skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I am not suggesting that books can replace facing challenges. I am suggesting that there is an area of research (positive psychology - yes it's real) that is determining what the cognitive processes are between people who persevere in facing challenges and consequently become stronger and those who give up too soon and consequently become less able to face future challenges, and that these cognitive processes can be learned and there are some fairly specific tools available to learn them. I have read several times in your own writing that one main cause of startup failure is giving up too soon. Well, what do you see as the difference between those who give up too soon and those who do not and what can we do to get the former group into the latter? I think that is a better question to explore than the mere observation that some quit sooner than others.
GEOS on Commodore 64
The lack of tactile feedback has been keeping me away from most touch screen devices. I has to compromise for the iPhone but this kind of technology I think will make touch screen devices a lot more user friendly.
On the topic of getting access to AdSense data--you can also get keyword prices from yahoo/overture, which are (I believe still) freely available once you sign up for an advertiser account. SEOs and domainers use Yahoo's keyword price data, which is generally assumed to be pretty similar to Google's.
Well, a language a year is really far off from mastering 4 languages or so. I have used a handful of languages over the past 4 years and while I can say that I mastered them fairly well when I was using each one individually I can no longer claim mastery of all. The truth is that you get accustomed to a new language, a new way of thinking and you quickly forget how to even do basic things in the other languages you once mastered.
Ah yes, the time of pain -- the time when you're back in a language you did a while back and you just know it's going to hurt for a while until your brain gets re-tuned.

I think C++, for me, is the hardest to re-tune to. There's just so much stuff going on. And it's one of those languages where the code constructs themselves can lead to a lot of crazy complexity. Was that a multiple inheritance and a virtual base class, or just an interface? Do I have any friends? If not, do my parents have any friends? Are my operators overloaded? Is this a volatile method? If so, better stand back!

I'm not saying to code like this, but C++ stuff, even when written well, can just get gnarly as heck. You enter this entire zone and mindset when you're there, at least I do. Some other languages, like Java, are not that tough to come back to.
I'd be interested to see how many people didn't pay then went back and paid later after they judged the value of the content, probably some skew in the stats there.
Bah, that's a totally artificial distinction. I think that the difference between Google and Facebook has more to do with the company culture and the people at the top of the company than the programmers themselves.

"Engineer" is what a suit calls you, "Developer" or "Programmer" is what you call yourself, and "Hacker" is what other people call you.
The Apple II and IBM PC? Those are just yet another von Neumann platform. We won't have to worry about 'em.
The article is great. The only problem is that we hear the same story every hour or so. What some of us fail to realize is that most startups were not started as startups. As a matter of fact I would say that the majority of successful entrepreneurs did not start with the idea of owning/running a business. Usually engineers/hackers work on a app in their past time out of curiosity and build a product. The business or startup naturally follows.
Perhaps someone can write a Greasemonkey plug in now to add a keyboard shortcut to "Mark as read". I use labels to keep track of various mailing lists and while I can archive to dismiss messages I don't care about from my Inbox, the only way to dismiss unread messages from a given label is to mark them as read.
Why wouldn't this be particularly slow? You're running a potentially inefficient web server with a proxy webserver in front of it. Doing this with Python's built in webserver (as seen in Django and such) with Apache proxying is very inefficient and performs poorly compared to Apache with mod_python or cgi. Even replacing Apache with something LigHTTPd only marginally makes things faster, since the bottleneck is Python's webserver.

I don't understand why this wouldn't also occur with Hutchentoot. I would think a CGI interface, or a mod_lisp written much like mod_python or mod_php, would be significantly faster.

So, all that said, is Hutchentoot a bottleneck?
MIT Developers Plan Collapsible Car for City Driving
The Excel Bug Disassembled [pdf]
Successful (software) start-ups are unlikely. They require great aptitude (the possession of which is uncommon) and rarely fabulous luck. The likelihood of a start-up succeeding is the product of two unlikely circumstances.

So I suppose it is as easy as being exceptional and lucky.

Don't sell your house.
Wow, I wish I'd had that in 1982. Hard to believe that a GUI was ever available for the C64.
I think its dangerous to try and trick your mind into thinking something isn't as hard as it is. When you get depressed or exhausted - take a break. Just don't quit.

Also - another reason have a co-founder is a must - someone to make it fun, someone to show your latest coding exploit until the millions of users figure out how cool it is. Having someone else around makes it alot easier to keep going.

Also - I've found taking an investment from friends and family, even if its a small one, makes it much harder to quit. You don't want to let them down/embarrass yourself/pay them back :)
For future reference: Make the C64 Tutorial, then do the beer run.

Not t'other way round.
Interesting list, but rather inconsistent. Some of those topics seem barely worth mentioning, while many deserve much lengthier discussions.
Many highly personalized pages don't have security or admin bits--e.g., when reading an article, it differs based on whether you've favorited it, are the author, etc. Sometimes there are admin bits but they're trivial--a link to delete content, but this link is secured using authorization during the write operation.

Pagecaching can hit 4000 reqs per second on commodity hardware--it's way better than the best you can get with db caching (100 reqs per second if you're an optimization god). Finally, pagecaching individual pages per user is mostly useless since your cache hit ratio is so low (i.e., it takes very little load off your Rails app).

Pagecaching does not kill the point of Rails--Rails is about getting apps done quickly and beautifully. You still use Rails to render pages, and you still use Rails to do all write operations. Caching just means rails doesn't have to constantly recompute data that doesn't change!

(disclosure: I'm the author)
Maybe you're just not a member of the target audience. The target audience is the set of people who are dying to find out whether Sue had the hives last Friday. There's a whole lot of them; it's just sort of built into human nature to be curious about what's going on in your social circle.
i don't know what the hell you're talking about. Not started as startups? Most? Wow! You clearly need to do a bit more research.
this is a neat alternative, and a strong statement. i dont think we've yet to see what is going to happen to the music industry yet, though.

it's going to happen soon though. the record companies claim the money they do for distribution and promotion, and i think we all know that piracy provides distribution and promotion that is infinitely more efficient and better for both musicians and fans.

so really, what is it exactly that these record companies are selling?
I'm not sure about performance but I did try Hunchentoot with mod_lisp2 and apache and I encountered a number of strange errors (I'm guessing this is because of mod_lisp2's quality) so much so I had to use Hunchentoot's built-in server which gave me no problems at all.

On Hunchentoot's page the author does talk about performance issues (for dynamic not static content) if you care to look. So you're probably right but it's better to get your system running first and deal with performance second.

However, as I guess apache is faster than most of the homebrew lisp servers (although this is pure conjecture) I would like to see a more stable mod_lisp.
One of the best Travel Planners currently available
hmmmm. that looks a lot like macos. haha and people say gates stole from jobs.
"In addition, Facebook will allow advertisers to tap into the vast stores of data that its users provide...

initial roster of advertisers including Coca-Cola, Blockbuster, Verizon..."

Verizon? I thought that they already had that information?
What is frightening, the quality of the idea and that FB came up with it, or that only FB is in a position to pull this off?
USA Today Launching Blog & Podcast Guide
Think TV Guide for blogs and podcasts to be published online and in print. You can try it out free for one month. Is your blog or podcast ready for mainstream America?
Now I have to figure out a way to keep people coming back...
Maybe if we skip the insult we can all come to an understanding. I do not think you deserve an explanation from me, but I will still give one for the intelligent and respectful others. Most successful companies today were started by engineers who were working on a product/service as a project. After realizing that they are sitting on something valuable (and most likely this happens by accident), they start to look into building a company around the product. Several people wake up and have the intention to start a business. I think that most people who want to start a business first then try to find a problem to tackle are the ones who need this sort of article. And they are also the ones who are more likely to Fail. I am not being rude it is just a fact.
Indeed. The wealth that Facebook creates is that it enhances social capital, and this move capitalizes on it brilliantly.

They are so good in designing features that fit in the way their society works, I wonder what is their systematic approach to do so. Google can test features on small % of their users, Facebook can't do this because it doesn't really show how the feature will scale.

Geeks with a design sense are valuable, perhaps geeks with social sense get even more valuable. But I don't believe they just have a group of social geniuses that understand technology there.
He said he didn't want to be too much of a pompous ass. Clearly he agrees (rightly) that he was being at least a bit of a pompous ass.

Also his level of pompousness was funny.
The Time Has Come for IPv6
mnemonicsloth, mrtron - are you two dating?

(serious question, you sound like a couple I know)
I'm curious what you would consider a "good" argument (not isomorphic with trolls) argument against your statements in this thread?

Perhaps I'm misreading, but many of your comments come off as essentially dismissing the Ron Paul phenomenon as the work of a handful of zealots. It's not surprising that his supporters disagree with that notion, as it implies that their efforts and views are not legitimate.

BTW, here is a video of Ron Paul with a bunch of hackers. The room was completely packed and overflowing into a second room (connected by video). Of course they aren't all RP supporters, but a large fraction are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg
That's dangerous turf they're treading on. Messing with people and their whims is not a simple job - people grumbled a lot when facebook opened up outside college. A lot of people I know had that "why the hell is my dad on facebook"? moment.

Same thing when they introduced the "news feed" (or "stalker feed" as people used call it). I'm sure they are keeping the comfort of their users in mind, changing things a little at a time.
Really? Throw ads based on people's recommendation, sell them based on profile content? It doesn't sound very impressive. Definitely no "wow!" factor for me.

What would have a "wow!" factor is if they partnered with media and credit card companies to create a system to model people's beliefs and desires, and use that to sell ads.
Under that definition, wouldn't Hiroshima/Nagasaki count as terrorism? We did the worst thing we could to civilians to force their government to cave in to us.
I thought this week's advice was "know when to throw in the towel", or was it "fail fast" ?

Kidding aside, if you felt those books have a few points worth sharing, I would love it if you took a moment to write a brief summary for squeezedbooks.com .
Noticeably missing were numbers for <$language sucks> and <$language rules>. Job ads definitely count as endorsements, but somehow I don't think of Lambda The Ultimate as a bastion of Java love.
Tag Clouds Gallery: Examples And Good Practices
Your use of 'strawman' is incorrect.
Otherwise there wouldn't be tens of thousands...
The Social Graft
How a Startup Inspired HP's Print 2.0 Strategy
Build A Reverse Ebay Style Business Using the ThemBid.com Engine
In this interview, Elmer Thomas, CEO of ThemBid.com announces a White Label version of ThemBid.com.
Interview with Mohammad Yunus (micro-entrepreneurs)
Public Transport in Helsinki
Ok, I admit it, I'm a programming language geek:-)
Looks awesome! If I wasn't trying to pick up OCaml and F# right now I'd jump on it -- one of the problems I'm facing is a lack of good texts. Would be very interested in your opinion of the book and Lisp, especially coming from a C# (like me) background.
Five reasons why iPhone is still the best thing invented this year
Cool idea, but I think the audience is limited.

Which VCs did these guys land after YC?
Bah, dying in games is not any worse than losing a point in a sport, or chess. Kasparov sent a "suicide pawn" to be massacred by the "enemy queen". It has really nothing to do with the individual act of suicide bombing.

The interesting thing about his strategy is that it might increase his chance of survival. He is playing a variant of Tit for Tat. If other skilled players knew that he was doing this, they would actively avoid him. Are there stats in Halo for "Kills from beyond the grave"? If so, he would benefit from making as many people as possible aware of the strategy. In theory, at least.
Pumping Gas? Google is There for you at the Gas Pump
Next up: FaceBook-enabled pumps.

"I'm pumping gas now. Looks like I need a quart of oil."

"Be sure to buy a YooHoo Bob. 75% of your friends drink YooHoo and they will accept you more if you are absorbed into the giant YooHoo-FaceBook collective"
I remember this ! I can't remember exactly when, but yeah, it was great in 1984 (from memory).

Using a digital joystick for mouse movement was not fun though.
Lawmakers blast Yahoo executives for helping China jail dissident
The Electronic Money Myth
So that's why they made splash screens.
I don't think Geos came out until 1986 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_%288-bit_operating_system%...
Interestingly there is a cousin of GEOS for the PC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_%2816-bit_operating_system...
Hunchentoot is fast enough for many purposes. http://wigflip.com/ has been #1 on delicious a few times without straining my hunchentoot instance.

Comparing it to a Python webserver is not all that useful, since Hunchentoot is typically compiled to machine code.
I added a forum that has feeds, so that interested parties can subscribe:

http://forum.langpop.com/forums/1
Older versions of hunchentoot (named TBNL) used mod_lisp and mod_lisp2 to communicate requests to the Lisp side in a simplified form (similar to FastCGI). Since Hunchentoot can speak HTTP directly now, mod_proxy is effectively the same as mod_lisp for hunchentoot's purposes. mod_lisp is not an embedded interpreter in Apache.
Oho. Go ahead and submit some links about Fed's conspiracy.
Fear the new Facebook ad platform
Are Platforms the Web 2.0 eMall?
voila
http://blog.persistent.info/2007/11/macros-for-new-version-o...
Food 2.0: Chefs as Chemists
More the nature of the idea. It's a smart direction to go in, just as better-quality search results were for Google in 1998.
I'm curious what you would consider a "good" argument

A good reply is one that you can reply to by taking the discussion further, instead of having to re-explain what you said in the previous comment. The distinctive thing about conversations with both trolls and zealots is that you're always having to begin comments with "no, what I said was..."
Comscore's numbers on Radiohead's album might be a little flawed
I'd like to add ex-wives to that list, please :)
How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language (not programming) in 1 Hour
Google Coming To A Gas Station Near You
Coverflow for People
"How Hackers Work"
Is there anything in this material that would be interesting to someone who already has the "stick with it" trait?
Submit A Detailed Model
While most entrepreneurs have completed a business plan and PowerPoint presentation prior to a first meeting, not all have finalized a financial model. A complete financial model does more than help you answer 'How' and demonstrate outputs (e.g., projected revenue, EBITDA, headcount, etc.), it should clearly demonstrate inputs and relationships. Put another way, the most detailed calculations and assumptions of the model should be transparent. This clarity is absolutely critical for helping VCs understand both your projections and your business. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs submit incomplete models to VCs assuming that only the outputs are important, leaving the VC to invest time in unraveling the mess of inputs and calculations.
Wow. Techcrunch beaten to the punch by a newspaper...
iLike vs. Facebook: The Battle For The Music Artist
Facebook Ads
So the question is:

How do bands build a fanbase? How much is a band willing to pay for marketing? Maybe labels will be able to profit from bands without stealing the copyrights as they have traditionally done. If not, will anyone else step up?
The unintentional irony of the headline is priceless.
"We are not worried about copycats, in fact we want to partner with them and help them launch their ideas quickly with our new White Label version of ThemBid.com"

Cool, where is the link?
In the Future, Everyone will be "The New Microsoft" for 15 Minutes
FWIW, Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote the story and ran with it right after midnight, then it was picked up off the wire by the Houston Chronicle around 1 or 2. TechCrunch picked it up from AP and basically dropped the whole thing verbatim into their post. I'm sure the Journal Constitution got most of it from a press release from the company mentioned. Wonder how much value they added before putting it on the AP wire.
use of the a-bomb doesn't qualify, as there was nothing stealthy

"Stealth" as used here is a pathetic weasel word. Such rhetoric comes up all the time in order to demonize the tactics used by the poorly-equipped, in contrast to the expensively-equipped.

But, FYI, the Japanese had an air-raid system which normally functioned whenever bombers were detected. In the case of the atomic attacks, the alarms weren't set off because one bomber does not signify a bomb-run. Hence, they were as "stealthy" as anything could be.

EDIT: To head off the argument "But we warned them," it is pretty clear that no one is going to evacuate entire cities on mere warnings. Completely impractical.
How To Minimize Your Javascript and CSS Files for Faster Page Loads
hasn't "electronic" money been here for years already? instead of being stored in a credit card chip, it's stored on Visa/MC's servers...
So you're saying that even though we DID warn them, it doesn't count because there's no way the warning could have been heeded? Sounds a little self-serving.

We killed a lot more Japanese civilians in conventional bombing than we ever did with the A-bomb, not that most people know that. I guess it was fine to continue killing them with one kind of bomb, but not with another?

Glad to use a weasel word. It was called for. It's a tricky definition, but I'm happy with it. I'm sure that others will disagree, hence my concern at even posting it. But I'm a fan of the way language works, both in politics and user interaction, so I thought it was germane.

For those wishing to engage in a good political debate (probably not me, as people have a tendency to down-mod me for days after I express political opinions as a way of "paying me back"), the use of force in wartime is a good one. There was an interesting editorial along those lines in the Wall Street Journal yesterday commemorating the death of one of the pilots that flew the A-bomb missions. You can check it out here:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=11001...
There has been a lot of buzz about this, but I would predict that it catches on much more quickly in asia; Americans like their individuality, and to own their own things, maybe if zipcar does better these would catch on, but in a midwest cough metropolis.. I still don't know anyone who uses our shared car service (flexcar).
I can see how you would think that a news aggregator is more prone to manipulation than your friends, but surely you can concede that it's also a broader sample. The problem with a conspiracy theory is that you have rebuttal-proof circumstantial evidence: there is literally nothing I can do to convince you that there isn't a conspiracy, except to point out that everyone else who sees conspiracies like this is wrong. As you put it on your old blog:

"Don't see purpose where there isn't.

Or better still, the positive version:

See randomness."

This doesn't seem to be a discussion of politics. It sounds more like psychology to me: you're very surprised that reddit is behaving in a way that you wouldn't have predicted, and so you're creating an extra phenomenon to explain it, instead of revising your original theory. It's a little pre-Copernican.
I'd love to see more discussion of how to solve the phishing problem.
Has anyone noticed a bot called "diggstage01.digg.com" in their http logs?
I assume this is a bot because it hit my homepage 4 times in rapid succession, and it has javascript disabled.

Is digg going to start scraping submitted pages for content, and host sites that have succumbed to the digg effect?
Conventional bombers are also terroristic, according to any dictionary definition of the word. Even lexicographers are subject to political whim, I'm sure, so you can make up whatever definition you want.

We should understand at minimum that it is not more honorable somehow to attack from a greater distance, using more elaborate machinery, using different words to describe the same results, etc. None of those is morally positive.
This was the first Congressional hearing I've ever watched. I'm curious, is it standard practice at these type of things to respond in a way that completely dodges the original question? I don't think I heard a single straight answer from either Jerry Yang or Michael Callahan the entire time.
I worry a little that as they get more popular and eee-with-XP debuts, retailers will start to drop the Linux version.