skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Maybe Perl 6 will have meta-language power enough to equal the macro system?

Not only does it have full-on raging macros, you can redefine the languages own syntax inline. Check out one of Larry's recent talks about STD.pm (here's a Google Tech Talk from last year, which is nowhere near as funny as Larry usually is, but is still quite informative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzIWdJVP-wo )for a real "when you see it, you'll shit bricks" moment. Perl 6 is far more intimidating than I ever realized. They seem to have looked at everything good about Perl (and a handful of other languages) and said, "Let's do a lot more of that." It's somewhat scary how much more of "that" they've done. So, there's macros from Lisp, lazy evaluation from Haskell, redefine-able grammar and syntax from I dunno where, a new regex language, etc. It takes TMTOWTDI to obscene new heights (kinda like Lisp). If power is the sole determining factor in what language you choose, there's a strong case to be made that Perl 6 is the one you want. I don't know that I entirely buy that (if I did, I guess I'd be using Lisp), but I'm hopeful that the real result of Perl 6 will be a language as capable as Lisp with a community and library culture as strong as Perl 5.
Yes, I can see parentheses as a convenient catch-phrase. While it's less familiar than indentation in Python, you're right that people complain about that too, but it hasn't stopped adoption.

Unfortunately, I think the community is about as likely to change.
Chris, I'm one of the founders of JamLegend, so feel free to e-mail me directly if you have any questions about JamLegend. We have been in News.YC for a while, so it holds a particular place in our hearts if people are referred from there.

I've been very happy with SnapTalent because I think it authentically conveys our company and we've helped test parts of their system. Snaptalent is so refreshing because it's a company that finally gets it.
I was really interested in this. The moment I click on a blog though, I see nothing. I was expecting to see the stories in the feed. Th

en it seems to suggest that I have to create an account and log in (for what?). So you lost my mindshare rigth away.
I found Elephant really nice to use with Lisp. It can use a SQL db as a data store, but uses it just for key/value mappings, so you can't use normal SQL commands as you might expect. I found the code to be very concise.

http://common-lisp.net/project/elephant/
wait, who is to say that bill gates wasn't a good student? he dropped out of harvard because he wanted to, not because he was getting bad grades.

i don't know as much about jobs and ellison, but i can't imagine that they'd be ones to get Cs in macroeconomics either.
I heard about this phenomenon from nato troops in Afgahnistan too. Apparently a woman has to be safely transported abroad if she is seen with a man. A friend who was stationed in Meymaneh told me that he had seen men having gay sex in dark alleys after night, apparently out of desperation. He described it as a not too uncommon phenomenon, although he had only observed it once.
How do you judge you are better? What criteria are you using? Also, everyone gets better with time - do you have some type of control that shows you may not have been better by now using a debugger?
count me in too.. probably we can make a team of 5 :-)
Ask HN: What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed)
Whacked from reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/8aixn/programming_books_that_you_would_buy_right_now_if/?sort=new), but I would love to hear HN users's opinions.

I would buy "Inside The Python VM", (replace Python with Erlang or Lua or V8) and "A Hacker's Guide to Hadoop Internals"
Here's another. 3 EC2 instance epicfails for 30 instances over the last 12 months.
You have to be very careful with following those kinds of trends, particularly as there are generational factors that play a role. The 'no college' approach may have been a perfectly valid way to do it during the boom years, but it doesn't necessary make sense today or tomorrow. I found this HBR-article particularly valuable at how society changes over time: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/artic...
I just got the book 'Outliers' as a gift today - it is a fun read.
But couldn't he have asked before quitting, or have quit from somewhere "safe"?
> The men she approached as they were crossing were much likely to call her in the coming days. Why? “The scientists attributed it to the misidentification of those bodily symptoms of fear,” says Lehrer. “They thought they were aroused and attracted, but they were only scared.”
The men she approached as they were crossing were much likely to call her in the coming days. Why? “The scientists attributed it to the misidentification of those bodily symptoms of fear,” says Lehrer. “They thought they were aroused and attracted, but they were only scared.”

And that's why some men marry women they're afraid of.
I finally registered an account so I comment on your post. I think you have it spot on. I never attended any university and in my 13 year career it's only ever been an issue three times (Incidentally all 3 here in the US, I've only been here for 5 years).

Once was Google when they noticed the lack of an education section on my resume. The second was a startup in NY that was run by a couple of recent phd grads who had an issue with whether or not I would have fit into the culture (I passed several technical interviews). The third is my current employer AT&T Labs, but my manager pushed hard to get me in.

I've also been employed at Time Warner, Conde Nast & Viacom/MTV Networks (at a Director Level), so the bigger companies (Except for Google) will look past your qualifications if you can show you have the skillset required and the experience in using it.

As an employer when given the choice between a recent graduate with zero experience and someone who spent the past 4 years gaining experience in the industry I've usually gone with the non-graduate. (I always think what I was like at day zero of my first dev job verses the senior dev I was 4 years later).
I absolutely love Common Lisp, but it has some problematic areas, which are not the classical stupid ones you sometimes still hear from clueless people (such as "lots of parentheses", "lisp is slow", "lisp is for AI only" etc.).

I won't even say that libraries are a real problem. Sure there is no CPAN, but still there are a lot of very good CL libraries around, and they are not really hard to install.

But:

1. The language is sophisticated. This is a "problem", in the sense that such a language takes time to study. It will never be popular. The Condition system and CLOS, for example, are way more complex and versatile than, say, the equivalent areas of Java. And then there are macros. Common Lisp has not been designed as a mainstream language for mainstream programmers. It is, I fear, an elite tool.

2. Certain kind of operations are inconvenient. Maybe when CL was designed, sockets, multithreading, text processing etc were not so popular. But now, it feels like CL has not really adapted well to the modern world. Having to install a compatibility library for using sockets is reminiscent of things like "trumpet winsock". Does not feel very cutting edge.

3. The literature is lacking. "Practical Common Lisp" is very good, but one book is not enough. For example, what are the best practices to organize large CL programs? No book tells it (maybe some obscure out-of-print text that I have not yet tracked?). What about programming idioms, or patterns as you prefer? Apart from an ancient presentation by peter norvig, nothing exist. And so on.

4. The ANSI standard is a big blessing and a big curse. It is a well-written and smart opus. But nowadays no one has the resources for a new standard; both in terms of money and focus. This means that ANSI CL seems an ancient pinnacle of beauty which will never be equalled and certainly can not be improved. (the perfection of ancient architecture, as seen by renaissance architects, comes to mind). This makes CL a splendid but dying civilization.

5. I have a feeling that the community is slowly dying as well. While in recent years many CL sites and blogs have appeared, comp.lang.lisp has lost many important contributors. Nor I can really blame them: while still a wonderful language, CL is nonetheless petrified, and I suppose one may became slightly bored after a decade or two of discussing the finer points of the Standard.
Most important: actually have the conversation.

Difficult conversation: "You are highly unlikely to ever finish your Ph.D."

Net result of postponing: student spends 8-12 years in grad school, 5-9 years more than necessary. 3-5 years of support (approx $60k) are wasted. Multiple students who might succeed are rejected from grad school.

You are not doing anyone any favors by avoiding difficult conversations.
It looks like the cruise ship chairs used by all the obese people in WALL-E. I really hope that movie's futuristic scenarios aren't fulfilled.
Programming Clojure (http://www.pragprog.com/titles/shcloj/programming-clojure) - it semi-exists - presently only available as pdf beta book.
I don't understand your first bullet point about turing machines. Can you elaborate?

> * What do you get if you photocopy a mirror?

Black?
Software engineering in functional languages. Pretty much every programming book I have read found about functional languages has been about learning a language with examples that are less than a page. I am curious what thought patterns and structures you use to build something larger.
Hmm, that sounds like a bug. Do you see any content on this page: http://postrank.com/feed/2720a6fc8fb2e4b346715972c954fe7a

It should definitely bring up the stories / content!
That was exactly my first impression as well!
The Harsh Realities of Energy
"Middle-east is one place I won't move to even if Google offered me a job there."

I won't move there for any amount of money. Life isn't worth living the way one has to live in the ME (I am Indian, I hear many horror stories). I'd rather go be a Somalian pirate or something like that.
Why Newspaper and Music Comparisons are No Longer Relevant
I would mostly blame this on a weird thing we call "math"
What better way to make your product better for your users than to improve on things your competitors don't do well? I think that despite size, good strategic business thinking should always take into account the competition.
Object-Oriented Database Management Systems Succeeded
i was reading "the china study" and there's a part about gene. a disease grows about 3% / year while population maybe <1%, conclusion? gene alone cannot possibly be responsible for the disease

so maybe it's better to compare degree_rate and billionaire_rate ... if #degree-holders grow by 10%/annum while #billionaires grow by 2%/annum then college alone cannot possibly be responsible for billionaire

ok, i'll say it ... college is overrated, over time degrees worth less due to supply/demand
Wow, fine, whatever. Then use your god damn imagination as to what the strata could be. My point is that they could have prepared more than one type of rejection e-mail.

That's the significant thing I'm adding to the discussion, so please respond to that, rather than trying to disprove some other minor point I'm not even trying to make.

If I sound like I'm pissed, it's because I am. This happens all the fucking time on HN, and the snarky replies are the ones that get upvoted.
I agree with this, I grew up in a family where both parents dropped out of High School (Was possible in the 60/70's in NZ as the unemployment level was almost non-existent).

Education was always second to sporting achievement in our family. When offered a partial scholarship to Uni in my last year of High School I had to turn it down as my parents were starting to charge rent (I turned 18). My brother was living rent free though and had been working for a year as a apprentice baker, this was because he dropped out of High School with 2 years left when my dad got him the apprenticeship through a golf buddy. The weird part of the story is he got the apprenticeship so young because he was the smartest of us 3 siblings.

I decided to skip uni and work in the Orchard for a year, I never got the change to take up the scholarship as my career got a lucky break not long after.

I know I'm not alone in my situation I have several friends back home with similar stories, its just blue collar or lower middle class living. I think that some people who have been raised by academics don't realize how little encouragement there is for the rest of us to go.
http://www.amazon.com/Real-World-Functional-Programming-Exam...

I came across a blog excerpt from this book that looked pretty neat. It isn't out yet but could be good.
Social Media is taking you and your company hostage
I would love to go, but yeah it is crazy expensive and I doubt I could get my employer to pay for it.
This is a dupe of: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=551244

bdfh42 -- Any chance you could delete this one?
I saw this for the first time today as well - never heard of it before. Looking forward to playing with it later this weekend.

When it comes to % of sales: as a developer on Windows/Linux machines I don't have any other choice, do I? At least when it comes to iPhone development.
Wow, you pretty much fail without trying. Saying that you have to have somebody supporting you or else you won't succeed is a self fulfilling prophecy. Unfortunately you are what people call, "little people". People that cannot think big and find excuses for their failures.
"I came across a blog excerpt from this book that looked pretty neat. "

http://tomasp.net/blog/functional-net-update.aspx

has the table of contents. I am not sure if it has any insights on functional programming in the large, but it does look neat.
"'The rational brain can only take in seven pieces of information at one time,' Lehrer says. 'When it gets more than that, it’s like an old computer trying to run Vista.'"

Zing!

Will Vista's legacy be a pop-culture simile for an overburdened machine?
I wasn't trying to be snarky. They apparently feel that "you didn't get in" is all that needs to be said.
For people unable or unwilling to muck about fixing the encoding of the story, I've mirrored the content on my website:

http://www.tranquilapps.com/HowtoStopWorryingandLearntoLovet...
Actually I don't think the quantity of sex actually changes after getting married. I think people think "Well we spend about 10 hours a week together, and we have sex like 3 times... that should mean in a 168 hour week I'll have sex like 50 times!" No, you'll still only have sex 3 times in a week.

My wife and I used to live in separate countries (before we were married) so when we saw each other we managed to get about 4 months worth of sex into 2 weeks. I get just as much sex now that am married as I did before I was married, just now I don't have to go through 4 months of celibacy in between it.

Honestly the sex doesn't change, if anything I get more now that I'm married, and I certainly get it more regularly.

My personal advice: never expect to get more sex by getting married. If you get it n times a week, evaluate if that amount is enough for the next 30 years, if it's not slap yourself in the face because if you fuck it up you could well get 0 times a week for the next 30 years. C'mon we're geeks, our chances for sex aren't astronomically high.
"the world thinks we suck. How do we convince everyone we're vibrant and fun-loving?"

The only response that wasn't along those lines (or the old "Lisp is just too awesome for lame modern coders" shtick) was Ian Eslick's long one "A Coherent Portal into the Lisp World"; he actually seemed aware of why it was hard for new folks to get into Lisp and had suggestions about direction.
Found the blog post I was referring to:

http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2009/04/04/functional-c-the...

Also has a link to buy a pre-release version of the book
Secrets of TV Pitchmen Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan
True. Helping someone to save face should never be underestimated.
What an incredible lineup! Really wish I could go, but the budget won't allow it. I sure hope they make videos of the presentations available at least.
My fictional choice would be "The Oracle Optimizer: A Treatise"

Database related books tend to be too high level and never dig down deep enough.
You Didn’t Make It to Y Combinator or TechStars, Now What?
tempted. I know Neil (one of the organizers) so I might go as a last minute "oh bugger it" thing ...
I have to disagree with you here.

I dropped out of college, where I was a poor student, to do back breaking labor and found my first startup living on the cheap in India. I have since tanked startups repeatedly. During my second startup I labored on building a 4000 sq foot house at $12 an hour while working part-time on my prototype. None of that required a parental safety net, just personal hardship.

Ironically, its been the best thing that could have happened to me. I'm an independent learner and so I was ill suited for college. In startups, I get to develop highly marketable, cutting-edge skills using technologies not taught in college or used in a corporate environment. I then apply these through consulting as the market catches up and get a big fat raise from the skills I develop at each startup.

Although some money from the startups would be nice, too :) Working on that.
You could just as easily say "people who go to college are more likely to have straight teeth."

Except that isn't interesting. Money--particularly in large quantities--is more interesting than teeth.
Support AWACS, drop Marines in somewhere by helicopter, support midair refueling for bombers that can drop bigger bombs than a catamaran-launched cruise missile can.

Also, spreading out thousands of crewmembers on a swarm of small surface craft would be much more of a logistics challenge for supply than a smaller number of bigger craft (as in a carrier group).
interesting way to rationalize not getting in: "it isn't very good"
That's what was bothering me about it. Thanks for stating it so succinctly.
Android’s biggest Netbook challenge (Hint: Windows)
Yes, a bookmarklet on the main site would be very appreciated
Unfortunately, most judges don't understand these issues. They apply the same sort of thinking to a "server" as they would to a box of weapons or bags of coke. Bags of coke and boxes of machined metal can't be virtual like servers can.

This needs to be addressed, and soon!

Another consequence: cloud computing providers will be loath to host anything that vaguely resembles something that might be subject to seizure.
I don't think you understand the problem. Even if you manage to find 4, 4, 3, 1 and 6, 2, 2, 2, you still have to verify that if the sum is 12, then there is only 1 possible product. You'll note that nobody in the linked thread succeeds at this (one guy proves that 12 works by exhaustive search, not really a possibility in an interview...)
I've given talks on things I thought were of technical interest, but then realized that my heart was not really in it.

World of difference from when I'm stoked about something.
Entrepreneur discusses the difference between ambiguity and risk
The “Sexy Sells” Debate - Ultimate Proof
Don't get me wrong. YC is good. But not getting in is not the end of the world. It's the difference between taking a shortcut or having to do the work yourself.
I'm still looking for an internship abroad (I'm from the Netherlands), and this sounds like a cool opportunity! I only hope that JamLegend or any other company on snaptalent are waiting for some european knowledge ;)
Really?

I guess that's why I've never seen any http://citysegwaytours.com/ around here.
DDoS Attacks on Web Hosts Continue
The book appears to be very close to release. I've been downloading each release for the past few months and the latest one is great. It was also a nice surprise to see that in addition to PDF the latest update is also available in epub and mobi (compatible with Kindle) formats.
The site and game look great, success seem inevitable; but I find playing unsatisfying.

The chosen notes often seem independent of the guitar lines in the song; and when played, they're not in sync. So for me, it's more like a simon-says game with incidental background music. :-)

- Is this a technical problem? Flash is not so great at syncing sounds and actions; and additionally, I'm trying it on a low-powered eee PC (most flash games are fine on it).

- Or is it me? I've heard that these games are not like playing the instrument at all (I'm an old guitar player, just garage bands and teaching, but I can play), and so maybe this spoils the experience for me.

I hope this feedback is useful to you - and even better if you can enlighten me! Thanks :-)
Enhanced Gmail and Calendar web app for iPhone and Android
I found this post refreshing. The Asian parent tendency to declare themselves practically omniscient to their kids is a big way that they shoot themselves in the foot. Is your average American kid really going to buy the argument that you should trust someone to know the right answer to everything, when that someone has a hard time telling the difference between the ads and the TV shows? (This probably dates me. I was born in the late 60s)
I was at demo these guys did for a SV Rails Meetup, and while the basic functionality is pretty damn cool, I have some concerns about the base footprint of applications.

The baseline they quoted was 2MB, which may not be much when you're talking about a desktop app downloaded over cable or DSL, but in the mobile space, where (non-iPhone) devices may only ship with 50-100MB of storage free, and many users are served mostly by poky EDGE networks, a multi-MB "hello, world!" seems a bit excessive.

That being said, for their core market -- namely, developers porting enterprise app UIs to mobile devices -- I think it could be an acceptable tradeoff for the productivity gain that results from it being "just another browser app".
That makes more sense. I thought there was some obvious game theory principle I was missing, since somebody commented that they could answer the question without knowing anything about trading.
Twitter makes its commercial debut thanks to Sprint
a shortcut in what sense?

I think its like spending a year on a product on your own, vs 3 months being gently advised.
I'd rather go be a Somalian pirate

You say it like it is a bad thing! Many people would love to be a bad-ass Somalian pirate.
I agree with you completely.

But I also think it is possible to train yourself to manage your emotions better despite how strong our instinctual wiring is. This is evident in the long history of meditation practices.

So, it's good that the government is nursing us. And it will be even better if, in addition to that, they integrate meditation, behavior economics, entrepreneurial training courses, etc, into our education system. However, the current education system is far from that.
I certainly can imagine a curious student taking macroeconomics and get so utterly bored and annoyed that he gets a C. In my case the course was "Entrepreneurship" and while the course itself was (mostly) interesting and inspiring, the test at the end was stupid and I recieved a C (well, something equivalent in Germany).

Now i'm thinking whether look for a job is the right way or whether I should rather look for a cofounder.
I kinda like it. It seems to solve the Segway's chief problems: 1) standing and looking like and ass and 2) getting rained on.

Plus, side-by-side seating is a win compared to front-and-back.
All parents, not just Asian ones, are in no position to make rational decisions about their kids. The emotional bonds involved are just too strong.

You can't convince your parents of anything, ever. All you can do is love them.