skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Survey examples for testing the customer development process assumptions?
The lean startup talks extensively in the customer development section about testing problem and product hypotheses, in addition to good practices on getting survey responses. I was wondering if anyone had an example survey that they used to successfully test some of those hypotheses or had a good resource on how to write a valid and effective survey?
- guaranteed convertible debt money waiting for you after YC

- meetings with the best VCs

These could easily dry up if the yc batches do not maintain their perceived high quality. I'm not saying it will happen but it must be a concern?

- tailored advice from (more and more) folks who have done it again and again

This is my point, you can get this advice easily outside of YC.
I don't know how you can begin to do that for an asset whose fundamental value no one knows, not even remotely.

Actually the fundamental value is well known. It's zero.
"Lots of businesses have excess capacity that costs them nothing to utilize"

Yes, This is one of the most dubious Groupon "sells".

There are a very small class of businesses that excess capacity which costs nothing to use. These mostly the type of business where you're just consuming an "experience" - adult classes, skydiving school, etc. Unfortunately, a big part of business, classes, is already competing with the Internet. And so the rest is skydiving schools, martial arts schools, and yoga schools, the few places where you just have to be there. But those are pretty marginal.

Restaurants certainly aren't in that class. Food is expensive. Food is a significant share of cost for anything but the most expensive restaurants. Sure, restaurants may throw food away each day BUT the only way to profit from that optimizing that is to sell food cheap on the contingency that its available. That's far from the Groupon model and clearly would "cheapen" the feel of any given restaurant.

I heard of a restaurant in France years ago that priced by the hour. That could actually cut waste to nearly zero - but it would destroy "the feeling of specialness" which many higher end restaurants cultivate.
Not really a great analogy: unless you are employees or shareholders, it's not really your "house". If you are a dedicated customer, you may be more invested in the welfare of the company than most customers, who mostly just care about their personal interests (products or services they've paid for and any personal information that company keeps on record).

I tried to cook-up a comic store analogy where the loyal customer is most concerned about their orders and personal contact info being stolen than the merchandise of their favourite shop, but that analogy ignored the fact that what LulzSec did to Bethesda is essentially the following: making copies of the shop's inventory manifest, latest promotional program, and names of customers in a Rolodex, and then publishing all that info online (or in a local comic hobbist newsletter). Other than the loss of potential business and the trust of their customers, are the owners and employees likely to suffer as a result of this break-in? I tend to think that lost business will be minor, especially if customer privacy and interests are not noticeably compromised by the break-in.

Not trying to start a morality debate (unless that's welcome here?). I just wanted to point out why I tend to see "black hat security audits" as generally to the victims' benefit, when individuals aren't likely to suffer as a direct result. In the reality of my above analogy, the comic shop is likely going to invest in better security after this kind of break in, which is a positive outcome for the business and the customers. Only the very paranoid or "security minded" customers will choose to take their business elsewhere after the break-in, which likely amounts to very little lost business to the shop.
And does /that/ one have a license to take deposits? And is it backed by anything more than 4 stars next to someone's nic on the forum?

Bitcoins are a serious investment for some people now. They've put their savings into this. This is not just funny money. It's a lot of fun to play with, and I will keep doing that myself, but the people who are not just playing anymore have an immense potential to get hurt by these exchange swings.

By the way, I am nobody here on HN, but I do know that this is not the forum to post your affiliate links. My friendly advice would be to get rid of that.
The majority of problems we've seen come in the form of existing API calls that have some slightly new/different behavior.

They seem to do a decent job with versioning major changes. But our App breaks on iOS5 because of subtle changes.

Point being...there are far too many moving parts to expect them to get everything right in a beta release.
Hunch’s Clear Vision of Privacy and OAuth
And they took it down.

Usability didn't look great.

But at least they made the page load faster. Techcrunch is horrible because it takes ages to load. They really need to optimize it.
Took a bunch of screenshots & a video to show what happens as you scroll down since its offline now.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MBZ8P7lm0A

http://socialblade.com/c/2011-06-13_1712.png

http://socialblade.com/c/2011-06-13_1713.png

http://socialblade.com/c/2011-06-13_1713_001.png

http://socialblade.com/c/2011-06-13_1713_002.png

http://socialblade.com/c/2011-06-13_1714.png
"The hardware is only a tiny piece of the puzzle of quantum computing. Algorithms for QC are rare, hard to develop, and the field is in its absolute infancy."

Is that the description of computer technology as of 1911?
Occupational Employment Statistics: 15-1132 Software Developers, Applications
Bad link - you've linked to the blog, not to the article:

Good link:

http://mathbabe.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/whats-it-take-to-be...

Suggest you delete and resubmit.
Exactly. The existence of most computer viruses are proof enough of this statement.
Chrome nearly replaced Firefox in Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth says
Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth is a big fan of Google Chrome, and says the browser could replace the standard Firefox in future versions of Ubuntu Linux. "We looked at it closely in the last cycle and the decision was to stick with Firefox," he says. But the work that Google is doing with Chrome OS — essentially the Chrome browser on top of Linux — is potentially leading to a future in which "Chrome on Ubuntu and Chrome on Linux is a better experience than Chrome on any other platform [i.e. Windows and Mac]." In a wide-ranging interview, Shuttleworth also discussed why he spent $20 million to become a space tourist but doesn't own a smartphone, controversies over Linux and Unity, the future of Ubuntu tablets, and says the move toward putting personal data in the cloud is "a little scary."
Depends how much applications increase. Between w2011 and s2011 they increased 84%, but that was faster than usual. 10-20% seems more likely. So maybe we'll end up with 70-75.
"They always want to work on only one thing at a time and get confused/ much slower if they have to work on multiple things, whereas younger developers will happily be able to switch in between tasks while waiting for the previous task to finish compiling/running without problems."

The younger developers get confused/much slower when they work on multiple things, too, they just don't realize it. I'm pretty sure there is experimental data showing that everyone performs worse when they switch tasks often.

I actually just watched The Social Network for the first time a couple of nights ago, and one of the things I appreciated most about the movie is how they would yell at people who tried to interrupt someone who was coding with a question ("Don't interrupt Chris, he's in the zone!"). I suspect that attitude had a lot to do with the productivity needed to get Facebook off the ground, and they were certainly all young people.

(Or maybe the writers of The Social Network just made it all up.)
I imagine they are trying for simplicity, on the lines of Guice.

I know Google are obsessed with SCons for building other stuff so I get the feeling we're going to get a Java version of Scons.
Ask HN: Why do new browser tabs not include the original tab's history?
Why do tabbed browsers not copy over your browsing history when you click on a link to open in a new tab? I often open up a lot of links in new tabs and then am frustrated when I am unable to go back from the newly opened tab.
Dieter Bohn, formerly of SPE Network, joins This is My Next
Looks pretty awful judging by the screenshots people posted. Other than the mountain of 3rd party crap they use that bogs their site down ridiculously I don't think there's much wrong with the design of TC.
Honestly, my guess is that LulzSec is a bunch of crackers that have decided to do something about the public perception of information security. It's kind of a stretch (understatement), but it lines up. They attack indiscriminately, and in every case make fun of any idiotic security practices. When they attack targets that everybody loves to hate, they do as much damage as possible; when they attack targets that everybody loves, they don't release admin passwords or user DBs, they inform the target of their vulnerabilities, and they generally try to be a service to the community. Most importantly, they're trying to make the entire thing /glamorous/. They want people fifty or a hundred years from now to look back on crackers and Anonymous the same way we look back on cowboys, ninjas, and pirates.
http://thestartupfoundry.com/ is what i replaced my TC feed with.
How to answer questions about your open-source project.
Ask HN: How machine learning algorithms are helping to solve important problems?
I'm reading the book "Programming Collective Intelligence" in order to have a basic idea about ML algorithms, but the algorithms are used to solve problems like: price models, better recommendations, trip planning...

I'd like to know about interesting projects(open source would be great) that apply ML to help solving problems in fields like: health, education, nutrition, politics, agriculture...

Thank you in advance for your replies.
Hi Mike! A few years ago, I created a website where users could submit Flash game walkthroughs. It got about 200 or so guides, but never really went past 1,000 uniques a day. I'm trying to build a similar site right now, and any advice would be appreciated.

Here's the link: http://hintbin.com/.

A few questions:

1. My main traffic will be from search engines. How can I increase PageRank? No one really blogs about Flash game walkthrough sites.

2. The demographic is mostly teenagers. From personal experience, I know that this group isn't very willing to give up their money. Are they worth anything to advertisers? How can I best monetize this site?

3. Is the current design good enough?

Thanks very much!
As long as the sites are noteworthy and well-known, I think it will still be newsworthy even if it happens on a daily basis.
Report: Facebook IPO in early 2012, for $100 billion+
So the best way to get them ignored is to increase their exposure? :P
Do the new TouchPad videos have you lusting for one?
Using Scala in Bump for Android
Send Free Text Messages on Your iPhone or Android with Blip.me
Urgo posted it a bit lower http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2650731
Mobile platform choice always comes down to reach and frequency
Do Not Disturb Door hangers - customization in Designing
Idsketch.com is your right choice to get brilliant do not disturb door hangers. We serve you worldwide. Our first priority is your satisfaction. We offer you beautifully designed door knob hangers in many shapes like round, rectangular and die cut.
Apple iPad Recall
This is exactly why JavaScript is going to win. I'm using JavaScript back to front using CouchDB -> NodeJS -> client-side JavaScript. The cognitive overhead of switching from language to language is pretty much gone. Being able to serialize and deserialize objects in the same language is pretty cool. Doing REST calls to Couch spits out JSON stringified data, then a JSON.parse()->JSON.stringify in the middle, and then another JSON.parse() on the client.
If you are unfamiliar with the tale of the nine blind men and the elephant, be sure to look it up. [1] While I don't disagree with most of the advice already given, I don't think the advice given thus far paints a complete picture. For example, much of it is certainly good career advice but not so good if you are interested in computer science for its own sake.

One project I wish I started when I was, say, 11 is developing all the software for some hardware. This includes the OS, the compilers, the network stack, the browser, the email client, the application server, etc. Of course, everything might be a little simple, but this is very much akin to how a car enthusiast might spend his/her free time re-building the engine of a classic car. This is a 5- to 10-year project that I would have perhaps completed by now had I started at 15!

Also, I wonder if you'd be interested in doing computer science research rather than writing applications. There's a broad range of topics to choose from: robotics, operating systems, program analysis, graphics, and many, many more! Indeed, one of the reasons to go to a place like Stanford is that there is a lot of opportunity to perform research as an undergraduate. (Do a search for "stanford curis".) As for money, many researchers at Stanford, and indeed the very professors you will take classes from (e.g. Engler, Lam, Rosenblum, Ousterhout, ...), have successfully started companies based on their research.

If you are interested, I can make time later to get into more details, but my main point is to keep in mind that an elephant is not its tusk, its tail, its trunk, etc., but rather the collection of it all!

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
After the first, because you still have to register as a developer
I can't help but think fifty years down the line we'll see a huge spike in cancer rates caused by continuous exposure to electronic devices. If not from EM radiation, then from the materials they're made of.

And I'm generation Y, we'll invent clinical immortality and we're going to live forever.
Excellent description, thank you for sharing it.

I have a major pet peeve against the warped culture of "accountability" which really just means "find someone to blame when things go wrong". In that environment (when you aren't lavished rewarded when things go well, but are punished when they break) the incentives are skewed.
No, the requires clause is verified at compile time. To successfully compile, you must perform a check (y != 0) before calling the f function. The compiler verifies that y will never be zero when called.
What's better than SQL then?
Ehh it's fruitless to be bitter about rejection. I'm just going to wish your endeavor luck and test it out if it gets funded since I like photography.
Avoid Getting Grin Screwed By Properly Qualifying Your Prospects
Pathscale compiler becomes open source
If you have a higher reputation and give correct answers, couldn't we then assume that the older developers have a wider range of knowledge to be able to participate in more responses? Also, it is not really clear how "better" is defined in this case. Maybe it is "better" == I know more technologies than you?
Tips from a cracker on improving BIOS password security
Properly implemented pub-key crypto would make it so much of the loot from these attacks was unreadable. Of course, if people store unencrypted secret keys on vulnerable servers, or just use one key to encrypt for everyone in the company, or something like that, it's not that useful.
I had to look at supercanuck's comment history.

I think he's saying SAP is fantastically expensive and doesn't really optimize the business enough to pay for itself.
I remember I synced my iPhone the first day I got it, uploaded all my music, and then never plugged it back into my computer for the next month. One month later, it crashed for some unknown reason, and I had to re-add 110 contacts by hand. Absolutely brutal.
Luddite here: I hate syncing my phone. It freezes my computer. It freezes my phone. Apple tries to install new stuff that may or may not work etc etc etc. I just find it very unfun to sync my phone.
You are right in that Tradehill isn't necessarily 'better' or 'more secure' than mtgox. I just wanted to say that there are more exchanges coming up and that the situation will at least ease up in that direction.

As for the 'investment':
Honestly, the people that invested their savings into Bitcoins should be fully aware of the risk they're getting themselves into. As with everything that might give return your investments manyfold, there is a proportionally high risk.

I don't think it's a good idea to make large investments into Bitcoin unless somebody doesn't need the money and thinks the personal joy he gets out of gambling is worth it. I know I have a lot of fun with small amounts :)

As for the link, I'll remove the directly clickable one. But since signing up without a referal will lead to 10% higher fees, I'd at least leave the code for people that are interested. I was kind of uncertain but didn't find anything when skimming the FAQ or guidelines. I hope that is ok. (If not, somebody please respond and I'll kick that one too)
One of the reasons why some apps crash.
I am probably like many in that I have one cable for my phone and it is in my bedroom where I charge it, whereas I use my computer in another room. This makes syncing inconvenient. Additionally, everything but new iTunes content arrives wirelessly and iTunes on the phone doesn't announce new content is available on the computer, there is never anything "missing" on the phone.
Yes, you have to pick one and make fun of all the others. Apparently you didn't get the card in the mail.

Seriously language wars are silly. I've used lots of languages in my career. Every language has its joys and quirks. Arguing about languages is a silly waste of time. I compare it to amateur vs. professional photographers: amateurs talk about cameras and equipment. Professionals study light and composition and take photographs. Amateur programmers talk about tools and languages. Professionals write good code in whatever language is required or best for the job. You won't be able to pick the language most of the time if you plan to work for money, so get used to learning new languages and appreciating them for what they are.
The good news about undecidability is that, for the most part, it's not a problem. That is, the problem instances that arise in practice are almost never actually undecidable.
Looks like 8-bit green vomit
A Marketing Tactic That Works
As a freelancer, how do you start finding work?
Basically I've just finished university and I'm looking to make some dough before I can move to Brighton and start networking and joining in with start-ups/making my own at the moment. I basically have a huge amount of time to make sites, and I'm sure there are people out there who want apps or sites made, so where have you found the best places are to quickly get projects? I'm pretty experienced (PHP/Python/HTML/CSS/JS+Sysadmin) and doubt there's many problems I couldn't tackle, but I've only done a few freelance projects which were for friends of friends. Finding the work is my biggest concern.
Is your age associated with credit card / itunes accounts?

I'd love to be able to filter reviews by age groups (ie. over 25 only)
Great article!!! ... and I agree. I work for IBM, and I dealt with SQL/XML before ... and I still agree with the article.

Thanks.
Hey,

So, what do you think would be better than "~="? (that's a genuine question since the syntax is not locked down yet by any means). I thought about "isa", also "<:" (following academic papers) and, of course, plain old "instanceof". But, the latter is too much finger typing for me ...

Oh, and of course we could do something like "typeof(x) == int" etc
That was the only bit I liked - I've seen it somewhere else recently - one of the fashion sites I think - I love it - rest of the page I'm not so sure about - but I wouldn't like to be judged on one of our early mocks.
As s2009 alumni and current class (s2011) member I don't see any trend to support that concern.
While this is admittedly quite different from Enron/Worldcom style fraud, Groupon Chairman Eric Lefkofsky did recently proclaim that Groupon will be "wildly profitable." That's quite a statement for a company's pre-IPO quiet period and one that people will certainly look back to should the worst-case (or even somewhat-bad-case) come to pass.
You might be interested by the first steps that I have taken to generate llvm IR from boost::spirit (for the peg parser) even if the languages where too simple to warrant an ast.
https://github.com/scientific-coder/Computer-Languages
Depends on which side, from the mother side by law you'll receive nationality on the spot, from the father's side you'll only experience the brutal pain of the politics in Israel.
Interactivity and Perceptual Learning
I wish I could get physical bitcoins. That would be great :) It would be a true "trophy" of the new dotcom era.
They've also attacked the US Senate website: http://goo.gl/Wn0eC

You can bet that this will be used to push through draconian legislation in the interest of "security". I wouldn't be surprised if hacking/cracking/piracy became the new equivalent of possession in these coming decades.
Sure looks ugly, I hope that was a joke. Navigation doesn't look to easy.
I will quickly point to some other topics: data mining, machine learning, databases, programming languages, computational biology, etc. Also, application security, which you might get started with via war games, is huge right now. [1]

[1] http://www.overthewire.org/wargames/
Video Conferencing Deep Dive
Ugh. I'm glad I missed it.
Why Twitter is DOS
Even if I subscribed to the cynical viewpoint - how come they do have that time? The snooty old dev in me counters the cynic with "Because we get stuff done" ;)

So, still, lots of room for a more detailed look.

Edit: The reply is of course tongue-in-check. The second reply to the GP seems to provide a better explanation.
Scons already supports Java (http://www.scons.org/doc/production/HTML/scons-user/c4348.ht...). But I believe you're right, it will be scriptable out of the box like Gradle. But not python though.
Given that Google recently hired the author [1] of a good Python implementation [2] of djb's redo [3], I'm hoping for a build tool along those lines, but in a compiled language. It's probably too much to ask for something that simple though.

[1] http://apenwarr.ca/log/?m=201103#24

[2] https://github.com/apenwarr/redo

[3] http://cr.yp.to/redo.html
Essential Guide to Google Apps
Click-and-drag iPhone app creation for business
On an emotional level, XML is annoying.

XML is strict and unforgiving - great for validation, tools, and stuffing into SOAP envelopes. OTOH, for all of HTML's warts, it is flexible and forgiving to humans. Great developers and designers want to be happy working with their creations, and WYSIWYG tools often do not fit the process. So when you are forced to work with markup by hand, the perceived friendliness and ease of the markup language is significant.

In the end, to each their own. But programming languages are a popularity contest. Especially new ones.
That's kinda weird. Google's source tree is notoriously huge and SCons is notoriously slow at computing dependencies in large projects. I wonder how they make it work.
Can we get an alert when someone replies to your comment thread?
-
yawn It's been done.

http://textaligncentaur.com/