skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Can a startup hire me as a non-paid intern or volunteer?
Can a startup or any company out there hire me as a non-paid intern or volunteer to help them brainstorm ideas and evaluate their concepts and/or find their flaws?

I’d be willing to sign NDA.

It must be agreed that if my input generates $$$ value I will get a share of the pie.

I’d be willing to work for free until my work generates value.

About me:

- 33 y/o
- an idea producing machine
- deep thinker
- mathematician by nature (academically an engineer)
- great people skills
- great communications skills
- big picture oriented, dislike mundane details
- fluent written and spoken (university level) in English, French and Spanish
- well travelled and have lived 4 cities and 3 countries
- good knowledge about world cultures
- good at correlating inter-disciplinary concepts (economics, psychology, mathematics, philosophy, politics, geography, ecology, technology, sociology, etc) and generating new ideas and concepts.
- organic thinking, good feel for where things are headed.
- academic background: Mechanical Aerospace Engineer specialized in aircraft structure analysis. (not necessarily my field of interest)
- financially independent
- My coding skills are those of a beginner.

I have a passion for sharing ideas and challenging them.

I am highly driven by appreciation of others, thus I want to generate value for your company and I want you to show me your appreciation by sharing the pie with me.

Shoot me an email if you think you can use a free brain in desperate need for challenge.
You sound like you've done some serious research about bulk cat washing. You should write a paper.
OK the pendulum in the tech world is swinging too far towards the "ruthless focus is the way to success" school of thought. I get where it comes from and there's certainly some truth to it, but at some point regularly creating products that consumers use and then killing those same products a few years later is also going to do some serious damage to a company and its brand.

Oh look, Google has a product called Currents, maybe I should use this infrastructure to build a workflow or even a business on? But wait a minute this is Google, a company who regularly sacrifices products, even ones with millions of users, on the alter of "Focus". Will this Google product be around a few Springs from now? Then why should I even take the risk of learning to use it and maybe depending on it?
They did redesign the cover: http://amzn.to/1436x0J

You can read more about how that story ended here: http://brokenpianoforpresident.com/2012/07/19/jack-daniels-l...

<blockquote>In case you’re wondering, no, my publisher, Lazy Fascist Press, will not be taking them up on their offer. We’re proudly independent and don’t need any of that sweet corporate booze money to redo the cover.</blockquote>
How Ecommerce Startups Are Marrying Content & Commerce
I believe 3 days is enough. A new marketing idea can be implemented in 3 days; a new UI mockup can be done in 3 days. To me, I'll be learning things, but to the founders they can actually benefit from my ideas or executions. It's free after all, and they can definitely take it further after the 3 days (maybe hire me something).
Actually, somewhere between -4000 and 4000.
What's "classical" in your book?

Search trees, dynamic programming, and reducing an algorithm's worst-case runtime are about as "classical" as you get; that's why they're in every beginning algorithms textbook.
I hope Google doesn't intend to remove XMPP from Gtalk in their next version of messenger (I think there will be a major overhaul of their messengers with Android 5.0 and new ChromeOS at I/O).
Sorry we haven't yet. Let me clean it up and get back with it.
In the last two months I started deliberately increasing the amount of coding time that is classical algorithm time. Not by working through books and problem sets, but by redefining day-to-day engineering problems that have an easy way out - bash away at it with "industry best practices" and whatever comes to mind, until it doesn't break - into formalized versions that become first data-driven, and then a DSL, so that each "100 lines" solution becomes an effective 1-liner, in the fashion suggested by VPRI's work on new languages. This motivates studying at the algorithmic level and researching PL theory to synthesize that ideal solution.

As a result of this, I am writing very, very few lines of code, in a start-and-stop fashion. I believe it is over 70% algorithmic at this point. The reliance on deep insight is leading me to actively avoid the typical coder's flow state and spend a lot more time on "sit and think" instead. If I hit flow for a long stretch something is wrong.

And, certainly, I would have more "shipping code" at the moment without going this route. But it's still ultimately guided by problems I'm familiar with from doing them the "best practices" way - and each time I make progress, I think to myself "why did I not do it this way before?" (It helps that I have a lot of freedom, working alone.)

Also, it's quite scary doing things this way. The high uncertainty about what the solution is, even knowing the problems well going in, is absolutely terrifying.
It does depend a lot on the sub-field of CS.

For systems work you spend a lot of time implementing ideas and running experiments. In a lot of cases it isn't necessarily that difficult to find an interesting idea that's probably viable. The real work is spending a lot of time writing code and work out all the annoying details to get to the point where you have a decent proof of concept.
Here's my view on this:

I have been using Google Reader for ages, through FeeddlerRSS on my iOS device. For most of that time, I haven't thought for even a second "that's nice of Google, providing this sync service for free". I haven't seem a Google logo or ad, either. In fact, even now that I have been checking whether I actually use Google Reader, it took me quite an effort to find that out.

Given that, why would Google keep that service running for me?
Cheating probably isn't a crime, but I would imagine unauthorized access to someone else's network probably is. (I am not a lawyer, no less an Australian lawyer)
I think the recent thread about how people can be compelled to keep searches and confiscations secret makes my point sufficiently clear. I think by "due process" you mean "according the law". By "due process", I mean in a very fair, transparent, limited and well-defined way.

edit: Specifically, this is a precedent that is a big step in the right direction for this kind of thing, IMO: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5382891
Does anyone realize that this document is not meant to describe what it is like to get a Ph.D. but instead meant to encourage people in science to continue there research?

At the very end of the document, the Author explains that his son is ill from a rare genetic disorder, and wishes that a cure existed.
In the eurozone governments confiscate people's money
As requested, they did change cover on the reprint and digital version, you are linking to the first print.
'Self-defense'? The post's key quote sums up Google's relation to RSS:

lead with a compelling user experience first and then build an API from there, an API which may be based on open standards, but only if it’s a means to an end.

Although an open standard, RSS is a special case: The DNA of RSS is incompatible with the data-greedy centralization enforced by the Google, Facebook, Twitter and their likes.
HN and such aggregators are nice for fluff content, which appeals to a broad range of people. More specific content either isn't aggregated, or the aggregators themselves are so niche that they only update once in a while (e.g. Lambda-the-Ultimate). And frankly, while obviously none is indispensable for my life or well-being, I'd rather miss out on HN than on the smaller blogs and feeds.
> Now, of course, you can cash out as soon as the startup has made any significant progress. ... How many startups would be doing better now if all their early people still had to work there for a big payday?

You can also look at it from the other direction: if only a small proportion of people are great at founding startups, then doesn't it make more sense for them to leave early to found other startups? As long as the people left at the first one have the ability to continue the trajectory, I don't see the problem -- and presumably, the people allowing them to cash out don't see the problem either. It's just a more efficient allocation of scarce resources.

> The broader trend of generally increasing pay, ... Before most computer science graduates ever walk across a stage to get their diplomas, they’re set for life.

Why shouldn't they be? If doctors and lawyers are set for life (depending on how you look at it), why shouldn't highly capable engineers be too?

> The result for many engineers and product managers is often a case of arrested development, as they drift from one startup to the next, dabbling in several side-projects, without the ballast of having solved some really hard problems or contributed to a lasting business.

I don't get what's so bad about this. A lot of businesses don't last, period. Side projects are great.

This whole article comes across almost as a lament for where the Real Men Engineers all went -- the ones who would slave away for little money, solving the hardest problems, out of some kind of macho competition, romantically proving their mettle.

But that's ridiculous. As long as engineers play a valuable role in the economy, they should be compensated in accordance.

This whole article seems to be rooted in some kind of anti-change nostalgia. It almost all boils down to the author being annoyed that 24-year-olds are "collecting expensive scotch". If that's what really bothers you, then the problem is with you judging other people's tastes, not with them.

Maybe there's a valuable point somewhere in the article, but it's hard for me to see it with the author's terribly patronizing, the-trouble-with-kids-these-days attitude.
You're not going to make enough money.
Same problem, and no it doesn't.
The commenter did. I, however, highlighted the difference in his (commenters) approach with the approach of the author of the topic article, who advocates confiscatory taxes - because he's not content with doing something he thinks is right, he wants everybody to be forced to do the same.

As it often happens, first thing you do protesting stigmatization is stigmatize and paint me, protesting confiscatory taxes, as somebody who rushes "to portray anybody to the economic left of Ayn Rand as a communist" - despite the fact that I never said or implied anything of the sort.

The reason, however, why we don't see reasonable tax reform is, first, that current situation is hugely profitable for people in power - if you have power to grant tax exemptions, you will soon have a lot of friends who need tax exemptions, and these people tend to have a lot of money. If you make tax code simple and logical, you lose the power to regulate people's behavior (see how it comes back to where we started?) and you lose the influence and the friends with money. That's why we have hundreds of "deductions", "credits", etc. - because the government wants to control people, and when it can't do it by force of direct coercion, it does it by force of taxation. See the recent example of Obamacare - the fix to mandate the participation in the scheme is to do it through punitive taxation.

The second reason why we don't see reasonable tax reform is that for certain part of US political spectrum, "reasonable" means applying punitive and confiscatory tax levels on people that they do not like. You can not approach reasonable solution if you come in with hidden agenda and try to enact social-engineering agenda under the guise of economic policy.

The third reason why we don't see reasonable tax reform is that many view "tax reform" as a magic bullet that would allow us to get a free ride out of over-commitment on welfare obligations that our economy is unable to support. There's a widespread view that there's a huge amounts of "wealth" hidden by capitalists somewhere and if only we could tap into that hidden treasure all nearly broke welfare programs would suddenly become viable and sustainable in the long term. Unfortunately, this magic stash does not exist and tax reform would not fix the problem of welfare overcommitment.

>>>> The second Obama proposes something, it's communism, and there's no possibility for working with him.

This is pure organic bullshit. The problem with so many Obama proposals it's not that it is "communism" but that it stems from misguided idea that the economy needs more government-driven redistribution and that such redistribution makes everybody better off. Communists shared that idea too, but the problem is not in the communists, nobody cares too much what they think as they are largely irrelevant by now, the problem is that the idea is wrong.
Well, as they say, the trend is their friend and the sales fell off a cliff.

>Nintendo's console sold just 57,000 units in January, managing to up that number to 64,000 in February.

By comparison, the 7.5 year old XBox 360 sold 302,000 and 281,000 in Jan and Feb respectively.
I had no idea who Nathan Marz was. When I saw the title, I assumed "Leaving Twitter" was implying discontinuing usage of Twitter from an outsider's perspective, not an employee parting ways with the company. The original title is completely unambiguous.
Building bridges is not really that hard. I have a few transforming closed "feeds" into RSS running on my VPS.
the typical founder of a company that hasn’t yet released its first product earns, according to private salary surveys, nearly $200,000 per year.

Whoa! So, let me get this straight, if you get funded in the valley (let's say even if you go through YC) then as a CEO you decide to pay yourself $100k+?
Interesting breakdown, but I think it's a little font-obsessed biased e.g.
"The artificial slab serif ITC Lubalin by Herb Lubalin not only embodies stability, but also emanates a very special kind of amiability. "

I'd say the reason this font was chosen had a little more to do with the fact that it looks very similar to most writing on old football jerseys. Sometimes the reason something is chosen is much simpler than we (experts in that field) want it to be.
I used to think Google's vision for Google Reader was to be a "content subscription" service, where anyone could "subscribe" to any site and get that content delivered to them directly - like a Google Currents for any site: blogs, media, etc.

"RSS" would be dropped as a concept, since the general Internet user has no idea what that is. Behind-the-scenes, it might still be used though, along with content crawling (something Google already does). The value to Google would be another data point on content ranking. For example, if someone subscribes to a site, that site must be of high value. Time-on-site (or time-on-article) might even be a useful proxy of how engaging that content is, as are tags, social shares, and other meta-actions a user could take on an article.

But perhaps there isn't a big enough opportunity for Google to pursue that. Too bad.

P.S. I'm not a Google Currents user. If I basically described Google Currents, then perhaps Google IS thinking about this. But then, why not merge Google Reader & Google Currents together?
Multi-frame navigation in a Python debugger
Not sure exactly how duped this is for HN... For those that don't know.. Lua is a scripting language, perhaps a bit more structured than it's more popular counterparts (JavaScript and Python), having very good performance characteristics. It's very popular in terms of Game development.

Luvit is essentially a lua interpreter with bindings to libuv (the same core IO library used in NodeJS). And could mainly be considered an alternative to NodeJS, which it most closely resembles.

Some, who don't like JS syntax may wish to consider Luvit, as it will perform close to, and sometimes better than NodeJS, with some similar gotchas.
Agree! The "back in my days" speech is getting a bit old.
> I don't see any obligations towards the unproductive ones, and that is where the argument crosses the line into charity.

No one is arguing that you do, but there's a long, long way from assuming responsibilities towards your employees to charity. It's not a line that's easily crossed.

> I do it because we are in a mutually-beneficial relationship.

Absolutely, but this argument is the one most abused by exploiters. The fact that the worker receives some benefit from the relationship does not mean that the arrangement is fair. Ironically, it is Americans (as well as people in other industrialized nations) who insist on a fair distribution in the ultimatum game[1], while many of them have very strong beliefs about how much exactly workers "deserve".

[1] http://www.psmag.com/magazines/pacific-standard-cover-story/...
Very interesting article. Nixon was truly a piece of work. But then considering the behavior of more recent Republican administrations, at least he seems to have been competent. (George H. w. Bush is perhaps the least objectionable -- having neither engaged in treason nor fraudulent warmongering. Oh, except for Panama.)
You also get an interesting side view from Donald Rumsfeld's "Known and Unknown" and his website http://www.rumsfeld.com where he is releasing documents from that era. It's really and odd outsider-insider account. The parts about the United States Office of Economic Opportunity should give people pause.
Yes, of course it is.

It is necessary to extend human knowledge to get a Ph.D.

It is not necessary to get a Ph.D. to extend human knowledge.

/article author
I read the title wrong and became curious what a grad student in math does all day after they graduate? Is there a lot of work in that field?
Apple fixes the fatal file URL bug
That's what Yahoo! Pipes is for.
"this is how liberty dies.. with thunderous applause"
Employee leaves company. News not at 11, because who cares?
Maybe you should try using Avvo before you make that comparison?

Both Avvo and LawDingo provide initial consult meetings. The difference is that Avvo also provides general Q&A, lawyer ratings, and a referral service (separate from the client service, targeted at lawyers seeking clients).
More than 500,000 Google Reader users have joined Feedly in the past 48 hours
> The media is a reflection of the beliefs of the American people.

That's backwards. For issues of political significance the beliefs of the American (or other) people are a reflection of messages produced by the media. Iraq war mongering was proliferated by the media, as desired by the state.
The diagram isn't about "research." It is about doing a PhD. And for better or for worse, doing a PhD in the sciences usually involves making an improvement in a narrow area rather than something that addresses multiple areas. Frankly, doing that is much more difficult and often not really an appropriate topic for a PhD student because it is more likely to fail.
I just noticed the football comment and now I'm wondering how bad I just got trolled. (Surely a $2M salary makes you desperate indeed.)
Less people reading rss => More people reading on actual web sites => More people exposed to, and maybe click, embedded adsense ads from google + More user behavior data from google statistics.

Simple as that.
I don't think so. I certainly interpret 3 stars on Yelp or Amazon as below average.
1. It doesn't really - it changes them. Changing from horsepower to cars eliminated the jobs of people that hauled horse manure - but created myriad of jobs for caring for, fixing, maintaining, selling and otherwise dealing with cars. The mistake here is that people see where jobs disappear, but don't see where they appear since they don't know where exactly to look.
Quora: What does Paul Graham think of Mailbox?
I've been using this lately on a personal project.

For those who don't know, this is basically a clone of the Node.js API in the Lua language (using the LuaJIT compiler). This is interesting because:

- LuaJIT is often faster than V8 and uses less memory

- LuaJIT has a built in C FFI and supports C datatypes for working with low level libraries (or even writing low level code in Lua)

- Lua has coroutines

I think this is already being used in production at Rackspace, mainly because of the lower memory usage.
That's not entirely true. Cloud Foundry (the software) is an open-source platform that allows for compatibility across providers. You can see a list of compatible providers here, in addition to cloudfoundry.com: http://www.cloudfoundry.com/partners

Full disclosure: I work for AppFog, one of the providers listed.
Most returns on VC are negative, almost all are below-market versus standard investments.

EDIT: On the other hand, it's questionable the degree to which the market valuations of regular investments are being pumped up by our capitalism-and-bailouts-induced capital glut.
I've used liferea with google reader for some time to keep things synced between computers and devices. I really hope some of those projects to keep that API alive bear fruit just for that. Though I have seen liferea become non-responsive when having 1000-2000 feeds to check (like other places, i just add stuff and never delete, because there's too many to sort through...)
>That's exactly what it means -- no one is ever "cured" of cancer. All cancer victims remain at higher recurrence risk than those who have never had cancer.

That's simply not true, with one caveat[1]. As a population, of course, it's true. Of course because you can't know whether or not you're cured you can't dismiss the possibility your cancer will return. But that doesn't mean it's actually a possibility in your specific case. If you happen to be one of those lucky people who had a cancer that didn't metastasize, and they got all of it (every last malignant cell), you are not going relapse. There's nothing to relapse.

That's why I say this is semantics. You're talking about what we know and what we have to assume for the purposes of treatment. I'm talking about what is, even if we don't know it.

[1] The caveat being that chemotherapy increases the risk you'll develop a cancer you would not otherwise have developed. But not the same cancer - a new one. So you can't correctly call it a relapse.
Nintendo Land (their grab-bag minigame compilation) is actually really fun too if you have several people you like to play with.
There's what you can observe for yourself: on the iOS App Store, there are three "top" lists--Top Free and Top Paid (both of which measure downloads), and Top Grossing. Top Grossing is saturated with free-to-play.
I've had CPR training here in the US four times now, and I think two of those times were free (Boy Scouts, school, and, I think, Red Cross, but I had to pay for scuba rescue diver.) There will be some exceptions, but almost anyone who would claim that cost is the reason for not doing it is someone who wouldn't bother even if it were free.
Unread indicator is always wrong, especially when you use multiple devices. Seems very I characteristic of google. It's been that way since they released the app.
One thing that's commonly not discussed is the fact that for those of us who are naturally introverted, putting on the socially outgoing facade requires a lot of energy ... and to a lesser extent, even being sociable with those we love can be hard when your brain is completely focused on achieving something.

It's funny (to me at least), that my brain can be perfectly happy being alone for eight to ten hours a day. When the work is interesting, time is compressed and my surroundings "blur". My kids have figured out that if I don't answer them, it's generally because I really never heard them.
I guess maps is the structure I'm most keen on. Thanks!
don't change the title of the actual article. that is really bad form.
The site's UI is simple and yet the server still can't handle it perhaps was the implication.