skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"[Jobs] predicted that the improvement in technology he said the iPod represented would inspire consumers to buy Macintosh computers so they could use an iPod."

While the "so they could use an iPod" part is off, he was so right about the significance of the iPod and its ability to inspire/convince people to purchase Macs, and what that meant for Apple in the decade that followed.
"Or, he could just move on and do something that doesn't require fighting the government."

This is exactly what not to do. But following maximusprime perspective, why not just leave the US and take your business to another more business friendly country (like it or leave it).

Aaron... don't stop complaining. Keep up the fight. It's not the government you are fighting but other humans that use the 'government' as a facade. The old folks don't understand the new kids... and they fear us for that. They fear change.

Keep fighting for us. Fight for the USER.
The more important lesson to learn is that if you're confident, likable, and remember people's names you can be VP of a $100 million dollar company. Now if you're competent as well, imagine how far you could go...
I think headphones might be the single most important business purchase you can make. I splurged and bought the Bose QC15s, and no matter where I am, I can put them on and simply zone out the rest of the world. Sometimes I'll put them on, and when I come up for air the entire place will be full of people that I didn't even notice sit down next to me!

Also, like he said, have some "work music." I have 80s radio on Pandora that I've fine tuned with many a thumbs-down. I can be lethargic and unmotivated but once I sit down, put on the headphones, and play some Pandora, I can get into work zone quickly.
You might always pick a human, I'd pick what I liked best. I remain convinced of the possibility of a machine being more creative than any human, and being better able to understand and connect with "our soul", though I hate to use that language. If technical ability is one variable to optimize for, emotional connecting ability is just another.
Walter Isaacson's 60 Minutes interview on Steve Jobs
Yes, but it is what the 'A' in ISA stands for (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_set_architecture)
Because a programmer knows the complexity of intertwined systems and the probability of randomness leading to it. Then he sees how the entire world interoperates and regulates itself, sees the pure perfection and knows it cannot be the product of chance.

My code doesn't write itself, by chance.
A few favorite starting points:

Meals for $1: abuckaplate.blogspot.com (fair disclosure, it's my blog)

Education curriculum, free: ocw.MIT.edu

Housing, efficient: Tumbleweedhouses.com, TinyHouseBlog.com

Cheap land: google "free land"

Health care: look into "catastrophic coverage"

Yeah, it takes effort. Ease has a price. The main issue, as another poster noted, is that most people are indoctrinated with consumerism from birth. Fact is you can live well, cheap; takes work, but it's not really that hard.
The Attitude and Its Importance to Success
Atheism is a religion like bald is a hair color
If you're looking for a desktop install of FreeBSD, I highly recommend PC-BSD. It's more or less to FreeBSD what Ubuntu is to Debian. It's still a little rough around the edges, but it's a lot more straightforward to get set up than vanilla FreeBSD.
I'd think that would be an issue to. In this case the guy wasn't trying to deceive him really, but if he had been what good is a "reference" from some guys buddy at the "awesome sause corp"
Can't help but think:

http://xkcd.com/927/
I hope your island has nice healthcare, fiber, and 3G towers.
Doesn't load external fonts from services like Google web fonts so it creates inaccurate screenshots for a lot of websites. An issue with QtWebkit, that is assuming this uses PhantomJS.

example (quicksand font not loaded): http://instantscreenshot.com/screenshot/ac

http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Quicksand
" Judges agreed with experts who said a brick was a technical shape which could not be trademarked."

Odd that the unique pattern of interlocking holes and columns on a Lego brick is obvious and technical.

While a tablet computer being shaped like the piece of paper it replaces is protected
Transporting electricity is expensive and inefficient. If you take 150,000 sq km of the most efficient solar land, you still have the problem of transporting the electricity created from that to the places that need it.
That's vulnerable to a length extension attack: sha1(passwd|am) can be used to derive sha1(passwd|amazon). (See Wikipedia for a discussion.)

Don't try to get clever, just use random passwords.
Controls and instruments in a car are meant to be used while driving. They should be fairly standard, non-distracting, and not require a lot of thought. Analog gauges do this well. Controls should be simple to operate and always do the same thing so you can use them without taking a large fraction of your attention off your primary task: driving. Once you learn where the knobs and switches are you should be able to operate them without looking or with maybe a quick glance. Many of the newer multifunction touch screen controls violate this. I rented a Ford Flex last year and every time I needed to adjust the climate controls I would nearly run off the road because it was impossible to do it by feel, in fact you needed to watch the screen carefully and navigate through several UI buttons to effect a change in temperature.
I agree. I put less than $50k, but I also only work part-time (by choice-the money I make is enough for my needs, so I'd rather have the free time than the extra cash), which doesn't really get factored in and just makes it seem like I work for really low pay.
The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.
Details of belief as taught or discussed.

Atheism (movement regardless) is the strict belief that a god does not exist; hence a religion.

Agnosticism/Non-religious is more not a religion.
I'm not sure how useful is for everyone else, but I always thought grabbing a screenshot of a url could be improved.
I have a personal set of beliefs that doesn't fit in any organized religion (though it takes a lot from budhism and juedo-christianism). I'm not sure how to complete the poll.
Ask HN: Combat sloth and regain focus/resolve
I have a lot of work to do, and I know I'm capable of doing it. Some of them are a need more effort than others, but are manageable. I find myself constantly moving away from work, finding ways to not do work. I watch a lot of TV online. I even cancelled Netflix a week back hoping that will get me back on track, but there are a zillion other video sites, and HN, and Google reader, that have taken its place.

I do plan things out, put everything in my calendar, but 60% of my tasks slip, and even among those things that I do get to work on, Im nowhere near being 100% efficient.

I'm not sure what the problem is - am I just burnt out, or can this be a medical condition that I need to seek professional help for, or should I just get my lazy ass to work?

Can you advise me on how to deal with my general lack of focus and resolve?
Does reference checking really work? People pick references that can put them in the best light.

How would one phrase questions to get the true answers from references?
Maybe the rule is "don't be embarrassed about asking questions when your business/reputation is on the line." Kind of easy to get starstruck, I guess.
The Art of Keeping People Busy
Here's a web editor you can also use in your projects http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/examples/markdown/
Nice and clutter free.
Fearless Leader Two | Sportales
Nature doesn't either. It tries something. If it works, then it continues; if it doesn't, it tries something else.

And thus x amt of monkeys were able to randomly recreate the works of Shakespeare.
I totally don't understand this perspective. I use automated checkout at every opportunity – despite the fact that it sucks – because the sooner people never have to suffer the indignity of being a cashier again, the better! Repetitive, dehumanizing jobs are a means to an end for those with no privilege. The challenge of this century is to find better means to that end.
All Google internship pages 404
AeroShot, quick hit of caffeine in a small capsule.
True, but this is more of a convenience wrapper than a standard.

It can happily wrap existing contexts, so it means that eg. one set of function bindings can be used with both V8 and TraceMonkey (even without the embedding application using the CAJE API, only the bindings).
Thirded on the dual (or more) monitors...

I find different types of music helps me with different types of work. For example, if I already understand a problem very clearly and have visualized most of the code in my head (and it's just a matter of typing it in), I like stuff with a very fast tempo - tends to be electronic.

However, if I'm just beginning to work through understanding a problem, sketching solutions or writing notes on my notepad, I like something very dynamic with lots of structure and intricacy - usually ends up being classical music, with an emphasis on piano concerti.

The only time I need absolute silence is composing e-mails or that sort of thing. Somehow forming sentences or otherwise writing in good, concise, coherent english requires a part of my brain that typically is free to listen to music. Maybe something to do with verbal/aural understanding.
http://instantscreenshot.com/screenshot/8i
It would be so much better if it lined up with the tile background.
Let's say YC funds a 19 year old who bets everything on his startup instead of going to college. The startup fails and he has nothing to show for it. This puts pg in a bad spot, since he enabled someone who could be deemed a kid to screw himself royally.

I don't think it's a likely scenario though since getting accepted to YC and running your own startup should be enough of a merit to get you employed somewhere.

However, out of all the people accepted into YC there has to be at least one example of a person who not only did worse by doing a startup early on, but actually hurt himself pretty badly in the process. Of course, this is pure speculation, and there might not be any such cases.

Basically my theory is that pg just doesn't think it is worth it to potentially have blood on his hands (indirect as it might be).
I love how the blog post states it's the foundation of any computer science course and yet continues talking. You build on foundations, not adjacent to them.
DevOps in the Cloud Explained
Health care, too. There's an Active X Control, made by GE, used for displaying X-ray imagery, that's bug for bug compatible with IE6. It's expensive and risky for hospital IT departments to upgrade all that stuff.

An open source HTML5 replacement for that application would be interesting and a huge boost to new health care web apps. But it would be hard to convince risk-averse hospital IT people to use it.
Monkeys know better.

PS: And I'm so framing your comment! It's priceless.
Re-read what he said. It's a pretty clear implication that recursive code is idiomatic in Python.
why do i have to tell you where i am?

http://goingtorain.com
I think you can still do this:
"-- Hire people smarter than myself, who get things done!
-- Trust them to do their job, let them do their job and give them enough resources to do it!
-- Pay them WELL and offer great benefits! Work at home! Sure, why not?
-- Give people second chances! Don't throw out resumes because of lack of buzzwords! Or disjointed writing! Or lack of education! It's all about Smart People who Get Things Done, not interviews or resumes or formalities! Have an open mind!"

You just need a way to check if they can get things done, like looking at past apps they've coded. Nothing like that was done here. Really, if he just did an interview, one thing from that list of things he didn't want to do, this probably wouldn't have happened.
A programmer should, by that logic, see the complexity of God and see that He cannot be the product of chance.

Perfect, omnipotent beings don't just appear by chance. Where did He come from?
IMO, the solution to most of these problems is not to make some wacky IT solution that copy's the way some huge dysfunctional organization does things, but to fix the internal problems with the organization. Unfortunately, that's just as complex as creating a useful system and takes a lot more effort from those in charge, but it's far less sexy.

EX: If your accounting software is more complex than quick books your probably doing it wrong.
Leads 4 All - Reliable Software
This is exactly what happened to me with Etude and why I ended up selling when I did.
I think there's a law now that you have to post this as well:

http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ip...
Here's a Steve Jobs quote I just came across in the book:

"We thought about whether we should do a music client for Android. We put iTunes on Windows in order to sell more iPods. But I don't see an advantage of putting our music app on Android, except to make Android users happy. And I don't want to make Android users happy."
You don't need to ask. The government has already done the polling. http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm#CA Look for "Software Engineer - Applications"
I've tried to do this to some extent to prevent native code hooked up to the embedded engine from being tied to one implementation, but it doesn't work very well in practice. Speaking for Spidermonkey, there are many, many functions which exist in jsapi.h which will not translate well to some common wrapper but will be very common in embedded use when performance is a concern. There are many flavors of strings and functions to create them / manipulate them because they all have slightly different semantics. Why copy a string when you can pass ownership of it to the engine? Are you supplying UTF-16 or ASCII null-terminated strings? GC issues are another area where engine-specific APIs are needed. You might need to add GC tracing into your class, or manually root values that are stored in the heap, or a number of other things. This could be useful for some very simple situations (such as just creating a shell that can execute JS in either environment with a command line switch).

For example, in the source you use JS_AddValueRoot/JS_RemoveValueRoot, which will bog down performance if the app purposely wants to keep values on the stack to avoid having to call into the engine to manage roots. CAJE::MozValueRef::AsString() always allocates memory and potentially flattens the string and copies it every time the method is called. You might want to simply peek at the bytes without allocating a copy. All of these things will add up over time and you'd basically wind up with disjoint features again and a large subset of what is already in jsapi.h.
They do work but are not foolproof. I always ask to speak with the person's current manager. Its usually possible to discerne whether the manager is sorry to lose the employee or not.
So he was a highschool dropout. How do you not notice something like that on a resume?

College degrees are always listed on resumes, and while they aren't that important in most cases, it should at least be brought up as an interview conversation point if it's missing entirely (and from there, launch into a discussion of how a person gained their skills, which would have completely unveiled this guy).
Why I don't use the GPL
I'll tape one to the back :)
I don't think Republicans are evil. I think people who make arguments that rely on renaming something that already has a name, then rely on the connotations carried with that new name to imply that which is to be proven are misguided. I feel I've responded to everything you've said.

None of what I said was intended to imply that Social Security will exist next year. There is a resurgent philosophical contagion that intends to whittle away all government functions until it is purely a police force to protect private property. They could easily succeed.
Original 7"
I think you'd find it pretty difficult to find an atheist who claims to strictly know with any kind of certainty that no gods/creators/things outside the universe exist (except maybe Hawking, but he's definitely not representative). Sure, plenty of people claim to know with certainty that specific religions are false, but there's a big difference between the two that is often confused and glossed over by people making the argument you're making.
There's no beginning or end my friend. There is no time. It's just a limitation for us before eternal life. Who'd want to live forever? It's like the 9 month in the mother's womb.

That's where human logic fails and leads you places you don't want to go. And when there's no time, the entire concept of causality (creation hence existence) just fades away.
so fuckin what
Hmm, I understand where you're coming from, but I'd argue that many applications embedding Javascript engines - particularly libraries trying to provide JS bindings - won't need anything more complicated than simple script/function/value manipulation (or at least, nothing that can't be wrapped into something high-level and engine agnostic).

It's true that some of the current APIs are implemented in a clunky way, but I'm quite confident there are better ways to do things while still maintaining support for both engines.
The author fails to mention how much his own greed played into this.
Absolutely. My current employer never asked for references, and in fact, they didn't even get my full legal name until after they'd hired me (no background check, in other words). Luckily it's not an issue in my case, but even so, this is an InfoSec company. They really ought to be more careful, even with charming fellas like me!
Do we really need to read books anymore?
also New York companies :)
It failed when I tried to use it on www.timecube.com. That may have been a cruel first test, but I just wanted you to know.

Otherwise, this is great. I was JUST looking for a tool to do this on Friday.
If the candidate says he was a latex salesman for Vandelay Industries, that could be a red flag.

Seriously... I've found that people in sales are so used to bullshitting their way to a deal that you have to double and triple check everything in their backgrounds.
60 Minutes special on Steve Jobs
The point was he didn't have a resume nor did he do any background checks because he was obsessed with the fact that this guy must be good because he was a former vp of a $100m company.
I don't think anyone gets it right the first time. My first two "hires" were horrific. I ended up learning from the experience and better shaping what I wanted, what I needed to do differently, etc.

Most recent hire has been a much better fit into that mould, but still not perfect. HR isn't at all my specialty, and I know it will be years before I perfect it.

Glad to hear that the company recovered - one of mine didn't.
http://www.scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/chess/index.html

I don't know about chess but it seems to follow some kind of pattern when zoomed out.. Is it a famous game or set of moves?
For simple things it might work, but if a library wrapper was written using your wrapper instead of the native API then there is a good chance it will not be as performance optimized if it was simply using the engine API. That could mean that the work put into that binding would have to be forked / duplicated to create a lower-level binding that could take advantages of some of the engine APIs you don't wrap in the common interface.
When you say "current", you mean you talk to the manager that probably doesn't know his employee is interviewing for a new job? I bet that ends well.
I recently needed to create a markdown doc for the first time and didn't have time to figure out the syntax. Using an editor was very helpful. I'll still use the editor since it's easier to create a doc that way and eventually I'll figure out the syntax as I use it more.
Using sparklines to aid conference proposal selection
A founder should not be delegating sales to a hire, and if you have multiple cofounders, it is moronic to have only one of them aware of sales (with 3 people, you could maybe get away with 2 people knowing about most of the clients, or a different subset of 2 for each client, but even then).
Why Google Reader Should Live
Michigan State Is Entering Big Ten
I'm one of those weird people that finds music distracting.

Personally, it mostly depends on whether it has lyrics or not. Currently I've been listening to Bitches Brew (previously it was Unit Structures) and they work fine in setting a good mood without being distracting.
Looking for best "fucking" guy on MySQL
Hi there,
I'm looking for the best JS guy and a graphic designer who cam help me to pull this off.
If you feel you're food enough, please email me at jparicka(at)gmail.com. I pay in cash. Thanks and I'm looking forward to your co-operation.
I'm curious how people feel about (criminal, credit) background checks. Our lawyers suggested that both those and drug tests are sometimes done, but might not be appropriate in silicon valley. We're pretty anti drug-tests, but especially for an infosec company or someone with access to sensitive customer data, running at least a criminal check and possibly credit check makes sense. I wouldn't say having previous convictions necessarily excludes someone, but refusing to disclose and being unable to explain something is probably a big problem.
Why do some people defend the system so vehemently? It's a funds-in, funds-out scheme. New 'investors' are required to pay out old 'investors'.

I agree that 'fraudulent' is inflammatory but to pretend SS is some type of insurance or pension fund is just gilding the lily.

I think everyone would be better off if everyone was just honest about what Social Security is, and what it will be if the contribution/payout ratios start to skew badly. It's belief in financial impossibilities that get people into problems.
That is pretty crazy, to think that the iPod was initially introduced at the same price as the iPad today.
Need some good feedback here. The site was kicked off a few months ago, but traffic has been a trickle. We're new at this and some advice would be profoundly appreciated!
> "There is going to be a huge glut of unskilled poor living like animals in ghettos. It's going to be a humanitarian crisis of a 3rd world calibre."

It's depressing and hard to accept, but I think this is the way it'll go down.

The sexy young waitress can, with some training, take on other low-skill labor jobs. A hit to earnings? Perhaps, but livable in the old days.

This has been the story for the unskilled labor class for decades - industries rise and fall, but when training is a matter of days and weeks, instead of years, labor mobility is extremely fluid, and retraining for a new position is possible.

A degree takes years, and tens of thousands of dollars these people don't have. Not only that, how many have the educational foundation to take on a job that requires strong understanding of maths and science? America's failure with STEM is really biting its ass right now.
Comments last time this came up: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1834305
Catch part two here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXcfDN6L9d8
The Full Walter Isaacson/Steve Jobs Interview From 60 Minutes
http://thefuckingweather.com/ ?
Steve Jobs and the Purpose of the Corporation
I had a very similar experience as the author did in the ending when playing World 4 of Braid. For several hours I felt like walking back in the direction I came from would cause time to move back as well.
The lesson here is to never rely on someone else's hiring process to do your screening. Big Corps VP can easily become your douchebag if you aren't on the ball.

This is a great startup story - I think the original poster got off easy. For the price of some pens, a dinner and a whole bunch of wasted time (and perhaps a small hit on credibility) the truth was found. I've seen situations much, much worse.

This is exactly why hiring is described as the most important thing a manager/executive/founder can do.