skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
And I'm sitting here, re-reading this to tell me why I'm not walking out the door of my office right now. Yes, I have a kickass salary. Big frakking whoop. Instead of working, I am required to complete some BS corporate "education package" about "upcoming products from marketing" or whatever. Its always like this. We have a retarded parent company(Monster) that keeps making us do this retarded bullshit. They have 4 files we're supposed to read and complete for our internal reviews which download as an unknown octet stream without even a file extension to tell us what to do with them. We have a horrible "time tracking" system we're supposed to use, and the biggest thing is the system automatically changes our passwords every 3 - 12 days at random. We can't even reset them via the web, we have to call the internal helpdesk.
Then in the company I'm actually working in, I'm surrounded by smart people but they just seem to consistently make bad technology choices. I'm really getting to the point where I'd rather dig ditches for $5/hour. At least #1) my tools always work(its hard to foul up a shovel), #2) I get fresh air and physical exercise, #3) and at the end of the day I can feel proud of doing something useful with my time, like digging a big hole. At least I can bury myself in that someday.
Trizle is thinking like a plumber ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=412785 )
Google reader: desired features & ways to motivate adoption
---------------------

They were socialized in a racist culture, and although their individual views may be different, they can't fully shake the legacy.

---------------------

So true, mod that one up.

If you ever travel in the Balkans and parts of Central Europe you will be amazed how cruel the language still is to gypsies. "Lying gypsy", "stupid gypsy", "lazy gypsy", "dirty/shaggy like a gypsy"; also gypsy women are stereotyped as highway whores. In these parts of the world PC doesn't exist. There are adverts on television and billboards which make fun of the way gypsies speak. The PC straw man argument exists, but not actual political correctness. This kind of language is so mainstream you look weird when you speak against it.

Most people who use the awful racist language aren't really racist. They don't know what eugenics is, they don't have any ideologies that systematize or justify gypsy-bashing: there aren't any "Protocols..", or the "International Gypsy" books. There aren't any lynchings. They might be nice to gypsies and treat them as equals. To most people the anger those gypsies from the stereotypes are just a generalization and it is widely acknowledged that "there are good gypsies".

People actually think they are tolerant: they sometimes begin their sentences with "I am not a racist, but.." before they bash gypsies. In the old commie days people were taught that America was the place where they beat the black people.

There isn't any official discrimination in the countries gypsies live, but there is no PC. The unofficial discrimination still takes its toll. Most gypsies are poor, ill-educated, have short life-spans and trouble with the law. There isn't anything that provides deterrence against discrimination, which manifests itself in "common-sense": you aren't racist, but you don't want to take risks. When faced with such "common-sense" and prejudice you lose enthusiasm for trying. It happens in usually in high-school. And of course there are those bad-apples - the "nationalists" and the neo-nazis. Most people disapprove of them, but the extremists are not a problem when you have the rule of law.

Its the racist culture.

So please be careful with the language. Its does matter how much you mean it, but any amount of prejudice does harm.
About running SBCL on Windows, he says, "I’ve ran it for brief periods and it seems to work fine, so I’m not sure what’s so experimental about it. Again, Caveat emptor!" That doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Does anybody have thorough experience with SBCL on Windows? (I don't want to start an ugly Lisp/Scheme argument, but I know Scheme has PLT and Chicken there, among others.)

Here's a list of officially supported platforms: http://www.sbcl.org/platform-table.html
How did you get the piece on huffPo? Are you a regular contributor there?

For what it's worth, sue those bastards.
By the time we left the old office, it was costing us 2% of revenue. The new office is not full yet and is somewhat more expensive, but I expect that in the long run our real estate costs will be around 4%-6% of revenue, which is the norm for office-based workforces.

The specific upgrades we paid cash for will probably end up costing 1% of an employee's salary, averaged out over everything, over the lifetime of the lease.
I think he believes network or disk i/o becomes the dominate factor long before cpu for 99% of webapps.
I'm not sure recruiting desperate and socially akward dudes who are going to get all creepy weirdo on the female staff is the best recruitment strategy I've ever heard.
I will never EVER work in a communal work environment again.

I can only work in a space somewhere between an 'office with a closed door' and a sensory deprivation tank.
I say that as an eldest son with two siblings who still give me crap years later because my parents invested more time in "parenting stuff" with me than they did with either of them.
Fog Creek's office certainly kicks ass.
I'm not talking about the speed at which code executes, I'm talking about how many users you can support with a single server. Or how many servers do you need to support N users.
I'm not sure I'd just blow off Kaplan to make a general, superficial point about American crypto-imperialism. In the absence of other evidence I'm going to assume his argument is armed with more facts and analysis than yours.

Peter Moskos has been writing about the Greek riots for a few weeks now --- http://www.petermoskos.com --- and the picture he paints make the situation in Greece sound very different from student riots in South America (and also different from Kaplan's somewhat alarmist take).
I dunno if its worth the effort. It'll probably end up like all of photo albums people keep. Opened once when they are presented to the kid, and then thrown in the closet, never to be opened again.

If you overwhelm him with too much information he is less likely to read them. I doubt he'll care that much about the minute details of your life.

Its a good idea to track the stuff, but I would stick only to big occasions. Think of it as your typical baby book....you might go back to find out what your first word was, or what height you were at age 6, but noone goes back to find out what their 278th word was?
Exactly - also - not sure how kicking him out would resolve their financial situation.

Sounds like things will just get worse for him again.
You are right I missed a zero.
Have to? Almost all the admins I've known love to sit in closets :) (I was an admin for a few years so this is somewhat self-deprecating)
One reason I decided on the guitar is that my apt is too small for a piano - even the electric keyboard variety at this point. What little I did pick up as a kid has helped somewhat though in learning guitar. Someday I'd like to go back to it.
I'm currently cheating at the moment :-)

It's actually very simple: You just need to to lookup the tweets using Twitter Search and do a simple == to see which you've altered.
I had thought this was just the behavior of Cocoa, and so any text field based on it will have the "pause, then drag".

There are Carbon-based terminals for Mac OS X that will drag text instantly. I'm partial to MacTelnet. :)
Text Messages Cost Carriers Nothing
A real, honest to goodness, here we are, this is my desk, good-and-bad blog?

I signed up with Dreamhost because I truly felt they would care - their site is very good at giving that impression. Their service was poor, so I left, but that's another story.
I have to keep reminding them that women usually do NOT want to hear about the problems they were having with their barcode scanner scanning in their comic book collections
I'm sorry, perhaps I phrased my critique poorly.

I wasn't trying to make any points about the particular situation in Greece. I was trying to say that, yes, the author cites some facts, but that he disregards the stuff he provides evidence for (the political situation is Greece over the last forty years), then draws conclusions that he doesn't provide evidence for (the circumstances that have brought about the current riots).
I would love an iPhone I could dock (external display, keyboard, mouse, etc.).
to be fair neither do i
The thing is that you can't really see the distance to various goals until you start climbing up the path. It's like looking up the mountains from the coast; you'll see high peaks, some green in front, some white with snow in background; you know greenish ones are nearer, but they all seem as high. Only after you climb the first peak, you'll find that there are more peaks beyond that, and the white shiny peaks are far, far away beyond those previously unseen peaks.

Playing like professional players is like conquering those white shiny Himalayan peaks; it may not be impossible with huge efforts, but it's more likely that you run out of time.
In that sense, probably it's "too late". I started playing the piano when I was 11, but never pursued it professionally, and now at 39 I have so many pieces I want to play but know that I will never be able to finish before I die.

So, yes, if you are looking at the shiny peaks, you have to lower your expectation.

The secret is that the hidden peaks beyond the first ones are almost as rich as the shiny peaks. And you know what, most of your audiences won't be able to tell the difference between the shiny ones and those middle peaks. You can play at parties, or even participate in local concerts of hobby players. You'll be able to enjoy playing those pieces and the experience will be as satisfying.
So true from my experience as a parent. My first child has about a 5:1 advantage in baby photographs.

The upside is that the younger sibling gets the invaluable experience of a sibling from day one.

But regardless of what happens or doesn't happen between child 1 and child 2 in the case of the original poster, this is a great idea.
My envy on this place is mighty (and all this from a bug tracker?), but is tempered by more annoyance at the Javascript nightmare that is Picasa. Why can't I middle-click to open pictures in new windows? Because Google Breaks The Browser. Top.
Apparently Joel doesn't know that all good sysadmins are also good programmers.
OK, let me point out that the Nintendo DS has a web browser, Wi-Fi connectivity, and actually works as a gaming device.

I think the DS would be more likely to be successful adding calling features (like the PSP has with full-on Skype support) than an iPhone would be adding real tactile gaming controls and becoming a legitimate platform.

I get it - I get it - people want the iPhone to be the magical "one device". But I'll tell you what - Nintendo has never lost a handheld generation (Lynx, Game Gear, and PSP to date) and they don't look like they're going to any time soon.
Ed Howe observed "A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice."

This is also true for organizational change. It's one reason that bootstrapping startups often evolve more rapidly--compared to VC funded ones--they face extinction more frequently. Funding brings some immunity from poor decisions, or the ability to run many experiments, depending upon your perspective.
This is beyond ludicrous. Buttons and joypads can't simply be plastered onto the touch screen; controls have to be tactile or else you will make mistakes. When I misspell a word typing I can just go back and erase. When the game mistakes which button I press and my character dies, I get frustrated and pissed off.
> You think that top software engineering graduates in New York City make $26k per year? Recalibrate! Recalibrate!

Oops, mental typo. Thanks for the correction.
I have been an admin in the past and I wouldn't have minded a window.
Glass whiteboard ! http://picasaweb.google.com/spolsky/FogCreekSNewOffice#52853...
'I agree that Apple probably sees the iPhone as their netbook competitor'

Well, they've stated they don't see much value in current Netbooks in the past. But I personally think they've already changed their mind - Apple make dumb choices occasionally, but they're smart enough to see when they've failed - see the Apple TV, or original Mac-only iPod. We'll know this as soon as they have something for people to buy.

Your needs - valuing battery life, portability, and a reasonable price over powerful specs - are actually common for most netbook users.

An iPhone is not a Netbook substitute. Ever tried browsing for two hours on an iPhone? Writing a long email or Facebook comment? Wonder why people who own iPhones also want Netbooks?

Edit: Could someone please explain what was offensive or factually incorrect about my post to moderate it to zero?
> I can't even think of a close second.

Perhaps a firm that had even a dollar in revenue? Twitter hasn't actually become a business yet, so it can't be the best one of the year.
I played the violin from my 8th to about my 16th year. Then other interests took over (programming, hanging out with friends, you know, the same story everyone has).

After about ten years I finally picked it up again. I was afraid that I'd lost all the skill I'd developed and after a day or two of playing this seemed justified.

However, I stuck with it and after a week some of it started to come back.

The violin has a very piercing sound (as in : goes through walls) and if you're practicing and making mistakes this makes it worse (on your neighbors especially).

I bought a damper first, but this didn't nullify the effects enough.

Then I bought an electric violin. Because it doesn't have a soundboard, it's very quiet. I can plug a headset in and just practice/play for myself. The sound isn't the same as an acoustic violin, but it's ideal for practice.

I assume there's a way you can do the same for the guitar, either by plugging a headset directly into the guitar or by redirecting the output from the amp to a headset.

Look into it, being able to practice/play at anytime has worked out well for me.
Now hold on just a damn minute. A company is charging more for something than it costs them? That's just outrageous!
I agree. Anyone who thinks a touchscreen-only device can replace tactile buttons on a gaming device is on crack. Although, the DS doesn't have a web browser built in except on the newer DSi, which is currently only available in Japan, and all web browsers on the DS/DSi have generally sucked for anything beyond text-only browsing. The homebrew browsers are actually somewhat better than commercial ones, although I don't have a DSi yet but from what I've seen the DSi's browser is still pretty slow. I wouldn't compare DS web browsing to the iPhone, but then I wouldn't compare iPhone gaming to the DS/PSP.

The biggest factor for me is the games, though, and only a Nintendo platform will ever have Nintendo games (industry trolls that keep calling for Nintendo to become a third-party developer notwithstanding). Nintendo is definitely one of the top game development houses out there, and Apple doesn't really have anything that can compete. Nintendo understands games, Apple does not.
maybe someone emailed him a link or something.
"It is in no way "derailing" us when we work."

Would you notice it if it did derail you 10% of the time? 5%? What's the interval? I'm not suggesting that it IS derailing you when you work (though I suspect it is some), I'm just curious how measurable that is and how you measure the "overall win". Saying that it "works" for you and others feels really subjective to me. What's the goal? Less overall time dorking around with time entry? More time spent on "good" stuff? More accurate time entry?

If we actually gave full export of RescueTime data (which we will someday!), you could measure what percentage of the time users return to their task after your app comes into focus. Better yet, you could measure the mean time spent on task AFTER your app interrupts (compared to before). If you're going to sell the concept to productivity nuts, it'd be a great thing to study/prove down the road.

Either way, I'm gonna give your app a try for a few days to see how it feels (and more importantly, how it changes my RescueTime data! ;-) ).

I hope you don't take offense. I like the idea (if you ever meet Paul Buccheit, ask him about TimePie!)... But my crash course in productivity studies over the past year tell me that most productivity academics would run screaming from the idea. 'Course, academics are wrong all the time.
Privacy in an Information Abundant World
Really? I still frequently find myself explaining to people what a web application is.
I get frustrated and pissed off even when I mispell a word typing on the iPhone.
In our TA pedagogy class, I read a study that found international-level performers in chess, tennis, and violin all put in somewhere around 10,000 hours of deliberate practice in childhood. It stated that this requirement didn't necessarily apply to new fields, as Seth proposed. However, it was fairly consistent for well-established endeavors.

In other words, this isn't exactly something Gladwell made up. Practice does matter.

>"So, even if someone invests 3750 hours they can be just as good."

There is no evidence of this.

I wish I had a link, but it was in a non-free journal. I can look up the citation if anybody cares enough.
How and why web developers should file bug reports and test browser nightlies
Ask HN: I just found out someone signed up with a stolen credit card.  What do I do now?
Should I report them? If so how do I go about doing that?
Are we doomed? What do I do?
Hi startuppers.

We are two guys starting a self-funded software company in a smallish town. We are about 6 months in and have the majority of a product, minus the informational web-app, money-handling portion of the app, and minus all the business junk (we are not incorporated yet).

So here is the problem: we don't click. At all. We are 10 years apart, and we disagree on everything. It is to the point that just about nothing has been done in the last month, and whenever we are in each others presence there is a whole lot of negative tension. This tension has kind of been there from the beginning, but has really escalated in the last couple months (so 1/2 to 1/3 of the company's life). I feel like shit every day. I am the most stressed and depressed that I have ever been in my entire life. I am soo burnt that when I think about the project it makes me actually sick to my stomach. My relationship with the partner and now this product feels like an on-of girlfriend. When I decide I am done, I want it back, and when I am in it I desperately want out. We have been trying to work through it, but instead of doing work, all we end up doing is talking about whether or not we should continue.

I have about a year of savings left, and I keep telling myself that I should just stick it out until I am broke. But if this is really the wrong path (as it strongly feels like most of the time), I figure it is better to get out now. Ugh!

I don't know WTF to do. Are these normal feelings? Do all (or any) _successful_ startups go through this stuff. I always figured there would be hardships and problems, but I figured there would be something for me to continually grab onto. You know, "this is crappy, but at least our product will change the world." I don't feel like that.

So what would you do? Have you been in this situation? Do successful startups have people who click at the helm? Can they survive with a bad partner relationship?
On the CS side, I would add that if you mash POS data with marketing spend the results are often shocking. Consumer goods companies have terrific raw data but they ignore a surprising amount of it to their peril.

I built a little sales analysis tool for Accenture that they have since sold to several consumer goods clients. It pulls in raw marketing data--pricing, promotion types, locations, revenues--then calculates a few dozen metrics related to ROI, cannibalism etc. Client managers then drill into their marketing data from a couple layers of abstraction and from there they can see fairly clearly how their choices are affecting P&L.

We built that because the leading consumer goods companies were essentially guessing at the repercussions a given sales promotion would have on the bottom line. Today the leaders are more sophisticated but the little guys continue to revere intuition and gut instincts over statistics.

Our pilot client was Procter & Gamble. I pulled in their POS sales and marketing data e.g. endcap on Tide detergent at [x% discount] in [region y] during [phenomenon z]. I mashed that with private and public data sources, laying out the results for trending and drilldown. P&G bought as did L'Oreal and some others. I'm curious how things are going so if anyone reading has worked with these or similar tools, I would love to know how they've evolved.

It's amazing how many expensive marketing decisions are done without regard for scientific analysis. A lot is decided on the basis of how the marketing director/committee feels. In the 90s that was acceptable technology but today it is called Not Learning From Your Mistakes. Compare Google's A/B testing with "throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks" and you begin to see the problem. Trust me, there are big P&L opportunities in this stuff.
The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart
You have to remember that there are actually a lot of companies out there that are doing contracting work and working on the hour for various clients. For those clients you need to show what you're billing them for.

On top of that, it could be for any kind of work - not just programming - design, engineering work, contractor work (builders etc), electricians, you name it...
'fungible' seems to be the new word most of the internet learned this year.
[whoops, commented on the wrong reply, sorry :-) ]

You have to remember that there are actually a lot of companies out there that are doing contracting work and working on the hour for various clients. For those clients you need to show what you're billing them for.

On top of that, it could be for any kind of work - not just programming - design, engineering work, contractor work (builders etc), electricians, you name it...
What a great parable for programmers.

At the core of all hacking, and in fact the root word hack itself, is the fine art of knowing when to hold firm to principle, and knowing when good enough is good enough.

From the Jargon File: http://catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html

'The word hack doesn't really have 69 different meanings', according to MIT hacker Phil Agre. 'In fact, hack has only one meaning, an extremely subtle and profound one which defies articulation...'

Hacking might be characterized as ‘an appropriate application of ingenuity’. Whether the result is a quick-and-dirty patchwork job or a carefully crafted work of art, you have to admire the cleverness that went into it.
What's the netbook have that the iPhone doesn't? More disk space, a keyboard, and a larger screen.

He forgot the most important thing: being under the user's control, including the ability to install arbitrary software. The closedness of the iPhone is its Achilles heel.
If they drop rent, couldn't they get stuck there because of rent control laws? I'm not sure exactly how the law works, but I know that landlords don't have a lot of flexibility in NYC.
bad idea, what if somehow they all get deleted? why not spend the time you would spend pecking away at the keyboard, actually playing with your son, building a relationship with him, communicating with him in real time, giving him the confidence and strength to be all he can be? what is email going to do for him other than amuse him? or rather than email, why not write a daily diary about your life, and then give it to him when he's an adult. far more valuable because it's a thing, not some words on a screen. of course, this comment will be modded down ad infinitum.