skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Android has a centralised 'account' system, to access things like twitter, facebook, gmail etc. These can be used for applications to connect to these services. Android also provides permissions for accessing contacts, call logs, calendars and latitude. So in some sense, Google have had to make Android do this as well, but it would be hard to do it with the way iOS currently works.
We are entering the era where successful blogging will be the domain of already successful, high visibility figures like pg or Fred Wilson. The attempts of the popular blogs to 'scale' (which basically meant delegating content-creation to poorly-paid underlings who fight over ever-shrinking scoops) have failed miserably. (Personally, I don't touch lifehacker or techcrunch with a 10-foot pole these days, to name two I used to read).

The central problem, I believe, is that we don't have a good model to predict a piece of information's relevance to a given reader. So far in human history the mechanisms that solve this problem have been ad hoc and error-prone - only by luck do you ever 'fall in with the right crowd' and start to get the information that you craved all along. Personally I feel strongly that this is a solvable problem, and when it is solved it will change human society forever.
Apparently the pumps got flooded: http://status.fogcreek.com/2012/10/fog-creek-services-update... (near the bottom)
I've never worked for a startup, or even interned for that matter, so I'm a bit curious. I know it's illegal to have an unpaid intern work on anything that actually has value to the business. Wouldn't that be difficult for a startup? Is this law just generally flaunted or do startups have to take some precautions?
Sex.ly for YC '13!
Almost Every Website Could Be In Legal Jeopardy Now, Thanks To Zappos
I am in agreement about the inclusion of JS. It's a much more widespread and accessible language. However, I disagree on the price suggestion. $15 is a non-trivial amount and, it seems as though this service offers a slight convenience, not any sort of major, unique or ground-breaking functionality. I might pay $5 for this– or, maybe not– but I almost certainly won't pay $15 for such a service. (I might be in the minority as to how much I'd be willing to spend for this, especially considering I'm in dire financial straits. Despite that, I still feel as though $15 would exceed the amount of value that most people could reasonably wring from this service.)

I genuinely dislike their pricing model. I'm of the belief that, if one elects to offer a free tier, that tier should be usable in the real world. I should be able to write something that makes use of that service. This one-week "time bomb" precludes any real application of the service, and effectively makes this tier a trial. I agree that deleting the scripts is a bad idea, and is likely to produce a few indignant developers who forgot to either subscribe or re-create their scripts.
It feels like they are trying to Trojan horse Google+ into Gmail. This change is a step backwards in usability.

In an age where people have multiple email addresses, do we really want the email addresses to be hidden? Come on.
Its not that they couldnt do it. Its that they are expressely prohibited by apples patents. ( something about a unified search interface for your phone as well as the web )
If it acts like Android voice recognition, it is smart enough to correct speech on the fly.
What I got out of this:

1) This guy is a product/marketing wizard and wins hackathons on the regular. Recruit him for that rather than just for his JS skills.

2) His dad is a programmer, this to me greatly shades his "taught myself to program respectably in six months" story. Still cool, but I am unsurprised to find a supportive programmer in his life.

3) There is no three.
This whole thing raises a bunch of red flags imo.

First of all you guys seem to be very morally flexible in general. There needs to be a lot of trust in employer-employee relationships.

"I totally understand about not wanting to go back on your word. But remember, you aren't really doing that. When you signed the contract, you really believed that you wanted that job. Now you dont. Human being can change their mind, it's not ethically wrong to do so."

This is like saying you aren't responsible for any commitments you make and can change your mind whenever you want. What if you change your mind about paying your interns? I mean you totally intended to compensate them when you hired them, but you know, you are a human being so you can really just change your mind whenever. This combined with the massive cheap intern labor pool makes you guys seem pretty sketchy. Like you basically want employees but you don't want to pay them or share equity.

I don't know if those things are true, but that is the vibe I got. Also bragging about stealing an intern from another company kinda reinforces that image.

Also trying to develop the major parts of brand new systems with 8 interns and 3 full times sounds insane to me and kind of like you are just trying to get tons of super cheap labor as if you can replace 1 experienced developer with 5 interns and get the same results. I'm not entirely sure what you intend to do with a bunch of short term interns and like 3 fts to manage them while simultaneously running an entire company but it certainly raises red flags.
couldn't figure out how to get past the first page ... went away. Hopefully people don't copy this horrible interface.
Intel blew its mobile business or did it?
This reminds me of One of my favorite moments in the past couple of years is when I went to see Joanna Newsom in concert. Just before she sat down to perform, the host for the theatre said "now, I want you all to put your cameras down and your cell phones. Really enjoy the music. You can tell everyone how it was after the show. Seriously, this a real experience and you don't want to miss it taking pictures."

Everyone in the audience put away their phones/cameras almost immediately. The result? You could actually see people enjoying the music; not just bragging about being there.
I think you accurately capture why Google Glass was invented, to help share your life without getting in the way of it.
Uninstall advanced Microsoft excel
Best starwars poll
I'm not an expert, but I'd like to comment on your statement that discussing non-nootropics in this context is pointless. I think it is not, and my argument goes like this: you code better when in mood to do so. Certain psychoactive substances make it easier to fall in certain moods, easier to change your mood or even forcibly change your mood for you (like some of benzodiazepines or MDM, MDMA). Their working is not "nootropic" (as in it does not necessarily improve any mental functions) but you're in generally better disposition to code after using them. This is true even for coffee, and even without developed dependence - if you're feeling sleepy, your code will be worse than when you're feeling wide awake, and coffee, being a stimulant that it is, can give you that feeling.

So, what I want to say is that not only measurable enchancement of "cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention" (as with nootropics) can result in you doing better job. For example, while benzodiazepines generally lower cognitive ability, they enable people with depression to actually do something (to code, for example :)). Of course, when overdosed or just not fit for your particular brain, the same psychoactive substance can lower mental function so much, that no amount of optimistic thoughts is going to help you.

I just want to point out that there is more to productivity than memory, intelligence and concentration and that this means that when discussing productivity there is a place for not-strictly-nootropic drugs in the discussion. Although, I have to admit, that place is rather marginal due to very, very varied responses to such a substances among individuals.
[This is also in response to your reply to my other comment] I can tell you that some of the television I watched as a kid had a very strong influence on my deepest subconscious philosophies, namely Star Trek TNG.

My biggest argument against media consolidation, though, is that I simply don't trust any one entity with significant centralized power. While Disney+Lucasfilm is probably a pretty good fit for business and entertainment reasons, the sheer size of the various conglomerates is astounding.

And don't think for a minute that there isn't blatant propaganda in some TV shows, even if the propaganda isn't coherent within a single media conglomerate. The example I found most bothersome was the justly canceled TV series "V", which had extremely overt xenophobic allusions to issues of the day, like illegal immigration and foreign policy.
This isn't NGEN (it's a similar concept of course, but the tools and details are different).
Cool article -- I think the most important thing going into any job is that you're absolutely enthralled with the opportunity.

Patrick, it's never easy and the real world is complicated. As much as "YOLO" has become overplayed, I do believe that time is our greatest asset.

As for hiring interns based on emails... well... :)
These guys are from Columbia, MO which actually has many of the things necessary to start a tech scene: A good university, cheap housing, and initial angel investment from folks like Brent Beshore who know how to build a strong successful business.
"buy a fucking pump"

I suspect this is good advice, but the image that popped into my head was an elevated generator, a ground-level tank, and an electric pump reliant on either mains or generator power. "It's always worked during our monthly tests!" Whoops!

Probably the elevated generator should be installed with at least a small gravity-fed tank, easily refilled once the pump is operating. I doubt anyone wants a giant fuel depot anywhere inside or on the roof of the building.

Keep in mind that for heights taller than 3 floors (and practically, the limit is shorter than that), pumps have to be located on the same level as the fuel supply because the atmospheric column only has so much mass. Pumps and their electrical inputs should probably be installed with waterproofing if flooding is considered likely.
Well, now I do feel like a cunt.

Past my bedtime, so didn't connect this with that wee bit of weather the East coast USA experienced recently.

Sincerely hope lugging diesel remains the least of their worries.
#2 is very fair, but I'll also note that growing up as a kid with two parents who had masters degrees in mathematics (from Warsaw Polytechnic), it was actually near impossible to learn math from them. I think it's also very difficult for me at this point to really help people learn to code. I recall a time when I was in the middle of learning where I could really communicate with people on both sides and bridge that gap of understanding, but I'm afraid that I've now surpassed that point. My dad was a great resource in learning, but mostly in the confidence arena where I knew if I got stuck, I would have someone to turn to. That being said, I school him on JS now.
Im pretty sure iOS is the only one with special os specific DRM
An Oral History of John Backus [pdf]
Just to clarify I think what Patrick did is fine since he went and talked to the other CEO and they agreed, but the way Arjun went about inciting him to do it seemed sketchy.
Yikes, looks like I didn't investigate quite far enough. Thanks for the information :)
This is just my gut reaction, so treat it with the skepticism it deserves, but I don't think Disney's influence is necessarily visible in behavior. I think it's more likely to be a subtle adjustment to the unconscious Bayesian priors invoked in decision making.
This is reminiscent of what happened at Fukushima Daiichi, although with less dire consequences.
From http://status.fogcreek.com/2012/10/fog-creek-services-update...:

"Here's the physical situation:

The generators are on a high floor in the building and the pumps supplying the generators with fuel are submerged. The best option at this point is for people to physically lug diesel up over a dozen floors, or make other arrangements for pumping fuel to that high floor. "

Yes, a generator not in the basement / ground level makes sense. When a flood happens, it usually happens from the ground floor up ;) Thus why generators are at the upper levels.

Even in this case, using a pump solution makes little sense. Assuming you have electricity to power the pump, I suppose you could power the pump with the electricity from the remaining fuel, but a 17 floor pipe containing fuel would probably be heavier (and more dangerous) than a long mains power cord, and it wouldn't make sense to have a 17 floor cable to power the pump with the pump at the bottom of the run than it would to have just the pipe of fuel running the length of 17 floors and the pump at the top of the run.

Time for a winch? I don't think Home Depot stocks a 17 story pipe, and relocating the generator probably will take more time than just winching / carrying up the barrels.
Generally SV interns are paid something on the order of $3000/month, higher at the Googles and so forth.
I accidentally filled out a leadgen form for movers once. What it did was forward my personal information to 20 different moving companies who contacted me individually wanting me to fill out the same detailed paperwork 20 times about my move for a quote.

It's tragic because you can't turn off the inbound calls. There's no one thing to block.
This is always true until you're the one without hosting.
Marijuana is also Schedule I
Back around 13 years ago I believe the default to have it enabled was changed. That said alot of sites carrier on leaking that way, ft.com was one - even after it was pointed out to them. Eventualy they changed things when I mentioned it to IBM rep who also dealt with FT's account, nice rep.

I can see how it can end up being enabled and left open, but it is also that level of administration that opens you up to other more concerning issues, this is a concerning issue for many reasons. If you had a firewall that blocked off by default not exprecitly allowed(with good wildcarding when needed on sub directory's) remote access to everything not the main public site then that would of caught it. If you had a access control , that again would of controled it.

Only way some companies will learn is to be hacked or being done under the laws for leaking private data. So if you go onto a sight like that, tell there admin they are in breach of the applicable data protection/privacy laws you have that can cover such things. Then if they don't fix it, cash in on there stupidity and sue them, you get paid for your time and they pay for there crime and learn the only way some do learn. Don't hack them, no need, just use the law. Or get a patent on bad administration and use that to claim back royalties. Crazy approach, but if you have the money to cater for such whims, let us all know how it pans out, profitable and educational for the patent system. Who would contest and claim prior art on stupidity of administrating computers, you would get your money worth in laughs if nothing else.

Short version, this is a old issue and you are also breaking data protection/privacy laws - be warned. If you see it, warn them and feel free to educate them via the legal cashmachine.
This is the most interesting part of the whole press release.

I wonder if it will follow the book "Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura", which takes place immediately after Episode 6.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Truce_at_Bakura
Same thing happened to me, for registering a Dev Center account and purchasing Windows 8 Pro. I'm from Vietnam. It's similar to other gateways (like Facebook), they only accept PayPal payments from a limited number of countries...
Yes, I feel like Patrick's version of the story should have been linked: http://startupquant.blogspot.com/2012/10/snapbite-or-how-one...

Reading the currently linked story implies that everything was rosy after accepting the internship. But after reading his own account of being laid-off shortly after taking the position, I would think that a humble founder would be slightly embarrassed that they just recruited someone and had to lay them off just days later. Why even publish this email chain?
You could build a studying / note-taking app. Feed in source articles (textbook, PDF, et all) and have it automatically generate outlines. Customizable SparkNotes. This could be useful to every student in the world.
Honestly I'm not a huge fan of programmers -- in the beginning I thought it would be a good place where we could have these debates and talk about general programming/programmer issues. Stack Overflow was the place for specific technical questions, "how can I do X?" -- programmers could be a good site to have a Socratic debate on the virtues of various programming methodologies - "Why should I do X over Y?". Honestly we need a good forum for debunking the various cargo-cult ideas or at least presenting all sides in a debate in one location.

I understand the stack overflow format may not be the most appropriate -- after all these questions may not have a "best" answer, or that best answer may change over time. To counter that, perhaps the person asking the question could just pick the answer they went with and offer some context why it worked for them.

If all the questions must have a specific answer, then I fail to see what the difference is between SO and Programmers -- I would follow the DRY principle and remove the duplicate code.
I doubt a cheaper, easier system for filling the California ballot with propositions will improve things.

(There's a good case much of the current budget mess and general non-accountability of elected officials is the result of constraints added by prior populist initiatives.)
Unfortunately, I don't have hard data on it. But my guess is that there are two issues from a business perspective:

1) Productivity software is not something that is likely to spread rapidly (and cheaply) like a social network or a game. Unless you can pull off something new and clever, it's likely you'll need to pay for users.
2) It's tough to make it monetize well: it isn't something big companies tend to pay for, and it's still relatively unusual for individuals to pay for it.

That's a tough combination. May change, but I can see why investors are skeptical.
I knew neither Ruby nor Objective-C when I started (though I do know a few other languages, primarily JavaScript) and was able to begin legitimately understanding both within just a few days. I feel that, if needed, I could begin writing in pure Obj-C, though I don't think that that will ever be needed due to how seamless it is to integrate 3rd party Obj-C libraries into RM, as well as its Interface Builder support. Plus --and this is what I find most important -- writing in Ruby is just plain fun.

All in all, it was one of the most enjoyable development experiences of my life. Can't recommend RubyMotion highly enough.
If you read Patrick's post, the red flags turned out to be quite valid.

And you can see them popping up starting with the job ad itself: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d5ab5jowa58qci0/Screen%20Shot%2020...

I'm glad it worked out for Patrick in the end.
Romney: My culture is superior to yours
ARM Introduces Its 64-bit Processors: Meet the Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57
Well, this is Arjun, I put the whole conversation, unedited, up for a reason... so that people can decide for themselves. I'm not happy that you think it's sketchy, but it's your right to say that if you believe it.

No one is a perfect ethical person, and making ethical decisions is non-trivial. There are ethical problems with your approach as well... in the sense that if I were NOT to try an incite Patrick to leave I would not be giving him the free choice to listen to my argument and make his own decision. To say that Patrick is not capable of a reasoned decision would be patronizing, though I am not accusing you of that in any way.

The root of all ethics can only be free choice. In that sense, I had the free choice to try and convince Patrick, and he had the free choice to try and be convinced.
Rise of the Planet of the Binks
That was probably their first mistake.
It is linked.. it is in the first paragraph of the article.
We managed to submit by tethering through my cellphone right before the date change. Good thing to have a working backup option.
As someone who interned at a YC S12 this summer, this is spot on. Patrick's summed it up, really: you can find an awesome company where you finish up not believing how much you learnt in 3 months. I did! Just think carefully about what you're getting yourself into.

I flew across from the UK for it, having never been West of Yellowstone, and by god did it pay off.
Supply and demand and fashion have there cross overs. RIM share price has certainly been influenced by public opinion, depite some good sales/figures at times that counter the drops. Self forfilling prophecy that one.

Facebook being another classic, share price based more upon popularity. New startups all the time get snapped up on initial fashion popularity. Nothing is clear cut, should be but it is not. If some stars suddendly endorse a product does it make the product better, may help sales may not but the share price will rise before those sales based upon expectations. So in many ways popularity be it directly or indirectly effects all share price valuations, markets are so volatile by being so twitch dynamicly fast that it is more a direct factor upon share price than it was in years past.
Also bragging about stealing an intern from another company kinda reinforces that image.

Stealing implies property. The point I made to Patrick was that human beings are not property.
Hulu is worth $1-2B, maybe. Its a sacrificial lamb. To each individual shareholder, its a fraction of this "value". But Hulu is near "value-less" without its rights deals (see: failed IPO). [1]

As for the rest, I think you mis-understand the logic.

The Hollywood's strategy doesn't hinge on Apple's beliefs. In the same way that the strategy in Chess of Black may be pursued absent White understanding it.

The greatest battles won, are those never fought

(to paraphrase Sun Tzu)

It used to be said tha Steve Jobs knew what a consumer wanted before he ever imagined it. It did not matter to Jobs if the consumer was unawares of the virtues of his future products. He built them anyway.

Similarly, when trying purchase financial assets, it is best to do your buying when the rest of the market does not understand your strategy. That keeps the price down, competition at bay, and the liquidity high.

Common sense says: this why hedge funds are secretive.

__________

[1] Don't think for a moment that this is not fully understood, by the owners.
I was slapping my forehead as soon as I submitted my question, thinking I might be way off base even thinking that startup interns were commonly unpaid. Thanks for your great answer!
I want this for my gingerbread phone. I am on mercy of Motorola for update and they won't give it. So now google can at least update the voice search app in my phone to this. hopefully.
There is something about the voice recognition algorithm that uses later words to understand what you were saying earlier. For example, whenever I say, "Show me pictures of humpback whales" - GoogleVoice starts off with "Show me pictures of home" and then when I add the word "back", it corrects home to be hump.

To some degree, that's probably how the human brain works. If you say out loud "Show me pictures of Hump" and then just stop, it really does sound pretty close to "Show me pictures of home"

I am very, very impressed on how much better than Siri the voice recognition is in terms of speed and responsiveness. And, it works just fine on my iPhone 4, where Siri isn't an option.
Focusing your developer relations budget on partners who can add value to the platform has been going on for, oh, thirty years or so. Basically any top iOS/Android app developer can get some love from MS and the top top developers will get paid to port to Windows.