skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I was a PM for Microsoft around 2003, and remember taking a few great classes from Scott Berkun.

In retrospect I wonder if the existence of the role itself is cause for so much of the slowness within Microsoft. The PM role became not so much a role as a cleanup/do-everything kind of position.

Unfortunately so many people end up just being gatekeepers or secretaries that actually get in the way of people getting work done, instead of visionary thinkers and doers that help things get done. I think Scott is on to something when he says that people now feel like 3 hour meetings, disheveled teams and failing products seem NORMAL. Someone needs to clean up the PM role, and I think that will clean up the lack of innovation at Microsoft.
Ask YC: Immigration (wrt entrepreneurs) conditions in Canada?
As far as I know Canada has an open immigration policy for educated workers (>= college degree).

Does anybody know how the immigration process works if one is trying to start a company? ie Is it viable for a non-Canadian citizen to start a company? Has anyone tried this?
This is cool, except these metamaterials will have much more use in science than they ever will in the fields people imagine they would.

Militarily speaking, cloaking isn't a practical thing. From what I understand the first 'cloak' was like 10-20% of the objects volume. This means to cloak a plane it has to be 10-20% larger in certain spectrum's. Not only that, but the plane would be forced to be subsonic, the fragile structure of a metamaterial (literally they're hollow structures) would be destroyed at supersonic speeds and even if it wasn't the heat generated by going supersonic (friction heat) would cause it to expand and distort the 'cloak' into different wavelengths and efficiencies.

This might be used for UAV's and maybe armed UAV's, however, if they ever make one that cloaks the visible spectrum I believe there would be great use in hiding security devices, like an infrared camera or sound recording devices.

I think it's an amazing breakthrough, just the uses are going to be extremely different than anything ever seen in a movie. I mean I've read newspapers describing it like Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility, which is quite laughable as a fabric made of a metamaterial that could cloak a human would be like a foot thick and probably wouldn't survive any form of movement.

The epitome of stealth technology for a person would more likely be akin to the cloak Frodo has in the LOTR, which doesn't make him disappear but makes him look like the dirt he's hiding on, it's just an advanced form of camouflage not pure fantasy.
embarrassed to be found out maybe?
MySQL Native Driver for PHP, mysqlnd
There's a great VibrantInk port for vim around too.
Startup Camp Sydney 2 Roundup
Testing is Overrated
You are welcome. And by the way, have you seen the ads on those sites? Right now: Hottest Clickbank Products, Make Money in 4 Minutes!, $3,456/daily, Fat Loss 4 Idiots / Weight Loss and Diet Center to paste a few. Is that going to happen with Twitter?
Are Paperless Receipts the Future in Retail?
Come to a Bootstrapper Breakfast (http://www.bootstrapperbreakfast.com) and you will have a chance to meet folks with a realistic business model. I would also try the http://www.HackersandFounders.com meetup which a number of serious entrepreneurs attend.

EDIT: when you say "looking for seed capital" I wouldn't mix an Angel role with a co-founder role. You may choose to contribute capital and/or 'sweat equity' as a co-founder, but that's different from an Angel role.
A Look At Vimeo's 'Pencil To Paper' Development Process
Wow, I hadn't even noticed that the images were linked, let alone they were affiliate links. This is a pretty low-quality attempt, both for a blog post and a pitch to get money.
Looks to me like the caps lock and excessive punctuation were intended ironically. Which may or may not justify them, but the problem isn't a failure to realise that there's "no need to yell around here".
Don't correlate my frustration with not being able to do something or anything in django. That wasn't the case, not what I meant. I'm glad you were able to make a shitty blog, I'm sure you're satisfied with yourself.
Residency for misv?
It looks like the current startup I work for won't manage to get its next round of funding.. which means at the current burnrate its time to start making future plans. My situation is that I'm non-resident in the US, on H1B, and wondering whether its possible to stay here, and become resident, while bootstrapping a MISV?

While I'll be making initial calls to immigration lawyers this week about this, I'm wondering if anyone here has practical experience with this? I do not plan, at least initially, to immediately reach for the "hire 10 residents and invest $1M" level required for an investment visa. My plan is to grow slowly and sustainably with paying customers. I have about $500k savings so living expenses are not a problem (based on past experience with this type of product I expect 6 months development required to reach first release).
Is that still a 'best of all time' ranking? If so, it would seem like the ever growing user base is turning it into a 'best of the past few weeks' ranking.
Good question
The simple answer is that I've been studying Theory of Constraints.

And TOC provides the tools to identify cause and effect relationships that in the end lead to to the root problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Processes_(Theory_of_C...
It is a tough decision to make a change to the UI at this point. However, if things are going downhill for HN (or even beginning to or expected to), a change like that may benefit the structure.

In any case, personally I think that the discussions here are great, and I'm thankful for it. Just thought making discussions more prominent might emphasize the selling factor of this site.
Are you kidding me? Are you really saying that the people who didn't like Google are the engineers who aren't as interested in algorithms? That seems both condescending and arrogant.

As a San Francisco native with friends that are both at Google and have left Google, I can tell you it's not the dumb engineers that quit. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. Your answer is glib and is totally the wrong take "if you love algorithms, scaling problems and the rest, you are likely to find a group where you can be pretty happy, intellectually speaking. But, if you aren't into that kind of thing, it may not be the place for you."

Google attrition is 0% correlated to that. It's totally false, and it says something about you that you think that.

It has more to do with cultural fit, not technical fit. For example, at Google you have to be extremely persuasive and political to get anything done as an engineer. You seem like a pretty forward and well-spoken individual, so this environment made you thrive.

But if you're not much for that sort of thing, then trying to get anything done in such a flat management hierarchy is going to be impossible.

Let me say it again: the engineers who left aren't the dumb ones.

EDIT: Another thing. It's not that Google employees can't hack it and quit. A bigger problem is Google has so many smart people, that really great engineers often get trivial programming tasks. Google doesn't have enough interesting work to keep everyone interested.
Funny, I just hopped online to type up tomorrow's post.

I'm not insulting either project; I enjoy using both daily.
I remember when I initially read these emails (the thread is from last year), my first though was, "I'm glad that I don't have to work with these people."

Perhaps this is unfair since they are just venting (and not all of the emails were in this category, some were reasonable), but there's something about their attitude that is just very unappealing. I can't quite put my finger on it though... Something about working at big companies seems to turn many people into whiny children. I think it's because they aren't really responsible for anything.

Unfortunately, Google's transition into "yet another big company" is inevitable at this point. If you take the same fundamental structure as every other big company, and hire the same people as the other big companies, then you shouldn't be surprised when you end up looking like every other big company.
It's not a pitch to get money. I've been pondering this blog post for a while since I noticed the difference in a bookstore, and linking to Amazon was a hundred times easier than finding all the books on the websites of their respective publishers.
I drink gyokuro and unfortunately I've been unable to find anything local here in Perth that is decent.

I know it can be expensive when compared to other teas, but I'm able to get about 4 infusions out of every serving so the price is much less than originally thought, plus its still significantly cheaper than other options (eg soda drinks)
This is kind of a holy war-ish question, FWIW. People have strong opinions, and the Qwerty vs. Dvorak thing has been tangled up in some academics' arguments about whether the Free Market is always right.

I've used Dvorak for over two years now, and in my experience:

1. If you spend a lot of time typing on computers you have control over, particularly if your career involves typing, it will probably pay off within a few months. (It works very well with Emacs, IMHO.) If you spend much of your time fixing other peoples' computers or something, it probably won't help you much.

2. If you're genuinely curious about whether it would be worthwhile, it probably will be, even if only for the experience of shaking up really deeply wired habits.

3. Don't do it if you have deadlines coming up! Seriously, don't. Plan on a week or so of typing 5-15 wpm, and any "cheating" during the first week or two will really confuse you. (You'll probably also feel really stupid at first, like you've forgotten how to talk. It will pass.)

4. You will be able to type on a Qwerty keyboard, but switching back and forth within the first month or two will really confuse you. It's not a big deal once you're used to it, though. Having contextual associations ("my keyboard is Dvorak, the one in the school lab (or whatever) isn't") also helps.
i've started using ec2 for rendering 3D animations. Much cheaper than investing in a renderfarm for the moment.
Black background, light-coloured text, not too much Angry Fruit Salad, very small fonts to fit as much as possible on the screen.

Easier on the eyes, plus it happens to be what I'm used to.
Its not only shitty, its ugly too, thats to be expected from a noob :D

I guess i didn't express my point very well, the idea was that i used the docs and found them very useful, and i was able to do something that i was unable to do if i hadn't. Maybe you could say specifically what you don't like about the docs, here is what i liked:

-there was a good tutorial, that skipped some details, and let me get a general feel of how things work.
-the rest of the docs are divided in to sections and finding things was easy, it was pretty well organized.
-There were notes and backward compatibility warnings, that helped me avoid some headaches.

Well, i don't like the green colorscheme, but other that that i had no headache with it. Maybe if i went on to make something more complicated?
You can use adwords on the partner network (not search traffic, but targeting other sites) and pay a very low CPC ($0.05). Google will eventually spend it for you and you'll get quite a few visitors from it. Not super-high quality, but may get you started.

http://FairSoftware.net: where geeks are their own boss
And, how do we know that those reviews are not generated through Turks?
So what kind of technical writer does Google hire?

I tried, twice upon a time: first in 2005 and later in 2006, for the advertised position of a "technical writer," both times subsequently told via email (no personal interview) that "we don't have a position which is a strong fit."

Who writes this form-mail content? Surely you'd best practice honesty in your rejection emails, perhaps something like "We pride ourselves in making a torturous psychological game out of hiring people, and therefore interview only for positions which don't actually exist."

I still do love Google, though, and can't even begin to bring myself to apply there again, out of fear of hating it for one last rejection. All the while do I figuratively starve to death.

I didn't get it then, and still don't get it now.

Surely you guys must know that writers aren't by nature people people. Even six unpaid interviews with actual people seems like too much for a career in writing web-friendly code.
Having just put out a press release yesterday and having been covered on TechCrunch the same day, I can tell you one thing: the press release has nothing to do with getting covered. It's a waste of money if that's all you do.

http://FairSoftware.net: where geeks are their own boss
Sorry, yes. That's the one.
The future of eyewitness journalism
The two (immigration / starting a business) don't have much to do with each other. Immigration is fairly easy if you have a technical education & are fluent in either english or french, but be prepared to wait. See http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/apply-who.asp and take the self assessment at the bottom to see if you have enough points. (that's pretty much all they use to decide)

Immigration as an investor is a little different. This may apply to you, though Canada's definition of an entrepreneur is someone who will bring in C$300K into the country. You then have to operate a business that employs people. See
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/entrepreneur... for more info.

If you qualify on points, there's not much point in tying up your money, but this might get you quicker processing.

When we got our permanent resident status 4 yrs ago, the process took almost 3 years. ymmv.

Starting a business is similar to the US, though overall paperwork seems to be lower. There aren't as many options in corporate structure as in the US - but a sole proprietership or partnership can be set up in a couple days. Labor laws are definitely stronger here (in the employee's benefit). Health care is obviously cheaper. Definitely talk to a lawyer first.

Good luck.
I'm kind of wondering which comment you are answering, you seem to be angry at my post for some slight that I didn't even say in my comment (or even in the quote). If you have a chip on your shoulder about google, fine, but the things you seem to be upset about seem almost wholly unrelated with what I said.

I didn't say that those that quit are stupid or somehow inferior, and if you read that in the comment, I really don't know what to say about that. I don't think that is the case (except here and there, naturally) and that those engineers that left the company did so because they found an opportunity that fit them better. Turnover happens, and you can read some great deep meaning into it, I suppose, but sometimes people just stop being interested in a job after 2 or 3 years (or less)

I think that you are right in that you have to be persuasive (or political, for some definitions of political) to get new projects off the ground or to direct a project in some direction, but that's kind of academic, isn't it? Where isn't that true?

As to the great programmers getting trivial programming tasks: I'm certain this happens. Our readability guidelines almost require that people do something basic or trivial. Some people hate that.
The whole thing is ridiculous. I found this pearl on their site:

> "Recently we began the process of converting a huge RoR App that consists of 285,000 lines of Ruby code using less than 10,000 lines of Django code."

Here is another one:

> "Django requires far less code than Ruby on Rails because..."

> "Django does not reqire MVC (Model, View, Controller), therefore Django Apps require far less code"

Another one, the last I'll post, I promise:

> "We focus on recoding the Ruby functionality using Python code; this process takes place very quickly once it begins."

Can you say snake-oil salesman? BTW, Rails and Ruby on Rails have been trademarked to prevent people from pulling stunts like this.

Edit: Django is trademarked as well, so this should be easy to resolve. Also, Reddit did some research about the guy behind this operation (http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7qoue/django_20...). The results aren't pretty.
You're Doing IT Wrong: Tech Recruiters
Honestly, I have no clue. I've not sat in those committees and I've only seen a few of the tech writer packets, and I was at best observing (I don't know much about that group).

If I were you I'd track down Tom Galloway, he used to work in that team and he's on the internets. He's a friendly guy and likely to reply substantively to you. I've heard the writing test is....something.
On Eclipse and Xcode it's black text (or colored for keywords) on white background. I haven't programmed on a black background since the early 90s on the Apple II.

I remember making the switch, at first I was shocked. By now, I'm completely used to it.

http://fairsoftware.net : where geeks are their own boss
there is nothing interesting about PHP

Obviously people in this community feel that there is something interesting there worth discussing. If you disagree, perhaps that implies that this community isn't a good fit for you.
"persistent connections for ext/mysqli"

That could be a big win for php apps that are coded against mysqli api vs. the PDO api. I can't wait to give it a shot! I also read somewhere that common open source PHP apps (Wordpress et al) running against PHP 5.3 are experiencing a 10% - 25% increase in performance vs. 5.2X, which is mighty nice.
TechCrunch50 behind the scenes of the selection process
Your feedstomper service rules. I'm using it for Ask Metafilter, and I'll probably use it for a host of others.
Been there, done that.

First: you are confused about the $1M investment. That's for getting a green card. No one ever got it by the way, that's one of immigration's little secrets.

Just as good is the E-1 visa, which requires no minimum investment. So if you can build a strong business case that you are starting a business in the US, with legitimate customers, it's definitely to explore. Your country of origin needs to have a treaty in place with the US.

It costs a good lawyer about $6,000 to do a "treaty investor" visa.

http://fairsoftware.net: where geeks are their own boss
It's actually $3,000 in after-tax (federal, state, and SS) dollars, so it is really closer to a $5-6,000 difference in base salary, as long as you are a glutton.
> I'd like to have lunch some day with whoever is behind this.

Don't; you'd probably be stuck with the check.
He has clearly dealt with 'foreigners' in the programming world before. He knows exactly how to explain his needs and requirements in blunt detail, and this is an absolute requirement if you want to avoid wasting time considering losers who will flood you with job applications even when they know they are not qualified.

I think he's hoping that his ad will discourage most of the programmers who would otherwise apply -- thus leaving only a very few applications to review. I've run ads very similar to this in my efforts to hire local Filipino programmers for my outsourcing business. I

It just 'makes sense' to me, and to anyone else who has actually been in a similar situation too I presume.
Some indication that a comment of yours has been replied to.
Reddit's little orange envelope is the obvious example.

Alternatively, an RSS feed of your "threads" page might work but I'd prefer an icon personally.
Terminal I go dark - Textmate I go light.

Maybe I should switch to dark - it is a bit nicer on the eyes I think.

Edit: Switched over Textmate to a dark theme, and I am glad for the reminder. I don't know why on this new machine I didn't have it set that way!
This post clearly shows the market white-space that is being filled by YC and other similar funds.
"Dirigisme has a place, of course, in the regulation and operation if not the design of institutions. A school cannot work without a teacher, a firm without a manager, or an army without a general — just as a body is directed by a brain in its everyday operations. But hubristic human beings tend to exaggerate the degree to which they are in charge of, rather than at the mercy of, organisations."
So...if we reverse his analogy and go back to life, is he saying there is some kind of 'manager of life,' like a god or something?
I couldn't possibly make it every night, but I'd like to make it to at least one day. We'll see.

In the meantime, perhaps you can open it up to people outside our area via IRC/IM and justin.tv the event online. Get some local companies to sponsor food for the event. Use online invitation web apps. Tumblog it. Get it Dugg, reddit'd, slashdot'd, etc.

A helpful challenge could be to make an online publishing and voting system for new challenges. Who knows!

Good luck!
C-jump: computer programming board game for kids
What's missing from the response is that they took action to fire the person responsible.

I read the response: it's wrapped into a lot of nice, vague, non-specific, non-binding stuff. It's well written by a PR department and may fool the average joe.

http://fairsoftware.net: where geeks are their own boss
Yeah. Democracy. It sucks. It is worth considering Lessig's approach to changing Congress as a way to mitigate some of these problems:

http://change-congress.org/

Lots of worthwhile and related stuff on his blog:
http://www.lessig.org/blog/
$fx - JavaScript animation library
"I can get a building security job and code for more than $11 per hr."

You missed the whole point of the ad.

The project is listed on getafreelancer which caters to the thousands of offshore programmers who could never earn $20 a DAY doing programming work for employers in their own countries.

It seems obvious to me that this ad is NOT for a programmer in a developed country. In the Philippines the BEST programmers never earn more than $20 a day working for local companies, and most of them are lucky to earn $7-10 a day. This is not a joke either, I've employed and managed hundreds of them since I moved here 8 years ago and I know exactly what I'm talking about.

These freelancer-type sites attract programmers from third-world countries specifically because the opportunities allow them to earn an order of magnitude more money on outsourcing jobs to folks in developed countries than if they took a job working as a programmer for a local company.

Unfortunately most of these programmers also think they have to bullshit the folks they are trying to get jobs from, since that's the only way they have to try to distinguish themselves from the other thousand programmers who will apply for the same jobs. So ...

To put a strongly worded and very demanding job opportunity like this one online seems to me to be the ideal way to go about finding 'the best of the best' while hoping that everyone else will be scared off.

Naturally the advertiser knows that he's fighting an uphill battle to try to find someone who actually knows how to design software rather than just write code, especially when he's looking in low wage foreign countries. But if all he needs is that one ideal candidate, maybe his ad will discourage most of the riff-raff from wasting his time.

His approach of requiring 5 separate unpaid projects is also a great way to weed out the losers. In third-world countries you can EASILY find lots of guys who will agree to do little 2-hour projects for no pay if it might mean a very high paying long term job with a foreign company -- and that's exactly what this guy is offering.

My guess is that he is giving the exact same tests to every applicant. That's what I would do in his position, and I've been in his position dozens of times this past decade.

In other words, it's an exceptionally well written ad that may produce the precise results the advertiser is hoping for ... and that's a difficult thing to accomplish in a third-world country.
Counting Infinity