skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I haven't found NYC Wifi to be a problem. Just the other day I was in Penn and got an emergency phone call. I just hopped into Stackbucks and did my thing with no problems at all. While there was no seating, the Wifi was just fine.

Now, if you're looking for a place to work you might want to look into co-working instead. In NYC the shops just can't afford to have you sitting there taking up space all day for $10 worth of coffee.
Around Wall Street you'll find fresh-faced kids with nothing more than degrees from Andover and Yale running hedge funds bigger than that [$5B].

Where do these numbers come from? They are wildly incorrect.

George Soros is only about $20B. Bridgewater is about $40B. JP Morgan Asset Management is $30B. Citadel is $10B. (Numbers are all from rough recollection, may have changed since I last heard them.)

$5B is royalty in NY just like it is in SV.
All transactions processed by the LMAX system are ACID. The application is modelled such that each input event represents one transaction. Where business transaction span multiple nodes, rather than handle the complexity of retaining ACID properties across multiple messages, our reliable messaging system ensures delivery to a remote system and queuing a message is included in the same transaction context as the business logic. This is true of services that use a high speed journal (event-sourced) and those that perform more traditional database operations. Long running transactions become steps in a state model.
The Validation Generation
What's most ironic is that the so-called "free" world is incapable of producing a truly free computer.
great stuff! very accurate account of what's happening here in China :)
The only thing I'm implying is that different people have different values/priorities. My post explicitly states that some people have more family obligations than others.

That said, friends and family isn't a specific obligation for a set number of hours, that if you get in 30 less minutes one week it all blows up. It's a continuum of possible activities. Everyone needs to make their own choice. It seems silly to criticize someone else for doing a "side project", by implying that it must always be at the cost of friends and family. It's not.
I don't think it's so much that people believe corporations have a legal obligation to seize all opportunities for profit, I think it's that many corporations have been behaving in ways that the majority of the population believes is, or should be illegal. The people in charge of these companies are fully aware of the public perception of what they do, but they continue because they know they can get away with it with a few financial donations to some political campaigns here and there.
If ONLY cs undergrads knew everything in code.

I'm still trying to teach some of them that a memory copy isn't instant.
very interesting to see the sharp contrasts in investing strategies.
الصحف المصرية
SimpleGeo To Be Acquired By Urban Airship
Microsoft attorney outlines Android patent tactics
"Coffee Klatch"

I'm struggling to find a coffee shop in San Francisco that has unlimited wifi and stays open late, where late >= midnight. Suggestions?
He didn't start NeXT with the intention of selling it. He was trying re-create Apple from scratch. Instead he ended up parlaying it into a take-over of Apple and re-created it from within.

I'm not weighing in on the definition of "entrepreneur" here, just pointing out why NeXT isn't a counter example.
love the theme
Great slides! China is such an interesting opportunity because of how quickly the landscape is shifting there. The growth rates are astronomical. I definitely feel that startups in Silicon Valley, and the west in general, are too narrow-minded. We should be thinking about how we can build global companies, not companies just for our immediate neighbors.
Interesting. I'm curious as to why it would be bad with inductive loads, since the first application listed includes motors and heaters.

Thanks for pointing out the snubber circuit. I hadn't noticed and am about to build a project with the S202. :-)
Good point - important to look at the tail. Also, a lot of these burnt out finance kids are finding tech interesting - but so many just want to become a vc. I think its a personality issue too - have had so many mind numbing conversations with super smart NYC finance whizes who want to start a company but the template line is: I have the concept, i'll hire a tech guy, give him 5% equity, and we will conquer the world. Very very few are doing it to solve a problem / create a company - the primary focus is still what it was while running the hedge fund.

Having said that - there is so much good stuff coming up in NYC too. Good signs.
Android support would be excellent!
Dave Winer: Why I stand up for Stallman
AMD Catalyst 11.10 drivers released
A list of accepted/rejected applicants will not be published. As simonw notes[1], it's often useful to keep your acceptance confidential until you're ready for press.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3178234
The author has a point, but he's just going in the wrong direction (and should be focusing more on twitter and Facebook and less on Klout).

He should be holding up Klout and saying, "See, this is what's wrong with Facebook."

But this seems to be a hard message to convey. People want to like and use Facebook, and would rather blame a site like Klout than face the truth about what liking and using Facebook actually means.

To me it's like walking down the street naked and then complaining about how cameras work because people are able to take pictures.

Facebook + time = sadness.
Fortune 500 Gets "F" In Social Engineering Hacking Test
I do not think chasing after karma is a problem. If there are people who want to do work (hunting for interesting information) in exchange for something (karma) I can make out of thin air, what am I to complain about?

It may be however, that there are people who have found ways to chase the karma they want by means that are detrimental to the community. For example, users might post almost duplicate links with more enticing titles, or they might (don't know whether this happens) up vote their own stories using fake accounts.

If there are such users, rather than abolishing karma, I think we should try and fix the rules.

If people are gaining karma, but harming the community, what are they doing, and how can we prevent them from doing that?
Google Apps Contacts down
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing [infographic]
Demonstrably untrue since you can download the Gnu-radio [1] kit which is supported by a module sold by Ettus [2] which basically allows you to create arbitrary software radios. If you ever wanted to build a hyper-encrypted-fast-flip-wideband-frequency-hopping super sekrit access point, these guys have what you need :-). Of course you would end up needing two of them at least.

[1] http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki

[2] http://www.ettus.com/products
When passwords attack: the problem with aggressive password policies
Thanks for the link, and for the hack. That's quite handy.
Some suggestions:
- Include ability to vote on pictures from the thumbnails, and without having to click on the picture and go to its own page first.

- Include ability to vote without logging in. It's a huge barrier for people wanting to participate. At the very least have an easy facebook log-in.

- Have more costumes, at least 100x this much. There's a lot of sources where you can find users showing off their costumes (like reddit).
NYC needs a consumer startup to go big. Think a company the with the size and popularity of FB but based %100 in nyc.
Right now we got nothing.
List of Mining Companies in Australia
> I'm pretty sure the FCC would not allow you to sell a device in the US that lets you modify the RF firmware.

If this were the case, you (the private individual) would not be allowed to have anything that would allow you to build a radio transmitter of any form.

Also, look at GNU Radio: http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio
The business logic simply outputs state changes that other systems subscribe to. If the subscribing system misses the update our reliable message delivery will ensure the message gets to the subscribing system and processed. Our system guarantees message processing and not just delivery.

Queries against the business domain model are just input events. The business logic will serialise the requested part of the model and publish it out. This type of query can easily be handled by any number of replica nodes.

All messages in the system carry a sequence number so duplicate messages can be detected and ignored.
Starbucks at Laurel Height is open 24hr (California and Laurel St, http://www.yelp.com/biz/starbucks-san-francisco-132).

It is hard to find seats before midnight, as it is full of students, but it is as nice as a starbucks get.

Since it is so popular, starbucks tried to open another 24hr location close by, but there was a lot of opposition from local coffee places, so they didn't get a permit.
Actually, on second thoughts I feel the need to contradict myself: Steve Jobs probably could have done a pretty good job of redesigning the user interfaces of these machines. Many devices in the "big fancy machine" category have terrible user interfaces, because the people who design them spend all their effort on the fancy internal bits, and then just stick a bunch of random buttons on, without a great deal of thought put into usability.
Starbucks in San Bruno is 24 hours and has free wifi. Only drawback is it's really hard to find a seat in the evening as there's a bunch of students studying.
Curtis Jarvis
yeah, but the ones who actually care about CS probably do know most things covered in CODE.
Knuth no longer sends out real checks, but now sends out what look just like checks, written on his pseudo Bank of San Serriffe (pun on sans serif font). There's a picture of the one I received at http://www.arcfn.com/2011/05/my-knuth-reward-check.html - the amount is in hex: 0x$1.00

The parent article describing in detail how to find an error seems like overkill - my strategy was "I was on vacation and I looked really hard for an error".
Why Johnny Can't Opt Out: Usability study of opt-out pages and privacy tools
It sounds like it'd be easier to write your own book than to find an error in Knuth's.
In Praise of Quitting
A Review of the Steve Jobs Bio
The arc http://arclanguage.org/ source code for the site is available.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1390689
I once read that Howard Hughes did something similar while he was recuperating from an accident.
> "The enemy of my enemy

is a potential tactical ally for as long as it makes sense."
After clicking through several pages to find out what on earth ducksboard is it turned out to be NOT a physical screen device. Meh.
Hypothes.is: A Kickstarter Project To Peer Review The Web
22 Daily Things That Improve Our Lives
Mark Zuckerberg at Startup School 2011
The Literary Works of Da Vinci Index
On object document mapping
Visualizing how a population grows to 7 billion.
From wikipedia[1]:

"Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population within the standard physical geographical boundaries was 731 million in 2005 according to the United Nations[1]. In 2010 the population is 857 million, using a definition which includes the whole of the transcontinental countries of Russia[citation needed]. Population growth is comparatively slow, and median age comparatively high in relation to the world's other continents"

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Europe
Skyrim Tops New Measure Of 'Franchise Engagement' Among Gamers
Fake Onion story causes real confusion for California town
Tell HN: last day to apply to pitch at Startup Conf Los Angeles
Today is the last day to enter the pitch competition at the Startup Conference Los Angeles, on Nov 15th.

Join us, the pitch competition at previous conferences has always been a lot of fun, plus the winners get to give a longer pitch to an investor panel.

More info: http://thestartupconference.com
Walk into a coffee shop in Palo Alto (say…Coupa). Pull out your computer, open your gmail or git or twitter. Go try that in NYC before researching exactly which shop has WiFi.

Interesting point. Was at Coupa just this weekend. Couldn't get Wifi :)
Bill Gates responds to Steve Jobs’ attacks
The new Reflections on Trusting Trust
I actually created a logarithmic calendar app for a class a few years ago... Maybe I'll dig it out, update it and post since other people seem to like the idea...
Can MoGro Replace Financial Advisors?
I'm not sure where you got the idea that I believe in "pandering to the masses," but maybe this will cure that misconception: http://paulgraham.com/usa.html.
Test-Driven Django Tutorial
If by 'quantitative finance' you mean option pricing then check out the books by Mark Joshi:

- 'The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance'
- 'C++ Design Patterns and Derivatives Pricing'

Also of note is Baxter & Rennie:

- 'Financial Calculus: An Introduction to Derivative Pricing'

Once you've studied those and have a good grasp of Measure Theory, you'll want to tackle Shreve, Vol II.

And a brief plug of my (slightly out of date!) quant finance website, Quantstart.com.
I found that like Steve, I tend to dream big. But at the same time I don't have any big connections.

My advice to entrepreneurs would be to get the right people involved your first venture, even if it means giving up way over 50% of your company. Because it's better to exit a successful venture, with money, connections and a track record, than own close to 100% of your first venture and spending years growing it. Chances are, this isn't your last idea and you will want to start other companies in the future. When you do, you'll have more money, resources, connections, and people willing to fund you (if you want) as a serial entrepreneur.

That said, I was never able to do it myself. My first project out of the gate is super ambitious and aims to change the face of the social internet, help people accomplish things in the real world, and improve privacy for everyone.

It's coming along and we have over 30k daily users. http://qbix.com

But it took a long time to get here. And now I am thinking that we might just be able to make it on our own steam.

So in a way, I am kind of pursuing my dream, and never had the time to start and exit a successful, but ultimately temporary, venture.
Re: fiber. I wonder how much of this has to do with NYC's older infrastructure. Does Boston boast better access?
5 Dating Profile Cliches...
Your tech skills have a two year half-life - Part 2
I find it fascinating that web UI design for the Chinese market appears so "cluttered" by SV preferences. I've heard multiple times that usability testing has found this style more effective than the SV style of emphasizing white space.

Does anyone happen to have any such usability test results they'd be willing to share? I don't dispute the results at all; I'm just curious about checking them out. I have a feeling it's more than just "more content on the page is better for usability," and would love to understand better.
I didn't downvote your reply, even if I don't especially care for your explanation. I do believe in the power of painkillers, I just think that there's more to it than that.

The idea of pre-recording one's last words, though, is brilliant!
Where is this? Been looking for a decent coffee shop/cafe to work in for a while now.
I think you are successful partly because you got the right people together to make viaweb and sold it. Now you are able to do much more with your life. It's interesting that when one dreams big (as I do), that sometimes gets in the way of making your first startup have a successful exit. We are working on a huge thing and partly creating a new market, and unfortunately had no time to follow my own advice and flip a company first. Wish I did, I think I would have been ahead of where I am today.
Ramen profitable in NYC is lame compared to elsewhere. That's why it's not going to happen. End of story.

Now, I could totally see Jersey getting Valleyish if it weren't for the stigma of Jersey.
> what I expect from an authority on a subject

It's about the subject area. Fowler is an expert on OO architecture, not low level optimization. I think you're holding him to the wrong standard, and I think it's rather absurd to insist that anyone has a duty to be what you think they should be professionally.
The actual value proposition to buying RHEL is the support contract, right?
While I agree regarding correctness and concurrency, I wouldn't emphasize performance, even for Java and .NET, whose GCs are more developed, tuned and tested in the production environment than Haskell's one.

Edit: And for Haskell, achieving needed performance can be quite tricky with regard to its laziness.
How are you working there? There's loud, obnoxious music playing all the time.
The description makes it sound like SimpleGeo is in trouble, e.g. once promising, soft landing. Is there something more to this?
Yes, most files in /bin are small, but that's because they're dynamically linked to libc, amongst others. I bet you virtually all of them would be larger than Turbo Pascal if statically linked.
Besides, being the founder (and hence presumably the owner of a significant slice) of $N is much, much better than being merely the guy who manages $N of someone else's money.

There's definitely a point here somewhere, though. New York City has a way of making you feel poor unless you're very, very wealthy. A few million doesn't cut it.
Math is a useless major on its own, unless you apply it to something, like finance or computer programming. Do a minor in Comp Sci. There are tons of high paying IT jobs out there.

You could always become a math teacher.
I've been using MongoDB for about 5 months now and can say that it is an excellent tool. I've been tinkering with building a very fast search engine for my latest app by combining MongoDB with ElasticSearch and it's been a wonderfully pain-free experience. While I certainly believe in picking the right tool for the job, I don't see myself going back to SQL anytime soon.
This is probably true. And, this is a better outcome than most companies ever see.

There are a great group of people at SimpleGeo, and while I never understood how it would be a big business, I was always confident that if a big opportunity existed, they would find it. What this says to me is that the big opportunity in being the data layer for location does not exist as a stand-alone entity.
Texas police get a weapons-bearing drone, piloted by a "game console".
Maybe the issue is barely anyone uses it? I'm guessing Foundry Group organized the acquisition between companies so SimpleGeo wouldn't totally fail and were unwilling to do another round.
Are you ready for Kinect-like gesture-controlled phones?
An Open Letter To Chris Dodd regarding new SOPA bill to regulate the internet
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any blog post by Dave Winer must reference how he "blazed a trail" or some variation thereof.
A grocery store is different. It may process anywhere from 1 to 100 items per person, some of whose prices will depend on weight. Your local chains will probably always make you go through a pre-installed POS for payment and you will probably always appreciate that fact. The volume is high enough to benefit greatly from specialized tools.

Apple can do this because it sells low-volume, predictably-priced items out of its stores. Theft is probably deterred largely by the expense of the items they sell accessories for; far fewer of their customers will want or need to steal. This is the next step for Apple. The next step for your grocery is to identify items automatically, sort and package for carryout.
Ubuntu looking to your smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs.
haha, so, work nights and weekends. Thanks for the tip :)
Does the iPhone 4S have a battery-life problem?
My earbuds block outside noise very well. (Also, I generally don't seem to mind working in noisy environments.)
the guy from the video is excited to see that third world countries have a young population, but we better watch these stats along with life expectancy and poverty/famine rate.
Did you know he invented RSS, and its the most relevant thing on the web today?

You'd never guess.

I met Dave a few times back when I was with the tImes though I doubt he remembers me. He's nice enough in person but he has his own personal reality distortion field.

I had to stop following him in Google Reader and Twitter to stay sane.
Thanks for the observation. Not sure when I will get to revisiting this, but that seems like an easy inconsistency to clean up, and I probably should.
Gen equity or other up front company?
Is this post about Gen equity or all companies that charge an up front fee for services? I am curious why should any company only get paid for a particular result; every mom that puts their toddler in a beauty pageant still pays the same fees to get in; you have to play to pay. Why would it be any different in business?
or hit <F11> to see the content
Thanks for the suggestion! That's very high on the list of future improvements. The back-end is already cross-platform capable, meaning Android users would be able to arrange meetings with iPhone users, etc.
We do have Tumblr, Etsy, and Foursquare - but I agree, a Facebook size company coming out of New York would do wonders for the ecosystem.
Personalization comes at a price...and that price is our privacy.

There are degrees of privacy. Gmail can look through all of my mail and stat to figure out what's important and what's not for me. Technically Google can read all my mail, but the presumption is they do not, and need not (aside from programmatic parsing) in order to provide personalization.

Even if I give up some degree of privacy to Google via Gmail that should not mean I'm giving up the privacy of my E-mail to the whole world. My mail should still be effectively private.

My problem with sites like Facebook is that they begin with some assurances abut privacy and limited access, get people to enter personal info, then gradually change the ground rules. And they're not doing it to offer personalization for the benefit of users, they're doing it for the benefit of their customers, the advertisers.
GitHub hack: speed up git push/pull
This comment contributes nothing to the discussion.

Dave's gone ahead and written a stand-out post that reflects upon bullying in general, and in tech in particular.

Why not take the reasonable viewpoint that whilst we might not agree with everything RMS does or says, he deserves enormous respect for dedicating his life to a quest that has benefited most of us in one way or another.
Thanks! I like your advice and will implement it today or tomorrow!
I'm a geolocation fan and developer from a long time, so always watched and tested Simplegeo. But it seems they never got too much traction because their platform is very specific, even for geolocation systems (someone correct me if I'm wrong, please).

Yes, they have a pretty big apps showcase, but it's not enough sometimes.

Anyway, if they get acquired by Urban Airship, it will be great. UA will have a better use for their platform (and UA will need geolocation soon), and I'm happy Simplegeo will have a good use (what they built is really awesome, if you understand geolocation).
> "New York City has a way of making you feel poor unless you're very, very wealthy. A few million doesn't cut it."

SF is very much the same, though to a somewhat lesser extent. Hasn't stopped it from being a tech hub though, so I'm not sure if that's the deciding factor.
who cares. all you can control is what you choose to do.
I've been subscribed to this feed for a while now: http://prog21.dadgum.com/atom.xml

edit: It is indeed linked in the HTML if you view source. Not sure why your browser or whatever isn't picking it up. Looks like this:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom feed" href="atom.xml"/>

and the RSS extension I use for Chrome detects it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lojpenhmoajbiciapk...