skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think there's a bit of bias as an outsider looking in, so here are my comments, having been a bit closer involved in "black culture," as it were.

1) Obsession with personal status isn't one of the points of Thar, at least not as expressed by the collecting of property. And black kids aren't alone in buying clothes that outwardly indicate their high price, although they might be alone in buying rainbow colored AF1's.

2) Anti-intellectualism is an interesting point which I'll grant does show itself in middle and high school aged kids. I think if you ask those kids (or their parents) if education is important, however, I think they'll all say yes. I haven't actually tried it, but I've never met a high school dropout (of any race) who didn't regret it. Inner city schools are filled with kids who, by high school, have often given up on themselves, and the "acting white" expressions are sort of a outward expression of that frustration. Rather than muddle this too much with socioeconomic rhetoric, I'll just say that one look at MySpace and another at Facebook demonstrates there are plenty of kids steeped deep in hiphop culture who are getting their four year degrees.

3) Gang warfare among blacks is probably comparable in degree to that seen with the Mafia and various Hispanic gangs. I don't think your standard Italians, Hispanics, or black people are gang banging, no matter how hiphop or "urban" they are.
http://wiki.script.aculo.us/scriptaculous/show/UnitTesting
At my work, we were pissed off at effortlessE, whose POS we were using. In about a week and a half, during the Christmas season, two and a half developers wrote us a new one. It's been running for three weeks now with barely a hitch, and it's much better than the old one.

I was surprised at how easy it was.
Is the person who created this present on news.YC?
Shrink-wrap is the keyword here. Imagine FogBugz written in IronRuby.
End of 2007 Purge
The backdooring of SquirrelMail
OLPC versus eeePC
For one of the companies, founder is a really nice guy. It's a software startup. He's been working hard on his company for 6 years. Can't say much more.

But, I read below that you're doing a Rails idea.

It benefits you to outsource if you need a lot of C++ or Java work done cheaply. Examples of this would be if your idea requires multi-platform support or porting.

1) You're developing a game that would benefit from a wide array of desktop and hardware suppor (osx, windows, linux plus the different graphics cards and shaders languages and versions)

2) Or you needsoftware support for your new Dodgeball Cellphone app on a wide array of smartphones.

3) You need to port large existing codebase to another platform. Itunes from Mac to Windows.

4) You need a lot of artwork done to support conceptual artwork that you already have.

For a rails idea, since you're working at such a high level, you should be doing this work yourself or closely with another person that you have a good relationship with. It sounds more like you need a solid co-founder or you need to learn rails or django (it only takes a couple days to get started). Most of the time, we get stuck on little design decisions (what kind of validation should I do on my logins etc etc?). This is stuff you need to figure out yourself. It's hard to pay people to think for you.

Going to China pays big when you're looking for early stage employees or when you need to temporarily outsource a piece of your company (at 20% cost) that you see yourself replacing with a better solution later.

If you're prototyping ideas for YCombinator, and if you have a good idea, someone will join you as a partner.
Fluid - Free Site Specific Browser for Mac OS X Leopard
Misconceptions about PNG
RIAA's Target In 2008: You
We're in China and hiring locally. Most of the people I see on the market know ASP or .NET or Java. Experienced LAMP developers are harder to get.

We hire smart people with the understanding that they won't necessarily have been trained to do what we need. We give them challenging work and train them in the skills we want over time. Then get them to teach and train each other. This makes it difficult to grow rapidly (work outstripping staff) and requires tech-savvy management. If you can't communicate with your staff it is harder.

China is also a lot of fun. If anyone is considering coming here and wondering about the language, I'd recommend ChinesePod.com.
Who Is Really Monitoring Your Domain Searches?
what's the point of this voting stuff ?

Kierkegaard did his studies more than 150 years ago, maybe it's time to use his findings in our life.
Correct Javascript does not imply browser compatibility...
AOL to stop rebranding watered-down Mozilla releases as "Netscape".
don't do it.
This argument seems entirely emotional. Rubinius matters because it "feels more joyful" when you know you can't do better by writing in C? News flash: that's going to be true no matter what VM you host Ruby on.
I think people put too much importance on karma. Personally, I don't really care. I check my RSS feeds 3 times a day (when I have breaks) and I post stuff I find interesting. It literally takes a second to contribute to n.yc (hint: look into bookmarklet link) so why not help a site that I like? So yes, I've accumulated a lot of points. I haven't checked the score in weeks but I assume I'm still in the lead but if pg reset my points, I wouldn't mind at all.

I think people think that pg will look at your YC application differently if you have a high karma on the site. I have no idea if that's true (never applied) but some people have said that they had high karma and didn't get accepted. So YMMV.

I'd worry more about my app, idea, biz plan than to worry about karma when applying. I doubt pg will accept you just because you contribute to n.yc.
Fun with Project Euler and Scala
Taste of J
And they both run things in Treasure City...
Care to elaborate on what you are talking about?
Moving to China is on my list of backup plans if I utterly fail in America. I met with one American working as a manager at a mid-sized software firm in Beijing and he said that he learned spoken Mandarin with one year of dedicated study at a language school and $10,000 paid his tuition and living expenses. Written Chinese, of course, will take longer. Do you think this is realistic?
"The point system should encourage participation. If we reset the point system every quarter (3 months) or every YC funding cycle, and then give permanent awards to the leaders, then all of us, leaders or laggards, have more reason to participate positively."

Just to add a different voice to the matter, I don't subscribe by this philosophy. I don't care about my karma points and its existence doesn't affect my motivation to participate. I upvote in appreciation, and post to share. It's the crowd, and the crowd's ideas, that matter. I don't use the leaderboard at all, and in that sense, it is "utterly meaningless" to me whether it disappears or not.
Vaguely sexual.. strangely arousing..
pun intended? :)
Paypal already is the mafia. They sicced a debt agency onto me because they canceled my debit card!
I've never written an ecommerce system, but I bet many of us can relate to putting up with shitty components and finally scratching our own itch and replacing the thing in a very reasonable period of time with something that's vastly better.
does anyone ever want to click on the leaders link on top? its pretty static. most of us follow your example nick, we contribute cause its fun and interesting. thanks man!

this post had nothing to do with getting into YC funding, the funding cycle reset idea was simply a suggestion of adequate time to reset.

for the record, i am not applying to YC next cycle or any other cycle. just wanted to help the site.
No, that isn't the argument. The argument is that writing things in C is a barrier to entry, therefore fewer people write libraries in C than in Ruby.

therefore, if we have a Ruby implementation written in Ruby, we will see more progress on core libraries and features.

That is a statistical argument based on predicting the emotions of a large group of programmers.
Well that's $10 billion well spent.
I've done four years Japanese. 1-2 years Chinese + 3-4 months immersive Chinese at Beijing University. My chinese is way better than my japanese, so immersive study definitely works. Chinese is very hard because it works on tones. In English and Japanese, you can put the emphasis on the wrong syllables or speak in a monotone and still make sense. In chinese, not using proper inflections makes you say something else.

1 year will get you through every day life, but trying to communicate on a business level or even listen to the news on TV will be very difficult. It's possible to be fluent enough to do business in 2 years but you'll need to get a Chinese girlfriend. After 3-4 years you'll start to lose the "accent."
to their credit, they did allow the creation of mozilla... (or did that happen before the buyout?)
I have a page on ourdoings.com that only I use, for the purpose of crediting users. (I've been given cash a few times, and I credit bug-finders.) Just now I added functionality to impersonate a user. The success message is:

You feel like a new person.
Do they use this in nature?
I was gonna suggest something like this. Or apply a similar ranking function to the leaderboards as you do the the articles.
How about just using the same gravity algorithm to rank people as is used to rank stories. I like keeping absolute points because each point represents a human's input.
I think the problem is the karma score conflates submitting articles and posting comments. I think the two should be separate.

I'd also like to see a weighted score something like (karma from posts) / (1+log10(total number of words in posts)).
Ask YC: Ideal Laptop Screen Size for a developer?
If one should buy a laptop without having a desktop, Which of these screens is enough 12.1", 13.3", 14.1", 15.4"?

Consider the crick after carrying a 15.4" for hours!
Can you perhaps suggest a better pair of Java and Ruby programs that would serve as a counterexample?
"We have to reinvent the wheel every once in a while, not because we need a lot of wheels; but because we need a lot of inventors." - Bruce Joyce
This is Hacker news.

Get up and running quickly by using a more productive language, not by someone else writing your crown jewels.
You're really straight up nicking my reddit submissions?
What bothers you about Java? Or rather, what would make a language "better" than Java for your tastes?
VC's New Math: Does Less = More?
The RIAA has lodged documents in the ongoing case of the Record Industry vs Jeffrey Howell that argues that ripping music from legally purchased CD's is illegal.

Hmm.. according to the following website linked from the RIAA's one: http://www.musicunited.org/2_thelaw.html

Copying CDs

It's okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.
It's also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R's, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) X but, again, not for commercial purposes.
Beyond that, there's no legal "right" to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won't usually raise concerns so long as:
The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own
The copy is just for your personal use. It's not a personal use X in fact, it's illegal X to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.

Could it be time to give a few senators and represantives a call and see about amending the Audio Home Recording Act ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Home_Recording_Act ) to put this issue to rest?
I can't remember a silly comment right now, but I do remember that, because I couldn't think of anything better, I named one of my variables "charlie" . It wasn't a serious program though and that wasn't an important variable either. Still, I then read it and laughed.
Sure enough, that's a bug. Will fix in the morning.
Do you plan on hooking it up to external monitors? How many different workplaces do you have that plan on moving it between?
activemerchant ftw!
Or a link to the transcript? I usually read HN at work.
Why would you ever use Ruby to write another programming language?

If I had all the time in the world, and speed was really the only issue - I'd go with assembly.
Peter Thiel is primarily a finance geek, and only a technologist afterwards. Let's not focus on the outliers shall we?
Java ascended to the throne through blind arrogance and force. It ruled with an iron fist. Now that the tables have turned the dynamic language revolutionaries will not be kind. There will be blood. They will take vengeance for all the hours of their lives that were "disappeared". Viva La Dynamico Revolution!
While I see the value in optimizing a language for these "language-enhancements" such as adding new iterators, I would be concerned about a language architect who sacrificed efficiency in other areas as a result. I'd much rather have blazing-fast each() alone over medium-speed each(), map(), fold(), unfold(), collect(), etc.

(Sidenote: isn't it a little unfair to compare the collect() implementation, which uses a for-loop, with a recursive unfold() method? Though I don't doubt that the iterative unfold() version would still be relatively slow.)
i feel like i've seen this article a while back
Kindle Easter Eggs: We have GPS
Is it safe to send my deck to investors?
Aydin definitely loves YCombinator, as does Sacca.
http://www.felicisvc.com/images/public/Meraki%20Networks.jpg

Whoever took that screenshot seems to have neglected to move their cursor. (The quality is also poor. Shouldn't have been a JPEG. But that's not as funny.)
I have a 15.4" and it's suitable for travel. Though, I'm a huge fan of multiple screens / OS X Spaces (X alternatives).

There's just no way one screen without multiple screen emulation or external monitors will 'feel' right. Need more pixels!
The MacBook Pro 15.4" is fine for me, and doesn't weigh a ton. In my Timbuktu bag, it doesn't really hurt my shoulder for about six hours.
My 13.3" has a screen with the same resolution as my older 15.4". Way easier to travel with, though (half as heavy). I think screen size + resolution is the better question.
A good contrast to make between Java and other languages on over-typing is Java's lack of a way to return multiple items at a time without making a container class.
It's the (Other) Algorithm, Stupid! Understanding DiggRank.
How do other languages do it? I can't actually imagine it, odd as it sounds? You don't mean returning maps, I presume?
Not yet. How does Haskell compare to Scheme, I wonder? I have tried Erlang.
Straight, clear, and very helpful. Thanks!
Less typing would be nice. I am willing to hope that dynamic typing will make for more fun languages, although I am very used to code completion by now (which is inherently impossible with dynamic typing, I think). Sometimes I wonder if the dynamic typing advocates are just the genius people, the same ones who can also remember the syntax of UNIX shell commands by heart.

If the dynamic languages fail me, I guess Scala might be worth a look.
Market price for developers at startups?
Hi, I'm thinking about joining a former YC company, and it just so happens that this company is the first startup that I've seriously considered, so I don't have many data points for comparison. I could spend the next 3 months interviewing with other startups and collect data points, but I'm thinking there's got to be a smarter (and faster) way. Therefore, if anyone can offer any advice on what's the market price for a strong mid level developer at a VC funded ~10 employee startup nowadays, that would greatly help me out.

In fact, the only part I'm concerned about is the equity offer. Right now I'm being offered ~.5%. Is that even in the correct ballpark for a company of this size?

Sorry if I'm breaking any unspoken laws or courtesies by asking a question like this, but it's one of the few ways to get context for my offer within 48 hours...

Thanks!

Will Qian
wwq222@gmail.com
Some of what you say sort of makes sense -- perhaps the subjugation of women is necessary for a high birth rate culture. But where do blood feuds and easily insulted honor come into this?

I might guess it has to do with places where life is hardscrabble and one is more successful largely by having more sons out there herding more goats. Presumably there just aren't enough resources out there to make temporary economic alliances more important than long-term familial ties. Fierceness and honor might indeed be the most important thing, because without good marriages for your sons, and when your neighbors don't fear you, the clan is doomed.

And then this strategy meets modern technology, and it gets really fun!

But I offer this with a caveat: just-so stories about culture are dime a dozen.
Seems pretty reasonable. They're paying you market/above market salary?
I had tried a Dell 12.1" M1210, Macbook and Macbook Pro all before. To me the bigger the screen/resolution the better and Macbook Pro is certainly one of the lightest 15.4" so I would recommend that. Personally I could not tell the weight difference between carrying a 13" Macbook and 15" Macbook pro.

However, 13.3" and 1280x800 is my minimum requirement that mobility could not justify any smaller spec.
Find a way to have a desktop. Working for sustained periods on a laptop is asking for back and neck pain, fatigue, and probably long-term damage to your body.

Also get a good chair, and a desk that is the right height, while you're at it.

My lappy is a small 12.1", but I never use it for serious work--just email, and occasional "watching a movie with the girlfriend, but still have some work to do" time. I just got an OLPC XO (7" screen, I think) and plan to use it for my primary travel lappy...no temptation to work long hours on a lappy that small, and I consider that a good thing.
This is a non-radiative method: in the absence of a receiving device with a correctly tuned inductance, in the field surrounding the emitter there will be no, or hardly any E x B field. In other words, there would be no, or hardly any energy leaving the emitter.

Most interestingly, the method they describe can be used in a unidirectional manner, and the power supplied would fall off much less quickly than 1/r^2. One could even put a switch on the receiving circuit. When the circuit is broken, the total energy expended by the emitter would zip down to zero passively, without any control required. In fact, it's a fairly straightforward game to construct one of these on one's own. Too bad I didn't think of it ;-)
The reason people get irked with languages is the lock-in and network effects that essentially force people to use things that they don't want to.
The concept of sending electricity wirelessly has been imagined, but nobody had come up with a decent way to avoid the losses except by using an actively controlled beam method. It's pretty darned innovative.
Well, feel good article or not, the main point is interesting -- $440 motorcycles are making an enormous difference in Southeast Asia.
I agree... I don't think it's a very important aspect of the site and wouldn't care if it went away. I have my own mental 'leader board' of people who post things I like anyway.
Just to be nitpicky... it would be: 'Viva la Revolucion Dynamica!'

(I tried the upside down exclamation point and the accent mark, but apparently that gives YC News indigestion. You'll have to settle for gender agreement.)
Seems like an even more direct wakefulness promoting agent than Modafinil. It's unfortunate that you still go crazy after not sleeping for a week, even with these drugs. Once we get that figured out, we're set.
def return_three_values
"1,2,3".split(',')
end
a, b, c = return_three_values

Like that?

(For the love of god, how do I get that in a pre tag?)
Yeah. But what innovation do we have in a text editor that is only able to function in full-screen mode?

What is new?
If you indent something a little,

it will look like this
as you would expect from
a <pre> tag
Computing compute resources for a startup vs Amazon
great article.

it's kind of funny though, how the majority of the article bashes boredom, and then with the last few lines says 'but wait, boredom may be good, so sometimes you should embrace it.'
I think that part of the issue is that there are many problems that technology can solve, that aren't really faced by people in San Francisco.

For instance, my family back East is into scrapbooking and crafting. I never really thought about it much, though. But, after reading one of Andrew's posts, I started looking into it. From the Craft Trade association's website, crafting is a 30-40 Billion dollar industry. That's almost the same size as the movie industry.

That is a huge market that your average 20 year old male founder living in San Fran just isn't going to think about. That's the context that Andrew is talking about. There are precious few people in fly-over country that have heard of twitter, but there are millions of women in the South and Midwest who get together on weekends and scrapbook. That's the echo-chamber.
So the Right Thing is a language that allows to extend by itself, and makes such extensions run blazingly fast as well.

It's been done in some languages (like the one with lots of ()'s) and I don't think there's an inherent obstacle for Ruby to do so, though it would take time. I don't think they should sacrifice speed for extensibility now, but it'd be nice to aim at both as long-term goals.
Blueprint CSS framework tutorial
I think I prefer Ruby 1.8's non-support for Unicode over Ruby 1.9's "support".
Ok, fixed. If anyone's curious, this bug was an interesting example of what happens when you're simultaneously writing a language and an application. For a few months I experimented with having a literal return itself when funcalled. You'd never do this in an ordinary call; the advantage was that it was more convenient to use literals in function-building functions like compose, complement, etc.

I eventually decided this was a bad feature because it concealed so many bugs. But of course the price of getting rid of something bad for that reason is that all the bugs it had been concealing are exposed. I caught nearly all of them, but not this one. (For a few hours yesterday morning the comment counts were wrong, but no one seemed to notice.)

On the whole, this application has been surprisingly reliable. We log all runtime errors, and before this it had been weeks since one occurred.
That's a good logo.
nice. you can mail me at mellampudi at gmail dot com
Thanks Darren. I missed this out completely. I was only targeting smart phones. Although I would still build the software for smart phones, I think I should provide a web interface for the rest. What say?
I use a 12" Powerbook that I take everywhere. I have big displays on each coast that I plug it into when I'm there. I'm definitely more productive with the big displays, but I've worked for a month using just the laptop itself and it was acceptable. It may help to be using a very succinct language.
Its actually a really cool product too. One of the few products i've seen on Techcrunch and actually started using regularly enough - just in time for the holidays. They seem like a smart bunch too.
Cool. Thank you Paul!
That's roughly the conventional amount of equity for that situation.
15.4 + widescreen
Netscape is a horrific interface monstrosity that is an insult to computer software.

It's about time. Good riddance.