skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
In the US at least, all of the major wireless providers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint) charge you for receiving SMS messages (see http://joshmoles.com/2008/04/09/incoming-sms-should-be-free/ ). The only exception I can think of is if you are paying for a certain number of text messages through your plan (i.e. AT&T offers 200, 1500, and unlimited texting plans) - incoming messages are deducted from this number, though.
This post most likely does not actually represent a real management position.
No sign-up version...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/26/technology/26spend.ph...
> technical excellence might even be the deciding factor to establish and justify a presence [for a "me-too" project] in the marketplace.

How often does technical excellence have a significant role in establishing presence in the marketplace? (I don't understand "justify". Justify to whom?)
you'll know you've picked the right language when robots from the future beat down your door.
In the first statement you made, you can replace money with any other essential need that human beings have.

My perspective has always been this; after you have achieved your needs for the money you need to stay alive, what do you do next?

As I was saying before we should first find what we like and then look at the money required to carry it out. If we were to take the other approach where we first look for the money and then find something to do in our life that makes us happy with the money, we would invariably hurt ourselves in the process. As somebody mentioned before in the comments, the pursuit of money distracts from the task at hand. This leads to an unhappy process and a poorly completed task.

But again it takes focus to carry this out. Focus not only on what you do but also on what makes you happy.

Happiness is but a collection of moments strung together which when reflected upon gives us the relative feeling of joy.
Rands: A Disclosure
Possible fix: institute a "real" friend limit that is reasonably low. If a user has reached the limit, subsequent requestees are automatically added to a fan page. Allow the user to swap people between the two. Facebook's fan pages, updates etc keep a good balance between marketing & spam... this would enforce the use of them.
It would be interesting to look at the exact URL that the OP posted - maybe it was sanitized after the duplicate check?
As I user I do use these buttons, when I am not on my personal machines.

If I am on one of my own machines, I use the wonderful Firefox plugin Shareaholic http://www.shareaholic.com/ to easily share links.

As a developer would I use these buttons?
Yes.

Why use these buttons when it is possible for users to manually share links using X service?

Because these buttons reduce the cognitive load of sharing that link. Making it more likely that lazy users will share it.

From http://tantek.com/log/2007/02.html#d19t1813
"More specifically, all other things being equal, the cognitive load required to complete an action or task in a human computer interface is directly (probably linearly) proportional to the number of clicks and keystrokes required to complete that action or task. Cognitive load can be roughly defined as "how mentally easy/hard it feels to do something".
I didn't mean to sound critical. I don't really have any experience with large teams. Let me try to rephrase.

A large team would probably imply a large codebase, so are you aware of attempts to separate those two variables? For example it's interesting to me that attempts to do TDD on large codebases have met with success.

Your response also raised another interesting question. TDD could be hard to scale with team size because of intrinsic issues or just the difficulty in 'infecting' a large group with it. I wonder which is larger part of the reason.
Please save me from Objective C .... I hope this article isn't just a tease.
"Willing to work with CUSTOMERS and the SYSTEMS THEY USE"

YOU are the Appliance. YOU are Web 3.0.
He lost me on this blanket statement, too.
First off it's simply not true (there were millionaires outside of porn) and he makes it sound as if starting a porn biz would be the surefire way to become rich.

I wonder how that's supposed to work because I'd imagine if there's one example for a "saturated market" then it would be porn? You're not only competing against a whole set of major players in each imaginable segment, you're also competing against bittorrent, porntube and the like. I somewhat doubt that one could get a foot down there without some serious warchest.
No one really learns anything just for the sake of knowing stuff. They always do so to derive some benefit. This is even the case for "impractical" knowledge. Usually this kind of knowledge is of principles instead of techniques for doing X. Principles are useful to know because A) they are what techniques are derived from so now people can derive their own techniques and B) there is innate satisfaction from the beauty and elegance in the principles behind things. Since everything we do is for the sake of some kind of happiness, knowledge qualifies as something like sex or entertainment, activities people engage in for their own sake.

Those, like yourself, who deride people for asking about "practicality" and "applicability" probably really do think knowledge is useful for the reasons I outlined. What do you gain by dismissing such questions as "anti-intellectual" instead of trying to understand and explain why you think learning is useful?
They sold too early.

(I recall reading Kulveer saying this in own words in his blog, www.kulveer.co.uk, along with the advice PG gave them to keep going and not sell yet, but his blog seems to be down or has a problem so unfortunate I cannot add the source as a reference).

But $500K in a year is still good.
That is consistent with what I've been thinking, too. Also, I have the impression that TDD is more relevant to non-web development. Most of my work at the moment is in mod_perl and the i/o is all though web pages. How does TDD work with web development? Can anyone recommend any reading, video, etc?
Apple to Resellers, No iPhones for you
seems like this "ghandi ... does it matter?" thing is getting a little out of hand here today....
Pope warns against too much Facebook
This link goes to a non-story, which links to the actual content here:

http://www.crn.com/software/212902077
Interesting variance. 1000 people for IE5/IE6, a few dozen for IE7 and a bit more for IE8 again?

Well, a browser is undoubtly a huge project but I wonder how you coordinate a thousand developers (or heck, more than a few hundred really) to produce something useful? I just can't think of enough non-overlapping tasks in such a project that would allow more than maybe 100 people to work simultaneously.
I think of "hard" and "soft" classes as being analogous to search. Before you can search for anything, you need to be able to know what you are looking for and define what it means to find it. That is the sort of thing "soft" classes are about, understanding what we really want and thinking through our decisions carefully.

The "hard" classes, on the other hand, basically consist of a bunch of search techniques and search optimizations for existing problem domains. So, "soft" classes teach you how to define your own problems and "hard" classes teach you how to solve existing problems.
"In general, how easy could one make it for people to recommend products to each other, and split the commission between publisher, recommender, and facilitator?"

That's exactly what Squidoo is designed for. It's especially designed for short pages that combine advice and information with product recommendations.
All this is speculation, we need data.

Someone needs to write a script for Share This which records every time someone clicks on it and then compare those numbers to the amount of actual traffic, to find out what percentage of visitors click that button.

Volunteers?
I use them frequently when I want to share something. If I'm reading a newspaper story that's interesting and I want to share it with my gf or friends, I usually use the "email it" button. If it's something that I'm really passionate about, then I might submit it to facebook, digg, etc... Though mostly I mainly use the email it feature.
Six-figures is often base for a graduate London trader.

Many of them earn a LOT more than that after a couple of years, even now, even with bonuses having been cut back due to the current financial crisis.
C# is my favourite language, its just right...

Mono garbage collection isn't perfect, on mobile devices this could be fatal. It sounds like the Mono boys are trying to find some fame.
Office politics at the local coffee shops
this is officially my favorite comment of the day. matt, thank you for giving hn some humor :-)
I find this one-way broadcast from leader to follower usage of twitter to be kind of... evil.

I'll just single out one bit that I find truly annoying:

* Cause my followers to smile with something funny
* Inspire my followers (for example, with an inspirational quote)
* Enrich my followers' perspectives (such as with a link to an interesting article)

It's all one way. Leader-follower. Not one thing on there is actually him learning from someone else, except for the (presumably always positive) feedback from his followers.

Every link to twitter on there is his tweets. The closest we get to things actually going the other way is a picture of a guy with a cat on his head.
Yeah so... not there anymore
This is especially short-sighted in light of the recent Monty Python sales spike...
Justify to the users, give them a reason to use or switch to your product instead of staying with one of the competitors. (edit: a better word would maybe have been maintain)

I don't know how often it really plays a role but I think many google products fit this pattern. Search, Gmail, Docs and many others are not novel ideas - they were just better executed than what we had before.

One might even go on a limb and say that facebook is succeeding because it is a better myspace...
I kind of like sharing names with other people. Plus, names used to mean something about a person, and we all share some sort of qualities with other people. When everyone's completely unique, no one is.
I think this speedup (and any optimization) is important in the long run; I just dislike when numbers are used without being put in context. I see this in the media all the time. Like when they say that taking [X supplement/drug/food] can reduce your risk of cancer by up to 20%, and then you find out in the fine print that it's only if you're over 65, female, over 200 pounds, have a specific rare genetic mutation...
Like so many things, the answer to do they "really work?"
will be quite variable.

In the interest of optimizing screen space you might look into implementing something like this.

http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/socialhistoryjs/
Sometimes, though, there is a conflict of interest for the client. In case the job is ongoing (continuous maintenance, new features) the client might be afraid that you will not have enough time to devote for them if they find you other customers, (I'm almost sure that this is the case with my current (only) customer).
Smart idea. Since hockey is generally trying to increase scoring, I bet it gets banned.
Google Street View Captures Your Shame: LARP edition
In a non-technical niche, for the last 100,000 times I've displayed them, they've been clicked on 4 times and resulted in 1 save.

On the other hand, for the right sort of material (authoritative "you'll want to read this later" reference aimed at geeks), Delicious buttons perform VERY well for me.
Oh yeah? My web goes to eleven.
Twitterfall - an essential tool for aid workers and humanitarian bloggers
Maybe it works if you learn to love making money.
> cognitive load required to complete an action or task in a human computer interface is directly (probably linearly) proportional to the number of clicks and keystrokes required to complete that action or task

The big question isn't cognitive load but "will the user complete the sequence" rates.

For that, I doubt that the drop-off is linear. I suspect success falls off exponentially in the number of clicks and/or mouse moves. That is, each time I have have to move my mouse or click, there's a non-zero chance that I'll give up.

I'd guess that clicks have a higher "forget it" ratio because clicks typically bring up new screens.
"Mr Data, Take us out at Web 3.0....... Engage!"
Manual Protocol Reverse Engineering
"It is spending a fifth of what it would be for traditional technology, said Jayshree Ullal, Arista’s chief executive."

[Traditional technology being mostly the standard Microsoft stack, replaced by various online applications.]

At some point, CEOs of more conservative corporations are going to be presented with these numbers in a board meeting, and will have a very hard time defending the value they're getting for the money they're handing over to Microsoft. True, there's the "we would have to retrain our employees" argument, but young employees are already used to doing everything online and will be asking the same questions.

Add to that the downward pressure on margins from netbooks (no one is going to spend $200 for an OS on a $200 computer), and I do not see any upside for Microsoft in the near future.
Why not read their blogs?

Chris Sacca writes it in his own words why...
http://www.whatisleft.org/lookie_here/2008/03/thanks-to-auct...
...and elsewhere.

Basicially, to me, it reads because they were passionate about what they were doing (passion), would not let anything stop them (ambition), were able to hack/get things done quickly and efficiently and had some great previous accomplishments (talent, focus, customer care), and were smart.

So, if you possess these qualities, and have a likable-personality, then chances you could woo the Bucheits and Saccas et al of the world (if that is what you desire). Why not?

Otherwise, just get on with building your things, and if it is really something people want, then A) you will get attention this way and B) hopefully make enough cash too to not care about wooing others (maybe I am wrong, but to me it seems people woo only when they want cash/advice/similar rather then pursue friendships because you like each other etc.) :)
The Shareaholic Firefox plugin looks interesting, I was surprised to see it even has a YC Hacker News submit link, too.
Oops, make that "so a basic understanding goes a long way".
The question should be "would Ghandi have used share this buttons".

Honestly, I have no idea.
I disagree, there is definately no hate-hate relationship here in the Netherlands. Everybody who drives also cycles, so they are aware of the fear cyclists have for cars and are always give cyclists space. This respect is then usually abused by the cyclists so they tend to demand right of way, making driving even more precarious.
The proper spelling is Gandhi.
In oligolopic canada you usually have to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of those email to sms gateways. and caller id...
Your observation is correct, although I can tell you that Tony does interact back with people.

I made a comment once that Zappos should add Kangol hats to their merchandise. I really sent it more in the ether than to him directly, but he direct-messaged me back saying they would look into it.

Another time I was at a tradeshow and saw an interesting RFID inventory solution. I direct-messaged Tony to tell him about it, and I got a thanks reply back shortly after.

I think he's paying attention to and listening to what others are saying. I took the tone of his article to be more positive, and I do believe that he has far more followers than "followees", which is not abnormal for Twitter pseudo-celebrities.
I dunno, this article seems a bit too similar to smashLAB's article 3 weeks prior.

http://www.ideasonideas.com/2009/01/startup_fail/
He doesn't define failure. It seems to mean any outcome other than making millions of dollars. I consider my startup a wild success if it just manages to break even while supporting a liveable income and giving me something useful and interesting to do with my life.
I'm willing to concede that it might not reflect his actual behavior because I checked his twitter page and he does have lots of "followees."
The number of possibilities for new HN submissions just exploded: "Wired not writing about xyz", "NYT fails to document...", "Techcrunch not reporting..." and so on... (Wish I was a funny writer who could fill those sentences with stuff spontaneously).
There's a difference, though, between doing it just for the money and doing it for the love of the game which could also lead to more money.
Feel Like Reading Vague Buzzwords And Wasting Your Time? Click Here.
Some things come down to personal preference, but I don't think OCaml's static type system is more useful than Lisp's approach for parsers / compilers. Granted if your building avionics then type safety is important, but in the more normal case it's just not that useful.

Haskell is a pure functional language which is great for maintaining systems but I don't think it's a real benefit when writing them. If you want to write Lisp as a functional Language you can but when it's useful to break that mold you can.

PS: There is probably a better language out there for this stuff, but I don't know of it.
like another user mentioned, shareaholic looks pretty interesting. however, i think browser plugins are too high friction for an average user to install. has anyone implemented something similar as a bookmarklet?
And on the other hand, when I pay £5 for half an hour on your wi-fi, can you please grant me an aura that protects me from the dirty looks only a laptop and an empty coffee cup can bring?
He had an adoring crowd too. He just had a much larger opposite crowd.
Good point. I actually knew that and got it right at first, then seem to have picked up the wrong one from a comment subconsciously. Fascinating.
Want more, please. Seriously, where can I find more great blog posts like this one. It was meaty, yet still clear and concise. It covered a super-valuable technique in sufficient detail and even included sample python code. Brilliant.

We are doing some device specific characterization and calibration work at my LED lighting startup, which is why I found the post so relevant. However, least-squares polynomial curve fitting techniques have immensely broad application in a variety of fields. Can't wait for the follow up. (Man, I'm such a geek)
it would be close to impossible to prove that it makes any difference whatsoever. and i'd imagine skill players would take offense at the idea that they look to see where the goalie's pads are.
I think that's pre-Bill James thinking about sports, especially the part about taking offense. If half the goalies in the NHL suddenly adopted this, it wouldn't take very long at all to measure statistical differences.
As a goalie, I'm skeptical about claims that those pads will fool players. In fact, one school of thought says that pads should be dark so that the goalie appears as large and imposing as possible.

Regardless of their effectiveness, I think they look cool.
Right, just stick them into the tubes!
Twitter: Possibly Valued at $250 Million
Seems like there's a market for a place full of private cozy nooks where $20 buys a bottomless cup of coffee, an all day wifi pass and a plug at every table.
Thanks.

That post took at least 10 hours over the past few weeks to write; it's gratifying to know you found it useful. The next one will probably be on regularized least squares (i.e. choosing an x that is close to optimal and also small, so it behaves well in later calculations).

You might also look at Stephen Boyd's videos on linear estimation: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=06960BA52D0DB32B

I think least squares is covered in lectures 5 and 6.
Have any links?
Has he written much on such topics?
I always thought that SMS is something that would die along with traditional mobile networks. When new standards like WiMax become fully adopted then mobile carriers become obsolete, as do arbitrary protocols like SMS. We end up with everything-over-IP and short text messages become just another way to receive data (with appropriate costs!).

Having said that I think that currently SMS is more convenient than email, and perhaps a new short message standard should be considered to replace SMS. There are tradeoffs, though - if we switch to email then I have a way of receiving messages at multiple locations, eg. indexing my conversations on my PC as well as having them pushed to my device.

SMS is definitely a stop-gap that will die out when IP reigns supreme.
Slicing Decades of Video for New Life on the Web
Interview with Mike Levinson discussing starting DreamIT.

http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2008/10/06/y-combinator-recomb...

This might answer some of the communities questions regarding similarities and differences between YC and DreamIT.
Why Google Knol Is No Wikipedia
People on craigslist are stupid. Dog bites man.
Difference between CVS and Git merging (diagram)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=127711
I asked some time ago, got great responses.
A few months ago we actually created a system that does exactly this, plugging into the Ganglia data visualization system many sites use. We have bindings for Perl and Python. Your app code just emits non-blocking UDP packets to a local collector daemon and goes on with its business.
GPLv3 code here: https://spideroak.com/code (StatGrabber)

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

It's really nice to see graphs of the business or application specific stuff (signups, connected users, revenue, anything that's event driven) in parallel with the regular system graphs of things like bandwidth, memory, and so on. When you look at the weekly or monthly graphs usage trends and bottlenecks become forehead-smacking obvious.

Ganglia demo: http://monitor.millennium.berkeley.edu/
my all-time-favorite novel was published in 2006

The Road? (I'm extrapolating from what you say about The Wire.)
It's not just Microsoft, but they should be questioning the value they get from their entire IT departments when an entire infrastructure can be leased. The smarter IT departments will adapt and push for it, the dumb ones will try everything they can to block the adoption of it - fearing their own demise without regard to the best interests of the company they work for.
Give this kid a job. He's more than a Hockey Player... He's an Entrepreneurial-athlete in the making.
Pfizer Nears $68 Billion Deal for Wyeth
I am thinking about writing an app centered around SMS messages. I'm leaning towards sending out the text messages via the provided carrier email gateways (since it's free). I mainly concentrated on US based cell customers.

Will the carrier bock my domain if I start sending 5,000 emails to subscribed cell customers on their network?

Do you have any real-world experience with sending large number of text messages via the various carrier email gateways? What are some of the gotchas?
Great description of management. And, it reminded me why I prefer working in small teams.
What's with the downvotes? I found that insightful.
I find this a little misleading, because netbooks are very rarely someone's sole computer, and they seem to deliberately omit the growing sales of Macbooks and Macbook Pros (which aren't cheap) to make the story more convincing.

In fact, I'd say that this is a bit of a microsoft biased story in that the emphasis is "Microsoft can't compete on price" (which they can frame as "we don't want to compete on price") when in fact MS is losing at both the top end and the bottom end of the market.
Most people only use the web and office. Most online programs are so simple that there's no training involved.
Baltimore's Internet Economy as I See It