skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My advice is to do it in-house. Most of my past startups have been very affiliate driven and I have had some bad experiences outsourcing (most commonly that the checks get sent late). The most important thing to an affiliate is that they are paid on time every time.

If you think it will be too much of a hassle, there are several companies that provide this service. Here is one: http://www.webmasterchecks.com/index.html
This is a nice idea, and would be useful to those in this particular niche (such as myself), but it is a small market if you just look at the architects. Also, it is more complicated a task now as most of the industry that is forward thinking (and thus potential customers) are using BIM (building information modeling), primarily Autodesk's Revit.

So to make it a vastly bigger market, to include all the construction participants including architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, you would need to make the app access the BIM model and be able to attach data to it. Revit has an SDK, so with a great deal of difficult work, an app could be made. Of course, a launch date around 2010 may be the best plan given the largest reduction in Construction that I've ever seen recently.

Update: I just realized that there is a growing movement in the construction industry called Integrated Project Delivery which is basically lean management applied to construction and involves the intense collaboration of all parties in construction. To that end, there are now a growing number of online BIM integrators where different participants can share in real-time their different BIM applications. So the iPhone app may be much easier than I thought if you can access into the online BIM data, say, with a REST api.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Project_Delivery
I've been thinking about this. I'm a writer, and I've wondered whether it would be possible to get together a good director and good actresses and make a really good porno.

I believe the films Shortbus and 9 Songs attempt this to at least some degree.
I don't agree at all - if you hate writing, you would not like being a professor. With papers and grant proposals, professors write more than most jobs.
Twitpay doesn't let you link it with a credit card or anything. You have to authorize the paypal payment anytime you want to add money to it, so the only money someone could take that way is the money you leave in your account.
If you're already serving your other assets from a separate domain (which is a very good idea - and if you use a separate domain rather than a subdomain you can be sure you won't have any cookies included in incoming HTTP requests, speeding things up even further) then it might be better to serve jQuery from your own asset server, to save the additional DNS lookup. Worth benchmarking, anyway.
I think web 2.0 means that you don't make money. I think you're running a web 1.0 company/
A web 2.0 conference with no Internet access?

Actually, a conference occuring sometime this century with no Internet access?

He's joking, right?
> An hour after running a half-marathon or greater I am basically inhaling food.

I don't think the article disagrees with you:

> The [appetite suppression] the researchers observed were short term for both types of exercise, lasting about two hours, including the time spent exercising, Stensel reported.
This isn't a good idea.

I use noscript and I rarely will let it load 3rd-party Javascript. The more times I have to click "temporarily allow ..." the more i hate your site. As a user, I don't like every site telling Google what I'm doing. Google is becoming the panopticon of the internet. Forcing users to load content third-party content is a sign that you don't respect their privacy.

IE8 in private browsing mode will block 3rd-party scripts that are referenced from more than 10 (by default) sites. This includes all this Google stuff and Google Analytics.
Reflections/Projections is consistently a good time. The year before that one, I saw Yale Patt, the guys from Rooster Teeth (Red vs. Blue), Max Levchin, Jawed Kareem, and Joel Spolsky - that was a pretty exciting weekend. And there's a job fair one day so there's all sorts of recruiters, which means all sorts of free food/drink!
How often is Google down? Is it worth worrying about?

(questions are 80% rhetorical, 20% genuine curiosity)
Google brings up a few papers from around that time. The closest match looks like "A short cut to deforestation" - is that the one you mean?

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=165214
Costs $79-$129, the cost/benefit ratio isn't there yet, but its still a great idea.
The Facebook Virus Spreads: No Social Network is Safe
This reminds me of that spider jpeg someone tried to pay a bill with a while back. How do you know that the mp3 has actually been deleted from the user's computer? Other than heavy-handed DRM, I don't see how that would be possible. For some reason, I don't the the problem with the online music market today is lack of DRM.
redtube, for instance.
I have seen some software development R&D deductions at my previous companies here in the US. I am not an accountant and the definition of what is deductible is pretty narrow. The best advice is to discuss with a tax professional since the last headache you need in your startup is an IRS hassle.
Ah, including exercise time, missed that bit! :-)
hmmm... what about taking the Android Maps app (http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-on-android-m...) and enhancing it to create a 3D model of a particular building?
100 Terrific Web Tools for Meeting Your Personal and Career Goals
Whether you want to increase your net worth, lose weight, or start a great career, there’s a web tool out there for you. Read on to find 100 tools for your career, personal life and beyond.
OK, so this is sort of a pet peeve of mine: Japan is a polite country. It isn't a uniquely polite country. My post is a bog-standard American businessman pleasant refusal for a request without saying "Your business is unprofitable so #"$& off and die."

Relatedly: Americans have been known to say one thing but believe another. Gasp! I actually had a Japanese coworker who was flummoxed when that happened to him -- he said, in as many words, "What is the world coming to?! We invented [the Japanese word for the distinction between what one says and what one actually believes] and now even the Yankees are doing it?!"
Social Media ABC's - A To Z
I'd argue that netbooks of the future will look more like the iphone than the ASUS EEE or Dell Mini. As such, Apple is probably farther down this path than anyone (although by a more unconventional route).
A Moment of Truth for the Golden State
Why Subversion does not suck
The Subversion Sucks meme is popular on the Internet. However, if we imagine a world without Subversion and other centralized version control systems, it's easy to see why Subversion does not suck, is not fading away, and in fact, has a rapidly growing user base.
When I grokked this for the first time, I had an idea for generating all the prime numbers: use a number spiral that "wraps" in n dimensions.
I've know this for a while (but I obviously did not know the mechanisms).

When I have an intense Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practice, it takes an hour or more for me to get my appetite back - despite my knowledge that I need calories. But after lifting I am famished, and I have a protein shake immediately after getting home just so that I can cool down and shower before eating.
That's not the point. The point is that a structure is being created that has the potential to make the chinese industries so much more productive, that the same system would have to be adopted in the west.

And not just there, but all the other emerging economies that are trying to industrialize. They would all have to follow the same system. South East Asia, Africa, South America etc.

Now I'm not saying that the income of workers in China is not going to rise - I'm saying that at the moment, there is a big difference, and that gives them a competitive advantage. In china you typically have 3 or more people serving you at one table when you go to a restaurant. That would not be possible in the west because of the high labour cost - in China it's possible because of the wage difference between what is being earned in the restaurant and what the workers earn.

Controlling your economy and only buying local goods is not a good idea in my opinion, but when there are new manufacturing processes being used in emerging countries, then you have to be aware of this.

I don't believe in protectionism at all, so that's not the point I'm trying to convey.
How does Eye-Fi "know" to send to Evernote? It seems like software would have to be installed on a local computer unless they've jammed a processor into this thing, too.
San Diego Supercomputer Center director offers tips on data preservation
thanks answerly. some of the outsourcing rates are scary, looks like in-house might be the way. if any one has experience with check printing software, would be interested to hear recommendations.
Just like Delaware is the startup capital of the U.S, ya?
As we serve local, county, and state governments using a subscription model, we don't run into the problem of random visitors with noscript enabled when viewing the site, but I can see how that would affect other sites.

As a side note, you can tie the CDN you create with Google App Engine to a domain, i.e. cdn.yoursite.com grabs from the App engine CDN.
" But what makes you so sure that they are wrong?"

My question is, how would one know if they were wrong?
My group is working on a Visualization tool for the study of global epidemic simulations using Air. I've been extremely surprised at how powerful it is.
US Govt. rescues Christmas.
The other commenters reflect my thoughts. While I don't enjoy watching startups fail, it really rubs me wrong when people are too busy going to conferences/twittering/emailing/whatever instead of working on their startup. If you can't do, teach.
Teaching languages are stripped down on purpose, so I don't consider that a valid criticism. Pascal was fine for teaching structured programming in its day.
Notes from this month's CTO lunch with guest speaker Tim Wolters
It looks like it's software on the Eye-Fi.

From the Eye-Fi site:
"Once you take the photo, it’s wirelessly sent to Evernote, where Evernote processes it and makes the text searchable."
7: Ignoring the bribes you have to pay

This sort of activity riles me up more than almost anything. Patent trolls, bogus copyright claims, and the advice to settle quickly to just be done with them seems so fundamentally evil that I can never get used to the idea.
Lottery Tickets, Expectation, Utility, and maybe a bit about Finance
AIR is a wrapper around HTML (or Flash) that add OS-level hooks. It's like a super-charged Javascript. For instance: want to write to the file system? In AIR, Javascript (or Flash) gets an easy way to do this.

BTW, for anyone hacking AIR on the HTML side, check out ExtJS. Best JS framework I've seen for developing apps that look "app-like".
But does it work with Merb?
Apple working on 3D Mac OS X user interface (images)
Ruby AST for Fun and Profit
I have another similar anecdote.

We had one TA for Mathematical Analysis class that was smart. Smarter than professors. Freakishly smart. Like, he could just look at the equation that others needed a full blackboard to solve and tell the solution straight away.

He drank. He looked like hell. Legend was that he was frequently found in ditches, completely drunk, looking at the stars.

Sad story.
Posterous are going to stop growing then start losing users if they just stick to all these technical fixes and don't fix the social part of their site.
SCENE 1: A Party.

SCIENTIST IS TALKING TO A HOT LOOKING GIRL AND HOLDING TWO DRINKS.

SCIENTIST: Hey! CORRELATION! C'mere honey! You gotta see this?

CORRELATION WALKS UP IN A HOT RED COCKTAIL DRESS SIPPING AN APPLETINI

CORRELATION: What is it, darling?

SCIENTIST: Honey, this is CAUSATION. Isn't it amazing how much she looks like you?

CAUSATION: Pleased to meet you! That's a lovely dress.

CORRELATION: Why thank you. You're right, dear, we do look an awful lot alike.

SCIENTIST GETS A WICKED GRIN

SCIENTIST: Hey, girls. Let's say we go somewhere more comfortable together. I think we might be able to work with this.

CORRELATION AND CAUSATION, FURIOUS AT THIS SUDDEN TREATMENT, SPLASH THEIR DRINKS ON SCIENTIST AND STORM OFF. HE LOOKS AT THE CAMERA THINKING "YES, I DESERVED THAT."
Machines That Know What People Feel
Google Analytics really can slow down page loads in my experience.
List of manufacturers reportedly developing Android phones
My favorite iPhone shortcuts
I think you're a statistical anomaly.
Ask HN: Review My App - Popling.net, Learning without studying
It's a website + AIR app for people who want to learn, but lack motivation. I built it because I wanted to learn Spanish but I'm too lazy to study.

The desktop app shows you a flash card every few minutes (you decide how often) through an unobtrusive Growl-like notification window. If you aren't busy, click the notification to answer the question on the flash card. If you are busy, ignore it and it goes away. It works especially well for getting started with a new language.

Help me make this thing better!
The problem with law firms, is that they charge you out of the ass. Look at Kawasaki...his crappy truemors site paid something like 5K in lawyer fees. To do what?

What the web needs is more online legal solutions with cheaper prices.
Ask YC: nginx or apache for PHP?
Since I did not find authoritative information elsewhere about which one is more preferred in production environments, I thought I'd ask here.

Based on your experience would you go with nginx (+fastcgi) or apache to run a high traffic website that is written using PHP?

It would also benefit the community if someone could post information about any HOWTO/tutorial resources describing the best ways to configure apache/nginx/php for production web servers.
SmartMarkUp: Universal Markup Editor
IE8 December Release and Accessibility
oh! I didn't know that Balsamiq was built on AIR. And only now did I know that a lot of people are still clueless abt AIR like me.
Do not let the tobacco companies get ahold of that one.
It takes <30 seconds to create an user account here; If you really have some insights to share and don't feel comfortable making those remarks in a non-anonymous way, you should probably consider creating a new user account and share your wisdom.
I think this underestimates the degree to which even the most talented programmers are creatures of habit. Most are able to find a job that is reasonably satisfying and very secure, and so long as they make enough to buy all the Diet Coke and Subarus they need, plus some equity upside, they do not go out looking for new jobs just to increase their pay.

I also think an overwhelming majority are downright allergic to the notion of becoming a contractor. Having to sell yourself every 6 months to 2 years, with all the uncertainty in between gigs? No thanks! The proposal to quit and sell "intellectual goods" just doesn't appeal at all to people who place the value of an extra dollar far below the value of extra stability.
The availability of inexpensive hardware and AJAX is a powerful enabler once again, combined with high speed mobile networking. Publish all of these applications you propose as web applications, with a "tablet" mode -- actually several "tablet" modes each tailored to different screen form factors.

The economics of the US construction industry as a whole involve freaking huge numbers! Very low-cost applications (don't forget corporate licensing) that become a "must have" can make someone a billionaire.

(And yes, there are industries where certain mobile apps have become "must haves." ePocrates was one such app in the old Palm days. Don't know if it's still that way, though.)
I think it may be related to the drive for mental stimulation. The same way smart people devour information and ideas they also devour other mental stimulants like alcohol.
The history of hacking (50mns video)
I really like the SlideRocket presentation viewer. SlideRocket is an online app that lets you create presentations which you can then sync with an AIR app to view them offline too.
Tumblr is for hipsters. Wordpres FTW...
MOTOROLA Q 11 (UNLOCKED)
Motorola Q11 is a business phone for people who mean more than business. Its attractive design is the perfect way to make a statement without being overbearing. The keypad is designed with blue accents in order to give some variation.
Ready access to information should be a huge boon to people on the ground. I remember a friend of mine who did HVAC work on large scale projects once told me about mistakes in plans where electrical conduit and ducts would intersect. Sometimes the electricians would get there first, so the people doing the ducts would put a little detour around the conduit!

____ ____
___ \/ ___
\__/

This could really screw with the airflow to rooms fed by that particular duct. (I'm sure we've all been in office buildings with little climate control "quirks" like that.) Better communications might prevent mistakes like this from becoming physical reality. (Of course, more competent use of CAD software would prevent mistakes like this in the first place.)
The very day Apple demos its first 3D environment, Microsoft will announce that Windows n+1 will sport a 3D user environment. Of course, it will never, ever, ship, but will prevent some 'softies from considering the switch.
Do you do any packet sniffing?
Twitter And HuffPo Take A Post-Election Breather
I Haven't had much luck with the OCR in Evernote but hopefully someday it will become useful.
I didn't think they had a biz model yet...(?)
What is the reason the body does this? Is it just a side effect, or has it evolved that way?
Jim Morrison of The Doors fame was supposed to be quite bright [1].

There is an alleged quote of his [2]:

I drink so I can talk to assholes.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Morrison#Biography

[2] http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Doors_%28film%29
This stuff is really scary. Is there any insurance you buy that protects you if a patent troll sues you personally, etc?
Phc -- the open source PHP compiler
My wish for Adobe AIR (as posted in another article on HN) is to have the availability to distribute AIR apps with the runtime via your own custom installer. If you have a general purpose application (for non-hipsters) it's going to be a painful process having them jump through all the hoops of installing the runtime. Not to mention they probably will get the "Adobe Updater" at no extra charge!
Every Generation Asks - "Where Have All The Ideas Gone?"
That's quite an interesting idea, but I'd be worried about it running too soon, the browser doesn't give you a "gave up on downloading something" event.

Google goes down more than you think - it's not usually that google itself is down, but rather that DNS didn't look them up, or some anoying routing issue.

It's happened to me, so I know it does happen.
The ancient art of stabbing people
Google doesn't usually go down, but routing issues or DNS problems mean that it does happen that they are unreachable.
When was the last time you looked at your business plan?
If you use ActiveRecord, it's easy enough to hack, but what's the point of an AR-based Merb app?
Second best soundtrack I ever bought (Dead Presidents is numero uno).
I've found TED to be an incredible source of entertainment. I've learned quite a bit from it, too. If I could ever go in person, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
Treat Google as an application platform
AT&T's Web site starts selling iPhones again
I've used both and I prefer Tumblr.

I'm not a fan of straight-out blogging. I like writing lengthy pieces when I've got a chance. For me, a blog ought to be a put-everything-that-doesn't-fit-in-an-essay place. Wordpress is decent for that, but Tumblr makes it very easy for me to share things that I've found and to write about them. I can write a lot in a day and get a bunch of great scraps that focus my eventual piece. Further: all due respect to Wordpress, but Tumblr is beautiful. It's one of the best-designed sites I've ever seen.

The great thing about Tumblr is you can use it for anything. You can use it like you would Twitter, you could get images like you would on Ffffound, you can make it into a lengthy posting place, or a portfolio, or a jukebox. It's extremely versatile. And it uses the opt-in approach of seeing people, so you can build whatever community you want and still get fascinating results.
How to Recession-Proof Your Programming Career
Dangerous Trends Facing Small Businesses & Startups in 2009
Chrysler's Hidden Coffers
WordPress 2.7: If You Don't Like It, Change It
They've mentioned having a pro model with more features for a long time now.
A little too much vendor tie-in for my tastes. I wonder if you can configure it to upload the pictures to wherever the hell you feel like.
Timed Event jQuery plugin
I'm surprised Greece isn't on that list, since much of the recent violence has been fueled by economic woes:

"Greece needs to tap the capital markets for 40bn euros next year to roll over debt and fund the budget deficit, as well as 15bn euros or so in bond issuance by banks under the state's new guarantee."

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ambrose_evans-pritchard/blog/20...
Sounds like addictive personality disorder to me.

But then again, psychologists seem to have a name for everything.
I don't think you can silence people who disagree with your views on HN, but goodluck trying.
As I said, the models are tested on historical data. Of course that is far from perfect, but it is also better than nothing.

Not sure what other things they do, I am not in that area of research.

But it is not as if nothing at all is known about climate. There is a certain knowledge of physics, and climate responds to the rules of physics. So some things can be derived (heat refelecting from CO2 layer and stuff like that, I suppose). It is not just a bunch of religious types making up stuff.
It could be extended to work with DataMapper in a straightforward way.
You are playing with words.

The point is that there's really not much difference between 10% and 9.56%.

Netflix's Grand Prize could very well had been 9.64% and it would already had been won, despite everybody saying one year ago that 9.64% might be impossible given the dataset.

We will talk again in one year to see if 10% may be impossible.
He's a hacker by my definition. He's very bright, he thinks about a lot of things, and he tinkers with everything. There's more to hacking than writing code, and Fry's messed with humor and the English language more than enough to get the title.
I guess this makes sense, if you're hiring for Yahoo! Search.
The only way that more-than-2-dimensional UIs will work will be if there's an extra dimension _only_ for each of the elements ("in-and-out" for the window stack, etc)... otherwise people will get frustrated with mousing...

Don't even get me started on 3D mice...
Free IS better than 1 cent

http://www.predictablyirrational.com/pdfs/zerofree.pdf
Zero as a special price: The true value of free products
You can pick a wide variety of online photo sharing apps or it can upload to a directory on your PC. (I assume an open share.)
http://www.eye.fi/overview/

I've looked into this before but it was always a bit too expensive for just a card and some newer cameras have a similar feature so I'm waiting until we upgrade our camera.
when I wrote it...I honestly can say that I haven't opened that file since.
"Watching someone writing an email on a Storm is like watching an antelope trying to open a packet of cigarettes." - Hilarious.

Thanks for posting! Made my day...
In a world without Subversion, Subversion would be built out of Git. In a world without Git, Monotone, Darcs etc. ... well that's where we were 5 years ago, and it sucked.
3 reasons why you should let Google host jQuery for you | Encosia
How often are there routing issues to Google, but none to your site? It's much more likely that your site will be unreachable. The probability that Google will be down is probably insignificant for most cases.