skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I dropped out of a top-ranked (undergrad) cs program my senior year (to work on my startup, natch). This was in '99/'00, and a lot of my classmates who graduated took .com jobs in the valley. A lot of them ended of getting laid off, so I don't regret leaving.

I would say some of what I learned in school has been helpful at my startup (OOP, testing/qa, and team stuff). But probably more of what I do day-to-day comes from independent learning, trial and error, and experience.
I would say that its not computers that make us this way, its mostly because we are this way, that we love these machines. we are thinkers, makers, dreamers and loners. Yes, i have friends in the real world, yes, i have social skills, but its my obsessions, that give me a reason, its my quest for knowledge and wisdom that drives me, people are mostly a biological need, not exactly like food, or water. God dammit, its my last year of high school, i gotta find me a girlfriend, but thats probably bad for my "coding happy hours".
Copyright Violation: Every Artist's Birthright
Obviously, this is a crazy idea. But, with Feynman, I have to ask: "Is it crazy enough to be worth taking seriously?". I wish I had enough physics to answer that question.
"What type of geek were you?"  Type 3: The Tinkerer.
"... And Abby! ..."

Oh shirt, sorry ... and Abby. I just don't read enough from Abby.
The whole thing is pretty insightful: http://www.suck.com/daily/99/02/10/index.html
Boulder is anything but Republican, from everything I've read.

My wife and I are considering moving there. It seems like it's one of the few smaller (and thus maybe more "livable") towns with a lot of startup activity.

BTW, some earlier discussion of nice places to live:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=111398
Damn... this is a dupe, but the other one went by unobserved, and I kind of hoped it would stay that way, as I sent my resume in:-)
It's about barriers to entry. Anyone can buy their own guitar and learn to play. Anyone can buy their own computer and learn to program. But few if any amateur zoologists can afford a zoo, or amateur physicists a Hadron Collider. You need, in those fields, to get the approval of other people before you can practice. The formal education just gets you to the point where you can be taken seriously, but without anyone having to commit substantial resources to you upfront.
Netshare being banned from the app store is another.

If you were lucky enough to buy Netshare when it was for sale - it still works (yay!).

I wonder exactly what this means for future support for products such as Netshare.

My guess is adhoc'ed distributions like Podcaster will be a pain in the but to provide updates for - but it'll be possible. Especially with the appropriate make / build script. I think those of us who own now banned applications may be in trouble in the future.
"... It's also BS ..."

Didn't know that. I was making references to "Startups: Relax, you are all going to fail anyway" ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/1227112118/in/set-7215...
Nice! I'll be curious to see where this goes. It's a tough sector because of a lot of human factors (legal, micropayment issues), rather than necessarily technology. But if they make it work... it will be very interesting in a lot of ways.
Google offers $10MM for helpful ideas
I'd assume lots to be spent on legal paperwork to enable people to withdraw money?
Sometimes it feels lonely being an open source advocate, but reading this, there was a smirk on my face, and my first thought was "Told them so". I love it when people suffer for trusting big companies, its like their own fault, big co's are evil by definition, you should know better than to trust them. You con use their products, but trusting them, or even worse, to love them? In the expression "common sense", people tend to hear only the "common" part, the "sense" part is more important!
Trademark Fight: Intel Is Worried You Might Think It Is A Chinese Travel Agency
Getting There: The science of driving directions
You're doing great. Here's your life path: http://www.suck.com/daily/99/02/10/nc_index5.html (posted here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=314616 )
T-Mobile kills the 1GB data cap, takes a more friendly approach
Software piracy rate by country - U.S. lowest, at 20%
Seriously. I have a feeling a lot of the money will go to figuring out a way to lower the cut the payment processors take.
A nice explanation of what this is all about is one written by Rod Stephens at http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/38097
Myspace music is live
Yes, serious, I am getting a Creative Zen Stone Plus right soon . . . Zunes suck :)

I believe in talking with my wallet when it comes to companies.

Buying responsibly is one of the things we can all do.
Mandatory link about a space pen: http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
Window Shutters
Resource for window shutters including vinyl & composite wood.
..totally relevant to single 20 something guys

Though many won't admit it it's relevant for men of all ages, postures, colors and political standings.
Financial Software for Linux Platform
DEFINITION: The piracy rate is the total number of units of pirated software deployed in 2007 divided by the total units of software installed.

SOURCE: Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study

The ten countries at either end of 107 listed:

# 1 Armenia: 93%
# 2 Moldova: 92%
# 3 Azerbaijan: 92%
# 4 Bangladesh: 92%
# 5 Zimbabwe: 91%
# 6 Sri Lanka: 90%
# 7 Yemen: 89%
# 8 Libya: 88%
# 9 Venezuela: 87%
# 10 Iraq: 85%

# 98 Switzerland: 25%
# 99 Austria: 25%
#100 Denmark: 25%
#101 Belgium: 25%
#102 Sweden: 25%
#103 Finland: 25%
#104 Japan: 23%
#105 New Zealand: 22%
#106 Luxembourg: 21%
#107 United States: 20%

Weighted average: 59.9%
Don't be a fool arjungmenon, you have a good prospects for the future. While your peers waste precious time, you are sharpening your skills and working on something you enjoy. While you are young, it is a great time to learn new things and advance.

You will become expert in programming, which you know is an exciting field, and then it will be relatively easy to get good paying job, or can start your own company if you feel like it, and later, when you establish yourself professionally and will find your path, it will be easier to have meaningful longterm relationship.

I also spent a lot of my young time in from of a computer or solving math puzzles, and I don't regret it at all. On a more personal note, I had my first gf when I was 24 and married at 32. And I don't feel like missing anything.
As someone who lives and works in more than one country I can only underline the points being made in this article.

I am an Anglophone but I can cope in French but when I am in France I do not want a website I am using to restrict what it offers me (content, products etc.) based on my current location.

I can see that using IP location might be an effective tool for offering a default language and (perhaps) selection of content. This would OK if it was always backed up by a clear and simple option for changing that default.
"... How about copying and pasting from one web app to another? :-) ..."

The one I hate is "right mouse click" usability. There is no standard so each app has a different approach. Others don't bother and the RH mouse click is for the browser totally wrecking the illusion of an application.
I asked the question of userbase size to Kevin during the interview, it seemed the answer could not be disclosed...
Woah don't post the truth, this is apparently all about posting as many stories as possible that could be misinterpreted to show that Apple is evil.
Partial answer from Kevin:
@jhscott Amiestreet is great, because they started coaxing people down the path of alternate economic models. We have similar DNA. Evolution
Because they have an NDA? Call me mad but maybe you're over-reacting a smidgin.
Australia is 95th of 107, at 28%, in this Nationmaster table of software-piracy by nation:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=314632

That means it is the 13th least-pirating nation. For comparison, the U.S. is the #1 least-pirating nation, at only 20%.
Ideology trump facts
Fused Deposition Modeling & 3D printing explained
Because it is the default platform on every computer.
"The world is a prestige whore."...

...you said it. If you have lots of funding you can afford to pay the price premiums for people with resumes with prestige shwag on them. If you don't have that kind of funding and need to pay lower rates and are outside of the valley, you are better off being able to identify great programmers in other ways (which has been written about much).

I am a startup founder, http://shellshadow.com. I'm in Shanghai. Even if I had the funding to throw at prestige resumes, the supply of such isn't available in Shanghai. I have to rely on the fact that I maintain my own deep programming skills as a 40 year old programmer and therefore have the ability to identify and manage top developers without the aid of keywords on a resume.

But hey, if you've got the cash, go ahead and pay the price premiums...it can't hurt, right? ;)
And AdblockPlus blocks most Advertisements.
What else can he contribute to your startup in addition to $25K?
HTML Whitelist: Sanitize your markup
Because they are systematically violating the spirit of many freedoms they have benefited from, the Mach Kernel being a good example of freedom they continue to benefit from.
two questions:

1. at what distance can you see the time left?

2. this still does not solve for calculating the speed necessary (for which to utilize as a benchmark if you're actually going to make it through the light).

in pedestrian crosswalk signals, ability to accelerate is probably an order of magnitude greater -- you go from walking to running to beat the signal.

not so with traffic lights, even if you have a visible countdown timer (and as i mentioned above, how will a human calculate the baseline speed at which it is necessary to drive in order to be able to safely cross).
Market Driven (US) versus Government Driven (Europe)
Tell them "Show Me The Money"
Siblinker: find deliciously related links
A high failure rate means the poster should take much more care taking money from someone he will see for the rest of his life.

If the plan to make money is good, it's easy to get money, so why risk it? It's already a huge risk without involving your family.
ChipIn
Competitor to http://www.tipjoy.com/
What is a "Javascript developer" exactly? Do you mean someone like Paul Buchheit?
In fact I'd argue that is one of the defining qualities of a startup. At YC we have a tenured MIT CS prof as our sysadmin.
There are a flaws in this theory.

I believe you can achieve the optimal trajectory and spin using a normal shooting technique. Underhand has no advantage here.

A quote from the article

"Another reason why the granny shot helps a free thrower win cheers rather than jeers: It gives a backward spin to the ball."

If the writer had any basketball knowledge, they would know that every great shooter already has backspin on their ball using the normal shooting styles.

The biggest flaw in the article is here.

On the first page, it states that the shorter you are, the higher angle you must shoot the ball. It then goes on to say that shooting a ball straight in the air is the hardest to aim.

Therefore, you are to assume that you rather release the ball from a higher point to increae accuracy, since high angle=poor aim.

So, why not release the ball above your head instead of around your waist or chest???

I don't think we will see anyone shooting this way any time soon.

-d
"Anything which uses science as part of its name isn't: political science, creation science, computer science."

- Hal Abelson

I would also recommend the first minutes of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLUPjefuWA
Somehow, that line just has a brilliant ring of truth to it: Once a hacker, always a hacker. And it's probably right. You can't go back to a life of normalcy after experiencing the exhilaration of hacking away at something for hours on end and finally getting it. What you can do, though, is apply your mind to the social system - as you said, hack it.

A lot of nerds and geeks (the ones I know at least) are unpopular not because they're unpleasant people (they aren't), but because they don't understand how the social system works, what you're allowed to say and what you aren't (and when). If you just watch people talking around you you can easily notice what annoys people or causes them to end the conversation, and avoid doing it. If you just apply your mind to everyday life, being involved in your surrounding culture really isn't that hard.
Well yes. You can also pirate it and install on jailbroken phones (one of the only reasons I do so, since I never was able to purchase it).

Podcaster used a loophole in the adhoc distribution method that allowed for getting around the 100 device limit. Apple is now preventing that developer from doing so. I think Apple would probably go as far as to monitor who is using the adhoc distribution method to bypass the app store (since at the moment they'd get lots of publicity for doing so, as this is typically only for limited beta testing and the like) to disable their account in general. I can't see how Podcaster will be able to update anymore...

I know lots of people have been bringing up Cydia as a viable alternative, but it's not a storefront and Cydia will not last if the App Store becomes a failure as a result. But it may be one available and open solution for banned applications.
How to get sales in the first place? Assuming I'm understanding you correctly, that's the whole business problem, isn't it? It's (1). meeting a need (product for a market); (2). people knowing about it (publicity).

I won't theorize or exposit further, just give my own experience.

Mine was a product for programmers: I focused on creating a product that solved a problem that was frustrating and easy to solve. I began with the absolute minimum step towards that, set up a webpage, and released it on freshmeat. I used a dual license, meaning it was open source, but in some cases I could charge for it. I was prepared for there to be no interest, but there was some interest (500 people looked at it, and 1 emailed me).

Thus encouraged, I continued, adding features, and releasing each one as a new version.

A strange thing happened as I continued on this path - I saw a really cool way to do something that I had not even imagined before. I knew the components, but just didn't see the connection - maybe no else did... certainly, no one else acted on it. Seeing new things is not a matter of genius; it's a matter of being there - at the vantage point where it is visible. The other part is, having seen it, to actually do it.
This is really what made it worth paying for, for my very first sale.

Simultaneous with all this, I was fascinated by the idea of a "pitch", trying to succinctly capture: the essence of the idea; the benefit to customers; and the advantages over alternatives. I constantly rewrote this - typically, weekly.

Summary: solved a frustrating problem with a neat solution that was constantly publicised via releases. Had a cool pitch, that was exciting and easy to grasp, and short enough to pass on to others by word of mouth. Kept working on the product regularly for a year before the first sale (it's reassuring for customers to see ongoing activity; and inspiring for technical users to see constant improvement).

So, How to connect to users and make the initial sale? Users knew about it, wanted to buy it, so they found a way to buy it. My initial customer had management that understood and appreciated the technology (and taught me a lot about it, in fact).

They sometimes needed permission, but only one level up (their immediate management). Sometimes permission would take 3 months. That was awful. Oh, and dealing with lawyers was awful (even though I respect lawyering, I didn't enjoy the experience). I also experimented with prices as I went along, and they ended up being 10 times what I started with (from $500 to $6,000 USD for top end)... thus moving higher up the management chain for "permission".
Iteration in Python: Iterators, Generators, Itertools, and Special Methods
You're being serious here?
I do hope this current wave of Anti-Apple hate-fests is short lived.

Violating the spirit? They're acting in their own, and their customers best interests - no news here.

There are 2 news stories - 1. They use NDAs, 2. They reject some apps.
This is really just being blown out of all proportion.
This is a presentation that I put together for the first annual PyOhio conference (http://wiki.python.org/moin/PyOhio/). The conference was great, and yes, it took me two months to get around to reformatting my "slides" -- adding some of my presentation comments, debugging the code samples, revising the grammar, and clarifying or expanding-upon the stuff that I didn't think was clear. But now that they're out there, I hope you find them useful.
Ideology is a communicable mental disease. Don't watch TV. Especially news.
The confusing part for me, is "What bit was unexpected?"

If you develop for a controlled platform which has an approval process, you have risks. End of story. You don't call any shots, the owner of the platform - Apple - does.

As an Apple consumer, I just don't care, and I'm sure the vast majority are the same. When Apple starts degrading the users experience, people will care.

It certainly is getting very boring to read. Essentially 2 stories have been posted umpteen times now.

1). Apple uses NDAs.

2). Apple rejects some apps from the store.
Well, I know the first thing I would buy would be a monocle.
What? I added a blog and I did not see any feeds. It just gave me a link to the blog, I clicked through, came back and the link was gone.
(am I allowed to say I touched some of the code involved? Because I did. And I'm really happy it launched.)
I think its one of those "if you have to ask... you can't afford it" kind of situations.
Which would probably be good for both parties in this case.
abnormal != evil though
I have an actual use for STI.

I store a data grid, of which there are two types of headers. Row and column headers. (Headers must be their own object for various reasons that are rather boring).

Rows and columns have identical fields. Voila! STI is actually kind of useful!

As for the rest of the article, it seems reasonable but not mindblowing. Good to keep in mind though.
They need to at least match AT&T's data plan in order to be competitive.

For an unlocked i-phone, there is a $5.99 "t-zones hack" that allows you unlimited data access using t-mobile.

http://www.modmyi.com/forums/t-mobile/

I wonder if this hack will work on the G1.
You still wouldn't get the speed benefits that $0.02 offers. Some tasks (like this drawing one) can't be automatically verified.

Anyone compared 2c and 1c with doublechecking for simpler tasks?
Summary: Apple has NDA, people wrote book ignoring the NDA, now shock horror they can't publish it. Some conclude Apple is evil.
Sure, but they are theoretically in more of a position to do so then anyone else (paypal, tipjoy, etc). They have the size to deal with it & they have the ability/experience to lobby Governments.

They also already have their fairly usable online banking systems which would make a good base.
I really wish people would upvote the article linking to their actual blog.

(Oh, and congrats :))
Does it matter? There all worthless QQ ZIBHACKWAY
the question is...... what is your favorite code?
As soon as I saw this headline I thought that the comments would be instantly split into 3 views.

- The Apple Fanboys who say it isn't such a big deal

- The haters looking for any excuse to heap ire upon Apple

- The rest of us who are still confused as to why Apple hasn't released the NDA and the fallout that is happening as a result of it.

Glad to see this submission delivers as originally thought.
Why Web-Apps? Ease of use, ubiquity, no installation.
Why not Java-Webstart? Because Java is not cool enough.
Why not Flex/Silverlight? Hold on, that might be the next hype.
Fad always plays an important role in main-stream utilisation of technology!
Reading source code: The rise of F#
I'm rather unimpressed by a linear reduction in memory consumption. Mostly because its linear, and its "easy" to scale linearly (its called going and buying more RAM!)
Actually Paul Graham discussed this point in an interesting way: If geeks are so smart, why don't they just work the social system the way they would hack a computer program?

I agree with his conclusion: Geeks care (desperately even) about being popular (or normal or whatever you want to call it), but they care more about other things. There are only 24 hours in a day. If you are way into tech stuff, math, physics etc. you can't at the same time spend all your time worrying about clothes and (rubbish) popular culture, socializing and leveling up in the social game.

Well, that and the fact that the geek persona is naturally skilled in very litteral disciplines, whereas social interaction is much more about 'soft' skills like empathy and intuition.
Couldn't have put it better myself Steven Levy! The part about the consuming, Im here commenting to a comment that would never ammount to anything in the common society we know as human. Why do I waiste time? Apparently it consumes the part of life...::BLANK::.... O~~~~----______ ====~
(Fill)
('n)
(Bla'k)
Remember: there's a difference between being a "programmer" and being a "computer scientist." (Similarly, there is a difference between being a musician and a musicologist.)
He's fine with logical deduction from a given set of axioms.
"I don't know of startup attorneys in the Bay Area, but plenty of people here should."

You don't necessarily need a 'startup attorney' or even one here in the Bay Area. If you're intending to raise a Series A in the next few months I'd try to get a relationship set up with a 'startup attorney' but otherwise you're just wasting your money. Go to somebody who knows corporate law, get an associate, and don't go with a big name firm. The stuff you want to do at this stage is likely very straightforward.

The best option for you at this point will be to do some sort of convertible note with a discount (of maybe 10-20% on your next round) or possibly a fixed cap (which is worse for you but better for the investor). This is good for two reasons; its simple, and it won't mess up your fundraising later on. You certainly should NOT give this investor control over anything (board seats, voting rights, etc.) the investment is far too small for any of that, and it WILL have an effect on your fundraising down the road.

I disagree with the previous commenter who says...

"If a better opportunity comes along in 6 weeks, you might not be able to jump on it because you now have a responsibility to your investor."

In reality the investor has no control over your actions, and also, if you find a better opportunity a good investor should be happy for you to jump on that idea. Assuming the idea really is better.
I think the various criticisms listed here are all valid (lack of benchmarks renders performance claims dubious, linear reduction in RAM is not that big a deal) but I still think it's worth the reminder that B-trees (and other alternatives to Binary Search Trees) are around. It's easy to get in familiar ruts with data structures....
Atlanta Tax Attorney
Atlanta tax attorney Calvin Bomar is a former IRS Chief Counsel lawyer whose Atlanta, Georgia law firm represents clients in tax law, IRS disputes, estate planning, probate litigation, nonprofit law and business planning.
At any point in life, whatever someone did ten-twenty years ago was the best part of their life.
I Can't Figure Out What Facebook Is For
Wow, that definitely sounds like something I'll be doing. Unfortunately, I've got 2 midterms on the Thursday afterwards, so I'll have to pass on this Wednesday. Thanks for the heads-up though. Hope to meet you there.
Maybe it's because the banks know all the legislations they have to fullfill when offering such a service (money laundring, etc...)