skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Recently, a friend of a friend introduced me to a young man who is developing some interesting software. REALLY interesting stuff. During the demo I was floored at how much more advanced it was than anything currently on the web. The young man's presentation panache was second to none as well. You see, he went to his website on MY MacBook demonstrating at once his confidence in his virtual world platform's ability to run in arbitrary browsers, AND the fact that it supports MacOSX without stating it! Who IS this kid!?!? I thought.

I am ashamed to say that I was shocked. Oh the software he described was straight forward enough. Though admittedly my eyes did glaze over during his explanation of some of the algorithms behind his system. This type of minutia was NOT something I needed to know. A simple "This demos our booty physics" engine is fine, I get it.

What REALLY got me, yes even SHOCKED me, was the fact that all of this was coming from a person who, if I saw he and his friends on the street, would probably have prompted me to double check my car locks. Maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea. How does a black kid, t-shirt, necklace, sweatpants and all, understand these technologies so well? Now before you call me racist, realize that this kid had been shopping around a LOT. Even so, I am the ONLY person, so far, to have invited him to give a presentation. At least I gave him a chance, and I am ecstatic that I did!

As I have too much respect for a lot of people on these boards to sport with your intellect any longer than necessary I will come to the point. Though, being so intelligent, I am certain that for many of you I have already made it. How does this young man, with intelligence, ambition, and persistence, become successful in our society if "a company should be able to hire or fire whomever they like for whatever reason"? Attitudes like that are what leave him, and others like him, on the outside looking in most of the time now. I believe that we live in a society with a color-blind ideal. I also believe that MANY young men, like the young man in my story, suffer due to our failure to live up to it.

As do women.

As do the aged.
Today's Web 3.0 Nonsense Blogstorm
If you were to write the messageboard yourself yes, that is true it would take at least a week maybe even two depending upon how many features you put into it.

At the bottom of this site it says:
Portal By vbPortal Version 3.5.0
http://www.phpportals.com/modules.php?name=Credits

But I have just figured out the value, there seems to be 11,242 registered users and they are not active. The value is figuring out a way to make those users interact with the site. I believe the site is the problem not the idea. Bringing together a better portal suited to there needs would be key, provide them an additional value because there isn't enough there now.

If 2/3's of the 11,242 users are quality or maybe even half I would market that (the users not the forum) as worth $900 rather then the site. Let someone else figure out how to remake the site into something that would draw these people back in..
Ask YC:  Calling all Non-Hub, landlocked, and Flyover Country Startups...
I just posted this in the Minneapolis Thread but perhaps it is need of a larger audience as well.

I've just launched http://GeekHeartland.com to cover startups, technology, and entrepreneurial activity that is happening away from the coasts and hubs.

There simply isn't enough coverage for all the exciting things starting to happen in "flyover country" and we'd like to change that.

Thus, If you have or work at a startup thats outside the coastal hubs and would like us to profile your company or have just launched something new, let us know at geekheartland [at] gmail [dot] com. We have some pretty good sources lined up but can use all the tips we can get.

Also, to start off, we have some free advertising slots open for startups if anyone is interested (send email to above address).

It rose out of a pretty good Chicago response to The Chicago geek Guide: geek.windylabs.com and chicagobeta.com. and soon will also include geek guides to non-hub and smaller hub cities as well.

Feel free to let us know your thoughts and tell us if you have anything you'd like to see on the site. We encourage everyone to subscribe to the feed and check back frequently, we're looking to move pretty fast now that its up.
You seem to be one of the antidotes to that problem. :) And, if you become successful doing it as well as the demonstrating young man, it becomes foolish for wise investors to ignore such profitable possibilities. But aside from your experience here, didn't Google have a hard time convincing people at first too?
32 + Computer Engineering
By the way whats purpose of this post? Are you just trying to find what age group people are reading news on this site?
It's always easier to criticize. The problem is that space travel is very, very, very hard. In that regard the Cold War was the best thing that ever happened to space exploration: two super powers spending crazy amount of money and human effort to beat each other 'who's gonna do THAT first?'. I think it was awesome: the best kind of competition you can have, almost like a high school science contest on a giant scale.

If you look around at other countries in the "space club" the situation is not much different. Launching 1gk of anything so high is so expensive that it makes very little economic sense. Private sector will never launch anything to Mars. Why would they? Private investors would never build a giant space station just to run a bunch of experiments on it.

The main message this article is trying to send is a bit creepy one (IMO): "NASA, you should do some kick-ass research using our tax dollars, and we'll be trying to make money out of what you will come up with". The problem with it is that only small percentage of what can be done in space is profitable: satellites, high-altitude tourism... that's about it.
If you want to discriminate by age, just ask lots of puzzle-oriented questions that require quick thinking in interviews.
hey that's pretty cool

The beauty is, you have to remember your passwords... so you'll have an image of a grande frappuchino permanently embedded in your head, the next time you drive by a Starbucks. Consumerists, rejoice.
Object removal using seam carving, still fast
Minneapolis. feel free to contact me

damon at damonallison dot com
I'm in Atlanta and I'm pretty smart ;)
The problem is, that anybody bright and motivated enough to do a startup is already doing their own thing, and doesn't want to work for somebody else.

carpal, do I know you?
No it wasn't. It was created a long time back. My point is that my account reset for some reason. Now if only PG could respond to this.
This comment was posted before my account was reset. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=63522
SHARKFEST 2008 is coming !!!
Gerald Combs, the original creator of WireShark, will host the first SHARKFEST Conference March 31st through April 2nd, 2008. SHARKFEST will be a landmark event for the Wireshark community, a celebration of an exemplary open source experiment, and a chance for the developers that have helped make Wireshark a worldwide success to meet and to share.
I am located in Milwaukee, WI

you can meet all of our alpha geeks at http://barcampMilwaukee.com which is happening on october 12th-14th

We are a sponsor of it with http://socialhelix.com

and I know a few people in the st.paul area that i meet at the last minnebar, and minnedemo that i attended.

out of the ones i remember, a few were web2, one was into music social publishing, another was a startup within the local newspaper "vitamin," and then there were a lot of ruby shops up there.
Same reasoning in the physical world, where McDonald's was always reluctant to locate inside malls (still is). Who wants to be a hostage unless you have no other way of drumming up your own business?
A lot of people study Japanese, think Japan is really cool, and would enjoy living there, I think. I think Korea is behind Japan in these trends but catching up.

I do agree, though, that Japan does have a reputation of being not very inviting to foreigners that is to some degree deserved. I don't know as much about S. Korea in this regard.

Japan could probably do much to solve some of their looming economic problems (low birth rate and rapidly aging population, for example) by allowing more people to immigrate and integrate into Japanese society and culture. Especially entrepreneurial, technology loving types who could contribute a lot to Japan's high tech economy.
How is this secure? There are only 15 choose 3 different possible logins for each screenful of pictures. That's 455. So you have a 1/455 chance of just guessing the right one? Or does order matter? Maybe that's what's happening. 15 permute 3 is 479,001,600.
Have any of you gone through all the trouble to download the browser? Not really engendering trust. They want your name and email just to download the software, then they want your name, email, age, phone number (for customer service ?!) they send you the email which went straight to my spam label in gmail and inform me that

"You will be receiving a series of emails offering
Internet Safety Tips and other instructions on how to
get the most benefits from your new Kid Safe Browser."

Then to register as a parent they ask you for your name, street address email phone and whether you are over 18.

Then they want your childs birthday and your presented with this gem:

I give my permission for my child to receive email from Club Tuki via their e-mail account (without checking this box, you child will not be able to receive Auction Notification emails through our TUKI Moola auction site).

After that they did deliver as promised, I got an animated Miss America (think clippy) that tells me when sites are not on "the master list"

If you want to close the browser you are informed that you have 30 days left on your trial before the premium features expire because it hijacks the close button and makes you read through a pop-up. It also leaves the taskbar up, so any kid smart enough to find start will be able to launch Firefox and surf where ever they want. It also starts at Club Tuki or some such where you can earn Tuki bucks by playing arcade games but I think there's a registration involved there too.

One thing this does the REAL kid friendly browser could clone... it has a banned words list which includes our first and last names so that would be nice (it also has an encouraging words list like "My family loves me!" and a chores list with I'm guessing chore reminder pop-ups, but I don't recommend implementing those features)

She does indeed say "Buh-Bye!" as promised though.
Oh, I should add you can run the browser in the background and get the animated Miss America character to float in front of any other browser. I'll let you know if she tells me anything about kangaroos while I read Hacker News
Yes, they're pretty bright. But the kids from Tech that I know, are doing one of 3 things:

1) Working at a job that pays and is stable (and this is what they want)
2) Working on their own startup
3) Working on a graduate degree, and not interested in things that make money.
I never said they would give up on their dream if they declined YC.

They just have a smaller chance of it happening. As a YC-funded group, you have a 100% chance of pursuing your dream. If you aren't funded by YC, your chances of that are significantly smaller.
I believe Google does exactly that, this is one very smart guy however it looks like he is very sensitive and took a little ribbing too personally. Google should have given him a better payout on the way out.
what is the list for?
Wow, that is really really really stupid idea. There are just so many things wrong with it.
"In grad school, I remember having the realization that every discipline has it's own little shorthand lingo. I remember thinking about how confusion can result when there are clashes/overlaps in, for example, acronyms."

I've long ago lost track of all the different meanings I've run into for the word "feature", for example. Practitioners of various academic disciplines (or even in the same discipline but for a different theory) use this term for all kinds of things with absolutely no connection to each other. I nominate this for most overloaded academic term.

Any other nominees?
Even then, how is would that be more secure than a password?
24 + BS in Mechatronics
/agreed
Some nitpicking:

"Data security is just hard to provide, and thanks to hackers, even harder to protect." Wait, the 'hackers' are the reason it's hard to provide, right? So why the "even harder to protect" part?

Later there's the typical focus on stock price instead of market cap. This is the "ooh, shiny!" school of business writing.

"This curbs the riskiest kind of hacking" Please reduce hacking risk; wear a helmet.

You know what this reminds me of? A local newspaper article. This writer isn't smart enough to be on the web; Om should fire him.

I'm sorry, everyone. Just had to get this off my chest.
Ask PG: Application Rating System?
<p>From your latest essay:<p>"Sometimes it literally is software, like Hacker News and our application rating system."<p>This is the 1st time I've heard about you guys using some kind of automated application rating system. Would you be willing to discuss how it works?
It is if they do it a couple times. Ever try folding a piece of paper in half 5 times? It's how Google might have formed, if they had started acquisition instead of interview-hiring sooner.
Very cool, I am working some changes to my site, then might submit to you for little write-up or something. Cool to see things happening outside the valley.
I'm not so sure. I think many companies (including Google) may relax the puzzle part for older more experienced candidates during job interviews.
It's one thing to put put a store in the mall.

It's another to pay the landlord for every customer that walks in, make heavy renovations and investments to the degree that it's almost impossible to ever move out.
Interesting-- all these platforms are creating their own seed funds. Facebook, Amazon, now Salesforce. Who's next?

Google or Yahoo don't need to-- their network of rich alums effectively do the acquisition scouting and funding for them.
Web Creators Call Internet Outdated
No, the order does not matter. You can enter code from the three slides in any order. I've checked at their website.
22

most of college. probably will decide against finishing.
Which turns out to be bs in the end. Just about everyone does college and just about no one brings it upon themselves to do anything out of the ordinary afterward.
A product (or person) that has a particular value, but is undervalued for some incorrect reason, represents an inefficiency in the market. But free markets are self-correcting, because...

The real money in this world is in recognizing inefficiency and exploiting (viz, "correcting") it.

Okay? So give the kid some money for a share in his endeavor, and you'll clean up. Unless you're just BSing.
In Asia, most of the business is done over a cup of tea
NASA is highly overestimated. They still didn't figure out how to land on sun.

/sarcasm
I'm glad people are trying, I will be very impressed when they launch.
23 + BS CS
To get to the interview stage:

Good college +2

Done with schooling +3

Single Founder -5

No Hackers on Team -4

Mention Lisp +2

Mention Smalltalk +2

Mention Python +1

Zero Hackers Willing to Relocate -5

Past or Recent TechCrunch Coverage +2

Past or Recent Mainstream Coverage +2

Google search finds many top blogs or major news sources linking to current or past project +3

Team of hackers previously founded a web startup +1

Team of non-hackers previously founded a web startup +2

Not drinking age -3

Average age 23 to 26 +4

Average age 30 to 35 -1

Average age 36 to 45 -2

Average age older than 45 -10

Knows idea should be a web app +3

Short and sweet application +3

Estimated scores for some companies at the time of application:
Xobni 12 (MIT hackers), Auctomatic 13 (No hackers at time of application), Justin.tv 25 (Lots of pluses, no negations)

I'd say at 10 you have a good chance at an interview, at 13-15 an excellent chance. This is derived from Paul's writings, speeches, videos, and comments.

The actual idea doesn't matter because Paul will either tell you he likes it or recommend changing it during the interview. If you're not done with college, now is the time to say you will focus on the project instead.

Again, this is just a rough guide and I have zero qualifications to even write this. After the interview, only your execution matters.
The best applicants get more points ;)

In order to maximise this you need to

a) have a good idea
b) have a good team
c) be able to execute

I believe this should be sufficient to 'game' the system ;)
27 + BS in Computer Science
21 + BS in Comp Sci
Interesting, it looks like your entire user was reset along with your karma.

PG recently mentioned the server was running out of memory and they had to temporarily trim some content. Maybe this is related?

I upvoted to try and get this on the front page...
Why women, aged people or anyone should be "protected" if they have talent?

The young man in your story was so confident of his talent that wore t-shirt, necklace and sweatpants to present his software. And any smart company will hire him.

Protect some group of people for being fired implies they are inferior than "the others" who maintains they works by creating wealth to their companies and society.
You can install phpBB, Phorum, or various other free message boards in a couple hours, including customization time.
I am utterly skeeved out that there are people in this forum who think their "chances of pursuing their dream [startup]" are lessened by not getting "funded" by YC, and that their "chances of success" with that startup are significantly reduced.

As a serial startup founder with 2 VC backed companies behind me (one as a founder) and 2 bootstrapped companies (both as a founder, one current, thriving, and multiple years old), let me respectfully call bullshit upon you.

To support my calling down of The Bullshit upon you, let me focus your attention on two completely obvious facts of the industry:

Fact the (1)st: the Overwhelming Majority of thriving web startups are not YC-funded.

Fact the (2)st: the Overwhelming Majority of YC applicants do not collect $16,000 (one solid month of consulting dollars for a skilled developer) from Paul Graham.

If your dreams don't survive not collecting a vanity round from Paul Graham, your dreams are weak and don't belong in the industry to begin with. I leave you with that thought.
Beware; this thing almost locked my browser.
This same stupid issue comes up on this board about once a week now (and is beginning to get a little tired).

Will someone please cite the implied maxim "IF (AGE > X) THEN <something> MUST BE LESS"

Anyone who believes that is automatically putting themselves at a disadvantage for many reasons.

OK, ready? Once and for all, people...

WE ARE NOT BASKETBALL PLAYERS!

Hackers do not "lose a step". We often get better with age. I am clearly doing my best work ever right now and it things keep going this way, hell, by the time I'm 60 I'll be f*cking James Gosling or <insert your favorite digi-idol here>, for crying out loud.

The idea that "puzzle-oriented questions that require quick thinking in interviews" favor younger candidates would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic.

Where does this kind of thinking come from? One of the many beauties of the hacking community is that this is one of the last true bastions of non-discrimination. I don't care if you're a young, old, black, white, female, gay, republican, left-handed, agnostic, vegan, French cosmonaut. Can you code? Does it run? Does it deliver value? That's all that matters.

And as far as physical attributes are concerned, I challenge anyone here, regardless of age, to a 50 yard dash to the donuts when they arrive.

Got it? Good. Now back to your data.

(Sorry for the abrupt tone, but sometimes I gotta call 'em as I see 'em. Anyway, I've been a little cranky since that last AARP meeting ran into valuable hacking time.)
or hotcaptcha or petcaptcha...

http://www.hotcaptcha.com/

http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/
A Really Bad Collection of Motivational Sayings for Newly Hired High School Educators
"In those days, racism was culturally embedded..."

But when the Stupid Ages ended, everything got all better, because now everyone is too smart to be racist.
Are you participating in any of the local groups? I know the Ruby and Python groups are well attended, and the web entrepreneurs group gets good marks. There's also Barcamp and Startup Weekend coming up soon.
Cringely: The myth of bandwidth scarcity
By the way, you didn't say they WOULD give up their dreams. You said they SHOULD. Thank you for introducing the idea of BATNA to the discussion.
You, my friend have clearly never been on the wrong end of this kind of behaviour.
What a great idea! Thank you for doing this.
So you disagree that thinking speed slows as people age?
That's funny. I ran out of memory on my server last night too. Spent most of the morning trying to trim everything down.

The common scripting languages should include memory optimized basic data structures..
{{age,34},{education,architecture,diplom}} = Me.
Can you repeat the question, a little slower this time.
As long as we're not calling Chicago landlocked or flyover. Those are fighting words...
I agree wholeheartedly agree with the first part of your post. Finding, and exploiting inefficiency is what my role is all about.

No question.

The last part of your post has a few things in it that I have to take issue with. Firstly, giving this guy money is NOT what I do. I invest in companies. I think investing in companies is the best way to exploit inefficiencies. Secondly, simply investing in a company with good people, and good technology at a good price is part of "cleaning up" as you put it, but it is at times insufficient to the cause. Now I could list GUBA, Revver etcetera here, but I believe you get the point. Lastly, take a quick scan through the comments in this thread. You will notice, in very short order, that yours is the only one containing profanity. You will get a lot further in life if you do yourself the goodness of presenting yourself in a favorable light to others. Even when you disagree.

One more thing, my job is analysis. I look at, and analyze, data in a dispassionate fashion. Then I give a yea or nay. Normally it is with an eye towards advising other investors. In this case, I put a little of my own scratch on the table. My business depends on reputation, I do not lie. I do not omit. I do not aggrandize. Let me say now that given the attitudes of people like you, I hope, for the sake of more than my investment, that this guy is successful in a fashion that forces others to recognize that the existence of people like him is possible.
Yet another article from Joel that's a thinly-veiled ad for FogBugz... antiquated bug tracking soft.
rss feed just for jobs

;-)
"Click Here" Works (Better Than Other Generic Terms)
It was so easy to vote up because it was entertaining, but no more intellectually stimulating than a typical [pic].
He has a point. Sometimes you look at a product (including software) and you wonder what the certain buttons or phrases are for! Most companies simply do not put thought into their products. They just literally copy the feature with a color, shape, or phrasing change and stick it onto their copy-cat product. No thought is put into why the other company chose to do it and if there are better ways of solving the same problem. This is a great example of this.
"We know because we make people move for Y Combinator, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. The advantage of being able to work together face to face for three months outweighs the inconvenience of moving. Ask anyone who's done it."

Hello, Paul. I'm selection bias. We haven't met formally, but you're obviously acquainted with me.
Haha well if I live in Chicago, do I have to fight myself?
The Skype Hyper