skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The idea seems to be, basically, make a better social filtering application. I definitely think there's space for something really cool here, but no one's done anything close to useful yet, short of Amazon.

If I were you, I would try to, at least for the time being, try to pare the idea down into something much smaller and more manageable. Once you have that done as a proof of concept, if it's still too small you can expand to other areas. Along the way, you will've learned a lot about what you'll need to execute on the bigger idea. Why not start with the movie suggester you mentioned later on in the thread?
Why Programmers Don't Like Relational Databases
How to use guarantees to close more business - Part
Kara Swisher Deconstructs Facebook
Now let's see if I got this right...I can either

a. prepare paperwork that completely neutralizes my differentiating assets just to satisfy the automated processes of mindless drones

OR

b. start my own business.

DYHAQFM?
Economics of iTunes and AmazonMP3 Stores: Does Amazon and Apple make any money from selling digital music?
I second the call for a Facebook application.
I don't mind spending an hour or a day understanding why they think the way they do. What I would mind is spending years at it, coupled with selling them something they think they need when what they really need is a change of mind.
"And as biased and prejudiced as this may sound, I've found that workers from India and China often have "shake-and-bake" qualifications...."

I suspect that's due to the rapid growth of the software development industry there. Allegedly similar things happened during the dot boom here in the 90s, when there was so much demand for software that many unqualified and under-qualified people were hired.

On the other hand, there was a Wall Street Journal article recently (much discussed here, I think) about how the best developers in India can command salaries closer to their Silicon Valley counterparts than the typical Indian IT salary.

Perhaps "you get what you pay for" applies?

"someone who apparently has a Masters in IT yet doesn't understand that "var1 = textfiedl1 + textfield2" is NOT something I want to see in proper VB.Net code?"

I suspect you can find similar code from American developers. The only difference is that over here a lot of the less dedicated programmers have left the field and so now we have their Indian counterparts doing the same low quality work for less money.

"Nevermind that I swear I heard him utter "wow, that's genius" when I cobbled together a session-based auth script.... ugh."

If the article's portrayal of "Honey" is indicative, he may have been just trying to stroke your ego. :)

"Real-world experience is more important than qualifications."

No argument there.
The Journeyman Programmer - C#, Lisp, Python, Erlang & More
I read the text of their site and it sounds like it's everything that's wrong with incubators plus some weird MBA cheesiness thrown in for good measure. I will definitely not be submitting an application to these guys, except maybe a pity application offering to fix their web site for free.
Let's recap.

1) If you build a cool site that's interactive and brings in lots of users, most likely it has a "popularity curve" where it's really cool at first, then it's the thing to do, then it's kind of old hat, and finally you are left with the die-hards. Perhaps some sites keep users for 15 years, but to me building the next cool social networking site for pet rock lovers (or whatever) looks more like creating a popular TV show.

2) Big companies come along and buy up these small fish while they are in their growth phase. The more users you have and the faster you are growing, the more perceived value you have.

3) They then absorb small fish into their larger operations, eventually completely consuming small fish. Oddly enough, this keeps them from following the same popularity curve as everybody else: they are always refreshing the mix by bringing in new blood and content. This means there is a huge amount of pressure on large organizations to buy up small companies. Very interesting.

4) As an entrepreneur, you always have to ask yourself whether you still have a long way to grow, or if you are closing in to your peak. The related article says that Facebook will peak, and I believe it. The problem is that every company believes it will change and dominate the world as we know it. Rationally, Facebook owners need to make the call about where the most value is. But there might not be a lot of rational thinking going on at this point.

Sorry to repeat all of that. I was just trying to get my head around the concepts in the related articles. Good food for thought! I love contrarian articles.
What's in Google's Name?
Outsourcing Works, So India Is Exporting Jobs
If he wants to see resumes with fewer buzzwords, then he should take ownership of the screening function.

At too many big companies, HR is used to screen, and all they know how to do is match buzzwords.

And that's just for starters (there's more to say on the topic of why job search is broken).

Employers need to realize the system is broken largely because of what they demand from candidates.
Making eBay suck less, what a bloody good idea!

I will be giving your site a try next time I sell something on eBay...
15 Billion More Reasons to Worry About Facebook
Not a good trend; picking portfolio companies is not like judging "American Idle".
This isn't new, but I LOVE the site. I wish they didn't break up instructions by pages, and they would do well to have something like sketchcast.
"catering to prejudice" brings to mind setting up sites for the KKK or something. This is more like girls wanting to look like Britney, or kids dancing like Michael Jackson, or yuppies competing for the best BMW, or strippers getting boob-jobs. It's a social-fashion issue. Yes, perhaps there is prejudice involved, but it sounds more like garden-variety fashion and competition based on looks than deep-seated racism.

The better question to me is where do you draw the line. What's a business model that you wouldn't execute? I draw the line at companies who do not treat people in a way that they themselves would want to be treated and that causes direct bodily harm. For example, if you've got a web site selling drugs to kids over the internet, that's obviously not something you would want sold to your kid.
Going freelance...
Laughable arguments against no arguments at all.
This is a funny and well-written essay on a pedestrian topic. I wish he had been this pithy in the sheep-wolves essay, which I think has an important meaning that I can only guess at.
What's odd is that such a bright guy could so badly estimate the curves of 1) his ability to produce new material, and 2) new research and developments in computer science that he wants to cover in the aforementioned material. They're diverging, and quickly.
Best quote:

""Lead" is ... the present-tense verb meaning "not doing any coding""
An intriguing topic, nice try, but the author failed to explain the reasons why programmers hate databases. It's definitely not because we don't know the relational theory (I beg your pardon, but screw relational theory, it's as ugly as DBs themselves).

One problem I can think of is that I'm forced to mix two languages in one story (a program, that is). It's like writing an essay in English over-peppered with a lot of Latin phrases and sayings. In web development it gets even worse: as if my favorite programming language X plus SQL wasn't enough, I mix up HTML, CSS and JavaScript - that's at least 5 languages in total!

Another problem is that from a programmer's perspective databases are, put simply, arrays possibly with pointers. The only reason we can't declare these structures as arrays/lists with pointers is that data can grow infinitely big and my favorite language X can't handle that. In other words, using databases is a classical example of premature optimization that comes at a price of overcomplicated code. Yes, databases are plain arrays and even the best relational advocate can't prove the opposite (or I'd be glad to hear arguments actually).

Upd: persistence and a possibility to share data between processes is another reason we use databases, but I'm sure there are more elegant ways of doing this.
I'd say it's fairly serious, since something so basic doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in Excel. It only takes one bad PR moment like this to tarnish a product's reputation forever.

I wonder if some disgruntled ex-Microsoft employee just took the crown for best Sabotage-By-Easter-Egg ever.
Bayesian treatment of email examines a large number of indicators (words) and chooses the best ones to make decisions. It can be very reliable. Prejudice works with a much smaller number of indicators (race, gender, etc.), most of which are poor quality, resulting in a lot of wrong decisions.

Stereotypes are useful in books and movies, because they fool you into thinking you have deep knowledge of a character you're barely acquainted with. In real life this is not a good thing.
I thought the whole point of this website (YC), was so you would never have to write another resume.
AOL betting on mobile search, touting more traffic than Google and MSN
boo, link-jacked; actual Kara Swisher link:

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20070925/15-billion-more-reasons-...
7-Year Updated Ajax Timeline of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon Acquisitions
I like databases because unless you have an unusually nice job, SQL is the closest you'll get to getting paid to use a declarative programming language.
He is kinda busy, you know. This isn't a business. If he had neglected users at Viaweb that would be different.
This reminds me of a bug in Mathematica from back in the late '90: there was a whole class of sums that Mathematica said were negative, even though each term in the sum was strictly positive! "Carry problem", my ass.
The first thing I noticed is that they're missing Zenter, but the timeline is still cool because it starts in January 2001 with updates through this August. Any more that they've missed?
I agree with some of your points, but you need to study data structures a bit more. Just because a simple table structure could be implemented as an array doesn't mean that database tables are equivalent to arrays. A primary key is not the same as array index: it can be a type other than integer, and it can be non-consecutive. Indexing columns (including but not limited to the primary key) provides searches that happen in less than linear time. You can't do that with a plain array.

Another thing database give you is ACID storage. Sure, you could reproduce some of that using thread-level locking or some other locking mechanism, but then what you have isn't a simple array any more.
TextPayMe is on that list. Isnt this the acquisition YC still cant "talk" about?
Now this is just stupid.

I've built a career moving data out of flat files into RDBMS in order to get systems working properly (and quickly). I couldn't believe the hoops people jumped through just because of their dislike (or ignorance) of relational databases.

This data base model is perfect for many applications, and can easily be mixed with other data storage technologies (if you know what you're doing.)

Don't like the capabilities of your RDMBS? Then add what you need to you app. Indexing, transactions, stored procedures, audit, security, whatever. The code doesn't care where it's at. It still runs.

Not pretty enough for you? Then become a mathematician or fashion designer. Otherwise, shut up and code.
Well, I think the poor estimates reflect more on the size of his goal than on anything else.
Big goals aren't as easily project managed as the typical software feature.
The relational model is simply the application of set theory and predicate logic to data management. Are you saying that these two branches of math/logic are ugly or that you don't understand them well enough to have a decent opinion?
How Second Life found its 2nd wind.
Databases are not arrays, although they may be implemented as arrays. The whole point of the relational model is that the logical model is abstracted from the implementation. So if e.g. the DBA decides that it would be more efficient to store a table as an array of columns rather than an array of rows, he can do that without changing the logical model.
I don't understand the resistance to using multiple languages in one project. Every time you use an API, you're effectively using a new language. The syntax may be familiar, but the vocabulary is completely different. That's the point - through libraries and DSLs, we extend the capabilities of the base language so it's more suitable to the problem domain.

Take a look at the following SQLAlchemy code:

select([users.c.first_name + ' ' + users.c.last_name,
users.c.email, games.c.title],
from_obj=[users.join(games,
users.c.user_id == games.c.creator_id],
and_(games.c.creation_date == datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(3),
or_(users.c.email.like('%@aol.com'),
users.c.email.like('%@hotmail.com'))))

Can you really say that's easier to read than this?

SELECT users.first_name + ' ' + users.last_name,
users.email, games.title
FROM users
INNER JOIN games ON (users.user_id = games.game_id)
WHERE games.creation_date >= DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 3 DAY)
AND (users.email LIKE '%@aol.com' OR users.email LIKE '%@hotmail.com')

SQLAlchemy is a really cool library - it basically lets you write all your SQL queries in 100% Pure Python. But I doubt I'd use it on my own projects, because I've learned to be suspicious of libraries whose only purpose is to make some other tool look like a language I already know. Invariably there are reasons why the original language looked the way it did, and the reimplementation as a library becomes incredibly clunky as things get more complicated. I find I'm better off learning the original language instead.
It's a shame that at a lot of big companies, HR is the division with the least intelligent employees. At most places, it's not the kind of job that attracts the best and brightest.
They should just replace their heads with the heads used in the South Park movie.
Rails and JPA (Instead of ActiveRecord)
My theory is that there is two kinds of people. Those that like everything to be in the same language and environment, and those that like to combine lots of different languages where each language is optimized for a specific task.
It took me a few minutes to realize which essay you were talking about, because that's the only essay I haven't yet read all the way through; not for a lack of trying. Steve Yegge is the James Joyce of programming blogs, and that post is his Finnegan's Wake.
Reddit contains lots of sneering references to Digg. There is probably an elevated place somewhere that contains lots of sneering references to hacker news. But people like you and med don't know that place.
The 'poor estimate' is estimating the one person can keep up with an entire field. It's simply not possible.
DOM Assistant 2.0 released
You can't do that with a plain array

I can do that with hash arrays. The primary key is my primary hash, other keys are just extra hash maps pointing to the main array.

I understand, perhaps none of the existing languages can fully replace the DB functionality, but I suspect nobody is even thinking about that because - hey, there are plenty of nice DBMSs around, why bother reinventing them?

but then what you have isn't a simple array any more

True, but again, it's a matter of having an infrastructure that handles sharing for you. Windows Registry, however awkward and Microsoft'ish, does just that, as as example.
Software Radio
Seriously. What the fuck is wrong with SQL? I think people just want to bitch... just like this... yah.
Could be.

I'm reminded of the two competing camps for large-scale systems design. The UNIX philosophy is "small pieces loosely joined": each component does one thing well, and the system just provides a common metaphor and architecture for them to work together (eg. pipes and line-oriented text). The Windows philosophy is "big chunks tightly coupled": everything just works out of the box, but if you need to do something the designers didn't think of, you're out of luck. Kinda like "I'll do it myself; show me how" vs. "Do it for me."

Nearly every computing system can be placed somewhere along this continuum. In operating systems, we've got MacOS (pre-X) and Windows on one side and UNIX on the other. In languages, we've got Scheme and Smalltalk on the UNIX side and Java and .NET on the other (ironically, Scheme and Smalltalk have a "small pieces loosely coupled" architecture internally, but are big monolithic chunks when it comes to the outside world). For IDEs, Emacs is all the way over on the UNIX side, vim not far behind, Eclipse is in the middle, and IntelliJ and Visual Studio all the way on the Windows side. For JavaScript libraries, YUI/Mootools/Prototype are all on the Windows side and JQuery is on the UNIX side, though it's moving closer to the Windows philosophy. Among web frameworks, Rails and Django are on the Windows side with Pylons on the UNIX side. The web itself is based on the UNIX philosophy, but many of the largest websites follow the Windows philosophy.

I'm not so certain that people fit rigidly into one category though. Up until about 3-4 years ago, I was firmly in the Windows camp: I did Java programming only, I did it on a Windows machine, I used JBuilder and Eclipse to do it. Then I started branching out, mostly because I started learning about all this stuff that Java wouldn't let me get at. I think many people may follow a similar path: "do it for me" until you want to do something that the designers didn't think of, and then you have no choice to move to a "do it yourself; we'll show you how" environment.
Sit On One Side Of The Table
When your team arrives at the VC's board room you should all sit on the same side of the table. There are several reasons for this.
"I can do that with hash arrays. The primary key is my primary hash, other keys are just extra hash maps pointing to the main array."

A.k.a an in-memory table with hash indexes. MySQL has them. ;-)

You're still missing out on a lot of functionality (even besides transactions/persistence/concurrency). For example, what if you want all records where the creation date is between a certain range of days? Or how about the maximum value of a certain column? How about joins?

A conventional database can retrieve these from the indexes, but your multiple-hashes system would require a full table scan.
You just translated SQL to an ugly C-ish syntax, which says nothing to me. I believe if we forget the SQL cliche, a different approach, I mean syntactically, is quite possible.
How to bootstrap your startup
All you just said is map/reduce, possibly optimized for large data chunks internally. In fact if we create a proper infrastructure, "indexing" can be done automatically and transparently.

And I never said arrays should be in memory entirely, even though I declare them as arrays in my language.
Facebook IM Client Coming Soon
A Tale of Two Cities: Red Hat and JBoss
Stanford's Facebook App Development Group
some of them seem to be hidden at the bottom of the timeline. I can see the very top half of the text, but not the whole lot. (FF+Mac)
Yep, But we dream of the day when we are deluged with resume from people who would like us to hire them. This gives us a little idea of how to filter the better ones at least.

Think of this as a guide to help us make the process of scanning resumes just a little bit more manageable. :-)
I didn't. SQLAlchemy did. ;-) (http://www.sqlalchemy.org/)

You mean simply using normal CS data structures and keeping application data in memory? That approach certainly works - PG uses it for this site, and I believe it's used for Mailinator and Bloglines.

But you should think of the services that a database gives you and consider whether you're going to use them. That includes:

1.) Indexing by arbitrary column

2.) Subranges & slices, again by arbitrary column

3.) Joins

4.) Sorting

5.) Quick summarizing, over any combination of columns

6.) Transactions

7.) Persistence

8.) Concurrency control

9.) Access from multiple languages

10.) Distribution

If you aren't going to use any of these, then by all means Keep It Simple. If you're only going to use one or two - say you need persistence, indexing, and slicing - you can probably roll something up with your language's normal libraries. But if it looks like you'll need a good chunk of them, you'll drive yourself nuts trying to implement them yourself. Even maintaining multiple indexes via your hashtable approach can get very complicated when you have multiple requests inserting, deleting, and changing rows.
Doing Something You Love - it matters
DYHAQFM, excuse my ignorance but what does this mean?
Do You Have A __ __?
from the article...

the time honored end-of-interview transmission code: DYHAQFM? ("Do you have any questions for me?")
Isn't it because programmers are bad with all types of relationships?
It's difficult to be good at many languages. Knowing many is not too hard, but being really quick with them is. IMO, at least. And the more you add, the messier things get. Google, who seems to know a thing or two about programming, only allows four: Java, Javascript, Python and C++.
CoScripter For Firefox: Automate Your Tasks
thanks , I missed that!
oh...i was just tring to see what people think im good at and I get like java errors or something?

"java.lang.AssertionError: assertion failed at scala.Predef$.assert(Predef.scala:91) at com.endorsefriends.server.DB.getFirstEndorsementTime(DB.scala:179) at com.endorsefriends.server.DB$$anonfun$14.apply(DB.scala:285) at com.endorsefriends.server.DB$$anonfun$14.apply(DB.scala:282) at scala.List.map(List.scala:701) at com.endorsefriends.server.DB.getScores(DB.scala:282) at com.endorsefriends.server.PeopleRanking.getEndorsementRanking(PeopleRanking.scala:29) at com.endorsefriends.server.PeopleRanking.show(PeopleRanking.scala:47) at com.endorsefriends.server.MyAreasOfExpertise.show(MyAreasOfExpertise.scala:17) at com.endorsefriends.server.EndorseFriendsServlet.processRequest(EndorseFriendsServlet.scala:192) at com.endorsefriends.server.EndorseFriendsServlet.doPost(EndorseFriendsServlet.scala:219) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:709) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105) at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:541) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148) at org.apache.jk.server.JkCoyoteHandler.invoke(JkCoyoteHandler.java:199) at org.apache.jk.common.HandlerRequest.invoke(HandlerRequest.java:282) at org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket.invoke(ChannelSocket.java:767) at org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket.processConnection(ChannelSocket.java:697) at org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket$SocketConnection.runIt(ChannelSocket.java:889) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595) "
Me too. "When the time comes". Is there a ceremony?
In production code (i.e. deployed to the publicly-facing website). I've heard that for internal-facing apps, 20% projects, and non-Google-branded stuff, you can use any language you like. Orkut was initially written in .NET, for example.
RTFA

... SCNR
LOL. That's not what my probation officer said.