skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The author hints at a major issue with corporate deployments -- old machines. It's all fine, well and good that Vista runs on machines it shipped with; but many large shops have to turn down an upgrade to Vista just because the performance is egregiously bad on older machines. By extension, it is unwise for developers to assume that Vista will be there when they need it, making it unsuitable as a platform for the near future.
I followed that routine for three weeks with FreeBSD -- the first time I had ever worked with a UNIX family OS. After I finally figured out the basics of partitioning a drive, setting the locale and time, I didn't 'reinstall' again until, three years later, I switched to Gentoo Linux.
What about a good shell environment, stability, package management?

An OS is a lot of different things. It's too bad that the OS market is dominated by superficial concern with 'interoperability' (defined in the narrowest sense) and appearance. You can't get the best of everything, all in one nice package. Make sure the things you want the best of are really the things you can make the best use of!
OK, I found some good instructions that require only a recompile of freetype -- apparently the reason Linux renders fonts so poorly is that Apple has the good algorithms patented, so they can't turn on the good font rendering by default.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=694...

I might have to reinstall Linux this weekend, if it works I'll write a blog post with lots of pictures.

This guide has pictures of a Linux install with properly non-smoothed fonts. http://avi.alkalay.net/linux/docs/font-howto/Font.html
Developer API for new Adobe Share service
hey cyggie, thanks for your feedback.

re Auctiva:

1) we plan to differentiate in the future by working with other platforms (Amazon, Google etc).
2) a Gold level powerseller told us: "I have found that Auctiva has very little "value-added" over the plain vanilla eBay tools. My hope is that your final product will be an improvement both in ease of use and cost over eBay/Auctiva", which also hints at our goals. There is a lot we can do to help sellers optimize, and more than that, introduce some real "ease-of use" into this market.

All the initial feedback we have had suggests we are on track with both. I'd be happy to discuss any insights you may have to help us improve, drop me a line at kul at auctomatic.com.
Buzzword : Adobe to Acquire Virtual Ubiquity
Paul Buchheit: The next big adventure
Vista doesn't have any significant added value compared to XP but it introduces some potential sources of incompatibility with XP (ex. directX10). It already comes with incompatibility with some hardware ;)

For people who have XP, there is no point in changing. The same goes for office pack, no significant added value. The price is not worth the benefit.

By trying to force people to buy Vista with FUD about incompatibilities with prior version, Microsoft is in fact pushing people to try and go for Ubuntu or other equivalent free Linux distribution.

The only thing that keeps me using windows (XP) is the Visual C++ IDE which has no equivalent in term of quality in the linux realm, and some games that only work on Windows. I hope this changes.
8.38% on Netflix Progress Prize
Odd... Personally I see Mac as gorgeous on screen fonts, and whenever I have to check things in IE on Windows XP the fonts look like some kid knocked them up in paint shop pro on a lazy sunday.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I've not seen nice fonts on windows yet.
Probably Shakespeare's too.
It's funny how much people these days think defrag does.

Defrag does ONE thing, and ONE thing only. It speeds up your hard disk access a bit by making sure files are sequential.

It's not going to fix all those driver issues windows gets, won't fix the crappy registry, won't remove all those hidden programs that start up automatically making it take 20 minutes to boot. It won't remove all the IE add-on bars that somehow got installed with some other software.
It won't remove all the spyware/adware/viruses.
Reboot hourly, reinstall O/S daily. Replace computer weekly.
I heard it described as the "soul of lisp in the body of java" ;)
"... With FriendFeed, you list the people you want to keep in touch with ..."

Without having looked at the beta, have you solved the "Damn I have to enter my friends list again!" problem? This was a PIA with twitter (insert N other apps) and is a dampener on joining other sites.
I think with Groovy you never have to deal with Hibernate or Spring directly. You still need a Java setup, though. It's just that with Hibernate and Spring it could be easy to create a web framework. I don't consider writing my own OR-mapper in LISP... Anyway, it was just an idea. Will have a look at Scala and Lift.
Congratulations!

A nitpick on the logo: that color combination seems terrible for text readability. I find it plain uncomfortable to look at. I strongly suggest pumping up the contrast between the border and the core of the text at least.

I don't care much for the OSX/Vista-like gloss effect either, and I think it's out of place in the frontpage, which otherwise looks pleasantly plain (a la Google, reddit).
Video with Ali Partovi CEO of iLike, the most popular Facebook app
sounds pretty cool, if only i had more friends who would actually use this...
How Leaders Motivate - Or Not
He doesn't need to compile a kernel for that, just Freetype.

Slightly off topic, most people who compile a kernel don't need to - they usually need to add a module, which if it isn't already packaged, is easily compilable on its own. Check RHEL 4's release notes (which show how to create a Makefile for a single module).

The compile love of Linux novices comes from old documentation from before kernel 2.0, when most drivers started being available as modules.
i think Marc A is one of the best writers around. and i like the fact he quotes The Black Swan!
How to run GUI programs on a server without any monitor
It doesn't have to be 100%-same-as-face-to-face or nothing. In fact, it would be misguided to have imitation of "real life" be your guiding principle when designing stuff on the internet. Your ultimate goal, then, would be to create an extra copy of something we already have--the real world--and that's obviously pointless.

And nobody ever does that with the Web. What people actually do is create modes of interaction that are deliberately different from and better than real life. Just because you or I can't think of a mode that's as "rich" as face-to-face interaction, but is better for whatever purpose, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Google XSS Exploit May Show Some Private Data
"the more we can put into operating the business the better"

What is there to add to operating expenses if you are just building a prototype? Also I have to say that living (and working) in a nice place makes you (well, at least me) immesely more productive.
My girlfriend will like this. There will be nowhere for me to hide!

Suppose people will find this useful.
15k each in my opinion is trash, they can keep it. The best reward is the networking aspect. Meeting people in the field and getting to know people that can really fund your idea and help you get it off the ground.
Another New Wrinkle In User Interfaces
Congratulations PB! Nice photo in the Times!
So, what's the exit strategy - I can't see "getting bought by google" as being quite so fulfilling for you guys:-)
The Corporate Blogging Genome
"Engagement" Is Not A Metric, It's An Excuse
That doesn't seem to make much sense. Does your app target the IPhone?
Service Helps Friends Share Their Online Discoveries
What I found interesting was that he's been working on this startup for about 5 years now, and just recently made an "overnight" success. It enforces what I'm starting to realize that those companies that explode all of a sudden are not just lucky, but they probably work for years experimenting with different models an failing, and then failing again, until they finally find something that works. It's encouraging and discouraging at the same time.
The Zenter duo invested a few months of their lives in non-stop hacking with the goal of winning over Google

I don't know if it's even worth correcting her, but this isn't true. They were about a day away from closing a funding round when Google got interested.
but isn't that how TV was also measured?
Woah, now google even breeds BIG BROTHERish spin-offs! :-)
The A La Carte Airline
My first reaction is that I am surprised to see Lisp syntax with Ruby semantics. I would have expected things to be the other way around.
Product First, Pitch Second

How can you worry about investors when you don't even have anything to show them? It seems most people (from my observation) do it this way..

1. get a demo done
2. raise money
3. continue working

Sometimes one of the co-founders may continue working during the raising money stage, but for the most part raising money seems to consume most of the company's time during that stage. Everything seems to happen more sequentially than concurrently.
Slightly off topic, but there was an interesting example on one of the documentation pages:

% (set laws "Asimov defined #{(+ 1 1 1)} laws of Robotics")
% (puts laws)
Asimov defined 3 laws of Robotics

Are there any other standard ways to embed s-expressions in strings?
HELLO ALL HACKER FOR INDIA\

U NOT A GREAT OK

AGAR APNE PER ITANA BHAROSA HE TO

S78648007 MY ACCOUNT HACK KARO

HI HI HI
Sites with spirit of Web 2.0 encouraging people to share thoughts on illnesses, doctors
History of Silicon Valley
Just played with Share... the UI and experience is pretty amazing. Definitely try it out and check out the viewer.
Microsoft Office heads to the Web
wow, I didnt know Resig was a YC guy.
Instead of saying something cynical about the fact that you see business models as trumping human rights, I'll just link you to a more-balanced-than-I-can-be post about the sort of caution we should have regarding Google:

http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2006/01/google_...

As far as Apple is concerned, they'll crack their own nuts. Biology 101 tells us that if you refuse to let anyone get near your nuts, you can't reproduce.
Private industry moves to take over space race
Interview with Thomas (Yong-il) Ahn, founder and CEO of Mad Ventures, Inc. (incubator)
Thomas (Yong-il) Ahn is the founder and CEO of Mad Ventures, Inc. and directs the overall vision and operation of the company. He is an active entrepreneur, an expert in technology research and also in nurturing technology start-ups...
Cognitive scientists: the next wave of entrepreneurs
There is today an immense flux of innovation going on on the web. Entrepreneurs are finding untold riches in all sorts of domains: from skype to google to youtube to blogs to buzzword to facebook, things which were unimaginable in 10 years have become part of everyday life. But cognitive scientists are just not there. Not yet, I feel.
Microsoft launches startup fund in UK
Chair-lobbing Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer says he'll pony up the cash for British startups...
The Barbarians Are At The Gate, But Microsoft Moves To Protect Office Revenues
Thank you for taking the time to share what you learned and your observations. As a woman in business, I can understand how many of these comments hold true for women in general, but I think there is something to be said about the kind of work environment a woman chooses. Having worked in both startup and corporate environments, my personal experience in a corporate position mirrored what was discussed among the women in the lecture. The women I worked among opted for the security, professionalism, and "ladder" that a larger corporation provides.

On the other hand, my experience with startups has been different. Startups foster empowerment and allow the flexibility to effect change almost immediately. Sure there may have been slight differences in approaches among the different genders, but ultimately everyone works to achieve the same goal. My experience in this kind of environment contradicts most of the points made. There is risk, criticism and recognition despite gender. I tend to gravitate towards startup opportunities and have actually submitted a YC application. (fingers crossed!)

Keep in mind, that I am just one woman so my observations may not reflect what women generally experience in the working world. Thanks again for sharing, I found your post incredibly interesting.
Will there be Google Phone along with their spectrum(if they win)?
Has this guy bought an airline ticket in the last 5 years? As far as I can tell, all of the proper airlines that fly between civilized places (Florida doesn't count) have these options and more.
No doubt: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide.
It's easily bridged, and I believe there's a degree of institutional pressure to not allow it.

In all of the following years of the war, artillery bombardments were ordered on Christmas Eve to ensure that there were no further lulls in the combat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce
I'm not a founder...but...

I think we're going to put like 30-40% into living expenses, and the rest into the company for things like:

Computers
Internet
Server Space
Web Service Credits
Advertising
Press Releases
ETC ETC
There will be a Google phone regardless of the outcome of the wireless auction. Most reports suggest it is just a few months away from being unveiled.
Facebook moves into the classroom
Yeah like Ruby syntax with Lisp semantics. Now that would be a sight to behold huh? although looking at it more closely it looks quite elegant. Worth a shot to learn.
Bricking someone else's iPhone is a crime
great page, thanks
Hmm..Do I really want my friends to have this much information about me? Do I really want ALL my friends to know that I spent 2 hours over the weekend (not working, but) checking out videos of buffy 'the body' on youtube?
I find the updates on facebook mildly annoying, but this friendfeed thing is truly scary.
What happens when your boss requests to be on your friendfeed? or your wife, or girlfriend, or mother or not-quite-best-friend? Saying yes or no could significantly alter that relationship for ever.

I wish you well Paul, but I hope you don't put us all in trouble.
I like the idea alot. I do have concerns on privacy and questions about how the whole process is simplified, however I have no doubt that Paul et al have implemented some clever techniques to handle all of this.

Looking forward to trying it out!
New desktop concept BumpTop, TED talk
differentiation from Plaxo pulse?
Also see this discussion:

http://weblog.fortnow.com/2007/08/impact-of-facebook-platfor...
Funny image about internet browsers.
Why Ruby/Rails speed doesn't matter?
Don't install shady programs and, like I said, a defrag will suffice. If you do however install a bunch of junk then you'll need to reinstall Windows.

The same would be true for any other OS that is filled with malicious programs; that is, it's easier to start over than to remove the junk one-by-one.
Very nice convey my thanks also.
Problem is most PCs that come with windows, also come with the manufacturers own selection of 'shady programs', trials, adware, etc etc designed to make them some extra money.
Neuroscience and Fundamentalism
"When will we see a female version of Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet or even Seth Godin? "

Oprah comes to mind. Sure, her industry is not tech or finance or whatever seth godin can be pigeonholed into, but she's there and a leader in her field.
I Wish We Were So Stupid (As Stupid as Y Combinator)
Anti-social site pokes fun at facebook
At Google, Paul coined the phrase "don't be evil". I'll recommend a new phrase for this company: "don't look at porn".
can't say i'm convinced of the web-based future of applications myself. the idea strikes me as very mainframey. i'm sure the potential is there, but a rebirth of some sort might be necessary

in particular, i don't see the benefit of web-based apps vs traditional desktop ones. there's a few, such as the centralization of files, but they seem pretty negligible. it's possible web-based apps have been conceptually intermingled with web 2.0

either way, Microsoft isn't exactly sitting around, having just released Silverlight
Submit Your Code To Be Refactored
Here's the contrarian (and in my opinion the more realistic) view:

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070727_0025...

Google is in very a dangerous position right now... taking on the telcoms is different from taking on MS
5 requests/second is "good life average"? While he certainly deserves a credit for trying to shoot conservatively, but such low numbers will only scare more people away.

Our slowest requests (with multiple SQL queries and nontrivial rhtml rendering) get served @25-30req/sec, while "regular", i.e. not heavy requests are served @60-120req/sec and we're certainly not "Rails sharks" having less than a year of real life experience and our server is a $850 Opteron box.
I didn't quite get it. Does FriendFeed list EVERYTHING you check on the web or do you add stuff manually?
How Facebook Makes Identity Theft Easier
I forget what the research was called or who it was done by, but there's another magic number: 8.

Once a group/faction grows beyond that number, sub-factions within the group begin forming....
The Eternal Bug in MS Visual Studio
Just to clarify a bit, he is being conservative, and it's 5 req/sec per mongrel (4 mongrels), which would come out to 20 req/sec for the vps setup.
NY Times online changes from subscription model to advertising model
Tack on to that, "don't listen to embarrassing guilty pleasure music, either".
much better name.
Weird bug, and I'll admit I'm not sure how it's gotten through a few years of QA (Microsoft has the largest army of testers in the software biz). But what's functional programming have to do with anything?
There's one at #9 right now actually! :-)

Thing is, daily xkcd threads I can handle, daily atheist rants, Ron Paul campaigns and lolcat crap I can't.
And Martha Stewart.

But both of those woman are dominant via charisma in fields that are socially "lady-like," being talking and home-making. I think the question's still relevant for male-centric areas like tech.
It sounds like an extension of the T9 predictive text system present on every cell phone I've ever had. If so, it'll probably suffer the same difficulties: There are many more edge cases when you have fewer keys. Typing titles, acronyms and symbols all are painfully slow on T9, you have to click 3 or 4 times to get the desired character.
MediaTemple down for ~3 hours...hosting provider suggestions?
MediaTemple has been down for ~3 hours for us this morning. I have now rescheduled the demos I had planned for today and asked MT for 1 year of dv nitro service ($750/month) to keep us with them. I'm sure they won't give it to us so it's time to look for a new provider. 3 hours of downtime on a Monday morning are not OK. Any suggestions? I've heard good things about these guys:

http://www.m5hosting.com/
pretty lame. Probably I might be wrong, but as it is, doesn't look good. I just don't want to surrender my username/passwords to some third party.
Google Hacked?
It seems the more popular the site, the more people are desperately trying to game the system. Has it reached the point where any startup looking to burn through a lot of hits had better think a bit about how to handle the attacks? You obviously can't spend a lot of time defending a site that isn't even popular yet, but you can't get caught blindsided either, right? I wonder where the balance is.
The Liquidity Boom! And how to get some of it (= 2 terms: healthcare + 7 years)
Email Provider Webmail.us Acquired by Rackspace
not associated with plaxo's awful PR history...
Financial Models for Underachievers: Two Years of the Real Numbers of a Startup
Startups face one primary challenge: To never run out of cash. So when projecting costs, we heeded Guy's advice that "the three most powerful words you can utter at a board meeting are, 'We beat projections.'" This convinced us to develop the worst possible financial model that could still be used to raise money.
When Employee Blogging Goes Bad: Office Mobile Upgrade Leaked by Microsoft Staffer
Maybe not precisely functional programming, but functional thinking, that is, no static data in the first place. The way VS handles the clipboard operations resembles a situation when you have a pointer to static data and you erroneously assume the data can't be changed until you refer to it through your pointer next time.
Why VCs Don't Sign NDAs
First-time entrepreneurs sometimes ask VCs to sign NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements). They do this because they are worried that their intellectual property will not be protected without a legal agreement in place. To the surprise of these individuals, most VCs do not sign NDAs.
All business books are for "men in business".

Women have separate books because women are forced to adapt to culture and ritual that is foriegn to them. If you got into modeling, or magazine publishing, fields dominated by women, you'd be at a similar disadvantage.
Coming from a Ruby background, Prototype will feel like a logical extension (enumerables and array helpers abound):

http://prototypejs.org/api

Knowing how to wield a library like Prototype or JQuery will increase your javascript speed and efficiency 10 fold!
It actually makes sense that the points expressed don't really resonate with the female readers on this site. After all, the average man's view of work probably doesn't mesh with that of the average male news.YC reader.
Stupid and useless makes for smart Facebook apps
MIT Entrance Exam from 1869-1870
Sounds like another solution looking for a problem.

All I really care about is not sitting near screaming children.

Southwest has the perfect solution. Wait for the families to board, then choose the furthest seat.

How many hackers did it take to figure that one out?

(And how many will it take to do the same thing on an airline that preassigns seats over a period of months? Any takers?)
Ad Sales Still Healthy for Magazines Targeted at the Rich
This is definitely the type of news startups want to hear. I'm sure quite a few of them had a huge sigh of relief. :)
And you can easily add another slice to this setup...

Author definitely has a point. If you're picking a new language for your project, I wouldn't worry about Rails' performance at all.
i switched back to xp from vista after 6 months of use on a quad-core 4gb ram machine, because:

- vista took 800mb just to boot up

- aero is slow

- can't download torrents right on vista

- games run slower on vista

one good thing about vista is that i moved a hard drive from an amd machine to an intel machine and it booted up like normal. great driver support.
It's incredibly frustrating to see how search quality is an arms race just like email spam. First there was keyword stuffing, then link trading, keyword stuffing on many other sites, blog spam, made for AdSense pages and now we don't even understand what is going on.
TechStars Takeaways: Top Twelve Startup Tips
IXve recently been sitting on a beach doing essentially three things. Drinking beachy drinks, reading, and reflecting on how I spent my summer. One of my takeaways from TechStars is that going through it allows a company to evolve in three months as much as a typical startup evolves in two years.
What, Me Worry? Redfin in a Buyer's Market
This is shaping up to be the winter of our discontent. High real estate prices were once a threat to the middle class; now low real estate prices are a threat to the middle class.
The headline is a bit of a stretch; the author in the article is merely speculating that their database has been hacked. I'd be pretty shocked if that were actually the case.

Instead, it looks like someone has found a flaw in the current ranking algorithm and is using that to their advantage.
What's the best text for learning Flex?