skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Jared Diamond notwithstanding, WW2 led directly or indirectly to:

1. The atomic bomb
2. Jet aircraft
3. The digital computer
4. Modern rocketry

And the Cold War gave rise to

1. The internet
2. The space program
3. The interstate highway system

These are the kinds of big swings that Thiel is talking about and that's just off the top of my head. You can go through previous wars as well. Wouldn't be surprised if WW1 was a real shot in the arm for aviation, for example.

Probably the biggest peacetime innovation since the end of the Cold War has been the sequencing of the human genome. But arguably that was also a computer science innovation, as it revolved around better assembly algorithms and required no test pilots, clinical trials, or atomic bomb detonations.
Here's a wild, random-ass guess:

- Let's keep it simple and say that since this is an experienced team, the investors invested $20m at a $60m post, so they have 1/3 of the company. Since it is an experienced team, I'm going to guess no participation or anything else hokey. 1x liquidation preference is likely but won't matter in this scenario b/c preferred will convert to common.

- With a 20 person team, you've probably given away 5-10% of the company to employees. The later employees probably did not get much, but then again, they weren't around for that long. Let's be very generous and call it 10%.

- That leaves the founders with 57% of the company.

- Let's just not count transaction costs, they're probably in the $75-$200k range, and it's not super material to this discussion.

In that scenario, the founders make $11.4 million each pre-tax, or about $8.55m post-tax (assuming all founders are equal, which is probably also unlikely here). The employees make $8m pre-tax total, or ~$350k each pretax, or ~$190k each post-tax, but the distribution is going to be skewed towards earlier employees. Investors make $26.4m, which is a pretty poor return for a 3-year investment -- investors are mostly looking at IRR, which means the longer an exit takes, the higher the outcome needs to be to make it worth it.

This is just a wild ass guess on what a transaction like this might look like, but lots and lots of things are likely way different than I guessed here, and I can guarantee that I've over-estimated the amount of money everybody made, because as a general rule of thumb that always happens.

EDIT: > How long will the employees have to be at eBay to get their earn-out, and will that earn-out be in addition to their common stock in Hunch? Will they end up being paid less to work for eBay during their earn-out than if they were on the open market?

Probably 2-4 years for the earn-out. The employees might get more retention bonuses to stick around, above what they would normally get from the transaction. They will not earn below-market due to the retention package.
Yea, I got lucky by starting early. But the more time you spend building an empire, the longer and faster it grows. If you haven't started building ANYTHING yet, now is the time.
The automatic transmission does not cause a species' extinction. People's actions cause extinctions. The title is perhaps revealing about how we think and how we rationalise or justify our actions.
The Mac. Nobody is disputing that every product relies on previous products.

But the Mac is a good example of a technological break thru that had imperfect packaging, pricing AND timing.

The packaging was too restrictive for the time. Jobs' vision was right, but the industry hadn't developed far enough that you could ship a machine without internal slots and be successful.

The pricing was out of line with the rest of the market, and the rest of the market didn't recognize sufficient increase in value due to the GUI to make the pricing make sense.

And of course, both of those issues were issues of timing. The Mac took several years to be successful, and depending on how you measure things, some would say it has never become successful (still only being %23 of the market or something like that.)

But the Mac was a technology break thru. In fact, it contained many such breakthrus, both in hardware and software.
2012: Year from the Ultrabook
Apple unintentionally handled away a new PC category with its MacBook Air. While the MacBook Air has been listed too rich for many in their original generation, Apple company was able to have the value right down to a reasonable degree with the current design. Beginning from $999, the actual MacBook Air pressured Intel as well as Home windows laptop manufacturers to scampler to create a solution to be able to Apple. Thus the actual Ultrabook group was born.
I don't think so. In TechCrunch there is the AOL-CrunchFund problem. All of the leavings are related with the CrunchFund issue, and I do not see any sign of bubble here.

In Mashable... well, things are different. The blog has changed its direction, I think it has lost a lot of quality, and there is a lot of "crap" posts. An example: http://parislemon.com/post/5125662166/im-sorry-but-this-is-j.... Probably, the five editors who left didn't like this change and decided to leave.

Summing up, I think there is no bubble. Editors leaving can't be taken as that (maybe it could if editors were fired instead).
I live in Brazil, and yes, not only I would but I do use a service like that: http://unblock-us.com/

No complaints whatsoever so far, I'm three months in. Since the only thing you have to change is your DNS settings, I can watch Netflix in any gadget that connects through my router.
itmag: FWIW I mostly skipped over the many, many dating related ideas but the one that resonated with me the most was the connect with a mentor idea. I'm not sure how you could make the process more of a value add for both parties that would be better then more traditional methods (find/contact via internet / telephone) but at a minimum aggregating people willing to mentor by topic would be helpful.
It's hard for me to really say what I want as I don't know enough to ask the right questions. However, here's an analogy...

You want to a build a house. You can build it from brick, stone, or wood. However, if you tell someone how to stack bricks, lay stone, or cut and screw together wood, will they actually know how to build a house? No way. So, here I am looking at learning code, but it doesn't help because I want to see the bigger picture. So, I'm fine with shortcuts, like using an excavator to dig a hole for a foundation instead of a bunch of guys with shovels. However, if you understand the big picture, at least you see why your using a certain shortcut and what it achieves.

I'm not sure if that helps at all, but if I could say what I want specifically relating to development, I know I would want to learn file structure, how all the different files and tables should relate to one another and be organized (and where, locally vs. server vs. development server). But as I said, I don't even know the questions to ask here, which is part of the problem. So any help is appreciated. Thanks!
I think you misunderstood what I'm trying to say. I don't think it's about losing face. Nor about whether the government survives. It's about cultural momentum. Look at how hard it is to change policies in any government. Look at how long it took the US to get socialized health care, despite people clamoring for it for decades, and even then, that could be repealed by future administrations, as some GOP folks are demanding.

For the same reasons a startup is nimbler than a big corporation for changing things, larger countries are slower than smaller countries for making significant change. India is lucky because it's had a tradition of democracy and freedom for quite some time. They already had cultural momentum in that direction, so they don't need to change anything to align with what you want. Similar for Japan. China, you're asking them to reverse the pull of gravity.

I've worked in teams that were focused on creating big vision cultural and organizational change in big corporations. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be in a big government, especially one of China's size, and one where there is no easy allowance for diversity of opinions.

For example, China's central government is huge on trying to stamp out corruption. However, despite the number of executions they continually carry out for corruption matters and the dissatisfaction of the populace, it is logistically impossible to keep a handle on all of the regional and local governments. It's a huge complicated machine, and I'd warrant that it's even more complicated than the US government's operations, judging from what I've seen living in China.
Ask HN: Looking for startups that have trouble with test environments
If you have ever said, "I wish I had another environment to test against," I want to talk to you.
If you have ever said, "We need another environment to test X, but don't want/need to keep the hardware after that," I want to talk to you.
If you have ever had trouble obtaining resources for environments because you don't have the cash to shell out for the equipment, I want to talk to you.<p>Please respond to this with your contact info, or feel free to email me at: jarrettcoggin@gmail.com
GoDaddy Takes Down Entire Site Over Bogus DMCA Claim
One cool feature would be how to handle substitutions. For example, if I am trying to make a pie crust. And I don't have butter, it would be good to be able to cross out butter, and see crisco or vegetable oil added to the list. Or by adding Crisco, see that the butter is removed from the menu. Because a Pie crust recipe without shortening does not a pie crust make.

However general baking is more difficult than cooking, since the ratios are so much more important. But it also means the app would have so much more value added in this context.
The Meshnet Plan - Software and Network Engineers Wanted.
I missed that link, but thanks for re-posting it here. The real life photos filled in the gaps of the pictures I visualized in my head while reading the story.

Very cool and I can relate as we all have an old computer case in closet somewhere.
I've been following Maneesh for years. I met him while he was travelling around in the Himalayas. Crazy guy - making piles of money while spending most of his time DJing and travelling.
Isn't it a bit early to start your April Fool's shopping?
Novell was probably running out of money and decided to cash in on some old grievances.
Chrome's Enhanced Spelling Suggestions
http://PassMyWill.com - does pretty much the same for you.
That reminds me of the phase change synthesis of the Casio CZ :) I'm wondering if there's something (software or else) still able to do it?
It depends where firewalls are implemented in x years time. (In the context of the home) At the moment, people rely on their routers to provide a decent firewall rather than configuring their computers properly.

That being said... if firewalls "move" onto computers, it is "easy" to open ports.
That was yester-year's white lie.
Since then Marion Barry was re-elected as mayor of DC. GWB admitted not only to use, but substance abuse. Obama not only admitted to using pot and cocaine, but cracked a joke about the silliness of Clinton's dodge.

Using drugs is simply another thing that the ruling class openly admits to doing and doesn't suffer notably for, while they throw the book at any other citizen for doing the same, or less.

e.g. dodging taxes, soliciting prostitutes, cheating on their spouses, not paying child support, hiring illegal immigrants and maybe even covering up the odd mysterious death.
Interesting. I've got a big XBMC media setup, and scraping metadata from a local source could certainly speed things up nicely instead of downloading from IMBD constantly.

See:

http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultimate-start-to-finish-g...

In particular:

http://lifehacker.com/5505849/how-to-whip-your-movie-and-tv-...
The most interesting startup of the last several months!
It's easy to think that it does limit progress, but it likely does not. Any company that can get people to excited about technology will positively contribute to the future of the industry.

It is probably an extremely controversial thought, but Apple might be responsable for pushing more people into development/engineer jobs than Linux. I know I found my passion for technology through Apple, which eventually led me to Linux. I bet I'm not alone.
Hey that Gamepad API reads promising.

When is there ever going to be a download API?
Social Media Insanity | Work With Robert Dorsey
The case in your closet probably is not made of pure magnesium. That was the point of the burn.
Why was my post removed from the front page?
Hi!

My recent post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3262465 was on the front page, and suddenly disappeared. It's not marked dead or anything, but why did it disappear?

Thanks!
A filibuster can be used to block legislation that only has a bare majority of support in the Senate. If legislation has the support of more than 60 senators then no filibuster can stop it. It can be a good thing in that it raises the bar for passing legislation and protects minority but still popular opinions.
Cool! I like prizes!
I'll not discuss "burnt out" vs lazy.

However I have met the brick wall with a certain amount of velocity myself (12 years ago and counting) and I think the difference between being too tired too work (literally falling asleep at work, throat thickens, certain parts of you body starts acting on their own, dreaming with eyes open etc) and burned out is that the burnt out thing didn't happen until at some point I realized this is not going to work however hard I work. (Coworkers were already preparing for a bankruptcy by stealing from the company.)

A few more details:

- Wasn't my company but a close relatives.
- For me the symptoms were: Crying without reason when no one could see me, people asked why I was depressed although I didn't feel that way.
- What helped me out wasn't no work but rather working at a place were I could get stuff done and take the night off. I worked at a farm with a friend of mine that summer and I was supposed to get paid but I never turned in my time sheets. Instead I have said "thank you" to him a couple of times afterwards : ) And I had free food and a bed.

Since then I have worked hard. Even harder I think (Those symptoms from tiredness that I mentioned above I've expericed later). What has saved me from another burn out is two things:

- Learning to say "No." when I somebody asks me to do something that is a complete and utter waste of time. And "No." once more if once doesn't cut it.
- Doing whatever I do to be recognized by God, not humans. (This being HN where even top contributors gets downvoted for mentioning the G word, -feel free to read that in a way that pleases you. )
Video captured on a second cube with a NeXTdimension board would have been fitting.
Well, there's also the problem of "Requires X years of Y experience" jobs... if you are (e.g.), a Ruby person looking to move ahead, you want to increment X years in Ruby so your resume isn't trashed by the HR screener or the automated resume scanning program.

So I disagree: it's a career strategy that is optimized for HR screeners and resume scanners, which most bigcos seem to use.

(I personally prefer generalist positions but I don't see those advertised outside of startups).
Your argument is akin to claiming that whoever invented magnetic audio recording on tapes didn't do anything innovative because Edison had already invented the gramophone.

The paper you cite claims that people were working on multitouch at University of Toronto. It is also true that touch panels (not multitouch) predate even that, going as far back as the 1970s.

But none of this is relevant, and the fact that the Surface uses cameras instead of a capacitive touchscreen is not an "aside", its the smoking gun.

Apple (aka Fingerworks) invented multi-touch, which is the method detailed in its patents and used in the iPhone.

Nobody, that I've seen, has provided an example of a product predating the iPhone that uses this multi-touch technology.

I think the problem is that you guys have believed your own propaganda that patents just cover ideas. They do not. Patents cover specific technological inventions, methods and processes.

Thus, 1970 era touch panels, the displays at your movie theater, the surface and everything driven with a stylus is as relevant to the invention of multitouch as the gramophone is to the invention of magnetic recording. That is to say, in the same broad field, but not examples of "prior art".
You have to remember that the framers of the US Constitution were terrified by tyranny of the majority, where majority can be defined as a majority of the people or a majority of the States. The House of Representatives was devised to be the majority for the people while the Senate was devised to be the majority for the States. This was done so the Senate could put the brakes on the House ramming through what the majority of people wanted, while the House could stop the Senate from jamming through what a majority of the States wanted. Because of this dynamic the Senate is usually seen as the body that is more careful and deliberate in their business.

Keep in mind the Senate was not elected by direct vote until the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913. Instead it was up to each State to select their two Senators and was never meant to be a democratic body.
Thanks. (I had it in my head that Teredo was an IPv6 NAT, despite the Wikipedia link.)
Exactly.

It is only when the annoyance levels reach a breaking point that the FB alternatives will be made as user-friendly as FB and brought to the attention of the masses. One will emerge as dominant. And the cycle begins again.

Every itch gets properly scratched, eventually.
Passive Income 101: How To Travel The World Without Working
this is a resubmit because my last post disappeared from the front page with no warning, if I am not following the HN rules please let me know!
You can also donate code. I chipped in a bit of work since I used Numpy at the time and needed a couple features. It's not that hard.
I anticipated this response. That is why I emphasize _grand scheme_. Short term, I agree with you. Long term, I do not.
The 'good' Facebook you are looking for has to charge its users for accounts because that is the only way to pay the bills without selling you off to less purient interests.

Is that related to how the only 'good' search engine would be one that has to charge you per-search lest it be forced to sell your click info and search terms to less prurient interests?
Startup Fatigue
Big Data: Beyond the Hype
Thanksgiving to Your Success
Dyn Takes a Public Stand Against SOPA
Agreed. The "standard journey" for a big, meaningful startup is more like 7 years. A "long journey" in my book would be 10-15 years.

With some very notable exceptions (YouTube, Zynga, Groupon), built-to-flip and talent acquisitions dominate the 1-2 year exit companies.
Bezos Gone Wild Amazon Selling Every Non-iPhone Smartphone for One Penny
i was just going to say the same thing. personally i think this is brilliant.
The outside: Failure and/or success is not the end.
The inside: Accept the ups and downs and learn from them.
The border: Push the comfort zone further by small steps, every day.
The glue: Forgive and forget yourself, support and sustain the others.
This would be a killer feature for me. If a notebook can have a similar battery life as an iPad, that's a huge feature.

If I have a keyboard/track(pad|point) combo, I don't need/want a touchscreen. Thus I'd prefer a halfway-decent ARM chromebook over, say, a Transformer Prime, or an iPad+bt-keyboard-case (otherwise you're spending half your time with your arm raised, messing with the touchscreen)
Cold war wasn't a war.

Work on jet engine began long before WW2 (and it failed to accelerate during WW2).

So did the work on nuclear fission (if it wasn't for top scientists incl. Einstein convincing US President to fund it, there wouldn't be Manhattan Project at all. German scientists fortunately failed to persuade Nazis even though they were much closer to nuclear device.)
Point 3 ("WEB SITES ARE DEEMED UNSAFE, EVEN IF FACEBOOK MONITORS THEM") has been addressed. Here are the other two.

"YOU CANNOT BRING YOUR CONTENT IN TO FACEBOOK"

False. Facebook's API allows all sorts of external content to enter Facebook. They're just shutting down their app that does that automatically. There are plenty of third party apps that already solve this problem.

"PUBLISHERS WHOSE CONTENT IS CAPTIVE ARE PRIVILEGED"

False. The Washington Post has chosen to embed their stories within the Facebook canvas pages, but that's not a requirement. The other popular news sites on Facebook, The Guardian and Yahoo, do not do this.

This entire post is woefully misinformed.
Scott McNealy's exit interview [2006]
I think the second part of your comment hits the nail on the head: labs might actually be safer because of that lack of total commitment to a single idea. This lets them seek out value in areas that might be too risky, or with product/market fit that's hard to predict in advance. Essentially, it lowers the chance of failure for the startup.
to get technique, you have to click through to one of a zillion recipes

Sounds like the Cooks.com approach that was one of the first sites I blocked when Google instituted their site blocking functionality.
Fascinating. I'd also love to see the Lotus 1-2-3 segment. Anyone know where that is?
This sounds pretty similar to the complaints from SEO gamers whenever Google changes their algorithms and removes them from the top ranks for a search. I don't agree that any of the examples used by the author is anything particularly harmful.
Yeah, good point. Personally, I'm torn on whether I would ever want to give up my whole-network firewall, especially when there's a wireless network in the mix. My servers' ssh logs are choke full of brute force attempts. I would hate to waste my wireless bandwidth and battery life on such attack attempts. On the other hand, IPv6 address space will be so sparse that maybe such attacks won't be practical...
Are anti-whale hunters actually environmentalists though? I mean, is opposing the hunting of whales an environmental thing? I always figured they were more of the animal rights category, and while some people might be both, animal rights != environmentalism.
Kummon....its not that hard!...a sufficiently motivated person can definitely read and finish it....but yes maybe I should have taken an easier example.
IPhone 4S: Summary of Case Reviews
Software Documentation Without Screenshots Stinks [video]
The majority of people in China do not use the Internet. Many live in rural areas and are too poor to even have a computer, never mind the Internet. Internet penetration in China is actually only at 28.8%, though it's growing.

http://www.google.ca/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_...

Given this data, it's impossible to say that the majority of people in China do not want the restriction. Rather, I'd say the majority of people in China do not care because they're not on the Internet anyway. And once they get on the Internet, do they care about Youtube? No, Tudou and Youku have free licensed streaming for anything they could care about, including now licensed stuff for Western movies and TV shows. Facebook? Everyone's on QQ. Twitter? They got weibo and it's growing gangbusters and is the only real outlet for political dissatisfaction; so it's immensely popular. Twitter clients and apps? Heck, everyone's making one for weibo.

Some users want access to Facebook and the like, sure. But how many? Nobody really knows because that data is suspect when it is available. But even if nobody was interested, it's still such a huge market that even a small subset would create enough revenues for these companies to make a profit. That's why they exist. Because the market is so large anyway and it's low hanging fruit.
This is probably the sad truth. I'm surprised the courts even opted to hear a case this old being brought up for the first time. Technology has come a long way since then..