skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Internet Business For Sale: Absurd Listings Site (Top-Tier Dating Site: $5,000,000)
The reason why Blub programmers have such a hard time picking up more powerful languages.
The "Consumer Subscription Internet Co" is hilariously euphemistic.
That would be awesome. I wish our schools were run like businesses.

There would probably be less porn stars coming to speak for "diversity" week ...
You're begging the original question. Sure, your market value might be higher than you expect -- but it might be lower, too. Are you willing to walk away from a good job for a potentially unreasonable expectation of higher salary?

The OP wanted to know the salary range for a programmer in San Francisco. I guess I don't see relativism ("it's as high as you want it to be") as a particularly helpful response.
payscale.com
Prove it. Sapir-Whorf is fun for sci-fi, but there's no evidence for anything but the most loose variations of it.

No, the reason Blub programmers have a hard time picking up more powerful languages is that they have invested time in their skillsets, so even if they were to program in Lisp syntax, they'd still write Blub-in-Lisp code, not using macros, closures, functional programming, etc. Because they never learned about them and don't see the point.

The same thing comes up all the time in Python communities; people who don't know Python very well write "un-Pythonic" code that doesn't take advantage of the language's best built-in functionality like list comprehensions and generator expressions.

Compare:

# unpythonic way of squaring each element in a list

source_list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

dest_list = []

for x in range(len(source_list)):

dest_list.append(source_list[x]*source_list[x])

# Pythonic way

[x*x for x in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]]
Exactly what was said of XP before SP1. "XP is just 2000 with eye-candy and more crashes." The same argument can be made for Os X upgrades as well. Is any one Mac Os X upgrade "significantly better" than the last?

It's the subtleties that matter.
Windows XP is by now a very stable and reliable operating system. As far as I can tell (I have used Vista for about 5 minutes on a friend's machine) there isn't much that Vista offers as an upgrade to XP. Some of the UI "enhancements" are pretty much copied straight from OS X and some of the cool features that were promised for Vista were either not included (WinFS) or available for download in Windows XP.

I'm not sure why anyone would consider upgrading to Vista.
So, your argument is that they have a hard time because they've invested time in other things?
"... Is there a way to grab ALL the data from HackerID? ..."

Yes.

I've been saving the individual files since I've run the system as ISO8602 filename ".xml" since it started. I'm going to now write some code to store it in a db beats the 4Mb of text files I have. Also I want to write a quick script to add the archived files to the db.

"... Users that pg replied to will have a 'knighted' symbol next to them ;-) ..."

Nice touch. What I'm doing is checking if users on the leader board top 30 or top10 or number 1 and adding a star with 10, 30 or 1. Im also working on filters for 'pg' meaning he's off the board.

I tell you what would be nice is to synchronise the snapshot captures (by ISO-8602 time stamps set to Zulu time ie: 2007-09-30T00:16:42Z or now). This means you can at some later time import any data into a db and do a query by time.

"... when I read 'name the best hacker news contributers', I thought it is a contest :-) ..."

Yeah good point. Might have to change/tweak this it a bit. Maybe add a question mark.

My objectives at the moment are to

- do deep search on hacker by article in "new/" and extract WHO is making comments and build some sort of heirarchy of user interaction with link to comments

- do some stats on the hacker data

- " a graphical representation." I'll be using grahpviz ~ http://www.graphviz.org/Gallery.php You can see here some initial testing I've done (with static data) ~ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/1291043939/

On the last one I'm finding a lot of variation b/w karma, comments. points and time. Interesting to see. The real objective is to release this as data rather than just pages so users can use the data (not sure about RT) to look at things on a particular day.

My objectives are different from yours keep up the good work and plz try to make the data free for use by others to use.
Sorta. PG got it spot on in his article on Blub. The Blub programmer doesn't see Lisp as being more powerful than Blub, he sees it as being equally powerful, only with too many parentheses and maybe some extra features. But he doesn't need those extra features, he's a skilled Blub programmer, and once he learns the Lisp equivalents of his favorite Blub function calls (etc.) he'll happily carry on writing Blub code in Lisp syntax. And that's only if you force him to use Lisp, because he still thinks there's too many parentheses, and anyway Lisp doesn't have an XML-driven build engine like Blub does.
I am contemplating switching to a Mac because of Vista
Nope, you didn't fix it. The slightly-tilted yellow card image (the one you click to get the actual form) still blocks my reading with no apparent way to dismiss it.
Well, I think there is more to it that having invested time in inferior languages. Programming well in higher order languages requires a different kind of thinking from writing simple procedural code and using UML and "design patterns" as crutches. I would argue that Python is easier to learn than either C++ or Java, but much harder to master because mastering Python requires one to think differently. The same is true of Lisp, Erlang or Haskell.

Sadly I think most people are not taught how to think, but rather how to perform repetitive tasks based on some formula (works great for writing Java).

Another problem I think is that most Blub programmers don't program because they love programming and therefore are not willing to put in the time and effort to learn a different way of thinking.

Personally I believe programming is an art and as such it requires talent as well as dedication. I'm disappointed that after all this years everyone still thinks programming is some form of science. Software engineering? WTF?
Useful List of the Top-Rated YC News Submissions
I was listening to a podcast (I think) where someone who had recently studied linguistics was saying that Sapir-Whorf has been almost discredited in academic communities for some time, yet it lives on as a "myth" for people outside of the academic communities.

I just can't find any reference of this. This is pretty common thing, ideas from a long time ago tend to stay in the publics collective memory as still being current.

The one that springs to mind is the "breathing" you see pregnant-in-labour women doing in hollywood movies (yet this technique was thrown out decades ago as having no effect at all). Yet it lives on in circles of people who aren't experts and repeat it amongst themselves as if they are.

A quick search didn't yield anything like this for Sapir-Whorf though.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0060976519/portlandpa... - has a little info on it.
Try, Then Add
>So if you don't like the restrictions, then there's a solution: don't buy it. :)

I won't.

I can understand Apple not wanting people to unlock it, but I can't understand the hostility toward third-party applications. It seems like more people developing for their platform can only benefit Apple.
I actually think requiring a small but reasonable fee to get personal information out of Whois would help prevent spam, etc. Paying $2 dollars to get the contact info for the owner of a hacked site doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Perhaps some sort of organization wide monthly access for a fee would help these "security researchers"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3_people
the iPhone hardly saves me any time (gps is built into my car already) google maps isn't unique to the iPhone anyway. Actually you probably waste more time since it is not 3g. I have an iPhone and I enjoy being able to carry one less thing around, but when I am overseas its just annoying to not have it be unlockable (which as far as I know is a unique "feature" to the iPhone as every other phone - whether released under an exclusive contract or not - is unlockable)
For the very earliest employees in a startup, you should pay little more than living expenses in salary, because you only want people who want mostly equity. How much equity to give them is always a negotiation.

The underlying principles are described here: http://paulgraham.com/equity.html
I'm not sure if I agree with the idea that everything must be built out of tiny fully tested pieces. On the other hand writing a large system without testing components is insane. But most of the time I find it easier to start writing a module and then start a test and debug cycle when I'm done. I might find out half way through that the original way I wanted to solve the problem was wrong and have to rewrite most things from scratch. So it's best to write things quickly and be able to throw it away quickly. After you settle on the structure you can start to write tests to check edge cases, and verify correctness (and also to help with refactoring). I'd say this style is more like "sketch, correct, sketch some more, then polish"
Reminds me of the movie Brazil. (specifically, De Niro's character)

People going underground to do their jobs (and doing them for free!) seems like a good sign of an overbearing bureaucracy.
As one learning lisp and working through SICP...

I've got to say that this is practically like learning to program all over again.

I'd almost go so far as to say that it's like learning to program. Period. Regardless of the years of experience in those other languages....

I did love programming, though... even though I was so Blubby. As long as I wasn't pushing the limits of the languages, I wouldn't think to look anywhere else. I didn't quite imagine that real Computer Science (like SICP) could benefit me-- given how atrocious so many programmers I'd met that had even Master's Degrees were.... Now I feel like I've wasted years and years of time.

(Why didn't anyone tell me? Ah... but would I have paid attention if they tried?)
forget it, you'll never be satisfied, just start your own company and set the price as low as you can for other people.
Hmm... I was feeling pensive today, so I probably got too creative and derailed the thread. I apologize :)

I'd make it up by giving a helpful response, but I don't live in San Fran. I hope he finds the answer though!
Here is my perspective as an iPhone owner. I'm not too familiar with the details of the unlocking process but as far as I can tell if you have third party apps running on your phone the phone will need to be re-activated after installing the update (as I thinkthe phone gets wiped in the process). It makes sense to me that since unlocking modified some internal state of the phone the re-activation might break. I don't think it's apple's job to resolve bugs baused by third party hackers. I'm not even sure this disabling is intentional.

The same thing applies to third party apps. Why should Apple go to the trouble to make sure the upgrade doesn't break third party apps? If you're brave enough to hack your phone you have to take certain risks. If you decide to unlock the phone then don't upgrade until someone figures out how to work around this.

And for all the complaining of locked phones, Apple had to make some deals with AT&T for the phone to work the way it does. AT&T had to upgrade it's EDGE network, it had to build support for visual voicemails and allow for users to activate their iPhones (and sign up for service using iTunes). I can only imagine all of these changes required a lot of money to implement and as such it doesn't sound unreasonable to ask for an exclusivity deal in return. If you want a phone that work internationally go buy a Blackberry (the blackberry is a much better phone in my opinion, the only thing the iPhone does much better, and the deciding factor for me, was the web browser).
As an Engineering major, I really wish I could go to this school. However, as a startup founder, I really wish I wasn't bogged down with school (Not that I'm saying school is bad, it just takes up much more of my time than I'd like it to).
thanks pg ;-D
Parrot and Multi-threading
Anyone know if it's a myth? I've always wondered about that.
The Physics of Medieval Archery
I'm planning to work as a consultant part time and spend the rest of my time working on a problem I'm passionate about. Unfortunately this means no retirement savings, and penny pinching indefinitely. I hope I can figure out some better way to do this in the long run.
An architect should code. Period.
The "X Improves My Design Anyway" Myth
My day job is as a web developer for a small PC repair shop, and this article pretty much nails it. Many custom builds are requested with XP, and a lot of customers with Vista complain about it and some have us downgrade them to XP.

I'm just glad I switched to Ubuntu.
Benchmarks of different programming languages
I was really surprised by some of these results. Perl's regex beats everything else but it's really slow on things it doesn't do well. Lisp does better than I would have thought. Ruby is really slow on some things.

Good illustration of why your coding style should match the language you're using.

Note that you can view the source code of each benchmark/language implementation.
In the Midwest in dollars per hour,
newbs bill for 30-35 per hour.
junior programers 35-55
senior 50-80
niche jr 50-85
niche sr 85-150
enterprise niche 100-250
Lisp Critic: criticizing your Common Lisp coding style
I was trying to draw parallels about how after achieving great amount of money and success in both man, Gates is no longer too interested in running his company or product development and rather wants to focus on humanitarian causes. His speech was to focus on that, to convince those that are in power, privileged, and in a position to help, to really go out and help. Gates has grown from worrying and fretting about his company to do other things while Steve is still driven to make computers and won't stop until he's dead.
# unpythonic way of squaring each element in a list

...

# Pythonic way

...

# Correct way (...in any language, and if I see anything else in my co-workers code, you damn well better believe there will be a re-write):

List dest_list = squareEachElementInList(source_list);

The problem with languages like Lisp, Haskell, Erlang, etc, is that the syntax is completely atrocious. It's not just a matter of parenthesis or whatever. It's a matter of eye-straining horribleness. People have little trouble learning and using Javascript, for the simple reason that its syntax is reasonable.
Hacked? Your paranoia is justified!
For most programmers, learning Haskell will be no picnic... unless they read this tutorial first!
I prefer JSON too.. it provides a more natural expression of associations, objects, etc. Sure, you can represent any XML/JSON in sexps, but then you have to come up with a convention, follow it, explain it, and check that its followed correctly.

JSON is a precise DSL for declaring basic data structures -- semantic batteries included! Why re-invent the wheel?
Schneier on Security: Mathematicians vs. Cryptographers
I got a trojan horse for the first time in a long time a few weeks ago. It occurred to me that, yeah, the zombie problem is very real--there are literally millions of computers out there in bot nets causing god-only-knows how many billions in damage.

Vista is trying to address that, and while most smart people are either using linux or have xp configured acceptably, mom and pa are probably better off with Vista's security B&D.
They would do so for security reasons. Vista runs apps in user mode.
I find LISP syntax to be quite easy on the eyes, personally. Of course, since whitespace is unimportant in LISP, it is easy to write unreadable, non-indented code, but it is also easy not to.

Javascript might be easy to learn, but generally people don't do very complex things in Javascript. Actually, if you ignore the syntax, Javascript is closer in some ways to LISP than it is to C/C++/Java.
I think its an insult to successful people, when others go around branding their achievements as "luck".

The fact that we were born in North America and not into a war torn anarchy based country like Somalia, we should all consider ourselves lucky. From that point on what you choose to do with your time and the results of that time spent ain't got nothin to do with luck.
No, actually, that's not correct. Why should I have to write a function to traverse a list, square each element, and recombine them into a list, when Python already takes care of the first and third parts for me? Code smart, man.
He's obviously much worse at orating, but he seems sincere and his speech is pretty inspirational.

Although his voice... reminds me of a slightly lower pitched Mickey Mouse.
80,000 to 120,000 depending on experience.

Anything less, and you are getting screwed. Anything more, and you are actually good either technically. or at negotiation.

Don't sell yourself for little thou. You have all the power of negotiation BEFORE joining the company. After that, it will be very hard to get any big raises.

The other thing, is to consider equity. Are you joining as just an employee of as a early starter employee that will creat their technology backbone.
Why should I have to write a function

A function hides the implementation.

to traverse a list

Because there are different ways to traverse a list. An arraylist is easier to traverse with respect to CPU cycles and memory usage (typically) than a linked list. What does python use internally? I don't know, and I'd just as soon decide that myself...

square each element

While there are only so many ways to square numbers, for more complicated things, you are doing to want to change implementations while keeping it all hidden. In java, you are occasionally going to want to splice in native code.

recombine them into a list

I may not want to recombine them in a list, but square them in place. A function makes that trivial, and further makes it trivial to decide when and how to do that.

--> The real reason is one of readability. More english, less brackets and commas please.
5 worst problems of home-grade routers
"If you're using Linux, it's something a lot like that. If you're using Windows, go fuck yourself."

I love jwz.
Sounds to me like Dubya is following this advice. Am I reading too much reddit ?
"The whole cell phone industry abuses its customers like this"

fwiw, I think it may be less only where a phone is bundled with a network. In India (where I live) you get the phone from a cell phone vendor and the SIM card from a network. You plug the SIM card int your phone and you have a working phone. Some networks have tried to sell phones that work with only a particular network but most people buy phones that works with any network and many people routinely switch networks when someone comes out with a cheaper plan. There are even phones that allow two SIM cards to be plugged in at the same time, allowing you to switch networks at the press of a button.

Cell Phone vendors compete to bring out more attractive phones and the networks compete to bring out better plans. The customer wins.

I pay about 20 $ monthly for a fantastic plan and have no complaints. I can change my phone or network independently.
40-80 man hours -- are you sure about that? anything more than trivial it will require more than that.
My facebook no longer fits - Richard Hammond
That may be the correct way, e.g., if you do a lot of list squaring, and if you don't square other things a lot. Even in this case, I'd prefer something like

dest = mapsquare(src)

Consider the possibility that C-like syntax and mixedCaseVerboseNames may be an acquired taste.

If you do square a lot other things than lists, it's probably best to say

dest = map(square, src)

For one-shot usage where defining square seems overkill, and where it's available and idiomatic, I find the list comprehension most readable.
IIS7 is Vista/Longhorn only. Major reason to upgrade for developers.

Also, like mattmaroon above, I fail to see why people hate Vista so much. I have no problems with it. Its stable, has support for my hardware and seems fast enough. And I run the x64 version, which is likely more quirky that the 32 bit one. I did do a fresh install, so I maybe upgrades are more problematic. I have also been a Mac/Linux user since the Windows95 days, so have little experience with XP and 2003.
Stick Figure Web Design
dest = map(square, src)

Well, this is okay. Of course, in java, you have to hack it unpleasantly,

List dest = map(UtilityMethods.class, "square", src)

...you have to manually extract the method "square" from UtilityMethods.class and process it over src. One advantage: You can use UtilityMethods as a namespace and swap in different methods thereby.
Apple's Growing Arrogance
On Sci-Fi (books) and Innovative Ideas? For Your Next Startup
There are a lot of good ideas in SciFi and Cyberpunk books.

Books can often be better than movies because of the depth of narrative needed to expose a concept or idea. Also because your own imagination drives the story, so each reader might actually come up with something different (their own interpretation and eventual implementation).

That being said, I'm no expert on this topic, but here are some good ones (emphasis on fun reads), feel free to share your favorites, but don't spoiler it!

For the record, I will play video games over reading a book.

=================================

::Snow Crash:: by Neal Stephenson

Plot Outline: A Cyber Ninja hacker set in a Matrix-like world where Real Life and Virtual Life mesh.

Some Ideas Profiled:

+ Metaverse, a cyber world that many people live in or use to interface with the real world. Think MMOs and Second Life.

+ Gargoyles, people who wear gadgets to record everything that goes on around them and sell the data into a central marketplace. Think Crowdsourcing, Streetview Startups or Justin.tv.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553380958/ref=pd_cp_b_0/00...

I've heard from people who read books often that this is classic cyberpunk. A Second Life founder cites Snow Crash as major inspiration for the game.

=============================

::Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom:: by Cory Doctorow

Plot Outline: A Futuristic Society (set in Disneyland no less) based on expounding today's Internet Phenomenons: social networks, pagerank, ebay reputation, blogging-fame mechanics, and Dog-eat-dog Startup Competition. And everyone lives forever~~~

Some Ideas Profiled:

+ Reputation Economy, money doesn't exist in the future. Instead, people connect to a Google like system through their head and commerce works by measuring your reputation and fame (e.g. how many think about you and thus create a link for your personal pagerank).

http://www.amazon.com/Down-Magic-Kingdom-Cory-Doctorow/dp/07...

Check the customers reviews and you'll see that Jeff Bezos tells you to read it.

=============================

::The Code Book:: by Simon Singh

Outline: A short, history based narrative of Cryptography. Written in the tone similar to how a Wired Magazine writer will sex up a topic they cover.

Covers Julius Caesar to Quantum Cryptography.

Non-Fiction, but for me, it had a startup-like quality when read. More so than Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson which is ABOUT a startup but reads like a regular story (I can't finish that book, its a Tome!).

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Book-Science-Secrecy-Cryptography...