldy if they were all named every time a startup was mentioned. There's no reason to do it unless the story involves the investor, which is not the case here.
I presume the link is actually yours?

At any rate, that makes for depressing reading, and very thankful I was homeschooled with parents who encouraged thinking.
The problem with C# is that it's tied to Microsoft, and we're already seeing what can come of that with developers wondering if .NET is a first-class Windows 8 development platform or has been relegated to legacy status and supplanted by HTML5. Microsoft is remaining silent.
More people should be referred to this when introduced to IRC. Or really you should just be told this by anyone introducing you.

There is one thing wrong about the article though: irssi is clearly the best client... X-Chat? Are you mad!? :p
Here are two alternative Python protobuf implementations. They're each about 15x faster than the pure Python implementation from Google.

fast-python-pb - codegen wrapping Google's C++ protobuf implementation. https://github.com/Greplin/fast-python-pb

lwpb - non-codegen using a protobuf implementation in C. (disclaimer: I'm an author) https://github.com/acg/lwpb
Whats the worst that will happen? They're already sending him home.
SEEKING WORK

Experienced Web Developer, recently moved from Toronto to Edinburgh.
Seeking PHP/Python/JavaScript/HTML projects (add Ruby to that list shortly). Find my linkedin profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/janlasbic

Would prefer to work locally, but if you like what you see and have an interesting project for remote work don't hesitate.
>Engineering is reportedly the world's second oldest profession

What an odd thing to say. Reported by whom (besides you)?

Tinkers, blacksmiths and mechanics have been around for a while. Are you including them in your definition of engineer? (James Watt was a mechanic.)
Firing someone who's always obsessed with work and willing to always spend hours upon hours to get things done might be a good idea for the reasons stated. Better idea would be to send that person on a mandatory vacation during the doldrums between projects. Make them turn in the company laptop and company cell phone for the two weeks they're on vacation. If they protest, tell them that during vacation it's their job to rest, relax & recharge to be ready for the next project. By the time they're back they'll be ready to take on those challenges.
Enterprise often over-engineers things.
haha looks like I am going to have to try out this irssi.
Good point. The UI is designed for someone coming directly to hnsearch.com. I'll see if I can tweak it for people coming from HN.
its not a shock though.. as I understand it Groupon wants to eliminate competition by making it so costly to get customers that others give up ti than can address rest of the inefficiencies and make profits at a slower revenue growth rate.
I'd go so far as to say it was one of the earliest examples.
Finally.
Could we get one on the arc forum as well ?
#2 and #3...every reddit user just became paranoid.
That could just lead to fragmented conversations that serve to further confuse the average user.
Something similar happened to a co-worker of mine.

The company maintains offices in New York and Boston, with significant expansion at the Boston office. The powers that be decided it would be a good idea to have another experienced dev in Boston to help get the newer guys up to speed. They consulted with immigration attorneys and made sure all their ducks were in a row for a three month rotation through the US.

My unfortunate co-worker showed up at the border and presented his UK passport, with a place of birth located somewhere in central Africa. The border guard decided that he planned to overstay his visa and denied him entry. He was then given the choice of arrest or deportation.

This is really not a good way to endear the US to foreign business interests.
> The Bahamas pretty much do not give a fuck about FBI requests

And how exactly do you know this?
> But sometimes I feel what he writes needs to have a disclaimer at the top that says, "This is what worked for me in my very unique business. It may be disastrous in yours."

That doesn't need to be stated, it's a given. They never say our way is the only way to do things; they're just telling you what works for them.
Ask HN: pros and cons of running multiple startups (webapps) under one LLC?
You'd think this is something that has been discussed on HN or another startup forum, but I can't seem to find a combination of search keywords that yields anything useful on the topic.

I've been a moonlighting entrepreneur for about 18 months, and have a single, slightly profitable webapp/startup. I am a solo founder and the only contributor/employee. The company is a registered LLC.

Since that app requires little ongoing maintenance, I've decided to branch out and create additional, unrelated businesses/apps. I am thinking that it would be best to create a single "parent" LLC that owns and operates these various "brands" possibly under a DBA.

The advantages, as I see it:

* The simplicity of running one LLC, having one bank account, etc. instead of 3 to 5.
* Economy of scale from things like shared hosting, shared payment gateways, shared legal and accounting support, etc.
* Avoiding additional (admittedly minor) fees from multiple filings.
* Fewer qualms about things like cross-promotion between the sites.

I understand that some of the drawbacks under this scenario are:

* The "limited liability" umbrella would extend across all the businesses, so that if Brand A gets sued, Brand B's assets are at risk. I can live with that risk (although if there were an easy way around that I'd certainly take it). I guess maybe a Series LLC would work around that problem? They don't have those in my state but they do in Delaware, of course.

* It may be more difficult or complicated to sell one of the businesses. I hope that can be mitigated by proper accounting, but I don't know that for sure or exactly how difficult that is in practice. For example, would it require independent bank accounts or is it sufficient to maintain independent general ledgers in my accounting?

In case it matters, I expect that most of these businesses will be a one-man shop with the occasional contractor but probably not actual employees. I also expect to run the businesses for profit rather than seeking to sell or flip for profit. But I'm not ruling anything out.

Am I missing something that makes this a terrible idea?
> Java is the default language in the best selling phone platform, Android.

When iPods and iPads are included, iOS greatly surpasses the Android install base. These aren't just phone operating systems; they're mobile device operating systems.
They aren't meant for people to read. They're meant to sell. Read the highly-entertaining and no doubt at least partly accurate explanation in http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/story under the subhead "Flaming Summary: Why Computer Books Suck."
It is a list of formally verified C compilers. At the moment, there's one.
Where do you live dude?
I don't hate the Java language or the JVM.

However, I hate many of the Java APIs, specifically most "JEE" crap, such as EJB, JMS, most third party ORMs (Hibernate), most Java "web frameworks" (too numerous to list).

Java IDEs are bloated, slow, and often unstable with extra plugins (Eclipse)
None. Considering his stay was indeed to be 3 weeks, if he lied (saying that he was entering as a tourist), he would get in and be given a 3-6 month stay period.

And after you are in, US customs do not have any way to see what you've actually done.
I seem to remember a CPU that was stack-based that was built for correctness. I think it was called the Viper, but I cannot seem to find it. It would be logical to me to run your formally trusted compiler on a chip designed the same way.
In a perfect world, perhaps. Here in the States, though, there's already a shortage of general practitioners.

Expecting them to spend significant extra time with all the hypochondriacs is simply not practical. Doing so would be a detriment to every patient in the system.
Feel free to email me, I'll be glad to point you in the right direction. I'll need quite a bit more information though before I'd be able to give you the correct advice. If it's really good and appropriate I'll even make some intros.

Just answered a similar question in another post, take a look a my manufacturing guide. There is a big difference between being engineered well and being mass producible.

As an aside, I've moved from hardware to web/mobile software (taught myself iOS, php, and rails) because I got tired of dealing with all the new regulations and hurdles. So be warned before starting a project.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1840896.

PS: if you are looking to get it out this year you only have a month or two at most to act.
So after some quick hacking I created a new HN bookmarklet based on the new API:

http://kaspa.rs/hn-bookmarklet/

If the current URL is added, it will go straight to discussion thread (without voting). If not, it will ask if you want to submit it.
whoever ;)
Some folks are trying to do this (including me). Here's the issues we've found so far and fixed:

http://blog.majesticseacreature.com/summary-of-rubygems-18-b...
In what way is Apple fighting them? Other than fixing the security holes used to jailbreak.

A jailbreaker already gave Apple their money for the hardware. It's like how Apple doesn't go after software piracy all that much, relying on a serial number at best. OS X doesn't even use one.
You can't get what you need from their API? http://www.groupon.com/pages/api
You can order the book on Lulu.com and use a $7.00 coupon code: (SUMMERBOOK11)

http://www.retailmenot.com/view/lulu.com
It could be worse. If he is caught lying (not that it is easy, see my comment above), he can be denied entrance to the US for 5-10 years.
I have considered the "hellban" in the past for supertrolls on the Dark Mists forums, but I think our players are not so easily duped, and it could lead to worse fires to put out. The problem is that they do not just have one account on the forum, and they do not participate in isolation from other players; people talk to each other.

"Did you see my post where I told off Xurinos? No? Censorship! Big brother! I'll make another account and spam it."

In other words, hellbanning is not really different from obvious bans. And frankly, players will communicate via AIM outside of the forum anyway.

It is a lot more difficult, but there are ways that moderators can work with a community to establish the social rules and expectations, such that the entire community is in support of putting down the trolls. And the easiest way to drop a troll is to ignore them, to not validate them. After years of trying different techniques in DM, this has been the most effective.

On occasion, we still ban or delete posts, but we make the reasons clear and consistent with the ethics of the community. There is always some kind of drama of the month. Most of the time, we can just move on to doing more important/fun things like playing the game.

One addition to this: The players understand that if we had to ban them on the forum, they also have their character (associated with that account) banned. So banning is a bit more painful then a simple rejection from public communication and has to be done with due care.
> Is this any different from other countries?

Very much so. Here in Italy for instance, I've known several people who have spent years here illegally, performing useful work. Sure, Italy has a large underground economy in any case, but still...
"Don't do that" is useless advice when whatever "that" is is being inflicted by a third party.
To be fair, it's not clear that that's because of Karma - could be because of convenience... but anyway, fair point! Enjoy :-)
Iteration, Feedback, and Change: Artificial Life
WMunch v1.0
Bank of America Gets Pad Locked After Homeowner Forecloses On It
Since this is someone you know and not you, can you at least share what condition this was? If it's something truly rare in the place you live (say, tropical sprue) then it may be a difficult diagnosis that gets misdiagnosed as something more common because of the following approximation:

var i = 0;
while(patient==ill){
if(hoofbeats){
if(i<20){
return horses;
}else{
return `hunt zebras`
}
i++;
}
}
I tend to agree with you. It would be better to have a free access public access system (something like a minimal tap water access). But IMHO it's more difficult to setup something from scratch (on the political level) than to have at least the libraries providing the free access services. By closing them, we just loose this opportunity.
The UK has a similar system. You borrow money to pay for the tuition and living costs. The repayment is then, like in the article, a fraction on the post-graduation salary.

The difference is that it is not time base. You have to pay it all back with interest. Also, both the lender and the university are public.
ThriftDB is the software they had to write to do Octopart's electronic parts searches; no existing software was up to the task.

Can the Octopart guys comment on why no existing software was up to the task? Also, I'm curious if there's something that makes ThriftDB a particularly good choice for HN search as well.
He has first hand experience of nearly being dead so it's pertinent.
You network. You build relationships. You go to meetups and meet interesting people, swap connections, swap leads. You get strong introductions, you follow up, you build client relationships. They like you, they trust you, they want to do business with you, and they're willing to pay 4 or 5 figure sums for the privilege because you sell them more than work: you sell them peace of mind.

http://swombat.com/2011/2/24/paulina-sygulska-how-to-network... is a great article on how to network.

http://swombat.com/2011/2/25/kevin-mcdonagh-how-to-attend-a-... also proposes an approach to get leads from conferences (and despite the apparent machine-gun methodology, I'd like to qualify this article by saying that Kevin is an incredibly chilled out, laid back, friendly kind of guy).
I think he meant that infrastructure between first world countries is more or less integrated, and citizens are easily tracked and observable, so it should be theoretically easy and safe to have their mutual borders more or less open. Or something like that.
An app is not a startup and it bothers me to no end that people use these interchangeably. A one man shop is also not a startup.

Not being a startup in these cases is a good thing.

A single LLC is completely sufficient for your purposes. If and when you take on a partner in one of these apps in hopes of building a company around it you can form a second LLC to maintain a clean ownership structure and give a place for additional people to vest some shares over time.
The interesting thing about Blub programmers is that they do not know they are Blub programmers.

Even more interesting: Even those who know about the above phenomenon and make meta-comments on it are Blub programmers and do not know that they don't know this. </mega-irony>
I don't get this whole "Java sucks movement".
You don't like Java? Cool, use something else. Your boss not let you do it? Convince him or her. Create prototype of what they want from you using your language and use it as a proof that your language of choice is a proper tool.
If you cannot, and your bosses decided to use Java it isn't problem with Java, but with you, or your company, so you need to work on you, or change a job.

I like Java and JavaScript, I don't like too much C# and Delphi (maybe because of this that I used those in my worst job ever? ;-)). But I don't think that C# and Delphi are bad programming languages used by idiots.... I don't think so, because I know some super programmers using those languages, and I know also some very bad programmers using for example Ruby.
In short good programmer will use any language and will create cool software, bad programmer may use the best language ever and will create something what sucks ;-)

And this that companies decide to stay with Java or even COBOL have sense, to rewrite code from one language to other you need people who knows both languages, and are in those two languages really good.
Cargo-culting is never a good idea.

If it leads you to discover the underlying principles, then it is. This happens often in music.
You should be thoroughly miffed that you are writing off all the time you spend working as "not my life".
HNSearch is an Octopart/ThriftDB project to test out our search technology and give back to the HN community.

Google has access to the link structure of the internet so it's great for macro searches. However, if you want to do a site-specific micro search then it usually helps to have access to the underlying metadata (e.g. points, karma, timestamps).
A flaw in the Collatz 3n + 1 conjecture "solution"?
Looks like fun, gears are churning.
I think the key here is "illegally". He could have marked, "Tourist" on his visa application and he would have been let in, but he didn't.
I'm 7/9 on your list ("versed" if not necessarily "expert"), and I can honestly say that there's only one sweet spot for Java that I've been able to identify: cross-platform GUI work. And that's entirely down to the tooling.
I thought WildUtah was complaining about stupid laws, not 'undocumented features' like lax enforcement.
The "market for lemons" paper was not about the average quality of the market---it was about the selection effects generated when market participants cannot judge quality. Within a online labor market, there are platform-imposed features that reduce information asymmetries & make relative comparisons possible e.g., tests, feedback, verified records of billed hours. The informational problem is much worse without an intermediary, which is why these markets exist.
It's a compensation for not having closures. Many Patterns are.
If it's that easy, perhaps you should do it in your spare time next weekend.
Yes, I saw that the first time around thanks.

It describes an action, but explains nothing.

Just off the top of my head here are some unanswered questions:
Why did Comcast shut them down? why did comcast have the authority to shut them down? Why didn't the searchyc admins take their site somewhere else? Why have they said nothing here on hn? Why were they shutdown mere days before pg announces an official search (hopefully just a coincidence). What happened to their data (it's especially valuable now that we can no longer see comment scores). Etc.
Those are completely separate skillsets which don't even contribute to each other. I make six figures full-time from an employer who's very eager to keep me onboard, but I know almost nothing about marketing myself freelance. I've only worked 1099 once, at the request of a company who licensed code from a failed startup I was part of.
I hate to see investors' money wasted on "hookers and blow", when there are so many startups out there which could really use the money to grow their legitimate operations.
You might also like http://blog.frama-c.com/index.php?post/2011/04/05/QuickLZ-1 and, say, http://blog.frama-c.com/index.php?post/2011/06/04/Valid-comp...
i saw that but my point is they are operating here - they're one of the largest online ad buyers - but so are a few others all of which seem to be acquiring customers. it will be interesting to see if the other reply is onto something that looks are deceiving and we'll see heavy turnover.
SearchYC allowed results to be sorted by date of submission, allowed searches by username and points, and other aspects that Google simply doesn't understand and can't provide.
So is HN data now being stored in ThriftDB? Or is it being replicated on your server? If so, what's the lag?
He didn't mention the poor, he mentioned people from the first world -- he may know the answer for people from a poor country, even if he does not agree with it.
Heh, I love it that kids have so much faith in people. Eventually they'll figure out that some people are not overly concerned with reality and do not allow it to interfere with the pleasure of believing exciting or gratifying things. Many people live their whole lives in suspension of disbelief, like you or I live when reading a novel or watching a movie.

No one who could be reached by evidence or argument believes in things such as Therapeutic Touch or "Mineral Miracle Solution" anyway, so there is no point in gathering evidence or presenting an argument. It's okay; humanity will survive despite them. The concrete problem here is that we do not respect education as a profession, so we have allowed it to be infested with dingbats and morons. Pay teachers a salary that reflects their importance to our society, scale pay according to rank and performance instead of seniority, and attract some worldly, intelligent people into the profession to displace the dingbats. As for the silly and vapid parts of the internet, let the dingbats have them.
"The problem with C# is that it's tied to Microsoft..."

What about Mono?
People won't use it. Decent search has been available via SearchYC for years, and no one seemed to use it to prevent duplicate and/or similar submissions. Further, if you submit via the bookmarklet there is a huge incentive not to search.
Poor countries can end up benefiting when their brightest citizens emigrate
Create your own lifestream
Please do this. Having the search box at the bottom of the page makes no sense to me.
Google is great for simple searches, but fails utterly for any site-specific filtering of results.
What about the language you are using enforces real separation of concerns and encapsulation that Java doesn't have?

Seems to me that those principals are not a quality of a language per se but of design principles that can be applied to any language (maybe some easier than others).
I saw the earliest Groupon deals. I am almost 100% positive they consisted of a Wordpress install as the base with an embedded js/flash box powered by The Point tech that had all the deal stuff in it.

So yes, they did use WP. And yes, they did use The Point. I figure they created a Point project that happened to be a group coupon, and then embedded the widget on a wordpress blog.
I'm tempted to write a pilot for a show where the only purpose is to have silly explanations for technical things.
Kids can spot bullshit, but how often do adults spot bullshit and have less power to do something than the kids cited in the article did. This article is cool because it gives specific examples of children wading through the muck to deliver the truth when that's something that all of us wish we could do in our different contexts.
I agree, I'm not sure what's so different about HN's information where something like Lucene, Sphinx or any other full text search tool couldn't handle.
So in comparison, if law enforcement has an "economic crimes unit" and can "follow the money" and get to the bottom of this, why hasn't anyone in the financial industry/wallstreet been arrested/prosecuted for the financial collapse?