skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
And here is the corresponding music video where they speak about the 'business'. "Yahoozee" refers to the scam business.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1YLL9mvBU
Good luck, baby.
> I'm not sure what their definition of "Starting a business"

Starting some sort of limited liability company that is its own legal entity, is my guess.
All articles like this fail to understand the reason why this is happening. They're looking at the companies as if they were run by people who were forced to hold their shares for the next 25 years. They're not.

They're run by execs who know they won't still be working there in 5 years and who get paid mainly in stock options. (That's how most public companies are run). The incentive of the people who run the company is just to maintain what little they can for as long as they can, and they're actually doing a pretty good job of it.

With the possible exception of suing actual customers, they've done a fantastic job of maintaining the status quo just long enough for them to cash out their options every year for some amount of profit.
Dropbox finally launches to the public (YC summer 07)
Prototype-based programming in Python
I don't know why, but i feel like i want to throw a big hammer at a big "Steve Jobs" image on a big wall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

Much needed perspective: America's GDP is about equal to that of the TOTAL of rest of the 5 top countries in the world.

Plus the article is talking about it military dominance. Because no one would dare attack the US directly so our huge military is not as much of an asset.

It's like saying Michael Phelps has no where to go but down b/c he one all the medals. It's true but it also means you're the best and brightest RIGHT NOW.
Help Us Beta Test - Blog - Stack Overflow
Email address?
A new way to look at networking
It is eminently readable... Don't let the page count scare you -- the illustrations pad it out a lot. It's much more of a tutorial than a reference.
Powering the Large Hadron Collider
Ask YC/PG: Can we call our points system 'karma'?
At NewsCred, we're about to implement a points/leader board system and were thinking of various terminology to use for 'points.' But we keep coming back to 'karma' and I was wondering if PG or the community here would mind?

Basically, we would do it as an homage to YC and would attribute it to PH and Hacker News on our help/faq pages.Plus, people from HN would know right away that it's a nod to the community here ;-)

I wanted to get some sort of an OK before going ahead with it. If it's not cool, we'll definitely try and come up with another term. Suggestions welcome!
For some reason, nesting closures like that seems very reminiscent of how you'd implement objects in Scheme.

So I guess there's some truth to the rumour that Javascript is basically Scheme with C syntax. Either that, or I've drunk too much coffee this morning...
Slashdot has had karma for a long time. This FAQ refers to it, and it was last updated almost ten years ago.

http://slashdot.org/moderation.shtml

Good artists borrow, great artists steal.
congrats (again) drew!
> The general method appears to be, write the program using an event model, then create a thread per CPU, which each thread waiting on epoll() (timeouts optional).

Alternative arrangement is to have a single IO thread that deals exclusively with getting data off the wire and multiple "worker" threads that handle the actual processing. I like this model better, because it provides cleaner logic separation, run-time threading control and it has several other advantages. Though "your experience may vary".
the usage of karma here in HN/YC is most likely a nod to slashdot, who's called its points karma for forever.
I read this article on a plane last week and it made me reconsider getting a J.D. (for 2.3 seconds, anyway).
Awesome. Now make it happen. ; )
This is a joke right? Both the DRM and the Nike+ digital sneakers or whatever they are supposed to be?

I'm confuzed.
Yeah, those are awesome. I especially like the history of javascript in the first talk.
well I have read Apress JavaScript Design patterns by dean edwards(base2) and JavaScript techniques by Resig..

They do have overlapping content at times but surely helped me to understand static vs instance methods/prototype vs object.

One of the books clearly mentions how JavaScript is different than other languages. i.e. helps to understand reference/how chaining works( jQuery)

And once I read them I went back to ejohn.org and reread his posts. I can understand them better now :)
For those who don't want to sign up: bugmenot.com

Brilliant article, thanks.
excellent article. seems like if Apple wants to maintain their marketshare with Windows users they had better beat a trail to solving this problem. I'd be curious to find out what percentage of iPod users (and iTunes music store users) use Mac vs. Windows. I know people who avoid the iPod because you can't fill it up easily without iTunes.
The new iPod touch has to be activated (like the iPhone) with iTunes before you can use it.

The one I saw today couldn't be used because activation depended on a firmware update, and iTunes kept crashing before the update could complete.
And that's a breeze in Canada. Starting from a position of complete ignorance, I had everything finalized in a day and only had to leave my home to get a document notarized by a lawyer around the corner. Total out-of-pocket was around $200.

If you are Canadian and want to start a business, you can find everything you need on starting (and running) a corporation here:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/cgi-bin/sc_mrksv/corpdir/corpFiling/regi...
And, of course, Scott Adams did quit to start his own thing. So it isn't like he doesn't know about the experience... it just isn't funny for most people as they can't relate to it.
yeah, this is definitely paranoia, but is it possible that apple is trying to make the user experience of itunes in windows frustrating so heavy ipod and iphone users with limited technical knowledge will blame it on windows and think about switching to a mac? It's certainly not a nice practice, but Jobs didn't get the market share he has by being nice either.
Wow, I didn't know that. So if we use it, we'll give a double nod - one to HN for our inspiration, and one to SlashDot for being the original. Is that cool?
Apple just shits over the Windows platform once again with its software releases.

Intentional or not? I don't know, but this is hardly news.
New Facebook rollout commences
No, it doesn't. In fact there is one available free from the App store.

You may not route VOIP over 3G, but it is fine over WiFi.
beos had an is_computer_on function. look at the bottom of this page:

http://www.haiku-os.org/legacy-docs/bebook/TheKernelKit_SystemInfo.html
When you don't have to think what you're typing, your mind is free to think about the code. The more you think about your code, the better you are.

Image if you had to stop and think to use the mouse.
Don't be yet another Kim Jong-Il of the business world
I wish you the best. I took this step about 3 months ago (and also announced to the HN community). I've never looked back since. Working on my startup (NewsCred) fulltime has been some of the happiest days of my life. Best of luck!
First, remember that he is an engineer, not a computer programmer. There isn't much demand for engineers in this once great nation. For him to move to another enterprise, he'd probably have to emigrate to Elbonia.

Second, many engineers, while incredibly bright, are not the types to know how to successfully run their own businesses. Dilbert has never been portrayed as business savvy. Nor has he been portrayed as the type who could sell his ideas well enough to partner with someone who is.

Third, comment one nailed it perfectly, the comic wouldn't be funny.
I find that Apple continually installs Safari with iTunes automatic upgrades. Very annoying. They are nicer to me on my Mac.
Dropbox is the first and only sync / storage solution of its kind that ACTUALLY WORKS. Tremendous job, and I love using Dropbox every day.
See, that's my issue. You started a corporation, which of course is a business, but a business in Canada is not always a corporation. A sole proprietorship is a perfectly valid legal entity, although without the limited liability aspect.
Amazon Is Getting Into the Alcohol Business
75 (Really) Useful JavaScript Techniques
Ok, but not thinking about typing comes much earlier than being proficient in typing to the degree mentioned here.

Besides, I don't really think about kicking a soccer ball, but I certainly look at it when I do.
Same here. Dropbox is the best YC-backed product to date, IMO.
That's awesome. I finally got the invite a week or so ago and I couldn't be happier. I already got 3 of my friends on it as well because it just WORKS. Beautiful
Opera Beta Offers Email "Low Bandwidth Mode"
I have been using it for quite a few months and am officially impressed with the stability of the app. This is a good time to remember to backup - I will be saving some important photos immediately!

The only complaint I have is that it does not make explicitly clear (to me) what folders are public.
What happens if you rip out Safari on a Mac?
I learned to type "correctly" on keybr.com (with a little startup in gtypist). I probably owe you some money :) 50wpm and gaining.
I don't think you need to keep asking for the OK to use "karma". Just go for it.
If you are in any sort of accident, the insurance pays for itself. I had an allergic reaction while uninsured, and it cost me $3700. An old roommate was in a bicycle accident while uninsured, and the bill was close to $18,000.

COBRA is a pretty bad deal though. Mine was almost $250. You can get a good Blue Cross plan for that much, or a simple disaster plan for much less.
I share your respect for Apple's products (and contempt for Windows).

But this is a bit like all those sites where they have helpfully selected five different "Yes, please spam me!" boxes for you when registering.
For one thing, the pattern matching used in Erlang, ML, and Haskell can be quite easy to read.

For example, something like

let days_in_month m = match m with
| Jan | Mar | May | Jul | Aug | Oct | Dec -> 31
| Apr | Jun | Sept | Nov -> 30
| Feb -> if leap_year () then 29 else 28

It takes a small amount of context (all "| Val" sections without a -> ... side match together), but it's a pretty direct correspondence.
Actually, I don't see that you're guaranteed that this would terminate at all. This algorithm could easily work down to a local minimum and then find that there's no route from there to the correct solution.
Ask HN: Advertising networks that pay per click, but are flexible.
I'm having quite a bit of trouble finding pay per click ad networks that have the following criteria:

1. You can have complete control over which adverts you show and where. I don't want a network where I drop in some js and it analyzes my page, because that isn't appropriate for webapps. Ideally I just want an inventory of adverts that I can handle myself.

2. You can update links etc in realtime. (via DOM manipulation)

I'm really surprised google adsense doesn't have a product tailored to ajax type applications yet. For a webapp where you don't have any page reloads, the existing google adsense is pretty useless.

If anyone knows of any networks I'd be really grateful. (At the moment using cj,linkshare,clickxchange,and a few uk based ones, but these are mainly lead based).
If I can't find one I'll probably end up making my own and having advertisers come direct etc, but this would be a bit of a diversion if there's already some out there.
Its probably for things like this, my sister got one of these for her running shoes, which aren't Nikes...

http://www.grantwoodtechnology.com/shoepouch/
I moved out of Denmark. If a Danish company sells something to consumers it has to charge 25% VAT, even if those consumers live somewhere else. Living costs are high. Corporate tax rate has been lowered, but pretty much all the other taxes are higher than USA for instance. Taking money out of the company costs you more tax. Very high personal income tax.

If you buy a USD $2500 computer you can't deduct the expense immediately. Or if you just buy a printer and that plus the computer you use the printer with is more than the limit of around $2000, you can't deduct it from your taxes immediately.

It's true that the paperwork for starting a business is pretty quick and easy. But for a LLC or Corp. type of business structure you need to put a minimum of DKK 125K (about USD $25K) in the business.
Curious hack: how to solve a maze with Photoshop
Because its Dilbert. Not ycombinator.
Here too, that site does sound very useful.
Yes, I get your point and I also do not feel strongly against this submission. If it climbed to the frontpage, so be it, I am fine.

What I am against is to regularly have such topics here on HN, since except of intellectual curiosity, there is also a wide range of very personal issues involved. People have different perceptions about what is a fact, proof or superstition, they went through different experiences etc. And, when those topics are discussed on the internet, it usually leads to nowhere, because it is very hard to even agree on basic assumptions.

It is fine to discuss this stuff in general, but I just think that the Internet is not a good medium for it. In my experience, it's usually better just to respect everyones right to ones own belief and focus on other things.
This story has already been Dugg, and interesting to note there seems to be people signing up to Digg just to badmouth dropbox and plug sugarsync.

eg
http://digg.com/users/supersaucer

EDIT - PS, love dropbox guys, good work!
Except there's no option to un-check a box in this situation. This just -is- the practice of malware, and should not be accepted.
Don't rely on the CNN piece, they have paraphrased the bugger out of the original report. [ http://www.doingbusiness.org ]

For instance there there significant differences between the US and NZ on labour issues, within the report US is rated 1, NZ - 14.

Whereas CNN says:

"As in the U.S. and Hong Kong, hiring and firing is relatively easy to do in New Zealand, with no mandated penalties, notice or severance payments for fired workers"

If yr really keen to discover more:
http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/
This is going to sound strange, but when I think of garments, I naturally think this extends to mean anything that you wear.

So when I read the description on the patent, if it wasn't for the last bit about shoes, I would have sworn they were making a play to patent bluetooth headsets, eg something that you wear (on your ear) that pairs with a device (phone)

Maybe that's just paranoia speaking.
iTunes is not just a music player. It is also a media store client, a CD/DVD-burning application, and a sync tool for the iPod & iPhone.

Why then should it be surprising to anyone that it installs background processes and drivers? Yes, malware authors use hidden background tasks, but so does everyone else. The technique itself is not evil.

Furthermore, blaming Apple for poor QA because some Windows systems crash when iTunes 8 is installed is ridiculous. Windows is an ecosystem, not an operating system, and there are far too many possible system configurations for Apple (or any other vendor) to test them all.

There are plenty of causes to call Apple evil (DRM, restrictive platform access, insane RAM pricing) or incompetent (MobileMe launch, iPhone 3G signal issues) but a buggy Windows experience isn't one of them.
Averages?
Great job guys! Dropbox is certainly one of the best products I have used, and you guys are definitely making it better...
DropBox a winner? Xobni a winner? How did they do it?

The recipe is to not rush your product out there. I think most entrepreneurs do not understand "Release Early, Update Daily, Weekly, Monthly". Sometimes releasing early can work against you. Be patient.
How come no-one came up with parody of Die Hard - called Die Bold!

that would be awesome!
If so much of what a person does is completely supported by something they hate, the disconnect for me is that they aren't really making the kind of sacrifices their position entails, so they don't really seem to believe in their position. If that's the case, then why should I, unless it is an inescapable logical argument?
Oil will get scarce, soon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#World_coal_reserves says:

"At the current production rate, [coal reserves] would last 164 years."
I guess they are just taking the average power mix of your country/state.
Many of these scams involve lonely Americans who are convinced to ship the stolen products overseas after they are purchased and shipped with stolen card numbers. These Nigerians are targeting the lonely, dumb and Internet connected in American and using them to steal everyone's money. Comforting.
I would argue that Apple went too far with iTunes when they started bundling ... anything.

Reminds me of another media company that took over your system up upgrades .. any remember RealNetworks?
Sounds fancy, but what do you really do?

I run a software company. Most of the time, that means I’m the den mother for a bunch of people trying to accom.....

This dude is still a lawyer. If you have to explain what your company does in 8 sentences then something is not right. I would not feel comfortable buying a piece of software from a lawyer anyways. The guy can come back in x years and show me terms and conditions noone bothers to read and slap me with a 470k bill that I will either pay for or go to jail. "Pass me that orange suit".
Those aren't techniques, that's a list of 75 scripts, some of which are full-on applications (AjaxIM). And what on earth is the point of using JavaScript to make, of all things, CSS sprites? Those were meant to be a substitute for JavaScript image replacement in the first place, and to reduce page load times.
Well we almost agree don't we? :)

I think you're taking what I'm saying out of context. I said half baked products give you the required flexibility to listen to the market.

I dont think you can over expose your self to the market. The problems come when you don't or cant move fast enough to meet its demands. It seems to me that "don't" happens a lot more than "cant" and that's usually because the founders are clinging to feature sets and ideals that aren't working. Its best to avoid that altogether and release a half baked product that you are willing to change as quickly as possible.
6. You want to fail.
Anyone else find that users out-and-out HATE Textile? My users complain about it constantly. Does anyone get the same reaction with other markup languages? I want to make sure that it's across the board discontent, and not that there's anything particularly wrong with Textile.
You'll be surprised by the kind of people scammed up in this mess ... preachers, accountants, soccer moms etc..
I must say that while I was already impressed by the product, the blog post announcing the public launch was just as impressive. It is very well written and portrays the company as having great professionalism and aptitude. You don't see many startups doing this.

Finally, yay! for being an MIT startup :)
'You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain' ?
The iTunes 8 release FAILs on my macbook running the latest OS X. Crashes on startup. I'm not the only one; their support forums have lots of other folks complaining about start up crashes. They didn't shit on windows; they just screwed this upgrade up royally.
"It started in Boston’s South Station in November 2006 where one night, while waiting for the Chinatown bus to New York, I wrote the first lines of code of what eventually became Dropbox. I had forgotten my USB drive at home and was frustrated that I couldn’t get any 'real work' done."

Ha, classic 'founder story' as discussed 7 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=294663
I routinely forget I even have Dropbox because it gets out of my way so damn perfectly.

Amazing job. And thank you most of all for the "undo" feature. I'm not saying that one day Dan accidently deleted all of our files, but you know, hypothetically.
Ha, how unlikely. People will just begin to think "oh...I can only wear an Apple shirt (w/ embedded sensors) when I want to use my Apple iPhone to get body measurements/data." People will gladly bend over and take it. Haha, imagine other clothing brands getting on board to the point where you can only get full use out of some embedded features of, say, Gap underwear if you are a Gap shirt. Our society is so brand-obsessed and it bothers me.
While typed communication IS a very big part of the work related to programming, it is not programming itself, which is what I believe to be important, and what I was referring to.

IRC, email, are secondary in importance.

Documentation and code comments should be concise.

"succinctness = power"

Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Highly recommended -- Dropbox provides an extremely rare, zen-like experience.
I'd like to emphasize how well Dropbox works as a collaborative tool. Never having to attach and download shared files from email is a great help in staying organized.

A co-worker can simply shoot you an IM or shout across the office that a document has been updated, and it's already on your machine ready to be opened.

I hope people don't get this confused with a source code repository though, as it definitely isn't optimal for working on shared source code. Stick with documents, images, and media, and you'll be fine.
The photo for Gary Vaynerchuk in the header kind of makes him look like Mr. Bean.
http://www.quinnemanuel.com/media/2078/blitz%20hyperlink%20c...

It looks like the author of this Fast Company piece lifted a lot of material from their American Lawyer profile.
I personally think iTunes sucks for playing music. I definitely prefer Winamp instead, but unfortunately there isn't a Winamp build for OS X that I know of. If not for easy iPod syncing, I wouldn't use iTunes at all.
Dave Shea's article on sprites is a great extension on the original method. If you want simple spirtes, CSS works fine, but he is just making it a bit sexier.
Lehman gasping for its last breath
I can say I am a proud owner of a Hyperbrain and I've done everything successfully up to this point.
It lets the company know that there are users who care, especially if you're doing it as publicly as he is. Companies will respond to that sort of stuff. I'd say his public articles have way more effect than his privately not clicking AdSense (which costs Google what, $15 per year?) ever would.
I guess I'm one of the crazy guys out there who prefer the old design.

The nice Newsfeed aside, i find the redesign unintuitive.
I can't wait to sign up... but would really like to see encryption. Is this on the todo shortlist? (third time asking!)
I would still bet the number of startups that have problems like that are <10%
I really need to test that "is_computer_on_fire" function. I somehow doubt that it'll have an accurate reading.
I'm looking to do exactly this kind of stuff. Contact me at dthefounder at gmail dot com for more info if you're still looking for someone.
Hear, hear. I own a Mac Pro, MBP, iPod and iPhone and I'll be the first to admit Apple isn't a perfect company by any means; I have had some sort of issue with all of these devices and many are ongoing. That being said, a CD/DVD burning app that installs CD/DVD burning drivers... that seems reasonable to me.

And I'd like to point out the fact that nobody notices if something isn't in a EULA or License Agreement until there's some really horrendous bug (like causing a BSOD) and people start looking in them precisely so they can say the terms aren't there. I mean, what do you want, a checkbox that says "Do not install drivers required for the proper functioning of iTunes"?

Le Sigh
Ahem, TicketStumbler.

Just kidding, I'm in love with their service and am a very happy user. They're backed by Sequoia and some other BSDs.

How the hell do you make something boring like file storage viral and cool? I don't know but Dropbox just did it.