skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So it is not worth buying good knives but it is worth buying good sharpening stones? Hmm.

I don't see why anyone wouldn't want something that feels nicer in the hand. Wouldn't you also want a chair that feels nicer on your arse? Even tho' you could make do with a cheaper one?
Ok, Colin, this is an article about whether the YC model is feasible given the collapse of the Web 2.0 VC model. =)
Fewer people launching around the holidays. Why would people want to compete with the increased noise, when there's even less attention available?

Next week we'll start seeing more things launch. Before/around Valentine's Day I bet we'll see a ton of new dating site startups.
I don't know how many businesses fail because of FICA taxes, but I'm not super sympathetic to the argument, since me and my partners make W2 payroll for a decent sized group of people, and we're doing OK. Relative to much of the industrialized world, the US has an attractive tax rate and an attractive standard of living.

What I do know is that prior to Social Security, young workers being a prisoner to the financial circumstances of their aging extended family was a real problem, and it's not one we think about that much anymore. So I'm pretty happy with that.
I think you should - the obvious point of view that it's just kind to do so. From a business perspective it's allowing you to hook in the future startup founders and coders. It'll get them excited and used to GitHub and in a few years from now when they're working somewhere or starting a new project they'd be more then happy to pay.
I used to resent the "Git users are just bandwagon jumpers" mindset until I read a blog post about someone buying a Mac and TextMate just to fit in. Turns out, some of them are. (True of most popular software used by large communities, I'd imagine.)

People are people. We all want to be accepted on some level and have different ideas of what that means and how to accomplish it.

Maybe that means all the people hating on Git are doing it just to be fashionable? ;)
That's not true. The OMB's own figures put Social Security at 20%, and Social Security is funded by a dedicated tax. Medicare is a much bigger problem.

Budget comparisons are also subject to both chicanery (playing around with what you consider a defense expenditure) and bias (Social Security is the largest monolithic expenditure in the budget, just like MadMenSeries2.mp4s.zip is the biggest single file on my filesystem, but a small fraction of what I'm spending my disk on).
I guess I meant to say that Twitter should default to using secure cookies. Once you login via twitter, it defaults to unsecured HTTP.
Insurance companies invest premium payments, mostly in fixed income, so one would expect the current interest rate to be a factor in the cost.
Bob is a killer. vs. Bob shot Sam.

Separating what is happening from what why it happened is why mystery's work. Using "is" allows writers to easily classify things, where showing what is happening is far more interesting.

The more you need to think about what your writing the better. vs. I find it increases clarity when I carefully examine my words before writing them down.
I'm coming to proto.in as well. Mailed you
There's also the question of your confidence in your relationship with potential investors. Even a company that achieves "Ramen Profitability" is probably going to need expansion capital at some point, but if their "runway" is infinite because they know they can at least get by with their revenue stream, it puts them in a much better postition to find the right type of investment on the right type of terms.
Pidgin - IM client

PHP, Apache, Postgresql, pgadmin III

SongBird - Media player

Eclipse - IDE

Xchat - IRC Client

VLC - Video player

RTorrent - Torrent downloader

Subversion - Version Control
I like the idea of giving students free accounts, but I feel like it would probably be abused by too many people. If it is important that it be a private repo or they needs lots of space, they should consider setting up their own and then move to GH if they have revenue.
The Simple Joys of Web-Scale Identifiers
I've read that Steve Jobs is a pescetarian, which in general is much healthier than being a vegan (it is much easier to get essential nutrients such as B vitamins with fish). Here's one source: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Steve_Jobs_-_Personal_li...

In the fourth paragraph: "Jobs is a pescetarian (not a vegetarian or vegan as is often claimed) — although he does not eat mammalian meat, he reportedly eats fish from time to time."
This would be a problem for me:

In return, they give up [...] a small chunk of their developer time (25%? 10 hpw?) to pro-bono or reduced cost projects

... not because of the pro bono aspect, but because of the distraction. The arithmetic here isn't linear- X% of my time spent on something else would cost far more than X% of the total, because of side-effects like context switching. Every time I do something like this, it's like letting pressure out of a balloon. It takes time to re-pressurize the balloon. And you can't do as much with your balloon when its pressure is low. However, I concede that I suck at multitasking, as well as metaphors when caffeine-deprived.
I say let users create a 128 bit UID that let's remote users Read / or Post messages from your account. Let people track what that UID did and you can smack down any issues.
A performance evaluation has a much different context than that of setting your own goals. With performance evals you don't control the criteria for success (as you mention). With setting goals, you do.

If you're constantly retrofitting your goal to the actual experience, IMO it's your responsibility to figure out what went wrong and do something differently. Maybe your goal was too ambitious, maybe there were extenuating circumstances, whatever. But there's no reason to be afraid of yourself and try to sneakily convince yourself you met a (personal) goal when you didn't. There's no reason to be afraid of failing. Just learn and adapt.

Your post wanders around a bit. For example, your last paragraph mentions "the real answer is to get out of such a job", which confuses me. I don't know if you're talking about a job or setting goals. Hopefully this response helps, though.
This is of course a fair point. I haven't seen the SSL version of the site encouraged or even documented anywhere. I suspect it would take down their current server infrastructure if all users suddenly switched to SSL access.
PowerShell ABC's - K is for Keywords
MemcacheDB: A distributed key-value storage system designed for persistence
"Oops! A server error has occured."

Bandwidth killed by YC? Anyone have a copy or cache?
I would recommend that they look into Simonyi's work on Intentional Programming.

Has anything usable come out of that?
This might finally push twitter to use something like oAuth. I predict they will launch it by next week and it will be required by every third party app.
Yes he mentioned it was a nutritional problem, with a simple solution - chances are for years he has been depriving himself unknowingly of something important.
Oh the tiny, tiny drama!
Doesn't that go against the point of GH in the first place?

Why use github if you can do it youself?

All you really need is an ssh account on a box.
explain to me how oAuth would have prevented this? there's no indication that the attack was using a third-party app
Interesting theory ... if that's true for Valentine's, shouldn't we have seen some product/shopping startups pre-Christmas?
Voters.

Unless the US economy really goes in the toilet[], Congress is not going to substantially cut Social Security benefits for retirees. (The Republicans couldn't get partial SS privatization to pass Congress even when Bush was at the height of his popularity.)

[]and if the economy gets that bad, then anyone who relied on private savings or investment for their retirement is probably also screwed.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say not enough.
The secrecy surrounding the health of superstar CEOs reminds me of the way the major sports leagues used to handle injuries. NFL teams, for example, used to be quite cagey about their players' health---a practice you could easily defend on the same grounds people use to defend CEOs like Jobs. The problem is that, propriety aside, injury information is extremely valuable, especially to gamblers, and the result was that oddsmakers went to great lengths to acquire injury information surreptitiously (by bribing trainers, etc.). Eventually, the NFL (and other leagues) decided to stop denying reality and institute formal injury reports; now all teams are (relatively) forthcoming about players' injuries.

As with athletes, and like it or not, CEO health information is often quite valuable. Vilifying those who seek to ferret it out is just shooting the messenger.
Learn economics.
How many people would hang on to their GitHub student accounts way after they ceased being matriculated (fancy SAT word for registered) at that school? Maybe a one or two semester-long free trial - get them using it for their projects.

Usually, at a university, when you have a .edu email address, the school knows when you're a student. If you graduate or leave, unless you went to a school that graduates you to alumni.school.edu - you lose that email address.
No, I don't think he would lie to this extent. That's my point. Either he's done something only a crazy person would do, or we can believe him. My point is that by coming out with specifics, he's made it easy to believe -- not just because he's being specific about what's wrong, but because if he was lying then a bunch of people would suffer horribly. (And what would be the point of that?)
Try just refreshing - the Change.org server has been acting up lately - sorry!
As long as cost is manageable and the number of free accounts limited, why not?

How about free accounts for a set period of time (3 mths)? And maybe setup a special referral program to give kickbacks (commission) to students who refer people who sign up for paid accounts. This can be credited to each students account. Don't know your audience though so these are just some general suggestions..
Jokes aside, this is a huge deal for Twitter. Unless they can prove that these guys did something like get phished, their professed monetization strategy of corporate twitter accounts could run into real trouble.
My point is that the "infinite ramen profitibility runway" is a fallacy, since no competent developer has an infinite tolerance for living on ramen.
At that point, might as well go with something standard, like OAuth.
The most surprising thing here is the number of posts that say "don't spend the money -- don't advertise." I think that this clearly shows that many people on here are techies rather than businessmen ...
But long-term population shrinkage can be accommodated by raising the Social Security tax (an fund-raising option that was not available to Ponzi or Madoff). As long as the generation-to-generation increase in worker productivity is greater than the generation-to-generation increase in the tax, it won't harm the general welfare.

And if that doesn't do the trick then the US can always let in more working-age immigrants.
Climate-change denialists will of course look at this and say "see? no problem!" when actually massive and unexpected fluctuations -- both colder and warmer -- of exactly this kind are what you'd expect from dangerous climate change.
I'd be in favor of it. In fact, it's one of the reasons that I use Mercurial/Bitbucket (bitbucket.org - they allow you to have one free private repo no matter who you are). Offering students a Micro plan probably wouldn't cut into profits too much and it will get them in the mindset of using git (rather than svn or hg or whatever). Most people don't like learning new things when they're comfortable with one - get them while they're young. You're the premier git host. More git people means more money for you.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:2iGISdLVdK0J:socialentre...
Just clarifying. ;0)
Nit: I'm sure you meant Stuart Smalley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Smalley), not Stuart Smiley.
Thank you for the mention, Paul. We really appreciate it.

I think the main reason why we'd like to be able to add Posterous through the FF main page is the fact that people don't understand RSS, especially our users who are brand new to blogging and are doing it for the first time through email.

In the longer term as FF reaches mainstream, these considerations around dead simple import of feeds become even moreso important.
But it makes your programs easier to read in many cases. Abstracting the control flow with combinators like filter, map and other folds also tends to make my programs less error prone.
http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=merrick33
What would constitute evidence against a dangerous climate change model? What would falsify the hypothesis?
1. Under $100 translates into about $20 if you shop around or buy at garage sales

2. Some people value things differently. Nice feeling is worth $1 to some people and $100 to others.
I remember downloading Netscape Navigator for free as a student. I also remember doing the same on my father's work computers.

Unless you absolutely need the network effects - and I don't think you do - then I say no. We've thought about a reduced commission structure for students at Dawdle, and I just can't justify it - when do you expire free access?
Doesn't that go against the point of GH in the first place?

No, it doesn't. GitHub is a layer of niceties on top of Git. If they are doing commercial work and cannot afford it, they can set up Git for themselves until they can afford it. I fail to see how that is against the point of GitHub.
I fully agree with you. Personally I find it not in good taste. I read a vehement comment from someone on another forum earlier about how it is Jobs duty to let his shareholders know, but frankly if he feels he's up to the job (and the board do as well) then that would be good enough for me. Look at what he has achieved at Apple and let him continue if he is. I do wish him the very best for his health - as I would anyone.
Chumby Application Gadget
"Michael Lewis (an author so talented that, as they say, his shopping list makes gripping reading)"

http://www.bmacewen.com/blog/archives/2005/11/michael_lewis_...
I know one of our startup's founding principles is to always be free for students. I was a student when we started it and know all to well how tight money is. I don't feel right contributing to the insane amount of debt American university students are already forced to take on.

If you're worried about abuse, you could provide a free account to registered students, which you can verify with their .edu email address. To keep the account free and active, you could send them a confirmation email once a year (or 6 months) to make sure their original .edu address is still active.
I think this is a really great point, and probably the thing that I am least sure about. Maybe there's an opportunity that's less about actually development time and more consulting for web strategy? Another thing that nonprofits desperately need...
Governance Expert: Steve Jobs' Disclosure "Dismissive," Insufficient
Thats exactly what I do. Indeed, the staff also know it. Basically I have a small salary, but if the company does well then there is profit that I can then use to take out dividends. I have some friends who go even further, but personally I feel that's stepping over the line. I have no problems with paying taxes, but I do like to reduce mine to a sensible level
Either way everyone is in the exact same boat, except in boat b, Americans pay the opportunity cost of investing at 2%. In boat a the Chinese do.
Presenting the Rails Activists
60 Most Wanted Photoshop Tutorials, Brushes, .PSDs and Resources
Yes!

Most students I know who know what git is are technically adept enough to install Trac and svn, or their own git or hg central repo, and would rather do that than pay $7-$12/month. So I doubt you'd be losing many paying customers by offering free student accounts. But once people moved on to other projects, they are more likely to go with what they know, which will by then include GitHub.
50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order
maybe special discounts? almost free?
Huh. It's not fancy, it is latin (or well, english-latin).
Just like the "university" and "semester" and "alumni" you used.
Wow, the guy doesn't have horns!

He's actually really entertaining to listen to. I like his real-world examples of problems.

Steak will never be the same.
Prepare for new visitors to HN
Leo Laporte mentioned HN on the latest Twit around 39:40 http://is.gd/eCBw
We'll probably see an influx of new visitors like when HN was mentioned on Techcrunch last year. Hopefully it doesn't degrade the conversation too much.
Any idea when PC-BSD will be updated to match the 7.1 release?
Keep in mind that .edu is primarily US-only. For other countries you will need to make or find a whitelist.
Twitter Status - Multiple accounts hacked. Situation stable.
The author misses the point that OAuth allows a site to interface with external servers WITHOUT having user credentials pass through a third party. Further, the technique described would not have prevented today's Twitter attacks. It would only prevent continual abuse from a single server. How hard is it for an enterprising young (or old) hacker to find another IP to use though?
Chances are, whatever they're building doesn't need to be put in private repositories. If it really does (as in, they're working on commercial stuff), $7 a month (even $12) shouldn't be hard to scrounge up, and I'm an in-the-red student myself. After all, we all need to learn about business expenses sometime--and they're not having to worry about paying for food or rent. If a private repo is that important to them, most schools offer private server space. I say no.
JamLegend has definitely sucked up a lot of my time. I love that game.

Gaming in the browser, especially multiplayer interactive gaming like JamLegend, could become a huge industry. The number of players in the space right now is very small.
Agreed, why not just offer one free private project at GitHub? No real programmer is going to have just one project.

If this were the case, I'm not so cheap as to create multiple accounts for multiple projects to bypass having to pay, so I'm guessing other people might be 'not cheap' either.
It's a good idea, but theres no easy way of verifying if some one is a student. Facebook back when it was student only had a big list of valid uni domains but this only worked for the universities they'd rolled out to
I don't know of any student who, in interest of their project, couldn't save $7 or $12/mo. That's only one or two Starbucks purchases!
I say yes. You could flag all accounts registered with a .edu email address and send out a confirmation email at the start of traditional semesters--i.e., September and January. A graduate shouldn't have an email address by then. Once it happens, drop them to the free account. It would be really cool if you guys would just freeze the private repos and leave them there for a bit while the account exists so that people can get their data.

$7/mo and $12/mo are $84/yr and $144/yr respectively. That's money that I would rather put to rent/utilities/cable as a student.

Of course, many universities allow students to keep their .edu for a fee after they graduate, but you have to imagine the number of people paying for a .edu to maintain a free GitHub account is going to be pretty small.
Can you please elaborate/share some stories?
Twitter Blog: Gone Phishing (Official update on Hacking)
> He could have stayed at Apple the first time

Really?

In John Scully's biography he made it clear that Steve was told he would have to leave in no uncertain terms, by both the board and John Scully.

They wouldn't even allow him to stay as the janitor because John couldn't trust that Steve wouldn't go around undermining him.
It's quite a leap to say that students don't have to worry about paying for food or rent. I would go out on a limb and say millions of students do just that.
that's it, $100 knife is wonderful till you lost it or break it

$10 knifes, you can afford to have spares

another example, i no longer use mechanical pencil because it betrayed me so many times (i can't see if there's extra lead inside)

transparent mech pencil is better, but i often forget to bring extra leads :(

that's why i buy 96 counts pencils for $5 ... the lead is visible, it never fails me

and no, i don't bring sharpener (you can always break the pencil and 'sharpen' the lead against rough surfaces)

i bring 5 sharpened pencils instead and put the rest in various places

although it's redundant (to ensure reliability), it's simpler and i'm much happier
Seems to tie in with the idea that cities that attract 'creative' types are more successful.
Howto drive an 8W fluorescent lamp from a 12V source
It is in the list but in somewhere else. He didn't mention it specifically. But, look at the digg section of the article. He mentioned that he reads Hacker News everyday.
I'm sorry if I sounded offensive, and I indeed was, I was tired when I wrote my last comment
and my words didn't reflect my tought. I'd like to elucidate this problem once and for all, I really
do believe we can both agree on a conclusion.

I'd like you to notice that your new table of probabilities imply that I have a chance of 1/6 to guess the gender setup of a
family of 2 children. I don't think that makes sense either to you.

Let's make the experiment a bit clearer :

- We gather a number of families who have 2 childs.

- For each family, we announce the gender of one of the child, but we don't know wich one.

- We are then asked to guess the sex of the other child.

At this point, you believe that the probability to guess right is 1/2, and that the 2/3
probability doesn't make any sense. My claim is that you fall in the Monty Hall problem trap,
wich is very counter-intuitive and doesn't seem to make sense at first.

But here is some clarification of the problem :

- What we are really asked is to guess the _gender_ setup of the family. So we need to establish
the universe of possible family setups before answering. What are they ?

Even if we don't care about the order, we must acknowledge that there are 2 childs in
the family, so there must be a first child, and a second child.

Setup 1 : both childs are boys : M/M

Setup 2 : both childs are girls : F/F

Setup 3 : the first child is a boy, and second child is a girl. M/F

Setup 4 : the first child is a girl, and the second child is a boy. F/M.

Why order matters in setup 3 and 4 ? Because M does not equal F, while M=M and F=F. We investigate not the individual itself, but the property of the
individual (in this case, the gender). Therefore, M/F is not equal to F/M, and in the real
world there must be a first and a second child.

If you are asked to write down all the possible setups of a family of two in the real world, you would write the same
table. You'd say that :

Some families have 2 boys = 1 setup

Some families have 2 girls = 1 setup

Some families have one girl and one boy = 2 possible setups (1st one is a girl OR a boy).

Your argument of F/M = M/F implies that all families have _either_ one of the 2 setups, every first child is a boy,
or a girl. But it doesn't work like this in real life. That is why order matters.

Conclusion : if we agree that there are 4 possible setups in a family of 2 childs, then we have a probability of
1/4 to guess the correct setup of the family given NO information. But if we are informed of the gender of
one of the child, then one solution of the setup is removed (F/F or M/M), and we have a chance of 2/3 to guess right IF we chose the opposite gender (see Monty Hall problem).

And if we are informed of the gender of one specific child (1st one or 2nd one), then it leaves us with only 2 solutions ! And here, the probability
becomes 1/2.