skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There's nothing wrong with quitting a Ph.D. program. To me, it looks like you're bright and intellectually curious, but you've got enough sense to ignore sunk costs, which is a valuable skill to have in a startup.

Some places might ask for grad school grades - Google, I'm guessing, they're strange about that sort of thing - but in my experience this is pretty damn rare, especially when the grades are of questionable relevancy. Never happened to me. If it did, I'd just laugh. My grade in Old Church Slavonic simply isn't relevant.

I quit a Ph.D. in History and got my consolation MA when I left. In my experience, most people don't think 'oh, he dropped out of a Ph.D. program' (although I've never hid that), they think 'wow, he got a MA from Stanford!' Not taking the MA would've been silly - now, with some work experience, it doesn't matter, but when starting out it was really valuable.
40 Under 40
You misread, it is only $250,000 for the first home, and the rest can be investment.
Was Sybil a psychiatrist's creation?
It's the latter. Dropbox doesn't allow transloading files from arbitrary URLs, so it has to travel through my server.
Watch your real visitors surfing your website
Can I start using any of these codes right now? It looks like this is still a draft. Thanks!
I think you're confusing two very different concepts. Observations and analysis. An observation is a fact, something that happened at a point in time, the analysis is a series of hypothesis justified through logic and evidence.

The OP does an excellent job of sharing his observations, things that caught him off guard. Will these be useful to someone launching on HN? Definitely, because they will observe all the same things as the OP, who is now eliminating the surprise factor and enabling the next launcher to create a strategy around their launch.

Will the analysis be useful? No. Because the analysis is limited by the OP’s capacity to analyze and is limited to the scope of his project. X will not happen to both A and B for the same P reason.

Hope this makes sense. You're asking for fluff when the OP gave straight facts, because me observing the same facts for my launch might have completely different reasons.
Proposed bill: Buy a house. Get a Visa?
I worry that, in an effort to compete with Facebook, Google is going to ruin everything I liked about their products.
You are misquoting the article, which actually proposes to "boost the tax take from the wealthy by eliminating loopholes while simultaneously lowering marginal rates."

In other words, make the rich actually pay more by eliminating loopholes used to avoid taxes entirely. Compensate somewhat for the increase by lowering the actual tax rate.
I know plenty of people, and have seen plenty of comments on the internet lynching many rich people. I don't think this was the original intent of the movement, but it is definitely an unintended side effect
Yes. Unfortunately, the balance seems heavily weighted toward the slow end of the curve, so that in practice it comes out slower than MRI.

It's not just for things like Rails apps that Ruby is typically used for, either. I frequently process data, such as large log files, and now and then I try out the different Ruby to see if things have gotten better. So far, 1.9 and JRuby are the winners.

(LuaJIT is typically 2-5 times faster than both, so these days I tend to write my scripts in Lua.)
That's correct. It doesn't use your connection twice. It just uploads the video to your Dropbox folder after which Dropbox does the syncing.
Yeah, I don't want to foment yet more fake controversy. I think you're right about what he meant to communicate. I'd just suggest not joking in public about firing people.
50% of All Workers Made Less than $26,000 in 2010
L.A Kings Are First Pro Sports Team to Get Gamified
My girlfriend has an Android phone. Her reasons are threefold (in order of importance); 1) It's cheap. 2) It's relatively small (Wildfire S is smaller that the iPhone). 3) She uses only Google services (Gmail etc.) so it makes sense to use Android. She is what I believe to be a typical user and the fact that the OS is "open" is irrelevant to her. No-one else influenced her choice and I think this is true of the majority of the phone-buying public; the silent majority that actually matter (we "technically minded" [geeks and nerds!] really don't). Genuinely, the openness debate only has any relevance in places like this, and even then it's arguably not really relevant.
Ask HN: Why don't more startups adopt Flextime work schedules?
If you aren't able to do the work yourself, then you'll never gain the respect of your coworkers/employees.

Bill Gates was a pretty good software developer. And you're not Steve Jobs.
Not seeing it, but I believe you. Can you be a little more specific?
This is the type of unserious, policy-by-press release we've come to expect from the micromanagers in the U.S. Congress.

First of all, housing is still overpriced, in terms of historic trends, in many markets.

Second, this is yet another program for ICE, which cannot manage its current immigration visa portfolio. This idea seems particularly open to abuse, since the home could be bought with borrowed money. (Sure it has to be "cash" investment but there's an asset here, you could easily cash out or have straw buyers.)

I wish these guys would come up with better solutions to the banking crisis (yes, it isn't over) than selling U.S. visas.
Reminds me of the time I watched Dan Silva effortlessly make drawing after drawing with Deluxe Paint. Having tried, and failed, many times to be able to do stuff like this I realize that my artistic talents extend no further than block diagrams :-)
The iPhone and iPad could really use more memory. I was trying to figure out why Skype and Vtok get killed while in the background and in the diagnostics section there are literally dozens of reports of low memory conditions killing Skype, vtok and Mobile Safari.
Client-side encryption or a self-hosted version could be useful. I'm pretty sure I'm violating a privacy law somewhere when I keep student grades in a Dropbox folder.
Well, yes, IIRC he described one of his major goals with Clojure as enabling simplicity, or something like that. That Clojure's design follows his views on simplicity seems natural.

Non-Clojure examples would help make the point. He does bring up examples from Haskell (such as type classes) in the talk in places, but doesn't dive deeply into them.
Does it work yet? I put in a youtube URL and clicked the button, but nothing is happening.

Wait, after going back and clicking a few more times, it finally queued it.
The most important question is not what are they doing but how you expect them to use this In the future. Good or bad intent is beside the point. Google wants to grow in a serious way and they not against some unethical actions to reach those goals. If groth continues they are going to have a near monopoly is many areas. It is best to have a fall back plan. I really don't want to have them as my omeaning ome or acess with the world. The above comment to early Microsoft was apt. The people that trust google would also have trusted MS before they threw all there loyal coustomers under the bus to lock out Netscape. I am sure they had no idea how much the tight integration with IE would hurt security and stability but they did control the market for some time.

The benefits of completly relying on google are minimal the potential costs are nontrivial.
It's amazing these people can get away with claiming they don't get what OWS is about with a straight face.
The sympathizing I've seen and sometimes feel is more along the lines of the US not admitting its own evil doing and how its actions cause lots of blowback that just hurts the country more. Then as with other comments here, it's annoying and disturbing that we've gotten in the habit of just killing people we don't like. It's a contrast to Saddam, whom we captured and gave a trial to, as well as interviewed for some interesting information (at the very least of historical interest). Read the transcript for the interview sometime; he may have been corrupt but he wasn't stupid.
This seems like a really good move on their part. Hats off to the Forrst team!
The removal of a regulation is quite different from co-opting the government to do the industry's bidding.

In 1993, the Clinton administration repealed the Glass-Steagall Act under pressure from Wall Street because Clinton wanted to secure Wall Street's financial support for his coming reelection. Wall Street money effectively contributed to shape the financial system in Wall Street's favor, that is, towards less financial regulation.

With this perspective, I see the removal of the Glass-Steagall Act regulation as an example of co-optation.
Google defines "with Google" as(from http://www.google.com/phone/):

>'with Google' phones have been optimised for use of Google Mobile Services, providing easy access to Search, Voice Search, Google Talk, Google Maps, Gmail, Sync, YouTube and Android Market (where available).

And normal, non-branded phones are defined as:

>All phones in the Google Phone Gallery come with Android Market and Google Mobile Services such as Search, Google Maps and Gmail pre-installed.

What's the difference? There do not appear to be any real UX-related requirements, because Android 2.2 and 2.3 phones have the branding, some phones that use HTC sense have the branding(and others don't). Also, the Droid Incredible has the branding, but the Incredible 2 does not!
Ubuntu celebrates its seventh birthday
Yeah, I agree. Lua is actually my favorite language ahead of Ruby. I have F3 mapped in Vim to run my tests; one of my projects is an implementation of Haml in Lua, and even that runs all of its tests in a small fraction of a second. The more you work with Lua the harder it can be to go back to Ruby sometimes.
Sure you're not slipping down a slope there? In the first case he failed to mention he was given something to review for free by the company. The second makes the case that he wrote positively about things he had written manuals for.

I am still failing to grasp your logic. How does this serve as evidence?
I love the quote: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It embodies the crux of human psychology. You can try to force a hand to do what you want but unless you convince the mind the precipitated action will never be sustainable.
Not everyone does, but it is used by over 49% of the 10,000 most visited websites making it the most popular JavaScript library in use today.

I'm not saying a standalone is invaluable, but if you're bragging about how it's only 7k, shouldn't there also be a 5k version for people already using the most popular JavaScript library in use today?

http://trends.builtwith.com/javascript/jQuery
http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/javascript_library/...
Then don't share articles. Read them and be happy, like many do.
A bigger processor and more memory isn't something that most users are concerned with. The important thing that people will see on a phone like this is that it's enormous (4.6" vs 3.5") and the huge impact this (as well as the processor) will have on battery life. Android already has a reputation for terrible battery life.
And they don't want immigrants buying a $5,000 house, then abandoning it to rent a closet in California.
The difference between Facebook and Google+ API
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." Steve Jobs
Patent licensing raises tech sector's pulse
Thunderbird is getting pretty darn good lately.

Now that Firefox mobile is getting good too, maybe Thunderbird mobile will start to happen in 2012?
It's reprehensible to claim that a writer sold their column without providing evidence to back it up. Full stop.
What shocks me most is that none of these (despicable) people lived to be taken to trial. Odd that the western world seems so comfortable with blood.
My understanding is that it gets a bit faster and you get a few extra perks if you purchasea (pretty cheap) subscription. Not a bad deal for an awesome newsreader.
HTTP Archive: new code, new charts
How to Access The App Store From Another Apple ID in iOS
Even with the current slowdown, U.S. per capita GDP is much higher than Canada's. Singapore, as an island city-state, isn't really comparable to the U.S. It is more like Manhattan, and the government in Singapore can implement fairly heavy-handed policies that are not feasible on a continental US-scale.
How are you going to deal with the YouTube rate limit that is about to (or already has) hit?
Behold the greatest Hot Wheels track in human history
In a nutshell?

1) 50% reduction in both the mandatory and discretionary defense budgets (why there are two of them is an outrage in and of itself). Iraq/Afghanistan withdrawal included and needed badly.

2) If jobs are #1 in the current economy, entrepreneurship should be job #1 for Congress. Make the SBA the new WPA for the new century. Instead of putting people to work on solely "shovel-ready" government infrastructure projects (which they should also do, but I digress), the government should guarantee small business loans disbursed and managed by NCUA-backed credit unions (see what I did there?), who would know more than any large, NYC-based conglomerate the business needs of their community. Loan terms should be manageable and repayment should start at time of profitability according to financial projections as stated in mandatory business plan drawn up by founders/loan seeker. Repayment interest rate shall be 1% + Federal Discount Rate (so, currently 1.75%) and, again, guaranteed by the government.

3) Said small businesses above are far and away the largest drivers of employment growth in the US even without stimulus like #2 above, so get them even further growth by lowering both payroll taxes and offering credits to those who hire within the US (in either part- or full-time permanent positions, not contractors).

4) All businesses with <100 employees are eligible to buy-in to Medicare program and enroll employees regardless of age or health condition. Rates will be determined by current average monthly Medicare premium + 15%, to be paid by both employer and employee (negotiated privately between parties, of course).

5) Keep current Tax cuts but close all loopholes and subsidies, and institute a progressive Capital Gains tax (short and long-term) that mirrors income tax rates.
You're right. If someone thinks that writing code for an hour is a tedious act of desperation, they are not the right candidate for us.
Yes, definitely a function of rural. I live in the South, with a few million suburbanites surrounding me just outside a major city, and I pay Comcast about $50/mo for 24Mbps down. Heck, they offer 100Mbps (and possibly more).
Kurzweil's formula is based on recursive intelligence: getting smarter lets you improve the rate at which you get smarter, ad infinitum. Though this can sometimes improve energy technology, intelligence ultimately depends on energy, of which there is a finite usable amount. Though I'm optimistic about new nuclear technologies, I'm forced to agree that absent an unforeseen break-though in fusion, "zero-point", etc., Kurzweil's model is agnostic when it comes to extracting useful energy, and therefore could have an expiration date.

It's worth noting, however, that we'll never completely run out of energy, so long as Sol keeps burning. Can we sustain anything remotely resembling civilization based only on solar energy and its indirect organic by-products? Well, that's obviously debatable.

> Even if the energy problem is technically solvable, it seems to me that our political systems may be set up to do the absolute worst possible thing

Never doubt the self-interest of the powerful. Some may be short-sighted enough to eat their seed and burn resources in resource wars, but I think we're more likely to devolve into feudalism, where the masses eke out their existence serving the needs of those who control the remaining resources. On the other hand, if any kind of information infrastructure remains when the oil runs out, we also have the possibility of new emergent, de-centralized social structures constructed out of necessity. (Imagine, for instance, a mesh network of hand-crank-powered cell phones which virally alert clusters of villages to band together to defend against marauders.)

Either way, I can't help but feel that our lifetimes are the perfect fulfillment of the old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."
Although Singapore is outperforming our economy (on a per-capita basis), Canada is not. Why do you believe emulating them will get us Singapore-like benefits rather than Canada-like harms?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_...
Building a visual language for the 99%
My definition of "civilization" is a society "ruled by law" and something approaching a "democracy". I can't think of a country in the Middle East remotely qualifying -- maybe Israel.

Trying to equate "religious pandering" in the US to the various REAL theocracies and military juntas that inhabit the Mideast is "shame"ful.
Perhaps so, but I would disagree that this particular problem is a "brainteaser" under that definition.
One of the reasons Dropbox is so popular is because of its drop-dead simplicity. I know more features are nice, but how many new features will detract from Dropbox's main business model - a stupid-simple syncing program? One? Ten?
At last: VCs turn focus to Android apps
Stick with your niche, social networks and the ability to sell on them should be your unique selling point.

There are many other service providers for selling digital goods via your blog or website.

Having it as an option or integrating with one of these providers might be a good idea.

Other than that, maybe for Facebook/new social networks I would recommend partnering with a landing page software provider.

Great idea, keep up the good work.
Efficiency actually increases energy use, as per Jevon's paradox, which goes hand in hand with the technological cornucopia argument that the energy issue will be solved by better technology. Unfortunately the EROEI numbers reflect quite the contrary - where once oil bubbled up from the ground under its own pressure netting 200x EROEI, we're now griming are way through oil sands which net 5-6x EROEI, or sinking 2 mile long pipes into the ocean. This is why Kurzweil argument fails - technology has a tendency to expand and soak up as much energy as possible, all the salad shooters in the world aren't going to bring back $2 oil, in any form.
nathanb said that he doesn't want to share on G+, but is fine sharing _within_ Reader. It's the idea that they're combining the two together.

I'm in nathanb's boat - I share articles with people within Reader, but I don't want those to be pushed to G+. Similarly, I don't want to be forced to read other people's links through G+.
Overall good line of thought, but a few other things are worth considering. It is vastly underappreciated just how much the EPA has retarded energy development in the US. The retroactive revocation of permits for the
mountaintop coal project, the Keystone XL imbroglio, and the hasty ban on offshore drilling are just a few examples. (Not many know that Deepwater Horizon was out that far because of regulations forbidding drilling closer to the shore).

These areas are inherently dirty and dangerous. It's always easy to do Monday morning quarterbacking, but little recognition of the fact that infrequent domestic oil spills may be preferable to endless foreign oil wars.

Resource extraction in general is demonized by the EPA just as much as the pharmaceutical industry is by the FDA. It is hard to regulate an industry which is respected by the public, because they will get some benefit of the doubt. But if they can be turned into polluters and poisoners, it is easy to justify ever greater state power over the sector.

Computers and the internet are in the exact opposite space: highly respected and almost entirely unregulated. So it's hard for many here to see what the fedguv means (they make App Store approval look like a walk in the park).

But once you're on the insides of those sectors, you start to realize that what is holding back oil in the West (and nuclear power, and drugs, and all non CS sectors) are human factors, not physical ones. That is simultaneous harder and easier to deal with than a genuine scarcity of energy.
It reminds me of how to draw an owl:

http://piccsy.com/2010/08/how-to-draw-an-owl/
The threshold was 50 miles for X-15 pilots to be considered astronauts, which is 264k feet.
I didn't realize there was a slumlord shortage.
Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Sarkozy etc. Pretty sure too many people like these would be shamed by this lunatic. Maybe it's best that he died, the world wants to keep its heroes.
I'd be willing to be the "SCAA"'s numbers are something like "Still open 3 months after founding".
Correlation is not causation, but if the Android team knew Siri was a threat early on, they were smart to make the Text-to-speech APIs public.
I don't think it worked this way for Levchin, either.

It's obvious that they were so excited about what they were making at PayPal. The PalmPilot thing? All that encryption stuff they did early on? They were just in love with what they were making, and it worked out very well for them.

On the other hand, Slide, a basically dispassionate attempt to build a company he thought would be successful, while still a success, didn't work out quite as well.
Google+ features are coming to more Google products, starting today with Reader
Gmail Accidentally Leaks Upcoming Redesign
If you have a faster processor working on a smaller core, doesn't that mean that if you underclock it, you will get better battery performance -- more bang for the juice?

The only problem with Android and battery life is the way it manages services and how it deals with services that abuse the processor. An app such as Watchdog, combined with JuiceDefender fixes the issue. On my Galaxy S II, I can go to bed with 98% battery and wake up with 98% battery. The processor is set to 200Mhz at sleep and any service using more than 1% of the processor is automatically killed (unless I want it to run)
That's true.

I'm just thinking my time might better be spent thinking about business ideas, and then trying those ideas out on Heroku. As opposed to learning about some technology that may make me a better programmer but may not really help me get to where I want to be, which is having a successful product that I own equity in.

Is it really worth my time to learn the intricacies of functional programming? Am I still going to be writing code for some corporate overlord 5 or 10 years from now?
SQL and Prolog were also cited, but yes, nothing very deep (which I think is fine for this talk)

I would love to see the programs that are generated from this philosophy.
Apple Working on a Thinner MacBook Pro Design
I would imagine that the extra RAM doesn't help battery life either.
While MacRuby is a fork, they have already replaced the VM with one that compiles to LLVM, which has been implemented in C++. They have also gutted things like String and Hash to use Objective-C's (or more precisely, Cocoa's) counterparts, and they have started using libdispatch (aka Grand Central Dispatch), Apple's open-source multicore tech.

One of the big things about the new VM is that it eliminates the global interpreter lock, meaning MacRuby probably has much better parallelization than MRI. With the VM alone I think they are on their way to being their own Ruby implementation.

All of this is a bit disappointing considering that they could have shared their improvements upstream and improved MRI performance for everyone, not just for Mac apps.