skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Absolutely my favourite bit of Ayn Rand. This speech can single handedly change the way people think about money and their own worth.
At the risk of getting modded to oblivion again, I'll say it again: we need to change our immigration policies to encourage high-skill immigration from high-IQ countries, and discourage low-skill immigration from low-IQ countries. We don't need more yard-workers -- they don't contribute much to GDP, suck up a lot of social services (tax dollars), and even their grand-children have trouble graduating high school.

Build a fence across the Mexican border (it's cheap, and it worked for Israel despite the naysaying) and require high-level skills for every immigrant coming in after tomorrow.
That is what you get for building your project on a proprietary platform. You are giving control to a third party and you better have a plan how to deal with the associated risk.

Along these lines, it strikes me as odd how people that would want to run open-source software on their own computers are completely content with running closed web applications where they have no freedom and no control at all. It may be the same reason people are willing to pay for bottled tap-water: convenience - it seems to trump other factors (including ethics and morality) by far.
Also this: http://bramcohen.livejournal.com/37690.html
I did reply, but I realized it was a red herring, and deleted it. It doesn't matter if you like the public sector and I don't. It's parasitic, that's just a fact.
I don't think your comment deserved downmods, either. It just seemed, to me, to be a simplistic view of the situation, and maybe the one that the old media would take (along the lines of Fox News approach to the Internet: a place for child predators and cyberterrorists). And, so, I made a joke that I thought pointed out the ridiculousness of that simple view; when you give your customers the ability to say anything they will say bad and good things. And that's OK. It doesn't mean anyone approves...just that people get to have their say.

My little moment of bitchery was about the humorless folks who've been voting down comic gold around these parts because it's biting. I've seen it enough lately, in my posts and others, that it feels like a pattern. And it's a pattern I don't like.
Hands-on With the Vue Personal Video Network
Linksys silent over WPA interoperability flaws
The laptop that shouts 'Stop, thief' when stolen
If more kids go to SUNY, fewer kids are going to pricey liberal arts colleges like Ithaca, Hobart & William Smith or out of state public schools in Jersey or Connecticut. They probably didn't get offered any academic aid at those private schools, they just might have been accepted and that's it.

Pretty much everyone who was going to school before, still does. It's not a spike in the number of undergraduates, it's a shift in where they'll go.
Reading between the lines, they're not avoiding revenue solely to get/keep more users - I think they're doing a last man standing, and waiting for all their competitors to run out of cash and go out of business. Then they bring on the adverts, because there's no competition by then, and nowhere to jump to.
Operating Timeline
What I think would be cool is if somehow high school could be replaced with college. Allow people to specialize earlier, and hey, if it turns out they're not interested in their specialization, at least they found out 4 years earlier.
I am all for being eco-friendly, heck my startup is focusing on helping the green building community, but I'm also for not killing people. We already know radios are distracting. I don't want the guy in the car next to me determining his speed based on a game.

"I'm sorry officer, the car was telling me that I should speed up so I would be saving as much gas as possible. It was the car's fault, it was distracting me and I didn't see the other guy in front of me."
PG respects MA. I'm certain other tech people respect Arrington too.

"His creation"? What creation is being destroyed by Arrington? Are you complaining about this story? Because it's not the first bad post that's ever appeared on HN, and this one was at least interesting in a "personal point of view" way.

If you misspell somebody's last name just to throw an insult, you've lost more credibility than Arrington has.
> every other day you get news about some guy who

> On the other hand, I personally know some people (about 15 persons)

Not to defend the US Immigration service, but those samples aren't comparable - one is orders of magnitude larger and less reliable.
Open-source or proprietary?
I am part of a team developing a new software technology, and we have a bit of a dilemma: whether to make it open source or proprietary? The product in question will be a core technology -- one could call it a platform -- on top of which specific applications will be built, either by us or by other developments.

We are aware of the ups and downs of either approach, but are not certain what impact will they have. On one hand, open-sourcing it would make us able to create a wider base of developers familiar with it; on the other hand, we plan to build a profitable business on top of it, and fear that investors (whom we need to fund the R&D) will be driven away by the incomplete ownership of the core.

What is your experience here? Companies such as OpenX and SugarCRM seem to be doing quite fine, but then they might be the extremes -- we'd never really hear of the failures, would we?
Worse, he didn't just piss away his own wealth. By running D'Anconia Copper into the ground, he violated his fiduciary responsibility to the company's investors.
Creating 3D Environments Without Polygons
Git has something very much like that already built in. Try

git diff --color-words
The Search Continues for World’s Best Programmer (pt2)
Dumping MemcacheD Content (Keys) with PHP
Why did you pick those two particularly?
I studied electrical engineering and I value my college experience and education. However, at the same time I think college, and school in general, instills a tunnel-vision mentality. I'm sure engineering students have heard it before from their professors and TAs, "Specialize, specialize, specialize!" I eventually enrolled in a PhD program, until I was able to take a step back and I realized that I didn't enjoy what I was studying, but rather I was still in school because while in school I believed I didn't have a choice.

I've always wanted to start my own business. It was at this point that I realized something: I don't want a PhD, I want to hire PhDs. :)
> The question is not if Woodward&Bernstein were upstanding citizens with good values. The question is this: Was the Watergate affair good for the country? Would it be better if it had not been brought to light?

I'm always amused by the assumption that Watergate was a relatively big deal. Yes, taking down a president was a major accomplishment, but I'm talking about the underlying crime and coverup.

Does anyone seriously believe that far worse things don't happen fairly regularly?

I'd argue that Watergate actually argues that the press is relatively useless.
Startup March Madness 2009: Getting into LaunchBox (and Y Combinator, TechStars, etc.)
> TechCrunch and the like are utterly unprofessional

That comment suggests that there's a professional press.

While it's true that TechCrunch doesn't reach the standards of the sports and society/celebrity sections, it's not bad by biz standards and is far ahead of "news".
What part of my comment says I like the public sector? While it does seem to be a money burning machine nowadays, it has made unmatched contributions to mankind in the past; that's also just a fact. It thus does not inherently "retard the future".
Not an easy problem, but just one nit to pick: open source does not necessarily mean "incomplete ownership". Mysql, for instance, completely own their code base. As does the FSF - they require copyright assignments.
Other than Beijing, I am trying to get the government permission to start a start-up paradise in Qinghai, a province in the north-west of China with a very large and beautiful lake inside. Beijing's air quality is bad and the rent here is high (not comparable to bay area, but other parts of this country). As the first step, I am building a data center in Qinghai:)
There are High-IQ countries? Must be the water! </sarcasm>
A Push for Open Source Biology from Merck Boss
The article is wrong. You can get more than 500 requests per second, you just have to contact Google first.

http://code.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=A...

Also, the limit isn't 500 requests per second, it's 30,000 requests per minute. So this doesn't kick in until you get 30,000 requests. The App Engine help says this should be sufficient for a Digg or Slashdot link... seems reasonable to me.
Transforming London into a Silicon City - All it needs is $10bn
Well, one obvious downside is a mountain of debt.
At what point does excerpting from an article become illegal copying?
I have now heard of 3 cases of friends who are engineers (with graduate degrees from the U.S.) working at well known US software companies, being held back in India because the US consulate is taking months to do a "background check" after they went to get their H1-B renewals, which have already been approved, stamped on the passport. This used to be an "in and out" procedure since the US government already does background checks on H-1B applicants when they apply for the first time, get their visas stamped for the first time and then apply for a renewal while still in the U.S.

At least one of these guys is considering resigning his position in the U.S. and starting something in India rather than sitting at home doing nothing.

Maybe this is just random chance. If not, kicking skilled immigrants with jobs out of the country is not a wise move.
'Newsday' Leads the Paid Content Charge. Yikes.
I think you're being overly paranoid.

The people who pirate software don't buy software if they can't get a pirated version. They just don't use it.

Offer support and updates via your website (requiring a login associated with a valid license to get it), and you'll make it really hard to steal the whole value of your product. Make automatic updates contingent on a valid license. Phoning home is really hard to crack, since you have control over the whole interaction and if you don't want to serve the update there's not a lot the user can do to make you. If they disable automatic updates, they lose the new features until another crack appears. If they leave them enabled they get a popup reminding them that they haven't paid for your software (subtly, though, as sometimes the user is innocent and the problem is technical or on your end; something along the lines of "It appears your license is invalid. Please contact blah blah for assistance in correcting this issue.").

The nice thing about this is that it keeps you honest. People who pay for software expect, and deserve, regular updates correcting bugs and such. If your license provides a year (or until the next major revision, or whatever) worth of updates, you'll increase your sales and your customer satisfaction.
I was lucky - I got my GC after 4 years on an H1B. I still count that as 4 wasted years in a dead-end job though.
This seems to me like a good example of an interesting subject, edited into an overly-condensed article, and tagged with a catchy, but somewhat misleading title. I imagine it would be very difficult to control an experiment just on response to anger (as opposed to other emotions). Without seeing more detail, this article to me basically says that being self-aware and having a healthy understanding of the full range of one's natural emotions "is good for career." Doesn't seem particularly groundbreaking that anger would be included in that list.
Arrington's Back
There are people here who hate Google AppEngine and Google in general.
Ask HN: How Important is Professionalism When People Apply to Your Startup?
I'm currently applying to some startups looking for a summer job. My dad thinks, especially since I'm 16, and I'm mostly applying places that only have job listings for full-time employees, I have to "overcome my age" and be totally professional in the resume and cover letters.

But he's never worked in a startup. I get the sense the startups like a little bit of a more fun, laid-back attitude.

So here's the question: If a 16-year-old (with great credentials given his age) applies asking for a summer job when you're really looking for full-time workers, which makes you more likely to be interested? A candid style with an occasional joke, or a completely professional one?

I have a sample of each here:

http://jackowayed.github.com/professionalismcomparison.html

But don't tell me what you specifically like or dislike about those particular passages. I'm not trying to waste HN's time with proofreading part of my cover letter.

I want to know whether you, especially if you've done hiring on a startup or will soon, like the style of A (a little more frank, has a joke) or B (professional, formal) better.
Even for dynamic content, VPS can push through stuff. I can hit a page that's generated dynamically at about 170 requests per second. On my $30 a month VPS. For a page requiring database access, I can run about 40 per second... with the DB running on the same VPS.

Frankly, this is pretty embarrassing for google.
A Website For Every Child
Sorry, Skittles, your prank offends me. I'm going to go buy me some Chuckles, stat.
It retards it relative to the future that would have been if the money had been spent by non-parasitic entities.
Facebook Investor Explains Recent Twitter Acquisition Attempt
Yes, but for that you get the following:

a) Interest free debt that you don't have to even think about for 4.5 years, and even then you only pay back a few hundred bucks a month and if you can't they'll work with you to defer payments or adjust them.

b) No other expenses for the 4 years(rent, food, high speed internet, utilities), nothing to worry about but school and startup.(this is if you live on campus..which you should since your loan can cover housing)

c) Plenty of engineering talent all over the campus who can take a risk with you and even work for free

d) Plenty of people who you can consult for advice(teachers/councilors)

e) Access to alumnis who you can eventually tap for angel level funding

f) No obligation to show up to classes/do homework...yes your grades will suffer(if you mess up on finals), but if you are doing a startup, you don't really need to care about grades, and this way you can be very flexible

And sure you'll end up 40-200K in debt, but so what? Everyone else is in the same situation as you. But unlike them who'll get a job at $40k/yr, you'll have a startup that you had 4 years to grow to profitability. And it doesn't matter what business model you have, in 4 years anyone can get profitable.
PC Shipments to Sink Record 12 Percent in 2009
I agree with Vaksel entirely. I have two degrees and during both I performed well academically and had more free time than I care to mention; Certainly enough to get a side project started, and I did just that during my second degree.

I also think the article makes a great point in that you can always drop out. If college isn't for you; you can leave.

tjogin; Private colleges are expensive, but if you go to state schools it is not. You still have to deal with feeding yourself and housing, but the courses are only a couple thousand per year. You barely get a used car for that little. :)
I spent 3 months setting up the India operations for the startup I used to work for in 2006. The best part of the experience - Chai (and biscuits) served at my desk.

Lunch was served too, but I prefer taking a break for lunch anyway. When you don't have to take a break for caffeine, it does wonders for your productivity.
Great. I hope it also comes with a parachute when the thief throws it as far as he can.
Digital publishers beat Italian TV to Leonardo self-portrait "discovery" 2 years ago
You already know my opinion, but yes I've done hiring, I like A much better, and I got interviewed at my very first tech job (at least partially) because of a funny cover letter.
Until One Is Committed, There Is Hesitancy
But you can ask for more and you'll get it. Is it embarrassing for EC2 that their initial cap is at 20 nodes?
Agreed, you're talking about the Movie Companies/IFPI getting nailed right?
Perverse Security Incentives
Stock Market nears 12 year low
Why the down vote ?

"Removing textbooks" is not solving a problem and beside textbooks are not a problem or the problem addressed.
Regarding the added value, removing a dependency does not require to "kill" the object of dependence.

Of course I understood the underlying idea. But you misunderstood my point.

The thing is that the "mission statement" is wrong. This is indeed so confusing that you are unable to clearly state the _real_ problem and added value although it is "so incredibly evident".

Killing may be familiar to you, as well as down voting. Not in my place.
Keep making it better. If you're out of ideas, ask some of your users what they use it for, what if anything annoys them about it, what more they would want. Take everything with a grain of salt but maybe it'll be helpful.

It might be handy on your homepage if you linked to some popular examples of people using this. That will get them some more traffic and make your top users more likely to use it in the future.

Add a send-to-friends feature after someone has made a map.

If some of the maps are public, how about having a combined map that shows all notes live as anyone using your product posts to it. That will give people a sense of what they can do with it.

Add a video showing people what they can do with it.

Try to white-hat SEO your site a bit for searches like [make your own map]. Do you get a lot of traffic from Google? What are those searches for? Looking at that might give you some ideas for what they are looking for.

Make widgets that make it easy to embed these map in peoples' Myspace or Facebook pages.

Make a mailing list for people interested in your product. Or a forum. Start creating some community; talking to your users will help you understand what they want or need.

Start a blog where you talk about and link to cool uses of your product.

Make a twitter mashup where anyone who tweets with a lat & long gets their message posted on the myguestmap. (Maybe you have to ask people to add a #mygm tag too.)

Just some thoughts. Good luck!
Oh my eyes.. :) I suggest replacing main with

def file_with_split_sentences(old)
contents = File.read(old).split_keep_after(/[\.!\?] *[A-Z\n]/, 2)
begin newname = "#{old}-sdiff-#{random_chars 5}"; end while File.exists?(newname)
File.open(newname, "w") { |file| file.write contents.join("\n")}
newname
end

fnames = ARGV[-2..-1].collect{|f| file_with_split_sentences f.chomp}
system "diff #{ARGV[0...-2].join " "} #{fnames.join " "}"
"rm #{fnames.join " "}"
Here's my bet: they are found guilty for something, don't get jail time or much of a fine, but are required to shut down or modify their operations. If I were a judge, I would see the prosecution's claims as exaggerated, but would probably look askance at the fact that these guys have done nothing at all to remove trackers pointing to copyrighted material, and have actually made fun of those requests.
I don't think his comment endorsed that view at all. I saw it as a surprised reaction to see blatant racism on the front page of the website for a popular candy.

Also: you have to consider that people aren't voting you down because your humor is biting, but because it's not funny and doesn't add to the conversation.
What you didn't like his Religion = Slavery post from 2008?

http://brokenpromisms.blogspot.com/2008/10/religion-slavery....
1) Build a user base

2) Grow a substantial user base

3) Open source (iff your technology is clearly a commodity)

Don't do #3 until you've gone through steps #1 and #2. First you need a platform that has users. Technology without users is like an object that is never instantiated. Open-sourcing for the sake of open-sourcing makes as much sense as promoting a new technology for the sake of new technology (ie technology that doesn't really solve somebody's problem).
I'm glad that I took all of my money out a month or so before the crash and invested it in my start up. My start up might not be successful, but I would have lost it one way or the other. At least this way, it is in my hands.
Personally I'd argue that it got us pay-every-trip-afresh ride to a space we couldn't afford to stay in, and a bomb humanity still cowers beneath, to use your examples. But that would be exactly the red herring I named. When I say it's parasitic, I'm saying it eats and obliterates some part of the value generated by society. It might also generate intangible goods, but they are things society doesn't value economically.
A is better. The kind of person who prefers B doesn't hire 16-year-olds to work remotely.
Since their goal is to have as many resources as you need, then yes I think it is.
That's how I feel. I almost wish there were some sort of filter to allow me to filter out Joel, Jeff, 37Signals, TehCrunch etc. from the RSS feed (I prefer to pick and choose from 50 items I haven't seen before). I get around this at the moment because I know I need to read the blogs folder, then TC and then the HN feed, then I can recognise title's I've just read.

I could, in theory, not subscribe to those blogs but I don't know if everything is going to get submitted to HN.
my web apps only need to handle about 5 hits a minute, so I'm good.
That's interesting. I don't think many people know this (myself included).

Source?
What happens if someone spends 3 years in a specialization they picked out when they were 12 or 13 and realize they hate it? You can't reasonably expect people that age to know what they want to do for the rest of their life.
Environmental Printing - Consider The Nature Of Your Communications
The High Mountain Graphics environmental printing efforts promotes cost effective, environmentally friendly Graphic Communication Services.
I've added a tagline now. I didn't have one before because before I launched it on a domain name I had a much more obvious name for the site which would need a tagline much less.
I automatically assumes British English if you're located (by GEO IP) in the United Kingdom and likewise for American English. For people in France for example they can chose between "English (GB)" and "English (US)".
That really depends on how you plan things.If you want to go to college you will find the means for it.

I personally planned financially for it, applied for as many scholarships as I could, hold 2 jobs and work through holidays.
Not to mention there are ways to reduce the cost of a degree. Take general ed classes at a community college and then transfer credits.

I'll be finishing my second bachelors degree in Mathematics(finished my CS degree already) with no debt.
Indeed. I guess if they will be force between changing something or move, they will move to another country. So nothing will change anwyay.
Because I'm a web developer. Not a crossword mathematician.
Good point. Did anyone do one or the other and regret it?