skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I don' think that example proves your point: perhaps he loved problem solving / was an excellent problem solver and pursued CompSci for that reason, only to drop it because he disliked the formalism required by programming (or math, for example).

While coding is a formal style of problem solving, I think the sentiment that those who can't code can't problem solve / dislike problem solving is ill-founded and misguided.
> It's not racist to point out the shortcomings of a national culture

No it's not. What's racist is your assumption that hadn't you (an implicitly superior culture, which is also a somewhat racist idea) told them what natural resource they had under their feet and taught them how to explore it they'd never figure it out for themselves and would be a primitive society. You imply that they are somehow better off because of it when, in fact, the money the country got for its riches was funneled to a small group of religious fundamentalists that, because of it, are able to rule the country unquestioned. One could argue they still have a very primitive society, only now they have money and weapons. You also imply they would never be able to develop the tools used to glean the data, an assumption that's also probably untrue and fail to mention the fact that most script-kids who pull tricks like this around the planet have no knowledge of the inner workings of the tools they use and would never be able to develop them from scratch.

And finally, I did not comment on Saudi Arabia's form of government, its repressive laws or the sadly misguided idiots who pulled this trick and their ideas about how the world works. I, myself, don't like the idea of theocracies (and absolutist monarchies) and regard them as incompatible with democracy.

Unfortunately, this is not the world I live in and we have to coexist with the less than ideal systems other people want (sometimes for no good reason) to live under. We don't have the right to impose our own way of life - or worse, an artificial one that favors us - upon others.

Also, the fact there is a giant racist elephant in the room does not make your own behavior and discourse any more helpful. Let's discuss the elephant when we get to it and, in the meantime, let's not put more little elephants in the room. I'd say there are enough of them already.
I don't work for PopVox, so I'm gonna stick with "Congresscritter" :)

Anyway, I guess you were expecting one of those hokey quizzes news sites have that never really cover the bases properly. shrug PV's actual purpose is to enhance constituent communications. That means your messages to Congress route through them so they can sprinkle on loads of metadata and make it easier for the Congressional aids to sort through while at the same time providing public accountability. This personalized bill-by-bill member-by-member thing is newly added on top of that larger main goal.

I use it because I like that accountability thing (transparency, woo!), and I have enough friends that used to have to sort through paper letters to the offices they worked in who have warned me that I will make staffers hate me if I send paper letters ;)
Big News Regarding Python, boto, and AWS
I'm sure you're great, but I've been hiring people nonstop for almost a year now, and networking with people who are also hiring, and the fact is: it's a tight market for dev talent.

Is the market efficient? I'm sure not.
But nobody (we hope!) is writing IE specific apps anymore right? This is the whole reason IE6 is still around, because 10 years ago people WERE writing to IE. So I would suspect IE8 will have much less inertia.
Interview with Kohsuke Kawaguchi, creator of Jenkins
a) once popular catch phrase? because of Zed? granted it's hyperbolic and cliche, but most titles are, by design
b) If you want to discuss in private, I can give names and numbers. There are real people with real feelings and real money involved.
c) you have no idea what you are talking about
d) love to see a critique or counterpoints with any substance
e) share and share alike

I'm many things, but lazy isn't one.
I know you mean to be kind here, but putting women on a pedestal is just as much a form of sexism as declaring them beneath you.

They're just people. Treat them accordingly.

(I don't mean to imply any ill will on your part. I just thought you should know.)
Buses are pretty much ads on wheels, --- and in some buses of the green variety [1] there are TV sets broadcasting most relevant content such as government propaganda, the horoscope, news and events, and yes, advertisement.

[1] I'm yet to figure out what the colours mean on buses.
Cool article, thanks for posting it. This is the sort of non-tech article I still really enjoy finding on hn.

That said, I'm not sure it's supposed to be such a surprise that, after a certain level, more $$ != "better"... I'm not an expert, but from talking to experienced musicians, I get the feeling that when they pay top $ for a hand-crafted musical instrument (or anything, really), what they're really seeking is a higher degree of specialization, rather than a higher quality per se. Mass production doesn't necessarily make things worse, it just makes them all the same (with a corresponding drop in price due to efficiencies of scale). Once top musicians get to a certain level with their instrument, they start to seek out specific qualities in their instrument, and they can only find them in custom ordered or instruments that are harder to find (ie., more expensive).

I feel a little sheepish saying this, because I'm speaking for others - I'm nowhere near the level where it would make the slightest bit of sense for me to plunk down $5-10k or more (and it can easily be more, way more). And of course, what I said above assumes a certain level of quality in the "mass produced" instruments - we're not talking about super cheap factory made crap.

Quick edit - the point I'm making probably doesn't really apply to the massive price difference between a Stradivarius and more recently made violins, though... the premium probably does have to do with a perception that it is "better"... my point is that I don't think "better" is always what drives the decision to spend more on an instrument.
Climate change – our real bequest to future generations
What would Google's response be if Microsoft or another product developer had done this? Would they have pages banned?
How Metcalfe’s Law explains the attitude of your sysadmin
Zapier just signed up and couldn't be more tickled pink about a chance to be a part of PyCon 2012!
This is NOT nearly the first time. There is a pattern, and the only reasonable explanation is that one or more HN MODs just do NOT like a lot of my posts and jump to downvote ASAP with anger.

A guess that fits the facts of what they don't like is anything critical of any other media outlet, anything about CS, or anything about venture capital. But it is necessary to guess since the downvoters essentially never respond to the substance of my posts. The situation has clearly become personal for them and, then, me.
The thing is, it was only wasted by those who wanted to be cross-browser. If all you needed to do was work on IE6, there was no extra burden.
arguing against what you believe applies to a lot more than just programming. it is a pretty good way of arriving at what you really believe. guess you believe X0, try to argue against it arrive at X1 as a result of the arguments, argue against X1, ...
Maybe I don't understand the idea of a daily rate.

I thought it meant that I price my time in 8-hour increments. Which means that if I have to leave early, and put in a 4-hour day, then I only charge them for half of that.

Are you saying that if I bill daily, then I can charge for a full day even when I work only half a day?

I'm all in favor of finding a formula that removes the impression that I'm trying to gouge clients, or that I'm taking advantage of the blank-check aspect of hourly billing.

Of course, at the end of the day, it all comes down to trust. Fortunately, in almost all cases, my clients learn that they can trust me to be aligned with their business interests, and that I'd rather help them to succeed than find new ways to charge them without working. However, if there's a way for me to profit more while simultaneously increasing their trust (or reducing the time it takes to build such trust), then I'm all in favor.
4Clojure hits 100K solved problems.
Re: "Indeed rebooting your phone will terminate all processes running on the phone. This should be pretty obvious."

Not so obvious. When you reboot OS X version 10.7, it restarts all of the processes that where running when you rebooted it (and loads all of the files you were looking at) - so in that operating system, the only way to shut down an errant application is to track it down and kill it.
Student's Guide to the Study of History
I suspect it has to do with farmville. I can't say for sure, but I hazard to guess that CS researchers don't play farmville and probably prefer not to mingle with those who do.
Hypnosis is usually done with the eyes closed -- people tend to visualize better that way, and I guess it prevents the eyes from drying out too.

Many people have used hypnosis tapes, CDs and MP3s, for decades, without the presence of a hypnotherapist, and I've never heard of anybody being harmed by it. If the recording cuts out halfway through, the client will eventually emerge from hypnosis, as though they were waking from a nap.
I'm a Paleo guy, though I typically suggest that people should do whatever physical activity they actually enjoy. Paleo's recommendation of functional training just happen to coincide with what I like.

As for running, I HATE running for any significant amount of time, and I chalk this up partially to my body-type - I'm very good with short sprints and have large muscle mass in my legs, which is the opposite of most serious [distance] runners who have leaner legs, but similar to track stars who do the 100M and such.
What I Learned After 3 Weeks of Writing Mobile Apps
RJ Metrics – Why We Invested
CSS media queries in JavaScript
Nope-the company was surprisingly good at reassigning people to areas that actually did need work. Except for me-it took them so long to reassign me that I got bored due to a lack of work and left.
Nice work Ben! Did you use this technique? http://quickleft.com/blog/176
Optimizing Stand Up
I'd identify the particular app that's causing your issues; instead of mass clearing out the recents list, or rebooting, slowly signal to the OS that you're done with each app, one at a time, and determine whether your phone continues to run hot and drain battery after each closure.

Eventually you'll narrow it down to the app with background privileges that's causing you grief.

Kick that app off your phone, or otherwise stop running it. If you can't live without it, then the next time your battery life goes to hell, go into the recents list and remove only the troublesome app in question, so that the OS knows you're done with it and kills its (presumably crashed or busy-looping) background thread.

Desist worrying about how many apps are in your recents list in general, because that's not a really related to the underlying problems you're experiencing.
You can see the current count in real-time on the front page of the website. Exciting stuff!
Immobile Apps
My original post was downvoted within minutes of when I posted it, and there was no reply. This is NOT nearly the first time. There is a pattern, and I'd be a fool not to conclude that one or more HN MODS are personally angry at me.

"schizophrenic"? Total nonsense; look up the meaning of the word, a very specific medical term. Not even paranoid. I'm just defending myself against a pattern over the past few months at HN. There is a pattern of my being attacked, and this one post is just the most recent example.

As far as I can tell, I'm responding to every response that can use a response.

I've more than once asked PG to correct this. We will see what he does. This situation is a scandal at HN.
How to Stop Procrastinating: 7 Timeless Tips
Mobile Security: Android vs iOS Infographic
I have a general rule of not giving any one client more than 1-2 days a week, with very rare exceptions. I've found that working on multiple projects each week is good for my business (especially when projects end), good for my knowledge and experience (since it forces me to learn more and gain more skills), and even good for my clients (who can benefit from the knowledge that I'm gathering from many places.

This arrangement doesn't work under all circumstances, but on the rare occasions when I've agreed to commit myself to full-time work with a single client, I've found that it cost me on all three of these measures. It does mean that I've sometimes had to say "no" to potential clients for whom my style isn't a good fit.
This, to most people, is too vague on its own, because the concept of meditation tends to fit certain lifestyles, such as those that go Yoga or follow some form of Buddhism or other spiritual practice. This really deserves a few paragraphs at minimum for most people to even consider taking it seriously.

That said I think meditation would benefit a lot of people more than they realize, but they really need a proper introduction and guidance to actually do it in a way that is beneficial. This is extraordinarily hard to do on your own. (I started in my 20s and got a lot of out actual instruction at a retreat center).
Check out David Kadavy's "Design for Hackers", this is probably what you're looking for. http://tinyurl.com/8886wpy (affiliate link)
Korean Actress Song Hae Gyo’s Fashion Pictures: Cosmetics Advertisement
I didn't intend for that to be scare quotes, I intended for it to sarcasm quotes. People hide behind the open source name even if open source means nothing. It doesn't matter if your OS is open source if your hardware can't be made to boot your newly-compiled version. WebOS, in my opinion, balances base-Linux with open (enough) hardware better than the Android phones with an open source system (except for 3.0) and completely closed hardware.

I'm not talking strictly hardware, though you may be talking strictly software. That may be where the disagreement is stemming from. The point of the article is about the locked bootloader restricting access to the hardware. I'm posing my opinion that Palm WebOS devices were more open than a good number of Android-based handsets, overall. With market support, WebOS could have been the open-iPhone. I put "open source" in sarcasm-quotes because the tradeoff is freedom of your hardware.
> Not so obvious. When you reboot OS X version 10.7, it restarts all of the processes that where running when you rebooted it (and loads all of the files you were looking at) - so in that operating system, the only way to shut down an errant application is to track it down and kill it.

Not really. 10.7 relaunches the app, but doesn't load up an image of the previously-loaded executable image and restore the program counter or anything -- after a reboot you don't get restored right back into an infinite loop bug; the program has been restarted, and the OS just asked it to re-open any files it was using before.
Do it! Seriously, it's worth it.

I didn't get really serious about it until last year, but now I wouldn't code without it. The confidence it gives when refactoring code (run the test, see if you broke something) is pure gold. Plus, just writing the tests puts you in a frame of mind where you're questioning a lot of your assumptions, and you often discover flaws in your architecture that would be painful to fix if discovered later.
i really loved talking to the founders and working on this project, but hearing comments like this really makes me glad i did it. thanks for your support!
I suspect it will be more about IE8's lack of support for CSS3 (and HTML5), meaning that we will have to keep bothering with various tricks and libraries to (partially) fix these for us.
Can Facebook predict the 2012 Presidential Race winner?
Can someone (or you guys) take this further and create a marketplace for developers to sell, rev-share, or license fully developed applications to marketers, individuals or companies?
Klout Series C Funding announcement
Reading another learn to code in 1 month blog post, or just switching to 8 minute abs.
Google is bad. Most intelligent adults agree.
10 Solid Reasons Why I'll Keep Using and Loving Linux in 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale
This is soooo true. I was in a bad coverage area recently as well, and just to add insult to injury, the Android app provided by my own mobile carrier timed out and told me there is no network connection.
Assuming that you have contacts outside of the corporation where you work, and your name is one that will pop into their heads when they think, "who can I ask to work on this project?", freelance work should start coming to you naturally.

If you don't have those contacts, you need to speak up and get your name out there within the community where you want to find work. Blog about the technology you work with, and show off cool personal projects. Join a local user group. If there is group discussion at the meetings, show that you know your stuff. Go to conferences and make sure you find people to chat with during the day and later on when everyone goes out for dinner and/or drinks at night. In short, it's up to you to show and tell people how great you are before they'll want to work with you.
I just signed up GetCloak.com. We're excited at the chance to participate!
Some of the comments on there make a good argument for the idea. Interesting.
One guy hacked his Kinect and Wii to create a cat-brushing robot
This isn't my field at all, and to be honest I have a very shaky understanding of what's communicated in the article. I find it extremely interesting, though my lack of knowledge leaves me with little to say.

Most of the time when I read the comments of physics articles like this, it's to find criticism that I myself have no chance in hell of producing.
And learning to work with other people.

And learning to read documentation.

And learning to plan.

And learning when to admit other people should solve the problem.
What's missing? The wiki page doesn't say.
Quora: Who designed the "broken image" icons?
Anonymous Goes After Neo-Nazis
>> Because these technologies came into existence after these browsers were made. Such is progress.

An example: the "about page" for Google Music. You need to download the newest Chrome to view it. I don't call it progress if accessibility and backwards compatibility get the shaft.

>>This is a law, and being blind is rarely a choice.

Two things: I hope you make sites accessible for the blind, not because it is law, but simply because you want the blind to access your content. Put another way: If it wasn't for the law, we could forget about the blind too? Accessibility needs a law for front-end engineers to take note?

Being on IE6 is rarely a choice too, especially in a corporate environment.

>>Because they were built with two codebases, one for regular browsers, one for IE6. Double the work for that 1%.

You don't need exceptions to make sites render on IE6. You only need exceptions if you start implementation in a modern browser, and make IE6 a minute after-thought.

>> But IE6 required a lot of browser-specific code.

Only if _you_ required hacks to make a design work.

>>Is that progress? Yes.

I don't think that was the progress that Tim Berners Lee had in mind. A progress where HTML documents from the HTML5 era become inaccessible to later generations.

Disclaimer: I am able to build sites that render in IE6, without much hacks or troubles or extra work, but I don't like working around its quirks. I don't have a strong opinion on why and when IE6 should die, and I certainly don't want to play that judge with my clients websites. I want maximum accessibility, and that includes IE6 in my opinion.
How To Market a Self-Published Book
Come Join Us Build Social Games of the Future
"Has 10 caught up to Webkit/Opera/Firefox?"

In some areas, yes. In some areas, they're even ahead of the competition. Other areas still lack however, WebGL, as you mention is one of them.

Sadly, their slow update-cycle means that whatever they release will soon lack the latest features that other browsers support.
Please explain reasoning behind CakePHP having a poor design. I'm curious as most people that say a framework or tool sucks actually are just using the framework/tool in an incorrect way, and there is frequently an elegant way to tackle their issues. This applies to more than just CakePHP, mind you.
Sencha Touch 2 Bootstrap
To think I actually had a booth on Startup Row last year. One of my best days of 2011. VanL and jnoller both came by personally to make sure everything was set up and let me know that they'd make sure any issues were rectified. Of course, there were no problems at all as everything was set up right to start with.

Even if you don't have a booth, stop by and visit those who do. You'll see plenty of smart folks working on some very cool products. It reminded me of the feeling I had at Startup School -- lots of like minded people to chat with and learn from and be inspired by.
|What's a good enough level of expertise to code for you own business?

I think it's very much depends on your goals and tools.

For example, you can probably design a useful business application in Mircosoft's lightswitch in a short time .And it would probably be reasonably secure ,maintainable etc. , because of MS's help.

Same can be said for using python + numpy as a front end for a lab equipment , used in your business.
Fair enough - I've had some good experience pointing new R users to R in a Nutshell - but maybe Data Manipulation with R is better. Haven't used it and will take a look.

One invaluable resource I forgot to point out was: http://www.statmethods.net/ Very concise, directed pages that help you understand common/acceptable ways to do specific things.

For plotting, I usually skip the base R plots and go with ggplot2.
You have an incredibly broad view of what "public commons" means.

I suppose you would also support legislation to regulate what color clothing people can wear if they go out in public?

Should shop keepers be required to have window shades on their stores so you are not offended by the display of merchandise?
Oh that's pretty cool then. I didn't realize. Maybe you should have a message explaining that?
I can't be the only one that very often have my left hand on the (left part of the) keyboard and the right on the mouse doing a lot of shortcuts while navigating the GUI.

Such as ctrl+z, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, ctrl+w, ctrl+t, ctrl+n, ctrl+s that requires two hands on dvorak ("especially" on an ergonomic keyboard) - or at least requires the right hand (=> you can't use the mouse) or you have to reposition the left hand (not acceptable).

This is not something that you can just relearn and this is something that seriously hinders at least my workflow.
I think you are missing two crucial pieces of the puzzle. The 3 months sprint and peer support. Those are the biggest outcome of an incubator. You work your ass off for 3 months to sprint towards a product while helping your peers with their sprints. This can be done without an incubator of course but incubator atmosphere keeps you going.
Nice. I'll take a look at that. my big beef with everyauth has been my frustration with trying hooking into its pipeline where it is simply doing too much.
To those of you with years of experience:

If I'm looking to start consulting on the side, is it reasonable to charge lower rates at first to attract business and get some experience (something in the $50/hr range)

While I want to be paid fairly for what I'm worth, I also don't want to overcharge clients while I figure out what I'm doing (processes and services etc).
Good post. I agree with your push notification retention point. And I appreciate your stats on CPC ads.
Record any unix processes execution. And replay them afterward !