skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A venture lawyer we know usually puts a warrant on for his firm (DLA Piper), which allows them to invest at the round valuation for up to .1 to 1% of the company.

I generally think that law firms nowadays are really not taking as much a hit by deferring fees, especially the ones in silicon valley who are competing for your business.
Something about Mark Cuban just pisses me off.
Absolutely agree.

Hacker news has a pretty good one, too. Now if only I could change my password...
Google Mac introduces "GrabFS", the screenshot file system
Here's the thing: It's not for you.

(http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/24)
I would. Its like Richard Branson says. You don't want to lead sheep. You want to herd cats.

I think its the job of the founder/leader to figure out how to make a team of superstars work together. We ended up changing direction a few times midway through our startup (which was acquired). If we didn't have a kickass team that could switch strategies like that overnight (we had the prototype of the newer idea ready in 1 day) we would've been dead in the water.
"Who can we blame for the fact that there are fewer jobs than people who get Ph.D.'s?"

What, you expect the tenured professors to write the grants, take the data, and teach the classes?

Not that you need a Ph.D. to do any of these things. But the establishment has decided that you can't get a job as an academic scientist without either having a Ph.D. or being in the process of getting one. (Things are a little better in industry, but only a little better.)

Why did they decide that? Well, I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that grad students, being mere "students" and certainly not "employees", have lower wages, substandard benefits, and fewer workplace rights than, say, a new college hire at Microsoft. Nor is it because "students" from foreign countries are relatively happy to work under these conditions in exchange for their "student" visas [1]. And it's not because grad students -- particularly those from foreign countries -- are easily blackmailed [2]. It certainly can't have anything whatsoever to do with that.

- - - -

[1]: Not that there's anything wrong with student visas. Many of my best friends arrived on those visas! The problem is that, as indentured servants who are constantly threatened with deportation, student visa holders aren't exactly in a position to demand better wages or working conditions.

Of course, since the likely alternative to student visas is no visas at all, I'm strongly in favor of them. I like having the world's smartest people living in my neighborhood. Of course, this means that scientists will continue to have artificially depressed wages relative to, say, doctors. C'est la vie.

[2]: Yes, blackmailed. I know people whose Ph.D.s were mysteriously delayed while they worked extra hours on unrelated projects for their adviser's startup company. I know someone who quit grad school in disgust after 8.5 years because his project turned out to be impossible but his adviser wouldn't let him surrender. Fortunately, my own adviser was a very reasonable guy...

Did you ever see the movie "Real Genius"? The only unrealistic parts are the lasers and the popcorn: the villains are all too real.
I wonder what the warrants are priced at? If they're priced low, it is like giving them free equity.
Not that you asked me, but I have a Macbook with an external monitor. I have yet to regret saving the $1K by avoiding the Pro. Web programming is not processor intensive.

I intend to take that $1K and put it toward an iMac -- that'll give me two Macs and three screens, and the iMac will provide the larger hard drive and improved video performance that I don't have with the Macbook. Plus, when the Macbook is away for its warranty repairs, I get to keep working!
Find Out What Places (Restaurants, Stores, ...) Are Open Where You Live, Right Now (Your Current Time)
When Are We Going to See Those Photos?
This describes a feature I implemented in December.

The politically inclined might like the screencast.

Please post this on other social news sites that might be interested.
Your work space is killing your productivity
Radiohead: Artists often screwed by digital downloads
It's a lot like a protection racket. You need lawyers to help protect you from the laws others lawyers have made. You need lawyers to protect you from your competitors' lawyers. You also need lawyers to protect you from random people who know how to take advantage of the litigation system setup by the same lawyers who made the legal system to create more work for lawyers.
It isn't related to Microsoft officially -- at best, it seems to be a news site for information about the next Windows release.
Although, for me, even reddit's is too much work--the only form I should see when registering is:

Enter e-mail: [ chandler@wherever ] [ Register ]

The system would auto-generate a username and password, then email me the results (along with a link to where I can change these, if dissatisfied).

A very low hurdle to jump, in my opinion.
The Next Google Search Challenger: Blekko
David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists - and Megastars (biz models)
I look forward to Kottke's collection of best links every year.
From his blog: "I wasn't able to solder cable to the connector without shorting (the pins are 0.5mm apart!), so in the end I removed most of the pins, soldered short wires to the removed pins and inserted those I needed back into the connector."

You most certainly can solder wires to a connector with 0.5mm pitch without shorting anything. It takes a magnifying glass, a good soldering iron, and a very steady hand. Interesting article, though!
Mostly good, but there's also a rather huge hole: he left out RNA. It's more than just an object file; RNA molecules are exceedingly complicated "programs" in and of themselves.

DNA gets transcribed into RNA, and from there, a whole universe of interactions takes place, for which we're only beginning to understand a few. The ribosome is an excellent example: it's a huge protein/RNA complex, which is also an enzyme responsible for enabling the second part of the central dogma. The closest analogy I can think of would be something like the source for an embedded language interpreter -- the cellular machinery compiles some genomic code, producing a machine which then has the ability to interpret other parts of the genome, in a different language.

Of course, the more we learn, the more these crude analogies break down. For example, it's becoming increasingly clear that the three-dimensional structure of the DNA and RNA molecules play a critical role in determining their function and regulation; this, in turn, is regulated partially by their sequence. There's really no equivalent analogy to this phenomenon in the computer world.

There were lots of other niggly errors (e.g. "GC" is hardly a universal "comment code" for the genome), but on the whole, a decent set of analogies.
When Nano-Wires Explode
This would have been better as a link to
http://www.itworld.com/Comp/1290/olpc-cto-jepsen-quits-07123...
as the FSJ commentary adds nothing to the original article.
Andrew Chen: How will continued social media growth affect online advertising in 2008?
NYU must become a football powerhouse to keep America out of more wars.
The big problem of advertisement: Us
UK web ad spend 'to exceed TV in 2009'
BTW -- the author of this blog was denied tenure (fired) from Chicago after posting.
I wonder if there's any way that project would have realistically worked as a for-profit venture that would have created similar benefits for the kids it targeted, as well as perhaps making some money for those involved. Obviously, money isn't their primary motivation, but as this shows, perhaps it wouldn't have hurt to have a bit more to spread around.
Kind of interesting. His criticisms of Google are not unreasonable [1], but it's just bluster until he gives a clue about his approach.

1. 'PageRank wrecked the web' http://www.skrenta.com/2007/12/pagerank_wrecked_the_web_3.ht... (fun in comments)

'Google sees own shadow, jumps overboard' http://www.skrenta.com/2007/12/google_sees_own_shadow_jumps_...
The Easiest Hard Problem: Balanced Number Partitioning
So you've got a business idea... Now what?
This is a generally good article, but it gets two things irritatingly wrong. First, it presents the problem as only existing in the case of partitioning into two sets; in fact, the problem is usually considered in the case of partitioning into three or more sets, since the two-set case is really just the (far more widely known) Subset-Sum problem.

Second, the article gives an example of a two-set partitioning problem and then states that "the only sure way to find the one perfect partition is to check all possible partitions", i.e., that the optimal algorithm runs in O(2^N) time. In fact, there is a trivial O(sqrt(2)^N) algorithm for the problem.
"if you're Radiohead, the built-in publicity makes a direct-to-fans model much easier than if you're, say, the "Free As In Beer" out of Dayton, Ohio."

Actually, I think for "Free As In Beer" from Dayton direct-to-fans is probably the best bet...
It would be nice to be able to make a single line-break (i.e. a <br>) at the end of an existing line, rather than have to have always use a <p>
Need a German translation of a site
Please don't vote this up, as it's a simple request to see if any regular readers would be willing to do me a favor: translate a site from English to German. It should take about an hour (that's how long it took my wife to do English->Italian). Since the site doesn't make any money right now (and may never, as it's a side project), the best I can do in terms of payment is offer you half of the adsense payments over, say, the next N months (3?). I can be reached at davidw@dedasys.com

Thanks!
Please: no politics.
Silentium - Spatial Active Noise announced it has received $1.8 million in funding
Silentium, a leading Israeli innovator in Spatial Active Noise Control (ANC) technology, recently announced it has received $1.8 million in funding from Naor Group, and certain current investors. This initial funding marks the first step towards a $5 million round, the company plans to complete over the coming months.
Introducing Papers... Your personal library of science
Tell that to 37signals :)
"... The reality is that for most businesses, they don't need more cash, they need more brains. ..."

Nice quote and a reality for a lot of software companies and is a key JOS essay: "... convert money to code through programmers ..." ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000074.html

The suggestions here are pretty useful but the title, Sweat equity left a bitter taste. Sweat equity works okay where you are a founder not a hired hand. It really means lower wages with a chance of payoff at the mercy of founders.

More reason for starting your own startup.
Have you tried http://babelfish.altavista.com/ yet?
Startup LimeAll launches its services
Checout LimeAll - www.LimeAll.com for a quick look.
Please provide us your valuable feedback.<p>Regards,
LimeAll
Where can I read more about the O(sqrt(2)^N) algorithm?
The gist of the algorithm is covered in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subset_sum_problem#Exponential_...

Going from the O(2^(N/2) N) algorithm described in the wikipedia article to O(2^(N/2)) just involves keeping the lists of subset sums sorted during the construction process, thereby avoiding the need for the expensive sorting step.

That said, the O(2^(N/2)) algorithm requires O(2^(N/2)) space, making it less than ideal; in most circumstances, an algorithm which generates the lists of subset sums for each half of the list on-demand using a priority queue is better -- this approach takes O(2^(N/2) N) time, but only O(2^(N/4)) memory.
I didn't get anything... I'm in startup mode.
It's my site - I need to add a German version of it. Babelfish and the like won't cut it like they might for getting the gist of what a particular site says.
Zed (Shaw) is Not Dead
My opinion on the second part of Zed's rant. No, it is not yet another gratuitous bashing. Please, feel free to leave your comment as well. Feedback and constructive talking are welcome.
Just curious, what are your main traffic sources? I still haven't found a good way to get traffic for my erotic puzzle game...

As I said, I really like your idea, it wasn't meant as criticism. It could easily become a very popular game, like Sudoku or Minesweeper.
Sears installing spyware on customers' computers
Viewing today's web in Netscape 0.9b
While search could be better, Google's results for text are good enough. How much better could text search get? Is it possible for someone to build a search experience so compelling that I would want to switch? And even if someone made a new, compelling search technology, could they get advertisers to switch over?
Stretchy electronics
Search monetization is proven already. It's called keyword advertising :)
Harnessing volunteers' computers in novel ways
Google -- the Xerox PARC of our generation!

Now the question is: Should I spend dozens of hours trying to reinvent Snapz Pro by copying files at 20fps and then somehow encoding them into a single H.264 file? Or should I just spend $80?
The Weather Channel On The Market For $5 Billion+
Agreed. The term sweat equity is a negative one, but if you are joining a company at the stage Cuban is referring to (i.e. when it has little to no cash) you should be getting a reasonable amount of equity -- at least enough to make your hard work worthwhile.
100 M&A Deals. 100 Startup Lessons
Well I am glad I became (/was?) a scientist; I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't...which is skint and bootstrapping a couple of start-ups! I spent four years doing my PhD in biochemistry and it was those four years (maximum UK time allowed) that made me, but you should only do it if you love the science. If you don't love the science, being a post-grad can be incredibly tough, slow and soul destroying. I started my PhD because of a love of science (especially lab work), but things happen and times change, which has now led me to detest lab work. I still enjoy the science, however. And now, because of the things that have put me off lab work, I plan to get a start-up off the ground that will help other researchers be more efficient and effective through the organisation of biological data.

As for there being too many people for the number of jobs available, here in the UK, getting a PhD can sometimes be a piss-take. The number of idiots that can't even hold a pipette, let alone use one, who get PhDs is shocking. Most of them should have failed, but it's too much effort for the examiners to re-examine someone or they don't want to offend their "buddy" by failing their student, so they just let them through. Therefore, I blame the examiners.

I think to become a professor can partly be because of luck. You have to be doing the right science at the right time X the 'sexy' science of the moment that will get published in high impact journals, because it's all about the publication record.

My advice: become a scientist if you love the science and can do the science you love, and not because doing a PhD will buy you more time until you can figure out what you really want to do. If you come to love something else (like trying to be an entrepreneur in my case), then you can always apply the skills you have learnt to that...although, knowing how to use a pipette has yet to prove its worth in business!
Scoble Banned From Facebook; Calacanis Happy
Hey, 0.9b is only a beta version. It's bound to have one or two flaws... ;-)
Blekko.com's ad hoc mascot should fight the pets.com mascot.
the key thing for them is breaking out of the early-adopter niche into the mainstream (scaling audience) not the business model
So VERY different from T-Mobile/Telekom in Germany. Here they still behave like the monopolist they once were.
Why Search? Skrenta on Blekko
So this is supposed to be the first step:

"The first step is to do a quick and dirty evaluation of whether your business idea has potential. [...] Find five people or companies who could actually be potential customers. [...] Have them sign an NDA and then tell them a bit about your product/service."

Right. How about a business that makes potential customers of startups sign NDAs? Ooops, now I've revealed my groundbreaking business idea! Consider yourselves under NDA! Please!
The view server can be swapped out.

More here:
http://www.couchdbwiki.com/index.php?title=View_Server_Proto...

There's already Python, Ruby, and PHP servers.
Privacy Is Doomed
Maybe you can, he can't. He didn't say it couldn't be done.
BW's Businessperson of the Year
Lesson: laser focus is important for all businesses, especially startups
Probably because his company was called "MicroSolutions". I'm willing to overlook it. His essays are interesting to read.
5 Marketing Tools Every Startup Should Use
Riemann's hypothesis disproved?
mechanical_fish: Thanks! I really appreciate you responding, and agree with you in that it makes sense to attach it to an external monitor.

I guess I am pretty convinced that the Mac Book is the way to go, and spending the extra 1000 on a iMac (or Mini) isn't a bad idea.
Ten Likely Events in 2008
Autodesk founder John Walker Explains Relativity (Including Relativistic Renders)
Scoble blocked from Facebook
Facebook blocks Scoble for downloading his contacts, sparks revolt
DataPortability.org - Share and remix data using open standards
I just found it odd that the title heralded his "skill with a soldering iron" when the real work was done in software.
Heh, looks like you responded while I was still editing my post.
Top 10 Google Products You Forgot All About
Iowa caucuses 101: Arcane rules have huge impact on outcome
good luck mccain and obama.
What about erotic dreams? What about abstract dreams? I frequently dream about the code, or, even, in the code.

Quoting: "Dreaming is a sensitive system that tries to pay much attention to the threatening cues in our environment," Revonsuo concludes. "Their function is to protect and prepare us."

So, the erotic dreams are here to protect and prepare us... ?

But, more seriously, if you believe that erotic and mathematical dreams are yet another kind of survival scenario, it doesn't take a genius to realize that in more broader sense, all your activities, not only dreams, can be generalized to survival training. What's the difference between thinking about math during the sleep, or no?
I'm starting to get very intrigued about Blekko... their critics to Google are interesting, and, I think, right.
Ok, but please, no politics. I'm sure many of us have things to say, many of which are probably quite intelligent, but... it always seems to lead to something of a black hole for social sites. Let's stick to the tech stuff.
I didn't forget any of those. Actually, I use some of them quite often.
Behind the scenes at 37signals: Support
I'm still looking for a good traffic source. For games, try submitting to gaming.reddit.com.
startup news 2.0 = hacker news = above is ok :)
Who cares? I don't mean to be flippant, this just seems like the definition of something that only matters to a lot of self-important bloggers.
Beanstalk Messaging Queue
nice! now where is my API?!
I too don't quite understand the mentality of people who have 5,000+ 'friends'.
Climbing on the Twitter Bandwagon...Reluctantly
Rails is a Ghetto (Round 2 -- more comments from Zed)
Greatest error message ever?
Rails is a Ghetto (Part 2)
"world wide web" arouses pretty specific imagery, I suppose
Startup Reinvents Business Presentations And, Once Again, Itself
what matters is that Facebook would disable your account for attempting to get your data out of it. For this and many other reasons I've deleted my Facebook account (and it wasn't easy).
Facebook is private property, so they can ban anyone they want (otherwise what is the point of the fourth amendment?)
Biltmore Can't Log In
If the data is on facebook servers, it is on private property and they have every right to decide who has access to their private property.
Again, the future of the web is being written by petty acts of criminality. (aka civil disobedience, aka breaking stupid rules)

Just as the entertainment industry will eventually have to adapt to the reality of file-sharing, regardless of the fact that the law is on their side...the future of data portability will be driven by technology development and people's willingness to break the rules, not by the Facebook TOS.
He knew what he was doing all along.

"That's part of my job to see how good their terms of service are, and how well enforced they are." http://scobleizer.com/2008/01/03/ive-been-kicked-off-of-face...

Since when is breaking a contract part of one's job?
I think the point is that it violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the whole "social network" idea.
What is true 'de jure' may not be true 'de facto'.

With technologies available to suck your information back out of Facebook (the new versions of which will presumably evade detection), and plenty of people happy to use them, the legalities of information ownership will be irrelevant.
Those purple paragraph markers never stop being ridiculous.
The Web plan - a must have for any online business
what is a web plan? read on
Yes, that's an Intel-based MacBook in the picture.

I like it a lot (before this I was using the 17" MBP, which I loved, but the portability factor wasn't so great). Most of my time is spent dealing with linux-based servers, so the BSD underpinnings of OS X really make things like handling SSH keys, console apps, perl debugging while flying, etc. really smooth.

I do miss the larger screen of the MBP and the extra horsepower (I do a fair bit of digital photography, and the MB can't run Aperture), so I'll probably switch back to a 15" MBP soon.

In the ~2years I've been using Mac laptops I've never once longed for Windows in any way. But before this I was using linux as my primary desktop, and before that Solaris, so I've never really been addicted to Windows, although I did have Windows machines in my possession since, well, since Windows was invented (mostly for work or other non-personal use).

The MB (or MBP) with a big external monitor and nice BT mouse and keyboard is really (IMO) a very pleasant overall experience. I encourage you to convert :)
'Excuse Me. May I Have Your Seat?'
How To Successfully Interrupt A Conversation
OK, fair enough. But why does Facebook allow you to import data from other web services, like Gmail, but disallow you to export data from their database?

If they're going to be petty about that, Scoble's pettiness is justified in my mind.
anyone who posts irc logs to prove what an asshole somebody else is usually ends up proving just the opposite.
Heh. Looks like Zed was reading what people posted.

I can hardly describe how much more focused this revision comes across. Idiosyncratic but generally straightforward and (more interesting to me) much better examples on round 2.

I can't say that I disagree all that much with his talking points. For his sake, I hope his management career (resumption) goes well. Mongrel does seem like a well-written, strictly-RFC-compliant counterpoint to, say, Apache. (The latter being a fine example of Worse Is Better, viz. http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html ...)
nice crap
i love his quote, "the idea that the current state-of-the-art in search is what we'll all be using, essentially unchanged, in 5 or 10 years, is absurd to me."
Not the battle I'd be interested in fighting, that's for sure.

Good luck to them for having the ball to try.