skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's strange to have some moral objection to advertising because advertising is, ultimately, a form of discovery, a way of connecting people who want or need something with those that supply it. Ad revenue on the Internet, almost by definition, means someone found something they wanted.

How exactly is it bad to connect people with things they want and need?

The problem with advertising is when it gets too obtrusive, like on TV when, near the end of a movie, you'll see an ad break every 6 minutes (at least in Australia).

I generally like the way Google does advertising (disclaimer: I work for Google). It doesn't get in your way (except in some cases on Youtube). It pays for a lot of great services that are free to the end user (search, GMail) and Google clearly separates organic search results from paid promotion.

How anyone can have a moral objection to that baffles me.
> On the other hand, many people seem to come out and say that Ruby is _very_ slow.
> Is it heaven-and-earth slow?

Comparatively, I would say yes. Granted, most of the time it won't matter because you are waiting on IO (disk/network), but if you are doing cpu intensive work, it is slow and you probably need to drop down to C or offload that work to another service.

> How is Erlang more scalable than Java? In what area? horizontal vs vertical scaling?
> developer's productivity (or team performance) scale? performance? speed? Erlang seems
> to excel in a niche area (in a positive speaking).

My guess would be in single server scalability. Erlang's write-once variables and actor model, combined with a good VM ("green processes") make it very single-server-scalable (verticle). It also has good built in node-to-node communication mechanisms (horizontal). Performance is probably slower than Java though. And I imagine the developer pool is much more limited than that of Java.

> What about Haskell/Ada, how are they safer than Java?
> Do they have better type-systems? handles NULL better than Java?
> Bulletproof from developers? detect more bugs?

I meant safer in the type-safety sense, yes. There are also classes of static analysis tools for both. Granted, my knowledge of these languages is quite limited.

I certainly see your points (especially about liking the code hygiene of python), and agree that Java is not going anywhere soon. I guess I don't understand why a startup, or individual developer, would choose Java over other languages, even other languages on the JVM, for new projects.

Thanks for the good discussion. :)
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Groupon has also collaborated with eBay - who wins?
It boils down to interpretation of what constitutes a "derivative product". I think it would be better if whoever used Rails and made changes to Active Record _had_ to share these changes (a-la AGPL), without having to share the app they built on top.

Similarly, it's better if ffmpeg users who offer a service based on ffmpeg were required by the license to share their ffmpeg modifications (the way Google already does without being required to) without a need to share the rest of the webapp.
Disagree, they only should have been chastised if he didn't agree to speak to them and they revealed his identity anyway.
OnSite: Moscow, Russia, Visa support/accommodation will be provided. 6 month contract, leading to permanent possible in SF / Bay.

Ruby on Rails with Javascript(jQuery/Sencha) [Fontend]
Ruby on Rails with PostgreSQL / NoSQL [Backend]

pavel.v.zaitsev@gmail.com
Or: How I learned to ignore noisy bloggers and do my job.
Note what you quoted. He said Android emulator this could be emulating just the OS portion of Android with a jvm that targets x86. Instead they ship an actual ARM emulator and do not emulate Android. From what I understand of iOS development they do it the other way. They compile to x86 and emulate the iOS system calls. They don't emulate an ARM and run the real iOS on it. Therefore the Apple way is a little fake, it is possible for behavior to differ between emulated iOS and real iOS. When you run the android sim there is no possibility of stub vs real OS differences, you are always on the real OS.

edit: Basically it boils down to too little context around the words emulated vs simulated.
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San Francisco, CA

Scribd (social publishing, top 100 website, YC '06) is hiring talented hackers and other technical people for a broad range of technologies. We're looking for people who want to work with:

* Ruby on Rails (we're the #2 largest rails site, after Twitter)
* Javascript
* iOS
* Machine Learning / Data mining kinds of problems
* Technical recruiting (yes, we're hiring hackers to do this too!)

That said, we care way more about your personality and general hacking skills then what languages you've used so far, so if you haven't used these but want to break into mobile or web development, this could be a good opportunity for you.

We're well funded and have a really fun office environment (go-karts + a zipline!). We've got flexible hours, a very flat organizational structure that gives a lot of product ownership to engineers, and a really terrific team.

Last week we launched our first iPhone app, called "Float", which hopes to make reading a better experience. If you're a fan of reading apps like Instapaper and Reeder, you're already familiar with what we're doing. See http://tcrn.ch/pCwT4c for more.

Feel free to email me directly: jared@scribd.com

Jared

ps. H1B no problem
Every time I click on a title like "Why I'd never work for Google, Twitter, or Facebook" I keep expecting it to be a great big 96 point for page saying "Because they wouldn't fucking hire me"

So far, I've only been disappointed by these troll posts.
That is still a significant burden to implement especially for a small business that is not tech related. Sure it's a benefit for the people who will sell the service but you could make the same argument about mandating all websites display new logos everyday like google does, it will benefit artistes who provide the service but is it really good for society?

Also, what about foreign companies? We already know that sales tax has kept digital companies out of states with sales tax could this encourage such companies to move to Canada or Mexico? Next when I buy a purely digital good this work? Do you use my current location or my billing address?
>Climate change is a great example of a wicked problem: Quick, somebody tell me what the acceptable maximum amount of CO2 in the atmosphere should be, in parts-per-milion! Provide me with the answer to that question, and you win a pony!

We don't know. At some point 450ppm was considered acceptable, but at this point the maximum acceptable level may well be 350ppm (pre-industrial revolution it was around 275ppm).

Right now we're at around 390ppm, so whatever it ends up being we have to reduce emissions from their current levels on at least a per-capita basis if not overall.
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http://github.com/causes/suggestomatic

Open source item based collaborative filter used for 'Causes you might like' feature on Causes.com. This project was built specifically with large scale data sets (approaching 1 bn input records) in mind.
Hey, are you hiring for Ableton?

I recently applied, but didn't get past AClip and I'm of course very curious why. I understand you don't give feedback, but if you have some idea, from HN reader to HN reader, I'd appreciate it a lot. Email in profile.

(Note: absolutely not trying to start an argument or anything like that. Just curious.)
SEEKING WORK.
From Porto, Portugal, E.U.; open for remote, but will possibly relocate

Backend:

* Currently Python/Javascript developer, Django mostly; Google Appengine skills (https://bitbucket.org/zemanel/django-sentry-appengine)

* Past experience with PHP, including some Zend Framework, Propel, ZetaComponents (formerly known as ezComponents)

* Past experience with Java in content management applications: Struts, Hibernate, Jboss Seam. Many beers ago.

* Built a small Node.js/Dojo project for NodeKnockout 2010 which got #10 (http://www.slideshare.net/MyCatStoleMyPPT/tweetirc-presentat...)

Frontend javascript:

* Dojo Toolkit (preferred, including experience building a Dijit)

* JQuery

Tooling:

* virtualenv, pip, gondor[.io]

* Git, Mercurial, SVN

* <whatever you need may end up in here too>

Latest pet project (for HNSearch contest)

* http://hnmood.appspot.com

Links in my profile; will provide references by e-mail
Can you share some basic marketing numbers?

What price range is your PPC?
What % of clicks convert?
What is your customer's total lifetime value?

Thanks!
"Two developers would stomp all over each other trying to modify the same piece of code on a production server."

Yes, but it's trivial to create both developer instances and an integ instance of Rails/Django/PHP so you don't end up trying to both modify code on the production server. Doing that with the db, especially if you want to test against "production scale" data sets, is at the very least going to be expensive.
Thanks- I think so too. The underlying technology is unique and lets you do things that would be very difficult in any other way. I am getting pretty good foot traffic, but the tool needs more TLC to attract a larger audience.

Unfortunately my day job has ramped up and I haven't been able to spend the time on it I need- I may look around for a partner at some point to make sure automatoon can develop into a profitable product like I think it can.
Palo Alto, CA - Comprehend Systems (YC W11)

We're hiring both frontend and backend engineers to help create next-generation reporting and visualization tools for clinical trials. We're striving to improve the clinical trial process, directly helping new drugs get into the hands of patients who need them faster!

http://www.comprehend.com/about_careers.html
HN has become a steaming turd of a circlejerk.
Well, it's a subjective judgment, and the anecdotes I've seen/heard are 90% in one direction, with the other 10% coming from people who make their living dealing with PL/SQL.

Good apocryphal quote, it's impossible to convince someone of something if their job depends on it not being true.
My guess is people are down voting for tone, and the fact that he didn't even read what he quoted.
Yeah, I think it's a mix of those two things - my list is composed of:
a) people I interacted a lot recently
b) people I interacted a lot in the past (and then almost not at all for a long time)
c) people I haven't really interacted at all

"c" must come from H2, "a" from H4 and that leaves "b" as either flaw in H4 or also a H2 - the latter would be a good news for me because people from that category are actually girls I gave up on a long time ago thinking they are not interested in me ;)
Why has Firefox been so slow to slim down its UI? The back button is still way too big and the button colors not subtle enough. A browser should disappear into the background to some extent. It's just a window into the interwebs after all.
I don't know, that floating button in the top left bugs me in linux. It makes sense in windows because it just blends in with the tabs next to it, but in linux it's on its own line with the tabs showing up below it. The wasted space annoys me to the point that this is one of the main reasons why I do not use Firefox anymore.
This article unfortunately doesn't address many of the things that concern me the most about stored procedures: Mainly my problem is that writing "business logic" (Can we stop using that phrase? It smacks of managerial buzzwordism.) in SQL is painful at best and downright unmaintainable at worst.

I've recently been tasked with rewriting some of our scheduled processing code from what it is now (some very badly-written C#) to a collection of stored procedures and functions. The biggest issue is that the code does a lot of string processing, much of it very unusual. T-SQL seems to lack all of the facilities I require to actually do that job, and my boss won't give me even the leeway to write new .NET code for the database, which would make my job not only easier, but the project more maintainable - I think because a previous programmer poisoned the water with his abysmally bad code. (The company now fears all .NET code. It's that bad.)

I think the matter of maintainability outweighs all of the "myths" this article "busts," but the article addresses none of that.
If you actually play the game? Probably nothing. You need armies of bots to make anything with how badly item stores and duping dilute the economy. The economy has been a joke for years now; I'd actually be surprised if bots weren't the majority of "players" by now.
I'm majoring in CS right now. What type of courses would you recommend that i concentrate on if I am interested in HFT?

And how did you learn trading strategies? Did you take any finance type classes in college, or did you learn them all on your own?
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> they send someone around to make sure you aren't lying

That's the whack part I was alluding to.
I think very few companies (probably including Google) would be willing to join any sort of pool that requires them to sign over all of their patents to the pool.
I mostly use real Android devices for developing and debugging. However, another alternative is running Android-x86 in a VirtualBox. (If you aren't trying to test native ARM code, of course.) It's very fast, and I use it sometimes to test different screen resolutions and DPI's.
I had talked it over with both my manager and CEO. I just took a look at my employment agreement and there was an attached Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement. In it, it states that the company shall own all right, title and interest in and to all Inventions which arise out of research or other activity conducted by, for or under the direction of the Company, or which are useful with or relate directly or indirectly to any “Company Interest”. While that is somewhat broad, the work I did was neither for nor under the direction of my old company so I'm fairly certain it doesn't fall under that agreement.
Rails 3 Beginner to Builder 2011 UT Class by Richard Schneeman (Gowalla)
That's how taxes work because it'd cost way more than it saved to break out fine granularity at the billing level.

Yes - in principle taxes pay for public goods which are provided to everyone in a geographic region.

But if you paid attention to the discussion, you'd realize we are discussing entities who don't exist in that geographic region. It's actually quite easy to figure out that I don't owe NY anything and you don't owe Maharashtra anything.

Fedex pays for their use of the roads? No, they pay for their corporate income.

The taxes they pay to the states in which they do business cover their use of the roads, no?
Atlanta, GA - Vitrue

We're a social media company building a platform for corporate clients to manage their presences on Facebook/Twitter and the like. We're primarily a Rails shop. Having said that, we do have projects in other languages, and we're more than willing to hire someone smart with no Rails experience and bring them up to speed.

Stuff we use: Ruby, Rails, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Node.js, jQuery, AWS/Scalr/Engine Yard, and more.

For open positions and a better idea of what we do, take a look at our job page here: http://vitrue.com/jobs (don't let the site design dissuade you, we're about to change it). Not every open position is posted, though, so if you're more of a back-end developer, a configuration management type or similar, we'd still love to hear from you.

By far, this has been my favorite job that I've ever had -- the corporate culture is very much open, collaborative, and full of change; I'm surrounded by people smarter than I am; and I'm working on interesting/challenging things.

You can either apply through the jobs page I linked, or drop me an email at my user name at vitrue.com with questions/comments/resumes/etc..

P.S.: This isn't my main account, for reference.
"If you signed up for it then unsubscribe if you don't want it."

In virtually all cases where this occurs I have signed up for the mailing implicitly (by buying something from a company and thus establishing a 'relationship') or accidentally (didn't notice they had conveniently pre-checked a 'spam me please' option in an installer or on a website).

And FWIW even for mails I don't want, I do try their unsubscribe link first and use that if it is just a few clicks to get me off the list. If their unsubscribe method is unreasonably complex (any more than two clicks is unreasonably complex, removing me from their database should be just as simple as adding me was), yes, I'll mark them as spam, and I believe they fully deserve it.
There's a fine line between "You only [do useful thing] so you can serve ads" and "You only serve ads so you can [do useful thing]"
Here is what I wish Blizzard would do with WoW. Instead of paying $15 a month for game playing time, they should sell you game items that represent a week of play time, so let's say $15 buys you a stack of 4 in game chips. The player can then activate those chips to extend their play time or they can trade them with other players or sell them on the auction house for in game gold. On the other end, blizzard can enable a program to buy back chips at say 70% of the original value. This gives people a legitimate avenue to "buy" items if they want, while also controlling the gold/item farming community.
What are the objective differences between Emacs and Vim?
It's not always a moral objection to advertising per se, but to the methods that enable targeted advertising. I wrote a short piece about the scope of modeling and mining algorithms if you're interested: http://blog.twodeg.net/when-your-data-sings
(there's a TL;DR in the form of a figure at the link)
This is not just about easier/harder to get items but also a lot about the value of item vs. the value of player skill. As soon as you no longer get better by playing more skilled but only by playing longer you will get such gold mining markets as many people value their time and don't want to spend it completely meaningless. Set a sane upper limit how long it takes to reach items and from there on only skill decides and you can basically remove the incentive to buy items for money.

The extreme rarity of items was once a nice idea as it allowed to add meaningful trade to the game . But every modern mmorpg has a central market so basically real player-to-player trade got taken out of the game already anyway. All that's left of it now are completely meaningless inflated prices and the real currency is no longer items but player time. Which I find sad as wasting as much player time as possible is a really poor design target.

I don't say it won't work out for them, but personally I hope they fail with it. Because if it succeeds, then it's obvious that they will next try to figure out how to further improve that income. I would prefer game designers to spend their time thinking about how to improve the game-play instead.
It will be interesting to see how they get around (anti-)gambling laws, at least here in Germany. The moment you offer real money for winning in luck-based games (as opposed to skill-based ones) like Diablo3, you may run afoul of the state monopoly for lottery and related games.

A former employer once commissioned a flash game with a western setting which included a virtual casino with several games of chance. He had to shelve the idea of offering people to cash out and the game was delayed for a long time (if I remember correctly, it was turned into a game where you could buy stuff for your character, but there was no longer a way to transfer your winnings into real money accounts)
Node.js and MongoDB are not essential to the core business. I just chose to use them because they made my life somewhat easier.
I wonder whether this latest proposed redesign will finally have Firefox behaving like, y'know, a native OS X app, or whether it'll be just as shallow as all previous efforts.
I have been here posting actively for a bit over a month, and had accrued 56 karma through that time. In a single comment regarding something related to physics, I posted a link to an alternate explanation regarding electrical plasma science.

The replies to it were vulgar, mocking and had nothing to do with science.
I lost 40 karma within a few hours. I was astonished at the vitriol and spite.

Looking at the post that started it all, I suppose I must have incited it by claiming that the experiment mentioned in the source article was likely to fail, which was the topic being dealt with in the source article.

Instead of responding on topic, the verbiage of the referred site was mocked, and I lost a months-worth of positive sentiment.

This site is no different than any other regarding malicious downvoting- people do it for spite here just like anywhere else.
Show HN: One-Stop inbox for customer communication.
You use Twitter, Facebook as well as email to communicate with your customers? With all these different services, it has become very hard to manage and keep track of all the conversations happening.

My co-founder and I noticed this some months ago and asked people how they would like to handle this. And so we have come up with a new solution. We launched into public beta about two weeks ago.

The problem was: We had a very hard time explaining to people how we help them and why that's relevant. We were too technical and nobody really understood exactly what it was that we did.

So we took a few steps back and really worked hard on how to explain what we actually do. We launched our new website that (we hope) does a better job at telling people what we do.

What do you guys think? Can we explain well enough what we are doing? And how do you like the video?

The new website is at http://suplify.me

Thanks,
Sebastian
'..."c" must come from H2, "a" from H4 and that leaves "b" as either flaw in H4 or also a H2..."

^^ false dilemma, no?
Los Angeles, CA

Washington, DC

Taxi Magic

Iphone, Android, Ruby engineers: http://taximagic.theresumator.com/
Clickable link: http://suplify.me
Cambridge, MA Panjiva (http://panjiva.com) is changing the way companies do business across borders. We're VC-backed by the same investors that backed ITA Software, Groupon, Akamai, etc. We're also profitable and have thousands of customers. Hiring in engineering (UI; UX; frontend; backend data mining/ops) and business (marketing, sales, etc.). See http://panjiva.com/jobs
Just as a general note re repeated sig testing errors: Wouldn't it be possible to run a standard A/B testing run over a small but not insignificant number of iterations, and then iterate over that a number of times?

You could then use bayes to find a final estimate of, say, H1. As each high level iteration is fairly small, feedback can be provided to the user, although it couldn't be acted on.

Speaking of which, if we have an expected number of false positives for any given number of test scores, couldn't you take the average number of positives generated as an rv and then try and determine if it is different to the expected number of false positives?

It seems as though this type of error relies on the fact that a single false positive stops the testing rather then continuing on and allowing regression to the mean. By stopping this, it should then stop, or at least reduce this type of error.
If anyone get's to ignore patents then the whole idea of patents as a safe means of discloser becomes somewhat meaningless. I have no problems abolishing software / business process patents, but if a small company can manufacture any patented drug you greatly undermine the value of new drugs.