skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's a change to their approach to the user interface and workflow.

"This change is already underway. Recently we released the Account Overview. The page is a simple and straightforward financial dashboard for your business. It's a step closer to accounting and it is the single most positively received change to FreshBooks we have ever released – 99.3% of you decided to make it your new home page. We have more in store in the coming weeks and months, over which time we hope you will see how cloud accounting with FreshBooks is great for you.

I wanted you to hear about our evolution to cloud accounting from me first. This is a subtle but meaningful change, again, almost 10 years in the making."

So not just a marketing thing.
A tip for people writing on corporate blogs: let us know who you are up front. Whether there's a byline under the title or a short intro sentence/paragraph preceding the article, knowing who you are gives the reader a way to frame what your story.

Because the tech industry is so heterosexual male-dominated, when I read that the author was engaged to the CEO, I first assumed I had misunderstood, then I thought the author was a gay man. Only upon reading further did I find that the author was a woman.

That confusion could've been cleared up in the first paragraph in which Michelle writes, "I’ve picked up quite a bit just by being around our CEO, Kyle, for the past few years." Why not tell us here why she's "been around" Kyle for so long? Further confusing the point, she mentions later that she's "friends with all of the founders." And engaged to the CEO might've been a helpful addition.

This kind of information completely changes the context of the advice – negotiating with a stranger is a completely different dynamic than negotiating with someone you (I assume) share a bed with.
@PJL RDYMSG DISPLAY="Tray 1 Load Plain Letter"

Confuses the heck out of your coworkers.
HN isn't perfect, but it isn't that bad. I've seen countless fora degenerate over the years. This one seems to be in check for now.

I see the voting system as one of the problems. More accurately, the obvious emotional or fanboi voting trends along some topics. Blind down-voting, as I see it, is a problem. If you down-vote you ought to be required to provide an explanation, otherwise, don't. Topics such as many subjects surrounding Apple draw in people who will mercilessly down-vote well reasoned comments simply because they happen to be anti-Apple. The same applies to the occasional political discussion in which anything that isn't aligned with liberal thinking is castigated.

The biggest problem I see with this is that it does not promote intelligent contrasting posts. Those with different opinions either leave (or stop posting) or fall-in with the crowd and choose to become part of the collective. If one was after collecting points and accolades all you have to do on HN is be all over anything that relates to Apple and talk like a Liberal. That's the formula. Oh, yes, you also have to be 100% pro FOSS.

The fact that it is so easy to define is kind of sad. Then again, maybe that's what the YC guys wanted HN to be. If that's the case, there are no issues. If the idea behind HN was to bring together pro-Apple, pro-FOSS, politically Liberal hackers, then there's nothing to fix.

If, on the other hand, if HN is intended to promote diversity of thought along a wide range of subjects of interest to hackers and entrepreneurs, the voting system needs to reflect this.
On first glance, I feel like people would simply choose the shirt that they think looks the least fashionable, which just leads to regrettable purchases.
As someone who went from top 5 to somewhere in the 60s in one contest, and reviewing results of past contests, I believe a lot of those small tweaks for slight gains in leader board scores end up penalizing the contestant for over-fitting. I saw a similar complaint to yours in a couple of forums but I do believe more often than not those small performance gains in the leader board actually hurt final scores.

Additionally for contests like Heritage Health [0], I believe the necessary goal of RMSLE of less than 0.4 is not considered possible (I came across this in the forums but never verified), so even if the contestants just inch past 0.4 it would still be something impressive.

0. https://www.heritagehealthprize.com/c/hhp/leaderboard
Google App Engine SDK version 1.7.1 released.
I agree. The letter should have said "Changing tagline from painless billing to cloud accounting" etc.
The Art of Play
OpenTok + FilePicker
This is also just how understand all this so I admit I could be wrong.

Full or upgrade retail copies that you purchase in the box belong to you and can be transferred. As long as it is only used on one computer at a time. In some cases they sold three licenses to a box but I'm not sure if that was three keys in the same box or one key that could be used three times. I never bought one of those.

Any other method of getting a license to Windows may not allow transfer. So, again this is how I understand it, if you buy a pre-built computer then that license of Windows can be tied to that computer and cannot be transferred. That's mostly what I'm meaning by being tied to the hardware.

The reason I understand it this way is because that pre-built computer would most likely have an OEM version of Windows installed. Since the OEM license cannot be transferred then the resulting customer cannot do that as well. Which is grossly unfair to that customer.

There's also the possibility this is because of a license agreement with the company that sold you the computer and not an agreement with Microsoft. So a license to Windows may be an agreement between you and the computer builder and not Microsoft. Which is also a stupid situation to put a customer in because they may not understand the difference.

Granted, this seems to be a "depends" thing. For example, I have used the license key from an old laptop that's no longer used to install WinXP on a different computer that I built out of old parts for my kids. But I'm also assuming that the key on the laptop is for the full retail version of XP and not the OEM version. Although Gateway may be unhappy with the situation but I think it unfair for me not to be able to reuse the key (that I paid for) when the original laptop no longer functions and is not worth repairing because it is around twelve years old.

In the end, when I buy a license to Windows I should be able to install it wherever I wish as long as I stick to the number of allowed active installs. Regardless of how I obtained that key. Well, I guess if they claim they gave me the key for free I can sort of understand but would still disagree.

I'm not a lawyer either, just a consumer stuck in legalese crap.
At the edge a synthetic LP/GP strucure seems to be implied.
Mutual fund principals don't typically do hands on work;
presumably FC have a hands on principal? In any event, this is an interesting puzzle to solve.
How to Stay Fit at Your Startup
My point is that should there exist some higher level structure in the brain that is more amenable to simulation than the equivalent quantity of low-level synapses and neurons, then all bets are off about exactly what sort of computer is required to simulate it.
The brain has to be replicable by biological processes - who knows what tricks it has to pull to achieve its function? Maybe it's possible to come up with an 'optimizing compiler' that tosses the junk.
The download page has not been updated. Just use version 1.7.1 in place of 1.7.0. E.g., Use http://googleappengine.googlecode.com/files/appengine-java-s... to download the Java SDK.
Does 1.25% seem ridiculously low to anyone else? It seems to me like she should have negotiated to be a co-founder instead of employee #1.
> Neurons fire at up to 1MHz

I think you mean 1 kHz.
Software that learns like a human is like a car that gallops like a horse. I don't see the point.
Short tags are widely frowned upon. IIRC they are deprecated in the current release of PHP and are due to be removed in the next major release. Not using them seems quite fair to me.

(Incidentally, though, the <?= tags are now considered a fundamental feature and not part of the short tags syntax, so you can use those everywhere.)
Is this in line with expected salaries/equity for a #4-6 employee of a pre-series A startup in SF? What about NYC? For some reason I thought equity would be a bit higher for the first few employees.
Because I ask them to make a folder on their webserver and put the old docs there, which is going to take them all of 5 minutes?

Yes, sometimes people need to be reminded of basic common sense. I do feel entitled to that.
I'm curious what problems you ran into with Python on Windows. I develop with Python on both a Windows desktop and a Macbook. I found moving between the two platforms pretty easy with the exception of certain database python packages like psycopg2.

The command line and a file editor is all you really need. If you want to keep your file editor consistent, you can work off vim on both. Granted, I prefer Visual Studios if I'm on a Windows machine.
Show HN: Pick'em Zone (hackers can enjoy football too)
I think the thing I'm coming around to is that an understanding of the core domain is pretty important to doing a job well. If I was in construction marketing and knew how concrete worked, I'd be advantaged over someone who didn't. If I was in plumbing marketing and knew the pros and cons of copper pipes, I'd be advantaged over someone who didn't.

Someone who is in the technology business at any level or capacity who understands technology has an edge over people who don't. In startup tech in particular, I'm seeing the ability to code as particularly advantageous regardless of where you hang your hat on the company floor plan.

Programming is the rainbow sprinkle that puts your sundae over the top. (blatantly trying to make @shit_hn_says here)
> It's not clear to me how they calculate the hourly retrieval rate.

Probably based on the speed and the number of arms that the robot has that will grab the right tapes for you :-)

I'm not joking.
YC Demo Day Notes (Google Doc)
Of_Prometheus: There is a deep irony in your post, in that it's marked as dead and not visible to many.

The question was, "How does that system deal with the old members > new members hierarchy that would develop? I think the problem with giving a member a longer stick the longer they stay/comment is that older members are given greater leniency when they do decide to be jerks, and new members who may very well develop into excellent members are kicked aside for possibly minor errors, thus creating an unfair advantage."

That hierarchy does exist. I'm not seeking to eradicate it.

The older members tend to be the ones that have established the tone and quality. This can be used to determine the rules that are used in the early stages of membership of a site.

But generally that hierarchy refers to inner circles and cliques who are protective of what the site evolves into for them, and this isn't addressed in any way by the system to integrate new members.

Old members will eventually leave, the question is more whether the value of the community is preserved when that happens.
Startups.com Goes Up For Sale
What took the longest time was for a language to come out with key-value maps as the main core data structure, and a specialized literal syntax. Once that happened, it was relatively quick for that syntax to become a standardized interchange format for K-V data.

Lisp had assoc-lists, but those were a convention, not a specialized structure. Many languages had K-V maps as libraries, but not core structures, and most lacked literal syntax. Eventually most scripting languages starting getting them as native, and even having literal syntax, but they weren't the "go-to" data structure for doing things. In Python, for example, all of its objects are really just hash maps, but when you're working with them you pretend that they're objects and not hash maps, and you use lists more than maps anyways.

JavaScript (and maybe Lua) was the first language to build itself around K-V maps, so it was the first language where idiomatic usage included a lot of map literals. Like Python, its objects were all really just maps, but unlike it encouraged taking advantage of that fact. Also, because it was on the web, there was a lot of need to be serializing data structures and passing them around. Eventually someone realized "this is much better than XML!" and gave it a name, and that's how we got where we are today.

XML's popularity is an accident of history, due in part to the rise of HTML, which is also an accident of history.
Web 2.0:

HTML, as we know it, was mostly developed as a display specification. Google and the powers that be came in with HTML5 and tried to searchify HTML, but the reality is that the bread and butter of the web is going to be the HTML/CSS + JavaScript sandwich for at least the next few years.

RSS has fallen by the wayside, however XML is still a great format for displaying structured data. What we need is a social markup language, which goal is not presentation but data transmission. This will solve the following problems inherently:

- The social boom/bust treadmill that has been going on since 2000. Adopt the Automattic business model and watch the Internet thrive.

- The 'social search' problem.

- The conflict of interest caused by trying to monetize the network effect.

In addition, it will allow people to digest social content in the way they want to, using nearly any format, and decoupling the social experience of the web from HTML. It will create clear channels for data interchange, allowing for actual privacy but also the controlled, transparent, and empowered sharing that users deserve.
Wait, this line confused me:

> Another thing that made this situation complicated was that Kyle and I are recently engaged.

So, your fiance is Kyle, who is the guy you're doing negotiations with for her salary?

The methodology is extremely useful, but I feel like that makes this story extremely specific. Like you said,

> I told him that, if I got this offer from any other company, he’d be the first person I would ask for help.
The Accidental History of the  Symbol
Sublime Text 2 + Cygwin on Windows works just fine.
Indeed - I've been meaning to experiment with a GSM module actually, I just had the WiFly handy so I built it with that instead. One thing I would say is that using the WiFly allows you to connect with web services as well as the cell networks (in my example I made a very basic Sinatra app with an on/off button)
Facebook’s Ambition Collides With a Harsh Market
How To Find Great Content in the Real World
Have you tried or thought about subversion? It's great for personal projects, simple to set up, and if you ever decide you need to you can turn it into a git repo pretty easily.

I realize it's not new hotness, but it works for all of my personal projects until they get to github.
Get Shared - YUPIQ.com
I hear you here Dan, but I have to admit seeing it done right is pretty powerful as well. Working with Danielle Morrill and Lynda Smith in particular strongly accelerated my understanding of this business discipline.

I think there's room in the universe for both approaches.
That bit of information about them being engaged was just kind of sprinkled into the middle of the article as if it was of no significance.
Oh crap. Yes, indeed. That changes everything around by three orders of magnitude but it's still a daunting problem.
They're getting portscanned. I'm surprised this isn't common knowledge.

If you throw ascii at a jetdirect printer, it will generally just print it out for you. I've used this to debug printers before, as well as to goof around with my coworkers a bit.
Yammer CEO predicts Silicon Valley is over
Killer story Chuck. You should write a post of your experience. That stretch in Sun's history is always something that fascinated me - never get tired hearing stories from that period.
Making movies is a pain - help us make it better. Core Software Engineer needed.
HighlightCam is revolutionizing how users create (and share) movies. With our apps, users can create professional-quality videos – automatically. Server-based editors scan for the best content in the pictures and video, add special effects, and then send the finished movie for the user to share with their friends. Cool, huh?

We’re looking for a great Core Software Engineer to join our growing team, someone who knows Python forwards and backwards and isn’t afraid to delve into Django every once in awhile. We’re fully funded, a YC alum, and growing in both domestic and international markets. We need someone driven who wants to join a small team and really own their work.

You:

-	Smart

-	Eager to join a growing startup

-	Good at communicating (discuss features, bugs, API calls, etc.)

-	Appreciation for sarcasm

Requirements:

- Python; preferably with some Django experience

- Great grasp of software design and architecture

- Understanding of performance and design tradeoffs, without compromising quality

Nice to haves:

- Scaling Django/MySQL/nginx

- AWS / boto; experience optimizing for EC2 GPU instances a big plus

- Written server APIs for mobile client, or other server-side APIs

- Video codecs, video editing or FFMpeg a plus

- Social and payments APIs (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Amazon Payments, etc.)

- C/C++

This position is full-time with health benefits. We’re located across from the San Antonio shopping center, so there are plenty of great restaurants nearby. This is most importantly a startup, so we try to have fun while we’re here! We play poker, board games, rock climb, go out for drinks, all that good stuff… We’re looking for people who WANT to be here, to join a company that’s striving to create something truly extraordinary.

Interested? Shoot us an email at jobs@hlcam.com with “Core Software Engineer” in the subject line and we’ll be in touch.

More information at http://highlightcam.com/jobs/
YC-Backed Glassmap Adds Photos And Events To Its iPhone App
I agree... no-one wants to be the first employee, instead push for last co-founder.
It is an interesting insight to what some startups get away with though - a way below average salary and a tiny speck of equity.
She must truly believe the company will sell for hundreds of millions of dollars (unlikely) in order to see a decent return.
I think monetization would require near-monopoly-level control for Google. How much would adwords bring in if Google weren't the "default search" destination?

If Google can basically kick Apple back into niche status (not there yet), then they could extract monopoly rents on a defacto standard of ad-based apps either using Google's mobile ad network, or a consortium of which they are the sole influential player.

Perhaps that explains why they haven't tried to heavily monetize this yet - that would pus more consumers into non-ad-based apps where Apple is strongest.
I do not want people making regrettable purchases, so I will play around with the concept if that's the impression I get from buyers.

I am very curious to find out if people will take buying the least popular t-shirt as a positive 'i'm unique' or negative 'i suck'.
I don't understand why JSON schemas and the OJMs (Object-JSON-Mappers ;) it would enable aren't being developed more heavily.

I love JSON, but when working on APIs between large companies / departments the "we'll just send JSON like this and email you when we change stuff" really won't cut it.
iOS Engineer? We're changing how business communicates. SendHub, YC W12.
SendHub (YC W12) is looking for an iOS Engineer.

We're looking for a talented and determined dev to push our mobile efforts.

Skills:
Objective C and the iOS SDK | Git

Nice to have:
Heroku experience

About us:
We're building simple tools for business to communicate internally and with their customers. We have thousands of users, real revenue, we’re sending hundreds of thousands of messages a month and we’re growing fast - 60%/month across users, usage and monetization.

What you’ll be doing:
Working closely, and at speed, with our small team to make best in class mobile communication apps. Due to our small size, you’ll be involved in almost every part of the software life cycle from specs discussion to implementation to testing and pushing to production. We push multiple times a day and you’ll likely push to production within 24 hours of starting.

Our Philosophy:
We believe in building a wonderful product and taking care of our people. To ensure our team executes - you’ll get autonomy, recognition and regular feedback. We expect a lot of each other but we wouldn't want it any other way. We're hungry and we need you to be too.

Benefits:
Health, dental, meals and smart colleagues who will challenge you everyday.

We're based in downtown Menlo Park, CA (very close to the caltrain station) and while we're flexible on remote working, you'll need to be around the office.

If you're interested, please drop us a line: jobs [at] sendhub [dot] com
I like the idea, but I have the feeling your t-shirts are overpriced.

I had what you could call a t-shirt problem, I purchased over 150 in the space of a year, anyway one common thing I noticed is that a brand (eg: Threadless, Bustedtees) that sold based on merit and not gimmick could sell at a much higher price than somewhere that was relatively unknown or sold based on some sort of gimmick. For example teefury.com is a site that does a sort of similar thing to you with time based sales, they sell at around $10 each but would never do well at $25 each.

My (anecdotal -- myself and friends) understanding of why people aren't comfortable spending $25 on a time-sale t-shirt is that you're selling selling based on 2 things, the t-shirt itself and the idea that it's time-exclusive, this adds pressure. If I purchase a t-shirt from somewhere like Threadless I know it's likely if I wait 2 weeks it's going to be there still, so I don't feel like "I must buy now!" and then I don't feel like I'm paying for something I might not want in a week, whereas if I see a t-shirt on your site with 1 day to go: "That t-shirt is cool! Hmm, but I have to buy it right now... and $25 is a premium t-shirt price... I might not like it in a few days... I'll skip". This behaviour is especially so with the added idea that I'm possibly buying a t-shirt nobody else likes, it makes me think maybe it's just a crappy t-shirt.

Your site is a site that customers would constantly be coming back to, so while you might not make such a good margin on a $12.50 shirt vs. a $25 shirt, it would be made up for in the average customer purchasing 20 shirts a year vs. 5 if they had to be considerate about their purchases.

I'm not sure if I explained that well, if not I can try and re-word it.
Bad article title -- compound interest is a simple truth. Investment counselors are the problem -- they try to claim they produce better results than simple, buy & hold investments (and they don't).

http://arachnoid.com/wrong/index.html#Investment