skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
PG might be on to something here. I used to live in Austin back in the mid-90s. It has has great weather, a great university and several startups that went onto become big (Dell, Pervasive, etc). And yet Austin has failed to compete with Silicon Valley and in the last decade might have even become less relevant in the tech sector.
What a cool application. I would love to be able to use it without paying when you do launch. I find that learning Chinese on there becomes enticing, and there is a certain feeling that I am playing a game. I don't think it would hurt to have a ten character demo on the front page with a full tutorial for the Chinese and computer illiterate. That may hook inidividual users, especially if you can buy in at a good rate for starter packages. It seems like you guys are trying to exclusively appeal to the very intent on learning Chinese people, but even from your testimonials it seems that Skritter is a good pass time, even for those not studying Chinese and just want an easy, fun way of drawing chinese letters. I think offering a startup package for cheap will draw a lot of people, and as I have found out, you will soon get hooked.

Also, it may be sweet to add little quiz games to Skritter. Like timed strokes, or something fun (you appear to be creative) to really entice people and motivate them to move on to the next lesson. It always feels better to conquer something like that in an online learning app... And finally, please tell you guys are planning an iPhone app?
Where's the tidal flow / Gulf Stream power?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream#Possible_renewable_...
This is one of the things that I never really understood about Skype either. I have never been using Skype and think, "I should check eBay right now!"

It is funny that they are both independently profitable. No synergy at all.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who read the document. I don't see how the police really screwed this one up that much outside of one poorly-worded section of the warrant.
Robots and Avatars as Hosts, Advisors, Companions and Jesters
The advice already given here is good - if you believe you can be a 'google' the their 'altavista' then your new competitor is an important validation & valuable testlab for your idea - go for it.
BUT as others have noted, that depends on your market etc. Good luck.
Yes, government was much smaller at the time of the Industrial Revolution, at least in the US. The federal budget, as a share of the GDP, was 3% right before FDR. Now it's some giant, horrible amount I don't even want to say out loud.

Given this, the idea that there could be less (or about the same) regulatory interference of business today is, frankly, ludicrous. For one thing, simply reducing business budgets (taxes) at the rate the government does is an onerous burden all by itself. Arguments can certainly be made that it's a net gain for society, but please do not be disingenuous in stipulating the facts.
The second trait he talks about (caring about your regexp) is not low frustration toleance. It is perfectionism.
I'll post about it next week. Basically, many employers suck at communicating with potential hires. A large part of this may be because they don't really know what candidates are looking for.
Intel Sees Netbooks Sales Doubling in 2009
Why not?

Whether they know it or not, most people already buy virtual goods.

Every time you buy $150 sneakers, you're buying $120 worth of virtual goods.

Bottle service at a club. $450 worth of virtual goods, $50 worth of alcohol.

An engagement ring. $10,000 worth of virtual goods. $1,000 worth of diamond.

A tier 7 rainment in WoW. $99.999 worth of virtual goods, $0.001 worth of goods.

Etc.
In my opinion, there are some problems with this premise.
Even though a company is profitable, it may have negitve cash flow, and need to raise money.
Then there is the oppertunity cost, say you make a better mousetrap, but I raise all the money. I can buy you, and still make more.
There have always been ways to start a company without investment, I started a company with $10,000 and sold it two years later for $1MM, and that was in 1986 without any internet!
I dont think the writter of this article has thought this through, too many holes.
David Schulhof
I think in some sense that Blanton is advocating an intellectually lazy kind of radical honesty. It's not communicating to excrete whatever verbalizations come to mind because there is no one thing on your mind. You are forced to censor, or at least edit, what you say, by the limitations of the channel.

The real value, I think, in honesty, is that it brings one's thoughts out in the open to work with, instead of sapping one's energy and directing it towards the construction of some facade.
Let's move to New Zealand. Auckland is a beautiful city and NZ has 0% tax rate on capital gain.
The only interesting part was that a way to control inflation is to control expectations of inflation.

This ends up with a feedback loop that alters our measure, and to me a perennial question of how do you accurately measure something that knows it's being measured?

No upvote though. I would have rather read it in a blog post.
This is an easy one....

McDonalds

Burger King

Wendy's

In n' Out

Jack in the Box

White Castle

They all sell burgers.

Nuff said...

Keep going...
I used to flaunt my computer skills back in school, because I knew if/when something got hacked I could explain exactly how it was done, and remind them that I'd warned them it could happen months earlier. (This exact thing did end up happening.) The authorities at my school seemed less prone to complete lapses of logic (as demonstrated by the police in this article) so I wasn't so afraid of being unable to defend myself in the face of unjust accusations. (Logic and reason sufficed, thankfully.)
The founders were looking to raise funds to buy back - but IF this post is correct, I guess Ebay must think they can get a better price via IPO (or are using the IPO-route as a bargaining tool).
I think low frustration tolerance is a nice euphemism for emotional immaturity. There should be really no emotion involved when you run into roadblocks. It just gets in the way of finding a way around. Anybody who feels identified with LFT should take some yoga or martial arts and learn to meditate. There is just the way things are and the options you have.
Korma - A delicious sauce I pour over my rice and lentils...

;)
Brilliant parody of the current "Twitter ecosystem" hype. A little app like says more than all the blog posts and Wired/Slate/etc articles put together. (I do think Twitter & Twitter apps have their place, but it's incredibly overhyped right now)
Poorly worded probable cause would be, "I saw him go into a room that was his with a gun and it was hidden," instead of, "I saw him hide a gun in his room."

I think including "Mr. Calixte uses two different operating systems" under the section "Basis of Probable Cause" for search goes beyond poor wording.
this post is a repeat.
The issue is not how (or whether) the police "screwed up". The issue is whether a warrant of seizure should be issued on such flimsy grounds. That is quite orthogonal from the guilt or innocence of the suspect.
This stinks of the stereotypical hacker image people get overdoses of on tv. Pretttttty sad. :\
Your post would be more interesting if you took a survey of other random girls on the street. And then see if there was a marked correlation between smart and non-smart girls and whether the essay spoke to them.
Interesting that he states only the positive changes he observed as a result of his "experiment". Not a single drawback? Almost as if they are forgone conclusions from his (IMO) rather dubious premises. It's enough to make one wonder if positivity is so "positive" why it would it would require so much attention to change.
Punctuation marks....

Academia - $8.00 per hour...

Industry - $80.00 per hour...

Don't you just love college interns....

;)
Has anyone actually read the warrant application? The allegations were made by a close acquaintance of the accused who directly observed him changing grades for students and cracking into other systems; the emails in question were traced back to the accused's hostname.

The EFF article completely mischaracterizes a 90% legitimate warrant.

http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
I'm not saying you're wrong, but can you provide some supporting material when making such broad generalizations about cultures? Are there any sociological studies that back up these findings? Are you talking about any particular region of Asia where this might be particularly true?

Asia is home to a great diversity of cultures and languages, a little more discretion would be appropriate when talking about it in such definite terms.
Ask PG: Cost and effort of running Hacker News?
In terms of servers and hardware, how much does it cost to keep hacker news up and running each month?

In terms of man hours, how much is needed to maintain and moderate hacker news?
who is going to be your boss/how many will you have.
Listen, it's a lot simpler than this. You took an action: honesty. Your boss responded: icy. Your next action should be: what do I do with this response? If it's sitting and doing nothing in your office, then you will bear the fruits of that.

On the other hand, if you took that time to focus on what you wanted - start your own business - you could be living your dream right now.

It's never too late. Life isn't our circumstances. It's what we do with our circumstances.

I applaud you for being honest with your boss. He handled it like a simpleton. A true leader would either inspire you to stay or inspire you to give your all while you're there.

Given where you are now, be honest with yourself, dust yourself off, and go start that business!
Battling entrepreneurial attention deficit disorder
Just do it. Being in limbo, going back and forth, is the worst place to be. What's the worst that'll happen? You'll have gone for it. That's more than most people can say.

It's really that simple. Now get off Hacker News and build that damn thing and submit it here for review.
On the other hand, it's easy to break into the startup industry from anywhere in the world. You just need to gain a certain number of customers and following, and you will be noticed. Contrast that with the film industry, where the need for expensive equipment means that financing is critical to every venture.

It makes sense for the film industry to be concentrated in hubs because of the huge expenses in each film. It does not make sense for startups, because such expenses don't exist, and the need for connections, while important, is not critical.

So, though the trend may look like it's going towards major hubs for now, over time this will normalise itself as those players who are not able to go to the startup hubs will fragment and create successful companies all over.

There will be few major hubs for technology startups - but they won't be ever as concentrated as hollywood - simply because there is no need for them to be so.
I love this article, although it also discourages me. How could I possibly create such a company? How could I ever find one?

His point about the second type of company touched a nerve: that's me, to a tee. It's an article from 2006, so the Great Ruby Rewrite in my case is the Great Clojure Rewrite - apart from that - ouch!

However, I don't see how having a Development Abstraction Layer in place will prevent programmers - being in charge - from making this kind of mistake. Isn't this exactly what happened to Netscape?
I wonder if a smaller local revolution has happened before: formation and spread of great research universities. Govts have tried to set up great research universities by will, China is trying hard, India is making small steps, so are places like Germany. But they have not succeeded yet. Even in a small country like UK, only 3 great universities have emerged.

Within US, Stanford is today a great research university but it was not so in 1945. Great luck like the combination of cold war spending and the idea of steeples of excellence by Terman made it happen. Uni. of Florida or ASU may be today aspiring to greatness, but they are fighting the 'locality' of research universities. Maybe some random events will help them out.
We use Canadian co-ops at our shop. Being offered a second internship at the same place is a big compliment - we only offer a second term to the best students. Doing a second co-op in the same company has certain practical advantages (eg. minimising your moving costs) but also professional advantages: it allows you to deepen your expertise, and it makes you more memorable to the people who work there - I am still writing references for co-ops we had years ago, and one 2-term co-op now has a permanent position with us.

If your main concern is whether you will be able to secure an internship in Canada, you should raise this issue with your co-op co-ordinator at your University - s/he will know whether they are successfully placing all the students or not.

I have no advice about the girlfriend situation :-)
Yes. Though, allegations are allegations and what weight do they hold, especially in this case? I argue they don't hold much- it looks more like a civil dispute between two former friends. Plus, keep in mind, 10% is more than enough reasonable doubt- especially in a case where the law and the police are still considered noobs to the game.

But this part kills me:
"Mr. Calixte has access into ""'s computer as he set it up for him when they were friends and he knows the password. The computer has been looked at by several experts and none of them can resolve the problem."

WOW- maybe Mr. Calixte is the ultimate cryptographer and completely disguised his activity so stealthy that the so-called 'experts' cannot find the problem! NO. The problem is that there is no problem. And what the hell is wrong with the computer owner? Someone needs a lesson in password management 101.
Nice design. I suggest using Twitter to mark the most talk about/popular places. Then those who want to go rate it themselves will add to what the crowd has said.

If this can be done efficiently using Twitter search then the data is automated and makes your site more interesting because content is indirectly being created via Twitter.
keep going, your motivation needs to stem from you having some distinguishable element to your idea that nobody has done yet. The element needs to be important enough to make a difference.

Spend some time finding how you can be distinct from people around you. Good ideas are rewarded by others trying them out, it shows that you're not just on a limb by yourself, but that it's actually something others think would be successful.

There are many companies out there that do almost exactly the same thing as another one, but the subtle differences might be the most important one. Also nobody ever said sharing the market has ever been a drawback.

Instead of being first, why not second? You could be much more successful.

Goodluck, don't lose hope.
This is excellent. Let them do the market research for you, examine their user trends to see what works and what does not, and build on their failures. Take all that worked from their site and add some new stuff. Target the same sites they targeted and a few more. They have broken the walls, you now just need to copy them.
Fascinating article! I have a great uncle who was a blind marathon runner. He used a guide and I wonder how he would have done if he had learned how to echolocate.

http://wwuvikings.cstv.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/082108aaa...
what about something totally unrelated, Sunday should be perfect beach weather...
Have a look at the legends on the map images. E.g.

http://www.nrel.gov/gis/il_csp.html

isn't found anymore, but this appears to be a current index for items from the same source

http://www.nrel.gov/gis/maps.html

NREL == National Renewable Energy Laboratory

"The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation's primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development (R&D).

"NREL's mission and strategy are focused on advancing the U.S. Department of Energy's and our nation's energy goals. The laboratory's scientists and researchers support critical market objectives to accelerate research from scientific innovations to market-viable alternative energy solutions..."
I am 29 as well, and have also noticed the odd gap between people who found the "social" web before MySpace and those who found it after (all those facebook kids!). I almost want to say it's possibly a "generational," phenomena, but probably not.

Maybe it's more or less cliquish. The machine built before the hype machine is much more elegant.

Facebook does remind me of a data mining monster. And being that it was "founded" by one who is younger than me, I can't say I trust it any further than it can be metaphorically thrown.
4. If you do basic research, keep your eyes open for applications of your findings.

I'm always reminded of one of my grad school profs who said that the goal of any research should either be commercial or something which will end up in a text-book.

Everything in between is just filler.
Ask HN: Suggestions for Framework for CMS for multilingual site
First, some background information... I'm coming up on a medium-scale website for a non-profit that will require both English and Korean translations. Feature-set includes: CMS for normal content, a blog, some form submission/handling (including CSV/PDF exports), a job posting board, a directory of related businesses and non-profits (that accepts visitor submissions), and a basic (probably blog-driven) newsroom.

I have a fairly strong development background, and I've done some sites using Drupal, built some basic custom CMSes using frameworks like CodeIgniter, and I've recently started getting into Django. These are the primary options that I am exploring, and I would consider using different tools for different portions of the project, but what I'm mainly interested in, is if anyone has any experience to share with regards to localization/internationalization. I haven't yet put together a site that supports multiple languages, so before I get in trouble by underestimating the task, or making poor assumptions, I'd like to get some input to help guide my decision-making process.

Do you have any recommendations for frameworks (Drupal, Django, CodeIgniter) that handle localization/internationalization/translation well for a CMS? I know they all support it, but I'm looking for real-world experience here (or suggestions for modules/plugins given explanations).

Sorry for the longwinded question, but I wanted to be clear as possible. Thanks in advance!
Excellent essay, as usual. Question: does this imply that Silicon Valley will continue to grow as a result of being the dominant location for startups? And if so, is there a point at which its size will diminish its superiority?
My point was more that there was plenty of other valid probable cause claims in the warrant.

If a judge had rejected this warrant on the basis of that paragraph, the police could have just removed it and we and the judge wouldn't have anything to complain about.

The grounds for the seizure were plenty strong - the email traces and network authentication would be enough to get any laptop involved in a crime seized.

And as for people claiming it wasn't a crime - there is no possible way that there was no malicious intent in sending a personal-attack email anonymously to a large group of people. (edit)In this case(/edit), the free-speech argument kind of loses its luster when you send something without your name attached.
The problem is that solar panels generally contain fairly rare elements. If everyone in the Western World decided overnight to put solar panels on their roofs, we'd run out of those elements very quickly. It simply isn't possible with the current technology AFAIK.

Wind Turbines are a different matter; they are relative simple machines from a commodities point of view.
If you're asking if I think the dog is consciously lying, then no, because that presupposes consciousness (that is, that the dog is a person). Do I believe that the dog is engaging in the same behavior that in a person we would call "lying"? Yup. Intent only matters if there's someone to do the intending. Deception, however, is an activity that needs no intention -- it evolved before consciousness.
Having said that Nano Solar are quite interesting - not sure if they are reliant on obscure materials but they are a fascinating company - huge levels of investment in them too...

http://www.nanosolar.com/
Which of these is not like the others?
This warrant almost seems like a disguise for something bigger, something to use to make an example of this kid. There's talk about illegally downloaded content; movies, music, etc. But even copyright is still a touchy subject in the eyes of the law... and, the basis of the case is around "Fraud".

We all know the state of affairs with copyright and stealing things like movies and holding a cache of them... But ultimately, peer to peer sharing is not much different than going to your friends house, popping in a DVD you brought(and bought) so that you all could enjoy the entertainment experience. None of this should give the police the right to seize your TV, DVD player, entertainment system, detain you and your parties, couches, and popcorn since you were hacking with your microwave. The significant difference is that you cross the line when you make copies of your content and then try to sell it for a profit.

Later, it states that the suspect was traced back to the origins of the emails sent from the BC server and elaborates further about how uncommon Ubuntu Linux is in Gabelli hall and not to mention, the BC network. In the way it was mentioned, it implies that Linux was used as the foundation for an attack- Since the police have based their case on accusations, maybe those at Ubuntu should sue for defamation of character. I'm sure Mac users are feeling left out right about now.
There are many ways for a market leader to lose ground to a competitor - I am witnessing one of those at the moment, with one of the services I use. You can compete on features, you can compete on aesthetics, you can compete on customer service, you can carve up the niche... the list goes on.

What you can't do is expect other people not to have the same idea - whether you get first to market or not. If that was your only plan, it wouldn't have worked out anyway.
Changing grades is basically the only possible crime listed in that warrant, everything else listed is a civil matter at best, and mostly scaremongering due to his technical abilities.

>> he has "fixed" computers so that they cannot be scanned by any system for detection of illegal downloads and illegal internet use, "jail breaks" cell phones, possibly stolen ones, for people so that the phones can be used on networks other than they are meant for

He expects full control over his property and doesn't just do what he's told? We're obviously dealing with a loose cannon here!
> While you may feel this to be irrelevant

I actually think it is quite relevant. If I'm right then you have been to some extent brainwashed into the thinking that the training is reasonable. Your response makes sense if you had been brainwashed or if you hadn't. Of course this doesn't prove anything either way.

The point is that the proper identification of brainwashing is always going to come from an external observer. To me the process I have heard described of 'breaking someone down and then building them up again' is the definition of brainwashing.
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