skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> ... it certainly wouldn't hurt to do a quick
> HN search before posting a new submission.

Won't happen. I've been saying it literally for years, and I can tell you now, it won't happen.

I implemented the first-phase of a semi-automated duplicate detector to help people find previous submissions, and I got hate mail for it. Some people are actively against duplicate detection.
1) You don't need Sebastian Thrun. The groundwork has been laid, so building the product is just a matter of applying what's already out there.

2) Drug cartels don't have to kidnap experts. They can just pay them.
I like the name too. An accreting mountain of preserved data.
This. I have been using org-mode for a month or so and it is wonderful.

I also use Kalarm for reminders, e.g. stand up every 30 minutes, but also for longer term things.

And Anki for memorization and behavioral reminders.
> The agency can’t legally shoot down ultralight planes just for carrying weed and blow.

How do they know what they're carrying? I sure hope some US government agency (DoD springs to mind) has the authority to shoot down sketchy aerial vehicles flying into the US from foreign territory and dropping stuff without radio contact or filed flight plans.

Think for a bit what terrorists or foreign powers could do to us if we let our airspace turn into a free-for-all.
"So why should I offer equity to someone who I can easily replace (yes, everyone is replacable, but since it's my company I call the shots :)? At the end of the day, their job will only be transforming my thoughts into code."

To be fair the author of the post is asking skilled tech folk to avoid this "transform other people's ideas into code" role without either getting significant equity or a market salary.

You are saying that 'converting your thoughts into code" can be done by (relatively) unskilled, (relatively) low caliber, (relatively) easily replaceable devs.

You seem to be agreeing with the author more than disagreeing.

Jacques says (in effect) 'don't be this easily replaceable dev. be a really good dev and be a (co) founder".
I would really like if they would look at your OS languages and use that. If I am in France (or any other non English speaking country) and I use my English languages device please show me the English site. Also the "you are on a mobile site therefore I show you my crappy mobile site, without the possibility to go do the desktop site" is really annoying especially on a tablet. While most browsers can be set on show desktop site allot of sites just look at the OS. Only browser that works is Opera.
TL;DR stop thinking you know better than your users what languages/site format they want.
It's mildly amusing that makr.io (their YC side project) has a "sign up with Facebook" button, but no "sign up with Diaspora" option.
As others have noted, it's called vesting. I hope you and the other founders have vesting contracts between each other as well.
I agree with you. However, there might be a niche for rare tasks with very intuitive usability. So far, a solution looking for killer app.
There is also a minor problem with google play - it shows local currency, and I couldn't find how to switch it to dollars.
Family trees: Tracing the world's ancestor
From my experience no amount of equity can make someone feel like a "owner." Either they are dedicated to making it work and sacrificing similarly like the person who developed the original concept, in which case they should be treated as a co-founder. Or they are in a holding pattern to "wait and see" in which case they should clearly be treated and paid like a contractor. Anything else just causes problems.
Look at Reddit vs HN, do you think the difference is down technology ?

On multi-sided market websites (marketplaces, forums, ugc sites, etc) community management is generally a far bigger differentiator than technology. Quora isn't better than Yahoo Answers because of it's technology, but because of it's community.

My guess is that SO wants to steer away from subjective questions which can lead to downward spiralling in quality (i.e. language/tool-chain wars) which can then have a knock-on effect on what type of behaviour users think is acceptable across the rest of the site (i.e broken window syndrome).
Dropbox Experiencing Slowness & Inaccessible Files
For some reason I tend to get Google's authentication pages in Hungarian (at least I think that's what it is), despite being in Sweden with sv_SE/sv/en_US/en configured in the browser and Google's services set to use English.

Fun!
Indeed, it's been known for a long time.
Ambra dei Bimbi on Twitter
I agree, I think the Kinect is very good for what it's used. I can also see 3D modeling/manipulation benefitting greatly from such an interface.
I wonder why the "DIY for drugs" movement is taking so long to become mainstream. I mean, it makes sense that the role of drug cartels should be diminished by now. With governments reluctant to legalize anything, an "open drugs" initiative might work.
Too bad there isn't anything like the PowerSwitch for UK power outlets!
The star only tells you the least popular in the last hour. The least popular overall wouldn't necessarily be the one that received the most stars, as all the shirts are likely to be more popular at some times than others.
You have to provide your encryption key to their website if you want to recover files. That's a show-stopper for me.
Usually instrumental soundtracks. I usually listen to streamingsoundtracks.com. Aside from the occasional vocal piece, it's great background music.
Actually don't call it a comeback for a better reason: RSS is not coming back. On the contrary, its use continues to fall.
Then no, it does not worry me. Obscuring password entry in an application that I almost never run is not a problem. Plus, if I do actually run the app and want to enter the password, I don't do it with a bunch of people peering over my shoulder.
I’m not Japanese.

No shit.

But ever since my wife and I moved to Kyoto, the Internet sure seems to think we are.

The internet does not think. Or if it does, it has weird proto-dreams of kittens and porn. But it does not think of you, or your wife.

Google is supposedly this big, Skynet-like company that lives to collect data on us.

Stop believing the shiny box. It lies.

Yet it’s not very smart about language.

Pot. Kettle.

As soon as we stepped foot in the land of the rising sun, it asked my wife if she wanted to display Google in Japanese, and she clicked “yes” by mistake.

And unfortunately, it launched the nukes.

Not only did Google start showing her its user interface in Japanese, but the real problem was that all her search results were from Japanese sites, too!

But it didn't launch the nukes after all, but instead did exactly as instructed.

And going back seemed impossible.

Here in our story, our protagonist discovers entropy.

Going through Google.com instead of Google.co.jp did nothing. Changing her langage settings was just as useless.

My god. Those evil fiends. Is just like that bit in the bible where they build a tower to heaven and stuff.

Turns out Google Search uses a different language preference page.

Wooo! We have finality. There are two preference panes. Which are really hard to find if you change language to something you cant read by pressing the wrong buttons.

And furthermore, google are just a big company and have no magic wizards that do magic and stuff. They do not know what you are thinking unless you are within a couple of meters at best. So do not expect things to know what you meant to do but didn't for at least the next 2 years or so.
i was about to post a blog of how angry i am that i see the localized version of google when i change to analytics or change to y adwords account it pisses me off! just give me ENGLISH!
According to Wikipedia the Vatican Library has existed since 1481. Doubtful that many people here would have material that would interest them though.
What a fantastic idea, I am a long time customer of Threadless, TeeFury etc. You see a lot of clones springing up but you have done something really interesting and unique, will defiantly give it a go!
Court Blocks E.P.A. Rule on Cross-State Pollution
On Google Search: Options -> Search settings -> Languages

There you can change the language(s) of your search result. I think you can mark up to 10 languages.
Growth Hacker
How to recognize during interview if company is run by bozos?

What to look at? What question ask? About process? structure?
Another point is the utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() functions whose names are misleading as they only handle conversion to/from ISO-8859-1. A section on te proper use of iconv() with examples could really be useful no?
The general point still stands - scaling up is often a preferred solution and life proves it every day. Not so many companies enjoy facebook style grows, and even aren't viral at all.
Some countries laws make vesting options a big expense unlike the USA.
Tell HN: Stop with the how to improve HN posts, not gonna happen.
I have seen far too many posts on ways to improve HN. Your intentions are great, but HN is much like craigslist (except CL does focus on performance) and HN is unlikely to change. Rather than writing a post on how to improve HN go outside and get some fresh air, Summer is almost over.
> I18N is hard.

Understatement.
Yes, but I think the last time it was on HN, you couldn't actually pre-order one.
No idea if he's in any of the pics, but wouldn't be surprising if he isn't. Woz wasn't part of the Mac team, and was pretty much only an Apple employee on paper at the point those photos were taken.
The ball is being dropped by DropBox on communication. The twitter feed @DropboxOps has one tweet:

https://twitter.com/DropboxOps/status/237954805333622784

No further explanation, estimates, or details. The status page: http://status.dropbox.com is simply down.

This is the first big issue I can recall DropBox ever having. I am sure they will learn, and implement better communication in the future.
Excellent app! I've been playing around with it for an hour now and can really see myself using it.

Inline editing is the one feature i miss the most. Also the tree list is a bit hidden. If they were visible you could switch faster betweem them and setup the app as a lightweight project management tool or issue tracker. Just add your users, milestones etc as own trees and copy/paste between them. Also a syntax like: (someissuenumber) ... which renders issue number in front of the line would make it kick-ass.

Great job!
For a similar tool I recommend http://workflowy.com/ , which also allows you to drive everything by the keyboard and do indented lists. Best simple to-do list system I've used.
Chrome Extensions PR Pros Use
March Against Po'Lice Terror against peoples with disabilities on MLK Day
There are indeed millions of average developers out there, but they aren't going to be capable of taking ideas, independently realizing them, and delivering a superior quality product that will disrupt an industry.

Delivery is at least as important as the ideas if not more so and the person in that role should be well compensated if you do want those skills + that level of commitment.
> If you go back on average 1.77 times further again (35 generations) everyone in the population will have exactly the same set of common ancestors

The problem is, different people have different life span. And different people can share the same parent.

And sometimes in extreme cases, father - daughter love?
There is a link at the bottom of the home page called "google.com". It has magic powers!
If you think you can know for sure you should not be hiring anyone. Investing in human capital entails risks.
Working on Date Objects in JavaScript
Where's roboto?
Register today to subscribe to our invite only beta access
10 most important good bots that you should know about now
In an earlier version of Arq, there was no possibility to see which data was actually selected for backup (and which not). Has Arq become more user-friendly?
May the (en)Force(ment) be with you: Security lessons from Star Wars
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4309345

This could be one of the reasons :)
Not really compatible; bootstrapping (in the business sense) is kinda the opposite of VC-chasing, which is what such buzzword-fests are typically a symptom of.
You could pre-order then and the webpage said delivery in January. Now it says February...
How to use Different Properties of CSS Links
Туры в Армению - 10 дней 
Во время этого тура Вы увидете избранные туристические направления Армении. В программу входят посещение основных достопримечательностей страны, культурные события, общение с местными людьми, вечеринки, знакомство с армянской национальной кухней и напитками. Экскурсии будут проводиться в сопровождении гида-переводчика на комфортабельном автобусе. Группа проведет 9 ночей в городе Ереван и 1 ночь за городом.
Honestly? I think it makes a change to read an article that isn't full of fearmongering about terrorism.
Wait a cotton picking minute. I abandoned a bunch of robotic product ideas because I couldn't find a market niche that could afford them. I have the skills to make fully autonomous UAVs and AUVs. Here is a very wealthy market niche. Hmmmm....

I'm pretty sure it's legal to build and sell things that could be used for illegal purposes.

So, how many Hacker News reading intercontinental drug dealers are out there?
I did this as a first employee(software engineer). Crashed out in 4 months. One of my worst mistakes ever. Reasons:
1. It felt like most of the times, I am the only one building the product while the CEO(non-technical) was reading blogs and plotting strategy for a yet non-existent product.
2. The success and failure of the product somehow shifted to me, as I was the only guy actually building the product. Wouldn't have felt bad about it, if I was a co-founder.
3. Since, the other guy is now the boss, he would come up with strategic personal inputs to magically transform the product into a unicorn, without backing it with any arguments. This was the most frustrating thing.

Now, I don't see how anyone can validate being a first employee for a start-up.
Just wanted to note I get its an analogy. I also remember that being said somewhere too. But funny enough, most won't take 20. They'll do the full 30 or more. LOL
Getting a shirt for free essentially halves the price for both shirts. So you're not looking at 5 equal shirts, you're looking at 5 shirts and one of them is half price. You just don't know which. This made me try to figure out which one people are least likely to buy (made easier with that star) and then evaluate whether the decreased appeal is worth the price reduction.

I guess that's the idea, but it's not a very positive experience for me. That's a lot of time thinking about the least appealing design.
I hate to argue against someone I admire as much as Erik, but I disagree. His argument makes sense only for 'mandatory' context and rules, and that's a minority subset.

If I'm querying for the length of something, is that 18mm or 18au? Units are mandatory context for something quantitative. But the moment the context or rules become situational (which ends up being a large amount of the time), the problem of using objects in this space means forcing context and rules which don't apply. And then you have something either useless or less effective.

The future, instead, is to model the context and rules as you do the data. Users can then simply query how much they want/need of the former.
I wonder if it is Tesla Motors.
There's a method to estimate that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_recent_common_ancestor#MRC...

"Studies have used computer modelling to estimate that the MRCA of modern humans lived between 5,000 to 2,000 years ago."
I am in a very similar situation right now. Near graduation in the spring I joined a start-up I was really excited about as a sort of unpaid intern - I basically offered to help them out free of charge. Unlike the article though, I was not friends with the founders beforehand, I found out about them online. I was their first "employee" however. The two founders and I worked hard towards our product launch in July and it was a great success. Everyone loved the product, and it was obvious that I was now a vital part of the company, even though my title at that point was unpaid intern. Afterwards I brought up compensation for the first time. Knowing they wouldn't be able to afford a salary, I pitched 2% a month of equity for a year, ending with 24%. The problem thus far is that our product is a small airplane (gasp not tech!), which costs $55,000. Despite the tremendous positive feedback we've gotten on the plane, no one has pulled the trigger in the month since our launch (not a huge surprise since our financials have us starting out at 1 sale a month for our first year). It is enough however to make the two founders wary of how much equity to give as they have absolutely no clue what the current value of the company is.

Our current deal is that I'm given a monthly stipend for a few months while we process some sales and get a better idea of what the company is worth, so that I can be compensated accordingly.

I've been wary so far of considering myself a Co-Founder, since I took no part in the original idea or the funding for the company. From what this article is telling me though, I should absolutely be considering myself a co-founder.

If this is the case, how much should I push for in terms of compensation? Is 24% a reasonable number to go after considering the facts? I'm trying to look out for my best interests but honestly just have no idea what I'm doing. Any advice from HN would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the article.
If you joined before the prototype of the product was built, and you worked full-time, you are a cofounder.

Also, what's this company? Small aeroplane sounds exciting compared to HN's usual "next best todo app".
1969 Polaroid Annual Report
The most interesting part for me is the quote from Doubleday's LeBaron R. Barker: "Paperbacks could undermine the whole structure of publishing."

That sounds very reminiscent of modern-day publisher's demands of restrictive and onerous DRM shackles for their ebooks, because DRM-free ebooks might "undermine the whole structure of publishing." Sadly entrenched businesses can't always see the more-profitable future, and demand things like DRM to protect their short-term profits at the expense of consumers and culture.
Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere
Introducing the Hover Bike
I wonder when we'll see more startups focusing on exactly how to cope with that.
Good to see a More or Less story on HN. For those who don't follow it, it is basically either a UK current affairs show for the mildly autistic, or a regular open university maths and economics lecture - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qshd
Do social business models really work
A lot of debate about whether a social business can also make profits without having a conflict of interest. This is a Start-Up Chile (incubator in Chile) group that that is trying to do this.
Is Twitter anything mroe than an online echo chamber?
What's the betting that the developers brought up the plaintext password problem at the time and were overruled?

I've lost this argument with PHBs in the past. They want to be able to send password 'reminders'. Sometimes they want to be able to look up users' passwords too.

Once they've made the decision to misfeature like this, nothing will change their mind: that would show weakness or fallibility.

I bet there's a developer somewhere in the UK right now who's glowing with a warm sense of I-told-you-so.
Americans now throw away 40% of all food
How to compile custom Sass stylesheets dynamically during runtime
Mediaa4football: Barcelona vs Real Madrid live stream
The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins looks at our ancestry right back to the start of life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale

It looks at a list of different species and then considers the most recent common ancestor we have with that species - fascinating stuff.
thanks donito, nice explanation.
http://www.skycraftairplanes.com - we're just selling kits now but we're pushing on being certified to sell ready to fly by this winter.

What does a late-coming co-founder expect then in terms of equity in a typical company? Clearly I don't deserve 1/3, but I'll be my salary will be restricted to whatever minimal amount the other founders and I can survive off of until the company grows up.
I think you got me wrong there, I didn't want to underestimate the value of developers' skills - I merely tried to point out that equity shouldn't be given lightly. What if I had 2 or 3 first employees? Should I give 20 to each one of them?

Since you're a freelancer, you should understand this - if I needed your services, I'd hire you for an agreed amount and I would expect you to deliver what we would agree upon. I trust your expertise, get the product developed and still have all the equity. If I wouldn't be satisfied, I'd find another freelancer, loose some money, and still not loose any equity.

Thanx for the tip though :)

EDIT: Let me try with numbers: I can get an investor to invest, let's say $50k for 10%. Now a first employee demands 20% so the value they bring in must be $100k worth, right? But if I instead hire a freelancer, I pay him $10k or $20k for what the first employee would have done, have the working product, and own 90% of the company instead of 70% and still have some cash from the investment left.

Yes, everyone should value their skills highly, but at the same time realize that everyone is replacable too. Including you and me.