skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> The fact that someone is successful base on you doing your job should never be a reason to be demotivated, especially if you did the exact same job in a big company or elsewhere and don't feel the same way.

In theory, what you say is correct. In practice, when you're face-to-face with these people, chatting and munching on crackers at the holiday party, and you know that you are working hard to make that guy right in front of you rich, it starts to be disconcerting.

Sometimes, even if we are OK doing job X for $Y, we can stop being OK with it if new facts emerge. There is an interesting study with monkeys (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3116678.stm) where monkeys who would otherwise be OK with completing a task if the reward was a cucumber, got angry and refused to complete the task when they saw other monkeys getting a grape (a better treat for monkeys) for the same task.

Yes, rationally, if you are happy doing job X for $Y, what others get out of your work should not matter, but sometimes our primitive brain objects.
We've been repeatedly explicit about NOT being divisive... you see Larry or Mark or other folks getting celebrated and you don't see the design community getting mad...how many design students even know about Mitch or Chad let alone the general public... Per previous comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3358720 we posed a question and again are promoting collaboration and co-creation...
"#1. It's unlikely that the boss is deciding on SOPA"

It is sad people cannot sense humor except a lol or :) is appended to it.

"#2. Your comment does not contain any particular insight on

SOPA or shitty bosses. It's just a repetition of the meme about SOPA. SOPA awareness is important, but you have not contributed to it."

I have previously commented on SOPA and it was actually the top comment. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3251471 . So I fully understand the implications of SOPA.

I did not read it as a take on "shitty bosses" but as someone reporting to who had no idea about what he was supposed to be in charge of.

". As a joke, your comment is not particularly funny."

A very subjective statement.

Thanks for taking time to reply. I still reiterate that downvotes in a discussion forum serves little purpose. If a statement is offensive, flag it. Don't downvote into oblivion and try to censor anything that goes contrary to "the official position".
ZNGA down 7.5% from price of IPO
Can't wait till this POS drops to 2-3$. This is ripe for a short when the market enters a short to medium term downtrend.
This analogy is among the more brilliant of Hitchens' statements. Thanks for reminding me of it.
Treat this like any other professional project:

* create and use separate accounts for hosting provider and domain registrar. Assuming that your friend's business doesn't have an email, create a gmail account that you consistently use when signing up for services.

* Set payments for hosting/domain to automatic renewal.

* Make sure you can easily hand over the project to another developer if the need arises. This is why you create seperate login accounts for the customer, all connected via the same email address.

* Yourself as admin? Well, someone has to do maintenance; even the most basic sites require backup, adding content, updating software/libs/frameworks, etc. Just make sure you get compensated for the work you do.

* I would recommend using your own Wordpress installation because it's cheap, robust and easy to grow with. Pretty much any dev out there know their way around WP. I would NOT develop a solution from scratch nor would I use Tumblr or Posterous (way to limiting). Wordpress.com? Not worth it it the long run: even basic features cost and you're not in total control of your data (warning: if there won't be anyone doing maintenance, then go for a hosted solution! You do NOT want to leave a WP installation without regular checkups).

* There are countless of free WP themes at wordpress.org. For even more themes, ThemeForest is unbeatable wrt price and quality.
The main enforcement mechanism is domain seizure, which already works quite well already, unfortunately. It's pretty likely that there will be a darknet DNS system or DNS alternative, but that's not a great outcome for anyone - more confusion, more malware.
The best compliment I got from a boss once:

"Normally, fuck-ups like this take three guys a week to fix. One guy fixed your fuck-up in two hours. You don't fuck-up as well as most."
Comet Lovejoy Survives Trip Through the Sun
Top Search Engine Optimization Blunders of 2011
The top comment states that any other options are impossible: "At this point we must concentrate on improving the language."

I can't stand this willfully defeatist attitude. It's also not restricted to stack-overflow participants -- this position is pervasive at Mozilla.

Why can't we have a standardized generic bytecode and VMs to run it? Why should the web be locked to a single language forever? Can you imagine if we had locked desktops and mobile only a single implementation language?

Google seems to be the only company actively looking for a solution via NaCL. Most of the web community, on the other hand, regularly opposes efforts to move away from JavaScript as the one true language.
If Americans don't build it, they'll find some coders in India to do it
It isn't infringement, they don't have any registered trademark. The website doesn't even have any legal info on it at all, so I don't think it's a threat. We will probably just register it ourselves if their use of it doesn't stop us from doing so.

A bad name would kill this project, it's sort of pointless trying to convince you of it since I can't say what the name is, but it's not just an arbitrary aesthetic name like many startups use. It literally describes what we're doing and it's catchy as hell. Everyone we've told thinks it's perfect so it's something we aren't willing to compromise.

That said, thanks for your insight. I'd considered those two scenarios actually (getdropbox, thefacebook) and we will probably do something similar for the time being.
I hate when people respond with this like it is a novel concept that nobody has every tried before. The new boss will be the same as the old.
Except price isn't about cost for anything this side of commodities.

Price is set by willingness to pay, and the price-point at which a company believes it can profit off those willing to pay it, is largely what drives costs.
Can't wait till this POS trades in the two to three dollar range, which, given its lack of earnings it should be. This stock will be ripe for a short entry when the market enters a short to medium term downtrend.

I'm sure talent will start fleeing once they cash out options and stock.
oops... yes, what you said. ie Esc 9 9 C-x e
On the Google Wallet “Problem” « Coding In My Sleep
Accenture will be thrilled to build The Great Firewall of America, and they're sufficiently capable of doing it, especially since they'll have an effectively unlimited budget. And sadly, there's more than one Accenture in the world.
I used the word "with" and didn't say they created it by themselves, obviously it takes a lot of people... Part of the gist is encouraging designers to believe they can and therefore try, hopefully in collaboration, especially since talent is getting stretched in our bubble here
Based on your comment, you clearly don't understand how awesome North Korea is.
Man, how is being a apparatus working for you and the people around you?
I run http://www.feedsapi.com and I loose too many customers on my funnel for the trial premium between the subscription step and the paypal payment step,( which is free to start: Users enter their datas and click on the submission button, but don't proceed to paypal, which is the next step). How can I fix this? I'm already runnning a multivariant test on my form to tweak the call to action text. Any advice? Thanks for the action.
This is exactly correct. It should also be pointed out that while the nerd-rage surrounding SOPA is all completely valid the same type of response was seen during the build up to the votes on the DMCA and congress had no trouble passing the DMCA. I think it's highly unlikely that SOPA or PIPA will be modified in any meaningful way and will likely be passed.
Exactly, that is the 4th item on the list.
IPhone 4S Debuts in Over 20 New Countries
Boycott never works, for all practical values of never, sorry. If you're thinking of a boycott, you've already lost.
Zynga IPO: Down 8% and dropping.
for who? equally corrupt or incompetent morons seeking personal status and financial gain?
Me: I bet you're pretty good with smartphones.

PM: I guess so.

Me holds out phone

Me: Can you fix mine?

PM: I can try, what's wrong with it?
$70 tablet Aakash available for sale in India
I don't get this. SOPA has penalties for companies that don't comply. The rallying cry has been, "If SOPA passes, {Wikipedia|reddit|YouTube|etc} could not exist."

If their engineers don't build SOPA takedown tools and their organizations get their pants sued off for the ensuing noncompliance, it's the same outcome. The sites will cease to exist in their current form.
I like the idea, but so far the attempts to make that happen with companies that work on the Great Firewall of China have been, I think, pretty unsuccessful. Cisco's gotten some bad press at times, but programmers still go work for them.
Microsoft design director discusses the challenges of moving to Metro
> The cells of multi-cellular organisms like whales and humans aren't just cooperative, they are genetically identical

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090715131449.ht...
Neat! I made something (I think) similar a while back, also inspired by Clojure. Mine's more of a proof-of-concept, as I have zero Clojure experience outside some very casual reading.

https://github.com/brian-c/patterned-function
It only takes one.
And much of that firewall technology is already built in the US. For example, if NetApp had no qualms selling (indirectly) systems to the Syria government despite US export bans, I don't think they would have any qualms about selling to the US government legally.

NetApp faces probe into Syrian spooks' use of its storage kit: FAS racks 'used to slurp email' despite export ban
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/10/netapp_syria/
I tend to customize VIM with plugins and .vimrc file. But to keep environment the same everywhere - I am using git with github. Works pretty well.
Russia, America and Canada after the Control of the Arctic Sea
If they're public, congress members have (even more) incentive to influence them to publish bullshit that fits their ideology rather than facts and/or accuse them of bias towards the other party.
SOPA hearings adjourned until 2012
Probably the most ridiculous example is Liberum Veto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberum_veto - not sure if any law at all would pass these days if that option was still possible.
You make a good point about traction, I think we're too worried about this right now. Regarding the trademark, it isn't taken. My main question was, can we even take it if they are also using the same name? They likely haven't sold anything under the name, it's just a website in early stages of development (I know this because they seem to be developing and updating it LIVE under the root of the domain so I can just connect to it and see).

I don't think the .com is worth it at this point. My sentiment since this summer has been that we'll be able to afford it once we need it. Until we have funding/an income, we can make way with a .net and maybe a "hacked" .com (see choxi's comment)
Zynga CEO's fearsomeness fails to impress IPO investors
Actually now that you've said it, we could start a boycott right now of the companies who are supporting the bill.
Because we all hate javascript.

I just wish they decoupled javascript engines and browsers, made a language agnostic api spec for the DOM, and just let html <script> tags require a language ref and the browser would be expected to try to find a runtime on the local machine or ask the user to install it. The monopolistic nature of javascript in client web browsing is bad for innovation.
Yeah, that bit sounds like chauvinist BS.
Zynga IPO Goes SplatVille. What Happened?
The metaphore of DCI is a theatre. The context is the director. Chooses who plays what, instruct them how to do it and then let them play.

Theory:

1. Expose use-cases (context) as first-class citizens of your code.

2. Each use-case selects which objects are needed for this use-case.

3. Extend the objects only with the roles that are needed in this use-case.

4. Start the interaction.

Example:

Buying a product.

1. UserBuysAProduct object, that can be executed.

2. Objects/actors needed: user, shop

3. Extend user with a Buyer role and shop with ProductCatalogue and OrderManager.

4. call shop.buy_product(user, product)
you could be participating in your local elections. You could vote in primaries. You could be concerned about who's going to be your next local county sheriff, local zoning board officer, etc. You can get involved in the local political parties and affect them on a local level. (this is assuming that you already vote in all off-year elections, and already vote for president)

HN sees only the top level of the abstraction and assumes that the system is a lumbering behemoth incapable of change. Pushing the system from the bottom, it's actually quite capable of very abrupt change. Unfortunately, those methods of change require copious amounts of time, and will probably replace or supplant much more enjoyable hobbies you'd rather have.

In previous eras, this was considered the burden of citizenship...

For a simpler answer: Call your congresscritter. They're actually very responsive to phone calls and real letters. It's not hard to do.
I'd suggest something like the following:

Treat this like a software development project, except we're coming up with a government instead of a program.

1. Setup a public bugtracker, where people can submit examples of federal government acting incorrectly (attached to bugs, have relevant news articles, studies, and impacts for why it is important).

2. Setup a repo with a "blessed" version of the founding documents of the government. Anyone can read the docs, and suggest changes. Any changes to the laws would have an easy-to-follow path in the changelog, and linked tickets from the bug tracker demonstrating that they were necessary. These docs can be forked, but the blessed branch gets the "official" reference implementation.

We've had the tools to "fix" government for years now--we should start using them.

Things I'd personally like to see:

1. Who controls the "blessed" version? This is a hilariously interesting problem, and likely would end up with some kind of set of "core" developers. That said, we have the tech to make relatively authenticated, secure votes (PGP or somesuch). I'd suggest using that to accept changes to mainline, and if it becomes obvious the core devs aren't paying attention we fork. This might be really slow to get things accomplished (past the initial bootstrap), but that's okay in government--the more conservative your creation of policies, the better.

2. A creation of a structured query language for determining if an action obeys a law. This would be really tricky, but if the core docs can unambiguously be parsed and tested against so many problems in government simply go away. I don't really expect this to get done, but it's an intriguing idea, no?

3. My personal belief is that a good government is like a good operating system: it provides basic infrastructure when you need it, is invisible when you aren't looking for it, and protects you from other things in the environment (and them from you!). So, a lean, simple, easily-verifiable government that protects basic rights and provides basic needs and which only intervenes when processes (groups) come into direct conflict seems like the correct goal--not this bloated ill-defined overreaching contraption we have today.
Well we're closer to launching than we are to the planning stages, but I see your point. I guess we were just trying to cover our bases so we don't get screwed out of the name in the future.
Hey Paul, I'm trying to raise a seed round for my startup. Our organization will match any offer made to any engineer to design or implement any system for censorship of the Internet, and employ that engineer building tools to resist censorship.

I figure we only need a few hundred million to get off the ground... How much can I put you down for?
DecisionJam helps startups make smart and fast decisions
DecisionJam provides suggestions about the products and services covering almost all possible scenarios which an entrepreneur/startup guy might face while making decisions about which website creation tool, blogging tool, feedback tool, chat widget, web analytics, project managment,
collaboration tool etc., to use for their startup

http://decisionjam.com
can't you make the batteries explosive?

would be a nice hack.
Very cool! I didn't know you'd added that.

Let us (the BrowserID team) know if you have any feedback on the experience.
I think the reluctance comes from being burned by Microsoft infusing their own technologies into the web browser in the past.

I realize that Python and Ruby would be standard and open but people still fear the possible fragmentation.
The paradox is most interesting after only one day remains. On Friday, after Monday through Thursday have passed with no exam, the professor's declaration becomes "we will have an exam later today, but you will not know it until then." If the professor tells you this, do you know the exam will happen? If you can know it, then the professor was wrong (at least) about the second half of his prediction, which brings into question the first half.
Ok, so let's say SOPA is implemented and my Internet provider is blocking some sites through their DNS server.
Who would stop me from using another DNS server (located perhaps in Russia or China) that is not blocking those websites?
This is pretty much the same way that people in China use when they want to see blocked content. It works both ways, I suppose.
Nate Silver's Republican Primary Projections
I just skimmed this article, but it doesn't appear to make the interesting point that came to my mind when reading it, which is: in a multicellular organism, what the article calls a "cheater", we call a "cancer". A "cheater" is just a cell which, despite its common origin, has mutated to compete with the other cells instead of cooperate with them. And indeed, we see cells do that; we also see adaptations -- the tumor suppressor genes -- specifically designed to inhibit such cells.
I think many politicians possess a lack of empathy for those that aren't filling their coffers.
Also, I just realized what makes the envelope example particularly clear. If I say "even if you open four envelopes first and find them empty" (I still guarantee you will be surprised on the fifth) I'm in a way implying that that has a non-zero probability.

The way to formalize this is to say so. "This is a stochastic process, there is a non-zero chance that you will go through four days without a test (have it on the fifth day".

Obviously, you cannot make this guarantee, while guaranteeing surprise in 100% of cases.

So basically, the only intuitive problem this puzzle poses is that it sounds like the teacher is giving you some kind of guarantee that there is a case where you open four empty envelopes before opening the fifth with the heart in it.

In fact there is no such guarantee.

So, really, my cases A and B can be summarized as follows.

A) In case the teacher makes any guarantee that there is a non-zero chance of a test on Friday and that this chance is assured by a stochastic process, he CANNOT 100% guarantee surprise.

This was my original, knee-jerk interpretation. Of course, the teacher does not ACTUALLY make any such guarantee!!! By saying "test-day = Monday" he has gone back on his word that there is a non-zero chance the test is on Friday: in fact there is a zero chance of that.

Version B, in which he does not guaranteee a non-zero chance on any day of the week, leaves the teacher able to fulfill both his obligations (surprise and test on a weekday) without a paradox.

Really, this is INSANELY clear and simple when you view it clearly. We think he's giving a guarantee that there's a chance the test will be on Friday and a stochastic process determines this. But he's giving no such guarantee.
I like this very much. It's like a lightweight dispatcher/router/alternative to tons of switches/if & elses. And also that the source is very short and readable.
Xmas HN: Front end design/PSD slicing etc (free)
Cue your small violins...

This past month or so has been has been pretty terrible. I have in short order lost my long term partner as well as my best friend (those two could be related), faced credible death threats and no one has paid up for any work I've done (though other events have caused me to not be as forceful with this as I should have). In short, I'm going to have a pretty crappy holiday season alone and broke.

However, I'd rather not sit and wallow in whatever one wallows in.

So, if you have a fun or interesting project that requires some front end work, a blog skin you need doing, PSD's awaiting slicing then why not give me a shout?

My background: Front end guy/web dev of several years. HTML5, CSS3, JS/jquery, standards-compliant, cross-browser (I make stuff work in IE too!) etc etc. I'm also handy with PHP, basic server admin, source control (distributed mind you, SVN etc I have very little practical experience).

Given the sob story above, I'd prefer to stay anonymous - or at least pseudononymous. If that will be a problem then this is obviously not for you. Also, while I'm not exactly a slouch I'd prefer it if you didn't give 24hr deadlines and chase me every hour - I'm trying to escape from that ;)

Contact info is in my profile. Depending on the amount of work involved I might be able to fit in a few things.

p.s. No, money down! (This is for gratis, I'm not begging for cash or anything!)
"no locked-down features," except Google Wallet on Verizon..

source: http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/6/2615907/verizon-google-wal...
i can really empathise with the "start the year off right" commenter - my last boss (ceo of the company) once insisted on several long phone conferences during the christmas break, so we could "hit the ground running" when we returned. he was a firm believer in permanent-crisis mode.
did you end up buying an iPhone? serious question.
One cannot be surprised by a P(1) event. Ergo, the initial statement, that the students will be "surprised" by an event that is guaranteed to happen next week (the exam) is the source of the logic chain that ends in Reductio Ad Absurdum. There is a collapsing probability curve as to _when_ the exam will occur, with an even distribution (from the perspective of the students) of P(.2) for any given day starting on Sunday night, and collapsing to P(1) for Friday after Thursday morning.

Clever logical conundrum though. Certainly forces you to think deeply on words like "Surprise."
I thought that the update alliance agreement was once the carrier released an ICS phone they had to keep it up to date, not that they had to update all their phones to ICS.
Yep, that is the problem. And their hang-on-at-all-costs attitude is understandable in that context. But history reveals they'll be losers in the end. I just pray (to Mr. Hitchens, of course) that they don't destroy our internet on the way down.
I am reminded of Pigdog's 2002 open letter/rant to the Sony engineers who wrote the DRM code that would brick iMacs that played certain Celene Dion CDs.

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE! ;)

"d00d, Quit being a FUCKING ASS": http://www.pigdog.org/auto/software_jihad/link/2581.html
It is rare, but it happens. At least one entire team at microsoft recently received $60k+ raises (salary increases -- not one time bonuses) because google started poaching team members.

Now nobody on the team can justify leaving since they are paid so out-of-whack with their actual market value.