skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
In Russia, most popular online payment systems are probably webmoney.ru and money.yandex.ru

The major difference from PayPal is that 1) these systems are de facto local, and 2) your account is not linked to your debit/credit card, rather, you have to add funds to your account proactively. At least that was true when I last checked it.

Paypal does not work with some Russian banks' credit cards because they ignored this market for so long.

If you want free Russia-specific research, point google translate to fom.ru - there are some quantitative and qualitative surveys on payments via internet.
Programmers suck at design because it isn't programming, it's design.
and without competition it is impossible to get accurate prices to see if those services are being provided at...well, competitive prices. Most government programs involve price gouging.
Meaning that whatever jQuery does ("language" vise) every simple lib in JS can do. So what jQuery enables, basically JS as a langauge enables. So jQuery is not almost it's own language but it's library in JS.
the money used to pay CEO's is a drop in the bucket next to the operating costs of a large company. how about data instead of rhetoric?
Oracle didn't have to buy Sun to have these benefits. The only reason this fits better than an IBM acquisition is because Oracle and Sun internal cultures are more aligned.
It hurts everyone. It uses up screen space and reading time and has absolutely zero value.
5-7, usually closer to 7, I take a day off only if I'm extremely sore, and two days if I'm sick. Last summer I did about 10-14 sessions a week (morning and evening) but that was just wrong and I was constantly depressed and overtrained. Now I'm just running every day for fun :)

Oh yeah, I'm a runner.
This is interesting because I looked on Oracle's website for the deal expecting to at least see a percursory promise to keep things open but didn't find it. Who knows?
Now MySQL doesn't have to implement a new engine to replace InnoDB (their previous motivation for the new engine was to keep control of it away from Oracle).
Ask HN: Who else is going to Geeknrolla?
Some of us are going to this TechCrunch-UK-organised conference tomorrow:

http://www.amiando.com/geeknrolla.html

So far, I know that myself, my cofounder, axod (founder of mibbit), and pclark (founder of Broadersheet) and jlees (of http://www.trendpreneur.com/ ) are coming. I'm sure there are a few more, so come out and make yourselves known :-)

So, who else is going? There'll probably be many opportunities to meet up during the day, but how will we recognise each other? Any ideas? Should we all wear a bright orange t-shirt?

Hope to see many of you there!
IBM lowered it's offer after discovering a few things about Sun it didn't like. Sun was OK with the price, but added some legal causes IBM didn't like - so IBM walked away.
I suspect that there has been an ongoing culture clash within Oracle. Perhaps refugees from within Oracle will gravitate towards Sun's camp?
First time I met anyone from SSE they tried to sell me SPARC hardware. For me it seems very much compatible with the Oracle view of the world.
Software That Guards Virtual Playgrounds
Btw, if all else fails, in terms of finding a way to recognise each other, my photo is on http://danieltenner.com/, so you know what I look like :-)
Ask HN: Career path for developers
Hi All,

I've been developing professionally for 10 years. Lately, I've had an itch. I'm starting to become anxious to move on to something other than full time coding, and I'm starting to think that I'd like to spend more time having "face-time" with people.

I'm not particularly interested in managing. I believe I'm inclined towards demonstrating, guiding, training, advising, etc. As part of a previous job, I was responsible for going on-site, gathering requirements and overseeing implementation of our product, which involved a lot of face to face discussions with new people. I miss the social aspects/challenges of that work.

My question is, have any of you made the transition from developer to a people-oriented role that didn't involve becoming a manager? If so, do you have any advice for a developer aspiring to do just that?

Thanks
One of the common ways for the government here to provide said services is to buy it from competing companies. So the government decides what to buy, then the fabled "market" decides the price.
Pitching for beginners
Was it all pre-planned? Sun buying MySQL at 1 billion just to make itself more attractive to Oracle for a buyout within a year?

In the end Sun seems to have made a profit out of its 1 billion investment. Oracle probably have added a lot than it would have offered simply to ensure it owns its main business killer MySQL.
Empty Walls
> No helium, no fusion. Excess energy is a red herring.

I'm not sure whether to vote you up or down. Yes, a physical by-product is the best determinant of a nuclear reaction, but the whole point of this endeavor is the excess energy!
I would rate the web app as not very good seeing as I got a 504 Gateway Time-out.
Small windmills put to the test
Amir Nathoo (WebMynd YC08) will be there too, apparently.
Free accounts now to use The Resumator - Paperless Hiring
Please be sure to wear that exact expression at all times in order that we shall be able to recognize you.
In the conference call they talked about operating Sun at a significantly higher margin, and talked only about Java/Solaris/Sparc/Storage + Oracle synergy. The sum of references to open source was, "oh yeah, and Oracle still runs on Linux".

I'm a bit of a pessimist, but I'd expect to see serious downscaling of FOSS at Sun.
Cross-referenced to
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=568557
where there's already substantial discussion.
Sure, I never worked before with open-source communities, thats the reason, and I know that.
In Sweden I'd say we almost always use Visa and to a lesser extent master card. If a website doesn't want to deal with credit cards, I think a local version of paypal https://www.payson.se is more common than paypal if it's a page that's only avaliable in Swedish. I'm only really basing this on my own experience and observations though.
Thank you, I will try to improve the "substance" of my essay, I'm just beggining with writting in english, maybe with the practice I start to cover more the aspects I mention in the essay. Thank you very much for the comment
Wouldn't this give Oracle ownership of the JVM? I'm a little more concerned about their ownership of it than the Java language itself.
Credit Card Rewards
We take a look at a few important factors to consider when aiming for credit card rewards
Don't forget that JIRA is available for $5 as well! I love its dashboards for project summarization.
How to secure a web contact form
New Business Credit Card
Things you need to consider before applying for a New Business Credit Card
Anything that helps bandwidth customers without actually adding more capacity is going to break net neutrality. Since adding more capacity for all means that a larger and larger amount is going to be dark most of the time, it seems like it could be worthwhile to break net neutrality in cases where it's a win for at least some and a loss for no one.
We're on the scheme, and use Sun x86. Maybe it's different here in the UK, but it's been wonderfully pressure-free on the sales side and they've put an awful lot of effort into helping startups in ways other than selling cheap kit.

Obviously it's all out of self-interest, but it seems to me to be very much enlightened self-interest. Which isn't how you'd describe Oracle.
Fun fact from a guy I know who's seen the code of Flash: it's roughly 15% #ifdefs. Not code within #ifdefs, but actual lines of #ifdef and #endif and so forth.

I feel sorry for the people who have to do the porting.
You make it sound like there's going to be war within Oracle!
Last year after trying a bunch of different things fitness options, I got into cycling. I now commute by bike whenever I can and participate in long (50+ mile) weekend rides. In the summer I am riding on average 10 miles a day, but that drops to maybe 10 miles a week for the winter months.

One great thing about cycling is that the community is very hacker-esque. Once you learn the talk, you'll feel right at home.

Another wonderful thing about cycling is that a stressful 15 minute car ride can turn into a peaceful 30 minute bike ride, giving your mind a rest. I find that after a quick ride I am more likely to come up with good ideas and be productive/creative.
Earlier this year, I started taking a 7km walk everyday. 210km a month. I never stopped. My health and overall physical aptitude has been awesome.
Short list.
It's sad but true. Stories are decided upon during a "morning meeting" by editors/news directors and then reporters are sent off in the field to confirm what has already been decided. Only if the situation has been grossly misjudged does a report deviate from what has been decided, otherwise you are just finding a few slobs to parrot some lines that support the original assertion.

Ideally the reporters in the field communicate back to the producers in the newsroom and the story evolves in a more organic fashion. But realistically, with looming deadlines and many more stories to write, it's just easier to "stay the course."
Adobe Flash secures set-top deal
This is why Brazil has the safest banking system in the world: Brazilians are unruly and the police is ineffective.
"socialism", US-style ;-)
A corporate tax is a double tax, as any dividends or payroll are also taxed, sometimes twice.

Any profits should be filed as income by shareholder, making the tax system much simpler. If that income were taxed at a flat rate, we could remove huge chunks of the tax code.

Simplification is the best way to avoid evasion.
This is all interesting, but I think IBM may regret not getting this deal done. It seems "owning" Java gives Oracle some leverage over IBM as so much of their services business hinges on Java. The possibility of turn key solution stacks with hardware/Solaris/Oracle/business apps might give Oracle a chance to compete in IBM's markets, too, or at least reduce demand for IBM services. If you can get all that installed and supported from one vendor, you might need fewer service agreements from third party vendors like IBM.
When Does 'Close' Become Too-Close-to-Call?
Moreover, people are very reluctant to use cards on the Internet in general there. For example a friend of mine wanted to purchase a domain name for personal use (blog, photos, CV, etc.) but eventually decided not to just because he had to use a card!

Lots of local websites accept SMS payments because of that. I have no idea why people consider it safer. It seems to me that as long as there's a HTTPS connection with a nice certificate (EV or normal) from the issuing company you've heard of you're most likely to be safe.
I've got no idea but re-coining (or I guess pre-coining) the term web 2.0 into something that doesn't make me cry a bit on the inside every time I or others mention it is pretty high on my list.
Somebody should write a wordpress plugin that offers a shortened URL along with the Google-URL (Google URLs meaning myblog.com/my-blog-article-about-whatever, shortened to myblog.com/whatever).
Kettlebells. You can do a form of deadlift and cleans with them. Google for "kettlebell deadlift" and "kettlebell clean" to get an idea how.
The 11 people that upvoted this article should be ashamed.
Why not offer both a long and a short URL at the same time?
Could the first black president have been elected with out it? (Serious question)

I doubt Bush would have gotten elected for a second time if it wasn't for 9/11 and I think Obama would have had a much harder time getting elected if Bush hadn't destroyed the public's opinion of the republican party.
I found this one pretty useful because it states that Oracle is expecting to get 3.5 billion dollars in extra profit just in the next two years from this deal. That is 40% of the purchase price. That sounds like a pretty good deal for Oracle.
The Casimir Effect and Nanomachines
I like the self-reference in the accusation of pirating anti-piracy technology. It's like stealing a bike lock.
I've done a bit of the "technical liason for sales" and that can be entertaining for a short time. You get to be in front of people - both customers and colleagues - and you get input from both sides. With what you're looking for, that might be a good fit. If you do opt for that, I'd want a cut of commissions for any sales that I helped sell :)
Programming newbies make apps for iPhone
It would be really weird if the future for MySQL involved PL/SQL. I can definitely imagine a world where it's not exactly free anymore.

Anyone at the MySQL conference today (April 20)?
Any idea if commissions are standard in roles like that?
I think the developments in the security of Apple products will be a very interesting thing to watch over the next year. Now that word is out that the Army is deploying iPhones and iPods with its troops, there is sure to be an increased interest in the security of those products. It makes sense from a cost standpoint to use an already existing device rather than create your own, but I expect that the security challenges that go along with issuing soldiers iPhones will be non trivial.
Getting a little sick of all the snobbery about PHP around here. PHP certainly isn't as elegant as say, Ruby or Python, and I definitely can't stick my nose in the air and call myself a "PHPista" like some "Pythonistas" I know, it gets. The job. Done.

PHP has an incredible library backing it up, is specifically engineered for the web, and is understood by a tremendous amount of people. There are code samples, tutorials, and all kinds of things just flat-out solved already for you.

And frankly, EVERY audience could seriously use some benchmarking information. I'm certain there are constructs in every language that are miles apart in terms of efficiency.
Obvious official HN response: do a startup, where your people skills will be just as important as your technical chops, yet you will still take full advantage of your years of experience.

My response: "management" is a fuzzy area. A product manager, for instance, can be very different from a project manager -- and it would involve a lot of what you're talking about.
I heard a lot from one of the students when he was first publicizing his lawsuit on another Web forum. His dad was a lawyer, and it was painfully apparent that they were constructing outlandish hypothetical harms to students in an online statement they wrote about why what Turnitin.com does was so evil, in their opinion. He finally shirked away from the online discussion on that forum after getting lots of counterargument from fully grown and very experienced lawyers who poked holes in his claims. I see the court system on both the trial level and appellate level have done the same. My impression at that time, and my impression today, is that the case was made up in an attempt to make some easy money--just the sort of lawyer behavior that should be decried by hackers everywhere.
Going to the afterparty. My real name's Mike, I'm working on a Python based security monitoring tool. Would love to meet other London pythonistas.

I have no bright orange T shirts, but I do have red pants. Feel free to come over and say 'Excuse me, are you red pants guy from HackerNews?'.
I tend to move with the job and my rented apartments look like a monastic cell. This in no way makes me more productive.

It's not about possessions, it's about how much uninterrupted focus you have.

With the 9 to 5 + commute treadmill, you are not going to be making a lot of progress on anything.

Getting rid of crap is easy. Finding vast amounts of uninterrupted focus is not. Checking out for a year costs $.
12 Killer Thunderbird extensions
12 Killer Thunderbird extensions
what do you need a fiber link for if you're going to ignore the rest of the world?
Don't forget about S-corps, LLC's and similar entities. All profits are treated as income (and taxed as such) by it's owners.

The article even makes a note of this, shortly before ignoring it.
students, who are forced to submit their personal works to this third-party service

The value the students gain from this service is authentication that their school papers are their own work, which makes their school credentials more valuable. It is a good trade-off for the students, who lose no rights at all to produce further derivative works from their original works.
The Power of Passed Links (continued)
That sounds approximately as generally evil as Google, Yahoo, and any other Web search service that crawls sites.
Is it machine generated? What do the #ifdefs depend on in general? Perhaps platform?
I'm not interested in being a PHB. That is my aversion to management...
The founder of the company I work is pitching there as one of the invited start-ups. Watch out for Jason Trost from Smarkets.
$10k Contest: Champion the 3D Web Using COLLADA
This is politics - flagged.
... thus precipitating the dirty-bomb attack of 2006
Wouldn't other hardware vendors be more interested in supporting PostgreSQL now? Before the acquisition, if you bought a big HP database server, HP had no reason to care which database software you ran on it. Now, HP would prefer that you not be directing your software-purchase money to one of HP's competitors.
" Maybe because the problem is arising people will move to short urls on their own sites so that they don't even need to be shortened for twitter and such, because honestly the problem isn't that the urls are redirecting its that the urls need to be redirected because of an unnecessary long url for clarity."

And this is the part I never quite understood. Does anyone really type in the URLs? Folks click, or at best copy and paste. Did anyone here for once typed in that http://tinyurl.com/yadayada stuff?

What exact problem URL shortener addresses, aside from (maybe) miniscule adjustment of aesthetics?
I'm going to be at both events (photo on http://www.twitter.com/DirtyAndy ). Don't really know anyone going although interestingly met jlees at a pitching course two weeks ago and exchanged e-mails with axod a month or so ago. Small world message! I do have a bright orange t-shirt but shall not be wearing it - I have a bright orange business card which will have to do!
If a bunch of impoverished Brazilians can use these satellites to communicate, is a Denial of Service possible if organized by a well funded group? I admit I don't know as much about this type of technology as I would like. I assume they could saturate every frequency?

Also, a thought to fix this problem. How much money do you think the US is going to spend to try to crack down on the hijackers? How much money do you think it would take to build a decent infrastructure to remove the motivation of hijacking? The numbers certainly are not equal, but they're probably closer than you'd think.
Some of the best career advice I ever got was from a recruiter who had a PhD in microbiology: "Don't lose your technical edge." I sensed that he regretted stepping out of the lab into a sales/recruiting role. He's a great guy but had to step out of recruiting and I met him again when he was working managing contracts for a company I was working for.

So whatever you do, I'd recommend keeping your coding skills. You could do that by starting your own software training company for example, maybe start a site that teaches basic skills to people and couple it with live courses. That's my 2 cents, anyway.
And now they will have to implement a whole new company. Sigh, I want to feel optimistic about this buyout, but somehow I don't.
Paper books, ftw!
Amusingly, before they bought MySQL, Sun were the biggest PostgreSQL supporters. They still employ the key contributors!
Very much looking forward to being there! I don't have anything to pitch yet - just checking the scene out and expecting to meet some interesting people <looks pointedly at you guys>.

No bright orange shirt but I shall be tweeting the day as we go as @neilmoodley so do say hi!
You seem to imply that there is a strict difference. I don't really see it. C code compiles down to machine code, so does that make C a library? And how about the lisp macro system, or dsl's where does that fit? How about frameworks? I definitely think there is a lot of greys between language and library.
It's not a duplicate. This is a New York Times article. The other one is Sun's bullshit press release.
excellent find, thanks!
In that time period, an annual average of 1.3 million U.S. companies and 39,000 foreign companies doing business in the United States paid no income taxes - despite having a combined $2.5 trillion in revenue.

I'm no financial genius, but I'd guess the key word here is "revenue", which is not the same as "profit". It's possible that most of these companies have no net income, hence no income tax.
Interesting question. I don't think I've ever seen it here before.

I am a solo founder working on a startup that needs lots of hands-on hacking now, but the plan is to evolve to the point where a much greater percentage of the resources required will be for people with heavy technical backgrounds doing more face to face stuff with customers.

Perhaps we should talk. Contact me off line please.
Advice for KP, from me: don't bring in bozo executives like you did at Linuxcare:-/
And The Oracle Said: "You Must Buy The Sun"
Have you ever been in a company during a merger? (I'm on #3 now.) There's always the potential for that. Internal power fights are common in times like that.
I found this very compelling, very relevant to my personal life. You should read all four parts.
"I suspect this is very bad news for Postgresql. Sun is a major backer [...]"

Actually, that's incorrect; Sun is a backer, but hardly a major one.

A quick glance at Ohloh's contribution metrics for PostgreSQL (http://www.ohloh.net/p/postgres/contributors/) shows 17 committers with over 100 commits. If you start matching nicks up to the PostgreSQL contributor profiles (http://www.postgresql.org/community/contributors/), you'll quickly see that only one, Peter Eisentraut, works for Sun.

Actually, it's interesting to note that of those 17 top contributors not a single company employs more that one top contributor.

If anything this is good news for PostgreSQL, then: Oracle can easily acquire and steer the course of MySQL development, but shifting PostgreSQL priorities by financial means would take the acquisition of Sun, IBM, UC Berkeley, and over a dozen more companies.
All Marketers are Liars (Seth Godin Google Talk)
Scientific Python Programming Screencasts
Note 'some of them report $0 income before deducting their expenses, and others find deductions equaling more than their reported income.' That's another way of saying they're making a loss. See? They're not paying taxes because they're losing money.
So post it as a comment on the other thread. No need to disperse the discussion amongst half a dozen reputable news sources that all cover the same major event (not to mention pollute the front page with multiple repetitions of the same story).
That's a good story. I've been working exclusively on open source software for the past 6 months so it's encouraging to read about positive outcomes.
These are crashes occurring in the wild, on users machines.
If you live outside of major population areas, yes you often have private water, sewage, and hell in some places you have to opt to pay taxes to a neighboring towns fire department if you want service. I see nothing wrong with that. Oh, and lots of cities have private energy and water companies so I don't see what the problem is there?

Why would you treat internet access differently than you would the telephone? Also, think of the massive improvement in telephone service once the government imposed monopoly of AT&T was broken up.

Delivering basic services en masse isn't one of the core functions of government. The core function of government is national and local security/justice.