skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"This word "over-regulation" and these arguments about government intervention are all bogus. It is because the government backed off what many called "over-regulation" that we are in the very mess we are in!"

This may be what some website with an agenda told you, but unfortunately reality is a little more complicated than that. This crisis has a number of causes and the economists who have been studying it from the beginning still don't fully understand it. True, the repeal of certain regulations was an important factor. But another important cause was excessive encouragement by the government for homeownership. This sort of "over-regulation" was certainly disastrous.

The point this article is trying to make is that the notion of "spontaneous order" is fundamental to both the theory of evolution and the free market. One would be hard pressed to design from scratch a working flamingo, and one would similarly be hard pressed to design from scratch a working economy. Both are extremely complicated systems and one cannot make a change to a single part without watching the consequences ripple out to affect seemingly distant parts of the system.

In the case of biology we can perform experiments so that we can isolate the specific effects of a particular action. This is what makes medicine work. A pharmaceutical company does not make the right drug on its first go--it tries thousands of chemicals before getting anything that works. Unfortunately, we cannot do this in the economy--it won't fit in a test tube. If Congress changes a certain regulation, the effects of this change will be felt in distant parts of the economy in ways that no one could have predicted. But because we can never have a "control economy," we will never be able to figure out what those effects were, exactly. In effect, we're hoping that we can come up with the right drug on the first go. This is nothing more than the Law of Unintended Consequences. Perhaps there exist certain regulations that would make the economy run more efficiently--but until we can apply the scientific method to the economy, we will never be able to definitively determine what they are.
I hate to be the cynic here but I think you need to really change your attitude if you want to succeed in life. To me your post seems to be "I sort of like computers and my life isn’t working out the way I want so I now want to pursue computers because it looks like my best chance out of the life I’m living"

Well, sorry to say, that isn’t how it works. Don’t get me wrong, if you really work at it I’m sure you can do it but you are WAY behind the curve if you’re 20 years old and have done nothing but tinker with BASIC and C. That said here's my advice...

First, accept you need to work day and night to accomplish your goal. Again, you’re already way behind so you have a lot of catch up to do just to be competent. You should be looking at 70 to 80 hour weeks of pure hard work (including your grocery job).

Second, learn Python (or some other language) backwards and forwards before you even start anything else. Tinkering doesn’t prove anything. Anyone can write a "hello world" app but true programmers have to think in a very specific, logical fashion. You might not have the aptitude for that and there’s no point wasting time pursuing this goal if you’ll never be able to get good at it. You can learn everything you need to know with a search engine these days so there’s no excuse here.

Third, stop thinking in generalizations. No one succeeds by saying "I want to found a start up." You need to latch on to an actual idea and you need to start working on it as soon as you are able. From where you live and the experience you have I figure you’ll need to create a whole product just to interest anyone.

Again, I apologize for the harsh tone but I think it’s justified. As rude as it sounds someone who gets in your position usually doesn’t get out. Getting out will not only be the hardest thing you ever do it will be close to the hardest thing anyone’s ever done. You literally have to remake yourself at a time when many of your instincts have already been formed. It’s not easy, it’s not fun and it will be tons of work and tons of time before you see even a little bit of results.

But if you want to succeed you have to commit yourself to that reality.
Amazingly detailed motorbike model
The site is messed up on Chrome!
You don't need to do any experimentation to know that a full-color receipt with lots of black on heavy stock is going to use more resources than thin thermal paper.
Koochoo: What to do with my kids? : Fairfield County - Home
That assumes the purpose of regulation is to limit competition between corporations and prevent them from failing. The true purpose of most regulation is to protect consumers and small time investors from the worst side effects of a competitive market.
It also seems he has a couple logins here.
The author is confusing accepting biological evolution as a fact with belief in natural selection as an all-powerful optimizing agent. As most biologists understand (since Gould & Lewontin's 1979 "Critique of the Adaptationist Program", anyway), evolution makes mistakes and leads to nonoptimal outcomes. There is every reason to believe that conscious human design can construct better systems than some sort of anarchical survival-of-the-fittest scheme.

In fact, saying so is blisteringly obvious. Virtually every human accomplishment has required conscious design. Evolution by natural selection could never have designed a wheel -- but we did. It may be tempting to employ biological principles to everything, but it's a mistake.
Zed? Is that you modding me down?
Not too harsh at all. This is actually the most realistic piece of advice so far. I fully realise that I am not where I need to be, and that "tinkering around" isn't nearly good enough. I did not mean to imply that.

I disagree that it will be close to the hardest thing anyone has ever done. Come on now.

It will be extremely hard though, harder than most things, and I am up for the challenge.
> I've been working my way through SICP and I've recently learned the basics of Python, but I don't know if I can learn everything I need to know through self-study

The majority of what you need to know in order to run a startup isn't taught at collage/uni, it's self-taught or learnt through experience
I'm attempting to bootstrap something right now, and here's what I've done so far. Note that I'm on summer break from University. I'm working a job to try and fund myself.

5:30AM Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, make coffee

6:30AM Catch the bus to work

4:00PM Finish work

4:07PM Catch bus home

5:00PM Get home, make more coffee, change clothes, eat dinner

5:15PM Arrive at the local coffee shop. Download all the software/documents/videos/lectures I'll need for the night. Check email, banking, accounts, news. Chat with a few of the regulars and get some relaxation in.

6:15PM Get home again. Code and do work. Note that my apartment has no cable or internet. This is perfect for me, as I just use the coffee shop for the essentials.

9:30PM Sleep

Note that the weekends look a lot different, but I probably still only get 3 hours of good work done per day because I socialize with people from work and other things to relax. Also, because I work 9 hour work days, we get every other Friday off. I go to the store, buy some Red Bull, and try and hack for the entire day. I can't tell you how critical this Friday off has been so far. This is my first time trying anything like this, so we'll see how it turns out!
I would imagine the skillsets for making money and targeted distruction are very different.
We are more than our genes. Let's not be reductionists here.
So yes, we have brains which can make some of us do things like die for others or even die for ideas. That's quite something for your uncaring individuals.

And I think your view of gene-centric evolution sounds terribly naïve: It has been explained a lot of times that the "selfish gene" has nothing to do with making us selfish ^^ Quite the contrary: it can make individuals do very altruistic things for their siblings (potentially carriers of the same gene).

And finally, in my opinion even if genes are fixed like hardware, their seems still to be some freedom left to software, memes...
Ah, I see what you're saying. I read "waste" in terms of ROI not gross resources.
Let me bet.

He will not do it. He doesn't like to play with others or have his brilliant ideas scrutinized by who he considers lesser people.

So, the way he has to prove me, and others who agree with me, is

- to provide the said patches (a plus, if they don't collide with already existing libraries, let's call Zed's SMTP "zsfasmtp") in publicly accessible libraries

- accept criticism and patches from others

- work with the Python maintainers to help them include his fucking awesome libraries in a future Python release

And that's it.

Until then, we all would gain if only he did shut the fuck up.
That's not as obvious as you think. Thermal paper costs more to make than regular paper.

I bet it costs less to print solid black on regular paper with a laser printer, than thermal paper.
Poll: What do you think of Google Wave?
It's about unification of existing tools. I think it will catch on.
It goes beyond just unification of existing tools. I think it will catch on.
It's about unification of existing tools. I doubt it will catch on.
It goes beyond just unification of existing tools. I doubt it will catch on.
Work Injuries Chicago
Chicago Work Injury
Civilized society is perfectly fine with opposing jail for murderers, for several definitions of "murder".
Here is what it comes down to. School is a security blanket, as is pretty much everything else society tells you that you "need" to do before doing a startup (VCs, corporate experience, etc.).

This is what you need to be able to do to succeed.

Hustle.

Hustle your brains out and figure out what you want to build, build it, monetize it, prove that you can do great things, and the rest will be history.

Good luck man, just don't let your past dictate your future and you'll be fine.
I don't have too much big picture advice given that I'm roughly your age and also somewhat disoriented, but with regards to learning your math: most if not all schools will allow you to take a math placement test to determine where you need to begin in the curriculum. I completely agree with you that taking 3 semesters (a year, a year and a half?) just to get up to speed would be silly, especially if you do in fact have an aptitude for math.

If you've never taken calculus it would probably serve you well to take it in an actual classroom (possibly at night while working?), but trig can easily be self taught from a book. If you need a little extra help, contact the math department of a local university and ask if they have a list of students who are available for tutoring. It would be a small cost to meet with someone once or twice a week to stay on track with your self study, compared to an actual college class.
Have you tried OneNote? It's still not great for math, but for a lot of note-taking applications it's excellent - particularly in tacking things wherever you please.
Programming is too young of a field to have a "canon". And I think any field that does have one that people really care about is probably a bit ossified and dead.
This was the first really long piece I read on the Internet. Really takes me back.
But, that's his whole point! He's saying that it's incongruous and inadvisable to cheap out on the design and production of the receipt when it's one of, if not the, final impression a diner will take away from your restaurant.
I can see your point with a thousand+ dollar meal, but wasting that much ink and more substantial stock just to show me how much my coffee cost doesn't necessarily improve my user experience. A better solution for simple transactions: no receipt at all. Reminds me of Mitch Hedberg :

I give you money and you give me the doughnut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario that I would have to prove that I bought a doughnut.
It's hard to go out for a beer with someone who isn't in the same place that you are. And people will definitely tell you stuff over a beer or two that they won't write about in their blog.
Depending on what you've lived through, what that snippet derides might not sound too bad. I mean, for those from war torn places, immigrants who worked hard, a secure job to take care of your family and see your children grow up isn't a bad dream at all. We simply have the luxury of making that our baseline.

If anything, my take-away is to recognize that those things aren't bad in it of themselves, but just don't mistake the dreams of others for your own.
Whatever you do, don't waste time learning Python backwards and forwards before you even start doing anything else. Focus on making stuff. I've seen far too many smart people fail miserably because they had the attitude of "as soon as I become an EXPERT in python/machine learning/whatever I can start on my startup." This is a recipe for failure. Build something and learn the details as you go.

It doesn't even have to be your best idea, it just has to be AN IDEA. Just get one full idea implemented and put it out there. Do not get distracted by people who tell you how hard everything is or how it's not fun or how you need to be an expert in something before you can start executing. Just get something done. It's almost the only thing that matters.
Have you ever looked at Lua?
Visit California Tips
A california travel guide
"I make user interfaces...You can learn more about me here, here, and maybe here."

Hey Dustin, quick suggestion for a better user interface: put the name of the link in the original copy so that I don't have to mouse over the word "here" to see what it is.
I found myself thinking the same thing while reading the post. Maybe my cynicism around this issue stems from the fact that I'm 27, have been doing this 10 years, and still have not had a significant exit. (But I've have had a blast on the ride.) I admire the idealism in this post, and reading it makes me almost wish I could rewind and repeat the last 5 but only because retrospect is 20/20.

However, to Tom's point... I think he has many. I picked up on the same tone and think you should carefully evaluate what Tom mentioned in regard to your situation. You're young and have a lot of time so try to remove that pressure from your shoulders, but you really need to get focused on obtaining a basic set of tools before you build a <insert startup here>. Whether it's through college, or sticking your face in front of a monitor for ~40+ hours a week and self teaching yourself X,Y, and Z.

I would say good luck but real entrepreneurs win because of perseverance.
Typo: s/misconduct my any standard/misconduct by any standard/
How To Be Invincible
I don't know if that's actually an example. While the perception of flavor is derived from both taste and smell, I don't think the two actually overlap. Although, you can certainly smell and taste something at the same time.
7610 White LCD No Display Problem | repairmobiles.saaqi
Illinois Criminal Defense
Albert Wysocki is a Lake Country family law and criminal defense attorney who was previously a judge and who provides legal counsel throughout Illinois.
The Future of Manufacturing, GM, and American Workers (Part II)
Of course, this presumes one accepts a gene-centered view of evolution. The fact that we know of multiple species whose behaviors change faster than their genotype (not just humans -- see, e.g., apes which use tools and develop new learned behaviors) seems to suggest that there's more we should be considering (and no, that doesn't mean "take a copy of The Selfish Gene and replace 'gene' with 'meme' everywhere").
Maybe you've heard of Coase's theorem? It's relevant to this discusion. Anyway, above a very small number you can't reliably value someone's true contributions, because there are feedback effects and problems of assymetric information. If you've heard of Dunbar's number that is probably teh absolute maximum anything remotely close to this could work at, and I'd actually be surprised at it working with more than 15 people. But that isn't a company (stocks) it's a partnership.

BTW, good on you for doing an app, but the screen is too wide, there's no reason for the scroll bar along the bottom. Also the discussion link is pointless, no activity, no point. Add a highscore thing and ask people if they want to phone home when they get their personal high score.
Can't you take SAT II and place out of calc 1?

I have a hunch that you will be in a lot better position when you join uni and graduate than a lot of my friends who recently graduated and then had the "NOW WHAT?" moment. You are having that moment right now, which is good.

Knowing that you like math is a great start. Also, learning python is another awesome decision. Now while you are trying to figure out your "big" thing(which school to goto etc.), try putting together your love for python/math and build cool apps out of them.

Finally, quit regretting your past. Think you partied too much in high school? There are geeks who wish they had more fun in high school:) Point is, it is about how you frame your experience. Instead of thinking "I was a slacker" ask yourself "what can I build for slackers like me[and profit!...jk]?".
Wow, I've never thought of this as synesthesia, or really given it much thought at all, but I think I exhibit the visual motion to sound symptom sometimes. It's rare, seemed to be more common during high school years (I'm 21 now). If it was really quiet and usually when I was relaxed and alone, it was almost as if the ambiance would get progressively louder. I'm not sure if it was associated with visual motion or repositioning my eyes, but I would also hear whooshing sounds. It seemed like I could also hear faint sounds louder, like typing or the creaking of a chair. At times it would actually get annoying, but it would go away when I went about and did something to take my mind off of it. Since the beginning of the year, I can only remember it happening once, for about half an hour .
I believe the real astonishing observation from the experience IS the worldwide pairing of the shapes with the names, regardless of language.
Is Javascript the New Assembly?
Who Cares What People Write?
I know people on HN are very liberal, but this is extremely cynic about institutions. I mean: I know we are not living in wonderland and this is close to true. Here in France I even have the impression that key institutions have mostly been overtaken by private interests. But in theory we are supposed to try to get closer to something called democracy, where those institutions should reflect our common goals and hopes by some collective decision-making process (the difficult part!). Even if it is extremely tough at the scale of countries, and even if we are far from it, I though we were at least trying...
it will be successful in its own right, but until it manages to do social networking properly, it won't be wildly popular.

that is, what twitter almost gets right, the ability for people to find a subject to talk about and instantly connect to people talking about that subject.

google wave does not do this yet. it just allows discussions to take place. it facilitates the discussion, not the formation of discussion groups.
Nielsen Hugely Underestimates BitTorrent Traffic
An Overview of California Storage Options
California is one of the biggest and the most crowded states of United States. The real estate here is costly and most people have to settle in small apartments. This has made California storage very popular.
One time, at Canoe in Atlanta, the server gave us a business card at the end of our meal (it was nice, as business cards go). Canoe also seems to use a CRM to keep track of their customers, as they said "Welcome back" when we did come back.

Those practices, just standard practices for any modern business really, made for a much better experience than a pretty receipt would.
"What power would hell have if those imprisoned here would not be able to dream of heaven?"
-- Dream, From Neil Gaiman's Sandman

So yes, take care when choosing your dreams.
"disagree that it will be close to the hardest thing anyone has ever done. Come on now."

Well, you could be right. I think inherent in the advice I gave above is the idea that it might be too harsh but people who prepare for the worst sail through situations that are easier than the one's they were prepared for.

That said in my observations of the world I've found changing yourself is the hardest thing anyone ever has to do. That's why the astronaut who was successful enough to beat out everyone else in the country can't seem to kick his smoking habit. Or how a guy who managed to become President of the United States TWICE, which is not easy to do, can risk it all for a brief liason with an intern.

Bottom line: Our own vices are generally the hardest opponents to beat
I would have said the exact same thing at the time. As it turns out, many of the "busywork" tasks are things that you'll want to be able to do quickly, easily, and accurately as you build on your skillset.

Repetition is how you optimize your brain. Quick and accurate execution of inner-loop code is critical. The more you can optimize, the more effective of a tool your brain will be.
I graduated from Georgia Tech's CS program in December, so I can hopefully give you a few useful pointers.

First of all, while GT is definitely your top (and really only) choice in the state for any of those three departments, you don't necessarily have to start out there. Look up Southern Polytechnic State University - it's in Marietta, just a short ways outside Atlanta, and it has a few serious perks for your situation:
- It's a whole lot cheaper (about $10k less) than GT is, particularly for students who are not in-state.
- It is an engineering-focused university that will get you up to speed reasonably quickly and let you start taking some classes that will transfer well to GT (but not as well or smoothly as you might expect, so be careful).
- Transfering from Southern Poly to GT is almost a guarantee -- as long as you do well there, you are pretty much certain to be admitted.

Second, whatever university you wind up going to, be sure to get involved in activities outside of class. They don't all have to be focused on programming or startup stuff, either -- my time working on GT's student newspaper helped in my job search nearly as much as my degree itself. Plus, the things I did had the additional benefit of exposing me to a much wider group of people than the typical CS crowd, and keeping me sane during tougher times.

Last, don't give up, especially once you actually get into university. GT's engineering, science and CS programs tend to smack people down in their first couple of semesters, and the worst thing you could do is let that get you down to the point of dropping back to your current situation.
Who said those rules ought to be static? Parliaments are busy places...
Of course we are more than our genes. We can rise above our primitiveness, hopefully. I didn't mean to defend the gene-centric theory of evolution because I am not an expert on it. And yes, I have read Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" too, so I am acquainted with the theory that altruism and collaboration can stem from the so-called selfish gene.

Enough of theories. Let us look at facts. There are limited resources, and we will fight for them. Like I said, I don't believe that we fight for what's good for the species. We fight for ourselves, our families and communities. We are still rather tribal.
> Fixing this in a quick local test here makes all the difference ;-)

It makes all the difference to that one benchmark - not to the overall situation.