skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There are a couple of issues here.

1) to get better at selling, one of the first things to do is more practice [1] at selling.

2) there are some skills to learn, and these skills are "soft" ones - which typically receive disdain in techie culture [2].

Last year, I ran for public office. I discovered to my surprise that I interviewed [3] poorly. This explains why I've had difficulty getting hired in the past. I plan to join Toastmasters later this year (when my schedule opens up) to help correct this.

Some books:

Outfoxing the small business owner. Cynical, salesman oriented book. Decent insight into the psychology of many small business owners.
http://www.amazon.com/Outfoxing-Small-Business-Owner-Relatio...

E-Myth revisited. We all have cultural baggage about what a business is, and isn't. And for many businesses, that baggage gets in the way of actually getting work done, or getting ahead as a business.
http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou...

Notes:

1 - If you've got a good feedback loop for yourself, then any practice, good or bad, will help (aka: practice makes perfect). If your feedback loop tends to the same sort of self deception that most people have, then I recommend finding a coach (aka: repetition will cement bad practices, only perfect practice makes perfect).

2 - translation: "dude, you're turning into a SUIT!" (with audible disdaining tone used for last word).

3 - While interviewing for a job, and interviewing in the media share the same name, they're different enough that books aimed at helping one tangentially help the other. But at least I now have a brilliant retort to "what is your greatest weakness?" A: I found that I interview poorly.
From the link in the article ( http://www.aigprivatebank.com/IndexF.cfm?New=1c=4 ) in the footer of that page:

Copyright © 2003 - 2008, AIG Private Bank - A Member of American International Group, Inc.

Edit;
It looks like it has been sold to an Abu Dhabi holding company, probably since the book was written, but it was formerly owned by AIG. I'm not sure why their website says they're still owned by AIG. Strangely, for a bank he claims has multiple billionaire clients, it was sold for only $254 million.
Yeah-- we do specific IP addresses and not ranges. We thought at first they were all different, but they weren't. There were hundreds of different, but lots with of multiple spam posts, some every day. Group them by IP address and you should see some that are bugging you all the time.

Hard to say though-- could be a different "shape" to your spam than what we get.
MMS are a rip off anyway. Don't they cost $.25 a piece just to receive one? Considering I can receive an email with 20 pics for free, MMS is dead to me.
Advertising for Real-Time Search (aka Twitter)
Are they going to call the beta version "Wolfram|Alpha Beta?"
Building knowledge on top of the huge algorithmic base of Mathematica, gives this a fighting chance of doing something significant.
Machines that can see
Cellphone Guided Treasure Hunt Startup
Offbeat Name? Then Facebook's No Friend
Brewster Kahle wants to create a free, online collection of human knowledge.
It sounds to me like an expert system. What I can't see is how it's different to any other kind of expert system. Just more data?
That's all well and good, but when will Mathematica Home Edition be available in the UK so we can play with this stuff ourselves?
Looks like it basically the technique just gives you an excuse for practising? And the practise makes the master?
(pretty irrelevant:) Jose Calderon is doing pretty good: http://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2009/01/toronto_raptors_jo...
You could ethically do a poorly-controlled study quite easily, once you're fairly sure the gel doesn't make things worse: distribute the gel in a dozen small towns that are paired with other demographically-similar small towns that you aren't operating in, and look at the HIV surveillance results for those towns over the following year. Ideally you can also estimate the use of the gel in the people who became newly infected with HIV (by having their doctors ask them) and in the people who didn't (by sampling for a survey).
anyone ever been to cafe del centro? It's pretty good. =)
A Detailed Review of Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science"
Yes, that is true, in the early stage (before the start-up looks like a respectable company from the outside), it's more complicated. Ideally, you would use a different kind of visa, e.g. F-1 OPT if you have a degree from a US school, or TN if you're Canadian/Mexican. But I agree, the system is screwed up, and making it much harder for non-American founders than it should be. Let's hope Obama administration improves something...
My experience with Chrome and Safari is that they're pretty stable.
Audio White Paper - Built To Scale
Agreed that recession is misleading in the title.

I recently got back from India and I didn't make it into Dharavi. One thing that I found though is the fact that India didn't get the Memo that there is a world recession going on.

They are still building and expanding like crazy. On one Island I was they where building 3 new dive shops...
Why would "cooking the books" be necessary? Structure the assets in holding companies properly and they should be able to do it legally.
Problem with that is Vivek moved to the states at the age of 11. He was never an H1-B holder.
Out of curiosity, why do some people refer to Macs as MAC? Is there some major publication or something that does this? This has always puzzled me. What is it supposed to stand for?
I want to echo that. I've been a fan of Strauss' writings for a long time now. I wasn't a fan of Marilyn Manson, but reading about the two years Strauss spent on tour with him was awesome. I never intended to become a PTA, but learning about his movement in the PTA circles as "Style" was awesome. His writing delivers genuine enjoyment.
HNers,

I have personally known the founder of the above startup for a decade and can vouch for her abilities as both a serial entrepreneur and as a genuinely good person. This isn't her first time doing this, so she has a track record. And, although the funding climate is a bit bumpy these days, there are some unique opportunities specifically in NYC for startups, startups that help local (and non-local) businesses, and for social impact startups in general.

There are plenty of 'looking for programmer to implement idea as described on the back of a napkin' situations out there (and I'm not knocking them -- those can be amazing), but this is different. And there is plenty of room for innovation as the site evolves over time.

I guess my post raises at least two potential questions:

1) Why am I not stepping in as a co-founder? Answer: I'm busy with my own startup. Additionally, she's a good friend of mine and I've learned again and again that working with friends is, in the long term, often high risk with more downside than upside.

2) Who can vouch for me? No one on this site perhaps, but even if there were, it's turtles all the way down. :-)

Scott
After reading your description, this came to mind. http://www.balsamiq.com/

Their blog posts are on HN quite often.
Real IT Video Blog - Colin talks about testing
I like how he emphasizes that economists really don't know much about the economy and often change their minds. Nobody knows what effects the stimulus will have. Whatever happens will not be the effect of the stimulus alone, so the question of its success will most likely remain unanswered.

But this completely destroys his point that the stimulus is a mistake.
While free throws is an important part of the game, it's relatively minor compared to other factors that make basketball players great - athleticism, basketball IQ, ball handling, height, playing under pressure, defensive ability, etc..

I wouldn't be surprised if other metrics have been steadily increasing over the past 50 years. Basketball players in college and the NBA simply aren't selected for their free throw ability.
yes they are exactly what I was looking for, thanks
Since launching, Dabble has added stuff for mapping and creating forms so other people can sanely add data to your database in a way you control, among other things. Certainly Avi Bryant et al have not let DabbleDB rot on the vine.

The best thing about Dabble is its implementation knowingly breaks all the rules about how scalability ought to work.
Basically yes. To sum a lot of it up, PTAs basically believe that "closing" a girl is a lot like "closing a sale". It is something that can be taught, and that can develop into a sixth sense or instinct.

Aside from "canned acts/memorized responses" they also rely on something called Neurolinguistic programming, which is basically a way of phrasing questions to get a desired answer. Rather than ask "What don't you like about me?", they might ask something along the lines of "What about me intimidates you?" NLP allows the other person think they decided to sleep with you, not the other way around.

If you saw Magnolia (by Paul Thomas Anderson) then you'd recognize that Tom Cruise's character is loosely based off Ross Jefferies, the creator of "Speed Seduction", which was the first pick-up-routine to be based off NLP.
I'minlikewithyou (YC S06) changes name to OMGPOP, welcomes with 3-D panda
Tim O'Reilly's post of last November first made it interesting enough to me to give it a go. Well worth the read, whether you subscribe (to Twitter, or to his thoughts) or not.

Tim O'Reilly: Why I Love Twitter

http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/11/why-i-like-twitter.html
Beyond east and west: How the brain unites us all
0 How Office 14 (And All Future Productivity Software) Could Rock
I'm sorry but from what (very) little I know about Kundra, some of the technology solutions he's recommended pale in comparison in scope to what this country needs to address regarding technology.

Tweeting from the town's snow plows is cute/trvial but what about broader issues?
Tim O'Reilly on monetizing free stuff
I'm reminded of the hype surrounding Cuil. So, does this system do anything for my mom? She's not really the math-y sort. From Wolfram's blog post, I wasn't able to determine what's in it for me. Or, are we way too early for that?
Making the Most of Your Job Search
This fits a niche between Scratch and Squeak Smalltalk. Scratch is a very neat visual development environment aimed at learners. When you hit the limits of what Scratch can do, there is no easy path into Squeak. Squeak is also neat and powerful, but can be a bit overwhelming. This gives you the simple visual programming paradigm of Scratch for programming in Squeak itself.

The interface is very fast and crisp; I look forward to seeing it progress.
Anyone have any idea how one would get a job working on all the new government internet initiatives? I'd love to be a part of something like that...
Twittmeter - Automatically update your location and activity, right in your avatar
If it's really useful I'd say no less then 3.99 and no more then 5.99, so I'm thinking 4.99
i would stop using google docs if they did tis
Elon Musk reportedly sets trap for loose lipped Tesla employees
Sure, but you wouldn't expect someone running the technology for the city of DC to try to address the broader, federal issues.
The service should be rolling out soon, but you can take an early look at the functionality on my Twitter handle (@daveambrose): http://twitter.com/daveambrose

O: Stands for office
M: Mobile
Meter graphs: Amount of tweets you send per hour

If you would like to be involved in the beta, leave your email on the page or feel free to ping me.
That would be Balasmiq
http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups
> If 100% of provocative linkbait titles lead to crappy articles, then I can safely ignore them, but if , say, 85% of them lead to crappy articles and 15% to good ones, then I have to waste resources derefencing pointers.

That's an interesting and practical idea. To take your suggestion one step further, I propose that submissions of good articles should from now on include [Good article] in the title; crappy articles should include [Crappy article]. That way, I can only click on the links tagged [Good article] and ignore the crappy ones. (If the idea turns out to be popular, this can be automated with two checkboxes in the submission form.) What do you think?
True Entrepreneur Corp (Great Startup Internship Op)
Why? Mathematica does not have access to magical algorithms that none of the rest of us know about, nor does it have any particular performance benefits when it comes to implementing specific algorithms. It is a great exploratory tool and an exceptional "generalist" in computer mathematics, but beyond that it does not offers much that can't be done better/faster by a couple of smart people writing some tight application-specific code.
its just cool, not taking sides or speaking on policy. I'm all for lifting this ban to get more super smart folks to the US. I guess the age part is what really stood out. Obama is def down for youth and willing to take the risk on a younger person (smart) with the hopes they can energize citizens and implement real changes.
Google Docs "Power User" Appointed First US Gov CIO
RealIT Episode 2, The Scoping - Part 2
BizShark Takes A Crack At Creating An Automated CrunchBase
Why Mahalo employed a felon hacker
Silicon Valley Oozes Innovation
Tipjoy's experiment in virality on Twitter: Happy birthday Shaq
I completely agree with your statement and find it extremely. sad. I too immigrated to join the "startup spirit" and wished everyone in the world should be able to do their own startups.

But then I actually did something about it, by starting my latest startup, which is dedicated to allowing people outside Silicon Valley have startups "just like here".

Fatality and entrepreneurship are opposite feelings I guess :-)

[plug to my startup not inserted]
The point I was trying to raise is that there are people who don't care if they get an F, but who teachers still have a responsibility to teach.
Considering how popular your remark is; it is safe to say that people around here think "Hacker News" is about cracking. I had thought it was about building things, silly me.
Check out http://transparencyjobs.com and keep a close eye on sunlightfoundation.com and sunlightlabs.com .
New Tab Page: Proposed design principles and prototype
If @VivekKundra is him... Weak sauce. I want a CIO who tweets!
This is not to be confused with Shaq's virility, which from his tweets is undoubtedly impressive.
Neat/funny idea, but Shaq doesn't need my money. Celebrity obsession is a foolish passion that I've never understood.
Yes, it is that "practice makes the master". It is more about social engineering applied in a different context. It is like any other skill. You learn enough about it until you understand the rules, then you practice it even more until you forget about those rules.
Same with Iceland, that may not be the country
of choice anymore, but the concept remains the
same.

One of the subtle things that's going on at the moment is that the safe banking centres are drying up. Switzerland and Luxembourg have been somewhat cleared out by needing bailouts, and Liechtenstein has been shown to be vulnerable to espionage. Iceland is a mess. Islands in the west pacific have been increasingly brought into aid umbrellas over recent decades. The British PM made reference to it in his recent address to both houses in the US.

This is all a serious matter in the west, because it's becoming easier for governments to steal people's money, and to construct justifications for it that make compelling headlines.
Firefox Passes IE6 In Market Share
Sometimes hacking and cracking coexist. Examples include the reverse engineering of CSS (DVD encryption), figuring out how to jailbreak an iPhone, and even more questionable acts like writing a virus to innoculate systems against other viruses. These cracks required technical proficiency, real thought and good, old-fashioned effort.

Sometimes cracking is just mindless. I'm guessing most people here don't respect that. Had the book been a series of "...and then I paid this dude $N and he handed me a new passport", I don't think it would have hit the front page.
Should web developers also design?
The whole story looks like it's been voted down to -2. The low contrast line needs to be drawn somewhere.
Because "they" is Stephen Wolfram. :-)
If he takes interest, he'll undoubtedly use it to buy the Twitter team lunch or give it to a charity. We also hear he's a really good tipper :-D

Have you seen his tweet stream? He keeps it more real than most regular people I know on Twitter, e.g. http://betaworks.com/post/80027230/shaq-keepin-it-so-real-it...
"Edit; It looks like it has been sold to an Abu Dhabi holding company, probably since the book was written, but it was formerly owned by AIG. I'm not sure why their website says they're still owned by AIG. Strangely, for a bank he claims has multiple billionaire clients, it was sold for only $254 million."

Not really. Chase has ~800 billion in deposits. You don't see it being valued at $800 billion. That is because every deposit is a liability just like how cash is an asset and most of the cash is loaned out which turns it into more assets. In a well run bank, these assets and liabilities cancel each-other out very closely (wrt banking reserve requirements etc...) and don't factor directly into the value of the bank.
Avoid distractions - Paul Graham
Here's my take: AirBnB isn't just casting a wider net. They're changing their entire business model because the original one is severely flawed.

I've said this before: renting a room/bed out of your home like a hotel most likely violates multiple tax and business laws in just about every US city ... LET ALONE the severe liability someone faces should a guest in your home slip in the shower and break their collar bone.

I've worked at a resort hotel. Cities have specific bed taxes. Hotels have to be inspected. They have liability insurance. Vacation rental owners pay taxes. Some cities don't even allow short-term vacation rentals.

We've already seen the ride-sharing website ruled illegal in some cities. I predict the same thing will happen here.

If AirBnB wants to go the legitimate route and compete with VRBO, HomeAway, etc. ... great. But I've honestly been stumped by this site since it's inception. I have nothing but respect for YC/PG, but I honestly can't understand what they saw in the original business plan/model. If I was a VC, I wouldn't touch this site.
I've always considered "hacking" relating to making a system do something it wasn't intended to do. You have to know the system well enough and be creative enough to go beyond its perceived limitations. I get a kick out of being creative; others get a kick out of having power over something. In either case, the real thrill is feeling alive and not feeling like a mindless robot.

It is funny we're having this conversation, considering Jason Calacanis's open letter, "Why I hired a felon" relating to one of his employees at Mahalo: http://calacanis.com/2009/03/05/why-i-employed-a-felon/
A Verizon iPhone in 2009? Not likely.
AWS success stories from Europe and Asia
That's just the way the Wolf-man rolls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science#Methodolo...
Justin.tv live stream of AngelConf (starts 1:30 PST)
iminlikewithyou is now OMGPOP
Link to a specific part of a YouTube video
Sorry, I was unclear. By "one place" I meant one page, not one domain name.
PTA being...?
"When Tarasov was through explaining everything, I couldn’t tell whether I was protecting myself from being scammed or actually being scammed myself."

Count me out!
Pretty cool stuff. I found it hard to set up, but it seems quite useful now that it is set up.

How bad are Amazon Payments fees? I can see this becoming more expensive that it's worth with .05 + some percentage on top.
It's a cliche but I think sometimes you just have to fall flat on your face to learn something. At the time we did not have the experience to know Graham was right. We acted as if he was wrong and we know the rest of the story. The good news is that we learned from it and that we'll try to never do this mistake again. It's hard to keep the focus and to not change your mind because almost everyone are in agreement with sentences like : "Well... you have no choice to do consulting. you have to live!".
I think Capistrano is so good that I never consider making a change. Should I?
Excellent Tooltip Plugins Using jQuery
Ok - this question isn't really related - but I noticed he has a Masters in Information Technology.

Now, there is a local public program offering that near where i live that offers a similar degree- the course offerings look pretty good - there are 2 business classes in there but the rest are CS related - Operating systems, AI, etc. It costs about $12k to get the degree.

There is another place, private, that offers CS degrees, but it costs about $40k and additionally doesn't offer graphics or AI, two topics I would like to learn about.

So, my dilema is, getting one or the other is clearly cheaper, but in the long run, how much difference does a Masters in Information Technology with a concentration in CS differ from a Masters in Computer Science? Will I forever be locked out of high end software engineering jobs with the former?
not a bad name. They should have used my domain http://ombop.com !
Companies can (and regularly do) ethical, well-controlled studies on HIV treatments. It's not new territory.

First, a small-scale phase-I trial is done on otherwise healthy people -- they're just looking for safety, not efficacy. Any indication that the drug makes things worse, or causes significant health problems, and the drug is dead.

Once it's established that the candidate drug doesn't make matters worse, test groups of high-risk individuals are selected from the population: IV drug users, homosexuals with a history of unprotected sex, etc. They're selected for as much diversity/balance of demographic data as possible, then randomly divided into groups by the clinical trial organizer. The participants are given extensive counseling on HIV prevention, condoms, safe sex, etc.

The groups are then used to construct a double-blind trial, where neither the patients nor the physicians are aware of who is given placebos. Outcomes are continuously monitored, and if there's any indication that the drug raises incidence of HIV, the trial is terminated early.
Forgive me for being that guy, but:

> Please don't do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or adding a parenthetical remark saying how great an article is. It's implicit in submitting something that you think it's important.

From: http://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
how can you skip doing a Google search when you are employing someone?
One way of getting stuff that I've wanted for a while is to be able to pay for a series up front + maybe a bit extra, download it as they come out, then at the end of the series get the dvd/blueray box set.
You can make the pledge drive centered around a blog post or twitter account. In the widgets set the targetUrl param, in addition to the user name param. The twitter tools are really useful too: http://tipjoy.com/twittertools
Turning a hiring mistake into linkbait -- you stay classy, JCal.
According to StatCounter. It's numbers are much different from the other big players (Net Applications, Alexa etc.):

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/statcounter_launches_gl...
That's a wise move.

Every time I saw a reference to I'minlikewithyou I was thinking dating site.
I can't say if it's great, but it's definitely reddit.
May I congratulate the Washington post for writing about something that was circled jerked to death by certain areas of the press last year, and the year before that.

This post is as pointless as those stupid "mozilla firefox start page" posts.
Seriously. I'm tired of this. Does anyone know of a Greasemonkey script that can turn all low contrast into black?

Calcanis just took years away from my eyes with that color.