skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Vertical integration has led to some of the largest companies in history. It started with Andrew Carnegie and his steel company at the end of the 1800's. It fell out of favor around the 1970's and shifted to a mentality of focus.
For each possible exit, multiply fraction of the company you're likely to have at that exit, the value of the company at that exit, and the likeyhood of that exit points and account for time. Add up those numbers.

For example, let's say that you're being offered 4%. Suppose that you think that there are two likely exits - a complete crash and burn and a $100M exit after four years and two rounds of 50% dilution.

We can ignore the crash and burn because 0*any finite number = 0.

If you think that the $100M exit is 25% likely, the value of the options is $250k over four years.

In reality, there are probably a couple of exits worth considering. Since big exits tend to be relatively rare, you'll find that much of the expected value comes from small/medium exits. (Redo the above with a 1% likelyhood of $1B, a 4% likelyhood of $100M, and a 10% likelyhood of both $10M or 20M exit.)

You should be able to ask them about the various exits.
or lay off a lot of employees.
To those who modded this down: do you dispute any of the factual claims in Rothbard's piece? Or are you just reinforcing your image as mindless cultists?
Yay. Now we have an OS hard-coded into the BIOS. Why is this a good thing?

What does this buy over simply putting a flash chip on the motherboard and letting the OS treat it like another peripheral, perhaps with a pre-installed slimmed linux distro?
Sure, they get a job when they're 20, but what about ten years down the line when their language/framework-specific training is obsolete?

Also, it's hard to imagine that such narrow training is going to produce creative engineers. Although great schools like MIT may focus on science/tech, they have more than just CS as a major, and a lot of what comes out of these places is interdisciplinary.
I know a 7 day old post is ancient by hb standards, but have you seen librivox? It's a website of community contributed readings of non-copyright texts/books.
I graduated from Neumont in 07... I can tell you the school was VERY different just a couple of years ago. I blame their marketing department going after only highschool kids now.
He's a scientist not Guy Kawasaki...
Small/Bootstrapped vs. Big/VC-Funded
It's good to have tests, but shouldn't framework level libraries follow some kind of Design by Contract methodologies so that you never break compatibility?
Hmm how did you find out how to log in!?

I got one as well but could not figure out how to log in.

edit got it: preview.wolframalpha.com
This comment could be upmodded with details. Lots of them. I'll guarantee you one vote per detail.
Yeah, that is what I meant. It certainly isn't "based on" FreeBSD.
Five changes you should know about the stock footage industry
The radioactive boy scout: the teenager who attempted to build a breeder reactor
Well, it mostly just helps when someone says, "Well, if you'd ever created anything, you'd understand!" or "Well, if you were a writer|artist|filmmaker|programmer, you'd understand!"

That is, I only seriously bring it out when someone explains with a pat on the head that when I grow up and start actually creating stuff, my views on copyright and patents will suddenly change and I'll be in favor of them.
You have not addressed why is it the right of producers to make a living making despite of the fact that other men do not saw fit to patronize the producers.
The quote at the top of the page says: "the greatest difficultly of Rails development is that 'best practices' have a shelf life of < 12 months"

Sam is quoting this (as opposed to making the statement himself), but putting it at the top of the page seems to indicate that he agrees with it.

My understanding of the post is that Sam also deplores the rapid pace of change, and has automated his test environments as a workaround.
Except that they may be shooting virtual martians with their plasma guns instead of doing anything "productive" ;-)
Ask HN: Google App Engine (GAE) Authentication
Does it make sense to use GAE for a new web application given that it only accepts users via a Google Account (for login/session purposes)?

I have an idea for an application that would really benefit from running on GAE, except that I'm not so sure about having a Google Account as a requirement to use the app.
It's English-only, for now, because of the language processing.
Although the docs give that impression, I don't think you actually have to use their account system. I'm pretty sure you can just roll your own.
The monetization method Cuban mentions seems like it could bring in some substantial revenue for Twitter.

But how would they actually begin charging businesses for click-throughs? Would they hire people to look through Twitter accounts and flag them as businesses or consumers, and block businesses' access until they put in their CC info?
Sorry, your assault on my character failed.(Never mind that the fact that your argument have nothing to refute my initial argument)

The fact that I saw fit to patronize the movie theater refute the idea that I "wanted everything for free".

I am very certainly willing to pay for certain services that I found valuable.
Wolfram Alpha will teach the masses about precision and recall.
Google tends to work so well on most queries that people don't think about such issues.

But with Wolfram Alpha, the issues of precision and recall will become important issues discussed by everyone.

And there will be a huge interest in tracking precision and recall over time in various domains as Wolfram Alpha improves.

There's probably a startup opportunity here.
This is a problem. I'm guessing most dads would give any amount for their kids, if it was guaranteed to go to the kids. There has to be some type of enforceable method to track payments and how they are used for the benefit of the children.
"What is the rationality of vehemently holding a belief that you cannot prove?"

There is a crucial difference between actively believing there are no gods, and not believing there are any gods. I think Dawkins states the latter.

There are many things not worth believing because of a lack of evidence, and one need not provide counter evidence in order to rationally withhold belief when there is no evidence to support a claim.
I am a creator(I write video games, yo!) and I certainly understand the "risk". I lived with it everyday, but I am not worried about leeches.

This mainly stem from the fact that I have a different understanding of the economic involved and what my opportunity really are.
In 1995 dollars:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n5_v89/ai_178...
Who visits sports websites?
You're quite right, if you're not interested in challenging yourself, developing skills you never knew you had, being or becoming flexible, and using a nimble mind, then a startup might not be the right choice.

There's nothing easy about starting a company. It can be a rough experience, and is not for the risk-averse. It's also not as easy to work at a startup, because your duties are less well defined, and doing a bad job has a real impact on the company's bottom line. If you want to do the same thing day in, day out, nine to five, you need to work for a big company.

At Startup House we believe that internships at startups can be just as rewarding as internships at big companies, for individuals who are interested in challenging themselves and thinking on their feet. Startups typically do not offer the same sort of side benefits to interns (corporate apartments, structured mentorship, events for interns, having a community of interns), and that's where Startup House comes in.

Startups, for many, offer more interesting opportunities, such as the ability to work closely with management. Startup House makes working for a startup even more attractive by providing the side benefits of an internship, community, events, activities, housing (limited by availability - and a lot more fun than living on your own), and dinners with entrepreneurs.

Our program is meant for those who would be interested in startups anyway. We seek out individuals who demonstrate an interest in technology, entrepreneurship, and enjoying life, in order to build a supportive community of interns across multiple startups. If this sounds interesting to you, you can apply by sending your resume to resumes at startup-house dot com. For additional information, check out our website www.startup-house.com or send an email to contact at startup-house dot com.

Julian Jennings-White

Co-Founder, Startup House

julian at startup-house dot com
Details? Like what? When I was there, I loved the school. The original founders of the school had a great vision and knew what the industry wanted out of new grads. Sadly, the board of directors wanted to take it a different direction to make a profit sooner.

In the past they constantly brought in companies and literally asked them what technologies they wanted new grads to know.

Almost all the students had jobs lined up months before they graduated. Many even had multiple $60k+ job offers.

I loved the time I spent there. I met many ambitious students and worked on a ton of side projects with them learning technologies that were never taught. The school definitely attracts a wide range of students. From the entrepreneur to the basement WoW addict.

I hope things work out. Its a great concept, and employers are definitely happy with the students Neumont produces.
Call it whatever you want. If you copy and distribute things that look exactly like U.S. currency, would that be rationally justified in your world?
Wolfram Alpha Launch Webcast Live on Justin.tv
It has been established so many times on this board that copyright infringement is NOT stealing that I would recommend against even bothering to have this argument. You're right, the other argument is disingenuous.
Looks like they're running a few minutes behind schedule: http://twitter.com/Wolfram_Alpha/status/1811673444

edit: the stream is live now
Wow...

I had never seen that before, and honestly thought it was a warning about predatory lending...the person on the phone "you can do this" sounds like a drug dealer "just one hit".

...wow.
It is an interesting topic to hear other HN users discuss, though the articles in question are generally pretty horrible.

But that is really the point of HN. So many topics are interesting, and lack thoughtful discussion. HN is where I come find that sort of thing.
I live nearby and the curriculum is very weak. No studying operating systems. No compilers. No proper survey of languages. Algorithms is very weakly taught. But you do get all the certs you want before you finish. They do get some gifted students. Unfortunately those are the students who would be better served in a more challenging environment. The rest get what they want, a more respectable sounding form of a technical certificate.
It already has quite a bit of hype out in the wild so I don't think launching on Friday will hurt them too much.

If anything I think a Friday launch will help since hopefully traffic will be lower on sat/sun and they can maintain the service and prepare it for massive traffic during the week.
'I think the more telling answer would be to the question, "Why /aren't/ you worried about it?"'

I don't have any stats or studies, but given that I sell a digital product I've been very keen on what to do (or not) about possible unauthorized copying. What I've determined from reading comments and blog posts from other software makers is that if you sell a decent product at a reasonable price, most people are good about paying.

Granted, "decent" and "reasonable" are squishy terms, but overall it seems more practical, and profitable, to offer something of value than to pile on the digital restriction management and battle ubiquitous distribution tools.

Treat people well, and they treat you well in return. Not always, but good enough.
Yep.

Lists like these help me have stories to tell my niece.
I just found the comment you probably mean: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=607638

I read it as you adding something to the discussion.

But I have noticed that certain subjects tend to rile people up - I think it's to do with categorizing people, almost like an -ism (as in racism or sexism). PC/mac is one of these; but there's also vi/emacs, Windows/Linux, programming languages, and even Holden/Ford (apparently). The so-called religious wars, that tend to bring out emotions. Probably because people identify with the product, and so any perceived slight is taken as a personal attack, therefore there's a wish to defend against it or to counter-attack, grabbing whatever means are available.

I've noticed that I've strayed into the area myself: without realizing it, I've used Mac/PC to make a point (about integrated hardware/software vs. modular components - the former is needed in the earlier years. It's an idea from Clayton Christianson, of the innovator's dilemma fame.) I wasn't attacked, but I got some odd responses... eventually I realized that it's just a touchy subject. Like sex, religion and politics.

I think you might have caused offense with the earlier part of your comment, where you seem to be implying that Mac purchasers lack "the wherewithal to tell the difference." I can see that causing offense, even though you are a Mac user yourself, and you intended it in a neutral way. And that's coming from me, who's not a Mac user.

I agree that the denotation of the statement is neutral - the same statement is true of evaluating professional work in general: dentists, surgeons, barristers, plumbers, car repairers, etc... and of course coding (for the non-coder.) How do you know if you are being ripped off? You don't.
I'm guessing most dads would give any amount for their kids, if it was guaranteed to go to the kids.

I know an alarming number of counterexamples.
I don't think there's anything stopping you from using another authentication system... all you really need is the ability to set/read cookies and a place to store credentials and session info, right?
pg has frequently suggested "simple" as a substitute for "good", using Google as an example. I think this is the best you can do, in the short term, if you don't have a designer that shares your vision. Tweaking simple designs is much easier than tweaking complex ones, so if you do simple now, when you have a few thousand dollars to spend on a good designer, you won't have to undo what you've done in the meantime.

I've actually found that easier said than done, in a very large, very mature, codebase. The more functionality your software offers, the harder it becomes to make the UI simple. I've spent some time learning about design and UX in the past couple of years, diverting some of my mental resources over to the task (the only new programming language I've learned in that time is JavaScript, but I've also learned a lot about UI, user testing, making gradients and buttons, grid systems, CSS, browser bugs, etc.). There is enough programming to keep it challenging, and enough new tools involved to give me (a lifetime nerd with an affinity for how computers and software work) a relative advantage over creative folks just starting out with design for the web. I've been avoiding admitting to myself that one of my primary roles in the company is design...but it's become that by necessity. I finally broke down and bought the Adobe CS4 Web Design Premium bundle, so I have the same tools all the real designers are using.
The picture of Logan with the silly expression is so gratuitous.
Yours was worse. His was a type of inane throwaway remark that's at least marginally acceptable to make about famous groups or individuals. E.g. "the 49ers suck this year." Yours was a bitter, personal attack on an individual.
N.b. In Oracle, empty strings are null. In T-SQL (MS), empty strings are distinct from nulls.
Why not have some way to register small "background" programs as essentially cron jobs? It could limit the time it's allowed to run to, say, 30 seconds, and kill the process after. I think this would be long enough for most background tasks, like updating your location, polling a server, etc.
As do I, sadly.
"In the past they constantly brought in companies and literally asked them what technologies they wanted new grads to know."

So it's a trade school then. Lets see how you do 10 years out.

Basically it's compucollege, with a more friendly name. And
after seeing that picture (Didn't load for me at first), I won't be hiring from there.
Facebook May Roll Out Video Chat
Personally, I am not particularly excited about the potential that a corporation might be permitting the hardware owners use such a mundane concept as 'background tasks'. I think the far bigger story here is that the hardware owners still cannot control their device, that they have purchased, as they see fit. I find it incredible that people put up with this.
Optimizing Conversion Rates: It's All About Usability
The real question is: will this be a feature of the quality that facebook has been doing lately? Or is it going to be unreliable for a long time before it actually works?
I am always annoyed at the usage of "log on" instead of "navigate to" or "visit."
Using a fixed gear bike in Seattle would be asinine, agreed. Within a relatively flat city, they make a lot of sense, however, and they're practically ideal for running short (< 3 mi, say) errands. They're mechanically simple and require practically no maintenance.

To push the analogy further, some of the buzz around couchDB reminds me of people obsessed with scaling (racing) without either any real understanding of algorithms (being in shape) or any chance of actually needing it (actually competing). That starts to sound more like a road cyclist with an expensive garage ornament, though... Fixed gear bikes are perhaps more like SQLite than couchDB, in that sense. They're actually really useful on a smaller scale.

I see where you're coming from on the hipster bit, just nitpicking.
Google: Looking over shoulder at Wolfram Alpha?
Heh, maybe it won't get taken out by tornadoes before they get it launched. That would REALLY be a terrible accident.
Shouldn't it be even simpler than that? Why can't the OS control context switching at a fine grain with a policy like: 10% of time for all background apps, and 90% for either the foreground app or for the sleep state. At worst a background app won't get as many CPU cycles as it'd like, which I think is a better compromise than the 2 extremes of no background apps and background apps that can suck all the performance+power.
The consumers are in fact patronizing the producers by consuming the product the producers create. Not paying what the producer asks in exchange is the "wrong" part.

The free market says that the producer can ask what it wants in exchange for the product. If the consumer doesn't want to pay it, the consumer should not consume it. Consumption without paying does not mean the consumer does not believe the product has no value. Obviously it has value if the consumer consumes it.
That's not a problem of affordability, but of education. Vegetables, beans, and rice are cheaper than processed food.

That's just a guess though. I don't know why poor people eat junk. Perception of cheapness might be a big part of it. Decadent flavors and bright, colorful packaging also help, I'm sure.

The food topic is really just a metaphor. I could give a similar example with education. If you the problem is the dropout rate of school, and not that your kids need to work on your farm to make ends meet, you're doing OK.

Clearly my standard is a bit extreme in western contexts, but not so much with respect to the rest of the world or recent history.
I think the point of the article was best summed up by:

> While our competitors furiously worked on regaining market share, we were arguing about whether the carpets should be wool or nylon. The result was not pretty.

Growth is not the killer. They moved to a nice building, failure of the business was a correlation. A mishandling of priorities was what hurt the worst.

The cultural aspect is more about attitude than space. They outgrew the attitude and paid for it. The building and the excesses it entailed were evidence of the shift in attitude, not the other way around.
Actually, it has built-in support such that the younger relatives of the older person help them with any confusing tasks. Thats the whole point!
At the risk of contributing to noise:

You clearly said... exactly what I quoted. And then much later, at the very end, clearly said... what you just quoted. It's not my problem if you can't stick to a consistent viewpoint throughout a post.

"Instead of addressing my points, you invent some other point to support your case."

So when I quote exactly what someone says I "invent" points?

"You and everyone here knows I'm right."

I'll have none of that bullshit.

"The fact that I'm losing karma only proves my case."

And then you call me illogical.
The outliers at the extreme top are bad examples.

According to the government and my tax rate, I'm a winner. Most people I know that went to grad school are winners. As an example, the income cutoff for being unable to deduct interest on student loans is ~$140K for a joint filing.

So the only way you can deduct your interest from your student loans is if you didn't actually do well in applying your education and getting a well paying job. I.e. punish the winners.

This example isn't about billionaires. It's about people that make only a small amount more than the median salary. They're punished like this all the time, and it's bad for society.

[note: if you don't get paid well because you are a struggling musician, or social worker, my analogy of using your college degree well is not relevant. It's a careerist analogy]
Even better: http://www.mycelery.com/
Here are some tips from what I have learned as a coder that has been forced to design:

1 - find another product that you like the design for, look for something simple and with an appropriate colour scheme for your market. Use this as a starting design.

2 - Read smashing magazine for typography and layout tips.... actually just read it all the time. It's a great resource.

3 - As with code design, keep your interface simple. Initially avoid gimmicks through JS, just make something that is clean and works.

4 - Release the best interface you can to your users and ask for feedback. Some users offer great feed back others don't. Don't be afraid to ignore some feedback but most feedback has a kernel of truth to it.

5 - As with code, iterate quickly and ask for more feedback.

6 - Don't ever think you can't design, everyone starts somewhere, everyone makes mistakes. Stop procrastinating and get on with it.

7 - Sometimes there is necessary complexity. Apple are famous for simplicity but if you've ever used Final Cut Pro you will know that complex things are actually complex.

Good luck.
Google and WolframAlpha are not direct business competitors today (as many have pointed out.) But there is overlap in direction:

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/

Our overarching goal, the “higher purpose” of this project, is to make all computable, factual knowledge available to everyone. http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2009/04/28/welcome-to-the-wolfr...
There are plenty of other phones where you can hack around with background processes, why should one company be forced to do what everyone else is doing?

Apple, one of the few smartphone innovators, has decided not to as a design decision in the interest of its customers (battery life). In the future releases background process will be added on as the hardware gets better - why not buy the other brands until then?
It looks like the launch of this is going better then Cuil and most people seem to understand that they should give it a chance(time) to mature into something extremely useful! It looks very promising!

Google began in 1997 or 98. I heard of it in 2000 but did not start using it til 2002/2003.