skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I thinks is good news overall (then again I don't run Engadget). It's also interesting to see that people using TextLinkAdds are loosing Google traffic, leading them to remove the TextLinkAds. I've always been annoyed by those but it seems that a move like this could lead to a lawsuit.
I don't think Scribd has much of a chance against the Open Library:

http://www.openlibrary.org/
Demo of DivaScheme for DrScheme (vid)
MzScheme Renaming files: Competing with Perl, Python and Ruby
Good lessons here, one should outsource the non-critical components of the business. WalMart needs to learn that lesson quickly. They have a tendency of trying to do everything in-house to "save money".
Seam Carving - Fast image enlargement through seam insertion in OCaml
From what I have read silverlight is actually the opposite of what you said. Granted I dont know if its all true, only regurgitating what I have researched and read. It's actually not that bloated and is supposed to run javascript about a 1000 time faster since its compiled and not interpreted. It will be interesting to see how it develops and competes with flash.

I agree that keeping up with the many languages is difficult. But it's necessary if you want to be the best and on top of the game. Test drive a lot of different languages and pick the one that meets your needs and feels most comfortable. Sometimes driving more then one language is the best option.

We could argue until we are all blue in the face about what the best language is and what the next "big one" will be. I wouldn't focus as much on the language in 10 years, no one is looking to utilize that today. The future is important (as many get rich making it) but keep in mind a lot of companies that have been ahead of there time got bit in the ass from it.
Microsoft exec: Desktop application software is not dead
Odysseus is better than Ajax.
GIMP 2.4 preview (coming closer to Photoshop)
The title of this makes it sound like MzScheme actually can compete with Python when it comes to renaming files. It very well could do so just fine if you rename files all day long and write some libraries for yourself to do use for this. If that's the case it can probably be solved more beautifully in Scheme or Lisp than Python.
Perhaps, if it wasn't for the screwed up security model that prevented you from doing a lot of the exact same thing that the browser prevented you from doing (for "security" reasons), the fact that most java applets had a UI that looked like shit, and that you had to write it in Java. I'm thinking more like improvements uppon Adobe's AIR platform.
It is not about the UI. It is a matter of usability and general design.

A friend of mine works in a company that develops airport traffic control software. More than one time I heard him say how the features that are pumped into the software are not features that are wanted by the users, but by managers that are responsible for buying the software.

In telecommunications, where I have a little more experience, it is similar. Things that we were supposed to work on are not the things that people required. I spent a whole year on a team of 15 SDEs developing a bunch of "features" that would never be seen or used, but that had to be developed if you want to have a Class-5 Phone Switch that complies with Brazilian regulations.
I'm not familiar with silverlight but if it's not cross platform (does it run on my Linux box) it's bound to loose. One of the advantages of building web applications is that people on any platform (pretty much) can run your application. Microsoft has been trying to maintain their Windows desktop monopoly by pushing technologies to write websites that only work with Windows/IE. Once again I don't know if SilverLight suffers from this but knowing Microsoft I would guess it does.
Great point - check out the traffic comparison on Alexa: http://tinyurl.com/2mdocw

Not a chance ;)
Sounds like a statement Microsoft would like to make. After all they've been loosing most of their recent battles on the web.
News.YC detrimental to hacking?
I love surfing around news.YC and checking on the latest submissions, I learn a great deal of stuff this way. But I noticed a scary trend recently. When I started visiting news.YC on a regular basis the amount of work I got done for my startup decreased significantly.

I currently only can work on my startup outside of my full-time job and I find that news.YC is essentially competing with my startup for time (and sadly winning). I know this is due to lack of discipline on my part but I was wondering if anyone else experienced something similar.
This is really neat. I can't believe I haven't noticed until now that my MacBookPro has the same feature with the iSight indicator.
D is a very young language that is still under development, so this is the reason why you have not yet heard of very many "useful applications".
It does have some innovative features, like unit test support built into the language among other things.
Ah, imagine if your car had a button to eject your seat located next to your stereo controls.
You may find this article about Java, Lisp, D interesting:
http://www.digitalmars.com/d/lisp-java-d.html
For #3, check out the Exception Notifier plugin: http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/exception_notifier. It'll email you any app errors, along with associated session data and whatnot.

For #1, I just rolled my own admin stats with XML/SWF: http://www.maani.us/xml_charts/

For #2, we've been trying to find a good profiling tool, too. Anyone have any experience with railsbench? http://railsbench.rubyforge.org/
> Try riding your bike somewhere.

You're kidding, right? Silicon Valley has the best year round cycling anywhere, and some of the best cycling, period. Maybe Switzerland in the summer is better, but that's about it (and it frequently rains in the summer in Switzerland). I lived in Silicon Valley without a car for 7 years. It's flat, and by drawing a 16 mile radius around my apartment in Sunnyvale, I can hit nearly every important tech startup of any consequence.

The quality of life in Silicon Valley sucks if your idea of fun is visiting bars, going to rock concerts, or top quality museums. For people for whom outdoor life is important, Silicon Valley is great. I regularly run into famous outdoorsy types (Brian Robinson, Jacquie Phelan, Jobst Brandt, Tom Ritchey) just by riding around in the area. On my cycling trips around here, I've met the former VP of IT at Adaptec, the VP of Engineering at Portal Player, etc.

And much as you might want it to be true, Fremont isn't Silicon Valley. Neither is Redwood City.
As someone who still works in an IT department at a large company, I think 37signals has a valid point. It's not the only point (and there are many), but it is a good one.

As much as most enterprise software sucks, it's at least 3 times as bad trying to install or upgrade it.

Enterprise software companies know their customers have deep pockets, which is what support contracts are all about. They purposely make the documentation too confusing or too sparse so they can push the "value" of their yearly support contract. Once you've bought the basic support contract, they tend not to have many more answers than what you can get from the documentation. Of course, you can buy higher levels of support where they'll send someone to be onsite to work on your problems (which means even more money).

By this time, you've already spent so much time and your manager has spent so much money on this stuff, that it's too embarrassing for your manager to admit to his bosses that he's made a mistake and your stuck with the crappy software.
The article only mentions a few of D's features. There are a lot more improvements. The templating system for instance is quite innovative. http://www.digitalmars.com/d/templates-revisited.html
Variadic Templestes: http://www.digitalmars.com/d/variadic-function-templates.htm...

But there are other things as well like the lazy evaluation, and built in contract and unit test support.

Ave a look at the articles on this page http://www.digitalmars.com/d/

And the specifications http://www.digitalmars.com/d/lex.html
The solution to this is simply to add the site to your outgoing firewall until you've gotten a good day of productive work done. Afterwards you can remove it and your usage will hopefully return to normal. It worked for me, at least.
Schools in Silicon Valley don't automatically give you a network. You're at no more of a disadvantage than someone who graduated from Berkeley (definitely outside Silicon Valley). What's very important is your openness to meeting people and talking to people. If when you get a call from a recruiter you just hang up you will never get a chance to make a connection. By answering my calls and at least talking to the next fly-by-night internet startup, I have ended up at very lucrative ventures, and now have a network of friends that encompass early to mid-stage startups and post-IPO companies. It's taken 15 years to have a network that rich, but the first step is to be in a place where you can have that network in the first place.
Clisp compiles to bytecode, not native machine code. Saving an image with :executable set bundles a copy of the Clisp runtime and your program's bytecode in to one file. Most other Common Lisp implementations do compile to native machine code, but not all can bundle the runtime with an image.

Similar tools exist for other languages which require the language itself to be present while the program is running.
very helpful. Are you certain of the tax free transfer of assets of the LLC and the founder shares to the new C Corp company ?

The benefit of doing S Corp as opposed to LLC would be that LLC's in california have I think a franchise tax of $1000 or so. For a bootstrapped startup that may not make any revenue in the first year or so, this is additional expense that may not be necessary. Also as you mentioned, it is beneficial to file taxes as an S corp, why not just do an S corp anyways ?
"What does it say about a biz that can only attract/keep top talent when it's competing against the junior varsity? How will that biz fare against a biz that does attract/keep top talent when competing against top tech companies?"

Very True. Case study:

Examine the interface of the Blackberry, largely developed by U of Waterloo interns and graduates. Take a look at the iPhone, developed by Silicon Valley engineers. Which will win in the marketplace?
Most of the blog posts I've read about Java lately are indeed about solving some problem. Unfortunately for Java's reputation, the problem is usually the lack of ability to perform one of those "tricks" that "toy" languages like Lisp can do.

As for C, I suspect there's more information about C "tricks" online than all other languages put together. For example: http://www.ioccc.org/
The Working Dead : People Who Waste Their Lives Away - One Day at a Time
You can always do a tax free transfer between two entities as long as you own the property. Keep in mind that it is important that the transfer take place between the outside investment and not after.

The franchise fee for LLC, LLP and S-Corp are the same. They are $800 in the State of California. If you don't think you need the protection, you don't need to file. You can operate as a sole proprietorship or a simple partnership.

S-Corp turns out to be very restrictive and also cost a lot more to file. You could do it on your own but most likely you will need to pay a lawyer. And it doesn't give you more protection than a LLC (in the State of California). Also, converting from a LLC into a C-Corp is simpler.

--Denny--
PodTech: RIP
Easy solution: Let it interfere with your full-time job instead of your of your startup! Problem solved.

/me dusts hands
I believe the comment by byteCoder (regarding taxable gain) has to do with options and not stock. I believe in his case, the employees actually own options which they decided to exercise, causing taxable gain which normally is not taxable because it is paper gain, but under AMT is considered taxable. This hurts since as byteCoder said, you can't pay real tax with imaginary gain but IRS is insensitive to that. Tax free transfer applies if you actually own the stock which is why it is important to actually write a check in the beginning of the company when the stock cost nothing. As a practice, always own stock. Options mean nothing. But of course, this is only possible if you were one of the Founders.

--Denny--
29 Nepalese orphans adopted by TorrentFreak and p2pnet
Microsoft has been untraditional in their ways with Silverlight by developing and openly promoting cross platform versions of it. I know there is an OSX version and I think a Linux version is in the works.

They must realize that the only way they will gain acceptance amongst hackers is to convince them that Silverlight is not a traditional MSFT product. A few months ago they were kissing ass to Arrington and a few others trying leave positive impressions about the platform and convince everyone of its openness.

But they may already be in trouble because AIR seems to have an edge in early adoption so far. Pownce is written in AIR for example.

It'll be interesting to see how things play out. There is a huge need for certain features of Silverlight and AIR (like local file system access and a network API), but I dont know if those will be compelling enough to drive either of these to "critical mass".
I don't know that there's any sensible reaction to this other than breaking into tears at its majesty and elegance. (And then holding yourself to similar standards.)
We all know Alexa is useless:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/13/alexa-says-youtube-is-n...

The chart you mention just shows that Open Library users have enough common sense not to install that crappy spyware Alexa toolbar.
That solution is too specialized. You should simply hire a person to whip you when you aren't working. He can use his intelligence to cover many more cases than your firewall.
Don't blame the kids, blame the horrible public schools. The source for this article is a public school teacher in Oakland, a school district infamous for attempting to consider "Ebonics" as a language.
I'd say that F1 teams have too much money riding on wins to allow that sort of shoddy design, but that doesn't seem to stop most big corporations.

On the other hand, F1 is a great source of innovation, and it's hard to believe that in the middle of all the brilliance that goes into the cars, there'd be a laughable oversight like this. I'll take McLaren's word for it.
let's blame the parents. if the schools suck, and they choose to send their kids there, how are they not responsible?
I love the ironic twist at the end:

> If you found this article helpful, please leave a donation for Shaun so that he can continue to pursue his dream career as a writer.
I'm surprised this article didn't receive more attention here. Its author could hardly be more qualified to speak on the topic of software startups: he built a multi-million-dollar software product not once, but twice. I found the article to be densely packed with insights, as if he were trying to dump everything he'd learned in one session. I intend to return to it and try to absorb more.
I recently met with a lawyer to discuss LLC versus S-Corp and CA versus DE. The biggest determinant for us to go with S-Corp was our aim to pick up VC funding at some point in near future. From what I have read and what the lawyer said, I understand the following:

1) VCs will want a C-Corp so some transition will have to occur. (YC member Shooter described his experience that LLCs can pick up VC funding. I don't doubt that, but we would rather remove any corporate structure issue for VCs.)

2) Tranferring from LLCs to C-Corp can be done, but it's messy. It sounds similar to a merger where the vestigal LLC is dropped down as a subsidiary. There will be more due diligence necessary to show that nothing is wrong. I did not get the impression that "any amateurish decision that you might have made in the past is now completely in the past," but would like to hear more about the LLC to C-Corp transition. In the case of S-Corps, both S and C-Corps are corporations that just differ in tax treatment, hence the ease at moving between the two. If you take on foreign or corporate shareholders, you can no longer be an S-Corp and I believe your tax treatment will change at that point of time.

VCs also prefer DE over CA. Our lawyer thought one reason they preferred DE over CA because CA laws tend to stick up for the minority shareholders, which founders eventually become after dilution. In his experience, only one VC required redomestication of the C-Corp from CA to DE.

One thing to consider is possible legal action against you. If you are a DE corporation and some big company wants to make your life miserable, you'll be appearing in a DE court. Our biggest competitors will probably be NY-based, so we believe there's some advantage to a CA incorporation. (Let the Gubernator protect us little CA guys from the non-CA competitors.)

If you are a CA-based company that incorporates in DE, you'll have a little more paperwork and you'll still have to pay all the CA fees.

I didn't know LLCs could file tax returns as S-Corps. By "nominal stipend," I presume Denny means at least the low range of salary standards. I've read the IRS will reject attempts to low-ball salary to inflate dividends and escape self-employment.
Amazon sells stuff. Google makes money from a fantastic advertising business model.

What does facebook do again?

No one clicks on adverts on facebook.
Unfortunately, parents don't get to choose which public school their child goes to. (In San Francisco, there is a bizarre lottery with all sorts of conditions attempting to give preference to minorities that puts kids all over the city even if there is a school a block from their home.) The only choice is public or private, and private is very expensive and for many is not an option.
He must whip it.
Corporations are exempt from the $800 for their first year of business.

"Also, converting from a LLC into a C-Corp is simpler."

Everything we have heard and read suggests otherwise. S-Corp can become C-Corp by mistake if you violate any of the restrictions. It can't get simpler than that :)

Regarding the tax event during any M&A, I quote the following from Levin's book "Structuring Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Entrepreneurial Transactions" (page 301.2.2):

"An S corporation is a corporation and hence can acquire another corporation or be acquired by another corporation in a tax-free Code S368 reorganization. In contrast, a partnership or LLC can not be a party to a tax-free reorganization."
Besides private school, they could live somewhere else, or homeschool. Or if none of those will work, not have kids in the first place. None of these are easy options, but if you think the public schools are awful places, it's not reasonable to send kids to them.
Yeah, was going to say that. Rather magical isn't it. It would be interesting to consider if someday a camera could look through a hole or holes as small as that...
Why don't the kids have a responsibility to educate themselves?
young kids have very little control over their lives. for example, they don't get to choose if they want to go to school or not. as they get older and become able to (and gain the legal right to), they certainly should take responsibility for their own life and education.
He must whip it good.
Curious: How many phone calls do you get? I find phone calls so intrusive -- I can't imagine getting calls from random hackers looking for a job :)
Lions too.
this is why i surf hacker news...
geometrical progression (1,2,4,8...) would imply that the next year will acquire more new users than the total sum of previous users. if a products adoption hits this perfect storm, then whatever has flavour of the month (year) vibe will get a strong first mover advantage. it's the long september of consumer electronics. i think the iPhone is about to corner that market for mobile web.
He? I prefer a woman. In a leather catsuit.
"An insane percentage of those under 25 have fb accts, and the whole next generation will be locked into fb as they follow their older peers. facebook has the internet on lock"

Do you still use your friendster account?
Oh snap! Faceberg raises another $500 million
I believe it is Apple that is developing a camera that is effectively mixed in with the subpixels on an LCD monitor...
The banner ads aren't where they make their money, it's in the mini-feed ads and the sponsored groups and beyond. Yesterday, Axe sponsored a free gift on Facebook and now 250,000 profiles are permanently decorated with an Axe advertisement.
I started a year and a half ago to live without a home internet connection to save money. It ended up being a rather substantial productivity boost. I'd recommend it.
Just wait until Axe realise their ROI is practically 0.
Perhaps they can make it work, I don't know.
I do know that when I started seeing adverts in my mini-feed I thought "For god sake it goes downhill now, I don't think I shall be using facebook much longer"
'we can make stupider investments than you'? ;)
Enterprise software sucks because it is a hard, extremely complex problem space. Enterprise software is hard in the same way that it is hard to create and maintain an effective and useful quality system. Each individual (successful) business is uniquely organized and operates in a manner peculiar to itself. The unique qualities of a business is what gives it a competitive advantage. A successful businees is not going to adapt its business practices to some generalized, abstracted ERP system. To do so would risk the loss of its competitive advantage. All the ERP systems I have seen suck at the ability to be easily adapted to the unique and peculiar qualities of a specific business. Many businesses spend a lot of money on services or consultants in attempts to adapt general ERP systems to their business without much success.

I wonder if this dissonance between what businesses want from an ERP system and the capabilites of ERP systems is due to programmers desire to elegantly abstract and generalize software. Businesses want ERP software to be specific to their business. Motorola, Nokia, GE, Sam's Muffler Shop do not want to be generalized into MyAbstractBusinessClass.
Templates in D look like just a syntactically polished variation of C++ templates. Of course there are some new features there, but I don't see anything that can't be done with a compiler that is capable of evaluating some functions at compile-time. C++ can't do that, but my point is, why bother creating such a complicated template system for something that can be done the easy way?

Variadic templates: can be done with variant arrays and again, with smart compile-time evaluation if necessary.
Is it just me, or was the article seriously light on actual content? And just linking to a few random negative noteas about Facebook?
I'm trying to put a name on this trend (writers writing about writing, bloggers blogging about blogging, software developers writing software development tools, etc.)

This kind of self-fueled, zero-value added spiral.
Useability suffers with scale. When the designer caters to the needs of many it is hard to please everyone. But it's more than that: when he caters to the needs of many it becomes less important to please any of them. Instead he can focus on bureaucracies that 'represent' them.

Of course, when I refer to 'him' I am completely ignoring the tragedy of the commons dragging down every any large-scale enterprise[1] over time.

Enterprise software is just an extreme example of these two phenomena.

[1] no pun intended.