skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I setup payroll awhile ago and it took me a long time to find a provider. I remember looking at Intuit, ADP (for a second), and SurePayroll; I think I'm also on the ZenPayroll invite list.

After going through some of the threads on HN I decided to use BOA -- which is essentially Intuit -- and although it was a pain to setup, it does seem to be working. (Total cost: $30/month)

However, the Wave Accounting team reached out to me recently to let me know that they'll begin a full service payroll SAAS in January with pricing at $5/person. You can bet I'll be trying it out.

Sadly we're too small for ZenPayroll's pricing to make sense at this time.
You forgot to add 'constantly checking HN' for new info to the list :p
The Windows Phone sales of our app have been extremely lackluster. Our app is a paid app priced at $4.99 and targeted for Windows Phone 7.

On iOS we regularly get into the Top 10 iPhone and iPad Sports apps (both top paid and top grossing), and on Android into the Top 20 Sports apps on Google Play.

Our WP7 version has generated approximately 0.5% of what our iOS app has made, or approximately 2% of our Android app.

We also have had a Mac version of our app available since July which has almost passed the total sales of the WP version which has been on the market for over a year (our app is primarily targeted at mobile device users while they're at a sporting event, so lower computer sales are expected).

The jury is still out on how our Windows 8/RT app will sell in relation to the others since it was released just prior to the launch of Win8 but after the majority of our sport's season had completed for the year.

Our app does spread pretty virally at the events. In our completely unscientific polling of users, most of them found out about the app from other users, and I would guess that those WP users probably just assume that it's not available to them (we do give it equal promotion with the rest of the versions on our website).

As far as the release of WP8 goes, we haven't seen any noticeable uptick in sales as a result.
Our Walking Dead (aka ImageSpark)
Our society has plenty of place for Journalism, Literature, History. The question is if you want to study Medieval poetry, who's going to pay your bills? If you manage to have gainful employment while studying Medieval poetry, all power to you. If you come to me and say I have to pay your bills via taxes, while you enjoy reading poetry, then we have a problem here.

The problem is not the focus on personal wealth. The problem is that some people think that if they like doing something, its the reason enough to force other people to pay for it, just because that people have personal wealth and thus by definition are soulless fatcats whose property has to be "redistributed" because it's not fair that their pursuits are profitable and poetry reading is not. This is the real problem we are having right now.
What's interesting to me about stories like that is, is he realizing his full potential by doing auto-repair the rest of his life, or could he have done more in a system like Germany's that might have channeled him into an apprenticeship at a BMW or Audi factory?

The US educational progression has a strong bias toward one type of intelligence, and seems to more easily sideline people like your friend.
We use zbar, which seems to work well: http://zbar.sourceforge.net/iphone/sdkdoc/
We weren't talking but I said that yesterday as well :-)
Startup Founder on The first 30 days in an accelerator
Amazon updates Flow for Android with text recognition and group scanning
If their results are accurate to a degree, why are their tests not being subsidized by insurance companies. How much would an insurance co save by alerting a patient to her chances of getting diabetes, not to mention the money the patient would itself save.
Sure. I agree with that general notion. I'm just of the mind that many more people will get an education in a directed experience than in a self-taught manner.

It's rather like the famous anecdote of the would-be musician who asks a famous self-taught master how they should approach becoming a musician. Paraphrasing:
Aspirant: "How do I go about becoming a great musician?"
Master: "Go to school."
Aspirant: "But you never went to school."
Master: "I never had to ask anyone 'how', either".

Which is to say: those who are capable and willing to do self-directed learning will do so regardless. For anyone who seeks/takes advice on how to proceed "go to college" remains the best answer.
This article is about the cost of an MBA, which is a master's degree (in business administration), at a very prestigious university. So you're kind of hijacking the thread when you bring up the cost of a college education.

There's no doubt that universities represent declining value for money to their students[1][2]. But the reason we tell young people that they should go to college if they want to achieve something in life is because higher education, particularly at the top universities, remains a great investment.

[1] - http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21567373-america...

[2] - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4856452
At 50 dollars I would have been in right away. Too bad I missed out.
The issue with competing against SAP/Oracle is the kind of traction they have in the market already. Their contracts are long, and companies spend so much implementing the software that they're not excited to switch.

Also, as mentioned somewhere else in this thread, ERP software (Payroll, HR, Financials, etc) are all about the details. Payroll and Financials are very complicated, which results in companies only trusting the big players (SAP/Oracle)

Disclaimer: I work for Workday
Of all of the problems I have with Windows development, Visual Studio is the least of them. I think 2012 is pretty darn good as far as IDEs go.
The tourist and the fisherman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_calculation_problem

Its a well known problem.
FREE MOVIE DOWNLOAD
So you're saying you can get 185K unsecured loan with no proof of income to back it up? I heard in some country they recently got into big problems with giving large loans to people that couldn't pay for it under the premise that the property they buy with these loans is going to raise in value so much that it will cover the loans anyway. But this time I'm sure it would work out just fine.
In my experience the amount of work experience and intelligence are actually switched around. There is usually some filtering for intelligence as a result of the GMAT while their experience can often be quite limited.

This can lead to newly minted MBAs having a good grasp of certain tools of management but fairly limited intuition around when to appropriately apply those tools.
Degradability would probably be a good feature to have as well. It's a NoScript/Ghostery/RequestPolicy world.

http://imgur.com/d2q3s
I agree with this completely. I don't care about how you think about your product, I care about what your product is.

Why am I so often tasked with the work of wading through all fifty of these bullet points someone tried to mash in to a single page instead of simply seeing what the thing does?
You're correct. But it doesn't work very well for the moderate to very advanced learners, and this leads to fewer kids reaching their capabilities. I don't even call these children "gifted" any more, because school administrators seem to whip out the pitchforks and actively work against "gifted" kids. I wish I were kidding. Massachusetts has ZERO budget for gifted K-12 education. I suppose the private schools will handle that (for those who can afford it), or we'll just ship them in from elsewhere after messing up our own brightest and talented.
Hacktivists Ghost Shell dump 1.6m log-in details on web
Hacktivists Ghost Shell dump 1.6m log-in details on web
nope, with too many people :)
Congrats Eddy and co!
To Do: Spend an hour updating my to do list.

I kid, but for me personally, these sorts of things always end up consuming more cycles than they save me. That includes GTD and a bunch of other get organized tools of the month.

The only thing that I've found that helps is a small pocket sized moleskine that I just keep a running log of things I did, and things that I think I need to do, along with whatever else I needed to write down at the time (phone numbers, shopping list, etc).

The act of putting things down on paper seems to help me focus and keeping it simple helps to keep it from becoming something else I have to do. It's not sexy, but it works for me.

As always to each their own, YMMV, etc.
Who on earth would share their genetic profile with their insurance company? That's just asking for trouble.
"it would be orders of magnitude cheaper and more fun to implement that from scratch with Python and some open source tools"

I can honestly see why you might think that (I've had exactly the same thoughts before) - then you find out what a Tier-1 ERP does and can be quite a staggering collection of functionality a lot of which is absolutely required and not optional.
Ask HN: A book about poker for hackers?
Startup folks, and hacker folks, often speak the praises of learning to play poker competitively, for fun and profit and social engineering. What should I read to get started?
Blog's having trouble with the load; here's a direct link to the press release: https://www.23andme.com/about/press/12_11_2012/
"...even if the gyros stop..."

Except gyros don't... stop. Sure, they require regular torque input to maintain constant angular velocity. However, they're typically constructed with all their considerable mass at the rim, so they have very high angular momentum. If power to the gyros fails for some reason, they will continue to spin, and continue to regulate balance, for quite some time. Certainly long enough to pull to the side of the road and deploy the kickstands.

It would be good engineering to tie some sort of gyro power failsafe into motive power and some sort of driver alert system, if it weren't even better engineering to just tie both of the "redundant" (I suspect that two horizontal gyros act to cancel any unwanted yaw torque that one would create by itself) gyros directly to accessory power. If the key is on, the gyros are either starting to spin or are spinning at normal speed. Like with any other vehicle, if you lose power at high speed, coast to a stop at the side of the road. At that point perhaps there is a non-powered mechanism to extend the kickstands?
According to the article, the biggest gap is at the high performing level, not the average.

"Although the average scores among American students were not significantly lower than the top performers, several nations far outstripped the United States in the proportion of students who scored at the highest levels on the math and science tests."

This may suggest that America's elite students are either 1) unable to get the kind of education that leads to high math and science scores, or 2) uninterested in putting in the amount of effort it takes to get past a certain level of competence.

Here's the forbes list of highest paid careers...

http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/04/jobs-careers-compensation-l...

8 of the top 10 are medical specialties. The other two are orthodontists and CEOs.

Here's a link to the amount of math and physics typically required for a med school application.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/medical-school-admissi...

(posted again here)

• two semesters of biology with laboratory (up to four semesters at some schools)

• two semesters of inorganic chemistry with laboratory

• two semesters of organic chemistry with laboratory

• two semesters of math, at least one in calculus

• two semesters of physics with laboratory

• two semesters of English and/or writing

So, "at least one semester of calculus". UCSD (my alma mater) had an easier track of physics that required an easier track of calculus that was acceptable for many of the med-school bound bio majors (while not one of the most elite undergraduate universities, UCSD does have a very high rate of admission to med school).

You do need to take a few tough courses (ochem and so forth), but all in all, I think the highest paid fields tend to reward moderate skill in the sciences, but not exceptional mathematically ability.

In short, it doesn't appear that access to the highest paid professions in the US requires a tremendous amount of math. You can't ignore it, but a single semester of calc seems to do the trick.

I've heard OChem is tough... I haven't taken it. But perhaps US students are behaving rationally by rationing the amount of effort they put into math and physics?
If all apps are considered equal, you may be less likely to make $100/day on iOS. But you can be sure that the upper limit of what you can make is many times greater on the App Store than on the Windows Store.
> I think it's rather telling the video doesn't show it negotiating a corner at a lean angle. Presumably that's quite a problem.

I would expect that it is eventually intended that it leans in a corner, it would just require a controlled reorientation of the gyroscopes, it looks as if they're mounted on gimbals already (to provide reactive counterbalance to any attempt to disorient it). I'm just guessing they need more money/time to research and engineer the right control system to handle the right gyro control for the measured lean based on data from accelerometers.

I can't see why you'd have a profiled (i.e. not flat) rear tyre if it was going to remain upright all of the time.

If they did engineer it to lean then I'd love the chance to terrify myself going down the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca on it...
The same people who would install driving monitoring devices to lower their auto insurance[1]. Not everyone cares about privacy.

[1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/business/seeking-cheaper-i...
legislative measures should be a last resort

Indeed. I don't see any other possible course of action to resolve these abusive business practices.. do you?
Just think how much worse Craig Venter must feel.
Thanks, I didn't know that. Though it is going to be clumsy on my MBP.
How much is too much when emailing the recruiters? TBH I wouldn't have emailed him if he hadn't assured me that I'd receive the email that night; if he said it would take a week, I would've waited a week before emailing him again. What am I supposed to do when a recruiter isn't being punctual?
I highly recommend using Bjango's awesome Skala Preview app[0] on your Mac and iPhone when designing your interfaces. It essentially mirrors your current Ps canvas to the device and let's you see how it will look in native form. It's invaluable for a multitude of reasons. 1) things really do look much "better" on the retina than for example my thunderbolt or MacBook Air display. 2) a lot of people have a hard time with the initial jolt of designing for 2x the standard dpi. Most of the 1px lines you'll draw for the web need to be 2px in photoshop to appear as 1px on the device.

I have an equally long list of things I would love to share as a long time web developer who moved into iOS and wanted to do things "the right way". This post from SeatGeek and all of the Bjango articles[1] are excellent resources for someone getting started with this

--

[0]: http://bjango.com/mac/skalapreview/

[1]: http://bjango.com/articles/
>And who uses a chat app full screen (like the Windows 8 one)?

Perhaps like this, off to the side.

http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communit...
weird how I feel in reverse. pseudo languages in templates and restrictive new template syatems annoy me in reverse. I prefer general languages for templating.
Finding Funding for Your Software Projects with FundaGeek
Or use Coral cache: http://blog.23andme.com.nyud.net/news/one-million-strong-a-n...
Why not ? laws could be passed to forbid the use of genetic profiles in establishing premium rates the same way gender or ethnicity are not allowed for use when calculating credit scores. We're talking about a win-win-win (consumer, insurance company, state/ fed) situation for everybody if only we could learn to trust a lil bit. Why does every relationship between a consumer & a service provider has to be rooted in mistrust ?
EDIT : Why is this being down-voted ?
This might be the way we're going even if people don't want to share their genetic profile with their insurance company.. what if 23AndMe and UHC (insurance co.) get into a deal where they provide this service for free? And what if UHC raises premiums on everyone that does not take this test? What if employers require their employees to do this much like drug / background checks?
There are really 3 sets of results they provide.

1. Genetic disorder. Tay–Sachs, etc. This stuff is priceless, because in the past, you had to pay thousands of dollars to get these same tests tone. These are accurate and very worthwhile ... but the majority of people will come back with all negative results, which is actually a good thing.

2. Your "increased risk" to certain diseases, like heart disease, etc. IMHO, these aren't worth much. A substantial portion of the risk for these types of diseases is related to lifestyle, so take it with a grain of salt.

3. Fun info, like telling you your eye color, where your ancestors came from, etc.

> why are their tests not being subsidized by insurance companies.

Insurance companies really only want #1. And guess what? That's info that I really don't want them to have.
Lumia 820/920
More school doesn't isolate people from poverty, crime, health care access issues, food security problems, etc. No matter how long the school day is, those schools exist in communities with those issues and the staff, parents, and children in those communities have to deal with the realities of those problems every day.

> That is: extending the school day to the point that it becomes reasonable to offer breakfast provides an opportunity to actually get breakfast into these kids. Which does impact test scores.

Breakfast food programs originate with the Black Panther Party running breakfast programs for poor children, not with school systems.

> Providing "study hour" type classes after a traditional school day not only provides a safe and equipped place for these kids to actually do their homework, it also keeps them off the streets and lowers the risks that come from no child care. And that also does impact test scores.

The solution to this is to provide access to child care in a way that is useful for the community, not provide de-facto child care by keeping children in school as long as possible each day.

> They know damn well that more hours of instruction doesn't really increase test scores. But they also know the best approach available to them

This is a contradiction, if hours of instruction don't increase test scores, then the approach of increasing the length of the school day will have nothing to do with providing better test score outcomes. Also, test scores are not a reliable way to gauge student learning and success.

You are right that social instability and poverty play a big part in keeping US education from being successful, both those issues need to be addressed in a direct way rather than try to provide band aid fixes via a school system that already does things in a way that does not work for a substantial amount of the students in the country.
Is the most obvious question being adressed in any jurisdiction yet? - Do you legally have to disclose your results to any insurance company you already have an existing contract with or prior to any new insurance contract?

By chance, I just read a typical life insurance contract and it already stated that if you have undergone a genetic testing, you do have to disclose your results if you enter into a life insurance contract >300.000€. This was stipulated in the contract and not under general German contract law. If you do not disclose your results, the company can void the contract any time and/or terminate it any time in the future.

This is going to be THE most important issue with genetic testing - the implications for your insurance contracts. Obviously, your test results can have massively positive or negative results.
I wrote this comment for the IBM 362 submission (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4902345). Seems appropriate here.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View spent 2 years fully restoring a DEC PDP-1. You can go see it - I don't even think you need to pay for admission to the museum.

During the presentation, they load Spacewar! from paper tape, and two members of the audience can battle it out.

It's pretty amazing to play one of the first graphical computer games ever, on a computer first released 50 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!#Spacewar.21_today
It is not just privacy...how about human rights?

"Sorry sir your infant child is not eligible for that heart operation due to the genetic marker we discovered in your profile."
Kind of like a hotel is a physical object but your stay in it is intangible so once you forge the key you are entitled in staying for free? Or kind of like McDonald's brand name is intangible so anyone can open a shack and call it McDonalds without paying a franchise fee?

Seriously, you can make up esoteric arguments ad infinitum and ad absurdum but the fact is, an arbitrary distinction - digital vs. printed - does not a theft unmake. Information wants to be free but books, movies and songs want to sell, or we wouldn't be having this argument.

One last interesting thing for you to ponder: the entire fiction genre is, by definition, misinformation.
I hope one day I have to use this : )
'Linux' = the operating system kernel

Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch/etc = Linux + lots of other stuff, without which the kernel is pretty useless (command shell/interpreter, GUI, command line tools, etc.)

Some more explanations that may help:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2013937/what-is-an-os-ker...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(computing)
Another way would be all awk.

awk -F\; '
$7 != "Duration" {
split($7, t, ":")
s += t[1] * 60 + t[2] + (t[3] != 0)
}
END {print s + 0}
'

Note the handling of s == "" in END.
Excited to see something like this. I've been going through the pain of setting up payroll for the first time and couldn't believe there wasn't a company providing quality services for such a necessary service sector.
Cartoon about Cats and Coping
Will they give my genotype information to FBI or CIA? Will they pay damages if information gets stolen? This is not some passwords or account numbers, this is data about real world which can't be changed.
> It's a design choice that your product... which some people (myself included) pay money for

How do you pay for Chrome?
Honest question: Why would you need newer tests? Isn't your genetic code fixed along with all the risks it implies?
You start describing parts of how the deal works, but not the de jure or de facto reality of its intention and operation in the real world.

>property rights do not evaporate...

It's called the Sherman Act in the US, and it's why Microsoft was told what to do with their property - similar to MSFTs forced debundling in Europe. It's the state saying "You're outside of the deal, make these changes (to your property) to increase competition, which we know will costing you lots of money (i.e. property)".

There are many other laws that regulate anti-competitive behavior, eminent domain, patent violation in times of war, etc. that are all pro-social but sacrifice property rights.
> Why does every relationship between a consumer & a service provider has to be rooted in mistrust ?

Because of money.
Yeah, it's going to be a bunch of soul classics in the public domain as well as a lot of original music. Given his history with the labels, we didn't want to take any risks with audio content in the campaign.

Here's a taste! He still rocks (in his 70s!) and was even almost able to teach me cowbell after just a day together.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22lester+chambe...
yeah actually i opted to stay on my current npm package.

looks like this requires specifying datatypes for each field in dynamo whereas my current one just lets me blindly dump objects.