skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Just because they may close a number of $10M deals doesn't mean that collection isn't still a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme.

Since you're making me look it up (and I thought the point of my comment went without saying), their full-year revenue last year was $23.4B.

(http://www.morganstanley.com/about/ir/shareholder/4q2009.htm...)
In his industry, predictions about 2012 are irrelevant. Predictions about 2016 are where he'll make his money.
the question of local vs. non-local transformations at least hints at the idea that a new paradigm or way of thinking about programming is involved.

Which is an excellent point, and I think the essay would have been better served if you had oriented it that way, and not around the "not a language worth learning" hook.
THE PEER PRODUCTION ILLUSION: The Myth of Open Source Software
AT&T will not acquire T-mobile
This is correct; there is some double compensation.

746W per machine => 7.46KWh per day. Multiply by $0.03 USD/KWh (=1.5 INR) to get $0.22/day or $0.00022 per napkin, slightly cheaper than the industrial solution. In other words, the household machines are about half as efficient with power but their cheaper rates on power more than compensates.

In terms of overall efficiency, other factors like raw materials, transportation, etc. are likely to dominate--the power expenditure is small for both options.
I release numbers and have had my businesses cloned, extensively. That isn't a terribly large competitive threat -- if you can't totally paste someone trying to knock off your hairbrained strategy from 12 months ago, what are you doing in this industry?

If I was to argue for keeping numbers secret, and you'll notice I'm kinda circumspect with regards to certain ones, it might be because you have multiple audiences. Numbers everyone knows are boring to some audiences. Secret numbers, though, secret numbers are a very valuable currency.
I had a similar experience. This past Fall, I was interviewing with multiple companies, and I received questions that were very similar.... some being the same exact thing. I was nice, however, and told them out front that I had seen the problem before and asked for another.

I don't regret doing that; some may have passed the interview by keeping quiet even though they had seen the problem, but those people won't go far in the world because they cheat. They will eventually get called out for it and lose their reputation.
I agree with the portions of this dealing in obsolete libraries (e.g. asyncore, SimpleHTTPServer, array).

I also agree that __del__ and copy expose pain points and should be treated carefully.

isinstance() is often a code smell for sure, but I don't think it's potentially harmful in the same way as using os.system/os.popen; sometimes, INSIDE your own code, you want to fail early with a more informative message if a class does not explicitly contract to provide a certain set of interface behaviors. (I don't necessarily want to find out that a large/complex behavior is wrong only after it has occurred).

(I don't find it particularly nice to start writing tons of IWhatever objects and such to get behaviors already provided by built-in language constructs.)

"if __name__ == '__main__':" is ugly buts its purpose is not to be pretty, it is to make your module more fool-proof and explicit about what should happen in a script run vs an import. I don't see a good general substitute. If you are sure that only you or someone sensible will be importing/running your module, then I can agree with the advice just to keep those two kinds of scripts separate.

And I agree that any Python code compiling giant strings is in serious need of fixing (including that nasty bit in namedtuple as well as Simoniato's otherwise very nice non-stdlib code for signature-preserving decorators - there's really no other way I know of yet for doing that without ugly hacks)
Google pays $18 million to shutter Apture, CloudFlare clones it in 12 hours
TC bans U.S. import of multiple HTC devices in Apple patent ruling
Hack Your Xmas Tree To Light Up When You Get Mails
I came here to say this. Anytime Unix people complain about slow builds "on Windows," 9 times out of 10 it's because they're ignoring precompiled headers. The other 1 time out of 10 it's because they're using configure scripts under cygwin and finding out how expenseive cygwin's implementation of fork() can be.
TimeKiwi, the beautiful timeline creator relaunched with usernames
My test was:

1. Make a 1,000,000 node linked list of integers (I used doubly linked lists but I don't think it matters).

2. 1,000 times, insert into the middle of the list; I wrote a trivial O(n) stateless insert and called it with an offset of 500,000 1,000 times.

3. Make a 1,000,000 element Array of integers --- I just did "1000000.times.map".

4. 1,000 times call "insert" with an index of 500,000.

Step (2) takes so long I kill the process. Step (4) takes a barely perceptible amount of time. (Both in Rubinius).

It looks to me like:

* You're using much smaller data structures than I am

* Your "Array" case is still building Link objects, so still incurs the object management overhead

* You're inserting at the head of the list every time, which doesn't incur seek time. But inserts at the head or tail of a contiguous array don't need to seek or reallocate either.
But the workloads when it is faster? I'm very impressed with AMD's offering.

Have code thats largely complex branch and loop conditions that bust the branch predictor's balls and isn't cache friendly and is largely integers? Bulldozer eats it for breakfast and asks for more.
HP announces extended support for HP-UX 11i v3 [pdf]
Economics of Publishing – The Valley Floor?
This might describe the U.S., but prices for smartphones in the developing world have a different starting point. They are forced to be cost competitive (both for the handset and voice/data) from the outset in order to get any initial traction. The Huawei Ideos (Android) has been quite successful in Kenya where it sells for about $80 with an initial allotment of minutes and data, which users than can then reload as necessary.

Huawei has sacrificed on tech specs to be cost competitive. I wouldn't be surprised if future entry-level smartphones in the developing world hold the technology relatively constant and focus instead on getting the viable price point even lower, which is the reverse of what we see in the U.S. where the price stays relatively constant but the handset technology constantly improves.
Could you get around that though, what if foreigners could say buy an overpriced piece of software from the group?
I'm writing an AppEngine app in Go right now. It uses the same datastore as Python and Java, as well as OAuth and JavaScript Channels.
Iterating with the development server is a pleasure, since it compiles everything in the background as you work.
T-mobile's US assets are worth a significant amount, so they're unlikely to simply shutter and go away. Think about this regulatory hurdle not as dooming T-mobile, so much as sending their assets to some company other than AT&T.

I wasn't upset at all about the merger (quite the contrary), but I don't think the outcome is as bad as you say it is.
NoMethodError: undefined method `first' for "":String
in Ruby 1.9.3
It's an optional install package when you install Visual Studio.
> Wasn't it mentioned somewhere else in this thread that a lot of small VC-backed startups are contractually compelled to not disclose their finances?

If that's their situation, I won't complain.

> Isn't that the big risk that is supposed to lead to the Big Payday?

Sure, it's a bit of a gamble. But experienced punters check the form guide.
Sure, if you're looking for someone who is hard working and willing to learn, then this type of candidate is perfect for you.

But if you're screening for candidates with development experience who you can rely on for technical knowledge, the idea that someone can game your interview process in less than two weeks without previous knowledge is horrifying. But I'm guessing that people looking to hire experienced candidates aren't basing hiring decisions on questions about reversing linked-lists.
The %VSROOT%\VC\bin\amd64 is indeed a native x64 binary.
Tech That Predicts Farm Disasters Can Help Save Indian Agriculture
How does AWS know which instance i´m SSH:ing into?
But the title says "CoffeeScript is not worth learning".

No, it says "it's not a language worth learning". The author's point is that CoffeeScript is not a language, but a tool for JavaScript.
Looks like a start-up to me.
Overly generous. You might be good at holding onto power and convincing your long-suffering people that they really have never had it better.

So he's good at holding other peaceful countries like Japan and South Korea to ransom because they don't want to get into a fight. So far, so dictator, but I don't really accept the hypothesis that this means he wasn't crazy.

Something I read in another report which I thought was hiliarious:
"Official accounts attributed his demise to mental and physical exhaustion while riding on a train" - imagine how much exhaustion the Koreans pushing the train felt.

The guy was a nutcase, if measured on any normal scale. He was willing to let his people starve in order to live like a medieval king. If he's so well educated and read, then he knew what he was doing.
The only "safe" .NET framework to use for development is version 2.0. Thankfully, with VS2010 you can compile C# 4.0 (the language version) against the .NET 2.0 Framework.

Since 2.0, Microsoft has engaged in random "experiments" with the .NET framework, taking it in random directions then killing those projects off and starting again. XAML/WPF is the best example, where Microsoft begged the world to stop using System.Windows.Forms (standard Windows widgets/controls) and to switch over to vector-based XAML/WPF where each project needs a developer + a completely separate designer to have any chance of making a half-decent looking project.

Some developers (myself included) never made the switch - good call, because today WPF is dead thanks to a) it was a stupid call in the first place and b) it was very badly implemented, introducing incredible lag, requiring lots of memory, and generally resulting in a bad user experience.

Their other problem is with distribution/versioning. New versions of .NET tend to be released a month or so after new versions of Windows - meaning you'll never get Windows shipping out of the box with the latest version of .NET. While backwards compatibility is preserved (i.e. .NET 3.5 will run .NET 2.0 apps), it's very subtly broken as you'll find that a .NET 2.0 app compiled with VS2010 will actually not run on an actual .NET 2.0 distribution because no one bothered to check if the same method signatures existed for certain functions and whatnot.

Now the new challenge is Windows 8: first, Microsoft seems to be leaving .NET entirely pushing their new Metro toolkit and WinRT as the preferred routes of development. IMHO this will be a complete failure as it leaves behind both the .NET developers AND the traditional, hard-core WIN32 developers in an attempt at a "clean slate" that no one actually wants.

Even worse, .NET 4.0 in Windows 8 breaks all that backwards compatibility. Out of the box, it will not run apps compiled for .NET 3.5 and below - all .NET apps need to be recompiled to run on .NET 4, or the user will need to install .NET 3.5.

Footnote: Unfortunately, Microsoft's other good feature for .NET, Linq, was introduced in v3.5 of the .NET Framework. If you're targeting Framework 2.0, this is the one good feature you'll miss out on.
Cute muslim baby holds holy qur'an
When the bottom billion in India make around $1-$2 a day, his estimate is off by about an order of magnitude.
I've had a lot of success on the Android Market, but I'm frankly scared to release my numbers. I dwell over it a lot, but I can't figure out how it would help, other than to possibly make myself more popular on the web or to motivate others who are on the edge, thinking about entering the Android Market. I don't think I would get any new sales of my games from doing it, but I do think I'd increase the amount of competition I have, and the more competition I get, the harder it is to make money in this space.

Basically, I agree with the opinion in this article when it come to startups. I think releasing numbers is dangerous, especially when just starting out. I'm not signing up for a business tool online if I see the creator isn't making a profit. I don't have the time to invest in something that won't be around tomorrow.
Downtime by Law
I actually don't have an explicit set of core questions, but I'm sure there are clear themes that run through the problems.

Probably my only real tip I can think of is not to have them code something related to stuff you're currently working on. You'll be far more likely to underestimate how hard the problem is.

But the problems aren't that hard to think of. They're not like ACM programming contests. They're more like:

You have two lists. One is a list of IP addresses. The other list contains IP addresses or IP addresses with wildcards. E.g., 192.168.$.1 or $.255.255.255. Return the set of IP addresses from list 1 that are matched in list 2. Additionally return the index from list 2 that matched -- I want the index that is most specific (as defined by having the fewest wildcards, or wildcard furthest to the right when there is a tie).
It would be wonderful if India achieved the same wealth distribution as Brazil. Some people would become richer and no one would become poorer.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/the-haves-and-t...
Notch creates 'Minicraft' in less than 48 hours, you can play it now
If even programmers write crappy commit messages, there's not much to be optimistic about legislators' commit messages.
Not just the Republican primary, it also includes Obama.
Actually in the past 4 days or so, there have been reports that T-Mobile is "refarming" some of its towers and there is now 3G support for iPhones in some parts of the northwest.

http://www.tmonews.com/2011/12/unlocked-iphone-spotted-runni...

Also the iPhone 4s is a quad-GSM phone with HSPA+ support and so could conceivably, if I just mix and match acronyms, get 14M to 42M down on Tmo's network.

I am not sure of the magic behind this, but I believe it's the same as bringing over a quad band GSM Galaxy Nexus from Canada/Europe and putting it on Tmo's network, with the exception that the Nexus is carrier unlocked and the iPhone 4s is not. (I believe.)
Reducing the number of carriers reduces the amount of competition. Improving the quality of AT&Ts network has nothing to do with increasing competition amongst carriers.
Apple wins ban of HTC devices at US International Trade Commission
You're welcome. I'm glad that the HN readership has helped share this story with people who might have missed this and who are interested in these true individuals.
ITC sides with Apple, bans sale and import of some HTC phones
I think a lot of people said the same thing when the banks started merging, too. And look where that got the US economy because of "too big too fail banks".

I would've preferred capitalism followed its natural course, and let one or two smaller banks die, than to get in a situation where a handful of huge banks can wipe out the entire economy if they are allowed to fail.

The thing about capitalism is that it needs to let parts of it fail, so it can thrive overall and in the long term.

Also, I don't think T-mobile will disappear. Worst case scenario it will be bought by an international carrier, but at a smaller price.
The Britney Spears Problem (tracking popular data in streams)
We previously launched a client-side only proof of concept, that would show the potential of the idea.

When the launch was successful we started building the proper version, with usernames, curation (hiding of posts) and proper OAuth.

Previous launch post is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3109779
Few of these types of questions ask anything beyond the first year of a decent CS curriculum. If interviewers wanted to limit themselves to CS students, they would ask about virtual memory and require candidates to write proofs of algorithms concepts on the whiteboard.
Please, don't submit stories that exist behind pay or subscribe walls.
True; I switched to Google's DNS a few weeks ago. (Is there an even better one?)

Until that point I was forcing my browser to filter out most of the ISP's page, because it was naturally filled with unnecessary images and ads and crap and was just slow.
It sounds like in this case, this guy might be a good candidate - look at all the effort he put in and his ability to remember things, think critically, and learn.

On the other hand, there are plenty of competent programmers not willing to put up with this nonsense, and the companies are going to miss out on them.
Send a Call from Santa
I highly recommend Leonard Susskind's "Modern Physics" series of lectures. A full list is on his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Susskind

They cover modern classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, special relativity, statistical mechanics, and more. It is expected that you have knowledge of basic calculus (you know what a derivative is, but you don't need to know what a curl is) and basic physics (he does cover even stuff like F=ma but it would probably be too fast to follow it for the first time).
T-mobile, of which I am a customer, offers something that none of the large US carriers offer - a monthly discount if you own your own phone rather than purchasing a subsidized phone (of course it is not the easiest thing to find on their website).
Other carriers, Leap Wireless, Cricket, ... seem to want Tmo's assets, and ... AT&T had offered to sell it to them. http://www.mobileburn.com/17966/news/att-reportedly-having-d...

But if AT&T doesn't buy Tmo, one of these might merge instead with Tmo or buy those assets directly.

At other times, there has been speculation (or even work done) on a Sprint / Tmo merger which would bring two weak players together but also allow for more direct competition between the GSM and CDMA world with an LTE path going forward.
You can actually buy the iPhone 4s unlocked straight from the Apple website. I just did last week as an xmas gift for my dad, with the intention of trying it out with his current account on Cincinnati Bell Wireless.

I believe they use the same frequencies as T-Mobile.
T-Mobile is still a very valuable target for a buyout- just not from one of the existing cellphone companies.

I would not be at all surprised if someone like Time Warner Cable (or Dish, as the TechCrunch article mentions) took an interest. Verizon can offer a "quad-play" internet/home phone/cellphone/TV plan, and I suspect their competition would love to do the same.

Also, don't forget that T-Mobile just earned $4bn from AT&T. That can do them a lot of favours.
ReadNow - Mac client now supports both Instapaper and ReadItLater
Richard Stallman and Freedom
Along these same lines, I remember the fight over the DMCA. It's kind of funny to see the tech industry defending it so strongly today. There was a while there when it was probably the most hated law on the web.
Can You Learn To Code In One Day? We Sent A Non-Nerd To Find Out
As a T-Mobile customer, I follow iPhone news pretty closely and there's been so many reports of T-Mo reps claiming to get the iPhone. I mean, they already have unlocked ones running under them at 2G speeds. But, they're also upgrading to HSPA+ 42 Mbps (instead of LTE) and in the process supposedly changing the bands to iPhone 3G compatible.

Of course, this doesn't change that they are dying. They've seen positive trends from their new value plans and hopefully upcoming Droid + Ice Cream sandwich launches lets them catch up.
Holy cow! The clerk of the house will start hosting all bills in XML on Jan 1st 2012! http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2011/house-approves-sweeping-op...
You are predicting the future as a starting point for your argument. But you are basing that on assumption that may not be true in the future: that the iPhone will continue to be important, and that LTE will be a selling point for customers.
Victory for Apple: US trade body bans infringing HTC phones starting in April
I believe it's a native UI control so you just need to have the Kicksend app installed to see the option in apps.
Wow, what's a normal time to start work in Germany?
Apple Wins ITC Ruling of Narrow Patent Over HTC Android
MITx is beginning of sweeping new online push
How to install a Perl module from CPAN
I've never had to deal with framework version problems, as our software is for internal use only, but I can imagine figuring out what to target would be painful.

You don't need to have a separate designer to take advantage of XAML, I've written several applications doing both XAML and C# myself. It does make it much easier to have a non-programmer work on the UI.

Metro and WinRT have .NET bindings, and most of the samples I've seen are written in C#. It prohibits use of System.Windows.Forms for the same reason that you can't use the Win32 UI libraries, but the rest of the framework is available. Also, the Metro UI authoring is done using XAML.

None of this is to say that I love everything Microsoft does. I'm sick of their sandbox, and the projects I do for fun are all Linux / HTML or Android-based.
Maybe it depends how large the numbers are? Google kept their (amazing) numbers hidden as long as possible. When they filed for IPO, their AdWords revenue numbers blew everyone away.
After FB auth I get the Sad Wiki. Landing page makes it look interesting though!
Why you shouldn’t launch your startup in the press
[ PDF ] Learning Python - CEH - Saher Team
Trade NBA Player Shares and Make a Profit with StarStreet
I'm not sure standardization of interviews is desirable in a large company. My experience is that large companies hire by team, so interview candidates get widely varying experiences depending on what team interviews them. This way candidates can be considered not solely based on technical knowledge but also on how well they fit with a particular team.
I'm getting a nasty feeling FB is throttling... will investigate.
That was like 30 straight minutes full of extremely useful information. Wow.

That voicemail deletion "bug" is awesome.
Releasing your numbers is just asking for trouble. If you are small, someone that has more resources can come along and put you out of business.
Debian Installer with ZFS v28
The MP3 licensing website states at time of writing that an MP3 license will cost US $2,500 per game title. In their own words, a game is described as:

“Interactive software products intended to interact with a user for entertainment (action, role play, strategy, adventure, simulations, racing, sport, arcade, card and board games) and/or education, that may be published for multiple machines, platforms or media”

There is a small saving grace:

“No license fees are due if less than 5,000 copies of a particular game title are distributed”

Distribution of a particular game is not exclusive of web distribution! Take one of our most popular arcade games for example, “8 Bit Runner”. To date it’s far surpassed 5,000 plays. In their eyes this could easily qualify as 5,000 distributions. Had the author used MP3, they’d then be due to pay the MP3 licensers $2,500 for a small online game.

I had absolutely no idea that MP3 has such a license.
Where I live in the US it is no more taboo then urinating or defecating.
I'd say it's pretty widely understood [1] to not use eval() like clauses in any language simply because it's a wide open hole for security exploits.

Is this seriously not well understood? If not, then we should promote more "eval considered harmful" type screeds.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&#...