skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"I mean, say, hypothetically, that it took 15 genes to produce genius. Then the lack of redundancy and higher variability on the male genotype would be a hindrance, not an advantage."

Not exactly. It would be more random, but depending on how mating worked out, you might just expect the genius to have more kids. In a monogamous society with a strong welfare system, that's not how things would work -- but if your genius 1) doesn't have to pay taxes, and 2) can have as many wives as he wants, he's probably going to be very rich and have an absurd number of kids, some of whom will have the magic 15 genes.

"I bet you'll see a lot more young Indian chess players."

Out of a much, much bigger sample? As a percentage of population, Ashkenazim dominate.

"memorization of oral history (The Tibetans seem to be quite remarkable in this respect)."

Are they as good as people in the Balkans? Or Aborigines? Or North Indian bards? Oral history is a different game -- as long as you don't teach someone how to read, they can remember phenomenal amounts (Robert Fagles wrote a bit about this in his intro to The Oddyssey. I don't know that anyone has done research on which groups are best at it).

"Or for that matter, the first masters of Astronomy (Babylon, Mayan) "

It's known, among people who study this, that Ashkenazim are average in astronomy. It's also known that astronomy requires disproportionately high visiospatial IQ, and that Ashkenazim are average.

"It's just there are constantly pronouncements that something or another has been found, and the true story always seems to be that it makes no real difference."

I wish there was more research, too! It's a little unfortunate that the most open-minded people in this field are the bigots. In economics, or math, or physics, people say "That's wrong! Check your data! Your reasoning is flawed!" In psychometrics, people say "You can't say that!"
hmm...that is interesting....
Time, motion and touch AX Touch
Paper: Dynamo: Amazon's Highly Available Key-value Store
Well for instance...I tried 'Web Developer' in West Palm Beach, Fl and in Miami, Fl.No cigar.

I tried 'PHP Developer' in both cities, nothing.

I tried 'Ruby Developer' in both cities, nothing.

I tried 'Java Developer' in both cities, I got something for Miami.

When I say a lot of queries I meant the majority as in this case.
How embarrassing, when the acquiree admits that the acquirer paid too much for them. How often does that happen?
"Why would a brilliant autocrat decide to trust the people's decisions?"

http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/05/magic-o...

" Many of the post-colonial nations experienced autocratic catastrophe, seemingly in proportion to the degree in which industrialism was a jump for them."

False. China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, North India? You need more explanatory variables, here. Especially given that their average income mostly declined after the colonial era. I'm sure these countries would have been better off with a stronger tradition of the rule of law, but I don't know that there's a sensible argument for saying that colonies suffered, and Europe benefited, from colonizing (did any European country make a net profit on their colonies?)

"If you want tell me what ethnic group you are descended from, I would be happy to tell you how stupid you are based on some unhappy incident in your people's history."

You misunderstood me. I'm talking about what you'd expect of groups, which obviously average in a lot of ordinary and a few extraordinary people. Why are you trying to make this personal? Why would I feel smart or dumb for being part of a given group? If I know that most people of my ethnicity and gender are half a foot shorter than I am, does that make me any less tall?
Paper: Understanding and Building High Availability/Load Balanced Clusters
I was just about to type that one in. Here's the techcrunch coverage- http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/11/20/salaryscout-simple-soci...
check out payscale.com
Why to Move to a Startup Hub
Apple to launch official iPhone Web applications directory
Google and Apple: How high can they go?
The Editing pass- Going over your code after it passes the tests can be like a second set of eyes.
I wouldn't consider OpenText, RIM, Maple or Descartes as start-ups (they were once start-ups yes, but not any more)... but yes.. there are a lot of start-ups in Waterloo.
aggregating the aggregation sites. Basiclly a site where you can make an account and have the news from digg, reddit, pligg and whatever other sites delivered to this one service. basicly I'm thinking about the user registring on this one site, and then this site registring to all other sites specific users that link back to the main-user. Kinda lika a pyramid ... don't know if this make sense (or if I'm expressing it well in english). This would also be used with social bookmarking sites (apparently 300 of this kind of sites exists - here is the list : http://www.ajaxflakes.com/web-20/social-bookmarking-sites-un...)

And if I'm going there : this site should provide web services that link to user's blogs.

This is my 2 cents.
Lite coding on RoR
Couple of questions on how to do somethings in RoR
"if you have a good investor who has committed to fund you if you stay where you are, you should probably stay. Finding investors is hard. You generally shouldn't pass up a definite funding offer to move."

What if you have definite funding from someone who wants you to move?

PG used a similar argument style in Hackers & Painters to show that some languages are better and Lisp is the best. Reduce it, then refine it. "Rural areas are clearly very bad"=="basic is clearly very bad", then "SF is the best"=="Lisp is the best".

It's funny because we're in Boston using Python, the roughly #2 spots in cities and languages.
Free idea: candy aisle
create an e-commerce widget that formats vertically for inclusion in blogs and on web sites. (leftnav, rightnav) a good place to sell you e-books, t-shirts, etc.

make it free to use and pick up a % + transaction fee. hook it up with amazon and others with affiliates programs for those without things to sell.
An interesting analysis would be to reduce this to actual numbers: what is the increase in likelihood that you'll be funded in SF vs. Boston?
How can that reduction occur without normalizing for the quality of the team and idea?

How can you quantify quality of people and potential of an idea?
i'm not sure you could get an apples to apples comparison. each opportunity is too unique.
Ah, looks like I saw this one coming :) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=62976
Your final point is good. A graphic-to-lexicon mapping would be very useful for research and education, and I am not familiar with what is available in this area. If this is your plan, it might have very broad applications. However the mapping would be very loose because categories are never absolute (hence Sapir Whorf). Case in point: some cultures agree by shaking heads and disagree by nodding. There was a time in China where the red light meant "go" and green meant "stop." You may thus have pictures which mean exact opposites to two different people.

It's just a problem I'm pointing out, and that a YC-style voting is not going to realize the potential of the idea. But my case about the prototype is very solid though. Your definition of a chair is not "correct." Nobody's is. I happen to lay my buttox on a teapot, now it's also a chair. Not trying to cavil here, but think of how that would affect your program if you type "chair" and a teapot shows up.
Ask YC: What is the best way to create/submit two YC funding aplications? 
I have submitted one application already, will it cause any problems if I clear out the fields of the first app, and enter new answers pertaining to a second idea?
I suppose you could look at a number of successful companies, where they started out, and where they eventually got funding.

I'm pretty sure you'll see lots of companies starting outside SV, moving to SV to get funding, and then succeeding.

These numbers would be interesting.
The solution isn't to block the distractions. You need to talk yourself up on whatever it is you should be spending time on. If you can't persuade yourself that the other activity is more worthwhile, then maybe it isn't.
Unfortunately, there's a confounding variable: people know SV is a good place to start a startup (even if they aren't as sure as pg), so more startup starters will start up there, anyway.
Those that moved to SV compared to those that didn't is still an interesting metric.
Interactive AI experiment to understand esthetic preference
It only accurately predicted what I would choose 44% of the time.
Help us improve
Dear hackers, we are building a workspace sharing community and looking for some feedback on what we have so far. Would anyone be interested to help by telling us where we need to improve?
There are many factors to consider in evaluating the value of a move. Depending on the nature of your startup, it may be more or less valuable to make the move to the Valley.

Here's a few factors that seem relevant to that evaluation.

1. Access to capital

If your company has large upfront capital requirements, then being in a setting with VC's who aren't afraid to take a risk has obvious benefits. However, a lot of web 2.0 startups have relatively low starting costs. You can self-finance the development and launch of a product which attracts a rapidly growing userbase. The main cost isn't even monetary, its opportunity cost. With this done, attracting VC interest is a lot easier, regardless of where you are.

2. Access to talent

Naively, the Bay Area has a lot more talent than other locations and this makes it a better place to do a startup. Problem is, the competition for talent is a lot tougher. If you're a startup in a place with relatively few startups, you have a real shot at attracting the top programmers locally, because you're the only game in town. In the Bay Area you're competing against Google, Facebook and all the rest.

I'm in Waterloo, Canada, and this is evident locally. Waterloo has a terrific undergrad CS program - supposedly, its Microsoft's number one recruiting School - and lots of really talented developers. But there are relatively few Web 2.0 companies in town, which means that startups have (if they're willing to work at it) access to an amazingly talented pool of potential employees, and a real shot at hiring those people.

I don't think one even needs a top CS school locally. My background is as a theoretical physicist, and my observation is that at least in theoretical physics the quality of the top students is pretty much the same everywhere. I'd be surprised if there was much difference in CS. There will be more extraordinary programmers in the MIT CS program, but they will still be there at Podunk State University, and if you're careful and aim high, you'll have a real shot at getting those people onboard.

3. Culture

I don't mean art and a nice orchestra. I mean access to a "can-do" culture, full of sharp people who are plugged in, full of the latest news, insightful (and original!) analysis, and can act as role models, mentors, advisors, and so on. Really sharp criticism and suggestions are worth their weight in gold.

This is something where the Startup Hubs have a major advantage. It also seems to me perhaps the biggest advantage of the YC program - the dinners and other events. In places that are less of a Hub it seems to me that you need to consciously build a really wide network of people who can act in that role for you. This requires work anywhere, but it is a lot harder in somewhere without a startup culture than it is in the Valley.

4. Access to other companies

For some startups it's really important to have access to other companies for partnerships, distribution and so on. For others it's much less important. Obviously, in the former situation being in a Hub has a major benefit, while in the latter situation it is less so.
I'd also be concerned about how 'anonymous' the data is. As you all know, they can tie any submissions back to an IP address or back to meddlesome cookies.
Oh, Iraq I'd imagine, since those bots are actually seeing action. I'm not sure the South Korean bot is deployed yet.

The reason that South Korean bot is so impressive (and scary as hell) is that the damn thing is autonomous, not tele-operated. There's something about the idea of a machine making the call to kill a human that's kind of horrifying.

I guess looking at it from the perspective that the code in the machine is just the automated thoughts of a human makes it seem more like deferred human intention than machine-uprising. Still.

Has the Predator drone dropped any bombs autonomously yet? I guess that might count as the first shot, although I'm pretty sure there is a manual confirmation there before it does anything.
Nice, I can't wait for Sergey to call!
yes. The directions say, if you want to submit more than one application, have one of your other founders submit it.
Weebly guys launch snaplayout.com
"The new, simple way to customize and control your myspace profile"
Classmates.com: Social Networking's First IPO
this is kind of neat. if i could easily throw up something like this on the right side of my blog where visitors could purchase books that I'm recommending I would definitely do it.
haha, that was nasty... posted it before i could get to it :)
sorry about that...amazing site though; you guys are impressive!
So how valuable is it to move to a strange city where you don't know anyone versus staying in the less optimal city where you actually have friends and connections? It's great that Silicon Valley and Boston have this bubbling startup culture, but if you didn't graduate from school there it seems less likely you'd be able to tap into that resource.
I'd go much simpler: time from searching for funding to closing a round.
that is actually a pretty neat idea. but i think it would be hard to release often when doing a complete browser rewrite.
well, if I understand correcty the cocomment app lets you track comments to threads you are following on multiple sites. i was wondering if it can pull in data from YC and so I can check comments across wordpress, blogger, yc, etc.
I am not so certain. Smoked for almost 11 years before I quit in March of this year.

1. Smokers don't switch brands easily, its more than just choice or taste, bodies get used to a certain cigarette. I wouldn't' just buy your cigarettes because they contribute to a good cause. All cigs are not the same. If I wanted to contribute to cancer I have other ways of doing it.

2. Most smokers actually don't believe that they will get cancer from smoking. 'It can't happen to me' syndrome.

3.The population of smokers is getting younger. An ever larger chunk comes from teenagers and folks in their early 20's who do not want to spend more for cigarettes, additionally, what they smoke is also a function of what their friends smoke.

4. Cigarettes are getting increasingly expensive because of higher government taxes in most nations among other reasons.

5. No tobacco corporation publicly admits that tobacco causes cancer. No one will sell you tobacco to make these cigs,

6. Finally, the assumption that a majority of smokers don't like smoking is wrong. Most smokers enjoy smoking. Ask a smoker about his/her after dinner smoke and that should convince you.
oh, i meant nasty as in "kick ass", and thanks.
If the article is really valuable some other user would probably get around to submitting it sooner or later. on the other hand it would be nice to have a queue of articles you tried to submit and allow you to resubmit from that queue. some mechanisms would need to be put in place however to limit spammers (such as putting a limit on the size of the queue). but then someone else would come along complaining how the queue is not big enough....
"At an average cost of $5 per click this adds up to maybe $500 per day in revenue for Google just for this one search. Multiply across 365 days and taking a very conservative guess that this happens across 10,000 different domains gives over $1.8 billion in yearly revenue for Google."

clearly!
Free idea: Craigslist alerts
I'm sure this has been written... but a (very) quick search didn't turn up anything.

I've been on the lookout for some stuff and wished I could get alerted when a posting was made for these items... of course I could use RSS, but that's not KISS for normal people.
"And just as Jews are ex officio allowed to tell Jewish jokes..."

I don't think "ex officio" is really appropriate here (although I'm sure we all knew what you meant), since being Jewish isn't strictly speaking an office which is held. Perhaps ex genesis ("by right of birth") or ex sanguinis ("by right of blood") would be more appropriate?
The problem with that kind of thing is polling the servers of Craigslist, I suppose. Would Craigslist allow it? Suppose you have thousands of items to poll for every day.
Paul, here is another point to backup your premise: one of the best ways to meet potential investors/acquirers is to go to the same social events that they do. If you live in the same place as them, even if you aren't going to a startup-oriented social event, you still have a good chance of running into them and striking up a conversation.

Case in point -- my cousin wants to make movies. So he decided to move to LA and get a job as a bartender. He went to bartending school and then got a job at a bar that is frequented by producers and other movie industry folk. One day he served a drink to a producer, mentioned to the guy that he wanted to make movies, and is now working on a couple of movie deals. That could have never happened even if he continued to live in his native Orange County, only 40 miles away.
One challenge is that niche networks by definition are not going to be as large as general networks. So they won't generate enough advertising revenue. And unfortunately, most networking sites are solely dependent on advertising.
> And yet whatever argument you use to prove that startups don't need to move from London to Silicon Valley could equally well be used to prove startups don't need to move from smaller towns to London.

Well, what if it isn't the raw number that makes a city a startup hub, but having a certain minimum amount of startups? That argument would then account for small towns not being as startup-friendly as London, but London (or Boston or New York) being an equal to Silicon Valley. Maybe the startup friendliness of a town looks more like a logarithmic graph than a linear one.
I think people are complaining because xkcd is a high-quality site that everyone knows about (and likely reads already). In other words, just about every comic on the site could be submitted here, but most of us refrain from doing that.

Then again, the same thing could be said for PG's essays, but I guess in that case, there's always some kind of discussion to go along with them, whereas there's not much to say about a comic.
Ah, bringing designing power to the people. That's great.

What's with the shutdown speculation? I can't imagine they'd shut it down given that it's not a competing content site and they're bringing out an API, would they?
Could people spam it with inflated salaries in hopes of being able to point to it as an argument for getting a raise? :) ("All the other software engineers in this city are making $15k more than I am, mang!!")
I apologize if it didn't come off well. What I wanted to avoid was a response like "That's racist!" I should probably ask doctors how they do that -- do they say something like "The racist disease, sickle-cell anemia, tends to strike people of African descent," or what?

I mean, the point of the article was that, given some data about tests, the correlation between tests and academic appointments, and some basic math, you can at least say "If a group is under-represented in the sciences, it is mostly because their test scores are low." Which means that either the test is inaccurate, and they're really underrepresented, or the test is accurate and they aren't. It's not about the research -- it's about showing where the prejudice has to be hiding if there's any prejudice to be found.
One interesting thing to note (that wasn't mentioned in the article): The design is based on an SVG template that is modular & rasterized on the server to produce any color variation desired. We can also perform SVG layer-effects on raster images (Lighten, Darken, Screen, Multiply) -- which is how we get the patterns to match the background color, for example.

We'll be back-porting that feature to Weebly as well -- picture a web site template that is image-based yet still lets you choose any color combination desired.
I think I saw something on TechCrunch over the summer about a company that does exactly this.
Oh man, powerful stuff. Your website editor is starting to compete with my image editor : P

Many congratulations to you guys.
Putting MC Hammer into the demo vid was both surprising and ingenious. Great job guys!
Get in Good
If you don't schmooze, you lose--so take these steps to set yourself up for success.
Lawyers and Startups
Pretty soon after you come up with that brilliant idea for a new company, you are going to be looking for a lawyer. Too bad that our litigious society has made it a necessity, but a necessity it is.
TerraCycle - first mass-produced consumer product to have a negative environmental footprint
Their product is driven by passion to be eco-friendly, not by passion to gain some PR points or appeal to amateur tree-hugger shoppers. Their whole product, end-to-end, is truly eco-friendly. The full story is on their website, but I'll just point out one feature that I LOVED - their amazing packaging:
Ya... I think they busted that one guy that was doing the CL pictures...
Maybe you could use the google cache of CL? Seems the site is indexed quite quickly...

Not sure how to monetize it either...
I'm not sure if that means the Weebly guys have come up in the world, or if Hammer has sunk to a new low...
It's funnier slightly wrong.
Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies for 2008
Whether you incorporate these technologies or not, they're not going away, the research firm says
Thanks for the support guys!

Let's keep it up :-)
http://digg.com/design/SnapLayout_launches_the_profile_edito...
All UAV kills have had a human in the loop.

Land mines have been killing people autonomously for years :).

You're right about the SK bot. Certain sites are just that sensitive: kill anything coming here.

Breaching the first two fences with warning signs outside a nuclear facility is probably another place to shoot first.

I suppose Tasers are a good alternative. iRobot is working with Taser to get their systems on our robots.
If investors fall for this, it will be the worst sign to date of a bubble. There is nothing to this company except that (by a stretch) they can claim to be in the same category as Facebook.
Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish
Why VCs May Not Share Insights
When VCs tell you that they're not interested, they may provide you with little insight about why they turned you down. The level of transparency provided in the rejection email varies based on both the VC's personal style and tactical considerations...
I am totally not convinced. What are the tangible benefits of doing this? Looks like he just is suggesting changing the internal architecture of the code without any specific reasons for it other than elegance. A web browser is an extremely large non-trivial program, and rewriting it just to use some new idioms is pretty nutty.