skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
there isn't one.

That's about as true for mashups as it is for the semantic web; in both cases, there is not an "official" trust model used across the web, though it's obviously possible for semantic web providers to do what every other API provider does and simply use their reputation. For example, what makes you trust the data you get from any API at all, if not for the provider's reputation? I do agree that there should be a more uniform approach in order to get wide usage of the technology beyond the enterprise, academia, and medicine.

This apparent lack of an official trust model won't be the case for long with POWDER [1] on the horizon. POWDER is on its way to becoming a ratified W3C standard and it makes steps to address the idea of a "web of trust." Who knows what kind of traction this will get in the near term, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-powder-primer-20080815
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The Commanding Heights - 6hr documentary on the global economy (2003)
This documentary brings some context to the current financial turmoil.

Also on Google Video:

The Commanding Heights Part One: The Battle of Ideas:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1466397368167658753...

Commanding Heights Part Two: The Agony of Reform:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3122039563423208507...

Commanding Heights Part Three: The New Rules of the Game:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=112129377629231653&#...
Right, but who trusts the W3C? ;-)
hehe, good question :P
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I tend to agree. Any system that requires people to "do it right" in order for the standard to be useful seems iffy.
There's not a lot of hype about YUI but it's an incredibly impressive and comprehensive framework.

The only problem is that 2.6.0 is more or less the end of the line for this API - 3.0 will have a completely different design, so in the short term there's a dilemma about whether to wait for 3.0 (which, btw, is a MUCH nicer API to use) before diving into a major project using YUI.
Somebody had suggested this feature on google news group on Nov-2007 http://groups.google.com/group/news-Suggestions/browse_threa...
I didn't see this the first time around, but I love the app! It's so fun. I love the public galleries and toolkits, and the ability to embed and share drawings so easily. If I had more time on my hands at the moment, I'd give more feedback and actually play with the API. Bookmarking and will get back to it!
Sorry, I used linux in the colloquial sense. I meant GNU/Linux, distributions of which I can install on my hardware. Anything that would replace OSX, Windows, etc...
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I dabbled away, then followed the prompt :To save your drawings, log in or sign up". After signing up I was returned to /main, with a blank slate and no drawings down the left hand side.

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_5; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.20.1
Thanks! Would love to hear more from you (feel free to email zhyder AT dabbleboard DOT com).
The book Blondie24 is an interesting popular science style account of this type of AI.

http://www.amazon.com/Blondie24-Playing-Kaufmann-Artificial-...

They partially trained their checkers algorithm by playing it online against humans. The funny part was that they couldn't get many opponents until they changed their handle to Blondie24, then game requests came flooding in...
A common misconception.

http://cryonics.org/
As much as people seem to think otherwise, we're not giving a free $700B to the financial industry. We're loaning money that needs to be re-payed. Why do we need to loan money? Because credit has shored up and many a company's credit rating has dropped, which makes it very difficult to get credit.

This is all caused by a set of bad bets placed on mortgages. The large majority of these businesses are very sound, and there is still a huge amount of underlying value there. You can be quick to point fingers at the wall st trader types for placing bad bets, but everybody was complicit in this, even (surprise surprise) the government, by lowering mortgage requirements.

Certain companies just can't go out of business. AIG, for example. AIG is connected to almost every company in the US -- they provide all forms of insurance. If AIG went out of business, all of that insurance would be worthless, and almost every company in the US's credit rating would plummet, thereby rendering their corporate paper (bonds) worthless. There are a lot of reasons for depending on operational debt through bonds, even in the most financially sound companies.

We could let other companies fail, but as they do, the market conditions significantly worsen. As that happens,
- Retirement accounts will be worthless, making retirement difficult or impossible for many Americans
- You won't be able to get a mortgage to buy a new house
- Student loans won't be available, making it much more difficult to attend college
- A very significant amount of jobs will be lost as big corporations go out of business, and small businesses are unable to meet their operational expenses (payroll)

Ultimately, that means a very, very rough ride for the average American (on main street, although I hate that term). If you're not going to be affected by this (you're working at a funded startup, or you're a tenured professor, for example), it's very easy to take the "let the market sort itself out approach". But the average American will be hit hard, if no action is taken.

In that sense, nobody wants to give money to the people who caused the problem. And we're not -- there are provisions (however imperfect) in the bills that restrict executive compensation for participating companies. Ultimately, it's also helpful to remember that this is a loan, and that it's not a net $700B expense. In fact, when the economy stabilizes and credit ratings return to normal, the equity position that the government has received in AIG (80%) and participating companies should be very valuable -- these are sound business, with one black spot (mortgage backed securities).

EDIT:
A couple other points of clarification:

- As a matter of fact, the rich pay the majority of taxes (top 1% earners constitute 40% of total income tax, while top 10% earners constitute 70% of total income tax) -- if anything, it's the rich paying for the bailout.

- Check out http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=318690 for explanation on the title of the house bill
Don't make any yet from the website, though we're planning to offer a premium version with more features at some point (SSL, view-vs-edit access control, SVG export, etc.).

We're fortunate to have gotten a couple of custom whiteboard contracts though, which have given us some money to burn. (Already started burning as well: lawyers!)
Ask YC: I just got laid off, and I have some startup dreams.
Some background: I graduated college a little over a year ago with an Economics BA. I have the start of a career in game development; I did level design and scripting on a work-for-hire console license, which went six months from contract to ship. (Not a sane schedule.) There was stress, long hours, a month of working weekends, but I'm fine now; and the game shipped.

Since then the company hasn't gotten new gigs to support its staffing, so they had to let me go. Both the founders said they'd have me back in a heartbeat; I can probably find a job in gaming again with some time. I'm also working on some open source game tech ( http://gamesc.sourceforge.net/ ) - If I had to point to one technical skill I'm best at, coding is probably it.

However, starting a startup intrigues me more than game projects, and this seems like the time to consider it seriously...but although I'm in the Bay Area, I don't have connections in the startup world, and I really want to tap into that experience. Also, being deeply into games, I'd like to stick to that topic for business ideas. I don't know if I could buy into any old web app. Working on any old game is better, but only a little bit. I'm really keen on finding something innovative to do in the sector(business-wise) and a team to do it with; something that's really disruptive. I think it's possible. But I don't think I can do it alone.

I guess my question would be: What would be the right steps to take, to meet the kinds of people I want to meet that would work together on this kind of startup? Staying in the industry might be the way to meet the people I need. But I'm not convinced it's the best, or the only option.
That's somewhat intentional, but I can see how that isn't obvious. At the signup screen, I guess we should add a checkbox with "Copy drawings made as Guest1234 to new account".
Point 3 fixed. Thanks.
This person has padding down to an art.

"1. Make the most of your commute"

"4. Keep your computer software up to date, virus and spyware free"

"20. Organize all your paperwork once a week" closely followed by "21. Organize your computer files once a week"

etc etc.

12 word version on how to be more productive? Love your work, seek inspiration, never stop trying to improve, remove clutter.
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Godel, Escher, Bach is one of the best books ever written in this cosmos.
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Basic research so far... Like personal finance software for the mac and options for keeping a google calendar and an iphone in sync.

Tomorrow I'll see how well they do finding a place to rent.
I'm sorry, but this is just lunacy. Warren Buffett will go down as the greatest investor of all-time. Unlike many of the hedge fund managers out there who like to talk a big game based on 1, 2, or 3 year returns, Buffett has been beating the market for over 50 years. While you are right that he is the first to admit when he makes a mistake, his record is obvious, mistakes and all: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/personalfinance/persona...

For the rest of us, please take his advice and invest in an index fund. And don't try to time the market. As long as you are investing for at least 10 years, trying to pick the bottom is a loser's game.
jQuery internals are not hard to understand, other than some of the idioms used for performance enhancements, which are documented. Not that I have looked at MooTools code for a comparison, but at least I have looked at one of them.
Buffett has said that he's looking for huge investments, and he's not as worried about getting great returns. That's the problem with having so much money to invest - he needs multi-billion dollar investments to make a dent, and there just aren't that many around.

He's said that if he only had a million dollars, he could double it every year, with investments in small, relatively unknown companies.
Griping about jQuery plugins is quite trendy at the moment, which I think can partially be attributed to its audience broading as the lib matures.

Most concerns about plugins and the reputation of their authors apply equally to any OSS software - I wonder how many people acquainted themselves with the author of mod_ssl before loading the DSO into their web server?

Plugin quality does vary, and some of the more popular plugins have become quite bloated as the authors try to cover each and every use case, but the beauty of the license means you can write your own, or strip the bloat/cruft from a plugin that otherwise meets your needs.

jQuery doesn't look pseudo-classical javascript, but that doesn't make it unintelligible gibberish - conversely, I find it a breeze to read and simple, direct and elegant to write.

We're spoilt for choice these days: best to sample as many js libs as you can and stick with whatever feels right.
I saw that on the website and was really impressed. I'm confident that when I sign up I won't have to worry about you stretching your resources too thin to help me adequately, even when it's in your short term best interests.
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Oohh... This is one of my favourite documentary series of all time. Compulsive viewing.

I'm not sure how it exposes anything about the current situation, but it sure underlines what the free-market economy means, how it came about and why it's so important for our lives.

One of the underlying messages in the series is that Free markets and Free democracy are intrinsically linked.

I'd be really interested to see a 2008 update on this. One that takes into account the new China and Putin's Russia.

While China is touched upon in the series - I feel that the author would have many more insights on the impact of China on the rest of the world, today.

And Putin's Russia - well here's another piece of fascinating history in the making.

One of my favourite sub-plots in the series is the Thatcher story, and the economic reasoning behind the removal of government subsidy for industry.

While I was too young to understand it at the time, surely this was one of the greatest feats of leadership in a long time.

For something lighthearted and more related to today, see either of the following:
The subprime primer: http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?revision=_latest&fs=t...

And from the BBC comedy department,
'Bird and Fortune' http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJmTCYmo9g
Nobody thinks this will actually fix anything. People (us representatives?) hope it will slow the decent to chaos, or in hacker terms, it's a patch to buy 3 three months time to figure out what the hell to do.

As near as i can tell, there are two schools of thought. 1. try to slow the rate of decline. 2. bite the bullet and get the bad times over with quick.

If you look at how people actually voted, only senators up for reelection in tight races (based on fivethrityeight.com) and bullet biters voted no. Senators are not stupid. 75 of them think this is the best way to maintain the status quo - their specialty.

So, the bill is fucked up. however there's a good chance what they're passing is better than doing nothing - if your goal is to maintain the status quo. That buys time to do something more sophisticated.
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while colorfully folksy, this isn't really true anymore. check out fast food nation. we can make crap taste like fried chicken.
Maybe you concentrate too much on Europe, America, and the 'modern world'.

If you look at other people, you see that there have been periods where people lived 100 years and more, and this many many centuries back.

Regarding science and religion: don't you know that the european scientists in past have all been christians? So, science and religion are not opposed to each other, as many modern people think: this is only a recent invention.
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How about when the traffic from privacy tools looks the same as legitimate business traffic? Surely ecommerce in China uses SSL, and blocking such traffic would really piss off large businesses.

The usage patterns may look different which may result in further scrutiny, but it seems hard to block such tools outright, especially when used while mobile.
I'd get another day job while I come up with an idea for a startup. Good ideas don't come by that easily.
"... If you were to begin a start-up today, make sure to begin with a strong business model and comprehensive technology. Google is a great example. Early on in their development, they focused on their technology and business model. ..."

Cobblers.

What you read sometimes is such tripe. Google focused almost exclusively on their technology from the start at Stanford in '97 to 2000. AdWords which generates most of Googles revenue was an afterthought bolt-on ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdWords#History AdSense was created from a Startup purchase in 2003 ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdSense#History Up till then Google had no real revenue but lots of users.
I don't think anyone can be 100% sure about this... it's too big, too fast, too complex:

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/10...

"11. If someone is pushing conclusions and not identifying the potential weak points in his or her arguments, be suspicious. Also beware of anyone pretending to offer you simple answers."

"15. The crisis is complex and has many causes; there won't be a simple or quick solution."

... and he's an economist.
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This post is a good start. Contact me, we might be able to work together. Or I will give you tips anyway.

My email is i.akhund (at) gmail (dot) com
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It's not specifically about the current situation, but as I said, it sets the broader context. Also, it does bring up the issue of bailout occaisionally, e.g. they mention that LTCB was nearly nationalized to avoid a wider collapse, but ultimately rescued by private interests.
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I just got home from the Hackers and Founders Meetup 20 minutes ago. And, I started the group because I wanted the exact same thing: To hang out and talk with people who are serious about founding startups.

We get together in the Bay Area every two weeks to hang out, have a tasty beverage and talk about startups, the web, stuff we read on Hacker News, etc...

We've had between 20-30 attendee's the past few meetups, and people really seem to enjoy it.

Our next get-together is going to be a little different. The founders of Heysan and Snipd have agreed to give a presentation. So, there will be a 1-1/2 hour presentation and we'll be adjourning to the hotel bar after that for socializing.

Anyway, the address for the meetup is http://www.hackersandfounders.com

If you're interested, stop by or drop me a line. I'll buy you a drink.
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Hey rtf, I'm in the Bay Area too. There are _tons_ of meet ups, hackfests, and user group meetings you can go to.

SupperHappyDevHouse is coming up this Saturday (Oct 3rd) and the Hackers & Founders meetup is Oct 16th.

Usually the goal of these meetings isn't to find another founder though, it's just to have fun by hanging out and sharing interesting ideas w/ like minded people.

I think it might be a good place to start though.
You're right, but you're asking a slightly different question from me.

I agree with you about google etc, and that intuitiveness and simplicity benefit smart people as well as dumb people. Also, a smart person is sometimes a dumb person - when tired, unwell, upset or when they need to concentrate on something more demanding.

Although a smart person will benefit from it once it exists, what I'm saying is that the smart person won't be the one to do it, if it seems too easy for them, because they don't feel the frustration. In fact, if it's easy for them but hard for others, it may give them a little ego boost, which they'd like to keep.

Another aspect is smart people who do not like to acknowledge that they are sometimes dumb people... Also, a person with much intellectual effort invested in the old way is less likely to adopt the new one - and even less likely to be the one to change it. This isn't precisely smartness, but a kind of education.

Examples:

- a way to clarify mathematical proofs in papers that are "trivial" and "obvious", with hypertext to rigorously open up the steps (like http://us.metamath.org/mpegif/mmset.html#overview);

- programming languages are often slow to be adopted by expert users of the old way, including those who are very smart; these people aren't the ones to create the new language in the first place.

- computerized legal systems - lawyers are smart, but reluctant to change, probably because they have so much invested in learning what they have already. Similar may be true of doctors, dentists and civil engineers.

Perhaps whenever anyone says "but that's trivial", "it seems clear to me", "that's so easy, why can't you understand", "you're stupid" that their attitude is a flag that this is something worth looking at...

Thanks for your comment, I like your point of view.
Start going to the local hacking/entrepreneurship/etc meetups, there're probably 4-6 per week in your area. meetup.org
To add to this:

The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose. Really cool book.

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, by Penrose again.

Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness, Penrose.
"... the game shipped ..."

Bummer. This highlights a problem making games. Revenue is project based and a bit like farming a crop. Miss the schedule, a hardware release, market and you don't get paid as much.

"... What would be the right steps to take, to meet the kinds of people I want to meet that would work together on this kind of startup? ... I'm in the Bay Area ..."

A job for "Gabriel Weinberg's" AskYC Archive ~ http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive look under Founders
Warren Buffett explains the credit crisis to Charlie Rose
Why is this modded down? I agree.
Is this just straight contradictory to recent analyst downgrades (and Apple's resulting stock price drop)? I never know quite what to hink of this kind of market data.
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Does anyone have a good writeup somewhere of all such (public) groups? I trust HN pointers/analysis over just searching meetup. I'm relatively new to the valley, it would be nice to figure out what part of the technology social network I fit best with.
Do you have money saved up? If so budget that to work on your ideas and network for 3 to 5 months. If not, get another job.

Networking in the valley is not that hard. You can establish a pretty decent network within just a few weeks. My email is alaska.miller@gmail.com, I'm in Cupertino, let's get in touch.
The period that you measure someone's market performance is independent of how long they actually hold a single equity. Do you measure a day trader's performance over a single day?

Either way - it's a moot point - (Just like the investment funds you excluded) BRK doesn't need to turn over an equity to increase their value, whatever the time period. They could never sell anything and still give increased returns to their investors.
I think I agree. If you decide not to get a real job while searching for startup footing, make sure that you're learning enough to balance the opportunity cost of salary, on the job learning, and startup stuff on the side.

What you don't want to do is end up like Seth Rogen in Knocked Up -- unless your goal is to be a stoned slacker. Note that Katherine Heigl is unlikely to sleep with you in real life.
No, I think the paper just says that the brain can get by with lactic acid, not that it works better with it.
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I liked the article but the title is misleading. IPOs are drying up (no venture-backed company IPO'd in Q208), not capital itself. Money quote from the PWRC report cited by the article: VC firms are "raising funds at a steady pace."

So maybe this is more of a macro-economic or early-exit issue than a "VC is drying up" issue.
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