skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Have you read O'Reilly's Learning Emacs? I strongly recommend it. It's a useful tour guide.

Failing that, have you read the tutorial?

Have you read Steve Yegge's "Effective Emacs"?

If none of that can help or inspire you then I probably don't have much chance. But I'll offer you some coaching anyway. Imagine Vince Lombardi reading this to you:

Stop using the mouse. If you're using emacs and you're touching the mouse, you're doing it wrong.

Stop fretting about the GUI. Why does your editor need a GUI? Emacs is a text editor, a program that is all about text. It's text all the way down. If it had more chrome, that would be wasting pixels that could be devoted to text. (Seriously: As Yegge will tell you, the true emacs user turns off the pull-down menus to make more room for text.)

Stop worrying about "intuitive". Yes, until you get to know the moves, emacs is nonintuitive, kind of like the piano. No matter how expensive and well-designed a piano I buy, I won't be able to just sit down and play some Chopin. (Well, technically you can buy player pianos that will do just that, but what would a concert pianist call such an instrument? A toy.) You're learning an open-source text editor that's quite possibly older than you. You will live with this software for months, years, or decades. You don't need features that make it easy to learn emacs in five minutes. You need the features that make it worthwhile to use emacs after thirty years.

And, yes, you haven't spent enough time. In particular, it's not just a matter of plugging away in emacs for weeks or months; it's unlike any other software you've ever used, and until you're oriented you won't find it easy to pick up things just by playing with it. You have to study it a little. Try some of the references. Try the Emacs Wiki.
As a followup question, what is the best resource to most efficiently learn the basics of Emacs?
It's me again, seeking advice. This time: Women.
So, I'm just going to go ahead and put myself out there for the heck of it.
Met a girl a few weeks ago, we really hit it off first night, then she ditches me for an older guy.
Met a girl last Thursday, AMAZING night. (No sex, it's just that we were incredibly compatible, she was a great cuddler, etc etc.) And she's ditched me for an older guy because he has money and quote, "that's what I need right now".
I'm furious and hurt. Everyone, guy and girl, has been hurt in some relationship or another, but I seem to be getting the short end of the stick from a moving average and from a career average perspective.
I have pretty much no chance at meeting any decent girls in town (Columbus, OH) because I don't go to school right now (no parents to cosign, so I have to save up the cash to return).
The two I did meet were via craigslist. I can't really afford match.com because I'm trying to put money away for tuition, as I mentioned. I could afford it, I'm just trying to get back into school ASAP.
I don't like bars, I don't like getting drunk, and I don't like the kind of women that troll bars, so that venue is out. Oh, and I'm 20 years old too.
Any ideas for meeting women who uh...have a soul? Any fellow yc'ers in Columbus? I just moved here in May and this is worse than that small town I was in before.
Thanks.
NYC VC gives tips for startups looking for funding
Not only has Microsoft acted like this, they're doing it right now. From the Wikipedia page for "XBox Development Kit":

Only developers that are licensed by Microsoft may compile code and release binaries (.XBEs)of their software with the XDK, any software released using the XDK by developers that aren't licensed is illegal.

Nintendo and Sony do this as well, yes? There's nothing particularly unusual about this model, alas.

Yeah, Microsoft never did this for Windows. I believe that much is true. Perhaps it's a testimony to the enduring influence of the early PC hackers, like Wozniak and the Homebrew Computer Club guys, that I don't think anybody ever really tried this trick in the PC industry. Though I'm probably forgetting several examples because they're, um, so forgettable.

I'm pretty sure that old mainframe hands would recognize this game, though.
Wasn't Google originally called "BackRub" and didn't the idea for ad-words which this guy is claiming to have helped them hash out not come along until after the search engine was a success?
A swift kick to the head.

After that, mapping CAPS-LOCK to be CONTROL.

After that, the previously mentioned O'Reilly book.
Yeah, I'm thinking the problem with malware that's installable from a click on a dialog box that can paint itself similarly to an OS dialog? Might not be the users.
it sounds like you're going about things in the opposite direction. you don't want to try to form a relationship before you really get to know someone. leads to failure and poor self esteem.

it works best the other way around.

take up hobbies, be social, try something new, etc.. basically, get out there and don't rely on the computer to do the legwork for you. don't chase after every girl you meet, as it comes off weird and its not really the point. the point is to make some new friends and expand your social circle. if this means going to bars and having the occasional drink, do it even if you don't like it -- doesn't have to be a regular thing. eventually you will run into someone that peaks your interest. take your time, gauge the person, and then act.

or at least, thats my $0.02.
Google's Project 10 to the 100
NYC transit directions have arrived to Google Maps
NBC finds formula for fighting piracy
Bummer, I was really looking forward to results :/
Deploying a bundled Merb 0.9.7+ app with Capistrano
> A nice looking GUI and

You're editing text. What "graphical"s are you expecting? (You should be seeing syntax and selection highlighting.)

> well designed intuitive interfaces matter to me.

What's the difference between "intuitive" and "familiar"?

Yes, the keyboard commands are not what you're used to. If you want the keyboard commands that you're used to, you can program them. That's generally a bad idea, but emacs is full of rope.
Understanding Ruby Singleton Classes
Ask YC:  How to avoid never-ending "design" process?
I'm taking part in an open source project with a group of students. I've done lots of software development but the particular group I'm leading seems stuck on design decisions. We spend every meeting arguing about the correct architecture and I don't know what to do.

Since we never get much done, I fear we're going to stall and never get off the ground. How can I get this going and get some newcomers experience in software development?

Thanks for your advice.
okcupid is the best free dating site if you want to stick with that route
At this point I've spent about ten years learning Emacs. I'm sure there's still plenty I could learn that would make me even more productive - Emacs is big.

When I was in my early twenties, I decided enough of my heroes at the time raved about Emacs that I should just trust them and not care how long it took to learn or how hard it was. This turned out to be a good decision.
All I do is work-out at the Y, work, and study.

I can't think of a single activity that gets me out the door other than to swap books at the library. Not really good venues for meeting people my age around here.

Everyone my age either has three kids or goes to OSU. OSU kids only go to OSU venues and bars.

(I have a serious aversion to bars. Bad experiences.)

Thanks for the advice though.
Radical Transparency: Three Lessons Apple Can Learn from Google
I agree with what you said about about intuitive UIs. Intuitive just means familiar. After enough time, emacs (or vi, or any text edit) will be come familiar, i.e. you won't have to consciously think about using the editor. At that point it becomes intuitive.
The Google Phone: Right for Web Workers?
If you want the keyboard commands that you're used to, you can program them. That's generally a bad idea...

Let me underline this sentence. Some people (particularly the ones who think that copy and paste were invented by God on the eighth day of creation) get it into their heads that they should redesign the emacs interface on their first day. This is particularly tempting because the ability to remap keys all over the place is one of emacs' best features.

Resist the temptation to do this at first. The emacs ecosystem actually makes a great deal of sense once you settle into its way of thinking. It's sometimes hard to believe, but very smart programmers have spent decades working out where to put things in emacs. If you insist on ignoring their efforts, and instead try to pretend that emacs is a lot like the Mac OS, you will never even learn the basics, like the glories of the kill ring and the mark ring, or the important distinctions between a file and a buffer.
Cross-Site Request Forgeries and You
good for them, but everyone knows it is ultimately futile
Thanks, checking it out.
I just read Steve Yegge's "Effective Emacs", thanks for the link. It was very enlightening on many levels and told me several things that were written between the lines, namely:

- Initial user experience is (very) secondary to long-term efficiency

- if you aren't in this for the long term don't bother - the article actually suggestes swapping the caps lock key and the ctrl key to have it better positioned for emacs use...

- unplug your mouse, the keyboard is faster once you learn how to do it well.

It seems to me that Emacs is a friend for life, but only if you have the patience for a year or two of courting and learning its tweaks and quirks.

I'll buy O'Reillys book and see how it goes.
Yeah. It seems that certain departments in Microsoft have seen the light. IronPython, IronRuby, F#, PowerShell, supporting the Apache Foundation, all the cool stuff coming out of Microsoft Research. I think that cooler heads a prevailing at times. Perhaps Ray Ozzie is finally starting to have a bit of influence on the organization. Although there is still a long way to go.

I've always been fairly OS/tech agnostic over the years. But, Apple's attitude towards openness has really turned me off the past 5-6 years.

My antipathy started for me with their attitudes towards artists and Quicktime in the late 90's early 2000's, and it has continued with the transition to OSX, the ITunes handcuffs that come with any Apple product and now the issues that developers are having creating Apps for the iPhone.

Also, can someone please tell me why OSX is one of the few existing OS's that I can't install as a client OS on top of VMWare? I can have any flavor of x86 OS that I want, but now OSX.

I love Apple's design. It's the best in the industry. OSX is really shiny and pretty and I love me some good looking Unix. But, I really dislike their attitude towards openness, users and developers.
I'd recommend reading "Writing Gnus Emacs Extensions" why is it the best, obviously because it's one if not the most extensible piece of software ever made. And it chose one of the best languages to implement it's extensibility.
It isn't as bad as all that. A few weeks will suffice once you have proper guidance.

But there's certainly years of material left after that, if you want it. After eight years off and on I still haven't touched a sizeable number of emacs features.
you're not very specific on what you're already doing, so this might be what you're doing already.

i would say that you should get them to agree on the most basic of components/ideas, commit to it, and then build it. repeat. iteratively design and build features. try and force them to design what is in front of them now, not design the product now for 10 features in the future, or design the entire project before building it out.
Just checked my usage with a Pearl. About 35mb. I do next to no browsing with images on. But what happens once I start watching videos and have 3G in NYC with the G1?

Going to wait for the G2.
That is true. You also claimed to be saving 10 hours per week while paying for only four. I think that'd be an expected gain.

but all that's very theoretical..

In reality, you're not taking out time from web designing to cook, are you?

This kind of resource allocation exists in B2B, no brainer. You get hired for web design. You hire a bookkeeper. But in our personal lives, it doesn't happen as often. You get to spend more time watching TV or painting in exchange for money. You will rarely find someone willing to pay their hourly wage to save an hour of non-work chores. People are willing to pay for time but only at a much discounted rate.

Take yourself as an example. Assuming you earn $45ph web designing. You are 'saving' $450 (10 hrs) by not cooking. You are paying $60 for this - bargain. Would you pay $449 for this service? How about $225.

Generally speaking businesses would probably say yes while individuals would say no.
thats what i'm saying -- go do other things. make room for them on your calendar.

if you're student aged and intend to be a student again, why not try and do student-ish things? can you join the OSU student gym instead of going to the Y? could you try and join some student organizations despite not being a student? are you interested in something in particular that you can go participate in (martial arts, soccer, a foreign language, whatever)?
This is pretty much the reason I decided to give it more than the normal five minutes of attention that shareware gets before a decision is made. A great number of people that are way smarter than me think it's the best thing since sliced bread. And by definition they can't be all that stupid :-)
The emacs tutorial included with the editor is good enough to wean you off the mouse, for the most part. You can be productive after that, and you don't even need to open to another window. The startup page might show the hotkey combination for loading the tutorial, depending on the version of emacs.

There's other documentation included with emacs beyond that, e.g. the info pages. Anything that can be read from within emacs has the added advantage of helping you get used to scrolling and moving around inside buffers (again, hopefully without the mouse).
Kiwis behind social networking for footy fans
Can't join their gym. I used to do martial arts. No women when I sparred back then. At all.

I'm horrible at sports even though I used to play them. Like, conspicuously so.

Where do you meet people regarding a foreign language? O_O
Haven't used okcupid much for dating, but plentyoffish.com is pretty solid in my experience . . . lots of Ohio people on too.
i love how the guy pimps his portfolio companies for about 5 minutes of the 20 minute talk - otherwise the info is good
Maybe you should reconsider. Sampling over people around you is a lot more accurate metric than global statistics.

First you have data sample that is relevant to people just like you. That means that you do not have to compensate for other factors as you're affected in the same way.

Second you do not have to trust other people for properly gathering, processing, and presenting the data.
The Two Classes of Airport Contraband
So how exactly does that work? Hey, mom, dad, I don't have time for school, I'm too busy slinging...

If he's from the neighborhood where that actually works, I very much doubt that he'd get funding from anyone. In other words, I'm calling bullshit.
Everyone my age either has three kids or goes to OSU. OSU kids only go to OSU venues and bars.

While I don't know Columbus, I do know its type. My suggestion for you is to move to a more cosmopolitan city where you'll find plenty of single, interesting professionals and artistic types. In my opinion, it's worth the increased cost of living.

If you aren't willing to do that, your next best option if you're college age is to take a class or join a group at OSU.
I generally agree with you about trying to redesign the interface. However, if you exercise some discipline, it can be a worthwhile way to sequence a gradual adoption of Emacs.

This is especially true for users of other programming-style text editors, such as Vi(m). Using Viper or similar can be a good way to ease into Emacs. It's even structured that way -- you can progress through the levels to gradually transition from Vim's way of doing things to the Emacs way. I did this myself.

As I said, it does require the discipline to periodically learn more and more features to progress. Aquamacs offers a similar transition for Mac OS X users.
All well and good, but your sample is usually very small and you as a human being can't handle confounding factors very well. Add on the fact that you are also prone to selection bias...
OSU kids only go to OSU venues and bars.

I seriously doubt this. Even if only 5% of OSU avoids bars like the plague, that's thousands and thousands of people.

Get ye to the Short North and find some coffeehouses. I know for a fact that these exist.

There are also other universities near Columbus than OSU, hard as it is to believe.
I second that, some tweaking the recipe and Capistrano does a neat job with PHP sites as well!
The G1's Achilles Heel: T-Mobile's Network
When one does occasional menial-work oneself:

1. It is tax free, and therefore worth somewhat more.

2. It is supervision-cost free, and therefore worth somewhat more.

3. It is hiring-cost free, and therefore worth somewhat more.

4. It doesn't show up as a business expense, otherwise potentially costing thousands or millions of dollars at exit.

5. It is not necessarily done as slowly or as sloppily as by the typical $10/hr worker. It might very well be done four times as fast.

6. The security risk/cost of having a once-in-a-while worker (who could be casing the place, or spying, or actively stealing while there {a lot of thieves admit they get car-keys this way}) in one's home or business is avoided.
The physiology of personal politics
Well, there aren't enough people (or corporations) willing to risk their money with little to know knowledge of what is going on to do what the government needs to.

You can't do any basic arithmetic where credit default swaps are involved to compute EV. It's to the point where even the people holding them don't know how much they can potentially be on the hook for, but it's a far larger number than any of the mortgages they're based on. A foreclosure rate of even 10% can easily wipe you clean if you're betting 10x on it.
colleges have foreign language clubs and such.

i also like the idea pius said -- move into an area with more students and get to know your neighbors.

you're going to have at least some problems with a relationship until you get yourself a healthy, regular social life. i'm not saying that you don't, its a general statement.
Ruby scales? I thought the entire tech community had already taken Twitter as a lone example and proof that Ruby doesn't scale.

Edit: I was being ironical here.
Manticore: parallel programming language for general-purpose apps
All of the things that you list here are what Emacs is not. Above all, Emacs is an investment -- not a two week investment, but one that you'll need a year before it's really an extension of the way you code.

Here are some other additional notes:

- You can get it on every platform. I personally use XEmacs (though I'd recommend GNU Emacs for people starting now) and it's exactly the same on Mac, Windows and Linux.

- Many of the old Emacs die-hards learned Emacs in a time when Emacs had just as good a GUI as anything else. So a lot of our rhetoric comes from an era when everything was driven by keyboard shortcuts. I do, however, believe that learning how to use your editor from the keyboard alone does improve long-term efficiency.
Hello there. I too am in Columbus, OH, and although I don't see eye to eye with you (I am thirty, working full time), but I have to admit, I am surprised to hear that you find it hard to meet someone.

IMO, Columbus is a very balanced city, in that there is a good mix of students, young professionals, and everybody else. I would recommend what a lot of the others have suggested, get out there, do something that interests you in a social setting. Join a book club, go to a gym, study martial arts, study at the library or a local coffee shop.

I have learned that familiarity is a good thing. Going to the same coffee shop lets you to get to know the regulars. Its easy to strike up conversations with people who come there often and have seen you a few times. I would go to places where students hang out (places near the OSU campus like Grandview) is a good choice.

If you feel like meeting up, drop me a line, email is in profile.
Apple has pretty much used the original Apple Human Interface Guidelines documents for toilet paper (there are three or four different title bar types in OS X), and Microsoft has even moved the IE6 malware warning dialogs around in a service pack (SP2, security enhancements, moving the warnings into the yellow bar in the top of the renderable space). It's mind bogglingly stupid and completely inexcusable.

We, as the leaders, experts, and geeks of the community have failed to demand verifiable, non-forgeable desktop experiences for critical steps, instead electing to say "tee hee hee, this idiot didn't notice the HAND POINTER! how stupid, i'd never do that!" Remember Windows 98? Active Desktop? Underlined filenames on icons and single click to execute? Yep. Hand pointer on mouseover.

We're the idiots, not them.

edit: arrgh, i just looked. This single click thing is still in XP. Tools -> Folder Options, it's right on the first screen. <frustration> lakjflkwjlewijlewfjljk</frustration>
I spent a couple hours every day doing the basics (first learning buffers, then file stuff, then on and on...) within a week I had decided to switch from VIM. (I used only emacs while on vacation for any editing I needed to do)

My suggestion - stop reading all the tutorials and just do it.

Keep a list next to your computer with 5 things you need to know how to do - with the key strokes next to them.

Once you become comfortable create a new list that is what you need to learn now. Don't over extend (ooh, git integration, org-mode, ...) - you'll get there (and probably within a few weeks) - but focus on the basics first. Once those become muscle memory you can figure out the advanced stuff.
Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke learn about Fail
dupe!
http://digg.com/business_finance/Paulson_Bernake_FAIL

...oh wait...
"syntax-driven development"

Interesting methodology I'd never considered. Great read, thanks for posting.
New Canon 5d MkII dSLR can shoot stunning 1080p video
Mortgage Refinance Quotes
This is the second time I've read this:

> mapping CAPS-LOCK to be CONTROL.

Why? At least in my laptop CAPS-LOCK is easier me to press than CONTROL if I want CAPS, maybe there is another reason for it?
When I saw the light:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=233172
Errr, Americans seem to need somebody to blame for this crisis. But before we lynch Bernake and Paulson, we should all take a good look in the mirror.
Meltdown at CERN
Ruby != Rails
Only on YC would I get so thorough and insightful a response. Thank you VERY much for your time. You're exemplary of why I love this tight-knit community. You guys are great.

I'm definitely following up on the real life angle. A second job in the areas you recommended isn't sounding like such a bad idea other than that it'll be hard to balance a full-time job along with a second job and school (in future).
I have a social life, it's just very isolated. I don't know how to branch out much.

I'll do my best.
Technology Transfer in the Midwest: Looking Up at Olson’s Observations
How to piss off your community: eBay fuels fires of resentment with new PayPal-only policy
I'm very curious as to why Ruby was used instead of something like Erlang which was explicitly (roughly) designed for the situation he describes.
Somethings don't matter, and it's acceptable to be irrational about them. Others do matter. Figuring out the difference is not trivial.
Tried plentyoffish. Everyone my age has kids or is a drunk on there. Eek.
emailed you.
http://www.evdeals.com/BidwellSecrets.htm

Don't spend $12,000. You can hack one out now for $2k. :)