skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm not quite so extreme as Hohle, but I'd really like to see some reduction in the use of consumer credit.

The way my econ classes normally explained credit went like this: You have a businessman or entrepreneur who spots an opportunity where, if he just had a little money now, he could make more money in the future. So he takes out a loan, makes the investment, reaps the profit, and then pays the interest on the loan (and the principal, eventually) out of those profits. It only makes economic sense to take out that loan if you can expect to make more in additional profits than the cost of capital.

Consumer credit throws a giant whoopee cushion into that system, because here people are taking out loans with no expectation of making a profit from them. They just see "free money!" and don't realize that they end up paying far more in the long run. The result is a sort of neo-feudalism, where the credit card companies "own" their customers because of their spendthrift ways, and then extract "rents" (interest) on the money owed them. The additional cash in the system drives up prices, even for people who don't max out their credit cards, and so they either suffer reduced living standards or have to take out debt of their own to compete.

And many consumers don't even intend to pay back the principal. They just keep maxing out their cards as long as the credit card companies will let them. The companies figure a certain portion of customers will default, and build that into the interest rate they charge. But that makes the system highly unstable, because if default rates edge up, they're not just out the interest, they're out the accumulated principal as well.

I think the debt-based economic system today is sick. It's basically a big Ponzi scheme, and it's bound to collapse eventually. I don't think credit itself is bad, but when people take out loans with no intention of paying back the principal, it's not credit anymore. It's just economic mayhem.
It's an interesting essay, but just to be argumentative, I think it takes the wrong path to the conclusion. I posit that South Korea has only one highly regarded university or some other suitably small number. Maybe it's the University of Seoul. If you get into U of S, you are a superior being, you get the choice government jobs, you get to be the department head, you get the industrial fast track. If you don't get in, you are dross, just second class. In Japan it's the University of Tokyo. Neither university is particularly good or even much better than some of the others but they have the reputations to make the careers of their students. Contrast that with the USA. Of the top 50 universities in the world, we probably have 40. If you get into Harvard, MIT, Stanford, or Cal Tech, it certainly helps you career. If you don't, you aren't automatically second class, because there are so many other good schools.

Then there is our culture a meme of the irrepressible underdog, the New England inventor, the riverboat gambler, the mountain prospector, the
Silicon Valley programmer. Business failure is not career or reputation ending, it's character building. It probably enhances you chances the second time around. In contrast I remember reading that in Germany if you failed you were done; no one would give you another chance. Banks controlled everything and were so risk adverse you probably couldn't get the money in the first place. My brother in law's business in Brazil went bankrupt. He didn't get a fresh start. He just stayed out of jail until he could pay it back. He was a chemical engineer, but he had to work in a grocery store. It is amazing how low the barriers to entry are here. Anyone interested in how Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley should read Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee Saxenian.

In most of the world it is difficult to start a business. According to the Economist it takes $20,000 in fees and deposits to start a business. In many countries it takes one or two years plus bribes to get permission to start. In San Luis Obispo County it took me $120 and an hour at the county offices. And YC may even give you the money.

I think I agree with Paul's conclusion if not with his antecedents. I think we are moving away from a credentials based culture to a reputation based one, not because parental manipulation can falsify credentials, but because an individual on the web can build a reputation through a web of contacts, through writing, through performance, through reputons (small quanta of reputation). I went to Harvard. That's a reputon. I got my degree in economics. That's probably an anti-reputon. At least in the software industry, you can build a reputation thats worth more than a bunch of certificates.
Simple iPhone Interface for Hacker News
If the leading criterion for admission was concrete evidence that the applicants collectively

Big if. I'm sure that any self respecting University will tell you that the best prep for their University is anything that makes the candidates smarter, more driven & more likely to succeed. Everyone uses indicators. Some are better then others. Maybe some can never be gamed (I doubt it) but as actually mentioned in this essay, the way around credentials is making entry less important.
I don't think it has anything to do with accepting software costs money. When I was younger and had basically no money, I would pirate software that I needed to improve a skill or something along those lines. Once I got older and started having disposable income, I started buying software. Hell, I even legitimately own Adobe CS3 Web Premium.

Nowadays, if I use a piece of donationware that provided a useful service, I donate. I donate to Open Source projects which have been particularly useful to me. The oddity here is, I'm far from fiscally well-off; I have about $3,500 to my name.

So, it seems to me at least, that these things become habit. There were times I used to pirate software (or anything, really) just because I didn't feel like paying for it. Once I became accustomed to paying for software, I kept paying and even started donating. Now, I don't have a single piece of pirated software on my computer.

Although, I do have some paid-for software which I no longer use. For instance, I have a license for SteerMouse (http://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/) which I no longer use, but am also barred from transferring it (I was going to give it away just now) per the license agreement. This is just silly. The less restrictive a piece of licensed software is, the more likely I am to buy it.
They won't pay due to shame. Not at all. People steal music from indie artists just as readily as they do Madonna. They're not out to get someone by stealing from them, they just want stuff for free.

They rationalize it largely as they wouldn't have paid for it anyway.
Good point.
Better yet, try a suit case with 4 wheels (mine is a Samsonite). I like it so much I would volunteer as a spokesman.
You are explaining why the lender makes more money by doing X or why they cannot possibly survive without doing X or why it is financially prudent or their fiduciary responsibility....

That has nothing to do with fair. At least not a definition of the term outside of the rules of the market. If you define fair as 'legal' or 'in keeping with free market economics' then sure, it's fair.
As one of their semi-competitors, albeit an insignificant one, all I can say is "damn". I like the way looking at their site gives you a migraine.
You haven't explained your proposed legal structure so it's hard to comment. How do you plan to structure it? Will the money each person contributes be a donation, or a loan, or an equity investment, or ???
You don't want your child programming in six years.

You want her PLAYING...
And she can PLAY with:
Logo,
Lego weDO,
Lego MindStorms
MIT Scratch,
CMU Alice
SmallTalk Etoys
and OpenCorquet..

pretty entertaining, and educative...
but most of all FUN
Good job guys. I still prefer your "my top sites" search result though. That thing is just absolute magic :-)
You don't want your child programming in six years.
You want her PLAYING...

And she can PLAY with Logo,
con Lego weDO, Lego MindStorms
MIT Scratch,
Alice..
SmallTalk Etoys
and OpenCorquet..

pretty entertaining, and educative... but most of all fun
So if politics and democracy are the same what's your position towards them? Should we refuse democracy or just stop complaining about politics?
PHP Meritocracy by Andrei Zmievski
Deepak Chopra.
I don't understand how anyone can be against us Pastafarians/Lolcoders!!! What is wrong with everyone? Just because I write legibly does not mean that I don't want my code to tell me that its in my pants waiting for input!

And obviously you all have not been blessed by his noodly appendages, but I shall not go and spread our sacred gospel, he shall come and touch you with his noodliness and you shall instantly convert.
Which lisp dialect/implementation do you use? And which libraries? Do you have a blog, maybe? Thanks!
I suspect that the returns are too low to cover the failures or rates would be too high for the successful ones to afford. The real problem is that banks borrow short and lend long. They cant take the risk. Maybe VCs could package SBA loans. Others have suggested small investments from non-sophisticated investors. Maybe they could set up a mutual fund that invested in letter stock. Letter stock is stock that is not registered with the SEC and cannot be publicly traded.
I didn't say they are slavery. Please do not put words in my mouth.
To hackers: please don't look through our code for GPL violations, because surely you'll find some. Hopefully no one finds all the code I copy/pasted from, or the documentation I learnt from.

To hackers: I used GPL software to compile this program, but I won't give you the same pleasure... you are not free to use my programs.
I'm sorry to hear how hard it's been for George. Flickr is a great product and has had huge returns for Yahoo.

That said, my uninformed reaction is to consider this a good move. The last thing Yahoo needs is another project with no clear business model, regardless how cool. This is the kind of work that should be funded by massive donations like wikipedia. If it's going to be supported by a company, it shouldn't be one on life support.
You have to admit though that the redesign is significantly better than the current design.
Major Web browsers fail password protection tests
There's some interesting but half-baked speculation that hydrates are responsible for some of the strange happenings reported in the Bermuda Triangle.

The idea is that the deposits will spontaneously burp up an enormous quantity of methane from time to time. This causes the ocean to turn into a foam that's much less dense than water: ships sink like rocks in the stuff.

Apparently it also causes some kind of ionization or static charge in the air that can cause navigation instruments to go haywire.

Again, interesting and very much half-baked.
Definitely needs comments. I visit HN for the comments more than the links. icombinator.net does a great job with that.
All right then -- fair to whom, and by what standard?
Compilers licensed under the GPL do not transfer their license to their output. This is explicitly stated in the GPL.
Log critical/connectivity errors to a local disk.
It seems that App Engine will remain just a fun toy until more of its limitations are removed.
Very nice. Its like <search term> site:news.ycombinator.com but orders of magnitudes more polished and better designed.
LaLa, The Black Sheep Of Music Startups, Just May Have The Right Formula
Does It Come Down To The IDE?
Intel Pushing Parallelism to Developers
If rolodex is built on company's time and dime then it's company's IP. No need for non-compete in that case.

Reltionships are fair game. I don't think any corproation should be able to dictate whom I can and can not talk to. This is where their business interests end and my personal liberties begin.
Capitalism is just a system that replaced heredity with exchange values as the economic imperative. It's only been used by a few primate tribes for a few hundred years. It's about as significant to the genetic tree of life as this sentence I'm writing is to the internet. And it's dying anyway; this site, for instance, implements a postcapitalist economic system.
A New Theory of the Universe
I forgot that BES sends email through canada
Marketing Geeks Make Their Predictions for 2009
Industrial Strength Application Development in JavaScript
Hey terrycojones! Thanks for the cool shit you're doing ;-)

Edit: Just ordered Vol 1 of the Orwell essays from abebooks [much cheaper than Amazon]
Usually I will find out what book famous people has read, what are their favorite books, hope that any book which bring influence on them, will bring good influence on me too.. also, as famous n successful people combined with their experience, I'm sure they have better taste on their choice too.

Stephen King's Favorite:
This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. Homes
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Mad Cook of Pymatuning: A Novel by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel by Stef Penney
When Will There Be Good News?: A Novel by Kate Atkinson

J.K. Rowling's Favorite:
The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Skellig by David Almond
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle

Jeffrey Eugenides, author, Pulitzer prize winner
"Herzog," by Saul Bellow
"Love in a Fallen City," by Eileen Chang
"The Lay of the Land," by Richard Ford

Oprah Winfrey's Favorite:
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

For complete list visit http://www.famouspal.com
That is almost true1, but completely misses the point.

They are using tools(gcc) by people who count on their honesty to give people the same freedom they are given.

Get a better business model. Software copying has been happening since the beginning(since before people were charging for software)... learn from history. People who still complain about copying software are very silly, they haven't learnt from over 50 years of history.

1 not a lawyer, however -- with certain compiler switches you can include GPL software with gcc. For example if you link in GPL covered object code.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=386811

See my comment there: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=388401
Protip: URL-encoding parens for Wikipedia links solves the problem on every website including Hacker News.
This is like my personal rule. I try to avoid credit and loan, unless 1) I really need it(emergency etc) 2) it makes me money(eg. a business opportunity 3) its saves me money(eg. house loan(which isn't always the case)).

But most people seem to take credit and loan just because they _want_ something, and just raise their standard of living on money they don't really have, and hurting their future wealth.
I agree with Minsky -- "anything computers can't do yet" ;-)
"RDF is hard. Let's go shopping!"
Madoff fraud could burn those who pulled out early
Comments and a favicon please!
The study linked to says in huge type: "Google Chrome Receives Lowest Password Security Score"

In comparatively tiny type it says: "Safari Ties for Last Place"

hmmm sounds like biased reporting ...
Nice. I also enjoy this one a lot

http://www.icombinator.net/
Did anyone else start programming on TI calculators? I was 11 when I got a TI-83, which is essentially a portable editor and compiler. Not only could you write TI-Basic and z80 assembly, you could write pseudo-assembly with the Basic commands due to bad syntax checking - and you could do it anywhere! Oh the nostalgia. I lament the day my 83 died.

But was this to the detriment of my personality? I say no. Not only did it encourage relationships with like-minded peers, it also helped me understand the social attitudes through design (products for people's needs). I would like to think that I came out alright - socially-competent in respects. In fact, I'm not even the type that you would peg as a programmer.
This analogy is nothing new, and unfortunately it is just the latest analogy of the brain to the latest technological gizmo.

The brain was analogous to the telegraph, the telephone switchboard, the computer, and now ... the Internet.
Software For The Recession
I know this isn't 100% relevant to your post, but AOL used to have undo on sent emails (to other aol members)
Yeah that's why I hate it. I hope I can find it and submit some feedback saying "I really hate having to look on more than 1 page to find every sports score ever reported."
The money each person contributes will be an equity investment.
You can see the new site here: http://beta.espn.go.com
We launched a similar plugin with Webmynd for Fluther and so far our users have been very receptive.

I have to say it's a brilliant way for them to market their service, and everybody wins.
I just got a server error trying to load a comments page with > 100 comments ;)
How do you mitigate the risk of local maxima? Is there good way to try (or justify trying) radically different approaches without undermining past work?
It's the people, stupid.
GAE is not suitable for porting existing programs to it regardless of the language: the architecture is too different.
Did anyone else notice the oxymoron here?

"I'll just get straight to the point. You've been affected by the layoffs."

I guess it shouldn't surprise me that a middle manager would call a weasly euphemism getting "straight to the point".
Everytime I see ft.com I think of momentum
Outsourcing Killed By Django And Ruby On Rails
That's stealing more (in terms of dollars) from the labels than it is from the artists/talent.

Personally, I would pay for more music if the artists saw more than 5% of the proceeds. If you really want to support an artist: go to the concerts, donate directly or tell your friends about them.
Create an amazing music player using mouse gestures & hotkeys in jQuery
PG, when you were looking at YC apps, how many +points did you give to candidates who worked at Google?
My boy will either start with Haskell or nothing at all. None of this imperative side-effect BS. Go functional or go home will be the word around my house!!! ;)
Here's a link to the new beta: http://beta.espn.go.com

By far the most annoying part of ESPN is the auto playing videos. I've found myself going to Yahoo Sports/Deadspin/thebiglead much more frequently because of it.
How Much To Tip Your Wedding Vendors?
For any wedding to be successful, planning is essential. You need to plan everything in advance and you should not leave anything for the last moment. You should not rely on your memory too much because you will not be in a position to keep track of things on that big day and you should not try to do that either.
There seems to be a clue or two missing in middle management.

Its like throwing out the projector because they figure that now that they have the image on the wall, who needs it?

I sense a hard lesson about to be learned. Good luck in your next endevour, George.
I spent a week in S.F. in March 2007 and another in May 2008. I spent most of the time in the same areas (Market St., SoMa, Yerba Buena and Fisherman's Wharf) the increase in the number of homeless people in 2008 was staggering.
Web design 
Speed Limit Studios is a professional full-service web design company. We specialize in web design and development, but we also place a lot of focus on marketing web sites and businesses. That's because we know that having a great web site isn't enough. You have to be able to market that web site so that Internet users can find you. That's why we don't just create a good-looking web site and then wash our hands of it.
Well, I guess the good news is that one still gave me a small headache.
Obama's New New Deal—as bad as the old New Deal? [Flash Movie]
The seven rules of unobtrusive JavaScript
6600 No Network Problem
6600, 6600 antina switch ways, 6600 antina swtich jumpers, 6600 network problem, 6600 network ways, 6600 no network, 6600 signal problem, Nokia, nokia 6600
Am I the only one who thinks HN works really well on the iPhone? I've never had any problems using it, but as there's like 2-3 of these iPhone versions I guess I'm in the minority.
I have iPhone interface almost ready for any HN-like site that's written in Arc. Supports voting, comments etc. I'll release it at some point as beta on newmogul.com and then as source. If you run a site based on Arc codebase, let me know if you want it early.
I can recommend getting timer-applet if you're running Gnome.
Thanks :-)

What other sources would you like to see? If you find yourself ever typing into a search box on some site that isn't Google (or one of the other large search engines) let us know and we'll add it.
It works, but there's too much scrolling/zooming required to read comments.
PHP would be Cafeteria Christianity ... whole concept of "goto hell" was abandoned.

And here I would consider PHP the defintion of going to hell :)
I doubt most people know that though. People are unaware of the economics of the recording industry and don't really care much.

It's the same with software.
I would wager that a comment flippantly (and ignorantly) disparaging a very useful site which unleashed quite a bit of creativity everywhere, is much much lamer.
I can't help but read this passage " They also tell you when you're succeeding in fixing them: when cram schools become less popular." and think of campaign finance reform.

The way to solve corruption in government isn't to outlaw large contributions to campaigns (cram schools), but to make large contributions less valuable. The most expidient way to do that is to decrease the power of elected politicians.
Well my target audience is advertising companies. But point well taken.
Tips on Buying Men’s Dress Shoes
While the only aspect of buying women’s shoes that often presents a dilemma for women is whether or not they have enough money to purchase the pair of shoes; the same thing cannot be said of men. Surprisingly, women have more difficulty purchasing men’s dress shoes for their spouses. This should not come as a surprise, after all when it comes to buying things such as shoes, men would view shoes as black shoes or brown shoes, period. This is the main reason why most women would never consider giving their partners a pair of men’s dress shoes as a gift for any occasion. For those women who would like to step into this unexplored territories and attempt to give your partner a nice pair of men’s dress shoes, these tips could help you by making things a little bit easier.
i mostly wanted links to open up in separate windows so i didn't have to go back after reading something.
donezo!
Respectfully, why are PG's articles so damn long? If your goal isn't to make beautiful writing, you should just get to the point. Who has time to read long articles in this day and age.
oh nice, didn't know about that. i think i'll use it instead :-)
i took undergrad research class and some grad level courses before applying

despite my Cs in english, pol sci, and other humanities courses, i got in ... to make it more dramatic, i also got graduate research assistantship :D
Why Is Steve Jobs Skipping MacWorld?