skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It goes at the core of human development. Trial and error and results feedback loop, competition and community.

Here there are a collection of pieces of information that possibly contain valuable trial and error results; filtered by what might be a very interesting group of people. Also, competitors ways of thinking. Not to mention the other side of that the community aspect, so you aren't alone in your adventures.

So naturally you are attracted to it as it is an attractor, simple due to the possible trial and error results you might also be looking for. Anything that can touch on that natural instinct of trial and error result feedback loop, competition, community or other embedded biologically binded behaviors will win. Video games for instance hits all these for instance, nearly recession proof in the sense that they will always be played, and attract people.
Javascript is a bit of an enigma. Usually, bad languages are made better (or at least tolerable) by the existence of good libraries (see C++, Perl). In the case of Javascript, it's a really elegant language made worse by being so often so dependent on the DOM and all of it's obscurities.

I admire Javascript because it covers so many paradigms, and yet is, at the core, very simple and straightforward. Much as Lisp is to lists, Javascript is to hashes. Also, there are some really interesting projects in early stages that are taking Javascript out of the browser. For example, when Google released the code for v8, Marc-André Cournoyer from the Ruby community slapped together a project that translated Ruby to JS and ran it through v8 (http://macournoyer.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/ruby-on-v8/).

Finally, I think it's worth noting that if you believe the "cloud" is the future, then Javascript is the de facto machine code of the "cloud"...
the question on everyone's mind

Well, at least everyone who's never heard of either Arduino or Google.
This sounds familiar... oh right, because it happened in 2007 too.
Sorry, but it's Python that uses the "batteries included" phrase.

http://www.python.org/about
http://www.google.com/search?q=python+"batteries+included"
Sure. So, what's the application that can be built more easily, with less friction, on Plan 9? I'll make it easy; what's the application that's easier to build on Plan 9 than on Win32?
Zend Framework + Propel, yo.
Tables won't show up until the entire table has loaded but if that's not an issue then use whatever you find easier (and don't feel guilty--if it works, it works).

If it's tabular data ALWAYS use tables.
High-end website Jameslist launched to sell luxury goods
I created a link that says "Share this on Twitter" instead of doing an image. I don't know who made that one and I didn't see any others that I like.

I'll see if many people use that.
That's definitely true, and I'm sure it happens a lot.

What's weird to me, then, is the frequency of crappy submissions getting enough upvotes to hit the front page while the inevitable good submissions slip through. (This, obviously, is bigger than my own submissions, which I'm not particularly interested in seeing on the front page given that I've already seen them -- I'd like to see all the good submissions, and less of the crap.)
why can't they just get along? ;) i just want great service and so therefore i want ethical competition. so who am i to side with?: when one of the competitors, by virtue of their own hard efforts or whatever, becomes big enough to gobble up its competitor. hasn't the, now big, competitor earned it? shouldn't it, by the spirit of capitalism, be allowed? we are all scared of this point of competition where it kills itself. why should society have to intervene in such issues? i like a system that takes care of itself.

people are learning how much free rein competition should be given. should we enact laws that ban competitors from gobbling each other? it seems hypocritical.. also proper checks have to be put in so that there will only be ethical competition.
Ha, many thanks for the praises in the beginning. Yeah, ive probably read a bit too much hn + SvN lately. I've got a ton to learn. That's why I come here.

Yeah, it's hard to bloat a 2 button web app up. When I talk about not bloating shit, I mean your overall frame of mind. If youre all about making things complicated, too many features, and a bureaucracy, I doubt you'd be in the mindset to make a simple web app. It's not about capability, it's about clarity.

It's gimmicky, it's fun, and people enjoy it. We've already reaped some pretty damn cool benefits from it (users to ramamia, coverage on the site, and contacts). Like i said in a comment earlier, it's okay to make something out of enjoyment. I think that's my favorite part about the web, you can put something together in an hour for shits and giggles just because you want to.
We got the company-wide email this morning. More or less the same content as the linked site. There's more to the story but I can't say because I work there.
I think you meant Ramanujan.
thanks drew! It was something that came to us randomly, and we just wanted to build it for fun, while promoting Ramamia at the same time. When we actually do our full launch in February, we're going to work on a stunt that's really relevant to our market.

btw, which digg article are you referring to?
Ask HN: What do you when you are forced/asked to design at work?
I am employed as "Web Developer" and I am not a designer. I wish I was, but I'm not. At least I know it right?

I was handed a CS3 install disk within my first week and my heart sank. I know I am not good at using any of those programs, and I thought I made it perfectly clear in my interview that I'm NOT a designer.

At work I'm asked to take photoshop designs and "cut" them. I don't really mind writing HTML if someone gives me the graphics, but I feel like cutting them out in photoshop is out of my skill set.

Do any of you developers face similar challenges? Did saying anything help? I feel like I'd probably get laughed at.

"This guy doesn't know photoshop?? psh."

I honestly believe the company is losing money every time I open photoshop...maybe I should just learn it?

Is it time to find somewhere else?
Coding in binary on what? Unless you mined your own raw materials to build your machine, someone else has "done your work" for you. Not to mention where you'd get electricity...
Ted Linden, 1938 - 2009
Yes, but then people are conflating notions of type-system/runtime/vm/etc. with the notion of script vs. program. The key distinction is this: In a programming language you can only have one entry point (the "main()" function), regardless of how the individual files are linked. In a scripting language the entry point depends on which file the interpreter starts with, and the execution model can change depending on how the script is invoked.

For example, the Ruby community uses this trick quite often so that one file can be a library if included by another source file, but can be an executable if invoked by the interpreter directly. See: http://gist.github.com/51337. If you run "ruby a.rb" you'll get something different than if your run "ruby b.rb", even though both are the result of "linking" a.rb and b.rb together.

...let's see you do that with C! ;-)
LOL :-)
An alternative to fully shutting down the site would be to "freeze" it. The site is available, but nothing changes. (This could even happen 24 hours per day: updates only happen every 6 hours or something.)

To me, the alarmingly addictive thing about HN is that something interesting could happen at any time. Removing this real-time aspect, HN would still be interesting, but no more addictive than a good issue of the New Yorker or whatever.
It takes 6 - 12 months to change your body.
The Memphis airport, like many airports, is constantly under construction. Construction projects take years. For an airport that is cargo first, passengers second, they've done a good job of squeezing in passenger facing improvements. Baggage claim being the one thing that definitely needs to be addressed. It seems to be the same as it was when the airport was first constructed.
It was FUSE, but better, and 15 years earlier.

For instance, FUSE filesystems still can't support nonblocking IO.
Adam ant goody two shoes lyrics
I would suggest it is whatever feeds your dreams. Many things are possible, the only caution is to make your first step doable. How about you tell us what you think would be cool and we could suggest how big the first step should be?

(For reference if you need help getting started: things I've made from Arduinos...

analog meter display for a bank for T1 network loads
cylon pumpkin (laugh, but eventually everyone makes one)
ambient light sensitive LED, using the same LED for sensing as making light
(pretty nifty trick, makes me wonder my more electronics
don't do it. No need for blinding indicators in a dark room)
2d ultrasonic anemometer
weather station
wireless network from ISM band ASK radios
(worked, but integrated solutions are probably better)
DC power controller/rationer for solar powered unmanned remote telemetry system
DC motor controller for http://8ball.lunarware.com
(not online yet)
Multichannel temperature monitor for a cranky air conditioner
(lots of data, no idea how to interpret, a lesson there somehwere)
Tiny LED xmas tree for my daughter,
red LED ornament blinks secret message in morse code
Multi channel servo controller from a PWM LED driver.
USB low speed interface with just a couple pins and resistors.
)
I completely agree.
It appalls me to see, day after day, comments on reddit boasting about how the poster continues to steal media to spite these various organizations.

Isn't it obvious that when you steal a piece of media, you're stealing from its creator, i.e. the good guy?
>Isn't it obvious that when you steal a piece of media, you're stealing from its creator?

It's a lot more complicated than that. And steal is the wrong word. You mean when you violate someone's copyright.
I've been working on a PHP framework that is similar in the 'full-stack' approach of Cake but has performance characteristics of CodeIgniter. It's called Recess and can be found over at http://www.RecessFramework.org
When I started looking at development as a career, I was under the impression that web development always involved two parties: the developer and the designer. I was employed at a development company, doing non-development work, and was looking to move to a new position. That's when I was informed that, at this company, all developers were expected to also be proficient designers...

...my heart sank. But, I picked up CS3 and started poking around looking for tips/tricks/tutorials and the like. Within 3-4 weeks I was proficient enough to get the new position, and I've been improving over time.

Now I can say that, in retrospect, this is probably the better way to do development. We do have a handful of designers on staff, but they are perpetually swamped, and they're going to focus on the most prominent artwork needs, like the big shiny icons. That, of course, leaves them little time to help me with my silly little shadow or border box.

There are benefits to having developers also know design that goes beyond how much time they waste hacking around in Photoshop.

EDIT: To clarify my response a bit: Learning is hard, but it'll be a good skill for you in the long run. Leave the business, cost/benefit determinations to your bosses for the time being. If they're giving you time to learn: learn!
Or you can use compass with sass and get to use blueprint together with semantic names for classes...
Seems to me that copyright violation is tantamount to stealing.

How does the situation being more "complicated" nullify the fact that when you steal (or violate copyright, whatever) something that was crafted for profit (else the creator would've released it for free) you're doing a complete disservice to the author?
Something simple. For my first project, I bought a ultrasonic sensor and a bar graph led and output the distance sensed on it. Focus on getting accustomed to the hardware you're working with before you try too challenging.
rack, merb and rails...
I don't really support measures that take away choices (I'm against having the site closed for X hours per day, for example), but I do support arranging choices and defaults such that the goals of the arranger are furthered.
I bookmarked this, as I haven't attended college as of yet, but will probably be in a college as of fall of this year or spring of 2009.

Sounds like an interesting tool at the least.
Ramaze. Feels most Ruby-ish for me.
VC dollars dropped 33% for the 4th quarter
Helmets are important in certain contexts. I always wear a helmet when riding my road bike. I'm going between 15-40 mph, and in the higher half of the range, I'd really appreciate the helmet in the crash. If I'm being passed by cars going 40+, I assume I'll also appreciate the helmet if one of them hits me.

In the city, when I know that my max speed will be ~17mph and a cars max speed will be ~25mph, I consider helmets optional.
Great to see them announce OAuth support - though I'd prefer a Gmail labs/iPhone app store approach applied to Twitter (Twitter labs).

I really want to customize my Twitter account and if they had Twitter labs I could customize my account accordingly; add features found in these apps directly into my Twitter account. Though instead of Twitter developing new features take iPhone app store approach and approve/integrate developers programs into Twitter. They could then sell each feature and share revenue with developers!
Whoa! A Tech Acquisition!
"You're arguing semantics."

Not really. It helps a discussion of people have a common understanding of terms.
ramaze ! and that means rack -> ruby
Ask YC: Programmers fatigue and their output
Hello All,
I would urge you all to go through one typical situation my team and I are going under. As a project manager or co-founder of the company I have to find solution to this so that it does not happen again and I think YC may be able to help me in this.

We are developing one unique project for our client. Project is very well documented and does have some complexity. We chose CakePHP as a framework to develop the solution.

Now initially things went smooth and we developed admin section pretty good.

But somehow since last couple of months performance has degraded considerably. These are the same programmers who had developed backend and now they are facing sever issues in developing frontend.

Situation is so worse that they are not even able to complete simple CRUD operation easily. As a project manager I fail to understand this situation.

I also tried releasing off the pressure and giving them free hand to complete tasks as they wish but to no avail.

Some senior members are of the opinion that I should not release pressure because then developers do not complete things in time.

I am fortunate to have a cooperative client and he is not making any fuss about it but I am ashamed of our output.

Mind well these programmers are not fresh out of college but they do have couple of years of experience.

Have you faced any situation like this before? What are my options here?

Should I consider changing the team? Should I introduce fresh people who are not crumbled under expectations?

PS: joel, jeff are you listening? i would be glad if you guys can help too :)
I wonder how many language designers explicitly thought about the goal of turing completeness or just had it happen as they added high level constructs like functions et al.

Certainly turing completeness does not guarantee a nice language (see brainfuck and friends) and I am sure that there are some non-turing complete DSLs which are very nice to work with. It may just be that when people try to design general purpose languages, they end up with turing completeness.
I believe that it is completely ridiculous to have this artificial construct of scarcity to try and increase the marginal cost for something that inherently has no scarcity: the marginal cost for a digital download is zero.

Obviously if you replace paying the artist money for music with an illegal download you are doing a disservice to the author and the author's distribution company. If you weren't going to pay the author anything though, you can only benefit him, assuming you like the author's work enough to tell friends and/or attend live performances. Sure, it's better for the artist to get paid, but there is a distinction between doing a disservice and being morally wrong and the use of the word steal is an attempt to equate copyright violation with being morally wrong.

In the end, illegal downloads are inevitable. It's impossible to entirely stop; all you can do is try and make the legal downloads as convenient and practical as possible (like Amazon's service). This is already changing the business model for artists. Live shows and packaging and merchandise become more important than ever.

There's an analogous situation with software: desktop software is easily crackable but SaaS is often impossible to copyright violate. Most of the developers here are doing SaaS and they will indeed get paid for their work.
Is that available in all browsers?
If you farm apples, and apples have a monetary value, you can provide for yourself and family by farming apples.

If you create ideas/code/art/music, and IP has a monetary value, you can also provide for yourself and family by creating those things.

If "information wants to be free", then I have to farm apples all day, and only create IP (if I'm so motivated) for free, after dinner and before bed.

I'm all for sharing ideas/IP if you want to, but I totally support people's right to sell or keep ideas/IP if they choose to.

Do I think the RIAA/MPAA are generally immoral parasites? Yes. The solution isn't downloading songs and movies from RIAA/MPAA labels and trying to pretend you're doing something other than sneaking in the backdoor of a concert or movie theatre.

The solution is buy from indie artists.
Lessig, to whom I think you're referring with 'free culture', isn't really arguing for no IP. He is merely reminding everyone that copyright, patents, etc. are there for a reason and that reason is not like a property right (because ideas aren't like "stuff", economically, they are examples of non-rivalrous and non-excludable goods). The rights that a creator has are:

"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;" (U.S. Constitution Art. I, Sec. 8)

My understanding of the free culture movement is that this tradeoff of "limited times" has become, effectively, unlimited. Every time Micky is about to expire, congress re-extends his copyright for another twenty years or so. So then the problem is that we (meaning our culture), is getting the short end of the stick in this deal.

I basically agree that if there were no limited monopoly on ideas (like patents) then, for certain individuals, they just wouldn't be bothered to try and bring it to market; that's bad, I don't think anyone really wants that (even though they may think they want it). But the question is very much open as to what 'limited' means in this context.
Rails, Django
If I'm interpreting this correctly (which I may not be, since there is some ambiguity in the wording) Resig seems to have a bit of a misunderstanding of how neural networks work.

He says that an edge weight in the neural network means "At pixel 9x6 the letter A is 58% likely to be filling in that pixel." That isn't how neural networks work (although, it is fairly close to how bayesian belief nets work). In a neural network the edge weights of the graph don't obviously correspond to anything - they are simply chosen (most commonly through the back propagation training algorithm) to minimize the error between the desired output and actual output on the training data.

The weights in a neural network are simply the coefficients for terms in an equation that, when plotted, produces a curve that's a good fit for a series of data points. Unfortunately, that explanation is not very sexy ;-) That's one of the big problems with neural networks - they're effectively just black boxes that incidentally produce pretty good answers. They are (in most of their standard incarnations) really just a fairly simple technique for regression analysis.

Incidentally, I got to see Resig speak about jQuery yesterday, and he's clearly a very clever guy. I say this with all due respect, and fully expect that this is just a misunderstanding due to me misinterpreting the sentence I quoted in my second paragraph.
Facebook ads are Not the place to find money for your startup
I tend to use LeechBlock for Firefox so I can be reminded to get back to work when I get pulled back in. (I used to use 8aweek until it disappeared...)
Sorry, should have been clear. They were text-based of the form "which of these does not belong?"
I don't think so. Again, it's only me, but did you try Spring/Hibernate with annotations? There is really not much sense for an experienced Java developer to jump into Groovy. I do not see it, really. Scala is good, as a language. Syntax is horrible, but some people adore it. ;-) Why Groovy? It's been around for a while. Sometimes it's all about momentum. I have doubts it will get another chance to shine with SpringSource or anything else. Just too many other options available around. Why not Jython/Django? Why not Jruby/rails? Still Scala/Lift. It's all in JVM.
Allow any email address.

I'm at mcmaster, which has a mcmaster.ca address. I don't think it's possible to match on email address to allow all schools, so just ask for the school that someone attends. If you let some non-students through, what does it matter?
The concept of not having intellectual property doesn't mean that you can't still sell your ideas, it just means that you can't control what someone else does with them. You can keep your idea to yourself or trusted individuals, but there is no reason to expect a monopoly on an idea.
Have you talked to them about what's causing their performance issues? Are they unfamiliar with the technology? Is the framework itself cumbersome or poorly put together?
The real question is how much equity you'll receive. Without a share in the upside, working as an employee at a startup is a sucker's game.
Impressive custom wood Vespa and Motorcycle
However, allowance trading worked very well in controlling acid rain - one of the incentives to use it on carbon emissions as well.

There's a key difference: the time lag between emissions and acid rain is short. Stopping the formation of nitric and sulfuric acids in the atmosphere happened shortly after the emissions ended. Not so with carbon dioxide; the time lag is decades. Even if all CO2 emissions stopped tomorrow, the Earth would still continue to warm.

This might seem like cause for pessimism, and perhaps it is. But it also undermines the sense of urgency, almost desperation, among many environmentalists that we should "do something", no matter how ill-thought-out that something may be. It seems better just to wait, and try not to do too much harm in the short run.

Maybe we're doomed, maybe technology will save us. Either way, it's going to be a heck of a ride. :-)
Report: Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia cutting back
What would life after Microsoft look like? Think LEGO.