skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Once a hacker, always a hacker.

For anyone who has read J.M. Coetzee knows, he is no F. Scott Fitzgerald, the stereotypical glamorous and superfluous writer; his prose and temperament matches that of a mathematician, rational and precise but nonetheless beautiful in its own right. Without going to the emo's and my personal sob stories, I'll jump right into how I cope with dealing with loneliness and the mainstream society.

1) Learn the protocol and languages of the mainstream American society: two words. Sports and music: they may seem like the most unhackish things to do, the former an activity of "dude-bro's" and the latter the effeminate hipsters, and both the epitome of American "individualist conformity."

But if you look past the posers, they are incredibly, like hacking, creative activities. Weight-training and aerobics is by definition, pushing past your limit of endurance and strength, like a late night coding marathon: a mind game (Romo: "My body is the soldier, but my mind is the general").

Music, is by definition about pushing the envelope, coding and playing. Sampling is like googling for code snippets online, re-arranging and constructing your personal software. Practicing is like coding and going over and over the compiler error's and then tracing through the runtime errors: if you really get into it, it's addictive to get it perfect.

2) Hack the social system. The social culture of the American high school and college and yuppie's in their early 20's is very much like the wall street c(v)ulture. Women and your peers are like wall street analyst, with absolutely no regards to your underlying vision and long-term potential. But if you do not beat the next quarter earning estimate or put out a good looking short-term "balance-sheet," (but it's okay if it is faked), all hell break loose.

So sell yourself like the slickest CFO's from Lehman/Enron/WorldCom. Hackers are sometimes too grounded, wondering out aloud what frameworks and API's they should use; they are too truthful sometimes when American culture is a shallow and superficial one.

This means going to a party, approach a group of people, interrupting the dude-bro talking about "doing a keg-stand" and the hipsters talking about (un)indie bands, smile and say, "I make software that predict breast cancer susceptibility in women, that plays the most appropriate music for your current mood, and that exploit the inefficiencies in the stock market to perform algorithmic trading for maximum profit." You don't even need to go further, the people in the attendance will be pressing you for more.

But in the end, superficial women and friends (read: friends that you go out with, not friends you have deep connections) are just that: wall street analysts. Don't get too hanged up by the "short-term balance sheet," be in for the long term. And by the long term, I don't just mean: an engineering degree or a stable job, but the software that will predict cancer, recommends music and exploit the stock market - and also yes, friends who could respect and relate to who you are.

Don't sell-out, buy in. Be a hacker, go against the grain, always be exploring, sharing and not ever yielding.
I used to live in Boulder, and I can't emphasize enough how great the location is. It's a town of about 90,000. It's right up against the mountains, the air is great, it's full of bikers and runners. Plenty of river rafting, mountain climbing, skiing and snowshoeing is to be had, too.

The school there, my alma mater, is strong in the sciences (3 nobel prizes in physics this decade). Lots of interest in aerospace, too. Sun, Amgen, and a number of other tech companies are nearby.

Finally, Boulder is just crammed full of geeks in general. Every type from live action role-players to wargaming fanatics is well represented. My roommate said he saw Tom Christiansen at Dragonfire games.

I don't think there's another town of its size that offers the same. Health nuts, geeks and hippies. That's what you'll see in Boulder.
i have used screen, i dont think it requires root access. see wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen, it allows screen sharing.
Show me an ice hockey player wo can do a Bielmann spin or a triple Lutz jump.
"As long as the results proceed along the lines of logical deduction and statistics, it can be machine understandable."

Gödel might have a few things to say about that.
I wonder if you paid two people 1c and then merged the results, how accurate you'd be.
Maybe he's thinking of Japan's Fifth Generation Computer project?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer
I'm currently a cs undergrad in Boulder. Had an internship at a late stage startup this summer, it's a great place to be!!
Two crazy questions.

1. What's the hacker/drone ratio there. Do you meet smart people often?

2. What's the women/men ratio. And are girls good looking?

Sorry about question #2, but it is totally relevant to single 20 something guys. Last thing I want to end up is somewhere where everybody is fat and republican (like some, I don't want to name, states in this country).
I was the CEO for a company that one Phase I and Phase II SBIR grants joint with a University, and it can be a very good thing if the goals of the grant and your product goals are closely aligned. The goal of the grant is to fund the product development, not to make you rich, and you'll make a very small (like <10%) margin on the work.
Way to go Tipjoy!
Just because apple sux there's no reason to go to microsoft. That's even worse. There are linux players that are pretty good.

I think what's changing is that apple has always been as evil as microsoft. Only with much better PR. They are slipping now because there are new demands for openness which they fail to handle.
Well, I know what K is (as well as S and I), and I don't have a CS degree. Which just goes to show that there are people out there who can acquire systematic theoretical knowledge on their own.
Does this require cookies? I enabled Javascript and it still doesn't (seem to) work.
Hackerteen, the hacker's superhero comic
You're kidding right? Bash Apple all you want, but you have to admit that they create the best user experiences of any company around.

Microsoft has proven for twenty years that it is incapable of creating a good user experience.
I happened to run into this in the bookstore today. I don't recall it making any waves online, but it's a fun read and uses a lot of real-world concepts. Definitely worth checking out.
That's just empirically false, unless you're using "motivation" in some convoluted and incorrect way. Humans are innately motivated to help each other[1], and though that motivation was evolutionarily selected for its positive effects on gene survival, it is now a fundamental human desire that I find noble and beautiful.

[1] See http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/03/02/altruism060302.htm... or http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com
Actress Deanna Russo Biography Age Born
Django 1.0 was released recently. It's a good time to jump in. Strange as it may seem, you can use both. I do.

But all advice is quite pointless -- suppose you decide not to try out Django. Without actually realizing how it works, you will always have lingering doubts about whether it would have served your purpose better.

A lot of people don't understand the difference between Flash and Flex. There is a large overlap in functionality, but a big difference also. Should I use Fs or Fx? Without actually using it for a bit, you can't tell.

It's like going to a restaurant and seeing somebody eating something. They look happy eating it, but you don't know if it fits your own appetite unless you try it yourself :)
Download The Office Episodes
The best way to Download The Office Episodes? Its a very good and interesting question as there are a few ways you can use to download your favorite TV series. Most of us prefer to use iTunes or Amazon which is a very effective way of downloading TV shows and there's no doubt about it
Adobe CS4 will include GPU acceleration
Wacky Japanese Create Breast Fondling Simulator on Google App Engine
Yeah, Cocoa is hot and all, but just try getting that nice shiny Cocoa app of yours running on all three of OS X, Linux, and Windows...
nice going abby and ivan!

- micah
Do You Want Fries With That?
Google Chrome license was updated several weeks ago. See e.g. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/update-to-google-chro...

Extract:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already
hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or
through, the Services.
Not to mention that both Fink and (to a lesser extent, lately) MacPorts tend to crap out on every fourth or fifth package you ask them to install...
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I'm not sure the author has tried deploying signed java applets on multiple platforms. The results are wonderfully varied.
The difference is that Google changed their license after people complained.

Presumably developers aren't pushing the boundaries of the NDA because they fear being banned for life, so there's nothing for Apple to enforce.
If you want to write a cross-platform app, I argue that GTK is still not a very good solution. I wonder how Adobe is progressing with their cross-platform Cocoa-based CS5.
I copy paste between web apps all the time...
cracks would probably be more popular. who knows. (maybe that belief is selection bias..since apps that only need serials aren't pirated as often in their entirety as apps that need cracks as well).
"But today there is Java (write once, run anywhere) and Java Web Start (auto-upgrade to all your client machines). [...] You can use traditional client/server, with rich clients written in Java and deployed by Java Web Start talking directly to your database using JPA/Hibernate/JDBC. [...] But even then you can use Java and Java Web Start, and your client application can talk to the middle/web tier using a service API."

Why is the default answer always Java?
That's a little different though in that the PEO works for your "real" employer, whereas the Umbrella works for you, the employee.
People should get the degree because it's easier (and probably more fun) to get it now, as young as possible, than wait. It also gives you options to study advanced topics or do research in the form of a graduate degree.
Exactly. Podcaster's adhoc distribution being blocked is a fantastic example. Netshare being banned from the app store is another. At this moment, unless you are a well known developer bitching a ton about this that Apple can't lash out at you without completely and utterly (and possibly irreversibly) screwing themselves over in the eyes of the Mac/iPhone dev community (i.e. Wil Shipley, Craig Hockenberry), you don't want to because this insanity is preferable to nothing at all because some cretin at Apple was like "woah, this person went overboard with the criticism..blacklisted".
Popcuts: The First Music Store To Share Revenues With Fans - Kevin Mateo Lim, Popcuts
I agree . . . and it is a shame. Never thought I would see the day when Firefox is the most troublesome, aggravating, and downright crappiest app on my machine, both on Ubuntu and (yes, I still have to occasionally use it, so I dual boot) XP. Actually thought it was just MY problem until now . . . ahh I miss the 1.5 days . . . IE is still worse, but, not by much. Sad thing is, I think the FF guys KNOW it, and simply don't give a crap. I mean, if they did, they would have done something about it . . .
It's hard to innovate in regulated industries. Nothing is more regulated than money and banking.
Thanks. Will try to get to them.
I really dig my Creative players, FWIW.
thanks for reminding me of slinkset. havent been back in a while. the site looks and works brilliantly. definitely going to use it for one of my projects.
B-tree vs. Binary Search Tree
They don't care. If just one of these projects pay of, the rest is peanuts.
I wonder how Popcuts views Amie Street, and also where their bottlenecks are -- music licensing? number of users? I know the CEO, Kevin, from a Google internship so I twitter-asked him:

http://twitter.com/jhscott/statuses/934033684
I have been bouncing back and forth between Django, Ruby on Rails, merb and many other frameworks/languages for the exact same reasons. I'm a nerd, I enjoying learning new languages and it would look great on a resume to have a few more under my belt.

But - I always come back to PHP (and the wonderful CodeIgniter framework) when I actually need to get something accomplished. I know it like the back of my hand and I don't care what any of you say about the other languages and frameworks - I could not develop my applications anywhere near as quickly as I could in PHP.

Yes, some of those frameworks are designed for rapid development - once you know the parent language! I say find a powerful framework for PHP designed for rapid development and stick with what you know. Play with Python and Ruby on your own time.
"You’s a punk bitch if you don’t know bout Boulder"
Where is Fake Steve Jobs when you need him?
I agree, although I'm still using it. Flash stalling the whole browser, some textboxes not working properly, and various javascript applications like FB not working properly are the bugs I've come across.
So hard to know who to pick.. there's just not much info out there. Personally I'm waiting for the Amazon CDN launch: http://www.amazon.com/gp/html-forms-controller/aws-content-d...
RoR Quality Checklist
WTF??? No one has stated the obvious yet, so here it goes...

You're telling me that you're 20, have essentially no disposabal cash, you're NOT currently in college, and you're wondering why it's so hard to connect with an attractive 18-24yo woman??? JEEEZ!

First of all, a guy your age shouldn't be trying to get into any sort of extended relationship in the first place. That's insane. This is the age you're supposed to enjoy the myriad delights of countless, nameless women. Already done that you say?? Keep doing it. TRUST ME.

Second, you can't get "hurt" after a single date unless she bluntly calls you a "fucking idiot." And then only if you're a pussy.

But let's say despite my first point you still insit on trying to find a girl with soul...

Buddy, it's time to grow the fuck up.

Your financial situation is completely unacceptable to women unless you're a student. You're not going to be able to land a quality woman based on your guitar playing and fun attitude alone. Those days are gone. Women in this demographic are getting MUCH better offers than what you've apparently got going. This demo happens to be in very high demand by guys twith a lot more going on than you do. And yeah, most of them are "older."

So, if you really want to pursue this, you're going to shuffle your priorities around and START MAKING SOME MONEY! Or hell, if you have it stashed away start spending some of it. And no, I'm not talking about buying better clothes or cologne (though that's not a bad idea!). Instead, I'm suggesting that you take whatever financial, physical or intellectual resources you have and make some BIG moves-in the stock market, technology, IP, start-up, whatever. Use the enormous energy of your youth to bust your ass 12 to 16 hours a day - or more. (It's nearly impossible to do it after you're 30.)

Then, as your future takes shape, and money and purpose start flooding in, finding a cool girl that wants to stick around will be EASY. In fact, if you execute the next 10 years of your life correctly, your "problem" with women will be of an entirely different kind.

And Jeez, one of your dates was kind enough to explain this right to your face: "[money is] what I need right now."

By the way, I hope you don't take this as a FLAME. I'm telling you this because I'm rooting for you. :-)
Why is the default answer always Java?

This is adressed:

If you have Java antibodies, you can use Flex or Silverlight. Or take a look at Cappucino.
Wow, that went totally over my head.
I think ideas like "Oh, that guy was a genius. Normal people could never do that." are fundamentally misguided. He worked tirelessly on mathematics, filling notebooks in his spare time for the pure joy of it. If you can find somebody else with that kind of devotion to mathematics who is hopelessly average at it, that would be something.

I mentioned Ramanujan because he's famous, and he obviously didn't get it from taking university classes. I used to do math competitions in high school, and I'd meet the best students in the state or country. You know what? All of us learned the same way Ramanujan did: we read number theory books for fun, continually asked questions that were interesting to us, and then worked on them until we answered them. Not a single person in the group learned by attending lectures or even through supervision by experts. It's just not how it happens. That's the point I was trying to make concisely before.
i don't get it... a concept?
Exclusive, All-Expenses-Paid Hacker Job Fair in Boulder
I've been doing the "no computer for one day a week) plan for one week now. It's been great so far. (And I was inspired by that very paragraph of that excellent book).
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Computer science models physical problems on computers - polynomial time is the ideal.

Programs are just concrete implementations of such models.

A software developer should study computer science (I dont care for a degree) else he/she is a programmer. Designing software is hard and lack of computer science skills make it even harder.
Screen is a great tool, I use it regularly myself. ShellShadow is not a replacement for screen and screen's "collaboration" features are secondary to the tool's original purpose.
There are problems with using screen for collaboration...

...how does the "other person" access the screen? You have to give them a id and password to the server, right? and if you are doing SSH auth properly, you shouldn't allow password access, you should be using keys. So you have to set up a public/private key pair for a temporary support technician if your server is secured properly, right? Ok, now they can login without you, right? How do you control this second user's interaction? How do you audit what the support tech did and differentiate that I/O from what you did?

ok, lets assume you actually want to do the above. Now, is this server accessible from where the support person is? If your server is inside a corporate firewall, it isn't, right? If you have SSHd locked down well, it shouldn't allows access from unknown IP addresses, so they won't be able to get into your shared "screen".

I could go on. The bottom line is "screen" works fine for sharing your terminal session if both users have login access to the server and the shared interaction is highly trusted, informal, and you have the time/skills to administer this solution.

ShellShadow works with zero mods to the server and you do not have to give login credentials to the support tech. With ShellShadow, we relay/collaborate from the terminal "client". The terminal "service" (SSH, telnet, etc) is unaware of the interaction.

Watch the flash demo linked from the home page to see the distinction. http://shellshadow.com/flash_demo
In terms of CS, University of Colorado, Boulder (http://www.cs.colorado.edu/) is a great school. It's not Cornell, MIT, CMU, etc (Posterous favourite school..) but definitely top 10-20 depending on sub area.

I also like Colorado School of Mines (www.mines.edu), but not sure they're in Boulder.
OK, so I forgot about the LIVE marketplace. I was thinking about "real" games.
Well, having tried both, I probably have a better perspective on the matter. However, I'll defer to authority: http://gizmodo.com/5050410/microsoft-beats-apples-itunes-gen...
Mostly I see that Hackers tend to be generally unsatisfied with the state of things around them, and will compulsively seek to improve or atleast _know_ the system. The lonely part arises from these traits I think which puts them at a somewhat alienated position in society, because of their intolerance towards incompetence or the irrationality of the world around them, which I believe puts them at a risk of withdrawal from society towards the rational and logical world of computers.
As for moderation, I don't think hackers are quite known for it. Hackers are by definition among the extremes of the computing society, so moderation would be viewed more as a stepping down. No wonder most hackers tend to be INTPs.
You should check out Ithaca, NY. Most people think of it merely as the starting point of the film "Road Trip", but it's similar to how you describe Boulder (and Santa Cruz, CA btw)
"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail..."
You have too rosy a picture of what your high school classmates were doing. They were mostly wasting their time. What you're calling "dating girls" is better described as "chasing girls", and they were mostly unsuccessful.

You need, at most, a bit of moderation. Don't try to be normal - normal sucks.
Exactly my thoughts. In fact there are probably countless people toying around with maths problems that don't have a degree. They just don't earn any money with it.
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We should not discount formal education. Reason:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EW...
> However, it is still very possible to develop good mathematical skills without a degree.

Absolutely. I don't think the degree is very useful for developing skills at all. I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree, but mathematics courses don't set a very high bar for how much you have to think about a topic. I learned more in the past month preparing for my algebra qual than I did during an entire year of an undergrad class at Northwestern (of course, I drew heavily on the basic knowledge I had).
"I studied this source codes and think I should be able to further optimize it. In the end, I got my kbtree.h macro library. As you can see in my hash table benchmark, the modified version beats STL set while using even smaller memory than the original version."

I don't see any such benchmarks in the article, which makes any claims not very useful.
Trust me, go with PHP. Django is good to use if you are interested in learning a new language an improving your skills in python, but if you are interested in starting a company, then absolutely go with PHP. I've used Django for 2 big projects now, and I'm telling you this from experience. Here is why:

1. Django is quite difficult to learn. You'll waste a month or two getting into the framework

2. You will NOT find developers to work on Django, and the ones you do will be VERY expensive

3. Once you know Django well, you'll find that there is not that much of a faster development cycle than PHP, unless you are doing something newspaper related. For newspaper related sites, there are shortcuts, but for everything else, it's pretty much the same routine

4. Hosting for django is expensive. On a $10 a month host, a PHP site will run fast. For Django you need to get a $100 virtual server. Big difference.

5. Django does very little PR, so the language seems to be cooling off in terms of visibility. This means - less applications, less snippets, few books. It's becoming a bit of an elitist culture, which sucks big time

6. The IRC channel is becoming like the C++ channel. Snobby and condenscating.

Recently, a person I know decided to rewrite his entire Django app in Rails because he could not find any developer for his Django app.

It's not a hard choice. Go with PHP.
Dan Rayburn has a great blog talking about CDN's.: http://blog.streamingmedia.com