skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm in the Navy and I work on average, 14 hour days. That doesn't include underway periods which are anywhere between 16 hour days and 22 hour days. I am saying this in complete seriousness and honesty. It sucks most of the time but the reason most people take issue with the number of hours they work is because of the lack of discipline. For computer work, I will admit to having "my cup of coffee" but I keep my Reader count low (done by reading when I get up) and on top of my email so there is little to distract me.

Also don't feel bad because programmers tend to work differently then the rest of the world, we work in massive bursts not steady streams. The best thing to do is to leave work when you are not "bursting" and go do something else. If you employer has a problem with it, explain to them how it benefits them this way, if they still have a problem with it, do it any way...It's better to beg for forgiveness then ask for permission.
There are a bunch of freeware CD-burning apps that can burn an ISO for you if you don't have Nero/Roxio; CDBurnerXP comes to mind. Once you are able to boot, just let Ubuntu load into the LiveCD OS. From there you can use the built in partition editor to resize your main partition and just have the installer fill up the empty space.
That's fascinating. Thanks.

I wonder what kind of program he'd write, if he decided to learn programming.
The second one is not accurate. mysqldump has many options and locking the tables is optional.
Well, if it's your first time installing it, you are a newbie.
Update (3 hours after posting): I'm trying again, this time with a new CD. Thanks for the advice; I hope it works.
Brazilian berry destroys cancer cells in lab, UF study shows
Now I'm getting a message that says

1. HD System Type-(00)
Missing operating system

Crap.
Trying to Fine-Tune Yahoo
umm.... masturbating doesn't count as "work" :P
Can you commit to and deliver results on a schedule?

Instead of focusing on having to sit at a desk for 8 hours straight, think about the kinds of results you can promise and take a project oriented approach.Instead of billing by the hour, consider billing for the result (which is more than halfway to productizing your efforts).

What kinds of projects would get you energized? You may be trying to fit yourself into a job and career where you won't be fulfilling your potential. I would echo a number of the comments that you should do something that you truly like. You may be more energizing by interacting with people, you might try a job--or consulting assignments--that are more people focused than about delivering code.

If you are not sleeping well: has this been true all of your life or only recently? Cut off coffee and other stimulants, find a way to get an hour of exercise in every day, and get up at the same time every day. It's possible you are depressed or suffering from sleep apnea. Obviously you should consult with a doctor once you have ruled out too much coffee, boredom, and any of the obvious causes.

If you were a co-founder in a startup with me, I would want to know that all of the web surfing had some application to the tasks you had taken on. I do think you have to distinguish between efforts and results, but if you want to be a product member of a team, you have to be able to deliver on your commitments. The key is you get to pick the team and make the commitments.

I hope this helps, I can confess that I sometimes have fantasies of how productive I was in "regular jobs" until I remember all of the pointless meetings, unproductive political constraints, and other meaningless activities I was required to take part in. But I am energized by what I am working on now, and find myself working from early in the morning to early evening and some weekends, but I take a lot of breaks and try and focus on results not hours.
Because Time Warner needs protection from Google? I have a hard time feeling sorry for the telco and cable monopolies.
Mark Zuckerberg Tells 60 Minutes: "Beacon Makes Facebook Less Commercial"
So now when you hear about female Norwegian executives, you can assume with a fifty percent chance that they are only hired to comply with the law, and are thus to incompetent for their job.
oh em eff gee.

I heard Michio Kaku talking about something he called The Human Body Shop --technology to provide h. sapiens replacement parts-- on the BBC two days ago. I remember thinking "What could a string theorist possibly know about biotechnology that's worth broadcasting to two hundred million listeners?"

More than me, apparently.
Book compiled from Revision 1337
An Extreme Case of Scambaiting
When I see things like this and think that we are maybe 5 years away from human trials of lab grown, transplantable hearts, I really hope that we're going to live forever.
What is a good eCRM tool for startups to answer tons of emails from customers. 
What is a good eCRM tool for startups to answer tons of emails from customers. Trakken by Neotonic was a good one but it has been acquired by google, Prefer open source or less expensive options that can scale to growing pains or handle bursts of 15000 incoming e-mails per hour
What is a good eCRM tool for startups to answer tons of emails from customers. Trakken by Neotonic was a good one but it has been acquired by google, Prefer open source or less expensive options that can scale to growing pains or handle bursts of 15000 incoming e-mails per hour
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=31535
http://programming.reddit.com/info/65ele/comments/
The biggest problems re going to be cancer, genetic problems that only arise as we age, and perhaps most important of all, neurodegenerative diseases. The problem is that our cells are pre-programmed to only divide a fixed number of times, hence why stem cells help, but even they are limited. When this is "fixed" so the cells can divide indefinitely, it tends to turn into cancer, which is probably one reason this mechanism evolved in the first place.
Omnidrive Heading for Deadpool?
I am sure it will kill you. But whats worse is that you are NOT LIVING. I am very passionate about my work. I consider myself a pretty good programmer. I put in long hours occasionally and wish I could code even more. But there are aspects of living on this earth as a human being apart from writing code. Trust me when I say it. YOU ARE NOT LIVING.
This is quite impressive technology. Now they need to find a way to get more than one heart out of a 'decellularized heart'. At that point, we won't have any more problems with finding organ donations.
How can I get an early boost from SEO? I read all the SEO blogs, but there didn't seem to be any advice beyond the obvious.
Sounds like you copied the iso file onto a CD rather than actually burning an image. I believe Windows, can't do this on it's own. Download a burning program such as this open source one: http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

Then you can follow this guide on how to burn an ISO image to a CD: http://dai-videotutes.blogspot.com/2007/07/ifrarecorder-burn...
Geek Trends: 15 Footers with great usability by Pop Upon Magazine
Another option, which is more noob-friendly is: http://wubi-installer.org/

It let's you install Linux from within Windows, as if you were just installing another Windows program. The main downside to this is that your disk IO will suffer since it installs Ubuntu inside of a Windows file (as a virtual disk).

Also, installing an OS is not for everyone. You can simply purchase a Dell, HP or Lenovo with Linux pre-installed, and that gets rid of the "frictional cost" of switching.
60 Minutes Interview With Mark Zuckerberg (video + article)
There are no US states where that is legal or encouraged. Take it from someone who was born in the one you're probably thinking of.
Saw the word "enterprise" and stopped reading.
I don't think they can. The reason they use the "decellularized heart" is because they need a scaffold for the cells to grow on. This has basically been what's holding back growing organs.

They may, however, be able to use another mammal's heart for the scaffold, such as a cow or pig, with the help of some genetic engineering. I read something a while back about a group of scientists that genetically engineered a pig so that its organs could be transplanted into humans. If I remember correctly, a pig's organs have a salty layer on them or something making them incompatible with humans.
Download the Alternate CD of Ubuntu and use that, it should work in your case..
The beginning of my love affair with Python
Intel Patent: Byte swap operation for a 64 bit operand (award for obviousness?)
At the time Frind launched the first free dating site he was filling a large hole in the market. If you can find a gap that big to fill, SEO will take care of your company.
The true learning experience comes from learning how to install linux even it means initially struggling but eventually figuring it out.
I believe the reason we have both big and little endianness is due to some idiotic patent way back in the day. One company managed to patent big endian byte ordering, so others decided to use little endian to avoid licensing it.
BS. You say that you would like to try to put him out of business in a perfect world, but that is simply an excuse. We exist in a capitalist society (I am not sure what makes you think that it has to be 'small') and if you had a better product people would migrate towards it.

If Markus had your mentality, he would not have started POF because he would have said there are "better funded, better sites, sites with too many users" out there, and therefore I shouldn't compete with them. Obviously he did not think this. And good for him and the users of POF.

BTW - I have checked out your recent site and I like it - if you truly believe that POF is crap, then I look forward to you building a competitor - I do think that your sense of design will at least give you an edge on POF.
Python vs Java comparison
It is a clash between classical logic and intuition, which is the point -- it indicates a difficulty with applying classical logic, and encourages us to take up other avenues.
While we're on the topic of installing Ubuntu which is agreed to be the easiest, may I recommend Ubuntu Ultimate

http://ultimateedition.info/Ubuntu_Ultimate_1.6/

Its just normal ubuntu but with different default packages installed, which are actually really useful (go to the site and read about it), and all repositories enabled.

Some people really don't like this because they say its annoying but most people really end up downloading all these packages anyway...might as well save the hassle. Not to mention it comes with an interesting default theme.
ff9900 for me. (My first job was at a startup, that was one of our logo colors.)
Google sees surge in iPhone traffic
Trying to fine tune Yahoo
Yeah, some people convinced me to build a competitor. I will.

When it's done in a few weeks, I'll do an Ask YC post about it.
Why? Saving enough money to last you the rest of your life (or at least a few years) seems like a worthwhile goal.
Good luck... online dating is definitely one of the things YC and PG are interested in, so if you do it right, you're in.
I don't think that is the case anymore. At least Ubuntu is a lot easier to use than Windows. Although granted, a few thinks have to be set up properly before the fun can begin, like video codecs.
" Days after the 1 January 2008 deadline passed, almost every single listed firm has female faces on its board. The government can now proclaim its policies a success"

That's just incredibly sick (the calling it a success part). The definition of success is that people follow the laws? In what other profession might it be so easy to be successful?
A Visual Guide to Simple, Compound and Continuous Interest Rates
there is nothing wrong in being a noob. But hey you are learning the right way;)
It's not simply a matter of learning curves. I would say vi has a pretty steep learning curve, but you get something out of it if you do learn it. Same for using a Unix shell effectively. On the other hand, knowing about Linux driver issues has no value in itself for any regular user.

Setting up Linux on a laptop is always a gamble. Sometimes it works flawlessly and at other times it's a nightmare. I recently tried to make Ubuntu work on one particular laptop. Installing it was no problem whatsoever, but the CPU just wouldn't enter C3 power state, which meant that it ran extremely hot.

I tried to deactivate every single driver to find out which one kept the CPU busy. I had to resolve all the driver interdependencies, recompile the kernel, etc. But even on a completely stripped down OS the CPU just wouldn't enter C3. None of the many tips and tricks on various Linux on laptops sites would work.

Could I have pursued this further? Sure, and at some point I would have found a solution, but it wasn't worth my time frankly.

I think Linux on laptop/desktop can work if hardware vendors get behind it and sort out all the driver issues. Everything else can be resolved by the Linux community but drivers are unsuitable for the open source model as long as some hardware vendors keep their specs secret.
Italian businesses refusing to pay protection money to mafia, organizing online
"The green apple does indeed offer the same infinitesimal evidence that all ravens are pink, but by going through the set of non-pink objects in the universe and eventually finding a raven, the proposition will be disproven."

I had residual doubts about these pink ravens, but that's a great way to put it. Now I really feel "on top" of the paradox.
Shares vs share options and vesting periods for first 2 developers in small startup?
Hi all,

I am doing a small startup and about to employ first two developers and am trying to get some feedback about shares vs share options and vesting periods to add to their offer packages.

Some background:
Web product startup (NewCo) being spun-off out of existing web development company (OldCo). Two directors of OldCo are major shareholders in NewCo and are investing code and product from OldCo. Friend has invested a five figure amount in the NewCo which values the NewCo at $400k after investment. NewCo is a private company limited by shares.

Two new developers being employed specifically to work for NewCo, some OldCo employees will do some work for NewCo but OldCo will be paid for that.

The main goal with the shares / share options is to get NewCo employee commitment to stay and grow with NewCo as far as possible through to liquidity event in 3-5 years when they will hopefully make a good payout along with the other shareholders and investors. Finding staff in our geographic region (Asia) is very difficult and we have found some great ones. The base salary packages for the 2 developers are competitive for our market and geographic region, but not vs the US. (One of the devs could probably leave and move to the US for another startup, he has in-demand skills)

We are discussing shares vs share options and have the following questions we are working through.

1) Does anyone simply give away shares to employees? We started with a simple idea of giving each developer .5% for each year of employment. But this doesn't seem to scale and we will run out of shares if have lots of devs :)

2) Share options seem to be another alterative, our understanding is we need to set am option price and an exercise schedule (vesting), but we are not sure how to do this as we are a private company with no public share price, just the valuation implied by our investor ($400k). Does anyone have any advice / experience with this kind of setup?

Thanks!
Plus, the alternate CD allows you to enable on-the-fly disk encryption, which IMHO is a must-have on a laptop.
Software patent trolls targeting Google
Contractors _don't_ get paid four times as much as hourly employees. Oh sure, companies might get billed four times as much (though in my experience it has 1.5 to 2.5 times as much: I've seen invoices sitting on my boss's desk, and once even the consulting company mistakenly sent the invoice to _my_ address). Contractors probably get paid 1.25 times as much on average: the rest goes into some suit's undeserving pocket.
You don't hold line of codes in your head, you hold a map of interconnected concepts, in various zoom levels.

Zoom enough and you'll see lines of codes, but most of the time you just manipulate these larger blocks.

As you build up your language for your specific problem and your tools of expressions evolve, each concept maps significantly more behavior, logic & power.

A good example for this can be seen in professional chess players playing blind-folded, they don't memorize the location of all 32 pieces on the board, they memorize the different formation groups, their mental vocabulary has increased to include groups of chess pieces in specific arrangements. If you ask them to remember randomly placed chess pieces they fail just like the average person.
http://goodbye-microsoft.com/ is your friend.

It lets you install Debian from within Windows (and is different from wubi, as it does a proper install).
Thanks Sheriff, I am aware of the wish list approach but it doesn't work for me. I don't want people to be restricted to what's on a recipient's wish list.
I think this "2-3 hours of real work per day" stuff is a myth. Or maybe this depends on a definition of "real work" that only entails "heads-down" "in-the-zone" coding. Still I think it's too low. I'm 44 and just a month and a half ago I had to intensely focus 9-10 hours a day to meet a very aggressive deadline (PG you are so wrong about us older coders ;) It was exhilarating and while I wouldn't want to keep that up for months on end, I think 5-6 hours heads-down is definitely do-able. What about the other 2-3 hours to come to an 8 hour day? Well, there's analysis, documentation, email, etc. Some people like to do this sort of thing first thing, but then is when I focus best. Indeed by mid to late afternoon my brain is craving television, but I force myself to at least think about problems, even if I'm not solving them through code. And it usually pays off, with a solution through code the next morning. Anyway that's my experience.
Can we have a category for startup and entrepreneurship stories?
YC News used to be filled with articles and discussions about startups and entrepreneurship, the main reason I enjoyed reading it.

Looking at the front page today, there's only about one in ten. The other nine you can find on Reddit pretty quick.

Would it be possible to have some kind of category system or way of tagging/filtering stories to hone in on the relevant ones?

Thanks!
Oh this makes me feel much better knowing I'm not alone. It's tough work, exercise and walks are essential.
As long as I work on one problem, I remember all methods I have written and what they do. I also keep the architecture in my head and the approach I have chosen to solve the problem. This works fine as long as I am not interrupted.

I cannot recommend trying to hold too much in your head at once. I has a bad effect on your creativity. Free your mind instead to have all necessary resources available to find the best solution for the current problem.

It is also an achievement to break down large chunks of work into small parts and solve only the small parts.

In this perspective it is absolutely useless to keep code in the head. It is written in the editor right in front of your eyes anyway.
> I am a bit daunted by the prospect of working 8 hours straight, every day.

Try it fer 40 years. When I were a lad, we did 15 hours every day gettin' coal down't mine. Ay, the youth o'today wouldn't know an 'ard days work if it bluddy well hit em in't face!
So, you are trying to do Linux on the desktop? Why?

Linux for your server, Mac or Windows on your desktop.
Andy Grove's Last Stand
I don't think we have enough posts per day to merit splitting the site into different categories, and with search on the way, I'm not entirely sure it would be beneficial.

An interesting idea would be to add a mechanism to overemphasize/under emphasize posts based on keywords or tags, a multiplier you can set for the current points/rank of the post.
I think a better gauge is the number of features that you can keep in your head, rather than the number of lines of code. (LOC doesn't always directly correlate with complexity, anyway.) I'd say I can usually hold about 50% of the features of the projects I usually work on in my day job without having to do a "context switch". Usually, it's oriented around clear lines in the code -- for example, the latest project I worked on had a program written for a handheld computer with the .NET compact framework, a website written with MonoRail and ExtJS, and a large data migration system. If I was working on the website, I could typically answer questions quickly about most of the common features in the handheld application. However, when asked about the more complex aspects, it took me a few minutes to "page swap" the handheld code into my brain. :)
Thanks - I currently also try to work up some courage by thinking that there should always be a way to make the task interesting. If it is something repetitive, it should be possible to create an abstraction for it. Unfortunately politics often get into the way, for example, I probably won't have any luck suggesting alternatives to Java (not even scripting languages for Java). But still...

Today I talked to a startup, and I could probably freelance for them. Less money than usual, but hopefully more interesting - I feel reasonably positive about it at the moment. Although in my heart of hearts I know that in the long run, only my own projects will really make me happy.
I'm getting older. As soon as someone can stop that process, I'll say time doesn't exist.
I knew there wasn't enough of it, but I didn't realize the problem was so severe...
Sounds as if it still not booting from CD. Actually with the Ubuntu CD, the Ubuntu Live System could come up first (without you doing anything). Does that happen?
Exalenz And Top Care Korea sign strategic collaboration agreement
I don't agree. The stories that are at the front page here aren't the same that would get on the front page on reddit... beyond startup, we get programming, science and design stories, and I think those have to do with the new title "Hacker News".
Google Sees Surge in iPhone Traffic
Xobni: Social Network in Your Inbox
Why? Plenty of people uses Linux on the desktop, I myself have been running it on the desktop for some years now.
VideoTrace: Creating Realistic 3D Models from Video
compound interest is much easier to understand with a $ sign :)