skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Well there are many cases of regulator capture, the AMA, the railroad industry, the airplane industry (pre-deregulation), the telephone industry (pre-deregulation), and the cable industry.

The recent mandates on testing toys for lead, has pretty much outlawed small toy producers. You can't prepare food at your house and legally sell it (even if you say this was cooked at my house). The FDA debacle with juice pasteurization vs more modern UV processes.

> And while this would certainly harm lawyers, it would also harm a great many other people.

Once again you make a statement that claim to be true with no real backing. Say 1 person is harmed by this newer cheaper law advice, and 10,000 are saved due to the reallocation of resources to medicine -- this is of course a hypothetical example, but it has just as much grounding as yours.
Original post: http://www.webdigi.co.uk/blog/2009/run-php-on-the-google-app...
Microsoft offers data mining tools in the cloud
Is sending a forged e-mail accusing your roommate of being gay illegal? It sounds juvenile and malicious. But I don't see how it's a crime.

Anyway, you've misread the warrant application. The forged e-mails were tracked to a dynamic IP address. They searched for anyone else using the same computer name ("bootleg-laptop"), and found that the accused had used the same computer name but NOT the same MAC address six months earlier. They connected the accused to the e-mail by saying that he accessed the same gay social networking site referenced in the forged e-mail before the e-mail was sent, and that the accused and the person who sent the forged e-mails both use Linux.

Anyway, the accused was only targeted because he got into a fight with his roommate, and his overbearing roommate ran off and made crazy accusations about this guy hacking into the grading system. They evidently didn't find anything to support that accusation, so they went after him for this stunt.
It also sets ambience and establishes your brand image subconsciously. You wouldn't try serving $50 steaks in a run-down diner, so why would you try to sell an upscale product on a site with no attention to detail?
Hulu "encryption" explained
About a week ago it was reported that Hulu started "encypting" their Ajax responses to prevent third-party software from accessing Hulu content. This blog entry describes the technical details behind the easy to circumvent implementation .
Does network effect require a hub?
Or will their be only one 'connector'?
And yet they're all still outlandishly expensive. Why even bother shopping at Thawte? They've been an irrelevant division of Verisign (the company with perhaps the worst customer service in the history of bad customer service) for many years.
Unattractive exactly to whom?
Rev3 framed Truveo framed BurnURL framed Digg framed Owly framed StumbleUpon
I know plenty of counterexamples.

I think there is a subtle semantic difference between "attractive" and "popular" that means they can't readily be substituted for each other in the text of Paul Graham's essay.

http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html
This looks like a less powerful engine than jekyll (http://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/tree/master), the git based blogging engine available to github users.

Cool that it is only 230 lines, though.
What problem you are solving? They might have the same idea, but are they solving the same problem? Maybe they are not solving any problem, and just infatuated with the idea. Suppose you have a deeper understanding of the problem and who has that problem, then this is your edge.
There is always room in any given space for another company. What if Google took that attitude when looking at Yahoo, AltaVista, or HotBot?
Indeed.. but if grades were actually changed, I think the IT Director of Security at BC (mentioned in the warrant) would've stated or advised that they were changed. Yet, he only advises and assists the detective with regard to the subject of mass emailing. And even this I question- it appears as if they don't understand the point of a mailing-list... like they don't understand the reasoning behind email propagation to a list- duh, this is how it happens. That's the purpose of a mailing list- so that those that are subscribed receive the content therein (content to be argued about separately) What's shady is that given this is a warrant application, a number is not even approximated at for the amount of emails supposedly sent - they only use the term "mass email" and in some cases they use the singular version, "the email" referring to originate from his machine. All they prove is that they can trace an email- big whoop, nothing a log file can't show them.

LOL - saw your edit; how dare he want to actually own his property! :) I'd argue that the governing body that wishes to achieve the goal of nothing else (where a crime was not committed) but scanning his computer, is conducting an illegal act!
For that matter, I'm pretty convinced of my "radically moderate" views

Of course you are. If you thought they were wrong, you wouldn't hold them as your views, would you?
Ours did too. Well, it's probably more fair to say that it was us and not the idea. We didn't have a lot going for us on paper.
You make a valid point.

I think where we differ is in our definition of what constitutes "brainwashing".
It's so wrong the poor folks can't even see it.

I understand that it came from Java. But even when I code in Java I'm braces-stand-alone. And this bit about semicolon insertion? Lies. All lies I tell you.
The free-speech argument kind of loses its luster when you send something without your name attached.

Maybe you're not from the US, but the US has a legal tradition of strong protections for anonymous and pseudonymous speech. The Federalist Papers, which were a key part of the political discourse leading to the existence of the US, were published anonymously. So maybe what you say is true in Ukraine or China or Myanmar or wherever you're from, but it's certainly not true in the US.
No, we can't even start it until next semester. I did do a smaller study last year that showed average writing retention rates of 38%, and it'll be easy to destroy that. Maybe if SLA research is too tight to penetrate, we can still go the transparent web data presentation route.
Is sending a forged e-mail accusing your roommate of being gay illegal? It sounds juvenile and malicious. But I don't see how it's a crime.

Yes, given that we live in a society where many people think homosexual behavior is grossly immoral, that's prima facie defamation.
How about joining that startup?
I enjoyed the abstraction layer argument but I can't figure out what point Joel is trying to make about the lone MicroISV developer. Don't do it? Don't do it unless you can afford to hire a layer of sales and marketing at some stage? Do it, but don't be surprised that it fails and I told you so?
If it were a very cool clustered, load-balanced setup with analog monitoring gauges set up in a nuclear bunker, then I'm guessing we would've heard about it by now :) So it's probably just your good old boring rack server.

Anyone else care for a guess ?
I do wonder if future improvements in communications technology will render the need to go to Silicon Valley moot.

If FutureHN can provide both a valleyesque enthusiastic social network and a contact with investors, will the benefits of migrating to S.Valley become less important?
From http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=516108

Only one server:

Old: 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 4 GB RAM, 32-bit FreeBSD 5.3.
New: 3.0 GHz Core whatever, 12 GB RAM, 64-bit FreeBSD 7.1.

PG: "The new server seems to be about 2x as fast. The frontpage renders for me in about 50 msec. But the site should seem more than 2x faster (for logged-in users) because many requests will terminate before being interrupted. There's now enough memory that we can fit all the links and comments in memory at once again. We should be good for another year or so." (traffic: http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html#15jan09)

Not sure of how or where server is hosted or what else is used e.g. router/firewall/bandwidth/ups/utilities/etc., but if pg/rtm billed for time all other costs would be insignificant.

Maintainance:

A lot less than most people considering it's rtm and pg.
"2) could be easily monetized."

I think that's a problem there. You want to work on something that's profitable, not "monetizable".
> it's easy to pay directors of a company in equity [but non-directors get minimum wage protection],

Thus missing the point.
How to Hire—and Get Hired—in a Recession
Two words for this guy: encrypted filesystem. If you don't want to testify against youself in court, you shouldn't let your computers do it either.
IPhone 3.0 SDK Beta
Well it seems you considered it was safe to be honest with your boss because you felt you had a good relationship with him but in reality you found out it was only predicated on your apparent dedication to him. I think it's better to find these things out sooner than later.

"my medical condition was not accommodated"
That would have seem to have been grounds for some legal action in my opinion or a least a good reason for getting unemployment benefits after you left.

"Now, I didn't do anything stupid like telling my boss that I'd like to sleep with his daughter,..."

Yeah, you could have ended up married to her...
Those are good ideas. I guess we have been targeting focused learners. I'm not sure how much we could offer for free, though, without diluting it for paying users. What do you think?

An iPhone app will be awesome, but we're pretty bottlenecked on developing power, so it'll have to be a while. Too bad!
Buffet wins again - he said this Ethanol thing wouldn't work.

Just a pile of politically correct crap. Lotsa good booze wasted, in my opinion.
I found it amusing how awful the text (or should I say "the typography") for the introduction and table of contents from that site looks in Firefox on Linux (on my machine). I'm sure it is due to the site using fonts not availble in my installation, or something similar to that. Still, it was amusing. I'd be curious to hear if others had the same experience. In case anyone cares, I can't remember the last time I had the text on a web site look so bad with this setup. I visit a lot of sites, and I haven't had one look this bad for a long time. It is still readable, but if it was my site on web typography, I wouldn't want it to look that way.
Probably the User Agent doesn't really matter if they are bucket testing prices (or if it's glitching).
I am from the United States - anonymous and pseudonymous protections wouldn't apply to this case of slander/libel and/or criminal harassment. Anonymously outing someone against their will does not fall under the same protections that critiquing an unfair government does.

I didn't mean to imply that all anonymous talk is without protection, just that in this specific case, the defendant in question would probably have a very difficult time making a successful free speech argument.
(1) that no government will successfully establish a startup hub

What about the Pearl Delta and Shanghai's Pudong district? Both seem to be smashing successes.

There are two very different types of startup.

I don't buy that there is a hard distinction between different types of startups (or even between startups and small businesses).

Any small business that tries to grow will create a differentiated offering. An ice cream shop might promote a special flavor, a restaurant will develop a certain vibe, a furniture company will create signature ergonomic chairs, a web form company will create an awesome UI, etc. The amount of uniqueness of the offering can be plotted along a continuum. When it passes a certain point, we call it a "tech startup".

The special thing about Silicon Valley is that it attracts a ton of many smart, talented, ambitious people. Therefore the offerings of their businesses tend to be very novel and differentiated. The supply of brilliant innovators is limited so it is not necessarily possible to replicate this everywhere (but I am guessing the world is very significantly under performing its potential).

Edit:

Perhaps another way of saying this is:

1) A startup is a small business that attempts to scale by developing a new technique (that technique can be a product or a way of doing operations).

2) Different sectors of the economy have different opportunities for developing new techniques. It's harder to develop new techniques in agriculture than in software.

3) In the absence of high transportation costs, industries tend to cluster ( autos in Detroit, entertainment in Hollywood, finance in New York, energy in Houston, education in Boston, software in Silicon Valley).

4) Silicon Valley has a cluster of industries that natural have a high level of new technique development (software and electronics). Therefore Silicon Valley has many startups.

That said, now I'm not sure I buy my own argument. Silicon Valley seems to have the most innovative companies in every industry. In addition to software startups, there are energy startups, automobile startups, etc. So Silicon Valley really is a cluster of companies that specialize in innovation. Perhaps the thing that limits the spread of Silicon Valley magic is that there are only so many innovative people, and only Silicon Valley has been able to attract a critical mass.
There's some overreaching hyperbole (typical for calacanis, of course), but the article also has some good interview advice. We're looking for a new hire right now, and it's hard to find someone with a motivation and skill set that compliments your own.
It's cheaper than the certs at Verisign. Where do you buy your SSL certificates?
> A $100k salary with up to 5% 401k matching is roughly the same as a $105k salary with no 401k matching.

Not at all. The 5% match goes into the 401(k). The 5% extra salary doesn't.

Note that 401(k) match also isn't subject to SS or medicare.
"In his application, the investigating officer asked that he be permitted to seize the student's computers and other personal AFFECTS because they might yield evidence of the crimes"

Wow! In addition to his computers, the police also seized the student's emotional states (presumably to search for evidence of thoughtcrime).
You'd be surprised how absurd things can get, even for a little startup.

Usually it starts with the need to customize one tiny little thing about the off-the-shelf offering. Then, you find that you have to install some new bit of software, which requires a new driver, which requires an OS upgrade...and before you know it, you're on a yak-shaving expedition that ends with a new data center and a rack full of equipment. ;-)
Internet Digestive System [Visualization]
Amazon did that at some point. If done discreetly and the public doesn't know that you are doing it, it is the simplest way to determine the price that maximizes the revenue. You may end up with a higher price and lower sales count, but still the higher revenue.

Pretty damn interesting actually.
> escalating car size due to the (largely false) perception of safety.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/04/14/iihs-finds-sub-compacts-f...
"The point is, if the education you received doesn't improve your ability to provide for yourself, then something is either wrong with the education you received or the approach you're taking to the job market."

False dichotomy. There are plenty of other options, including (but not limited to) industry trends, bad/slow job markets and people who make weird stereotypes about the work ethic of graduate students.
de nada, thanks for the awesome script
Personal Time (BIG time) & environment/atmosphere
I'm one of the evil extroverts, and I love it. I'll be happy to answer any of your questions.
Designing a Scalable Twitter
Despite his rudeness, he's also making good points. His comments shouldn't be killed.
Challanges for Developing Enterprise Application on the Cloud
So that brings the hardware costs to about 2000-$3000 per month?

As for man hours, can 2 guys in a basement with nothing else on their schedules maintain and moderate a site like HN?
I don't really think joel needs an article like that to give young programmers the desire to work in his company. And that article makes some points going way beyond treating programmers as young gods.
Learn How To Use Wordpress With These Free Video Wordpress Tutorials
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i believe its cut off. 'read more' doesn't finish the sentence.

this reminds me of the pancake sort problem, except there you can only flip a contiguous subarray at the beginning. i got this in an interview once and then used it a few times when i had to interview folks. some people seem to get it right away... others... well, they don't
But Google had an idea that was different to what Yahoo, et al., were doing that's how they broke in. They were well differentiated and were effectively offering a new product, low spam SERPs drawn from a wider crawl of the 'net.

If Yahoo had already been offering a comparable product to Google then Google wouldn't have done so well at all IMO.

That said, when we started our pottery painting business we were pipped to the post by another very similar business (ie pottery painting) in the same area, we'd already been concerned that the area might not support us alone. We'd started the business, rented a building and refurbed it, quit jobs, bought stock, etc.. Still we're going 5 years later and they lasted 6months before closing (due to family issues).

The point being you can still succeed you're just going to have to try a lot harder. They may fail, even if they're better. You can still win even if they're better (betamax, hddvd, etc.).
OK, so how about the example at the beginning of the article when the author was complaining about how difficult it was to resize photos on his Mac? Do you suppose it's enough that the "this needs to be better" was implied, or do you think he should have added something else?

Like it or not, a lot of the time the things that suck can't feasibly be improved by yourself.
Is College Obsolete?
Mystery jQuery Bug
>that word choice determines thought choice, which determines emotions and actions

Alright. So what's wrong with thinking that things suck? Sometimes they do, right? If there really is no way to improve a situation, does it make sense to feel hopeless about it?
Don't forget what it took to actually build this community. It's not exactly a fair comparison.
The question is, since introverts are so much smarter than extroverts, and dislike the way extroverts run things, why don't introverts run things?
That is something that really turned me off to academia as I worked through my masters.
The flip side of that is there's a complete lack of any criticism, and to me it feels like that will be its downfall (Detroit met its downfall, and so will Silicon Valley). A recent case in point is the whole DiggBar controversy. I'd suggest that the criticism has come entirely from outsiders or people "not of the valley," Meanwhile there's been a whole tide of "digg is taking over the world," "digg is growing up" from the usual denizens of the echo chamber. And then there's Robert Scoble - a one-man black hole of uncritical praise for all things SV. Add to that the complete disappearance of IPOs or anything resembling an exit (in fact the big trend now seems to be the opposite of exits -- Stumbleupon, Skype) and this piece feels a bit pollyanna-ish.
It was cut off on Safari but not Firefox (for some reason).
Here is the full text:

You're given a vector V containing a permutation of the integers 0 to n-1. For example {0,2,1}. You're also given an integer N which is greater than or equal to 2 and less than V.size(). You can reverse N contiguous items in V at a time. For example V = {0,2,1} and N = 2 you can reverse the ints located in V[0] and V[1] to give V = {2,0,1}. You can also reverse the ints in V[1] and V[2] to give V = {0,1,2}. Write a function that takes V and N as parameters and returns the minimum number of reversals needed to sort the vector increasing. If it's not possible return -1. For example V = {0,2,1} N = 2 returns 1. (reverse V[1] and V[2])
South Park is a great example of not complaining.

Complaining would be writing a blog post about how much Kanye West irritates you, or writing a letter to Kanye telling him how much he irritates you.

Not complaining is creating a hilarious cartoon mocking Kanye West and publicly shaming him. Negativity can be awesome. Complaining mostly just sucks.
I think when they are telling you a story, even a boring and a stupid one it's okay, but the problem with Es is that very often you have to listen to their "mental" process, how ideas are emerging in their brains... now that's really boring :) "I don't care! Stop talking!" Just give me the answer or final thought
Next $GOOG or $VG?
I agree that using blocks/closures is a powerful and useful mechanism -- In fact I think that they are a great implementation technique for this method.

What this comes down to for me is: what makes the best interface?

Specifically:

myArray.sum()

is much easier to read and use. In a world where we have to maintain our code much longer then we write it this simplicity is very valuable.

Secondly, it is important to note that since the array uses generics it is not necessary to check that the items are numbers, as any attempt to insert a non-number would have thrown an error.

So in summery I agree with you completely that array<variant>.sum should _not_ exist. But I hope you see my point that array<number>.sum _should_ exist. (If the code enforces the numbers to exist in the array there is no reason not to include the sum method!)
I don't think it's obvious that something having "intent" is distinct from something having a sufficiently complex cause/effect memory engine.
"when he [your boss] asked me where I saw myself in 5 years I did say that I wanted to start my own business... Our relationship went from great to icy."

hmm... if you're in Silicon Valley, it's assumed that everyone wants to start his/her own business.
10% is more than enough reasonable doubt

That's not the correct standard of evidence for the allegations supporting a search warrant.

Yes, I am a lawyer.
cough racket
I don't understand how that makes the hardware cost $2000-$3000 per month.
If people were logical and did what I said we would get along just fine.
I worked at ebay when the skype deal was announced... we learned of the impending purchase by seeing an article on WSJ... there were no rumors, no speculation... it was just unfathomable.

To be fair to my former employer, they attempted (several times) to create "synergies" between skype, paypal, and eBay - the frequently restarted "Trident" project for instance. But these projects always had the feel of shaping reality to fit Meg's viewpoint, and always doomed to failure.
Have you noticed your experiential memory improving as you keep the log? I once kept a dream diary, and I started remembering my dreams really really well.
I'd have to agree with the basic premise of the blog post.

http://learninfreedom.org/School_obsolete.html

There are a lot of institutional protections in the legal system for colleges (as sources of mandatory credentials for many occupations), and a great deal of preferential funding of colleges. But many learners can learn as much or more outside of college as in it, and as long as learners can find gainful employment without college credentials, colleges will be under pressure to justify their continued existence.

After edit:

pg's thoughts on a closely related subject:

http://paulgraham.com/credentials.html