skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The idea is huge. The vision and ability to execute it is huger. Point is I won't even work with people who think think "I just need a programmer" - they will not value your contributions and try to chisel you out of as much a s they can. After all, you're just a programmer, THEY had the idea.

This w/o getting into the fact that: product == original idea == never happens ....
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Which, itself, is based on an old trick called Pepper's Ghost: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppers_ghost
This is before the housing crisis -it is much worse now

What you see above and below is where the US stood in 2007. Again because this data is as close to 100% accurate as you can get.

Avg Net Worth Bottom 25%: $4,600
Avg Net Worth Next 25 – 50%: $21,700
Avg Net Worth Next 50 – 75%: $78,900
Avg Net Worth Next 75 – 90%: $242,800
Avg Net Worth Top 10%: $1,606,600
I am not sure, but that would make sense.
Ask PG: Make Hacker News more mobile-friendly by adding a meta tag
Would it be possible to add the following meta tag to Hacker News to make it easier to read on mobiles:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;" />

Adding it allows the site to scale fluidly on small-screen devices and changes the view from this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/140/Hacker%20news%20without%20header.png

to this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/140/Hacker%20News%20with%20header.png

Thank you
Also: every idiot marketer in the company would be trying to pull off some annoying stunt to get marketing value from it.
Ask HN: Proper attire for a startup interview?
I have previously worked for an 8 person startup, and the general atmosphere was very casual. I am interviewing today for a 15 person startup and was wondering what the proper attire was when you don't know ahead of time the atmosphere of the company.
creator of 10MinuteMail here

I know many services, including mine, do have anti-abuse features (rate limiting address allocation, other pattern detection and blocking mechanism), however you can't always tell a legitimate user from an abusive user. For what it's worth 10MinuteMail gives out millions of addresses for each time I hear about anyone posting spam on a forum or anything like that, so I think that the "good" users far outnumber the "bad" ones.

At any rate, ignoring the flaws in the approach that a unique email address is a good way to tell good signups from bad ones, I guess I'd like to ask two questions:

1) Why are temporary email services that much different from GMail/MSN/Yahoo/Personally owned domains/etc... when it comes to abuse prevention on a given forum?

2) Does anyone have suggestions on improving the recognition and blocking of abuse versus legit usage? I absolutely detest forum spam and would like to prevent it if I can help.
I feel like the title is a little misleading.

I expected an article about inadequate fulfillment on KickStarter's part, but it turns out that the 32k loss was more a result of tax laws and the project's spending decisions than anything else.
Great idea- I've signed up. The most challenging aspect is how to make these things accessible, enjoyable and educational all at the same time, while still doing some proper 'coding'
> HOUSTON -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station received a special software upgrade this week - personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the ultimate wireless connection.

-- http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/jan/HQ_M10-011_Hawaii22...
Chartbeat: The Next Generation | Chartbeat
Show HN: Modular Sass version of normalize.css
Verantwoord Afvallen  Als je nog 10 kg kwijt wilt voor de zomer
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This is a misleading title, Kickstarter gave a generic apology thing, rather than confirm the original claim and apologise for that.
"First edition" ≠ "first printing".

The edition number is always explicit, because for a new edition the pages are re-set. For a new printing the pages are (traditionally) not re-set, which is why the printing number has to be encoded in some manually-updatable way.
Construction Planning and Scheduling (18 PDUs)
I don't understand this at all. If they hadn't figured out exactly how much it would cost to .. buy ipads, hire lawyers, have art and music created, buy t-shirts etc etc... they why did they go on kickstarter with that figure in the first place ? In fact the only unexpected / unknown I can see in the post was 2k in no-shows. I mean... even the tax element was foreseeable surely ??
Shameless plug: Interesting Times Magazine - http://interestingtimesmagazine.net/download.html

We try to keep the old-school badboy ethos from Phrack and 2600, but we write about hacking in a greater sense. Ie hacking the body, hacking relationships, hacking gardening (aka permaculture), hacking one's own psyche, all kinds of fun stuff :)

We aim to be what you would get if you were to put Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins in charge of 2600 :)
It has noting to do with congestion. Cap's are Comcat's attempt to keep people on cable. They could charge for bandwidth and bundle 250GB with the subscription and then charge 10 cents per GB after that. However, if they did that then watching 2 hours of Hulu a day would be significantly cheaper than basic cable which scares them. So, instead they cancel peoples internet service when they go over the cap.
It wasn't my project, but I also felt like they allocated their money to some unnecessary things. The money could have been put more directly into the development of the game, I'd think.
It's clear it's all in good faith but they were at least naive since their project page clearly states the funds were needed to:

- Hire extra talent for things like music, sound effects and additional platform development like Android

- Promote and market to help sell the game and fund future expansions and possible sequels

- Localize the game to other regions like Europe and Asia

nowhere did they write they needed money to set up a company and pay the related fees and buy iPads. I'd be pretty pissed off had I given them money for something specific and then discover the money was used for something else. no?
35 years ago today, Apple unveiled the Apple II in San Francisco.
I wonder if they would do anything about the Olympia Exhibition Centre. [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia_%28London%29
It's not even a loss - music and iPads are just expenses. The title is definitively misleading.
Someone is paying FICA taxes.

If the maids are 1099 employees, they're paying both halves of it. That's "self-employment tax". It's very expensive; around twice what employees pay.

The prevailing rate right now for "qualified" housekeepers in the DC metro area is $9.80/hr. Even if he's "generously" giving them $20/hr (if a 1bdr apartment takes 2 people 1 hour to clean, then according to his price list that means he's keeping about 60% of the gross), he's still shifting around $8000/yr to these workers just in FICA.

I'm taking exception to the idea of cheering on as "getting-stuff-done subversive" the business model that says "here, let me take a chunk of your taxes and stick it in my own pocket".

Again: I don't think "all maids should be employees".
This entire article is utterly ridiculous for a so-called "data-driven" company to put anywhere, even their blog.

The PC+N data analysis they use is flawed by an analytical issue Uber never bother to mention: the PC+N "no-show" rates include when the customer is told there's no car available to dispatch. [0] Not only do Uber not include this data in their figures - they really can't, as their app doesn't allow a car to be requested if none is available for the current location.

Uber link to the Goldman School of Public Policy analysis of the PC+N data only in random parenthetical in the middle of the article, with a disclaimer that Uber use the PC+N analysis for the "irony." That doesn't sound very "data-driven" to me.

[0]: http://www.taxi-library.org/goldman-dispatch-2007.pdf
At a very high cost (100% over their pay).
Electoral reforms and non-transitive dice
I'm going to play this "Not Arguing Law With People Who Are Especially Conversant With Ayn Rand" card I had conveniently saved for just such an occasion.
It's amazing, but I'd much rather fund Celestia than a closed-source semi-competitor that runs only on Windows.
Refactoring 4+ years of CSS development into Sass
Please, suggest a better title and I'll update. It was not my intention to use a sensationalist title . I, however, think that you may be reading too much into it.

EDIT: do you mean the title here on HN or the post's actual title, on the kickstarter website?
Node-jsbundler automatically bundles and loads required modules browser side
I think in this day and age business casual is appropriate anywhere you want to be.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_casual

Shirt with a collar, slacks, belt, non-athletic shoes.
You Have to Stop Saying Your Experience is Under NDA in Interviews
I'd seen parts of the movie on the small screen, wanted to finally see the whole thing, and there's no better place to watch an epic scale movie than in a theater.

3D was ok. I could take it or leave it. At least in this movie it wasn't overdone; apparently Cameron kept many of the wide shots pretty flat to avoid making the ship look like a model. I guess it's a wash: how much the added dimensionality enhances the experience was balanced by the times when it's just a distraction.
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You might have missed the last line in that comment. I'll repeat: I'm not questioning the validity of the business (that would be me against the world), it's just wishful thinking.
Ask HN: To do or not to do?
Hi guys,

I recently tried to canvas that market by creating a launch page on Launch Rock. So far I have 66 pageviews and 5 people have provided their email (7.58% conversion rate).

I'm wondering if I should follow through with this project of mine, continue to collect more stats to validate my product or abandon the idea.

Thanks! Cheers!

Link: http://signup.resumati.ca
That's a good question (I'm Canadian and can't speak to London). I know most of the small businesses they go after can't afford the legal fees to fight them.

In Vancouver, our House of Commons gave the IOC an exemption that allowed them to go after small businesses:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerns_and_controversies_over...
Dear HN: Please stop this instagram shit storm.
(To people who can downvote here: save it for later.)

Up to a few days ago, there was virtually nothing about instagram in HN. Since that $1e9 sale, suddenly:

- The CEO became a self-taught programmer.

- There are wise quote from the CEO all over the HN.

- After all the posts about the myth of overnight success, the myth is again a fact in HN.

- And much more.

If tomorrow facebook decides to acquire redtube, would you react the same?

Please stop this bullshit.

I used to respect the posts here. Now HN feels like a hypster land.
Misleading headline. Here's a better summary:

$36,000 "raised"

$32,000 received after kickstarter fees

$12,000 spent on rewards

$2,000 spent on taxes because we didn't understand how LLCs work

$18,000 left for our company and game development (including $5,000 spent on incorporation, which seems a bit high for an LLC but not a total waste, and $3,000 attending PAX, which probably was a waste but you can't blame expensive lawyers for that)

You could be reasonably accurate and still sensational with a "How we lost 50% of our kickstarter funds to overhead" headline, but "ended up with $4k" is ridiculous and not supported by the article.
Problem? None. I think you need to re-read the thread with a lighter head.
Is there anyone specialized in kickstarter pledge handling? I could see a startup offering package of basic rewards production, handling and shipping (posters, tshirts, mugs, etc) to project owner.

Since it all look really time-consuming for someone not in the business of producing and shipping things.
Yup -- "rausch," like "rush" Color rush, like an adrenaline rush.

Paja means smithy or forge in Finnish. "Demoforge" sounds a lot less Middle-Earthy, doesn't it?
Much of this comes from two unfortunate facts: Finland is far from any real markets (becoming less important thanks to the net), and there isn't much capital in the country outside of the public sector.

The latter means that the government has to be involved. Bringing in their heavy processes, risk (and therefore, succeess) aversion, and the old boys' network.
Get the app for your Win8 Metro Testbed
Is anyone else bothered by the use of the word "mistake"? It seems "unintentional" is a more descriptive term.
Simply amazing. Let's hope space tourism picks up quickly (and comes down in price)!
Your definition of 'very late' and mine are perhaps at odds.

The complaint was voiced on Saturday, an apology was issued on Monday.

Edit: As mysequel points out, that was actually issued same-day -- I just didn't notice it until much later.
What it takes to build great machine learning products
The Laws of Business Success (Word Art)
(since no-one else has commented ..)
Nice to read; I'm always impressed with his postings on lisp from the very limited exposure I've had. (contrast with a certain other ...)

Also nice to see a mention of Xlisp, which first appeared in the pages of Byte magazine a million moons ago.
Fond memories of playing with it on an Amiga.
Website: http://www.xlisp.org/
It was either that or remove Abobo's mustache. Clear choice.
I think the argument goes that they're such a high-profile target for trademark infringement that it would be impossible for them to police and enforce it to a sufficient degree without extra state protection.
Worth noting: Whereas the host city might make some money or lose a lot of money on hosting an Olympic Games, the IOC always makes a lot of money from each Games.
There are some good testing libraries for node (eg. https://github.com/visionmedia/mocha, by the same author as Express), that make async testing fairly painless. However, there are things like DB setup/teardown that aren't integrated and you might be used to getting "for free" with other frameworks (eg. Django). I'm curious to hear what the parent commenter has found to be a roadblock.
Does the ease of asking for money on Kickstarter give too much incentive to not properly plan?

There isn't due diligence on the part of supporters, so supporters are ultimately funding based on piece of marketing material and not a cogent business plan. I couldn't imagine expecting someone to give me $36k for my business without that person having a somewhat realistic and truthful plan on how that money will be spent.

I don't follow Kickstarter projects, so I don't know how common situations like this are, but if I were a supporting Kickstarter projects, I'd be upset if money I pledged was being spent for things other than what was stated. Fees, taxes, and deadbeats are acceptable and should be expected by supports. But investing in lawyers, hardware, etc. isn't nearly as clear. If this wasn't mentioned in the "ask", I'd assume that this stuff has either already been taken care of or the people behind the project do not have their act together.

And why would you provide t-shirts are certain levels without getting a realistic estimate of what those t-shirts cost?
10 Questions (+1) to Ask Before You Choose an SEO Agency
Wow! I've heard of some neat performance hacks, but that's pretty cool - the only one better was the hack that was done to get rectangles with circular corners on the Mac.
Startups are meant to be a place where you don't have to worry about such things. Wear what you want. :)
The stalker is likely to be using things like Tor, the blocking of which would upset significant legitimate feedback.
That's not much to go on. What's your business about? It could be that your idea is great but your launch page didn't do a great job exciting people.
Thanks, the only "paja" I could find was Spanish for "straw" which didn't make any sense, especially for a Swedish tool. And I noticed that "demo" means "without" in Swedish. I wonder if going to a "demo party" sounds really funny in Sweden :)

Edit: all this is done in Google Translate and probably completely wrong.
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Google’s Marissa Mayer Headed to Walmart Board
I believe a lot of British people have the right to complain because their taxpayers dollars are going towards this. Far more than the sponsorship agreement potential that demanded restriction of speech.

Essentially it's a net-negative economic policy. I'm not sure why it's beneficial for any country to host it when history has shown that it had caused violation of liberties, losses, environmental issues, no tourism increase, etc.
Learn gnuplot
Resources related to the Julia programming language.
You could always ask?

"Hi. I understand you're a start-up. I'd wear a suit to a job interview with a big, conservative corporation, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable if that's not how you roll. Is office casual acceptable?"

This puts the ball in their court, and also tells them you're flexible and you prepare for interviews in advance rather than running on autopilot.
The Blog Is Dead; Long Live Tumblr
Chemists use 3D printers to grow their own chemical reaction vessels in the lab
It's ridiculous; every time I have been forced to use a MySQL system it comes across as such a stone-age tool, outdated and badly designed in almost every respect. Sure, you can debate various technical merits (MySQL has at least two), but the main reason for MySQL's continued popularity is not technical, but historical.
Fun fact: if you go out of your way to staff "new" contractors with experienced "old" contractors, that can be considered "training".
For me, the HN headline was misleading. I read it as them raising $36k on Kickstarter, but only being sent a check for $4k when in actuality, they only lost a few thousand to fees and non-payments.
My mom started a cleaning business some time ago. I wanted to try Javascript and promote her business so I wrote a quote calculator that takes into account number of rooms, number of bathrooms, area size, etc...

(shameless plug)
If you understand portuguese have a go at:

http://abelhinha.net/calculadora.html
What is Uber?
Galileo. Your iOS in Motion.
"Olympic spirit my ass."

Careful where you say that... they might brand that, too.
David vs Goliath: Children’s book publisher pulls its titles from Amazon
Actually, you even have to pay a court fee in many districts if you WIN in court.

In the above case, I had to pay a $25 "court fee", even though the case against me was dismissed.
Because PostgreSQL was 'hard', compared to when MySQL was younger. It just had a cli tool, it was to be managed in a more 'professional' way whereas MySQL made itself much easier to be installed and managed by even entry level and junior programmers who didn't want to know how to manage a database earlier on in its history.
sounds like someone doesn't have the first clue about running a business, at least from a financial standpoint.
It's basically a job posting/candidate organizer.. think Taleo.
Ah, Farbrausch I would have understood - I didn't recognize it because of the misspelling (Farbrasuch).

I have nothing against fancy names, but the linked article didn't really give me any more context, so the names could have referred to anything.
I bet a provocative non-sponsor could mount a successful satirical ad campaign, especially given the national sense of humor:

"A lot of folks will be visiting to Lon-- (cough) to England this summer. Our proud city is hosting the... you know... the thing.

When you're on vacation, why not stay with someone you know? If you're coming to the you-know-what here in you-know-where, you know us. Hotel Whatever: We don't play games here."
Someone is paying FICA taxes.

I think you're arguing semantics here. Yes, everybody pays FICA, but for most people who are working their own business at a lower income FICA is offset such that no taxes are owed at the end of the year. So while you "pay it", it's not like that means much (insert long discussion here about complex tax systems)

Even if he's "generously" giving them

He doesn't have to give them anything.

I don't understand how you can separate "being subversive" from a discussion of the underlying business model. It looks to me like you're weaseling out, but that's fine. My point was that you must assume some kind of risk -- many times a bushel barrel of risk -- when you are poor and just getting started. It wasn't about labor laws. And whenever you assume risk, there's going to be a bunch of characters coming out of the woodwork telling you how stupid you are for taking on that risk.

As far as the model discussion, I think we've reached the point of diminishing returns. Although you've re-phrased yourself, it appears to me that you are describing some political argument and I am simply talking about business opportunities. I don't think you're ever going to be able to see this business model as anything but exploitative. I think once we mention the words "cleaner" or "lawn care" it sets off a pre-canned argument, probably involving immigrants and such, so this guy really never had much of a chance for positive feedback. Thanks for the chat! Seems like we always get hung up on self-employment, huh? Maybe one day I'll do a good enough job explaining myself that it will click.
To those of you that have forgotten: ↑↑↓↓←➝←➝BA
Isn't the real message here that we shouldn't forget that many of us startup geeks can completely out-design and -SEO virtually any local service provider out there and that there might just be big money in doing so?

It is indeed important for him to realize that he'll be 'just an another agency' though and needs to start acting like one.

That doesn't negate the fact that a properly-SEO'd site which outperforms local agencies can be tremendously valuable and achievable.
Just how were they applying this idea? how did they get around the regional strategies of the retailers?

How did they manage to ship to countries like the BRIC and others in the developing world which have overzealous custom policies regarding imports?
Tip: wkhtmltoimage is part of the package, allows you to render HTML+CSS into PNG.

I used this for a project which needed a CSS powered image builder, which created sharable images:

Builder: http://circlek-flugtag.heroku.com/entries/shipomatic
Thumbnails: http://circlek-flugtag.heroku.com/entries
On my phone (Android) it's already like suggested.
James Murdoch steps down as chairman of News International
Here is the JS code: http://bayrou.fr/js/konamicode.js

The 2 codes:

↑↑↓↓←➝←➝BA

AB➝←➝←↓↓↑↑
Stats on volcanic eruptions show pattern called Benford's Law
This seems like a fluff marketing piece. What is it doing on HN?
Oops just noticed this comment. See my other comment (wkhtmltoimage is part of the package, allows you to render HTML+CSS into PNG, compile into x64 and place binary in your git repo directory to use on heroku)
I agree. T-shirt, shorts, and sandals would seem to be what I would want to wear, especially if this startup is in the Bay Area. (IDK if it is, just a thought.)

If you don't get the job because of wearing something like that, to an interview with a startup, you don't want to be working there anyways.
Like I stated somewhere below, I wasn't aiming for sensationalism. Like I also stated below, suggest a better title and I'll update the submission.

"How we lost 50% of our kickstarter funds to overhead" is not a better title, since your definition of "overhead" may not be mine -- it isn't, in this case.