skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Pricing going down typically = bad for one industry, good for entire rest of world.

However, the rest of the world isn't so invested as to loudly argue against it. I've always payed graphic design people well and been an easy customer. Find a guy I like, give him a set of adjectives describing the look and feel I want, and let him loose. Pay on time or early. You get good relationships and people will work for you on the drop of a hat if you're easy. And good graphic design people are worth it.

But that "finding a guy I like" is the trickiest part - this spec design work sounds great. Good designers ought to get lots of recurring work from it, and great designers won't need to since their schedule will be full.
Previously posted ..

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=510520
Social Media Business Bullshit
Looks pretty tasty.

Do the sellers on the site have to undergo any verification or inspection? I'm not sure, but I would assume that food in grocery stores has to get a license and be inspected by the FDA or something.

Basically, how do I know they aren't putting lead in my food?

I'm not really paranoid just curious how this process works.
What don't you buy?

Many serial number protected commercial applications have had their algorithms for validating a SN cracked and Key Generators spit out any number of valid serials for them.

Why would they use an fixed algorithm like that instead of using a good random generator and maintaining a database of valid codes? Perhaps they want the redemption side to not be reliant upon a backend code lookup and validation system (due to uptime, performance, etc...). Perhaps they thought no one would break it, and that would save them from having to build a high availability, low latency, high throughput, lookup system with some amazingly large database tables.
Why I'm asking this: I know someone who's looking for a CEO for a funded startup with an apparently great product. I considered it briefly than wrote myself off, deciding I was more of a CTO type and a CEO type, assuming a CEO deals more with the business aspects of the startup.

Now however I'm wondering what a startup CEO actually does. Still not going to apply for the position but thought it would be interesting to solicit information here as to what qualities are needed for a startup CEO.
"A coder could type quickly and produce reams and reams of really bad code - this is happening every day. Another coder could type 1 wpm and still produce something of immense value every day."

Huh, ok. Now, if you take the 1 wpm programmer that produces great code and teach him to type 50 wpm, what happens?

I claim there is no programmer in this world who wouldn't end up more productive (be it by a small or huge margin) if he learned to type faster. And given the ridiculously small ratio of effort to rewards at the lower stages (say, below 50wpm), saying it's not worth the effort is like saying buying more RAM or disk-space or bandwidth is not cost-effective today.
I'm actually working on a project involving large numbers of unique codes. While we're actually going with the random system and a web service to do lookups for the end point system, that approach can introduce a lot of cost and risk.

Perhaps they want the redemption side to not be reliant upon a backend code lookup and validation system (due to uptime, performance, etc...). Perhaps they thought no one would break it, and that would save them from having to build a high availability, low latency, high throughput, lookup system with some amazingly large database tables.
A lot of the "Group"/"Public Document" features are complete, and we'll be deploying them shortly.

On the Document creation page, we do allow you to choose from a list of your Google Docs.

Thanks paul7986 !
Beware of hidden command structure. If you want to be "peers" with the developers, make sure they understand they don't have to do what you say. After all, most commands in corporate America are framed as questions, and many developers will assume that the burden of proof is on them, since you have "Manager" in your job title.
Sooo ... I (along with partners) have a similar marketplace launching < 2 months. We've already got vendors on board.

That would make 3 startups in the space. I suppose there's nothing to stop a vendor from using more than one place, so it will be exciting to see how this space plays out.

The site looks great–nice job.
But I've heard that they more than make up for it through the increase in purchase volumes.
Gmail acts as a POP client too, if you want to wrangle with that. It's in the options.
Oh, I agree with you 100%. For 99% of the people out there, it makes far more sense to have someone else handle all that for you. You just have to accept there may be downtime that beyond your control.

I was merely answering lsb's question and pointing out that GMail's spam filtering isn't magic or unique. It's merely very good. A skilled mail server admin can replicate the same level of spam filtering. I'm not recommending that everyone run their own mail server.
Dodgeball ended up becoming Latitude didn't it? It seems most products are really transformed post-acquisition (which is probably hard on the founders)
Does this technology work using both images simultaneously? Or could lots of images be pre-processed individually into something that allowed a cheaper comparison?

Just to try to explain the question better, here's an example. Let's say I have 10 images and I want to find the most similar people among any pair of images. Do I need to run every pair of images (45 full comparisons) or can I pre-process the 10 images into something such that the 45 comparisons can be done in a less expensive way?
More like "do all authors need to learn longhand? Printed lettering is fast enough".
Martin Armstrong: The Coming Great Depression
Foodoro might have trouble competing with the likes of Zingermans, who offer most of the same benefits, but also act as extremely reputable curators for the goods they offer.

This also goes against the "foodie" trend of "locavorism", trying to source everything from within 100 miles of where you live. On the other hand, that's also a business opportunity; for instance, I'm trying to source a whole side of local heritage pig, and the "sales interfaces" of good local farms is predictably awful.
Twitter / cooking_corner
"One of my early mentors taught me that "it's not how fast you type but what you type" that matters."

Are you saying an increase in typing speed brings a proportionate decrease in thought quality? Otherwise you obviously end up more productive if you increase typing speed.

People who compare poor coders who type fast with great coders who type slowly are utterly missing the point. Typing faster is about self-improvement. It's about having more fun at coding while being more productive. If it also makes you better than the next programmer, then great, but it's not the point.
You are confusing ownership with being a customer. Customers pay rent/taxes. Owners exercise control. The charter of modern democracies promise equal ownership based on birth or residency, not on whether or not you pay rent. Or rather, the preamble states the goal of equal ownership. The fine print in the thousands of pages of legal code give actual ownership to an oligarchy of the civil service, congressional committees, and organized factions. You may like to get an ownership share based on paying rent, but you have no legal or moral claim to it, just as you have no legal or moral claim on controlling your landlords' spending.

BTW, you are also confusing totalitarian with authoritarian. Authoritarians deals with the management structure of a government, totalitarian with the scope of its activities. The US government in 1800 was non-authoritarian, non-totalitarian. Stalin was authoritarian and totalitarian. USG in 2009 is non-authoritarian, totalitarian. Louis the XIV was authoritarian, non-totalitarian.
Go Green:  Forestry Can Create 10 Million World Wide Jobs
As far as I know, all current versions of Microsoft Windows (XP and Vista) will throw a warning if installed on a computer without antivirus software. Since Symantec/Norton is one of the most well-known names in the business (and often comes bundled on new computers), it makes sense that people use their product.
Ahh. I see what you mean now. They aren't expected to have already taken sides, even though they might have anyway. I wish that mentality were allowed to the rest of us. Being pressured to prematurely take a side really encourages less rational and more identity-based arguments.

On the thought of them being spared all of this, I run into more than a few tweens (wife's sister being one of them), who have taken positions on complex issues anyway, and defend them using the targeted messages TV ads and pundits throw around. Obviously, I'm not implying they understand the context of their arguments -- I can't help but worry most people don't -- but they have already formed an initial opinion about things.

I don't expect you to defend this argument -- it is just me thinking out loud -- but I wonder how much we're already seeing of the juvenile mental health effect of politics, since we seem rather ineffective at protecting them from it.
All our foodmakers on our site are licensed and certified to sell food. We have a pretty rigorous standard on who can list on our site, so it's very unlikely you'll find lead in your product. In fact, most of the food on our site is much healthier than something you'd find at the supermarket.
http://www.gnome.org/~federico/#conferences

Document-centric GNOME is pretty good.
We've looked at the market and it's pretty big...and there are already several other competitors in this space. But, I'm a believer that competition is good for the consumer and us.

Thanks for the kind words!
To implement such a system would require a huge network of trust. Otherwise it would collapse as malicious individuals manipulated the system. Such a network needs a wide reach in order to make it reasonably certain that any given individual will be listed in its database. Possible? Yes. Making it useful? Well, thats up to you. Building the initial database could be quite difficult.
“I didn’t start coding when I was 6, but 21, and Jason (Fried) started business school later too”

On the other hand, I did. And now I'm in college having the time of my life analyzing frequency responses of signal filters, and doing only peripheral amounts of coding. Shows how much what you did as a kid has a bearing on what you end up doing later in life :)
Twilio translates phone calls into HTTP requests
Integrity, passion, and experience in that order. My 2 cents and probably over-priced.
The Interesting Guide of Adding More Fiber to Your Food
in a word: no. Rights and responsibility are 2 sides of the same coin. Since there isn't really a good test for responsibility (unless you're willing to have marriage or land ownership be qualifications for voting), then age is all we've got as a marker for responsibility. Probably unfair to a great many responsible children, but better than the alternative.
I knew a guy who was wheelchair bound with no use of one hand and the other only semifunctional, able to peck out keys one at a time.

I can't claim he was a great hacker, but he managed to hold his own on the team and even outperformed some. If he can be competent with that level of impairment, I think it's got to be incorrect to claim all great hackers are great typists.
But something that works for a multiparty system does not necessarily translate well to a system with less candidates (or viable candidates). To be honest it can be argued that obama would have won by a much larger margin in america given that 16/17 year olds could vote, and though this could probably show a good thing most people that age do not understand the government nor any policy action that would be put in place by there vote. At 18 there is already some trouble in my opinion especially seen by such ad campaigns as vote or die, or teenagers coming on tv saying I'm voting for so and so because they are more handsome etc.. you find this much less in older age groups.
Just thought of "The Raft" in Snow Crash.
I wonder how much of it is "fear of having the idea stolen", and how much of it is perfectionism and fear of failure. Anyone with any experience isn't worried about "having an idea stolen". But many, probably most, entrepreneurs are still perfectionists to some degree.
Business skills? Connections? Technology experience? Coder or not? Has a presence than can convey leadership, Financial experience? etc. Are any of these relevant/necessary?
I know signature link has the patent for this technology, make sure your product differentiates itself or you might see some issues in the future:

http://signaturelink.com/

It looks great though!
To me it's kind of a weird arbitrary divide to make. All the text editors mentioned offer IDE like functionality at various levels. They help you with various kinds of auto-complete, context sensitive help, etc. etc. Where is the line that when crossed makes it an IDE an not an editor?

To be fair to the author though, the phrase was "rely on an IDE", not "use an IDE" which is a little different.

I think a more valid way to look at it is that great hackers tend to use highly advanced editors and they totally own them from top to bottom - whether they are in an IDE or not. That might just mean that they have a completely customized eclipse setup and know every hotkey extension innately or (like myself) use powerful editor plugins like viPlugin to ratchet up the productivity.
But a question has to appear.
How can a court decides if there was an intent for electronically signing the document, in case the signer denies his/her intention?

When it comes to intentions, it is NOT easy to prove it!
This either blown out of proportion by the media or a scary reality!

What has led us to this path, if it is indeed reality?

Over the last few months our govt has taken the stance of spreading the wealth, but that has not helped Wall St. nor confidence in investors (banks) to start loaning money and or investing! It's seems like a democratic mindset against a republican one, with the latter holding onto the money, not helping the country as a whole.

But, why invest or loan money when you may lose it all, ending up like these people in these tent cities. Capitalism at its worst!
If I were in that position, I'd probably vote for not hiring a replacement CEO yet.

Maybe this is just because of my lack of business experience, but I don't really think a pre-revenue company particularly needs a full-time CEO; until you've managed to make something people want, the challenges are primarily technical.
mmmmm... metrosexual homer wants little flavor donuts...

But seriously, congrats on the launch.

My only gripe is that there are too many things to select from, and that the average gluten will go broke wanting to try every damn thing listed on the site.

Wild Nori? Sold!
Have you talked to the folks at Marlow & Sons? They can probably order you a whole side of local heritage pig. (I notice you're in NYC)

Also: Would be interested in brainstorming ideas on 'sales interfaces for local farms' with any interested parties.
who else thought of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uco5Ed-5y2U

(synopsis: ancient mr. show sketch involving a corporate mascot called pit-pat. warning: swearing)
Sobering Thought About Scalability Of Darcs
I'm the guy on the other side of the table: I'm the VP of Engineering who gets brought in. The circumstances are always the same - the CEO/COO/BoD doesn't believe that the CTO is the person they can trust to build great software and great processes. (This may or may not be true, and the company may or may not be doing that already - I've seen both. This is subjective even if you know what you're talking about.)

A few simple notes, and please know I don't wish to be insulting, just clear:

--This person is absolutely going to report to the CEO. The CEO is the person making the decision, and if he trusted you to build and run the organization, he would have had you hire the VPE. (On a related note, you missed an opportunity to fill a hole for the company that the CEO recognized.)

CEOs (and any leader of a large, multi-fxnal organization) want their direct reports to be the people they can trust to get something done. You aren't that guy - the CEO doesn't want to go through you to find out how the engineering org is working, or he would have kept you in charge - so the VPE isn't going to work for you. Done.

--The CTO/VPE peer relationship is perfectly reasonable. Sometimes it's a hierarchy, sometimes it's not. Usually when it's a hierarchy, it's because the CTO also runs other groups (like ops, tech support, etc.), and so is known by the CEO etc. to be a capable manager. You are not.

So when I read your note, I can't tell if

1) you're upset because you want to keep doing the VPE job, but you aren't going to get the opportunity;
2) you're happy doing the CTO/Chief Architect job, but are frustrated/saddened by how it was handled.

You really do need to make this call. If it's #1, sorry - best you can do here is help hire a great VPE and leech on to learn from her. (Lot to be said for that.)

If it's #2, the good part is that if the VPE is the right kind of egg, this can be very good for you:

1) Many VPEs do this job because they don't want to be the Chief Architect. Some have the capability, some did once, some just don't, but you rarely have someone competing for your job or responsibility.

2) You get to wipe your hands of everything besides making sure the company technically designs great software. As a company grows, that's a huge bonus. You have to genuinely _want_ to do this job when things get ugly or when negotiations get tricky.

3) Your time with the CEO almost certainly diminishes, but that's ok, because you get to work with the people who matter more to you.

I like what I do, and when I find a great CTO, that's awesome - it means that I can help on architecture occasionally, but really I get to focus on the problems I'm there to solve, knowing that many eyes are keeping us out of architectural trouble. So, make a friend (and if you're in Seattle, I'm always available).
So basically behind the scenes they are really only doing a google search within the site?
Google search [www.bestbuy.com: karate kid DVD] will return the karate kid DVD and price from best buy. I don't understand why I should want to pay for this?
To be committed, has a vision for the startup, the ability to move the startup to the next stage, and the ability to solve problems promptly and properly.
And of course the ability to lead the team.

Passion for the startup, and ready to spend 18 hrs daily - if needed - just for the sake of making the startup in a leading position.

But the problem that you won't be sure if the applicant for the CEO job really has these abilities or not. You can know it, only if he/she has a history record!
Really? So, if I'm doing wildly uncertain research in AI which I hope shall eventually (in 5 years) lead to a Unix killer... Applying before having actual technology to show for it wouldn't be too early?
Almost ordered something until the shipping costs doubled the price.
Felix - A pencil-and-paper cipher
Generally speaking, when adults tried to protect me from myself as a kid, they did much more harm than good.

I believe this is true for most kids.
I find a great way to understand the complexity you are coding into a method / function is to try and write a unit test for it. Short simple methods are easy to write tests for, while long, complex ones become exponentially harder to capture all the combinatorial state possibilities (eg: does it work when foo is null, but bar is not and baz is out of range? what about when bar is null but foo is not and baz is in range .... and so on.)

Even if you are not intending to write a unit test for a particular function, it's useful to imagine how hard it would be to do so as a thought experiment.
The other option is to not have the data on Avvo.
I'm not in the law profession, but is that (name, address, phone, etc) public information? I can imagine personal info being disconcerting.

While I've never visited Avvo's site, according to the article, there are other pieces of information there. What about the history of which cases a lawyer has won or lost? Is that public info? What about ratings and comments generated by past clients on a public website? It seemed to me the bar was miffed about that too, even though I've venture to say that's for all intents and purposes, public.

Other than your name, and perhaps where you attended law school, I'd agree that personal info shouldn't be on there. But I don't think use of public info is unfair.

I'm not sure the public rating of lawyers in the form they implemented to be the best way or even a good way of finding and evaluating lawyers. But I don't think it's bad to try or use public information to do so.
It would cost almost 4x as much (let's say 3x as much because you don't quite need to accommodate as much volume at any one time), and elections already are pretty expensive.

It also would mean that every polling place would have to keep all of the records, ballots, etc. safe for longer. Imagine if polling places lost the records of who had voted already overnight.
Zingerman's is a terrific store--some refer to them as the tastemakers of specialty food. But we think that Zingerman's represents a different way of doing things.

First, they warehouse and ship products themselves which means added distance, less freshness and limited warehouse/shelf space. The margin structure can be tough for the small producer dealing with a physical retailer.

Second, we want people to connect more directly with foodmakers. Zingerman's makes the products their own in a sense. They don't have any photos on their website, for instance--they illustrate them all in the Zingerman's style.
And Zingerman's has been pushing their own private labels heavily.

Finally, you're absolutely right that the tools consumers are forced to use are pretty bad. We want to make it as easy to buy from a small heritage pig farmer as it is buying from Amazon.com.
Every business is in a competition. Just not an artificial one. He would be directly competing with the old school advertising agencies, as well as a half dozen other crowd sourced advertising firms. Your point would fit better if he were offering high end software development consulting because it would be the software development equivalent of the high end ad agencies he spoke of.

Of course, if you were to take this idea over to rent-a-coder or eLance, you can have it your way and have the developers fight it out to reach the lowest price. (They won't develop everything on spec, but I imagine some of the newer providers might do a small mockup for you).

The difference here is that each individual logo "concept" only takes a few minutes to mock up. If the client likes it, then you spend some more time polishing it and refining it to their tastes. The problem with all of the arguments against crowd sourcing design work is that it denies the reality of the market.

Most buyers of design work have no network that can inform them of who a great designer is. Most buyers have no way of determining when they've met a great designer, short of studying their portfolio, and taste plays a huge role, as does luck (great designers may not always have great ideas for a particular logo). Most buyers don't know what a fair price for a particular project is, but they can see what the going rates are at crowd source sites. Finally, the response of every anti-crowd sourcing proponent I've seen has been, "Find a designer you can work with, who will take time to understand your needs, etc." But that simply doesn't address the needs of most design buyers. Crowd sourcing solves all of these problems, and more, for most buyers. Just because a certain (possibly large) percentage of sellers don't like it doesn't mean it isn't good, as far as the market is concerned.