skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A friend of mine is a teacher and the stories are similar. Granted she teaches at a school where she is largely dealing with spoiled rich brats (and by that I mostly mean the parents, to say nothing of the kids). Still I'm not surprised that stories are typical.

For their part my parents largely stayed out of my education. I was not a good student but all the teachers said I was a very smart kid. My parents were satisfied with that but always did whatever they could to encourage me to be a better student. In the end though, nothing really changed until I chose to be a better student and work harder. The life lessons of being responsible for my own situation and my own education stuck with me and were good for me.

As for teachers heaping all of the blame on defensive parents. I'd suggest they would do good to remember many parents were students once too. They remember just how traumatic school can be (as it often was for me) and how vicious and horrible a teacher can seem when they decide to single out a student for punishment. I can hardly blame some of them for acting defensively. Stop the "poor me" routine and try some empathy instead. My parents were perfectly happy to let me learn my own life lessons, but occasionally a teacher decided to make it their life's mission to "fix" me. Those experiences were usually terrible. In the end the best teachers simply chose to believe in me and looked extra disappointed when I didn't try hard. That was usually punishment enough.

Honestly, I'd say the biggest problems with education these days are not the parent, or the teachers but rather are systematic. I think we'd all be better off focusing on that if we wan't it to improve, rather than parents blaming the teachers and vice-versa.
I use it to receive mails from my GF on mobile ;)
It's important to note that these things are common in the private equity world, not the angel investment or venture capital world. The VC world has totally different tricks, like 3x participating preferred, "independent" board members, collusion, and option pools.

Also, if the PE firm is using a 20% discount rate to evaluate the merits of vendor finance, they are likely fooling themselves more than they are fooling the founders.
Zagat got Googled
Regarding the noise: yes, there are a lot of stories I aren't interested in. The problem is that the stories I'm interested in and the ones you are are probably different.

TechCrunch isn't important except as a source for documenting history of tech startups. I find that useful - I think it is good to show how attitudes to Google, Apple and Facebook change over time, and Techcrunch reflects that.

It is also important in closing the loop between companies and investors.

Beyond those things? I dunno - you are probably right. But that doesn't excuse the hate people seem to have.
Duncan was based in Perth, Australia for most of the time he was writing for TC. I met him at a Brisbane conference around that time, and he was travelling a fair amount (Perth to San Francisco is a LONG trip, even if you only make it a few times a year).

Since leaving TC he's started and sold one business (Inquisitor) and started another (Medacity), and also gone through a lot of personal stuff (which he's been open about on his blog, but I won't bother repeating). So I suspect leaving TC was about focusing on business opportunities and personal life much closer to home, rather than a fall out with Arrington or other causes for bias.
Did you link to the wrong article?
Raspberry Pi demos $25 PC running 1080p video, promises CD-quality audio
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but next to my desk is a machine about 10 times more powerful than what this paper describes.

The main issues with the setup in the paper: latency between nodes. Gigabit Ethernet is just not good for latency. To nitpick some more, Virtex-4 is getting old.
This one is actually kind of fun when you consider this: Most feel MG Siegler is the heir to Duncan Riley's TechCrunch writing style. So this is kind of like Future Siegler giving commentary on Present Day Siegler
USPS will insure cash up to $5,000 for standard domestic mail, and up to $25,000 for registered mail:

http://www.snopes.com/legal/postal/sendcash.asp
Seems like this will make for an interesting synergy.
It sounds like a smaller and/or curved keyboard might be a physical alternative, rather than learn a new layout e.g. the expensive Kinesis contoured devices.

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/contoured.htm
You are assuming that perpetual copyright is beneficial to society.

Time limited copyright (say 10 years) almost certainly is beneficial, perpetual copyright is harmful both culturally and in the long run economically.
based on my visual observation, apart from lisp, python seems to skew furthest away from average. Its heatmap is much cooler, with less extremes. I wonder why.
Google Buys Local Restaurant Reviews And Recommendations Company Zagat
I love that article. One of the most unappreciated pieces on America today IMHO.

Sorry this comment doesn't really contribute anything but I'm thrilled to see someone else remembering this little gem.
I was debating getting a MBP for my next machine. I currently have a dell laptop (middle tier performance) and a customer desktop rig that is several years old now. I was debating the high end laptop route with a nice docking station setup. Vs cheaper laptop and custom rig at home.
I found their reporting of the story very off-putting. To be more precise, it was a hatchet job.
Social Media Marketing Directory
Old idea - new quality.
Not sure why it's needed, too. It could also restrict the rw/ro toggle to the init_rickroll and exit_rickroll functions.
Unless you put all your code in a big closure to make a correct $ in function scope:

(function ($)
{

}) (jQuery);
And on Dvorak, all of the yellow letters except the "R" are on the home row.... (R is on the O.)
Yeah, I enjoyed the irony of the phrase "Its like they are stoned and watching the world pass them by in a daze". Android? G+? This guy doesn't get that Google isn't focussed on cloud computing as a product (App Engine never seemed anything more than a token offering to me).
Confessions of a Sriracha Fanatic
OTOH, bitbucket has free private hosting and git doesn't (AFAIK). I think that is a crucial point for a beginner who is just learning to code and doesn't want to a) pay money, or b) have his ugly code be visible to the world.
but the <?php ?> don't seem to be used too much on this heatmap.
Arrington seems like a jackass. Why anyone should really care about techcrunch is beyond me. Sure it gets you exposure but there are plenty of much more respectable blogs out there. Also its AOL, they're shit. Not sure if anyone remembers this http://www.thefastertimes.com/news/2011/06/16/aol-hell-an-ao...

I'm sure we'll be better off without gossip on Arrington or techcrunch.
Canada asked US to be put on copyright blacklist.
This is pretty cool! It's nice to see some good work being done on this general reconfigurable stuff.

For an interesting but only tangentially related product, I've been playing with one of these http://rtds.com/index/index.html this week. It's an FPGA driven simulator specialized for power grid stuff. It is fast and quite fun. It allows general programming within the domain, but not true general purpose stuff. I'm sure similar technologies exist for other fields and I was thinking "Someone has to be generalizing this right?". It's nice to see that thought being done here.

Fun fact for startup people: the company is tiny headcount wise but has quite a large market penetration -- it's a good testament to what a passionate, dedicated and highly skilled team can do when they get to it.
Rochester, NY?
I'm another voice recommending that you sit down with someone who works in security :)

For instance, right now what's to prevent someone brute-forcing login and password combinations?

Likewise, even if it is the user's fault for having lax password security, for something that involves direct money transfer, it'd be nice if you could send a warning or block an account if it's accessed from, say, Russia when it's always previously been accessed from the States.

Also, what if Heroku gets hacked, or has a undisclosed security hole, or someone bribes one of their employees? You can't protect against everything, but what can you do to minimize the risk?
Oh, you have -6 karma. I'll disregard all future comments from you.
11 New Startups from Betaspring Accelerator at Demo Day Today
Not to flame, but a genuine question - so was there a plane that hit Pentagon? All released photos were odd and ambiguous at best.
I really like yours but is there any reason why you don't add more elements to the page (icons, images, different text sizes)?
Apart from whether or not this is fair, I really hate the EU taking any part in this. I know their authority is not well-defined, but in my view they are overreaching. I've flipped from pro-EU to anti-EU on my voting agenda.
Or you could do a fake interview like mine http://www.mockuptiger.com/mockuptiger-interview

Just keep experimenting. First exhaust all the tried and tested methods and then experiment
Drive metal stakes right through them. I don't know if this will make it impossible to recover data, but it'd be difficult.
Maybe a silly question, but can you abuse WebGL for lets say multi-channel audio processing (byte array, data URI)?
This is a very interesting buy. Obviously Google are looking to get something more than crowdsourced opinions on Google Places, etc.- I can't say I blame them.

I wonder what this means for things like the Zagat book. I'm sure in the short term they'll continue, but the Google-y way would be to remove all the 'hard copy' stuff in time.
Best Wealth Creation System in Existence with FR**
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition

http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/
This woman probably uses Twilio
I really like Macs, but it's ultimately about your preferences. I was very focused on getting a *nix machine (have coded on Unix since starting 2 years ago), but didn't want to spend time setting up drivers and solving hardware issues. So I went with a Mac.

What do you develop for? Are your tasks memory- or CPU-intensive? How often do you work away from home? Do you prefer to replace your computer often, or do you run your laptops into the ground? I ran my last Macbook into the ground (and use it as a media server now), and I expect to do the same for this MBP.

For what its worth, if I wanted to roll my own Linux laptop I would've bought a Lenovo. I hear they're engineered very well and weigh almost nothing.
Man, I'd love to get my hands on one. I have an Airport Express right now for streaming music from my Linux box to my home theater system, but it's just not working out.

All I need is a Linux-supporting little toy like this with audio out and WiFi (and which can decompress an MP3 in realtime).
Get a MBP. You can always install and boot Windows natively w/Boot Camp if you need to or if you're a gamer. It'll run Windows, natively, better than any other hardware you can buy. The displays are gorgeous. You won't need a dock but I would recommend investing in a Griffin Elevator stand.
Eclipse, Netbeans and IntelliJ all have strong user/fan-bases. Those might be a good place to start. (note: IntelliJ is only free for some editions and types of development).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXahEYJX9-g

Me drawing some grass, sky, sun then house on the ipad.

The box on the wall is 2' by 4'
Why is it depressing?
Where do you live? If you're in East London you might want to give hubbub.co.uk a try (disclaimer: I'm there lead developer).

We do really good food, 1-hour delivery windows, and same day deliveries for no extra if you order before noon.
Try a spiral staircase instead of a straight tower. It takes the same amount of material once you remove any scaffolding. You don't need to jump off and die, and you can return to the top and build a larger or more interesting beacon (such as a lava ball, a pixel art sign, or a huge glass observatory) at a later date.

Another thing I like to do is, once I've gotten just to the edge of sight range from my current base of operations, find a local high spot and put up a short cobblestone pillar. Put a torch on top of it and another torch on the side facing home (or two sides if your base is on a diagonal). These navigational beacons extend the range at which you can easily explore without getting lost.
Eclipse works well, is free and has good community support.
Looks like they are pushing into Yelp territory.
Keep digging that moat, Google. As has been the case throughout history, the guy with the biggest moat wins, right? Oh wait, nope, that's not it. It's the guy who figures out how to bypass the moat who wins.

Google, please go back to innovating. People like you because you do new and exciting things, not because you have your hand in every business sector. Giant acquisitions like this and MoMo help nobody.

Edit: I'm not trying to say Google shouldn't protect their business, but I, at least, would prefer them to do it through innovation rather than buying giant companies.
Good to see. Zagat's had problems finding a great business model in the digital world. They've gone through ads, memberships and endless partnerships. Zagat is still the prestige name in local reviews though. This is a great resource for Google's efforts in the local business market.

I love Zagat's core business idea — they were a significant inspiration for our LA Life neighborhood ratings. In fact, I've been looking at opportunities to do similar capsule reviews but creating them using existing reviews from other sites instead of survey data. I have to think this is where they're moving now as a part of Google, but it's not like I'm a Google VP.

This all seems to make sense. The Thomas Bros. map books were ubiquitous in California when I was growing up but have basically been replaced with Google Maps. Now the old burgundy Zagat guidebook is going this way. Glad to see Tim and Nina and their team will have a guiding hand in its replacement.
I like the idea. I'm much rather pick up my stuff than have it delivered. I don't want to wait around at home for the delivery and I don't want to wait in line at the store.

Edit: And as a plus - they could use Amazon like recommendation as customers are "shopping" instead of getting coupons after you finish your shopping - like they do in normal retail stores.
I hope Google can maintain the quality of the Zagat ratings while simultaneously making them freely available – presumably this will be used to compete with Yelp, and I'm hopeful that it'll be useful.
There are a few ways you can look at this 20% discount rate:

* Cost of capital for the fund
* Cost of capital for investors in the fund
* Cost of capital for the business

If you can't earn 15-20% on a business, you really should invest the capital in a less risky investment. Additionally, most PE funds look to double their investments in 5 years. So using a 20% discount rate is somewhat conservative with this in mind.

However, I tend to agree that you wouldn't want to be throwing a 20% discount rate around against yourself in deal. It's certainly not outrageous though. Think of it as opportunity cost too.
Maybe I should do something like that instead of software! What about the cheese market in the United States? Americans are branching out more and more from the limited kinds made here, so it seems like a worthwhile business venture might be to start making some of the European kinds we import.
This thing will sell like hotcakes if they can keep the pricepoint the way it is now.
In reality though enclosing glyphs will not be very well balanced. Opening brackets will be typed more than closing brackets.
ifttt has the advantage of a beautiful design, being free, and not spamming their service on hacker news.
So was it a good idea for Yelp to walk away from Google's 700 million dollar offer?
Wow, that article is really one sided. Even if I accept the fact that it's all true, the teacher perspective doesn't seem to consider the parents perspective at all.

Teachers really don't know the kids as well as the parents do. This isn't the teachers fault, its because they're having to control 20 kids at once. Still, I've noticed as a volunteer many times where children have gotten reprimanded for doing something by one teacher when they were only following directions given by another. Because these children really cannot stand up for themselves, often times they don't know how to respond which can result in a number of different behaviors.

The burden of maturity should be falling on the adults (teachers and parents), not the children and yet so often its the children who respond in the most mature way.

Yes parents should not be so defensive when discussing their children with teachers, but at the same time those parents SHOULD be the advocate for their child who does not yet know how (or have the power to) to stand up for themselves.
Differencing Algorithm for (java O-O) Programs [pdf]
Nonsense. This will help Google users find more information faster...in an easier and more searchable way. This is exactly what Google is about.
If I had one, it would probably just end up putting Linux on it with MPD, which I could then be remotely control via mpc or ncmpc.

But the biggest problem for me would be figuring out what to do with the board itself. I've built PCs before but I wouldn't know what to put this board into or the best way to power it. And, of course, I would also have to overcome my lack of familiarity with ARM.
I see a mess where there should be none. What's the problem with these people? Firing over the phone, seeking out media attention and badmouthing your former employer... It really doesn't matter if you are the chairman of the board or the CEO, there are things you really shouldn't do.
While it's not necessarily a solid plan, if your music attained popularity, it's not unreasonable to think it will be played regularly in sixty years.

Here in Denver (2M population in the larger metro area) there are at least:

- One AM swing/standards station (Benny Goodman etc) playing music from the thirties to the sixties.

- Two FM oldies stations, one of which is also AM, playing music from the fifties to the seventies.

- Two primarily classic rock FM stations and one progressive station that sits partly in their Venn diagram, playing music from the sixties to the eighties.

- A public FM station that plays folk/bluegrass/world, back to the thirties.

That's not to say that the retirement plan is any more solid than an NBA career, but the music itself, if it once had traction, will likely be played for a long time.
Downvoted for horribly condescending "beer buddies of the janitor".
Sometimes I'm being rude too. Hard-earned lesson sharing here.
So, what's the best solution here? To pay $39 and buy "Private Equity Secrets Revealed" eBook or to hire a seasoned lawyer? And then, how much are you going to end up paying the lawyer? Are the lawyers going to pull the same tricks on you as well?
Zagat still exists? Isn't it a bunch of old reviews written by a handful of writers?
Show HN: Days Away - A minimal iPhone countdown list
Thanks, I think I may have been misusing

git branch [some name]

I'll take a look at some of the suggested tutorials again. Thanks all. That said, I pretty much do straight-ahead main-line development, so this isn't a huge problem right now. I do most of my development after midnight, so there isn't a huge cognitive headroom left...
1080p video with sound only recently improved from "FM radio" quality - what a strange combination.
San Antonio Foundation Repair | Service | Home | Leveling
ClearType didn't come out of MSR, Kinect was an acquisition, SongSmith has gone nowhere since it's mild viral success a couple years back, and Photosynth was based on an acquired project and company.

F# might be the only item you listed that originated in the MSR division and has moderate success.
Whitespace hasn’t been taken into consideration (tabs and spaces) which would have been a cool thing to see.

I think if that was included this would be a lot more useful. Is there a reason it wasn't?
Zero to Profitable - LiberWriter Lessons Learned
Robert Scoble on Google buying Zagat
The teachers that decide to 'fix' a student would never listen to your advice, and they're the ones that need it. They obviously feel they have a holy mission and no common sense is going to stop them from doing it.
I was at a church gathering recently and there was a 10-ish year old kid who couldn't stop talking about MineCraft. He was really impressed when my wife told him she'd written a mod for the game (the original Marble mod with the texture that tiled over multiple blocks).

Is your monster harvester similar to http://ripminecraft.blogspot.com/2011/08/monster-condo.html ? Larger? Smaller?
Sure. I'm a SWE intern right now but I'm going through the conversion process right now so I've done the SWE interviews. All I'm saying is that I would have been pretty pissed if I got a dynamic programming question when applying for an sysadmin position. I'm not saying that Google's hiring process makes complete sense (I work for you writing prod code for 3 months and that gets me out of one out of five interviews? Really? One?) but this isn't exactly the biggest problem I see. It would probably be better if they gave higher priority to transfer requests so you could get it done quickly, but I see no reason why I wouldn't have to reinterview if I wanted a different job position.

P.S. This is one reason why I'm glad they don't ask sysadmin questions to SWEs. I'm a really shitty sysadmin.
> Mainly because it is the artists right to own their work for their life.

Why would it be? Copyright was initially supposed to bring betterment to society, not even more wealth to successful artists. How does extending performer rights by 20 years improve society as a whole?

> Authors get to, musicians don't

Compositors already did. They're musicians. Performers did not.

> The problem is it would be like any one of the entrepreneurs on HN being told in X-many years that "Sorry, you lived too long so your company is being taken from you, you'll no longer receive any profit from it and it IS NOT being purchased from you at a fair market value.

No, no it would not.

> Personally I believe copyright should be 20 years on a work and in case of a series it should be 20 years for the whole from the date of the latest derivative work. Basically, if an author or their estate haven't produced a derivative in 20 years, then it's time to shit or get off the pot.

That's a highway to even worse abuse than the current system (which in the fullness of time will already reach infinite copyright duration).

> As a writer I don't think this would be harsh, it might encourage creativity.

How? A new release with half a paragraph changed would already be a derivative. Have you even seen how many times Lucas has "remastered" star wars?
Thanks, I was hoping to avoid using my sledgehammer though!
I'd definitely be interested in any feedback you have about the site and it's presentation!
Just did it for 28000 C files. Here's the results:

a 0.772163
b 1.2679
c 1.78209
d 1.1195
e 0.881398
f 1.47252
g 0.924242
h 0.358954
i 1.06756
j 0.835313
k 1.41458
l 0.981729
m 1.08955
n 0.9156
o 0.73849
p 1.74468
q 4.2497
r 1.21577
s 1.05023
t 1.03627
u 1.2967
v 1.77662
w 0.396003
x 13.7292
y 0.47566
z 3.78748

The numbers are (relative frequency in C) / (relative frequency in English). So "b" is slightly more common in C than English, but "w" is a lot more common in English than C.

The raw counts for symbol characters:

_ 22890057
, 10895692
) 10749798
( 10745839
* 9211904
; 8187969
- 6628768
= 5878296
> 4428291
/ 3468260
. 3011078
{ 2212412
} 2211783
" 2120264
& 1647188
: 1032587
+ 962554
# 909859
[ 889538
] 888722
< 839910
| 643903
% 583092
! 561462
\ 540456
' 454201
@ 131199
? 112488
~ 84629
^ 19064
$ 17922
` 7272
[space] 74199965
Seconded. Alternatively you can just take a power drill and drill a hole straight through the case into all the platters.