skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
First of all, you're going to be starting at 25, not 30. Don't spend 5 years doing only school. Start building things right away.

You might find that another 4-year second-undergrad is time-inefficient (and probably expensive). It might be better to study math and take a few undergrad courses at a university-- that'll take a year or two and you can work while you do that-- then go back for a Master's.

The good news: despite the ageism that our industry is known for (which is overrepresented on HN due to the high proportion of VC-istan programmers here) there's no evidence that people become worse programmers when they're older. In fact, it's clearly the opposite. In 2013, science has reached no consensus regarding the age of cognitive peak; it's somewhere between 20 and 65, but no one's sure where. It seems to be very individual, with some people peaking early and some late.

The bad news: if you want to work at the VC darling companies, you're probably screwed. Ageism is severe there. People will think you're a loser, in those companies, if you're not an executive by 35. But there are a lot of quite frankly better options where no one's going to think twice about your age, especially since you're a long way away from being old.
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Erm, I understand you have some strong opinions on this, but I actually meant something slightly different: people go through tough periods but generally bounce back and are actually happy (even during their tough periods).

It isn't evidence that you need to "tear down whatever powers ": how confident are you that whatever you'll build will actually be better?

I'll say one last thing: if your system design goal is having a high uptime guarantee, it's easier to do so by building systems that have a low mean time to recovery (MTTR) as opposed to infinitely high mean time between failure (MTBF). Applying this analogy to other topics is left as exercise to reader.
What Is The Best Hosting Service?
I do not know which hosting service I should join, and which one has the best benefits (Less than $130 per year). Please upvote the choices below (I do not have enough karma to make a vote), or add your own option as a comment.
JustHost/BlueHost
Siteground
I started software development at your age, despite taking some CS classes in college when I was 19. I am now 30 years old (sigh) and had jobs making plenty of money (if you care about that kind of thing).

In fact, I've done so much of it over the last 5 years that I'm trying to get out of it. But that's another story.

From being unable to write a single line of reasonable code to being a Data Scientist making a solid six figure salary took me four years, a bunch of work, and being a very good networker. That last part is pretty important.

Oh, and I don't have a degree.
WebHostingHub
I've spent my career roughly half and half consulting and as a full time employee, and while it is possible to earn more as a consultant it requires a lot of extra effort (plus taxes, insurance, etc.), so in the end feels like a wash. As a rule of thumb I'd say $1 billed as a consultant ~= $.75 of salary (or $150K salary ~= $200k consulting).

Base salaries above $200K/yr are extremely rare, even for high-level managers in substantial companies. In my experience as an employee at companies both large and small moving beyond $150K/yr base salary in a non-executive role is quite unusual. That doesn't mean you can't or won't earn more than that--it's just that once you get to top levels as either an individual contributor or as a manager companies generally want to align as much of your compensation with the company's performance as possible, whether as bonuses, profit-sharing, or stock.

In my experience as a independent consultant $100/hour or more is readily achievable if you have a reasonably rare expertise (e.g. data warehousing/business intelligence) and a track record of delivering high quality results. I generally prefer charging by the day rather than the hour and have billed as high as $1000/day. While there have been many months I've billed $20,000, I've never billed over $200K in a year, work at that level just isn't that easy to find (at least if you're not willing to fly around the world).

I believe that there is a strong political interplay between these two modes of employment. As a consultant I have more than once been the highest paid person at a company--sometimes making more even than the executives. For short periods of time this doesn't seem to be a problem, but pretty consistently around 5-6 months customers become a lot more conscious of the dichotomy--I'm often working alongside people who earn less than half of what I'm billing. I've had more than one case where I've worked for a customer on an initial 2-3 month contract, had it extended on a rolling basis for another 2-3 months, and then found them very serious about finding a full-time engineer to take over my duties (they often offer me the job but usually it's not a great deal). It's also common for them to call me back for additional stints, including cleaning up problems introduced by my replacement. Even though it would probably just be better to have just kept me around they hit a wall with accepting the pay differential.
I can appreciate "respect". Just don't fire the poor SOB when the service goes down because the people he works with ignored his warnings.
I'm not so sure that it would be quite that simple. You could make the material go supercritical like that but that doesn't necessarily get you a high-yield explosion if the mass blows itself apart too soon.

The so called "Demon Core" went supercritical when Louis Slotin accidentally dropped a neutron reflector onto it (this was the second time out of three that it went critical) and although it killed him, there was no explosion per-se.

From wikipedia: "He quickly knocked the two halves apart, stopping the chain reaction and likely saving the lives of the other men in the laboratory, though it is now known that the heating of the core and shells stopped the criticality within milliseconds of its initiation."
Maybe an obvious answer, but why doesn't the Earth exhibit this? Or does it?
> 3. The tryout project

The example in the post actually sounds quite relaxed (environment of candidate's choosing) compared to what I went through in a recent interview for something akin to a data analyst position.

I was given an Excel sheet with a mass of sales data in it and asked to come up with whatever 'insights' I could in 15 minutes. On a Spanish version of Windows/Office, running on a laptop with a Spanish localised keyboard layout (which meant none of the symbols were where I would expect them to be on a US or UK keyboard). I must've spent about 5ish minutes of the allotted time just figuring out how to get the required symbols to show up :(
I'm injecting my own language bias here, and I must admit that this is not an opinion that everyone agrees with, but I think you're better with Scala or Clojure than with Java. (Both run on the JVM, so you end up learning the Java ecosystem.)

Scala is a "better Java" and you can learn both the JVM and functional programming (take Odersky's course on Coursera). Clojure is a great Lisp but the Java stuff will be very confusing if you haven't seen it before (the JVM-interop functions like proxy, gen-class, and reify don't have the easiest APIs).

This (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) is a great book to get started on the deeper aspects of CS: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

Also, I like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Techniques-Models-Computer-Pr...
I do not agree this essay is a reason and I have two specific reasons for it from the essay:

"I was approaching my 20s and I had to get a job. Living at home off of my parents was not sustainable, and wasn’t conducive to a better future."

I do not think that a life on basic income would have been appealing to the author based on this remark.

"I began doing non-consulting, full-time work several of years ago. During the span of those years, I have made moves between the plains, the mountains, and the coast. I have learned a good deal (though I don’t claim expertise) about different facets of the tech industry from different perspectives. But I also took a great hit. I got stupid."

I do not believe the author presented with a life on basic income would have wanted to have foregone the prospect of this experience despite the prospect of the cost of it.

I lament that I haven't read 200 books a year since my teens and I hope nobody would mistake that to mean that I want to be paid by the government to read 200 books a year.
> As for implosion-type bomb (Fat Man), it's relatively easy to get a hold of plutonium, but the design is extremely complex.

Relatively easy as in, you need a chemistry lab and a working breeder reactor. To elaborate a bit, for Uranium the main task is isotope separation, this is quite complicated since different Uranium isotopes are chemically identical and have a mass difference of just 1%. On the other hand, more or less all plutonium isotopes are fissile, and the task is to chemically separate them from other elements. ( And that one needs to work with spend nuclear fuel.) On the other hand, Plutonium does not occur naturally, so one needs a breeder reactor to produce it first.
I linked to the blog post because it's a whole article about him and his past! Hah.

He was a former attorney.
Turn-by-turn directions for cooking is a great idea.

It's crazy-making, though, that there's no way to see a demo page or anything without attaching my Google account to the app. No thank you.
I'd be the first to tell you I'm very lucky, on a number of levels -- getting a position in the first place, stumbling into a firm with a healthy attitude towards work volume, etc. I mainly wanted to get a data point out there for others.

To answer some of the other downthread questions:

- Educational background: Ivy League, comp sci major and math minor. I wasn't the smartest person in any of my classes, but I got my work done well and didn't blow it off.

- I didn't have any connections that helped me get in, but had been pretty interested in the markets for a long time.

- As for chances of getting in, I'd say that it's definitely still possible but harder than it was. Most of the quant finance firms draw from the same pool of seniors graduating from highly selective colleges, and mostly just the good programmers from that group. Finance is also pretty cyclical in its hiring -- most firms were probably hiring record numbers of people right before the financial crisis.

I still have a copy of the cover letter I sent to apply for a job in structured credit products at Bear Stearns.
Australia's 457 visa program requires employers to pay foreign workers the same amount as a local worker, specifically to prevent downward pressure on wages.

Still, the politics are still fraught with TOOK EHR JERBS stuff.
What do people on HN and Reddit generally not like about recruiters?
It does, but a lot less: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoid
no, maybe we'll try it.
Oh man, this really hit me hard.

I'm halfway through an MA in mathematics and thinking about going on to a Ph.D. I've done very well at my current institution and think I'll have a decent chance of getting into a good program. But I'm not totally convinced I'll make it in the long run. I've seen some friends of mine go through the academic job search this year, and it's absolute hell. I don't imagine it'll improve when I hit the market. If I go the academic track, I might not get a job. Or worse, I get caught in postdoc limbo or am denied tenure. Then I'll essentially be where I am now, minus 5-15 years of my life (I'm studying pure mathematics. I'm not likely to pick up any directly-marketable skills in further graduate studies).

Meanwhile, essentially my entire social infrastructure is moving to the Bay Area. The appeal of going up there, getting a job (establishing financial security next year instead of next decade), and being around people who I know I want to have in my life, is becoming hard to ignore.

I'm frighted by my eventual prospects in the academic job market, but I already knew that was scary. But down the other path might be something at least as bad.

Fuck.
Cruises are priced such because cruise ship workers are paid incredibly low wages:

"The Cruise Lines International Association says its "crew members are provided wages that are competitive with international pay scales." But a cleaner aboard a Royal Caribbean ship, for example, will work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for as little as $156.25 a week with no tips. U.S. labor laws are not applicable to provide protection to crew members at sea, nor is there any real oversight of the cruise lines' operations."

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinion/walker-cruise-ships
Some thoughts on mobile
Wow, no idea how I missed that.

/* Obligatory excuse about how I haven't had my morning cuppa yet */
If you think the internet has obliterated informational asymmetry you reallty haven't thought much about the issue - the internet and IT has literally revolutionized surveillance, transforming the states ability to keep tabs on an extremely limited set of high value targets into one where nearly every citizen is surveilled by state emchanisms many times per day. The Inyernet certainly doesn't give the public the ability to analyze all of the telephone calls out of the state department or anywhere close, just as one simple example.
Cruise ship retirement communities were a plot element in Albert Brooks' novel, 2030, which is definitely worth the quick read.
michaelochurch's comments are as valuable as the article. In particular, "3. I don't think the future is in the Bay Area or Manhattan..." rings very true. Earlier today there was the regular 1st of the month "Who's Hiring?" post. Scanning through (and trying to not overgeneralize) it struck me how rather uninteresting most of the Bay Area startups' pitches seemed (to me). Retail, ads, IT cloud services, etc. All relevant and worthy of respect -- but not _inventing_ anything really new.
Apple betrayed by its own law firm
My situation is so much like yours that I think we should get in touch. (Damned, we are not nearby. :-)

May I add #C to your list -- MOOCs for the rest of the life together with the day job unless A or B works out.
Electronic shutter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_(photography)#Electroni...
people go through tough periods but generally bounce back and are actually happy (even during their tough periods).

I believe that, too.

I'm not an unhappy person. I'm angry often, but if you recognize anger and put it in its proper place, it need not be overwhelming. There's nothing wrong with having anger. The problem is letting it control you; that's when you're losing.

Happiness and anger are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it's hard to be happy if you don't experience negative emotions (anger, fear, disgust) in proper, limited, and appropriate ways.

It isn't evidence that you need to "tear down whatever powers ": how confident are you that whatever you'll build will actually be better?

Extremely so. The world (at least, the business world; I don't think public-sector "politicians" are that bad, the worst are rarely worse than the constituents who elect them) is run by some of the worst people imaginable.
Front-End Developer - Philadelphia, PA - 50onRed - Relocation Assistance Provided

For anyone that sees this, I also work at 50onRed as the Director of Product and am hiring someone for my team.

As Wellington said, 50onRed operates an ad network that serves billions of requests per day. To support those operations we also build dashboard and campaign management interfaces that are used by 1,000's of advertisers.

One unique thing we have to offer at 50onRed is that the product team is given a lot of freedom to drive the product based on customer needs, feedback, and data we collect on usage and engagement. And it's not just lip service! So, with that being said, the product team houses product managers, community managers, UX engineers, and now we are looking for a front-end developer.

Why is it cool to be on the product team? If you have a strong opinion on something the product should do, you no longer need to worry about your boss in engineering telling you no because it's a PITA due to some backend reasons. Now, the product team will have your back and work on getting any changes implemented to get what you need done.

What will the front-end developer do? You will be an EXPERT in javascript, html, and css. And not building simple jQuery toggles or copy pasting some code from stackoverflow. Our dashboards are moving quickly towards being more "AJAX-y". To help with the amount of JS, we are creating re-usable javascript widgets that can be used across different parts of the app. You should understand the implications of different JS decisions on browser performance, flexibility of how the widget can be used in different scenarious, etc. You can take a mockup from our UX Engineer (that was created after discussions with you, of course) and code it up with ease.

Why 50? Because you want to make decisions that impact 1,000's of customers in your first week. We push code frequently and test how it's used by our customers. We get feedback from our customers instantly. You want to take ownership and drive a product to be better. Do you think we should be a one page web app and use Angular? Great, sell us on it and let's do it. You think Prototype is 100x better than jQuery? Ok, then sell us on that instead. (Might be hard!) But... the point is that we are open to using any technology that is right for the job as long as it is the right business decision. No emotional attachments to code.

Email frank@50onred.com, I'd love to talk to you if you think you'd be a good fit.
This Bot-Powered Store Could Halt Amazon in Its Tracks
That's the problem with morale. It's tough to build, easy to destroy.

People quickly factor changes in conditions into their baseline (the hedonic treadmill); from that point removing a positive thing will only cost you. In many ways, it's better to be stingy in the first place (I think Machiavelli pointed this out).
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We are interested in Android, iOS, and backend engineers (we love Python and Clojure). Check out http://minus.com/pages/careers for details.

Send me email at carl at minus.com.
I saw your post and Reddit and was going to recommend that you post it on HN, but I see that you didn't get much love here!

Anyway, I've always wanted to do something like this but never got around to it. It looks awesome, and I'm definitely going to play around with the code! Great job!
I agree that you want to ensure that the coursework is of sufficient quality. However, I wouldn't avoid terminal masters degrees with no financial support in themselves. E.g. Stanford's MS in CS falls into this category.

Edit: not that the parent post was implying that such programs should be avoided, bit it is common advice.
Australia's most famous general, Sir John Monash, was famous amongst soldiery in his day for ensuring that soldiers never fought without a hot meal.

In the freezing cold trenches of WW1, you have to admit that would count for a lot, as a gesture.

Before he was a soldier, he was a civil engineer. Small armies create interesting leaders.
Your task was also 15minutes long.
When I was interviewing, several companies have no taken this "project" approach, requiring 10-25 hours per project.

Sorry, but there's no way I'm going to do a 25 hour project for your company in the context of an interview, because I'm wasting time that I could use to interview for another 10 companies - which will most likely give a much larger likelihood of a job.

If you give exact requirements and give promise of a job if those requirements are met, I would consider doing the project. Anyone who does otherwise is foolish and objectively desperate.
"mysql_real_escape_string" is the silliest function name ever. I assume there is a "mysql_escape_string" function that doesn't do what you expect it to do?
They do if the client and his architect ask for it.

I've seen builders make little brick monoliths in a vacant lot to test the look of different materials.

I think these were likely installed at the expense of a window materials salesman.
If the browser says GET, and the server says 200 - OK, you can assume that someone will do it.
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Hell no, it's not too old. The Web is a meritocracy, that's what they always say. I actually started when I was 37.

A few things you might want to keep in mind:
You can learn just as much online these days as you can in school, for a fraction of the cost.
A CS degree can be found on Udemy for a reasonable price.

Your 10,000 hours starts now. Build things, be curious. Build things even if you think they're stupid. It's part of the learning process.

Having a website, or an app, and a GitHub repo will much farther to getting you hired than a degree. What will help you even more than those things are a good attitude, an open mind, a humble spirit, and an ability to learn.

Best of luck!
The Oracles of Google
Because Google's (and other) gadgets are the sugar coating for surveillance. Nobody would voluntarily wear a government-mandated gps-tracker with a remote-controllable microphone, but most people (including myself) are readily buying them from Google which enables governments to access a lot of interesting data with far less outrage as if they would access is directly.

I am not following closely, but Mr. Assange does seem to have some public criticism of the organizations you mentioned.
Sorry, that should read "not start rotating". Essential its Newton's first law, unless there is a force that would make the moon rotate relative to earth, the moon will not do so.
Ah, right, yes.

It's miserable here. Six months of hellish rain and steel grey skies. Don't let anyone fool you. Never move here. Worst mistake of my life.
The size difference would be the main reason. On earth, the dense material is much deeper, so you'd need a lot more force to bring the it to the surface. The increased size and soft earth probably absorb more of the shockwaves as well. Having no atmosphere means that even smaller impacts will reach the surface as well.

There are probably some impacts that have caused this on earth, but the difference in gravity is probably so small, that it doesn't effect orbits. (We could probably measure it though).
From experience, it's quite possible to achieve 150% utilization...