skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
When typing "united ...", the United States shows up in the list.

When typing "america ..." the United States does not show up in the list.

Yet "United States of America" is the, or one of the official/common names of the United States, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_states and https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

I like the interface, but it has a few quirks as pointed out in the other comments, and the database behind it could probably use some additions.
The new hires will just need 'no takebacks' written into their contracts.
So if I offer $600 he might make me one? :)

Even given the safety issues, it's still very impressive.
I'm currently living in Lisbon, but I got to Braga very often. Let's have a HN meetup hehe
You should prioritize the list bases on population.
well, zynga in particular has been sleazy from day one. if any other company had done this, i bet people would have been a lot more taken aback - here it's still shocking, but at some level it's in line with their general business ethic.
> your server already renders html like this for http requests

This hasn't been the case for me for literally years. Everything is pretty much dynamically loaded into the DOM by javascript. The server just pushes raw data to the client via XHR.

If you're still rendering HTML on the server, then yeah, this would be a drastic improvement. Absolutely.
Rosetta Code: a Programming Chrestomathy Wiki
There is risk associated with working for a startup. Risk that you will suddenly lose your job. Risk that you will lose your health insurance two days before one of your kids requires an operation. It's a level of risk that doesn't exist if you work for the government or some big mega-corp.

There's also a level of buy-in that startups demand. You're asked to make it more than "just a job." Even the guy mopping the damn floor is asked to mop it until it shines, just because "we're all in this together."

People deserve to be compensated for that if things go well. But to your stereotypical business sociopath only executive-level individuals and their cronies are real human beings. (Actually, nobody is a real human being. It's only about winning in the shortest possible term.)

And I'd be willing to wager that these particular executives were more of the empty suit, posturing, clueless, "let's do lunch," "I'll have my people talk to your people," variety. There is a negative correlation between actual merit and this kind of behavior.
Any lawyers care to explain the legal possibility of keeping the stock after being fired?
The Real London Tech Startups - Infographic
4 Key Considerations When Choosing Web Typography
Make Twitter “Sing Like a Canary”: Using Twitter Lists For Business Intelligence
Here's What Android Developers Really Think About Amazon's Appstore
In an hour, especially if you can get in an hour 5 days/wk of weights/stretching/cardio, combined with a good diet should keep you in shape and the weight off.
They applied to do something different. I forget what. They switched to this idea halfway through YC.
> With the unvested shares, the executives believed they could attract more top talent with the promise of stock.

What sort of top talent will have not read this story and decided that surely, THIS TIME, Zynga won't screw their employees?
I have to agree. Though interrupting what you're doing and dragging yourself outside can sometimes feel bad, when you get back in again your head is usually much clearer and you're much more productive then if you just stayed indoors.

I've also found that the small conversations with fellow dog-owners you meet on the walks can substitute a little for the water cooler interactions in a normal work place.
Overnight Prints Coupon
All those demos are very cool. They expand my design sense to see what's possible. Excellent work.
Not sure what this will do for the startup community as a whole... I personally wouldn't want to contribute to the "over hype" of start up life - people think it's all fun and games but often forget how much work goes behind building a successful business and product. Just my 2 cents.
News like this damages the startup community, especially in game development. Lots of potential employees already have a sense that stock is "worthless paper" and this Zynga stunt just exacerbates the problem.

This could end up like what happened with Activision and the CoD guys.
So a company whose business model is based on the notion of ripping off actual game companies is also unethical with its own employees? What a completely unshocking development.
I'm Indian and the first thing i did was look at that bar chart about people's attitudes towards 'fate'.

No surprise to me, India ranks highest on the fatalism curve - 80% of us believe we are helpless to choose our path to success.

...which is fine. But when i see kids here, from the next generation as well, who somehow have this attitude, it breaks my heart.

For a start, i'd advocate teaching Critical thinking skills in our schools.
I think it's meant as a more information dense version of "non-USB connector", though many users won't realize it means custom connector :-\
Would you be willing to do an anonymous AMA, or write up some of your experiences?
Amazon Snaps Up Yap And Its Voice-Recognition Technology
Google Enters Into The Automotive Lead Business
Italian university is... complicated. There are areas of excellence -- medicine, architecture, even engineering (!) -- but a lot of undergraduate courses are expected to run for more than 5 years, and that's a very long time for non-STEM stuff. The average length is much lower in other countries, and the format much more flexible.

And I say this as a serial drop-out who now lives abroad.
Stories like this reduce the value of stock for all companies who issue it - most with good intentions - and leave our community morally poorer.

So what if a chef in an early stage team made out with $20M later - an army marches on it's stomach - he probably contributed more to delivery than some of the management team at the time.
I think Santos gave a TED talk, which might be better than this article.

I saw her talk at Harvard Medical School when I was working there. She's a good speaker and gives an entertaining talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/laurie_santos.html
Cuban used a synthetic hedge.

"After we sold Broadcast.com, I hedged my stock with synthetic indexes, in case the market cratered in the six months before I could hedge my actual Yahoo shares. It cost me $20 million, but I protected what I had."

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/63/fasttalk.html

So he effectively hedged out his dot-com-bubble risk, not his yahoo-is-relatively-speaking-a-turd risk.
How Will Adobe Flash Decision Affect Flex Developers?
Http://mail.com?kid=kidaddthis
And now we know what a promise from Zynga is worth. It's hard to see a bet that won't be permitted to pay off as anything other than a way to lure and then defraud employees. I think it's time to start insisting on accelerated vesting if you want anyone to take your option offer seriously.
Thanks Grah4! Sorry for my delayed response, we were up quite late last night. I think people will really start picking up on it once they've tried it out and get a better room.
IANAL.

They are talking about unvested shares. The employees do not own them or have a right to exercise them yet. Every standard contract I've ever seen also includes a clause that shares stop vesting upon employment termination for any reason.

So, they are basically saying "give up unvested shares, or else we'll make you give them up by firing you".
Sometimes you just have to sue to enforce a contract and your rights. Many employees either don't realize this or they don't have the stomach for it. If you find yourself in this position, my advice is to play the game and see it through.

1. Don't resign, don't capitulate and hire a good lawyer immediately. If you don't have the cashflow, but are defending a huge pile of stock about to IPO you'll probably find a lawyer that will defer payment.

2. Start documenting everything including making timestamped notes of what was said to you verbally.

Then play it out. Read all documentation the company has given you and fully understand it. They usually have to fire you for cause for you to lose your options, so figure out what the angle is they're using and make sure they don't have cause. Be 100% professional and non-confrontational, but ask the hard questions when you need to. DO NOT treat the company's staff (including your boss) or their legal team as your own legal counsel. They will try to give you "good advice" or intimidate you. They will claim things are "standard". Get your own info and use your own lawyer.

Often simply retaining counsel lets the opposing team know you're serious and professional, and worst case it will up any settlement.

PS: I'm an exec, not an employee, so technically I'm the guy on the other side of the org chart that Micah (see below) is describing. But assuming the report is accurate, this is unacceptable behavior and I'd like to see more employees who take a risk on startups getting what they deserve and enforcing their rights.
The only way that happens is if they're hired with vested stock, which is just not going to happen.
But it's not a cargo cult if it works, or even partially works.
That all makes sense to me. I think he's taking Google where it needs to go, even if not all the employees want to go there.

But then, no matter what decision was made, there would be people who disliked it... There are just far too many employees for that not to happen.
Long-time Emacs user here. (When I search for a string, read, send or reply to an email, or set a timer to tell me when my eggs are ready, I use an Emacs command I wrote.)

I just want to say that if you plan to learn how to write commands in Emacs Lisp, you do not need to learn how to define or use keyboard macros. In my experience, it is always easier just to write some lisp.
CA law provides for at will employment but if the original option was not contingent on specific performance beyond what is needed to continue as an employee, and they are willing for the employee to continue working there provided they surrender their stock they may be in more of a gray area. It's in the nature of a targeted pay cut but it doesn't seem to involve a demotion or change in position, they are effectively approach certain employees and telling them, "we are paying you too much, accept a reduction in your total compensation or we will terminate you."
This. For many high perf applications, anything outside of RAM (yes, even with SSD's) is a no-no.
1996 Honda Civic No Start
It really depends which part of the country we're talking about. Some cities (Milan, Rome, Bologna, anywhere in Tuscany) are incredibly expensive.
Siri knows where you are | Where Am I?
> Identified is a professional social network for adults younger than 30,

> What Identified hopes to do is create a rich and engaging dialog between young job aspirants based on their personal and professional data, and the ever-evolving needs of potential employers

It is not legal to discriminate based on age for jobs in the UK. I'm gently curious about the situation in other countries (but I can read wikipedia) but I'm really curious about whether they've fully thought this through - would an employer using this service have to show that they've tried other methods which brought them into contact with older applicants?
Safeguard Your Data with Google's Two-Step Verification
it shows how greedy people can be. i cannot think of anything like this can be done by a tech company. bunch of douche bag. how the hell are going to decide what contribution is important or which one is not? This is pure greed man... I am posting this in FB let Zynga games go to hell..
This is a shameless copy of that hybrid iPad/MacBook Air thing Apple just anou.. oh, right, that didn't happen.
New scholarships for software developers to study journalism at Northwestern
Terminating employees only to avoid their stock vesting - as opposed to valid performance reasons - is just as scummy.

I also can't see how employees who give up their stock and remain with the company can possibly have a healthy relationship moving forward.
Seems a little fast and loose for that graph to equate new LLCs and startups. Beyond the general issue of getting any statistics like "number of startups" across dozens of countries.
One can hope that our judiciary would toss out the more egregious parts of this effort at censorship and control as they did with the CDA. However, given that the Internet is seen as the proximate cause of governmental overthrow in some places I suspect fear will over come common sense.
But still then mark pincus would find another way to cheat his developers. The only way to deal with little lucifers like this is to completely avoid and ignore them.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pincus
Physics of the Yellow Angry Bird
They would also have to remember to put "no callbacks times infinity".
There is a similar clause in patent applications but I have never heard of a defeated patent involving a prosecution for perjury!

I suspect the burden of proving that it was a deliberate lie to damage the other guy , in a criminal trial, is rather too high.
Yep, will work 99% of the time, and in the other 1% we can afford to modify it ourselves.
easy there bro. There were already restrictions on education purchases when I did this. I worked with the bookstore director directly to buy in volume. It was all in the open.
a post about apple includes my memories about apple. why the hate?
Even if at-will employment, wouldn't such a threat possibly still be grounds for unlawful termination?
This is really, really sleazy.

The bottom line here is "You don't get to be a part of the IPO windfall." Given that the employees that are getting stung like this have accepted the risk of working at a startup, and likely have accepted lower salaries in exchange for the promise of stock options, this is morally equivalent to theft of services.

Stock as a compensation structure only works when people use it in good faith. Scummy moves like this are only going to make it harder for startups to attract talent unless they can pay full market rate right out of the gate.
I would like to give my enthusiastic vote to Racket as I am working through SICP exercises in Dr Racket. I find it very simple to use IDE. It just gets out of your way to perform simple REPL, has separate definitions and console panels. Its debugging feature is fairly intuitive. It also has more advanced features when one is ready for it.
Of course I do. But I avoid it whenever it's possible and active advocate for non-proprietary alternatives.
i understand the hate on parking in the handicapped spot. but seriously there are 4 there and were NEVER used. He packed in the furthest away of the 4
If I were an Angel or VC, I'd check this list against my upcoming meetings and cancel meetings with any founders who would or could focus time on being the "entourage" of the valley. IMHO it shows a propensity for focusing on the notoriety as opposed to the process. I believe Ashton said it best when he spoke about shutting off as soon as founders were affected by thoughts of "the effect" as opposed to being focused on the problem they are trying to solve.
That it's the unvested portion definitely makes a difference... But to be ethical you really can't just take unvested shares from employees because they have "too much", which is how the WSJ tells the story.

Sounds like Pincus gave performance-based pay with a pretty transparent system, which should have worked well. Employees must know how management sees their performance, otherwise you're destined to have a bad breakup.

If the story is accurate (hopefully it's not as who'd want to ever work at Zynga after this?) then the lack of stock for new hires was a management issue, and should be resolved from management, the investors and the board's pockets. After all, each investor saw the cap table before putting money in.
How do you Generate Leads for Internet Network Marketing
Fixing standalone Nokia Help browser based on Eclipse (pre 3.7) x64/JDK 7
Installing JDK/JRE 6 32-Bit and creating an appropriate eclipse.ini file fixes the Nokia Java SDK 1.1 for Java emulator help browser on on x64/JDK 7 configurations.
I've been working from hotels in Europe and Asia for almost a year now. The freedom is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. The best days are those when I somehow manage to write something in a day that would have taken me weeks of wading through office politics. The worst days are those when I feel like I haven't accomplished anything and can't stop thinking that nobody's holding a paycheck out for me at the end of the month.
I love that England gives me United Kingdom
Steve Coll - Whose Drug War?
Man, previously I thought only monkeys knows the concept of money. Irony.
MYX Rated Season Behind the Scenes Feature
How to Embrace Uncertainty
Video: Mobile - Latest Market Research and Trends
Or the massage therapist, Bonnie Brown. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/technology/12google.html?p...
Ask HN: most questionable startups
Which are the startups you believe has most serious flaws:

Here are my picks:

1. Shelby.TV

2. Scanadu

3. Massive Health

4. Hipster
Would you be interested in putting your e-mail on your profile, or writing more about this. I would like to hear more on it.
Eliodomestico: a solar household still for the developing countries
Make a Change to your home With Roman Shades
I can confirm that sociopaths are like this, and that they are a large part of why I won't be a part of the startup industry anymore very soon.
Ash HN: Laptop suggestions?
Want to get two laptops for Christmas- one for me and one for my wife. Looking in the $500-$1500 range for each. I plan to be doing development on it, some light audio and video editing (files only- don't need to interface). She just needs email, browsing, and word processing. WiMax would be neat but probably wouldn't use it/don't live in a big city/there are no cheap WiMax plans yet we would pay for or need. WiDi would be neat but it looks like it is still too new to be settled down and supported and we already have a computer hooked to the TV. USB 3.0 seems like a no brainer option to get. Not sure about video out; we won't be doing external monitor, but she is in sales and might need to do a presentation at some point, but almost everything has some sort of video out (VGA, DVI, etc.), and we don't need HDMI out. Would like something that would last a while. Wife has always done Windows and not computer/tech savvy, and recently has stated that she is not into Apple, but I think maybe she is just saying that because we've always been Windows and Linux at home at least. For work, I've had macbook pro for years. Any suggestions?
Idea Challenge
Hello HN! A couple of weeks ago I started blogging one idea or idea fragment (http://IdeaPerDiem.com / @IdeaPerDiem on Twitter). This has turned out to be an interesting exercise, and I find that while doing this I've had many more ideas than I would normally. I have an inkling to extend the site so that anyone can sign up and enter in a month-long idea challenge (probably in Jan) where they receive a daily email asking for one idea from the day. It's a form of brainstorming and life logging. All idea would be public and each participant would have a feed. Would you be interested in this?
Nothing new here: "Later, in 1982 when Allen had been diagnosed with cancer, Allen is reported to have said he overhead Gates and current chief executive Steve Ballmer discussing Allen's lack of recent contributions to the young company, and talking about how to dilute Allen's stock allocation."
Not to mention Bouvet Island -- an uninhabited volcano in the Antarctic covered by glaciers. If you try to land there, the Norwegian navy will fire on you as it's a "nature preserve".

It's OK though -- most country selectors include BV, since they lazily use ISO3166-1 as a canonical list of countries when in fact it just defines country codes.

When you embark on a redesign, it's usually a good idea to start by revisiting your content.
Angel technology investment moves upstream: WRAL Tech Wire
Seriosly do these execs realise what a bunch of utter douchebags they look like? I guess they don't care. Personally though I would think twice about going to work for them, whatever they offer apparently is worthless because they can change their mind and take it back off you again later.
Cite your sources when you make wild claims like Intel designed the interior of the Mac Book Air.
I'm pretty sure he meant to say "to incorporate" (fundar in Spanish) rather than "to fund" (financiar).
The fact that it is unvested shares changes little. The employees where lead to believe that if they meant a certain milestones they would receive stock. Now the milestones have been changed. The employees must now also meet new criteria for productivity to receive stock. They signed up for one deal and are now being served another.
this is hardly something brand new, this looks bettter and works just as well :

http://harvesthq.github.com/chosen/

I'm sorry but progressive enhancement of a select tag into an autocomplete element isn't quite news worthy.
Hi Vanni,

I've actually been part of ISS for a while, and am familiar with the great minds that it attracts. I even talked about it on Stacktrace: http://stacktrace.it/2011/01/25/intervista-con-stefano-berna...

Unfortunately, it's still a group of 3000-4000 people only, from which you can't really draw conclusions about a country of 60M people.

On the bright side, it's a light in the dark and one of the most exciting communities I've seen in Italy.
Isn't there a way to buy your stock pre-vesting? I'm pretty sure there is.
This sounds exactly right. He was hired, in part, to make it more attractive for employees to work longer hours. He succeeded so it hardly seems unfair that he was well rewarded.

"He signed up, however, and started easing the computer engineers into the long hours culture with innovations including free beer and fortnightly "big ass" barbecues, and breakfast specials. He converted the "googlers" to a diet that ensured they kept working after lunch and weaned them off pizzas."

(source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1582494/Chef-lifts...)
Doesn't matter if it's unvested stock. They simply fire you without cause the day before your stock vests.

All they are saying is - give back the stock and we won't fire you the day before it vests.
how does B follow from A?

The only way not to sound like an Italian just complaining about outside forces is to leave the country.

there is by definition one simple way not to sound like someone complaining about outside forces: don't complain.
If you start by the assumption that it's impossible to do so in country X you have already decided to be in the "it's not my fault" camp.
It Was Close, But We Won: Viva Net Neutrality
as an executive, do you think that zynga's executive team gave any thought to the bad press this might generate and the talent that this might scare away?

From my perspective, this sort of thing scares me away from companies, because they might do it again in the future.
Maybe my perception is wrong, but I thought HN attitude is usually "found your own startup" instead of "join someone else's startup".
Ducksboard: One Dashboard for All Your Metrics
Working for a startup (or hell, founding one) seems like an enterprise in which a person can get screwed 8 million different ways, and I only understand about four of them.
Hands-on: Firefox's experimental new native Android interface
JUST RELEASED: 'Imran Khan: The Fighter' book is finally out now.
Coated Chain Link Fence | Metal Fencing