skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Google got its start by walking into an existing (and frankly much more mature) market for search and competing with the existing players "without reason". Likewise advertising was pretty well served before they showed up. And I'm pretty sure email predates their dominant platform there, too. I'm not sure what's "Microsoftian" about this in particular, but it's certainly "Googly".

Honestly, this (and a lot of the other posts here) sounds more like sports cheering to me than analysis. Dropbox is part of the "YC team", so their competitors are the bad guys?
Yeah I think he's really off-base there, and the rest of the paragraph is wrong too: "The idea that you'd settle down in a deep leather chair with your smoking jacket and a snifter of brandy for a fine evening of reading through someone else's code is absurd."

Absurd? It's basically what I did recently with ClojureScript One, replacing brandy with beer and deep leather chair with kitchen table and chair. I found it very enjoyable and enlightening. And I'm not trying to brag, I really don't think this is a mark of anything special.

IIRC publishing and highlighting code that was interesting to read was one of the goals that Peter Seibel wanted to tackle with Code Quarterly (which didn't pan out, but still, he didn't think it was an absurd suggestion). I also seem to recall reading code being something a lot of the people interviewed in Coders At Work described as being valuable. And one of the stock questions Seibel asked everyone in that book was if they had tried literate programming ("a la Knuth"), which is really just a way to make large pieces of code easier to be read by someone else. All's to say, absurd it clearly is not.
Show HN: jrnl, a command line journal to complement your todo.txt
Awesome, thanks so much for the input. How much time does it take you to do those weekly updates and face-to-face meets?
Blame Google+ ;-)
I agree that hash tables are not a magic bullet, but you're presenting them as if they're a poor option in general, which is not the case.

> Instead, they try to cheat by “knowing something” about the expected data. For instance, they may only run their hash function on the first six characters of a string instead of the whole thing. But what happens if I am attempting to insert ten-thousand lines that all begin with “ROBERT:”? O(n) look-up time. That’s what happens.

> The above example is a bit contrived, but the sentiment is valid.

No, it's not. You either need to provide a sane hash function or you need to use keys that are sane in combination with an existing hash function. If your keys are massive, then the most likely case is that you're being lazy and using an inappropriate object as a key because it's convenvient. If you can't or won't choose a reasonable key for a hash table, how likely are you to pick a reasonable key for a BST-based dictionary (or any other dictionary)?

> Hash tables waste space proportional to the amount of data you want to store. Hash tables rely on a lack of collisions. In a rosy situation where your hash function maps elements randomly (but deterministically of course) into your hash table, you still need to keep plenty of empty space lying around to avoid collisions.

A significantly-overloaded hashtable (with chaining) can still be faster than alternative data structures in some cases. Collisions in a hash table are not really a problem unless they are approaching O(N). If you shove O(N x M) objects into an O(N)-sized hash table, you'll need to churn through O(M) entries on every lookup (amortized). Assuming a reasonable M and an efficient comparison operation, that can be a pretty efficient approach.

> So where does that leave us? Hash tables require very large data sets to be useful, yet they waste a lot of space for large data sets and aren’t great at storing large elements.

Neither of these claims is really true. Hash tables are not always the best data structure (in fact, they often are not), but moderately-sized data sets or large objects don't rule out hash tables as a good choice. (Small data sets don't either. If you've only got a dozen elements, it probably doesn't really matter how you store them.)

> The only time hash tables seem useful is when we know something about the data ahead of time, so that we can vastly improve our hash function.

I should hope you know something about your data, or you are not in a position to choose a good data structure.

> But if we know that a certain part of the data is most likely to differentiate it, why not simply use that portion of the data as the key for the binary search?

Because a BST isn't a magic bullet, either?
im so nervous that YC wont invite me =(
AppHarbor makes hosting projects of any size much easier than Azure, check it out: https://appharbor.com/
My machine is beefed up so I'm sure someone else's cost using less powerful machine (Intel P3 or something...) is more than mine. Ditto with VS.NET 2010 or future version of Microsoft IDE when used in older machines.

Shall we count the cost of using plugins as well? Including OS boot time and such and such?

Sorry, what I mean to say is that I don't know what you're talking about of this "waiting on it".
Any more detail than that?
Declarative Programming and Meteor's Autosubscribe
I'm fairly sure that the hash never actually makes it to the server side [1]. Of course, you could just use a querystring param instead.

[1] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2396#section-4
Agreed. And that is a good observation, what is the actual goal of L.T.? I can only guess -- but perhaps the flaming serves as a tactics he utilizes to save one of the most precious we all have, the time.
5 COMMON SEO MISTAKES DIRECTLY FROM THE MOUTH OF GOOGLE [video]
Google Drive to launch in one week, will have 5GB of free storage?
Ads Aren't American, They're Human
I love this. You are so right. Im glad you came to your senses as well.
Ask HN: Duebook.com (marketplace for class schedules)
I was hoping to get some feedback on a web based application that I have been working on for over a year.

The problem we are trying to solve is how college students keep track of their assignments each semester. Typically the organized students enter everything into a third party planner like iCal/Google Cal and the lazy students don't do anything at all (35% of students).

For a solution we came up with a calendar application that connects the organized and lazy students by making the schedules that the organized students upload available for purchase by anyone else that might be in that same class. Whoever uploaded that schedule gets a commission each time a student buys it.

Other features that will add value include a message board for student to talk about each class, a mobile app, text/email notifications of upcoming assignments, and University-wide events that will be put on everyone's calendar automatically (ie academic calendar, football/basketball games etc..)

Based on our a/b testing there is a high conversion rate for our target market.

If anyone has any input/suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.
Part of that is because Dylan produced two great albums (Love and Theft and Modern Times) in the last decade, and Together Through Life wasn't half bad either.

And plenty of people have remarked that the Stones haven't been relevant in forever.

But I think more people are angry that he won't leave the original trilogy alone.
Yeah, it's worth noting that picking a common baseline for comparing frameworks is like trying to pick common benchmarks for programming languages.

Sure you can write comparable code... but writing benchmarks in multiple languages in an idiomatic style that plays to each language's strengths while still remaining comparable is challenging.
I like reading code from great engineers too. But most of the code I read is by pretty good to mediocre engineers. Nobody likes reading code by mediocre engineers.
Facebook: A Game Of You
Do you really think the Nokia board hired Elop without thinking about a partnership with MS?
Obviously small exits are more numerous, but most of the returns actually come from the larger exits. Of the first 200 yc companies, Dropbox is worth more than all of the others combined (at current valuations, maybe in five or ten years it will be airbnb or one of the others, but I expect that the general principle will still hold true). Therefore, the value of a high-priced startup is determined by estimating the odds that it is the next DropBox (or Google or Facebook).
Can you mount the storage on your other servers?
For those saying that he shouldn't have to explain his process:

Take a step back and understand the OP's original intention – he wants to improve and showcase his work, he posts on HN for feedback, he wants to strike conversations with those companies.

Will he have a higher chance to achieve those goals if he included his thought process? By including his process (which is something he already done, just needs to upload them), his case would be that much more convincing and impressive – won't that improve the probability of snagging the attention of those he intended?

It's hard to start a conversation with just an image and people going "Oh, looks pretty." It's much more compelling to to take it a step further and include the process, not just for his benefit, but the readers too.
Note that Backbone.Collection also extends Backbone.Events so you can use your collection has a global mediator. Generally a collection is shared across multiple views.
Learning How to Program
Object storage for end users; still a huge problem to solve, considering Google's missions statement is to organize the world's information.
I'm kind of suspicious whenever I hear the phrase "work/life balance". It strikes me as something that seeks to reinforce the industrial-revolution-era idea that my (week)days should be broken into thirds: working (not fun but pays bills), playing (fun but costs money), and sleeping.

Sure, that's definitely better than working 12 hour days, but is that really the goal? It seems that most of the fun-loving and happy people I know, regardless of their financial situation, don't operate in such a world.

A good friend and startup founder (who you might think would tend towards free-market/libertarianism, since he works very hard and surely wants to be compensated for it) asks me: we can feed and clothe and house everyone, so why don't we? Why isn't work optional? People who work hard to make a dent in the universe will anyway, and people who just mess around don't really get much done at work anyway, so why keep up the charade? How many great ideas (or works of art) are stuck in somebody's brain simply because they don't know how to make that idea pay the rent?

I'm a programmer -- or at least, of all the things I've done in my life, that's the one I've been paid the most money for. But personally, I hate that it's always indoors and sedentary. It's unfortunate that society places so much value on an activity that is arguably bad for my physical and mental health. So why are virtually all programming jobs (ostensibly) full-time, i.e., 40 hours? A programmer's salary is great, but why can't I work 20 hours as a programmer, and 20 hours as a tree-planter, or teaching rock climbing to high school kids, for maybe 55% of a programmer's salary? Out of all the possible ways of dividing up my time, spending all daylight hours indoors writing code is perhaps the worst I can imagine.

I know I don't have all the answers, but I think that after a decade of work, I'm starting to know what questions to ask. If I find myself asking about "work/life balance", I've already lost, because it means I'm admitting that the "work" is something I know I won't love doing. Certainly some people have no problem breaking their day up like this, but I can't, and I suspect I'm not alone.
SynopsiTV Launching to Improve Movie and TV Recommendations
Bear in mind that this is just the first pricing announcement, and that we're not likely to get it exactly right first time! Pricing is hard, and we're pushing this announcement out there to get more feedback on it.

We're willing to discuss super-small projects and we welcome feedback on our pricing, particularly critical and particularly at the low end. Get in touch, let's talk about it!
I don't sign non-competes as a developer, much less would I expect those in the service industry to sign one. That would be taking away their livelihood.

Both of these suggestions sound like a form of slavery. Employees are free to come and go as they choose. What they should not be able to do is poach specific clients. It happens all the time, though, and what exactly is to be gained from suing someone making $15/hour?
Whenever I look at a story about Moody's, S&P and so on, there's almost always two types of comments: people who are threatened by their decisions (and discredit them) and people who feel vindicated (and think the decision is great). I don't know what to believe, but I would hope that these entities are less subordinate these days.
thanx we all need it =) good luck to U too
Isn't that in part because the pre-A funding options have gotten so much better? In the early 00's, a normal progression might have been "~100-500k angel", followed by "2MM-4MM A". Now it's "~100-200k seed", followed by "up to maybe 1.5MM in rolling convertable note financing", so that by the time you need to pull the trigger on an A, you're already pretty far down the road.
As someone who's currently an experienced .net developer (based in NE Ohio), prefers working for smaller companies, and is getting the urge to look around and see what opportunities are out there, I have a question I'd like everyone's input on: is staying mostly .net-focused a viable idea, or am I taking on a serious career risk?

I've worked with python and ruby a bit and am currently working my way through Programming Clojure, but right now I'm much more experienced with .net and it's where my comfort zone is. I try to keep abreast of what's happening elsewhere, but don't have as much time as I'd always like to try other technologies.

I'm curious what people think - am I better off pushing harder on new stuff and hitting meetups, or is C#/MVC still a viable option despite Microsoft's current struggles? (Not that they're on the verge of disappearing or anything, but they definitely don't have the buzz in their favor right now...)
I'm not judging it, I'm just saying that it's not something I'd use because it's confusing for my colleagues / anyone maintaining my work. Unless they're a pure Javascript person.

It is a neat trick though, and proof that I need to spend a little more time hacking in javascript to improve my knowledge :-)
https://www.backupify.com/

I use it to backup both my personal Gmail account and my Google Apps work account, as well as my Flickr account. Its cost effective, and helps me sleep at night, considering my entire life is stored online.
Err.... Chrome? Google Earth? There are others too.
I think that this is the operative statement:

as long as they are highly-skilled and highly compensated
I think he might have been trying to make an orthogonal point.
Enhanced meta-parsing in Fexl, with example scripts.
After pg posted about it, now the new hot trend is to talk about Goggles customer service, whenever the keyword Google appear in one's sight.

Seriously, we got it a week ago. We all agree their support suck and competitors should aim to do better. It's getting old. Can we change the subject and stay on topic?
A squinty-eyed look at population densities
Backblaze is OK. $5/month for unlimited backups is great, but have you ever had to use their web interface for restores? Argh, its horrible. Also, it doesn't allow you to backup your Applications directory on your Mac. WTF?
What about the most important feature: encryption. Can we use a private key?
It would be cool to see incredibly rare behaviours, such as if you are going up against a bunch of mercs, wipe the floor with all of them, and round the corner and shove your rifle into the last one's face he'd be like "fair cop mate, I'm out of here". This would only happen every once in a while but it would be a fantastic reward for the player to feel like they can, if they do well enough or play in a certain style, make the AI feel simulated emotions - fear, rage, complacency, etc. So if you snuck through the building and carefully knocked out guys they might not be fearful, but complacent, but if you did the same thing and brutally fucked them all up with knifes, they'd be much more alert but fearful and prone to error.

Personally I don't think this would be hard to simulate, for instance fear would be marked with increased cursing, decreased accuracy, increased error, and a potential for full scale running away. Complacency would mean that guards don't check every corner on their patrol routes, have smaller visual cones, and are slower to react when shit hits the fan. Confidence could be marked by seeking cover less, drastically increased accuracy, and so on.

So yes, whilst in the distant future we could have truly "intelligent" AI which would lead to unpredictable gameplay, we at present have the tools to create enemies that can provide a much richer and more vast array of feedback to the player's behaviour.
This illustrates how Fexl does "modules". A Fexl script parses another Fexl script, resolving the function names used in that script in an appropriate context, which is itself a Fexl function.
re: why did they drag their feet so long on integrating 'live' stuff into windows - there was this little outfit called the U.S. government that slapped them with a consent decree that prevented them doing stuff like this.....
Sorry for sounding cynical but I am realy curious about the quality of GDrive client apps. The one for Android probably will be good. But I am unsure about the other platforms. Check out Google's "native" GMail app for iOS to see what I mean.
Yup, that's exactly what I meant. Thank you.
Warning to film/photo(ers): Barrow Lenses
I've had an incredibly infuriating experience with Borrow Lenses, the largest mail-based camera lens rental company in the U.S. and I hope none of you have to go through what I have in creating your projects.
Honestly, 3/4 years ago i would pick another platform because deploying code in .NET was a complete nightmare. Nowadays things have changed a bit. You have transforms. You have TeamBuild with TFS, which is very solid, but can still be a pain in the rear to get stuff going. Changing the build workflow and messing with MSBuild always seemed odd to me. I'm not even going to mention setting up and troubleshooting Web Deploy Service which is undocumented disaster. I personally use GIT and deploy to AppHarbor. The process is amazingly smooth and the entire experience with AppHarbor folks has been wonderful.

In addition, I would agree with the statement that more knowledgeable and skilled devs have switched to ASP.NET MVC. There is no doubt in my mind. You need to have decent understanding of OOP to do pretty much anything in MVC. Not to say that you can't write bad code. You can, but folks that work in MVC are typically more serious developers.
That's a good point, and maybe I was too binary in my original statement-- there are a lot of parts of NPC design that are more physics simulation than AI. I'd still say there's a categorical distinction between "respond appropriately to being hit by a linebacker" and "respond appropriately to someone putting a bucket on your head", though. Like you say, we're close to realism on the former; much farther from the latter.
>> didn't everyone store passwords in plaintext at some point of their career?

Never have, never will.
We've built our app (http://keypay.com.au) on .net and have zero complaints so far. The best thing is that with AppHarbor, it makes it easy to spend less time focusing on "the stack" and more time focusing on just getting stuff done.

We build fast, release often and the .net stack is so mature that we spend very little time thinking about it and the majority of the time solving business problems.
Silent Circle new encryption system from author of PGP
Its interesting -- my little rural library is very good. If you want a book they don't have, you fill in a card and they will either requisition it from somewhere else or they will buy it.

Although I'm rural, the local amenities are actually great -- one of the reasons I'm here. We're lucky. Excellent doctors and hospitals, too.

Great neighbours who aren't weirdos, its also so quiet on a Friday and Saturday you could hear a pin drop. That might drive some people crazy but I like it.

I have a little garden which I'm making nice and a few interesting little techie projects that I want to finish (I just don't have time right now) but I will quit and then use my time rationally. Who knows where it might lead?
Happy to see this. A couple of previous round-up threads here shows there's plenty listeners in this community.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3580367

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406319

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1565140

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2839438

Would love to get involved in some way, will drop you a line.
PayPal has.

I know, I know, horror stories and everything. And the service or the customer service is not always free but at least you can speak to someone, you can have the process explained, you can appeal etc.
Congrats, Google. Only ~2 years after the idea was revolutionary.
I notice that none of the words in your post are original. Even your username is a plain English word you could find in any pocket dictionary. Literary allusion is fine, and originality is not required in all communications.
That's good to know. But, what about the person who doesn't have 500 RSS subscribers to raise hell for them? Yes, it's "free" (I get email, you get to serve me ads) but that doesn't make it right. Email is very personal and to ban someone without notice, without telling them what they did wrong and no clear process for resolution is outrageous.
It may or not be as morally wrong, depending on your view of Microsoft and/or drug dealers. But the motivations are exactly the same.

This isn't just restaurants in the food court giving free samples to draw in more customers. They are deliberately building a dependence on their products and will reap the rewards later.
And the tenth time you get a referral bonus, and Dropbox gets another user!
So lets try to really break this one down.

Game development costs significant money so gameplay can't take significant risks. Any viable alternative must be able to generate comparable returns. Cynically put, for a game to be a success, there needs to be enough instant gratification for mass appeal. Same lessons from Hollywood...

First person shooters a popular primarily because they give us an adrenaline rush, with secondary effects like boosting your ego if you play multi-player. That's why the format works.

So what other options are there?

You could invent another format that produces similar adrenaline rushes such as Amnesia, which is really just a spin on the FPS. Perhaps there are similar things you could try by simulating, say, a rollercoaster or a jet fighter.

But what else is there which provides the same immediate gratification of an adrenaline rush? An endorphin rush...

Now here the obvious choice would be sex, and I'm sure the porn industry is watching closely, but there's too high a risk of censorship for the mainstream game industry I guess; our society is much happier with violence than sex.

But another trigger of endorphins is relaxation. What about games which, when you play for an hour, you finish feeling relaxed, happy and calm? Take flow for example - http://interactive.usc.edu/projects/cloud/flowing/ - there's even a learning element there. Throw in some elements for player creativity, and you have your secondary ego boosts for longer term gratification. I don't think is has been explored enough to understand the potential, so risk is high but at the same time, rewards could also be high if you're the first on the scene.