skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Please, leave unnecessary comments like this to reddit. There are many things that transcend politics. Acknowledging the atrocities of humanity is certainly one of them.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=94861
Not to worry, this was their last CES. I hope rest of the bloggers don't suffer from this incident.
Quote: "A 23-year old programmer in Thailand has launched a Twitter-like service. [...]. After a few days, he's reporting about 100 registered users."

I don't think 23 y.o. is a "kid", he's young, but not a kid. Moreover, who much is "a few days".
My Funding Toolkit
High school dropout becomes Goldman Sachs chairman
I don't want to spoil the party, but that same substance is also contained in the juice of red grapes without the alcohol ;-)
Yes, but it is possible to take an enhanced version of resveratrol that would be equivalent to thousands of bottles of wine or thousands of bottles of grapes.
Wikipedia's current Famine in India article seems more rounded, and comes with some decent-looking citations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Famine_in_India...

Yes, it's Wikipedia, but then the OP is Monbiot.
In the meantime, get yourself a good bottle of red wine and enjoy it with friends. There's a lot to be said for that, too.
s/Robert/Richard
Very inspiring indeed!
Nice post!
What company did you start Modoc?
Heroku - Instant, live Rails Applications
Note that the high school dropout mentioned -- Sidney Weinberg -- dropped out of high school over a century ago, at a time when only about 6% of students finished high school. The headline "High school dropout becomes Goldman Sachs chairman" surprises us because of our current ideas of what being a high school drop-out entails; but times have changed over the past century.

Translating to a credential which is comparably scarce right now, we should read this headline as we would read "MBA dropout becomes Goldman Sachs chairman" (currently about 9% of students obtain some form of Masters degree), which might be anomalous, but is hardly a shocking notion.
How China loses the coming space War
In addition to this, nobody ever seems to talk about British responsibility for the creation of some of today's major conflicts, such as:

- Kashmir, where nuclear powers India and Pakistan have been close to war;

- Israel/Palestine, which poisons the whole world.

The only one I ever heard pointing this out in Britain was a comedian, and the audience was laughing heartily. (Sorry don't remember who it was.)

But it is really a newspaper conspiracy, as the story claims? My impression is that World War II outshines the whole rest of British history. The British are incredibly proud that they stood up to the Nazis, and who can deny they were on the good side in a huge and unusually clear case of "good against evil".
This is apparently real: http://www.stallman.org/extra/personal.html

At least, either it's real or someone vandalized RMS's website a few days ago and RMS hasn't bothered to fix it.
100 users = venturebeat article?

Also: http://fireeagle.research.yahoo.com/
I would run an open wifi network but South Africa's bandwidth is very expensive and rather slow. The biggest offering is 4mbit. A 1mbit line and an uncapped-shaped account is more than $200 a month.

Most people have 512mbit, our "broadband," on a 3GB account and that'll set you back just less that $100 per month.
A more general "how do you make money?" might be more interesting and relevant to startups since we're not all focussed on blogging (the actual survey you're linking to survey "can you really make money from blogging?" and lists external ad networks as the only options. Many startups make money by providing services directly to users.

Thanks for getting the ball rolling in any case, this is neat info to gather.
gonna be funny if they do get banned, they might blame it on an intern or sack someone.
What Really Kills Startups
Yes, but the point is in "the old days", connections counted for more, especially in Wall Street.

To be able to rise, arguably, to the top position in Wall Street is incredible (especially for a high school dropout :)
Somebody at reddit copied the personal from his homepage to Craigslist and added a photo.
red wine + yc news + startup = happy living
This is how I discovered Paul Graham's essays:

In a particularly painful period of my high-schoolness, I sat staring into an empty browser window, and typed "why" into Google. The essay "Why Nerds are Unpopular" happened to be the second result. That's a pretty awesome use of a search engine, if you ask me.

This was one of the most memorable moments that year.
Why not? I personally get very depressed when I am unhappy at work. Or, as I used to tell myself, if money was all I cared about, I would probably be a real estate broker or selling insurances.
6 reasons to develop your test first
I seem to have heard the same kind of answer from the Rails community before: "do it yourself if you really care". I don't blame DHH for it, but I think it is interesting to note the difference to the major Java frameworks I know, like Spring. I think they care a lot more about their community and the popularity of their framework.

I think this is merely the difference between a framework that is fundamentally open source and a framework that is fundamentally vendor-supported (e.g. SpringSource writing and supporting Spring). From my perspective, the Rails Core team cares quite a bit about their community, as their community is themselves. Any developer who has a patch or plugin is free to make it available. That's the beauty of open source.
Subnotebooks are definitely the way to go!
Server farm goes solar
Free Sex at Prague Brothel Tests Taboo as Reality Romps Hit Web
Question: Would you give up your nerd abilities for pro-athlete level abilities (and hence pro athlete $)?
Study confirms link between constantly regurgitating the "red wine == health" story and plummeting magazine sales
I know, my link referenced that. My point is that he almost certainly did not post it on Craigslist.
I don't really understand the difference, as Spring is open source as well? However, I guess SpringSource makes money from consulting, so it is in their interest to have as many people as possible adapt Spring?
Benchmark Bets on Ruby on Rails With $3.5 Million Investment in Engine Yard
No. Odds to success as a pro-athlete are little, the best pro-athlete money is way smaller than nerd's money (Gates), and you can't be a successful pro-athlete in your 40s.
In the case of XP->Vista it seems they got worse.
The Enduring Art of Computer Programming (on Donald Knuth)
Whos going to buy your startup this year?
This is good advice. In particular, I've never met a good programmer who treated it as a strictly 9-to-5 thing.
I'm not hugely familiar with Spring, but the impression I get is that it's not really open source. SpringSource, as a commercial entity, essentially controls the authoring of the framework and has a financial interest in adding features that will drive the widest user adoption possible. If this is wrong, please feel free to correct me.
And a trackstick
Asus Eee looks great for that, but I'm with you, a thin Macbook makes me feel happy :-)
That thought had crossed my mind, but I figure he can choose to not answer if he doesn't want to.
As far as I know, it is completely open source - not even semi open source like MySQL, where they have a commercial and a public license, or like jBoss, where you would have to pay for proper documentation. I think 37signals controls the source of Rails, so again, where is the difference?

I just checked, Spring has the Apache 2.0 license, which is very liberal I think (for example, not as restrictive as the GPL with it'S virality).

Of course the interests of SpringSource and 37signals are probably very different, although I think Rails is good publicity for 37signals (if not the only publicity).

If SpringSource lives on consulting, of course the question is allowed if the features they add are tailored towards making consulting necessary (as I think is a bit the case with the J2EE specification). My impression so far has not been like that, though.
Give them a choice of email or screen name for logging in, and have a succinct privacy policy. Here's how it's done:

https://ourdoings.com/reg.html
Stating the obvious, because apparently it isn't for everybody. It's funny when nobody actually gets hurt. Many people were "hurt" here. The presenters for delivering sub-par presentations, and the viewers for suffering sub-par presentations. Company image and customer satisfaction suffer. All because of one person's doing. Not a very justifiable action even on the basis of humor.

(not saying it's wrong to think it's funny, but it's likely that the net utility from that prank is negative)
37signals actually does not control Rails. There's no vendor behind it that stands to (directly) make money if more people adopt it.

One thing to remember about Rails was the context in which it was conceived. Rails was not designed as a framework; rather, it was extracted from a real project as a useful skeleton. It is "opinionated software" conceived and publicized as a reaction to the bloated frameworks in the Java world. Edge cases are pushed out into plugins, features generally have to be rejected several times before they make it into core, etc.
Related question, what's a good way to move from free pre-release to non-free non-pre-release?
That's a real nifty logo!
Sprinting to Start Up: How to Launch a Startup
Wasn't expecting that!
I don't know. Are they?
Sim City is now GPL'd
"Is Ruby on Rails the next Java?"... Ah, so if Java is the next Cobol, they actually asking whether Ruby on Rails is the next Cobol? Clevah. Especially when you realize you compare framework to a language.

TechCrunch, as usual.
I'd say that there's a better single indicator of a good programmer. Many other valuable hobbies besides programming. Things like math, economy, philosophy etc.
To quote the classic: "During their operations they seem to focus entirely on the process, but very little on the quality of the code. Sorry guys, but having a 1:4 code:test ratio is not focusing on code quality. It's focusing on test quality."[http://zedshaw.com/rants/rails_is_a_ghetto.html]
Ask YC: Friday Morning pre-release testers for my web app.
I have a hosted CMS, and I would like feedback on the functionality and usability and design.

This is in pre-release state.

It is an in-line CMS, so your administratin looks like your frontend, and it acts like microsoft word on steroids. It builds web sites, not groups of web pages. Please e-mail issac.kelly at g mail dot com if you're interested in testing, or post here and I'll try to troll for e-mail addresses. Thanks
Of course they control Rails. Or are you telling me that I could this very minute submit some patch to Rails and announce that Rails 3.0 is out? I don't think so.

I don't deny that they might be different in orientation. But which one is a better bet, the one that tries to anticipate all your needs and make you happy (Spring), or the one that only cares for the needs of it's developers? Not saying either way - bloat might be a problem for some, but Spring is very modular, you can only use parts if you want to.

Spring earns more money if more people adapt it, so they try to make it as good as possible. What is the incentive for Rails, I don't know? Economically, their incentive would have to be to get their competition in trouble, to their own benefit? Perhaps they don't even use Rails internally ;-)

Actually Spring also grew out of frustration and personal need, it was a result of Rod Johnson's experiences as consultant, if I remember correctly.
You can always create OpenRails, just like OpenBSD guys did with OpenSSH.
The Craptaculous Web Framework
Software Developer Salaries: Ruby on Rails vs. Java
OmniTI Labs
Building a better virtual world, one tree (or millions) at a time
Sony to sell DRM free music on Amazon
Sun's Goal: No In-House Data Centers by 2015
Of course they control Rails. Or are you telling me that I could this very minute submit some patch to Rails and announce that Rails 3.0 is out? I don't think so.

37signals does not control Rails, these guys do: http://www.rubyonrails.org/core

This is a group of developers that you could become a part of if you were so inclined (the usual petty open source politics notwithstanding). This is markedly different from having a commercial vendor in control of the product.
But which one is a better bet, the one that tries to anticipate all your needs and make you happy (Spring), or the one that only cares for the needs of it's developers?

I'm a developer with needs and desires that align with the goals of Rails, so I prefer Rails. In addition, I've got no interest in using Java for developing web applications, so that plays into it as well.

The beautiful truth is that no one is forcing anyone to use any of these projects. I am just happy to be making software at a time where there are so many frameworks and tools whose developers not only make their work available for free, but welcome my contributions if I'd like to put in the time.
You can do the same with Spring. For example, Groovy on Grails is also based on Spring.
I don't think they would just let anybody in. On the other hand, SpringSource probably wouldn't reject your free contributions to Spring either, if they are useful.
> To me, it's basic politeness. Providing internet access to

> guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a

> hot cup of tea.

OK, but that doesn't imply that it has to be open. If I have guests I provide them all those things, and free WiFi. But my WiFi is protected... my guests just get told the WPA2 password and they are in.

I also let guests use my Mac using the Guest account. I don't leave my Mac outside my front door for just anyone to use.

> I can count five open wireless networks in coffee shops

> within a mile of my house, and any potential spammer is

> far more likely to sit in a warm room with a cup of coffee

> and a scone than in a cold car outside my house.

That seems like a stupid argument. The coffee shop is more likely to notice that their bandwidth is being consumed and track down their customer than J Random Homeowner.
Sure, I am not saying one should use the one or the other. I just think it is a major reason many people stick to Java. Essentially, using Ruby on Rails carries the risk that your project might eventually steer into territory outside of 37signals interests, and you get stuck (or have to invest into developing Rails). With java, usually all use cases are covered (except for closures).
Interestingly enough, those along with film, writing, and ping-pong are all hobbies I've got, yet I remain an excellent programmer if I do say so myself. ;)

Programming is not a passion that has to blot out all others.
Sounds like a lot of effort to test your app. Maybe a link would be best? Set up a sandbox of some kind?
Hmm, if you say so. :)
Quick RESTful, authenticated API with ActiveResource and Rails
I guess nginx is about to go mainstream
http://issackelly.com.s30201.gridserver.com/admin
This is a sandbox, but it's not bullet proof.
Well at least it feels like that for me. I'd like to use something else than Java, but so far I haven't found anything that doesn't seem too risky.

It probably also depends on the situation how much risk a person or company is willing to take.
I can't believe he didn't include Ramaze in his #5 list. :-)
Agreed I love Ramaze's approach. And yes Tyler I agree with you on the terminal bit, my bad on that comparison. The point is that it's loads more fun to code in Ramaze as opposed to Rails. And I hope alot more people try it out too.
I don't think anyone (over 13) would find it funny if they went around unplugging the TVs, what is the difference between that and achieving the same result with an off-the-shelf remote?
#7 IBM sends them over and charges 160/hour.
I don't think the differences in pay would be because Ruby is easy and Java is (supposedly) hard. I think it is simply an effect of the different number of jobs available.
How To Talk To Girls At Parties
Priorities in India: First buy a car, then learn to drive
No, he did not. The reason to write a C compiler / interpreter in Lisp is that so you can then write an Lisp system on top of C and show off your 'uber-haxor skillz'.
It's great that this is going to be on the XO.

I remember when this was first available on Suns, you could play the free demo version for 10 minutes at a time. Everyone in our office would compete to build the largest city in that time.

These days my favorite 20-minute distractions are YC and Celestia ( http://www.shatters.net/celestia/download.html ).
You are right. Partially. As far as I know Stackless introduces some new concepts.
Yeah... but ever see Andy Roddick play in front of a crowd? The girls are out there, in force. Sergey may have more money, but I suspect that Andy is having more fun.
Steve Jobs' Video Dreams
Who gives a whatever about stupid girls?

But, seriously, it is a phantasmatic desire. You always overestimate things you don't have (Andy Roddick's social capital), and underestimate ones you do.

Given this it is not possible to fully and responsibly address the initial question. And when it comes to emotions, there is no unbiased answer. If you want valuable discussion, you have to use some rational framework. I chose the odds of success, which are in case of athletics too small to bother.
Everyone who sticks with web development long enough outgrows shared hosting, but they are a good cheap option for when you're starting out. The fact that you don't see the same sorts of problems from every other server-side scripting option (except maybe the Lisps) makes the Rails position seem more unreasonable.
Mahalo Changes Payment Plan and Yes, Jason Mahalo is an SEO Play - I've Got Charts
"Prevent imagination overrun"

Sounds like taking all the fun out of it. I guess TDD is ok if you have a boring clear idea of what code monkey thing needs churning out, but if you're just exploring, playing around and experimenting with what can be done with a tight development cycle I don't see how TDD can really work.

It's like the kid who draws out and designs all his lego creations before he touches any lego, as opposed to the kids that just play around trying cool stuff.
I mean valuable hobbies. ;)
Bebo's Platform Now Open for All Developers
So, you say that tests kill the creativity?
The 3 Levels of Programmers: Good, Lazy, and Bad
Unbeveliably clever.
Ruby 1.9 - When Will It be Production Ready
Yet anooother Apple PR. The MacWorld is near.
That would hardly be a good indicator.
No, if I had used that as my choice in usernames, it would be: Pleaseshootmenowplease! :-)
I agree Apple PR does a good job, but not sure how much of a PR job this one is, I mean there are def some negative points made about apple and what it could do in the article...
I was assuming you have the talent to be a top 10 player. You're completely right in your response, though. I was looking through prize money for the top 100 players, and it drops off fast. The bottom half of the list often have prize money in the 200-300K range. Endorsements might be more lucrative, but it drops off quick once you're not in the tiny upper slice of the sport.

This is why parents get nervous when their kids to go into (sports, film acting, rock music). If you miss being one of the top 100 surgeons in the world, and only make the top thousand, well, hardly a problem. If you software startup fails to become the next microsoft, there are still thousands of other good outcomes.
Actually it is quite old, the first version dates from 2003!

You can check at the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.stallman.org/extra/p...
Just like: First get a VC funding, then create the product.
Two things:

It could be just me but I couldn't figure out how to enter an item at first. It took me a while to figure out that you had to click on the markup button before you can type.

I don't know if I hit an error or if it was MediaTemple's response time, but when I tried to submit - nothing happened.
We looked into hosting at EY... the prices were way too high for what they offer (you can lease several dedicated servers for the cost of a single VPS on EY).

But it's cool that they're getting the money... they'll be able to improve a lot of things for the community. Merb just might get a boost and EY now employs (at least) 4 Rubinius developers. That means that Rubinius might finally become a real alternative to MRI. Excellent!
Sorry about that. This is the first time that I have used the sandbox, and it was linked to the testing version instead of the current version, so part of it was broken, you don't normally have to click the markup button to have anything show up. I'll quit making edits to this while people are playing with it, because as is (now) most everything should work.
Twitter releases the code for the messaging system they use across their clusters
14 Year Old Kid Hacks Trolley System In Poland: Derails Trains and Injures Dozens
Google Reveals New MapReduce Stats
The screen is actually pretty small on the Eee. Too small for any development unless you're using a curt language and exclusively single character variables :)
Or: Write a lot of code, then learn to hack.
Startup mentors
I am working with two other people on a website. Despite our hectic jobs, we managed to a launch a preliminary version of our site a few days ago. You can check it out at www.pollbag.com.

We did not know anything about web-programming a few months ago but we taught ourselves through guide books and helpful resources on the web. However, we realize there is still a lot to know and the problem is, we don't really know what we don't know.

It would be really helpful if we could find someone who can review our code and comment on it from a design perspective, and advise us on managing the development process more effectively. Does anyone know of any mentor networks that provide this kind of advice? Or any informal networks that help developers out etc?
James Cayne of Bear Stearns is a college dropout. He did okay (until recently).
Ask YC: What do you think of this NY Times feature
This is a feature I stumbled on ...

Goto a full page article on nytimes.com article and double click a word(not hyper linked)

Try this one..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/world/europe/09delhi.html?scp=2&sq=india

What do you think of this feature?
Sorry, interesting little article, but I don't buy any of it.

A better title would have been, "A List of Some of the Traits That May Correlate with Good Programmers". Would you bet your business on judgements made from this list? I certainly wouldn't.

AFAIK, there's only one way to recognize a good progammer (or a good anything else):

* * * * * * * DEMONSTRATED PERFORMANCE * * * * * * *

Did you do it?

On time and under budget?

Does it work well?

Does it satisfy the stakeholders?

How easily is it extended or maintained?

<add your own evaluators of demonstrated performance>

I also believe that if you can do it once, you can do it again.

Evaluating quality by anything other than demonstrated performance is stupid and unfair to everyone involved.
In tennis you can't make a living if you are outside of top 100 or 150. That is you don't eat if you don't have other sources of income.

Even if you are a very good amateur player and you easily beat most fellow amateurs, you would get destroyed (6-0, 6-0) by an aspiring pro (top 1000 in the world) playing minor leagues (satellite tour), spending his own or other people's money to stay afloat.

I've met many mediocre programmers making a nice, corporate paycheck, driving Audi TTs.
When I first saw Sim City back in the 80s I thought it was very unrealistic. Then I visited San Jose.
I think there's a big difference between working for ABC Company and building your own. When you're building your own, the concept of increasing effectiveness by reducing hours is counterproductive and limiting. Anyone who's ever built anything significant will readily tell you that crunch mode is essential.
My first result is for a swinger-club named 'why not?'.