skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
What should I do about my client's unrealistic expectations?
So a few days I got my first client on Elance. Now, I know some of you are going to say that I should have expected this to happen, but it was just supplementary while I go to meetups and try to find clients that way.

Basically, I submitted a proposal and the client responded proposing a lower hourly rate as I had no feedback and had stated that getting a good rating was more important to me. I saw this as reasonable, and promptly accepted. However, the scope and expectations of the client quickly changed.

The client originally asked for someone that could make it a few clean, simple pages in CSS and HTML for his project (he has another freelancer doing the backend). But today after sending him the screenshot of a first draft (which I thought was pretty close to a final version), he replied by saying things like "I realize this is a very rough draft, but the final version will look as good as <insert big company site in same industry), or better, right? This change of scope, along with the low rate, is simply unreasonable, even for me as a new freelancer.

I'm really unsure of what I should do. I could build what this client is asking for, but definitely not in the timeframe or rate that was agreed on. Should I kill the project before things get worse? Should I try and explain this to her/him and try to find a resolution? If so, how should I go about doing it (we only communicate through email, the client prefers that)
A lot of people recently try to enforce some back-patting culture. It's not what drives progress. Deal with it, you're not in pre-school anymore and nobody will give you a medal for participation. If you're unable to handle criticism and take out some value from people's opinions, you'll have a hard time in technology and in business.
For me, it wasn't just that it popped up a notification, it's that hitting the arrow on the popup gives you a reply-to window with the text of the notification already filled in. Really made me feel welcome.
To be honest, this isn't the place to be posting projects if all you want is for people to see what you're doing and you have a fragile ego. The feedback from here is very valuable if you take it objectively.

I feel that if you want to have your ego stroked and have some exposure for your project, the best place to post it would be somewhere like Reddit. If you want to show some good minds in the field and get valuable advice, then post it here.
In general, I see a lot of cynicism on HN, but there's more positivity than other sites and overall a super smart audience. For example, you have to wade through a lot of crap to get a good YouTube comment on a high-trafficked video. Here you don't have that problem. You'll get some quick-to-judge comments but you'll also get great feedback (or at the very least, devils advocate type feedback that's worth discussing). Everything: with a grain of salt.
I have written quite a bit on my blog (http://ledgersmbdev.blogspot.com) on how to avoid sproc hell when porting a lot of data access logic to the database. LedgerSMB more or less is moving to a model where all non-service-locator queries (which look up stored procedures) are stored procedures and we believe we have solved most of these problems.

There are significant problems with stored procedures if they aren't used right. VARIADIC stored procedures help, but they don't entirely solve the problem. Fortunately PostgreSQL offers some rich tools for solving some of these problems. For example we make extensive use of named arguments.

But there is a second use here as well, and this is to extend what you can do inside a SQL query and when you combine this with JSON types, you can do quite a lot.

For example, suppose you do something like:

SELECT extract(myjsonfld, 'property1') FROM mytable WHERE id = 123;

There is no extract function in PostgreSQL 9.1-2 (there will be in 9.3 but not sure what the semantics will be), so you could write such a function in Javascript, such that it takes a JSON and string input and outputs a string or JSON object depending on what you want.

This allows you to extend the capabilities of SQL to do whatever you need.
There are too many assholes to introspect with each one of them. I'd rather lose some insight.
> Facebook is just fine.... That’s crazy, right? I mean, Facebook is just a personal data farm, isn’t it? It’s just a not-too-coy set of dopamine-optimized actions to trick you into dumping information about yourself into the magic Zucker Woodchipper?... I’m not denying any of this. It is an ad machine, in part. But that doesn’t mean Facebook can’t also provide value.

The fact that it provides value doesn't make it fine. The criticism of Facebook is not about the value it provides, but about the cost they charge for it. That cost is users' privacy.

Fine social network should serve the purpose of social interactions without ulterior motives of some hidden entities which profit on users' data. You can't practically achieve that with such centralized social networks, and decentralized design makes it more feasible.
Website epic fail on an iPhone 5. How can you post something hip and new on HN and not use a responsive design?
For some people the hyper-focus is essential to their wellbeing and sense of purpose. I can understand why you feel depressed for putting your all into something and having it not work the way you had imagined.

Sure you may have lost out on some relationships, and sure you may not be able to get that time back, but it definitely wasn't time wasted, or no life.

Imagine what it must feel like laying on your deathbed, full of regret, knowing you never "went" for it. Playing it safe is the surest way to mediocrity after all.

Try not to fixate on the failure, as it's really your informal education. Take what you've learnt from this failure, and apply it to the next endeavor, whatever it may be.

Always move forward. Keep your head held high. Be a good person. You'll be okay.
Yep, I'm behind https://btc.sx

I just launched beta and I'm bracing myself before I post a Show HN.
He has clearly stated on his blog:

"I spoke to the Times Of India (linked below) and I would like to clarify what's been written in the article. The article states "A 20-year-old Indian student from Cornell University hacked into the database ... " This is technically incorrect. I did no such thing. I did not illegally access any database system. All I did was access information that was available to any person who entered a number into the website could access. I simply mined the data and then analyzed it to reveal some interesting and disturbing trends""

So, he didn't hack anything.
ATtiny Arduino programmer
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with cynicism. It definitely serves a purpose, as you point out.

The problem I see is that OPs tend to receive a reliable and sustained torrent of cynicism, and little else. Sure, there is value in those comments, and often super enlightening exchanges, but the default attitude of being the smartest-guy-in-the-room can get exhausting and counter-productive. Oftentimes would-be worthwhile discussion get buried or passed up for a bitter exchange with both parties just trying to prove their intellectual worth and cleverness.
I think we're all in agreeance that trollish snark ("Great, Facebook for [insert subgroup]", "This sucks", etc.) is not helpful (and is almost always downvoted, or at least I'll downvote)

But what about: "Why do I have to login to Facebook to see this?", "There are too many typos for this to be taken seriously?", "The font/colors are really hard to read", "It's broken in Firefox", "Facebook tried this in 2009 and they had [such and such] kinds of problems, what are you doing differently?"

I dunno...Maybe people have different expectations when doing a "Show HN?" If you've worked hard on something, of course you should be encouraged ...but if you're pitching it as a viable startup idea...then you, IMO, shouldn't just want "atta boy/girl" comments...constructive criticism now could save you a lot of pain later on.
"I normally never visit it"

Therein lies the problem :) It doesn't matter if the parent visits it, if no one else does.
1) Unfortunately not. In airplanes, just as important as how much weight is in the aircraft is where that weight is. 230 lbs is the maximum pilot weight regardless of how much weight is in other parts of the plane.

2) By far, the single biggest factor in the price difference between us and a Cessna is the engine. Twice the horsepower is needed to fly the Skycatcher, but that translates to an engine cost of 3-4 times our engine. Historically speaking, engines have always been the price hog that keeps airplanes so expensive.

3) You are right on! This is a big reason why we are able to offer such good instrumentation while keeping our price down - the technology is so much better and cheaper than it was 10 years ago. These days entire airplanes are being run off of iPads with a couple hundred bucks of apps downloaded to them. I will say, the entire concept of "aviation grade" seems to be abused a lot in the aviation industry. I think airplane component manufacturers have gotten away with charging outrageous premiums for their products because of their perceived complexity. LSA has helped out a lot in lifting this veil.

I think the aviation industry kind of sees us as a great case study in the direction of the market. If we succeed, the competition for more affordable airplanes will finally start heating up, and we'll start getting a slew of really impressive low cost airplanes. I genuinely can't wait. Flying is the coolest thing humans do besides explore space, and 100+ years since the invention of the airplane, you'd think a lot more people would be flying by now.
I'm sure if Apple didn't agree to those terms they wouldn't be selling the iPhone at all. They probably had to fight pretty hard just to avoid carrier branding on their phones.

Carriers are also allowed to do it to Android phones, but choose not to do so. Why is that? Do they make more money from Android phones, and are incentivised to make them appear better performing?
They don't advertise any speed. Nerds look at what the chipset supports and assume that's what they're buying.
The best time to post to Hacker News, on average, is about 8:30 p.m. EST. Comparable times are when the New page's last entry (#30) was submitted over an hour ago.
The problem is that the very vocal snarky minority heap shit on absolutely anything and everything.
> "This is not some conspiracy theory. It's happening, and no one seems to care."

Do you ever feel like a frog recognizing the water is boiling and you don't know what to do?

Or like you're looking at what Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and the other founders fought and wrote the Declaration and Constitution over, but everybody is acting like it's easier just to pay the stamp tax?

Or both?
How the GBA’s best fighter doomed the company that made it
Thank you for the feedback! From the original design, I have toned down the bright colors a bit and added a tiny bit of texture to make the white text easier to read. I probably could tone down the brightness a bit more.
Do AT&T even advertise specific speeds? Their advertising is "4x faster than HSPA+."
If only we had static types, we could do something like this with JavaScript.
I don't think it was all bollocks. It was just due to the fact that sproc interfaces sucked. Also development of quality sprocs is qualitatively different than upper level app code (among other things, you want a single large query front and center to the extent possible), and so if you write stored procedures the way you write application code they will suck.

Now, what we do with LedgerSMB is build our stored procedures as basically named queries, inspired by web services (both SOAP and REST have been inspirations there). The procedures are intended to be relatively discoverable at runtime, with the aggressive attempts to use what infrastructure exists for this purpose that REST gives for HTTP.

Stored procedures are not a problem. They allow you to encapsulate a database behind an API, and the desire to do that is a major point of Martin Fowler's NoSQL advocacy (arguing for doing this for NoSQL dbs).
Just because that's the interface doesn't mean, "Allowing the entire world access," is by design. I understand where you're coming from with the cultural angle in your other post. On the other hand, sometimes people leave things in the open with the idea, "what's the worst that can happen," or, "only authorized people will know about this, I don't need security." This doesn't signify an intention to let the world see, or a lack care about whether or not the world sees.
It is trivially easy to find a lawyer who is both expensive and incompetent.
A dual seater is in the plans, but the addition power and strength needed will up the price a decent amount. As a complete ballpark figure, a two-seater will be roughly $20k more than the single seater.
The audience isn't as a whole super smart. Sure there are very smart people that contribute to this community, but unfortunately they're outnumbered significantly by a lot of poorly socialised idiots. One of the recent watershed moments for me was when I think it was PG posted a poll on the user ages, and there was a inordinate amount (obviously false) of very elderly senior citizens using HN. I remember PG remarking upon it.
If you don't trust Apple's tools, use a Linux livecd and one of many system analyser packages.
Oh, yes! My apologies. I'm talking about the original video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12zJw9varYE
The code for this is available on github[1], in case anyone is interested.

[1]: https://github.com/deedydas/CISCEResults2013
Using lists and sharing with lists helps you prevent certain people from seeing your posts.
I preordered one of these, and I somewhat regret it. The promo video is no assurance of quality in the end product, and it's not even going to ship until "early" 2014, which is a fair way away yet.

Why not wait until it's launched? Then you'll have reviews from dumb saps like me who can tell you whether it's worth it or not.
Depending how you define 'hacker,' his data mining could be considered 'hacking the data.'
This is a very important benchmark, provided framerates and rendering quality are held mostly the same. It could easily grow to include cases like having 100 tabs open, which currently don't really appear in any benchmarks.

For almost all my devices, this is the one I care about most.
Welcome to Echelon 2.0
Just a quick thank you to Katherine Hague of Shoplocket for putting together the interview. Her team has a great sense of design and has been a huge supporter of hardware startups and kick starter projects in particular.

She tells me that she has a great lineup of other founders for the upcoming installments. Looking forward to it!
got some candidates that fit that description? It's easy to tell yourself that the only reason someone's objecting, is because they object to everything.
I think the design looks great and this app could be useful for people who want to jumpstart their day. My only concern is that the market for reminder and to-do list apps is extremely crowded. I've used some apps that seem similar, and I'd be hesitant to download another. That said, you might need to hone in on the features that makes your app stand out. This may sound vague, but maybe incorporate tips or news related to breakfast, driving to work, etc.?
They did test playing videos through both Flash and HTML5, and found that power draw still varied significantly depending on browser, with IE drawing 30-40% less power than Chrome (after subtracting out at-desktop idle power). So there's definitely still low-hanging fruit for the browser itself.
Strange. I'm getting 404 errors for that repo.
thanks; thought it might be that, but it wasn't updating immediately for me. pref for page-through without reading to bottom = read?

also, i can't figure out how to add a new or existing feed to a folder. the tags i had from google reader are still there.
I'm not sure how wise that would be.
Would be somewhat like handcuffing oneself with handcuffs and not having the key.

Official: What is the password?
Person: I don't know
Official: Why wouldn't you know the password to your own laptop? Either you're lying, or you're definitely up to something nefarious.
Then exploit this market inefficiency for yourself and fix that.

I try to make it a point to visit the /newest page, and find that I have disproportionate influence on the content of Hacker News as a result. At slow times, it only takes about 3-4 votes in quick succession for a story to crack the top 30 on the front page. If a story is sitting on /newest with 3 votes, you can be the one that starts a voting cascade that brings it to the top. And as an added bonus, if you add an insightful comment, you can rake in hundreds of karma points as your comment is the first thing that thousands of readers see.
I disagree, but respectfully so. You will learn a lot by staying, but as you said, it truly is a toxic situation. You'd learn a lot by shoveling toxic checmicals every day for 6 months too, but that has semi-permanent effects on you, and it's just not worth it.

I recommend you get the hell out, ASAP. Take your time enough to try your best to pick a new landing spot that is not so dysfunctional (even then, there's no guarantees, but give it a good shot).

Life is short. Pick a new spot that will be as enjoyable as possible on a daily basis, while also carrying your career in the direction you want to go, and GET THERE ASAP.

(And I say that from experience -- I've found myself in a few of these messes myself).
Very promising. Would like to keep up.
>On a side note there is a known vulnerability in how compressed & encrypted voice data is transmitted that makes it reveal the contents, and that is by analyzing the statistical distribution of data (even encrypted) from that it is possible to deduce the message content -- http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cwright/oakland08.pdf so, make sure to play relatively loud music in the background

It seems like the better solution would be to just use fixed bitrate compression.
1. immediately change the mode of conversation... emails are first step towards such failures. [imagine your doctor treating you through emails]

2. was there a requirement document / product backlog? if yes.. then revisit it. if no, then perhaps, time to go back to the war-room and create one. see what could be accomplished and what all has changed

3. since your motive behind accepting the proposal was to build reputation (knowing the risks) see whats suits you the best... saving the reputation by slogging or starting afresh. it is not a sin to lose if you can draw positives out of it.

4. negotiate with the client.. build a mutual expectation level... start with small piece of working AND acceptable output and keep on enhancing it.

5. note down the learning so far... look out for new projects!!
As far as my memory goes - I think I can safely say this for the past six years, everyone I know is aware that you can get the results for practically anyone, as long as you know their name and their school. So I meant that that this is not anything revolutionary or new, let alone a security flaw. It's just how it is. And this is no violation of privacy as the author claims.

When the grades are announced, they are put up in their full glory in the school. There is no privacy! That is what I meant.

I know this is not a good thing, but I doubt this trend will change anytime soon.
Everyone should realize one thing that makes this news slightly less scary, but still scary nonetheless: the order only applies to "Verizon Business Network Services", which is not the entirety of Verizon Communications.

While this still means that the metadata from millions of phone calls by random people, possibly from phones not even on Verizon who were simply calling VBNS phones, have been vacuumed up by the government, it also means that not "all" Verizon phones are meta-tapped as the article seems to insinuate (tagline, picture caption).

Glenn has done incredible commentary and reporting for many, many years; I hope this story will be only the beginning of his contributions and shake-ups to the discourse and activism against the U.S. surveillance oligarchy. Anyone who hasn't been reading his pieces whenever they come out are missing a phenomenon in human history.
Sometimes, even assholes such as myself have something worthy to say.
He says he made the repo private.
Why are all the comments focused on how he got access to the data? The real scandal isn't in that they didn't protect the results (apparently Indian culture doesn't have the same level of privacy in this area), but in the fact that the results appeared to have been manipulated in odd ways.
But you still have the judgement/action gap. What you describe is maybe a piece of the puzzle, but it isn't a piece to take too seriously, and it is no substitute for understanding a problem and developing a decent solution to that problem.
I'm Canadian, but I'm used to seeing/paying USD prices online. I get slightly uncomfortable when dealing with Euros or GBP, because it feels like the service or product isn't targeted towards me (as if somehow I won't be supported or something). Its definitely a weird consumer psychology glitch. Do Europeans feel the same way when seeing online prices?
Prohibition 2.0
Set in a world where our beloved internet is illegal, Prohibition 2.0 is a series of webisodes that follows a group of bootleggers, who smuggle cat videos, rather than booze.
I think the question you have to ask yourself when posting a project to HN is are you ready to receive blunt and sometimes uncivilized responses to your work(?). I think as long as you submit with that filter in full view that even when your work is chided relentlessly for some already obvious gap you can still sort through and determine legitimate criticisms. Say what you will about HN and its strong convictions and shallow snide callouts, but there are not a lot of avenues like it on the internet today for getting actionable feedback.
I feel like people on HN just want Facebook to fail. (Or be "disrupted.")

Facebook lets me chat with my girlfriend, my grandparents, and my college roommate all at the same time. It lets me upload pictures of my new apartment for people to see. It lets me comment with a bunch of other angry misanthropes about how the Heat are gonna blow it this year. Until another service lets me do that in one browser tab, I'm fine with sticking with Facebook.

(I notice a huge correlation, too, with people's feelings about Facebook and people's level of extroversion/social aptitude in general. I think some people, website or no website, are going to want to keep to themselves -- and no app is ever going to change that.)
Ask HN: Need for better technical interviewing tools?
So I've been doing development for about 12 years and have been an active member of the hiring process for at least half of those at various companies. It's always been a mix of random tools we use from Google Docs, to Collabedit, to Evernote, etc. I got frustrated a couple months ago and started building something I thought would work better.

I have an MVP about ready to start letting a few people test out but I thought I'd open up the idea to the Eye of Mordor (different HN thread) and see what people thought. Are there things I'm missing? Is the idea just dumb? Is there another option out there I couldn't find?

I put up a little splash page you can find below with some screenshots of what I have and the basic idea I'm going for. Feel free to ask questions, suggest ideas, throw rocks. Thanks.

http://interviewsy.com
Entrepreneurship can help solve veteran suicide problem
(I have no involvement with Nitro, I just think it's neat)

Agreed. The main landing page is terrible on the iPhone. The docs page is a lot better, though. Don't judge it by the website, judge it by the examples in the docs.