skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It definitely isn't just you - we have one in our office, and it's used by the newest hire (who joined 2 months ago) because nobody else wanted to use it, so it was the spare chair when he arrived.
I've had quite the same experience. Downloaded some books, started reading it, and after enjoying the book so much, the little formatting errors were too much and decided to buy the book.
I assume when you mention world class universities you're referring to UM Ann Arbor -- maybe Kettering too. Is there a lot of cross fertilization between the city and the schools? Do a lot of UM students live or move to Detroit?
http://ycpages.info/
Personally I love them - we're a small company, only six of us in the office (a few others dotted around elsewhere), and private rooms are great. Most of the time we leave our doors open and can chat from the hall, or shout to each other - but even then, it's nice having a bit more personal space than if they were in the same room.

We work in publishing and marketing though, so essentially we work on different things except when two or more of us come together on a specific topic, at which point we can either sit in one person's office or go into the conference room. Maybe we would feel differently if we were all developers and therefore had a different style of working together?
I'm talking about Americans working 2 or 3 jobs who don't have the time, and honestly don't have the money either (yes, such poverty does exist in the US, perhaps you are just lucky enough to have not encountered it...) needed to cook meals with sufficient nutrient value for their (often quite large...) family. The result of this is that malnutrition is a very real problem among children of poor families. The worst part about this is the problem is infectious. Children that grow up without proper nutrition will be intellectually and physically stunted, dramatically increasing the chances that when they eventually have a family their children will end up the same way.

Statements like "local poor people eat meat regularly." are just flat out ignorant. I've known families that save up for bulk rice. "Seaweed, legumes or whatever" is so unrealistic it is absurd. People with time and money have those luxuries.
> How would you feel about an unending stream of
> tourists arriving daily in your hometown to pick
> over the carcasses of your ruined neighborhoods,
> taking pictures of devastation to show their friends,
> stealing souvenirs to hang on their walls at home,
> and leaving without making even the slightest effort
> to understand or improve the condition of your city?

I'm curious why one would expect tourists to improve the condition of the city. Most tourists don't go places to volunteer as part of a rebuilding error.

Also a great comment here: http://detroiturbex.com/updates/?p=47#comment-14
Five Ways Apple Should Spend its $76 billion
He could have noticed the hits coming from here so he checked in to answer questions.
Thanks Brian on the tips. I have used Olark in the past and we are definitely considered using it on this project. I visited the New Relic website and must say that it is really well designed. I wish you best of luck and thanks for the comment.
...the truly great entrepreneurs didn't get in this to make money, but to change the world

Great food for thought.
Kinect Audio Smarts are seriously impressive
Some browsers allow __defineGetter__ and __defineSetter__ to replace native properties such as window.location
I also think there is a lot of room between flag-worthy and front-page-worthy. Any legit review my startup gets main page? What minimally counts as a startup?

On the other hand, low-scoring "show" submissions might especially stand a lot to gain from constructive feedback, something (as noted) they probably don't get when they don't make it to the main page.

Separating show submissions to a new tab allows you to use upvotes appropriately and distinctly. I would upvote startups as "news" in a different way than I would upvote startups as "review-worthy."
Jeff Atwood on chairs: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/07/investing-in-a-qual...
Tim O'Reilly: Work on Stuff that Matters
I completely agree. I am a huge fan of the Lean Startup methodology and we are definitely trying to practice it. We are trying to test all assumptions. Thanks for the comment!
Winter is already here.

- Stock Market Drops. VCs Hold Partner Meetings. What Happens Next?

"I (Mark Suster) told him (entrepreneur), 'close your round by August 2nd. After that, all bets are off.'" - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2864031

- For Some, Rude End to IPO Dreams

"The sound you just heard was the IPO window slamming shut," wrote Geoff Yang, a partner at venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif" - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2866438

- We're in the second dip of the global economic depression

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2860910
On a mac I use the `say` command.

make && say "I'm done."
This sounds like the way to go. Thanks. Especially because, as modular as I like to think my resume is, there really kind of is a vanilla/standard version from which all subsequent versions are really just mods. Might be less legwork than recompiling from basic modules each time.
Have you considered contributing to a well known open source project? Some good ol' OSS name dropping might give that 'wow' factor.
Dino Dai Zovi's iOS Security Evaluation from Black Hat '11
MS announces interop plans for Hadoop
Our decision was pretty multifacted (see my other reply), but we also switched so we can also evaluate how we value what we watch, and force upon ourselves some changes of habit. It's a little bit of a lifestyle experiment.

When we blindly spent $60 a month and got unrestricted time access to channels, we ended up not thinking about how that money is spent entertaining us and how we valued what we watched. We weren't directly allocating money towards what we valued. The result was that the TV was always on, we'd be leaving on whatever came on next even if it was of little interest, turning on crap shows as background noise because "nothing else is on", turning it on in the bedroom and staying up later than necessary just because there was something to watch, putting off doing the dishes or housework until a commercial break, not watching it meant we were wasting the subscription cost, etc, etc. Not that I'm morally against what's on TV, I just think the passive nature of watching TV is a bad default way of life, overall it was just a toxic influence on our behavior.

By having to explicitly select and buy programming, we see where the time and money is spent and what we really value. The cost wasn't totally a primary factor; we're not hard up for the extra $30 a month saved or whatever but it's something we identified as wasteful spending for the derived entertainment value. We play a lot more background music in the house now to replace the TV noise, and I've also finished two additional books beyond my previous normal amount of reading since dropping satellite service (it was hard to focus and read in the other rooms when a TV was blaring).

Edit: just a note, we actually switched to this set of behaviors over a month ago and started down this path a few weeks before that, but finally cancelled the satellite subscription last week. It was a transition to change that many behaviors.
Safety Stocks: Three Ways to Profit From Market Mayhem
There's never been a better time to invest in safety stocks. With so much chaos in the market here are three safety stocks poised to profit.
Demo video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg4xUUmZE68
Unfortunately, Rick Snyder is doing away with the state's film industry credits: http://thedc.com/nPBpLQ

Thanks, Rick!
I think Dan Gilbert spent all of his Lebron money on skyscrapers and Detroit Venture Partners for one. Pete Karmanos for two.
Yes.
See also:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/can-pittsburgh-save-de...

http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/changing-gears-what-det...

Honestly though, all of these studies harp on different things that Pittsburgh has done than Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, etc... but the main thing that Pittsburgh has that pulls it through is fine research universities (mostly CMU and Pitt). Detroit doesn't have that, and it's hard to build. Yes, Ann Arbor is only 45 minutes away... but it's really worlds away.
(I went to CMU and UMich, CMU is much more Pittsburgh than UMich is Detroit)
Synchronization and timing issues are two different things, though, and synchronization is implicit if you get the timing right, unlike emulating hardware on software. The timing aspect of it is just a matter of properly emulating the behavior of the chip; not easy, but significantly easier to get right than synchronization in software.

But that said, FPGAs are by no means a silver bullet. There are a billion problems with them, mainly due to the terrible development tools, at least the ones that someone not doing this stuff professionally can afford.
San Francisco vs. Berlin?
What do you think? Is the whole discussion about co-existence, confrontation or reorientation?

See this post:
http://www.6wunderkinder.com/blog/2011/08/09/founders-stand-up-the-anti-copycat-revolution-starts-now/

How about a "twin start" for startups, launching equally 50% of a team in SF and Berlin. Working 24h, soaking up the best of every world and using local networks.
Perhaps HR departments are counter-intuitive. Why can't a manager of a department or team hire their own teammate?
Is Detroit really troubled with an unending stream of tourists?
I don't know about other countries, but here in Germany an app called "Whatsapp" was on #1 in the Appstore for the last X months (can't really remember). Everybody is using it and it is cross plattform.

One could easily use Facebook chat (or huddle, or push emails), but we don't. And to get with the theme of the article, I rarely open the normal messaging app and whatsapp (or any other messenger) is just another icon in the launcher which works as a total replacement of SMS ... seamlessly.

iMessage has already lost with working on one plattform only. Apple also promised that facetime would be an open standard, but it doesn't work with any other device yet. If iMessage takes this long to be adopted (if at all) by other manufacturers, than it's of no use ...
Not for me. I'm not anti-social [1], but I have very limited ability to "filter" out surrounding noise and activity.

Actually, to some extent I think I'm simply more aware of the distraction. I recall a classmate's chemistry grades improving significantly after I convinced him to turn off his stereo while he was studying.

People always wonder how I see the things that they missed. (And I get that a lot.) Unfortunately, many seem completely unwilling to accept this aspect of the possible answer.

Nonetheless, if it works for you, it works. I just wish the current, open space dominant culture would be more accepting of my explanation of what works for me.

[1] To the contrary, I seem to be the one who ends up with connections throughout an organization, although they tend to focus on those who have a bit more depth. (I'm not much for the "schmoozing" crowd and superficial conversation -- I absolutely do not care about the latest Adam Sandler movie.)

Contrary to many around me, I'll end up knowing people across divisions, and from HQ down to the plant production floor. Those of us who "get stuff done" tend to find each other, and to rely on each other when the bureaucracy is demanding the impossible.
For the stupid people (me), can anyone tell me what the "urbex" after Detroit means? I didn't see it on the website.
Double Dip: Would China Bail Out the Global Economy Again?
And the "fullscreen" button in the top right will "properly" maximize every app that sports it.
Except for a later tweet saying some are involved but not all:

"#OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it."
What bugs me about the poverty-porn you see from Detroit is that if you really wanted to, you could do the same documentation in the wealthiest segments of Los Angeles, just by going a few blocks over.

If I really wanted to, I could take my DSLR over to Canoga Park in Los Angeles and make it seem like I'm in a third world country. It's less than a mile from my home.
I can't do serious dev work on a laptop. Too underpowered. Everyone here gets a laptop, but it's for working in bed, or on the road, at your child's birth, etc... But for day to day dev work, a high-end workstation is a fair bit more productive. At least for the type of dev work we do.
A Hippocampus Anatomy Game
I expressed similar thoughts in the past: http://programmingzen.com/2010/12/28/give-your-programmers-p... It just doesn't make sense to cheap out on these things. If you do because you can't afford it for every developer, then you don't have enough money to employ that many developers.
Please tell me the beetles are already dead before being served.
I like the ESL comment: that's cute. But to your broader point I ask, "Why?" If I can comment in an online discussion group or I can post on an online discussion group, why is the relation of my temper any different than the relation of my post?

The OED is useful here: it literally defines in as equal to on in the second definition of the prepositional form of 'in'. There's an extended history of the relation between 'in' and 'on', which includes the Latinate source of the Saxon term, its evolution in Old and Middle English, and its use today. Suffice it to say, the distinction is not a trivial one, and 'in' and 'on' are often interchangeable.
Downtown Detroit, where many of the pictures were taken, is actually much safer than the US on average. But people would rather live in a sprawling suburb.
>constantly fiddling with your Linux machine for it to continue working flawlessly. Upgrades tend to break things,

Eh? I've run Slackware for years and it works fine, including upgrades. No fiddling either.

Maybe you're thinking of Ubuntu and extrapolating that to all Linuxes.
Like beer?
Open RoR Positions + Telecommute + Bacon = BLISS
I have 4 open RoR positions. Here’s a quick description: • Open to telecommuting • Very stable, 40+ hour positions • Challenging application in a complete open source environment • International app that has hundreds of thousands of users • Flexible work schedule

And if you've read this far, you should also know that these positions come with all the free BACON you can eat! :)

These positions will go fast. Please email me: lwarren@tekmasters.com
New in dev channel's DevTools: Disable Cache (Chromium)
HTML5 Boilerplate v2.0 released
Ask HN: My site is super slow, how do you increase page load times?
Hey HN,
Me and my co-founder are about to launch Thirsty.com, we are not too experienced with scaling and page load times and it shows :(
Do you guys have any ideas for us on what we should do?
We already added cloudflare, compressed the CSS file, but besides that we don't have any other ideas.
We are a rails app.
The OpenGL orange book has helped me tremendously http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HMJYC4/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp...
In the US, we also have squatters rights, but the more common thing is a thug claims to be the "property manager", and rents space to many bums for $10/month. Smartly, he signs 2 years leases with the bums, and because of strong renters rights laws, the actual owner has to respect the leases. Now if the owner wants to rehab the building, he must go through a legal eviction process, or buyout the leases from all the squatters.
My brothers run a property service company that maintains foreclosed homes in Detroit and parts northwest of it. When they need extra help, I ride along with them.

Detroit and Pontiac are not the kinds of places that one would care to go by oneself, even for muscular young men. On more than one occasion, we would be approached by "youths" (one of them wasn't even that young) who were clearly drug dealers. One of my brothers confirmed this to me. The smell of marijuana smoke was another tell. Once, we were leaving a property just as several police cars were converging on a group of huddled young men. Those young men had been giving us the evil eye and my brother hurried us out of there.

In some houses, the mold grew as tufts of fur spackling the walls in patches bigger than a man's hand. Garbage, broken furniture, and other debris was piled higher than our waists in some houses; the previous tenants had been mentally ill hoarders. We hiked through those rooms more than we walked into them.

Last winter, we found a house where ice covered the basement up to a foot below the roof. I stepped on the ice on the stairs going down and my foot cracked through. I missed a cold and putrid bath by catching the walls just in time.

When they first went into that business, my brothers were assured that -- sooner or later -- they would come upon a drug house or a dead body.

I live in the suburbs. I do not want to live in Detroit.
I'm surprised you didn't also cite his claim that "there actually is no left-wing" in America, and the implication in "Obama or our centrist parties" that the American left is really just the natural order of things.

All-in-all, the post you reacted to is a remarkable example of political blinders. Although I'm just guessing, it seems to be exactly what pundits are talking about when they refer to the Internet "echo chamber".

I can have a productive conversation with someone who disagrees with me, but understands the philosophies on which my ideas are based. Talking with someone who believes that there are no other legitimate philosophies is just wasting air.
From "The Godfather", about the cycles in their "industry":

MICHAEL

How bad do you think it's gonna be?

CLEMENZA

Pretty goddamn bad. Probably all the other Families will line up against us. That's alright -- this thing's gotta happen every five years or so -- ten years -- helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one.
Yeah, that isn't good, but just means location scouts and film makers will have to get creative, now there is a real challenge for an entrepreneur.
This is exactly what I am looking for =)
The MBA is probably better. If you want a laptop, thinness is better than grunt. If you want power, just get a desktop.

As for issues, you will have them. Stuff that was easy will be hard (though home brew is a half decent apt get replacement) and things that were hard will now be easy. But the change will feel sucky, for a while.

If you feel frustrated, there is always virtual box.

Oh, and check out the font rendering. Some people find Apple fonts hard to read. They look better (they are antialiased, not snapped to the nearest pixel) but some people find that less sharp, and hard to read.
Given that "window" is the top level object in JavaScript:

location === window.location === self.location

and that objects are also associative arrays:

oneObject.aMethod === oneObject['aMethod'] === oneObject['aMet' + 'hod']

you can write infinite variant of the same function call.
I know all about that city, and let me tell you I seriously doubt it is anything close to the opportunity that exists elsewhere.

Just because 'some' money is coming in doesn't mean it will come out of the slump that _IS_ Detroit. Between scandals (do i really need to cite?), poor getting even poorer (which is insane), the violence[1][2], and people leaving [3], it makes it a hard choice for anyone to want and stay. The real unemployment rate is hovering around 50%[4] for goodness sake!

It will take years and hundreds of times more money that is coming in to get that city back. Until that happens the city is not going anywhere but down.

Though houses are being given away for $1000[4], and stats that show it is really cheap to live in Detroit (really, i wonder why) doesn't mean it's a good deal!

If your a hacker, debug your situation. Get out before you get caught in a segfault or infinite loop.

A good place to start investigating: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/06/29/the-b...

[1] http://www.freep.com/article/20110727/NEWS01/107270448/Despi...

[2] http://www.detnews.com/article/20110808/METRO01/108080359/De...

[3] http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/24/vanishing-city-the-story...
I haven't even seen the 2011 stats yet, but 2000-2009 clearly showed a huge decline. I wouldn't be surprised if 2011's numbers are accelerated.

[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/detroits-unemployme...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190448090457649...
I think if people were more cautious, like this guy, the summers wouldn't be quite so crazy, and the winters wouldn't be quite so bad.
Each year a large number of people come to Detroit from around the world to photograph and then publish either articles or entire books on the "ruin porn" in Detroit. Some of these books sell for a pretty penny.

But a number of the subject buildings in these photos have been redeveloped over the years: http://www.dtownie.com/2011/08/10/the-mecca-of-ruin-porn
Stocks are pointless, 401ks are dropping, inflation is high...

Sounds like a good time to spend your money on a new company with actual profit potential.
‪Sensing Surfaces with GelSight‬‏
urban exploration
I've been running Kindle for PC on Wine, but this web app is definitely nicer.
I was confused at first, but I think you mean blackouts. This is especially true for the MLB where the local team retains the rights to the broadcast. Although the NBA lockout is going to be killer for this season too.
Unfortunately, not just yet... But - That's definitely a feature we're planning to add soon!
/me inspect element -> delete node

/me happy

Odd, that FF wraps... maybe I'll look into it later today, I kinda wonder why.
How much of that corn grown is for human consumption, and how much becomes cattle feed?
I see what you did there.

I totally agree with this sentiment, and totally think that it's only a matter of time until we need to start dealing with the consequences of not being prepared for the "Winter". I'm also interested in seeing which players end up being "part of the NightWatch" and keep going because it's what they love and pledged their dedication to, and which players are only in it to play the "Game" and see whom can get the most money, popularity, recognition, etc. Also, as a fan of the books I loved the analogy between the Ice and Fire saga and entrepreneurship this days.
I've always viewed Social Security more like catastrophic insurance than a future income stream. What do you get out of insurance? Hopefully, nothing because if you find yourself needing to exercise it, something has not gone according to plan.
Just a plug for my project, but I gather a lot of the new startups and projects that launch in my weekly Hacker Newsletter (http://www.hackernewsletter.com). That actually was the reason I started it, because I enjoy the "Show HN" posts a lot and love to give feedback on them.

However... I have noticed a trend this year of a lot of announcements that only have a email sign-up form and not much substance. For those I have pretty much stopped including them as I don't think they provide much value.
Definitely not just you - I like sharing an office, but it does depend completely on who you are sharing an office with.