skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Late in life is after 18? Where in the world did you get this number from? Are you saying that if you're 20 or older you can't learn anything else?

Yes it's true that a lot of programmers started early but please you are making the correlation == causation fallacy here. There's NO proof that starting earlier means you're better. I've met some really good programmers who started later in life because they thought they wanted to do something else, and when they found programming, it clicked, and then went crazy with it.

Time spent doesn't mean you're better after that time. Time spent trying to get better DOES mean you'll get better over time, and that has nothing to do with how early you start.

This also isn't only for programming but any profession.
You're right by definition - TileMill doesn't serve maps. Right now it generates them, and TileStream serves generated maps. It's extremely fast and stable, but inherently limiting.

That's not to say this won't change in the future :)
Burnout is very real, happened to me before. You need the vacation time to decompress. The thing is, you can't take vacation time when you're leading a startup.
Even though the term 'beschlagnahmt / confiscated' suggests otherwise, only sale is illegal but ownership is legal.
Guerilla Cyber Warfare
The Freelance Surge Is the Industrial Revolution of Our Time
what are all these browser 'version numbers' they keep talking about?
Using Paypal to collect payments is probably the quickest way to get a startup up and running. Even for recurring payments paypal works quite well. In fact for users who already have a paypal account, signup would be easier than entering credit card details into a form you host.

Also I think there's a better chance your users will keep their credit card details up to date as they'll be using their Paypal account for other things. e.g. ebay.
I guess it's all subjective, but 100+ employees sounds big to me.
I don't get out of bed to write code for less than $500K.
Lexington/Boston/Cambridge, MA. Full time and summer internships.

I work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory (http://www.ll.mit.edu), a research and development center run by MIT that does work for the government. My group has about 20 people in it and does application security and reverse engineering. Knowledge of things like assembly, operating systems, and systems are pluses but not required. It's great if you have some experience in those things, but if you can code I want to talk to you. The pluses:

* Awesome workplace culture. We're a 9-5 shop, you pick your laptop, and you can order any books that you need.

* We provide a lot of training. We send you to conferences, including Blackhat and Defcon. We also reimburse tuition at MIT. Last semester my office mate took operating systems with Robert Morris.

* We sponsor relocation and have multiple positions we want to fill immediately.

You do need to be a US citizen and you will have to get a security clearance. I'm happy to talk to you about how the clearance process works and answer any questions you have! If you're local I'll buy you a cup of coffee while we talk it over. You really can't waste my time.

Email: tsally@mit.edu
I have an OLPC XO-1, I used it every week. It is my favorite laptop. I have very good net access with it and use this little gem for my server maintenance needs... cool little thing. If OLPC would do another give-1-get-1, I would pick three.

Now, I want do a little bulk order of Raspberry Pis when they are available and see what I can do with them for my community.

About the downvotes, you COULD buy an OLPC for $200 during the give 1 get 1 phase. I got mine, if you were truly interested in these projects, you would knew that. You're just a flamer...
> After I started using NoScript, I was amazed at how many sites load Javascript from other sites.

Not only that, but I was surprised how much paranoia-induced plugins like NoScript and RequestPolicy induce paranoia themselves. And not entirely without cause, either: sites that load 5 different analytics systems are not uncommon, and I've seen 10 different ad providers on a single page.
Startup Genomes and Founder Genomes
Thx for the post,
still, the first thing I would focus on in the interview is what the candidate has done before and I would bet on that. Even if he/she is a student, and all you're looking on is student portfolio

"Tech interviews should center on algorithmic complexity, abstraction and isolation, and how the stuff you learn in CS101 actually applies in the real world"

I am not in any way connected with this startup but the nice way to check the above would be to use codility http://codility.com/
I don't think we disagree. I didn't say you were likely to become a GREAT programmer without reading, or even that it is far easier with formal training from competent teachers.

My point, rather, was to say that for a great many jobs, jobs that most of us here on HN might turn our nose up at, but programming jobs nonetheless, you can survive without that reading.

I would even go on to say that the vast majority of programmers out there doing the job day to day, perfectly adequately no less, have never read any of the tomes we hold so dear.

Could they be more effective if they had? Sure. Could their processes be improved? Absolutely. And I'd be the first to say they should. I do want to live in a utopian world where everybody reads HN, cares about worst case runtime and stresses over the density and color of their code.

But realistically, as in any other field, only a small fraction of people are interested in learning their field to that degree, and the rest are perfectly fine being (merely?) adequate. That's ok because there are a great many jobs perfectly suited for them.

But again, the point of the article is not how to create the next K&R. My goals are much simpler, much more modest. I just want functional programmers, at the basest level. And as you said, at the beginning, there is just not substitute for time in front of a keyboard.
One in 25 business leaders may be a psychopath, study finds
The binding effect of digital and physical worlds
I'm consistently impressed by the work DevSeed puts out with such a small team. What's the secret? :-)
I started programming when I was about 8, but I'd never admit it because that means I've been programming for over 30 years and I'm still this awful at it.
What are you talking about? I've met plenty of excellent programmers who started when they were 18/19. I'm sure it's possible to learn later as well.

Programming well is hard, but not that hard.

Also, Debian contributors aren't a really good group to take samples out of...
Except that in most agencies, designers don't code. So they spend 8-10 hours a day doing design.

Learning how to code does enhance work but it doesn't mean that you'll necessarily be a better designer than someone who doesn't know how to code but has a pretty firm grasp of what the web can do based on their experience using the medium.

I've worked with top tier designers in NYC who have probably never touched a line of code. And personally, I'd rather higher a highly talented designer and teach them the ropes (if they even need it) than a good designer/developer. Because quite frankly, it is extremely difficult to find individuals who are killer at both design and development. That's why most agencies have a pretty rigid division of labor.
Promociones volaris
With all due respect and without being snarky, your steps are wrong. Try these ones:

1. Register a business (Ltd, LLC, etc)

2. Open a Business Bank Account

3. Implement Paypal to get yourself up and running,

4. Prove that there's a market for your product, people will pay for it, people will continue to pay for it, you don't have lots of chargebacks, you're capable of managing sensible customer relations, and generally are as small a risk as possible for any merchant account. As a bonus, this also validates your business plan before you invest too much time in irrelevant admin.

5. Go and talk to your bank. And every other bank out there. Shop around, shop around, shop around.

(As an aside, read David Mytton's blog: http://blog.boxedice.com/2009/05/20/taking-payments-online-m... )

6. Profit!

EDIT: fixed formatting
Facebook's Like Button Extension in Chrome Store
An early hire at a startup has enough impact to be considered an executive, regardless of role. If someone's not executive material, no hire.
I agree about the need to migrate over to Node.

Separately from Akshell I'm working on Common Node (http://olegp.github.com/common-node/) which uses node-fibers to implement a number of (synchronous) CommonJS proposals. This now allows for a Rails like, synchronous framework to be built for Node and RingoJS.

If it makes sense in the future, I might also port some of the Akshell libraries to run on top of Common Node.
I don't know if there is any correlation between the age someone started coding and the quality of the code they produce, but you can be sure that someone who programmed as a kid enjoys the practice[1], which is orthogonal and also important.

[1] or at least used to enjoy it
It's a sufficiently well-observed situation that Freenode even mentions it in their guidelines: http://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml#supportburnout
Randomizing is not always bad, you may just run into a good-looking name that ticks quite well -- often no more than this is needed.
Useless is definitely too strong.

What's the percentage of users who manually change their font size? Is it the majority? Because if it's not, then I'd hardly call it "useless."
You can still manipulate smart employees via their psychological/emotional weaknesses to get them to work for a poor-mediocre deal. In fact I think this is the most common path.
Doing that over HTTP (not HTTPS) is a fairly bad idea.
Palo Alto, CA - Rails Developer (CTO /co-founder?) (local preferred, but will consider other U.S.)

Stealth start-up focused on a consumer finance vertical that's very large like Mint.com's, but distinctly different and, we believe, more interesting / subject to disruption. The initial site/app is nearly completed and we're close to launch. Our non-local lead developer, pursuant to known prior commitment, became CTO at a local (for him) start-up in an unrelated area. We're looking for an experienced rails developer immediately to fill his shoes to take company to launch and beyond. Ideally, this role would lead to co-founder / CTO role. Looking for very strong rails / jQuery / MySQL expertise / experience, test-driven development style and excitement about transforming an industry in a way that helps a lot of people. If interested, please inquire at workfor@finpicture.com.
There is one important fact in our life.

We've got to love what we do, to do it right. Otherwise it won't be possible to have the job well done.

It may be done with no errors, but without the passion, it will never be the same.

If a good chef enjoys what he is doing he becomes a "great" chef.

Anyone in your situation, needs to look a way to change, the direction of his life.
conclusion: never scale before you have a gun pointed at your head
There are other JS FSM libraries, but I ran into this one recently, which has an online demo:

The blogpost about it:

http://codeincomplete.com/posts/2011/8/19/javascript_state_m...

The online demo:

http://codeincomplete.com/posts/2011/8/19/javascript_state_m...
SEEKING FREELANCER - Remote only

iOS/Cocoa Touch

I'm an indie developer, and my workload is outpacing number of hours in the day. I'm looking for a freelance iOS developer to help take some of the work off my shoulders.
I'd like to do a set number of hours per month, not too many so a nights-and-weekends deal would be okay.

Experience in iPad and iPhone development, Cocoa Touch, UIKit, Xcode, and so on. I need someone who is experienced enough to have shipped an app, either direct to the app store, or to a client. You need to be able to hit the ground running. Also, I use Git for VCS and Lighthouse for bug tracking, so experience with either of those is a plus. Experience consuming web services via REST, and experience parsing JSON and XML responses is a big plus as well.

Please email your experience (and a resume if you'd like) to info@pocketsevens.net. Just tell me about yourself and the work you've done. Links are helpful too. Thanks!
I've used Paypal before and they've been nothing but hassle. Getting your money down from Paypal is often the hard part. The random freezes, and goodness knows what else.
There might be physical reasons behind burnouts.

A personal example -- a simple bacteria infection in a tooth, which didn't give any normal problems like pain etc. Allergies can make you tired -- and some (well, at least mine) food allergies won't have much throat effects, which makes them hard to identify yourself.

So check up on physical health, too.
The Curse of Dimensionality is a key piece of knowledge to keep in mind anytime you're building some software that searches/sorts/filters/etc. a large dataset and your users keep asking for things like "but I want to search based on <some new thing>!"

Someone has to be the gatekeeper on your dimensions.
Google and Fox partner to sponsor GOP presidential debate
Oh, I agree. I was lucky to have $5,000. Compared to the $80,000 being asked it seemed like a godsend. But I think the entry point should be free so that it promotes startups. :)
San Francisco, CA

http://www.life360.com/jobs

Life360 is turning smartphones into the ultimate safety device. We could use your help giving over 4 million families reassurance and peace of mind.

Contact: alex@life360.com
That's selection bias. I'm guessing you don't know wide amounts of people who learned to code something real after finding VBA was a few miles short of where they needed to go.

Work in a non-computer industry, you'll see several people who learn to code at 25+ or even 35+. They often don't take huge amounts of self esteem out of this (it's just another thing they do at work) and don't go hog wild for "geek culture", but they program nonetheless. They often think people who do go far into that stuff will be contemptuous of them, so may be hiding it from you. I know I have a reputation of being nice to everyone but liars, and have had lots of questions on this stuff from random professionals about their personal coding

There is little that is special about this thing we do in the grand scope of things that humans do.

BTW, professional assistant/secretarial types love them some VBA/bash scripting once they figure out what it is (a way to do less repetitive work). I've seen 3 take up automation of excel or word.
have you ever asked bad programmers when they started?
Cheap, non-slow phone? Lets face it, the phone market is full of slow Android phones because of cost-cutting and Android is something of a beast (no hardware accel until version 2.3, needs lots of ram, etc). The phone in the article is a dual core monster. At $310 its going to be $50 or $75 on contract. Thats a nice price point for feature-phone users looking to upgrade and not having a terrible Android experience with phones like that beat-up Optimus.

If we can get a $50 smartphone on the market that doesn't completely stink then we're going to really see a big move towards android.
The anatomy of a successful B2B web video series
What's to stop some consumer electronics manufacturer from buying Raspberry Pis and building them into a device? I'd actually like to do that myself, but if they're selling the boards at cost, that wouldn't be sustainable.
Very good post there. Sometimes of course it is corrupt as well, and all for good intentions. As long as we are doing something for appearances sake, might as well help our buddies out. Locally I see these government funded business incubators and business parks built. Conference room, fax machine, staff to answer a bank of phones and pretend it is a real company. Business park construction contract goes to this guy's cousin who is a friend of the guy who donates. His niece will be the secretary. We have a connection that has some chairs he picked up from a dumpster, let's just make up a receipt that says we bought them new for $1100 each. Hurray, we are creating jobs. Even have a couple of tenants for the new building, there is a guy whose dream it is to own an ice cream cart, a lady that wants to open her own nail salon and start making more than minimum wage working for others, and an old guy who has been printing coupon flyers with advertisements for local businesses out of his garage. They are incubating, see? Soon this will all pay off somehow. If not, well those construction jobs were real jobs, so it worked, success. Government initiatives really do work. Jobs were created and that's a fact.
I think the key word here is "intensity".

For example, it is typical in martial arts to hear people bragging that they did Kung-Fu for 5 years or Karate since age 10. But if the training was nothing more than a 30 min warmup once or twice a week at a downtown studio with "World of Karate" sign, it is actually worse than not having any training at all. People with such training track genuinely overestimate their ability and put them self through unnecessary health risks.

Someone who followed peer-reviewed journals on software and design and implemented complex system in a 5 year span is simply going to be better anyone who did HTML/Javascript websites for 20 years, no matter what their age difference is or when they started programming.
Measure Your Google+ Influence With PlusClout
I say nuke the bar from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
I use them extensively for Appointment Reminder. In addition to modeling the business logic pretty intuitively (particular types of input can cause an appointment to go from :scheduled to :confirmed, :confirmed appointments should not generate additional reminder calls but :scheduled ones should, etc), they're virtually indispensable for doing Twilio applications. I'll have more to say about that at TwilioConf (and will probably post my presentation afterwards). If you do not model call state with a state machine, anything more complicated than "Hit 1 to talk to sales, hit 2 to talk to support" turns into an ugly ball of spaghetti code with lots of sharp edges, poor testability, and crushing amounts of technical debt getting in the way of maintaining or extending anything.

After I got more comfortable with actually using them for real work (as opposed to "cute toy from CS class"), I started seeing FSMs everywhere I looked in my projects.

For one thing, they make analytics a lot easier to slot into your system. For example, I record the fact of interesting events like e.g. purchases and send it off to KissMetrics or internal analytics stuff for graphing/reporting/auditing/etc. That gets done in my controllers, and it results in a whole lot of duplicative code which I often forget to write. (It's easy to miss that e.g. if I credit somebody manually for a purchase that should count as a purchase, even though it is under admin functions rather than the purchasing pathway. After all, if I forget to write that log code, all that happens is my stats get silently borked.)

This could get fairly easily solved by having the logging code aware of the change in the user's status, which is about three lines if you have a state machine, and won't put the logging logic in 12 different places in your app or cause you to have to pollute the user model with a big ol' case statement of doom. Plus, if you want to log more stuff, you naturally go into the log logic and make it do more things when the right events bubble to it, rather than chasing down a) who "owns" the event or b) where the event happens.
I whole heartedly agree. :) I do some of this as is but I need to get better at it.
Overage hours? Job-less risk? Career risk and opportunity cost? What? You seem to be including those numbers as his 'cost', are you assuming he's not getting benefits, or that he's going to work only 40 hours a week at this mythical 100k / year job?

There's nothing at all mythical about a 100k / year job where you work 40 hours a week. There are plenty of coders out there making at least that much by pumping out enterprise Java 9 to 5 for insurance companies and banks. You don't even have to be very good, you just need to not completely suck, stick around for long enough, and know when and how to ask for more money...hell, if you go the consulting route, you can make that much on a 20 hour work week at $100 an hour, which is not very difficult to get to if you're good and pick the right clients.

I'd love for someone to prove me wrong by pointing out a startup that's given 20% to their first employee after raising a seed round.

You won't likely find that. But what you will find is startups that are willing to offer their early employees wages fairly close to market rates (though to be fair, we don't know in this situation whether the person in question's salary was near typical market rates, we just know that he was deciding whether to take a 50% cut in it), which is (if I'm reading correctly) what the article is suggesting people look for rather than settling for shitty wages and delusions of Facebook-level growth.

I can't think of many people in real life that have ever seen much more than a nice bonus as the result of employee-level ownership in a company, and I think that's the lesson to take away from this - equity should not usually be a deciding factor in your employment decisions, nobody's typically going to offer you enough for it to matter very much.
I'm not advocating using them long term, I'm advocating using them to get yourself off the ground. There's no setup cost, and integration is fairly trivial.

It almost doesn't matter whether you can get your money down from Paypal. It matters whether you can persuade people to hand over their credit card. Not much point worrying about anything else until you can prove that, and paypal is a very cheap & easy way to manage that.
AOL Mail, AIM, MapQuest and other odd services seem like a good fit for IAC [1]. Really, IAC might be able to buy the whole lot and rebrand itself as the new AOL. Barry Diller seems to have figured out how to efficiently run a hodgepodge of unrelated internet content providers and services as unglamorous as Ask.com and Match.com while AOL has failed with arguably better properties.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAC_(company)
Another point is you don't need a business bank account to be a sole trader. The business bank account has fees attached to it, which is why a bank wants you to use it rather than the free alternative.

This makes it ideal if you want to 'bootstrap' some ideas to see if they are worthy of pursuing - without the pressure of investors, business plans etc. You don't even have to register with the tax people until a few months into a business.
Solar company that Obama visited will shut down
I'm curious here: would HNers please share their stories or knowledge of people who are good programmers, and who started 'late' in their lives? (Say - 18 and older, as an arbitrary metric).

Of course, what a good programmer means would probably vary from person to person - I'd appreciate it if you mention in passing what you mean by it.
SEEKING WORK (remote & local - Dili, Timor Leste)(previously in Geneva, Switzerland)

Great Java server developer, I worked on & maintained a 250GB/day recording service for CERN's LHC. I have created a few Java GUI applications there as well.

I am also an good Objective-C dev, previously in my spare time but more professionally since May. I have an iPhone + iPad app in the App Store (http://www.displayator.com).

I have some Python and PHP experience as well as some minor app-engine experience.

personal website: http://www.niconomicon.net

github: http://github.com/nicolasH

contact: nicolas@niconomicon.net
I will be following up as the business furthers on. I hope that some of my experiences will push people and help people build their own businesses.
Sony Ericsson sticking with Android, feels just fine with Google owning Motorola