skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is terrible advice, even for people who want to do web startups. The job of the entrepreneur is to pull everyone from their social network to make the thing work. They're responsible for finding the web guys, the sales guys, the marketing team, the science advisers, the customer support people, etc.

Learning to code for the CEO only makes sense if your ambitions are limited to creating a two person startup in a garage. Don't get me wrong, plenty of great products have been created that way. But most of the best businesses are just slightly different versions of things that have already been done, and by focusing on learning to code instead of building your social network you are eliminating 95% of your business options before you even start.
One of the VCs at a panel I attended in the last year or so said, "if your business plan depends on noone knowing you exist, you have a problem."

In all seriousness, the execution is way more important than the idea, and execution is a lot harder to copy than ideas are. If you're at the stage where you have a working product, you're probably at the stage where you can go public with your idea.
One of the coolest things about the internet is how people rush to be the first to declare that something has jumped the shark.

Wait, that's not cool at all. That's just lame.

Anyhow, alas, it was all for nought anyhow as kevinwilliampang.com has been beaten to the punch, repeatedly, as a quick Google search will show. '"jeff atwood" "jump the shark"' comes back with 267 results, not all accusing Jeff of jumping the shark, but enough to make my point.

Thinking hating on things is cool is for lamers. (Or some phrasing like that.)
This is a rant based on scientific politics, and I am willing to bet there is more motivation here than the author is letting on.

Its telling that the supposed 'intellectual property violation' is not something that Gould is even known for (look at the wikipedia page if you want to know what theories are associated with him).

And in any case, presenting a scientific field as big as evolutionary biology as monolithic is either naive or intentionally exclusionary contradictory viewpoints.
Well, consider bands and production houses that use MIDI recreations of well-known music instead of purchasing the rights to the actual recordings. It's not good enough for most uses, but for some, it certainly is.
I think a lot of us keep our COBRA coverage from previous employers. I took this route for about six months before getting around to pricing an individual plan. Which, surprisingly, was about 1/3rd the cost for way better coverage than what I had before.

I disagree somewhat about only needing coverage for catastrophic illness or accidents. There's a huge psychological benefit to not having to do a cost/benefit analysis if you think something's wrong and you want to go to a doctor.
Can't write it well.

People have a tough time thinking in sets. This applies to developers as well. This is why people constantly fight the relational paradigm; you end up with things like CouchDB or OODBs because they make more sense to developers. It's easier to reason about an object than it is about a set of data.

I've been working on writing a bunch of "SQL from the ground up" postings, but I keep getting side-tracked with another project I'm working on and I haven't had a blog in years to post it on. Besides that, 99% of all the SQL work I've done has been in Sybase, MS-SQL and Oracle; so I'm not sure how relevant T-SQL & PL/SQL are to MySQL or Postgres. I'm assuming the basics are all the same though (which is to say ANSI compliant).
Maybe something like 「金持ちのダンディなおじちゃん」
$500 a month isn't bad if it's going to pay for lunch, books, field trips, and group work space.
"My understanding is that normal software product develop counts as R&D for tax purposes."

Ah, that would explain a lot... I guess that's the D in R&D ;)
Welcome to 1988. There are dozens of Web based front-ends to IRC available, just install one and customize a little to meet web 2.0 "standards" and you get all the millions of IRC users at your feet :-).
Nice and lightweight, but useless (to me) if not secure. The latency is also quite bad at the moment (10 seconds or so between me writing "ping" and seeing "ack" from someone else in the room), but maybe that's due to heavy load right now?
One killer feature from Campfire that I would request is that when pasting an image URL, the image gets inlined into the chat.
Those will all be software oriented as well.
Building a Ray-Tracing 3D Renderer from Scratch Over a Weekend
It's not really a forum, but Project Euler (projecteuler.net) is awesome.
http://database-programmer.blogspot.com/2008/09/comprehensiv...
World's Tallest Lego Tower?
Is it just me, or have jerf's HN posts kind of jumped the shark? Remember, you heard it here first!

:)

Seriously though, how many friggin times do we have to rehash these same darn podcast comments (and their fall out).

This folks, is what is called a Judgement Call. How much time you spend on testing, what kind testing you do, etc... is all really subject the programmer's need. If Jeff Atwood can write bug free code without OOD than so be it. If you CAN'T and you try to use his example you are going to find out real quickly that it was a bad idea.

So there's no need for a bunch of blog debate. As long as people are familiar with SOLID principles they can make up their own minds.
You will likely find PostgreSQL extremely easy to learn. You will probably find MySQL to be very frustrating.
Might want to also check out Mailplane: http://mailplaneapp.com/

It brings a few desktop app niceties to Gmail.
Is the tech recession over?
I would argue that we've already reached that point. If the government was streamlined by market processes and we ceased blowing surpluses on wars we could easily fund a safety net.
Optimizing file systems for disc rotational latency is so last century.

It's not clear that modern file systems are doing a very good job of that anyway; WAFL, ZFS, and Btrfs all deliberately fragment data to some extent. Besides 4K partition alignment, it's not clear that modern SSDs with pure page-mapping FTL benefit from any filesystem optimizations.
What an amazing resource. I've been working with some developers on their SQL recently, and I'll be sure to send this on to them.
US and Russian comms satellites collided
Sorry for any overlap; your post and my edit re COBRA appear to have crossed paths.
just met with one of the most successful startup ceos. he is an amazing programmer who haven't touched code for almost 2 years.
Tesla Gets $350 Million In Government Money to Build Model S Sedan
I'm getting a bit tired of these people, they post stupid mindless entries that make the whole blogosphere shake like they know everything about programming and their word is holy. They argue with common practices or beliefs and all of the content can be summarized to: "there's this thing, and there's the exact opposite, but you should try be in the middle and take the best of both worlds". Every single one of their posts boils down to that. Then comes a follow-up, and a follow-up to the follow-up, and here I am making a comment about how stupid I think their blogs are.

Come on, there's much more interesting people out there, don't focus on this nonsense.
At one point I had worst-case personal health insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield (Anthem). This was several years ago but I remember it costing <$100/month.
I have seen little evidence of Japan's young consumers, particularly young ladies [1], turning away from luxury brand names. The thing that has changed is where they buy them: they don't go to department stores, they go to malls, outlets, and the like.

But a Burberry scarf ($200 back when I first checked, probably more now) is still practically a mandatory part of the high school uniform in some places. That's the sole brand good I can identify at a glance, but I'm told that Gucci bags, etc, are still quite hot.

My ex-girlfriend went through a truly astounding amount of money on bags. She is not exactly unique among the young ladies in my social circle.

[1] I could point to a guy or two I knew who routinely wore single outfits that cost $300+ but, in my personal experience, its a bit more common for the ladies. One factor: twenty-something guys are less likely to be "parasite singles" (this is the actual Japanese word used: it means "living with your parents while you have a job before you're married"), and the ~$2,200 starting engineer's salary in this neighborhood doesn't buy a whole lot of bling UNLESS you have no rent or food bill, in which case its like you've suddenly got ~$1,600 of totally disposable income every single month.
If you think that someone can steal your idea and do it better than you can, it should tell you something.

(In other words, the ideas are almost never as valuable as the execution.)
Google App Engine on the road to becoming useful for building real web applications
The post's logic goes like this: Evolutionary Biology originally has mistaken idea X. Person A corrects idea X with a more sophisticated idea Y. 30 years later, Gould corrects idea X with idea Z.

The crime Gould is accused of is in arguing for his idea Z while ignoring the earlier idea Y.

By the way, the earlier idea Y is pretty fatally flawed in the first place. It is based on the idea that the size/length/information content of a program is the same thing as the complexity of the program's behavior, which we now know is totally false. So its amusing that the author is so rabid in its defense.
Stefan Rusek: Ready to quit ASP.Net
I'm not kidding, though. This is, roughly speaking, the mechanism by which humans evolved to be intelligent.
There are two kinds of startup ideas: those that have basically already been done, and those that nobody else thinks can or should be done. In either case, maintaining secrecy is only detrimental. If you believe in your team and your idea, let the world know as soon as you have something usable so they can tell you what they like and don't like about your product. That's how you'll end up making a kickass offering.
Only on HN is startup synonymous with software startup. In other place startup can apply to many different kinds of firms: biotech, cleantech, nanotech, MEMS, semiconductor, medical device, to name a few technologies/markets that get much less attention on HN.
Never knew recessions are indicated using Joel Spolsky's product sales.
U.S.-Russian Satellite Collision Sends Debris Flying
That would work, but I don't do order fulfillment. e-junkie does. They get to keep the IPN and Google payment notification interfaces, an email server to send out registration keys, bunches o' reporting code, and integration to the company that stamps CDs for me.

The cart posts directly to them, so hypothetically assuming I generated a secret and passed it over, they'd process the order anyhow and then tell me "By the way, your website passed this secret with the order -- do whatever with it", after which point a) the customer would have a registration key and b) if they ordered a CD, it would be scheduled to ship already.

Which is a long way of saying "There are ways to make this setup more secure but they'd involve me having to rewrite large portions of my business processes." Like I mentioned: it would cost me a lot of time at a very minor increase in security.

Probably illusory, actually. No amount of securing my cart will protect me from this attack: buy the software, write me an email saying "You offer an unconditional guarantee. I'd like a refund." And there is absolutely nothing that anyone could say or do which would make me stop offering that unconditional guarantee, because it is practically a license to print money. (To anyone who produces a low-marginal-cost product or service: if you do not have a guarantee, start A/B testing one. Its the closest thing in life to free money.)
Point taken. I was mainly using it as a play on Jeff's original post about him "jumping the shark" but I guess it's easy to miss that if you're not altogether familiar with his body of work.

Either way, my point wasn't that Jeff Atwood is a moron and whatever he says should be disregarded. Sorry if it came across as that. The point I was trying to make was that his disregard for code quality and the SOLID principles in specific is dangerous and that the massive amount of readership he gets and the support they have for his beliefs makes that doubly so.
There is a claim viewable via Google search that a subsequent tower was even taller.

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/tallest-lego-to.html
The Founders’ Room at Panic Software
Big Communication Satellites Crash 500 Miles Above Siberia
When I type "Gizmoojo" into Firefox (I forgot the .com as I simply copied your name), it sends me to Gizmodo.com .. I know it's been said, but if that's any proof you need a name change then there you go :)
I really like the idea of the drag/drop attachments. I'd use that for attaching screenshots and files I have on my desktop.

my friend also recommended: http://www.postbox-inc.com/
Its interesting that because the towers are cable stay supported, the forces are almost strictly compression pushing down on the legos. So the limiting factor to possible height will be the compression strength of a lego, which seems pretty high.
Web Hooks and the Programmable World of Tomorrow
with everything the author has previously said on information complexity (it's all over his posts) he's very likely aware of this. I think he wasn't saying that ignoring idea Y was immoral in and of itself, so much as that, without establising the existance of idea Y, idea Y'''' (that we believe today) can't be obviously developed, making it look like there's "room" for his idea Z.
Interesting. Do you have a link to that study? I can't find it on Google.
you have to rewrite a whole block to modify a bit

Technically, you can change bits from 1 => 0; you need to erase a whole block to go from 0 => 1.
When I was in Tokyo in 2007, there were several billboards near my hostel with a well dressed man on them, and the caption was something like (bludgeoning it here) "トキょ　ダンヂイ？" which transliterates to "Tokyo Dandy?" My impression is that it's a word that entered the language from pre-war British English, and is probably used more in Japanese now than in English.
Great stuff

- I love the signup "process" :)

- I like the /anychatroom feature

- I like the persistant nature of the chats

- It's interface is amazingly simple/quirky - I love it

- personally i don't care about security, as long as this is intended for OPEN chats and chatrooms (twitter-esque) .. not some private closed sessions between you and your secret lover...

cons

- manvsmachine is right about the domain name.. could confuse some users

Idea

- i don't know how long backwards you have the conversations open .. that is.. can I scroll back and check what John was saying a few months ago? If so: excellent!
Then a permalink as in http://yamr.net/chatroom#388332 as an url to every single line of chat would be totally awesome

Good luck with this project!! I think it rocks
New version of Tweetdeck out tomorrow
Which Web Design Company - independently rated and reviewed website design companies
Google AdSense revenue flat - what does it mean
Thanks for the explanation.

It's a shame though.

As MP3's were to the iPod, free ebooks in PDF could be to the Kindle.

For example, Google Books has plenty of full content PDFs for out-of-copyright works.
More Tech Start-Ups Call It Quits
- one extra downside: 10 second refresh-rate in a live conversation is very long... I'd try to go down to at least 4-5 seconds (maybe at least for registered users)
Inserting advertising into a phone conversation would ruin the experience (more so than an ad on a website). But it would probably be noticed!

You are probably right to an extent- but a lot of times people are browsing FB to waste time. If they are looking at the profile of some girl they like, and an ad shows up for the new album of one of the bands she likes- could that not potentially be an effective ad? (This could be a friend, who has a birthday coming up, and FB could suggest presents based on your friends preferences). I really think that FB just needs to adapt their ads better. I hope they get it figured out and prove everyone that thinks they aren't worth 15 billion wrong!
A legal pyramid scheme (no money involved) for getting followers on twitter.
Response to Chris Anderson’s Economics of Giving it Away
No. Most of the drama hit in September, 2008. It takes an F500 significantly more than one month to react to the downturn. In our case, we predicted we'd see budget contractions and RIF's in Q1-Q2 as '09 budgets were slashed and revenue recognition results started bleeding into companies, and that's roughly what we're seeing.
Best Buy seems to be a bit of an enigma.

On the one hand you have what is described in this 37signals article. Smashing The Clock (mentioned in the article) was written over two years ago. This is the first I'm hearing of Blue Shirt Nation.

Then we have reality. Like many others I abhor shopping at Best Buy. Every employee is required to parrot a greeting at you when you get near. They have a large collection of music, none of which will be what you are looking for unless you have an affinity for top 40 trash. Their "high end" audio gear is overpriced Bose garbage. Cashiers try to sell you warranties for $10 electronic items, offer you magazine subscriptions and online services.

I also happen to know several people who have worked at Best Buy that absolutely hated it. There are entire websites dedicated to hating Best Buy that are frequented by former Best Buy employees.
Virtual tour photography
Virtual Tours and 360 Photography - 360 Panoramic Views and 360 degree tours from Devon Virtual Tour Photographers.
Newspaper people are dinosaurs. Working in a newsroom like is like stepping into a time warp and they just don't understand the evolution of technology. So they're too busy applying the 'old' way of doing things to something that's radically different. So they lose.
Lessons Learned: The free software hiring advantage
Looks like a good start :)
Wonder how you're planning to get users...

I got them by leveraging IRC,
Campfire got them by having a popular blog to sell to.
It's much easier for Joe Developer to write endpoints for webhooks (PHP, etc) than endpoints for email hooks.
I wouldn't say there are dozens ;)
Kogi Korean BBQ, a taco truck brought to you by Twitter
Snipd is testing Stripd.com (sexy version of Snipd) for private or very public groups
This is horrible. I have been a Palm fan since 1999, and I will remain a Palm user after then.

O mighty Palm! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Palm's death-hour, nor no instrument
Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich
With the most noble blood of all this world.
I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfill your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die:
No place will please me so, no means of death,
As here by Palm, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.
Product Decisions: Why did we spend time on a color picker for Backpack?
Another View: V.C. Investing Not Dead, Just Different
Some inconvenient truths: A commentary from Merrill Lynch
Interesting work. Headline is an overstatement.

From the paper's abstract:

"Consolidation is inhibited
by reversible, intracortical antagonism of NMDA
receptors (NMDARs) or cAMP-dependent protein
kinase (PKA) during post-MD sleep."[1]

So they found a clue: they banged the system with a well-chosen hammer and saw a perturbation. Many other hammers could perturb the system similarly; how the system works has yet to be determined.

[1] "MD" = monocular deprivation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance_column
This is a really straight talking article that sheds some light on where we are now with the financial situation. I hope posting it will spur some discussions.

* edited to remove erroneous scribd diatribe * ;-)
I think in general the distinction is that a startup can scale more readily than a small business. That's easier to do if you're selling software than, say, haircuts which is why I think the term "startup" is used so much around here.

I think there's also an element of the entrepreneurial mindset on HN. The term "small business" seems to be considered implicitly defeatist here, unless you're (merely) building a "lifestyle business" which excuses your lack of ambition!
Is the tech recession over? In AU, and UK... Yes. According to various job places, there has been an increase in jobs. A low point was of course September, and October... but things have increased since then. Even newspaper classifies for jobs are on the up. Also the number of client requests for new projects has gone up for software developers/designers/advertisers/marketers I know.

I don't really track USA places - so I can't comment on them.

Is this Joel on Software post another thinly veiled advertisement for their services? Yes.
Call a broker. They're in the yellow pages and will be happy to give you a quote with no obligations. If you tell them what your parameters are, they can probably find something for you.
It would be interesting to know if churches were designed with ginormous ceilings primarily for this reason, or rather to be designated as the center point of a town. I have definitely noticed a much different style of thought every time I have to spend a few hours in one.
yay to progrium!
Twitter OAuth Beta Has Started - This is how it looks
Here's the 'Jazzers and Programmers' blog post:

http://blog.nicksieger.com/articles/2008/07/19/jazzers-and-p...
On regular harddrives you have to rewrite a whole sector to modify one bit.
Open Source Apps Should Start Innovating - Not Recreating
They also plan on being profitable by mid-year. I wonder if GM, Ford, or Chrysler could say the same? At least the Government has a good chance of their loan to Tesla being repaid!
that's not css at all, it's just how the template blocks are defined.

and it's a template engine people who aren't computers can actually understand.
Chromium Blog: Spell Check Dictionary Improvements
So your answer is Yes, but soon it will be No?
I'd bet they would be, on the principle that these things are rooted in our primate nature.
It's not fully over I don't think. I'm graduating from college in a few months and most of my peers have had a lot of trouble finding jobs. It's gotten so bad that even now employer recruiting sessions (the few that still come to campus) are packed to the brim with desperate job-seekers.

So while the catastrophic part is over, we're still not quite up to normal yet.

On the flip side, a lot of my peers are also still holding out for highly-paid positions at financial firms and consultancies (these are engineering majors). Both are suffering worse than the rest of 'em...
Getting Social Media Approved By Your Boss
Very interesting and mindful means of adopting new technology. I wonder why they haven't categorically accepted solar and/or wind power, at least for the parishes that allow diesel generators, since it seems to be perfectly in-line with living off the grid.

I especially like the diagram at the end of the piece, it's interesting to see the trends of adoption and rejection of technologies.
Asking the wrong question, looking at the wrong answer.

Who cares about this if the fundamental design of the file-system is flawed...
I like both ideas of perm-linking to a specific post and bringing the refresh rate down for registered users. I'll see what I can do :)