skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Layoff split startup advice?
I work at a small design firm (<20 employees). Last week I received a letter which stated that due to economic downturn there was no other option for the board of directors than to fire me and four co-workers.

Up until this point, I had a seemingly good relationship with one of the managers of the company. In my private time, I've been developing a (not design related) concept with a lot of potential (to become a startup and beyond), and he offered to help me out with this. He proposed that we sign an agreement to divide the potential revenue by 50/50. His reasoning was that since he's backing the idea with a company, he deserves 50 percent. And since it's my idea, my share would be the other half. To be more specific, his help would consist solely of providing 'contacts' with investors and such, not help with technical development.

But now I realize that I've actually been fired, I'm feeling more and more awkward about all this. My options are to sit out my time here, to not sign his proposed contract and to develop my idea on my own. The consequence would be that I lose some basic contacts with investors we've initiated together. The other option is to just take my loss, find a new parttime job, and continue to develop the idea together with them.

What would you do? Would you follow your gut feelings or bet on trusting them?

Thanks!
More AC Power from Solar Panels: Shrinking DC-AC Inverters
don't swap contacts for equity. Go to opencoffee/linkedin/events and network. Investors aren't hard to find, and finding them yourself just proves how awesome you are.
Web designers leeds
web designers leeds
Software Piracy - A Business Development Indicator?
What is Data-Driven Design?
Not necessarily, but the question wasn't specific enough to recommend a subset. It's all potentially relevant.
It's definitely worth browsing. Do as many exercises as you feel like.
There I was brainstorming ideas to replicate the hierarchical database/collection/document management that MongoDB and CouchDB offer. One solution I have used, and became disenchanted with, was combined keys with all this information munged together. It would be interesting to hear what others do with their key/value stores.
I think the developers of phone gap are at fault here for suggesting that their platform/toolkit is usable on the iPhone. Whether or not developers agree with the restriction against interpreted code, it has been very clear since long before the public iphone developer kit that it was not allowable to write code in an interpreted language.

The exception to this is websites running javascript when a browser visits them (i.e. client side javascript for a webapp), and that is quite different than packaging javascript into an application and deploying that application to an iPhone.
Want market share? Try the truth! Or at least, a level of intelligence in your reporting that doesn't insult.
Wouldn't it be nice to use this framework for business web apps! Quick and responsive interface, easy to construct layouts around complicated business logic...

Not, actually.

A surprisingly large part of my enterprise prospects/clients have javascript switched off completely, and a a large part of them still use IE6!

It is tempting to ignore a dinosaur client who is still on IE6, but when the dinosaur happens to be a top manager at a large bank -- that makes you think.

As a result I am minimizing/eliminating JavaScript and sticking to simple html forms. Hell, I even have replaced all PNGs with GIFs after a IE6 user complained he couldn't see the charts.

It is a pity, of course, but business users' environment is a bit different from consumers' one.
Palm Pre June 6 at $199; new iPhone June 8 at $99?
Virtualization With KVM On Ubuntu 9.04
If we want to accuse Google of taking anti-competitive actions, we have to at least decide what those actions are.
Chris Wilson Leaves IE team (but not MSFT)
You try to compete with them and see what happens...
The first thing to note is that your position with regards to this has not changed. As he is still with the company he still has the contacts. Thus if this seemed ok when you were employed then it is still ok. The relationship has not changed.

However I do note that there is some hesitancy in your part to the signing. I'm not too sure about this 50/50 split thing. Sure the contacts he can give you might get the company started, and it is only a might at this point but they are of a limited usefulness as time passes.

Once you use those contacts you still have a great deal of work ahead of you. And in all likelihood you will need to make other contacts yourself. But he will still get 50% of the revenue.

Points to remember
1) even if those contacts turn out to be completely useless he has 50% of the revenue from here to eternity
2) even if the contacts are good you still have a great deal of work and sacrifice ahead of you, neither of which he will undertake, but he still gets 50% of the revenue for doing nothing

I wouldn't trust this person unless he can show what he can bring to the table is more than his address book.
Cool. I'll look for the applicable sections within it. Thanks
Too much cola zaps muscle power
http://www.catonmat.net/blog/mit-introduction-to-algorithms-... is a very good site, with videos of MIT lectures.

http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~algorith/video-lectures/ is another great source for video lectures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_algorithms has a veritable zoo of algorithms. Best part: contribute to the pages and you'll learn it better than just reading. For a true zoo of algorithms to start off a search, http://www.itl.nist.gov/div897/sqg/dads/ is perhaps the best.

Stack Overflow's got many good threads on Big O and comparative complexities, for instance http://stackoverflow.com/questions/133008/what-is-big-o-nota...
http://www.foxycart.com/

I have not tried it, anyone has any experience with it?

Unsuitable name for me, but they say you can run in on your own domain, and skin it to match your site.
> A wiki-consumerist, with reviews in any domain.

How about http://collectivesys.com
Warning: You may be ruining your hottest leads
If they are they're certainly being discreet about it. Microsoft was obviously anti-competitive in the 90's. The Windows/IE bundling thing was only a small part of it.

All of their software was designed to lock you in. It could sometimes be difficult to use a Microsoft product without having to use others. It can be a hassle to buy a new PC without Windows, but you couldn't do it at all back then. After the OS/2 fiasco they screwed IBM on Windows 95 pricing. Other OEM's were getting it for a few bucks and IBM had to pay retail initially.

It does concern me when one company dominates a market the way Google does and I think we need to keep a very close eye on them, but I don't see anything anti-competitive about what they're doing yet. In fact, they typically go out of their way to be open to the point where some of their applications allow you to move your data to a competitor's application.

That said, Microsoft, just like Google now, built their monopoly with a better product. It wasn't until much later that they became slimy.
I used Consolas for ages, but now switched back to DejaVu Mono, mostly because it's thinner horizontally.
True (and +1 for putting the actual detail into this discussion rather than the sensationalist headline).

But part of turning it down, at least in Arrington's seemingly informed opinion, is based on Facebook (read: Zuckerberg) believing he has other options which must be in the ballpark of that valuation or above.
As someone who has an iphone app live in the app store created with PhoneGap I call BS on this one.
I think the problem is consistency within the approval process instead of lying the problem at PhoneGap.
Looking into Amazon FPS now. Never heard of it before this.
Usually these cases start when a would-be competitor accuses the monopolist of taking anti-competitive actions. First step would be to review these accusations, if they exists.

Speculating whether they "might do something" without specifics seems fruitless.

The 1999 "Findings of Facts" in the US vs MS case should give a good idea of what is needed. It is quite readable, written in plain language, and totally ignored by the pundits who commented the case at the time.

A copy can be found here: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~richard/findfact.html
That's just how floating point math works in every language. Python intro: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/floatingpoint.html

Comprehensive paper going into depth about many other issues: http://docs.sun.com/source/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html

If you don't understand the above, your missiles may kill you and your rockets may explode: http://www.ima.umn.edu/~arnold/455.f96/disasters.html

However if you don't care about performance but want precision, you can use e.g. the Decimal module (which is a little annoying with syntax help from the compiler) or perhaps various wrappers for arbitrary precision libraries that are around.
I used to use Bitstream Vera Sana Mono but I switched to using Liberation Mono, it was released for free by the red hat guys. https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/

I'd recommend both, but I like Liberation Mono more.
Ignoring your business's browser? That's a mistake
Looking into Amazon FPS now. Looks like it's mostly billing only, but I'd certainly keep in mind as a component of a possible solution.
A surprising conclusion, for the NYT.
Read my lips:

Google is NOT a monopoly.

You can walk away anytime you want, they are not forcing you to anything or abusing you or their competitors in any way.

Those who want to stick the word monopoly in your mind associated to google are those who once were convicted monopolists.

Beware of FUD like this.

Is Facebook a monopoly?

Is Twitter a monopoly?

Is every company in the world which offers a great service and has a great and loyal user base a monopoly?

Answer: NO!

Wikipedia "monopoly" and you will find a better answer than what propaganda pundits want you to believe to further their agenda.
The government is a reflection of it's people. The amount of misinformation and lack of knowledge about India in the citizenry of USA is astonishing for an Indian living in USA.

US MSM is obsessed with poverty, and other sensationalistic news. I know about Thomas Friedman's love affair with India. Outside of few technology oriented journalists, there are very few who cover India.

Even CNN India correspondent is a parrot of MSM view of India.

We have managed to keep democracy working even after wave after wave of tremendous challenges which threaten to pull it down. We are naturally democratic country. Just look at the beating progress-hating leftists and overtly religious right got in the recent elections.

Indians have managed to prosper both at home and abroad despite all the disadvantages we had in last 6 decades.

Time for USA to let go of China==Asia and Pakistan==South Asia strategy and embrace India as sane, democratic and progressive partner.
In my view they are definitely a monopoly (not convinced? try http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/01/what-an-antitrust-case-...).

The question is whether they are abusing the monopoly. Probably not at the moment.

However, as the original question is a hypothetical then perhaps we can extend it to "what if Google starting abusing their monopoly - what should we do?".
The "secret question" process is a relic of a time long gone when information about individuals was not so readily available. It is made worse by things like social networking. A few careless settings in one's Facebook profile, and anyone who joins the group for your home town can see your profile. From there, practically ANY security question is available: pet names, high school, mother's maiden name, town where you grew up, etc... All linked to an email address.
How does this guy make his living? Just wondering...

I would simply call this a holiday, so why is this so ground breaking? I'm not trying to stir anything up by saying this..I just don't get why this is such a revelation.
Ask HN: How do you handle your customers?
India is a country of diversity. India has more then 26 languages speaking people, with all the religion. Apart from this diversity still it is the biggest democracy of the world. Our contribution into the world can not be neglected, even Obama try to neglect.
New iPhones to be Steve Jobs’ last gig
What can Software Designers Learn from Video Games
Additional warning: This minimal value-add-on (essentially: Read potential customers' emails) is primarily bait to activecampaign.com's email software.
I'd been puzzling why the name was so familiar and it's because this man is the source of the ultimate Smug Lisp Weenie quote...

Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: "Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp."
Excellent! Thanks for pointing that out.
Porting Javascript Applications to the iPhone
>> I have this "lego" feeling that I know everything fits together and it will be all right.

EXACTLY. I wish there were an imperative language with haskell's type system.
So, if Facebook is going to have between $400 million and $550 million revenue this year, does that put to rest once and for all the idea that they are unable to monetize their users?
In reference to housing prices; I don't understand how it is the "best time to buy" if prices are still falling. Wouldn't it be the "best time to buy" once it has hit rock bottom and just begun a slight upturn?
"Total expenses: $3960/per annum"

This is simply not true in Bangalore (I don't know about Hyderbad/ pune). (I've been living "decently" in Bangalore for the last 15 years). But hey if you can manage it, good for you.

"entry level salary for software engineer in an ordinary company is $5000 per annum."

people being hired out of college campuses (in other words n their first job) $10,000 - $12500 these days - and that too for the generic body shopping companies.

Government jobs (often with free housing and other perks) get you 5000 $/annum as a starting rate. Software jobs pay considerably more. If you are getting 5000$/ year for programming, you are significantly underpaid.

For anyone planning to come to Bangalore with 5k$, be warned, you will be scraping by. So, unless you plan to live very (VERY) cheap , iow "roughing it" , plan on about 10,000 $/ year for Bangalore. Bangalore is arguably the most expensive place to live in India (Some parts of Bombay are costlier).

I have had many expat friends stay in Bangalore for long periods. I just chatted with a couple of them as I was writing this post and they agree that 10k is enough for a decent (not great) year in Bangalore fr a year.

My advice, talk to someone who's relocated here from the USA and stayed a year or more and let them fill you in (vs getting dubious advice from a forum, even HN).
Revenue != profits. I wonder what their margins are. They might be losing money for all we know, even with $550m rev.
I'm using javascriptMVC ( www.javascriptmvc.com ). Please check this framework out to build the community of users! Thanks :)
The Great Spotify Mystery
Microsoft's Anti-Mac Ads Are Starting To Work
They don't seem to differentiate colas from other sodas. A surprise to me, since I seem to recall hearing the high phosphorous content of colas can compete with some other mineral absorption (calcium, was it?) ...maybe compete with potassium?

Personally, I've felt better about my physical stamina when I surrender to my crave for a "fizzling" drink by going to some diet lemon-lime (no caffeine or sugar) rather than a "cola" (whether caffeinated or sugared). YMMV
> And much of that money will get poured back into assets...

I disagree with using the word "much," that money is going through the filter of consumables and living expenses. The parent poster's point is that retirement destroys wealth faster than it is created. (Which is why that wealth was saved in the first place. To believe otherwise is to subscribe to the Broken Window fallacy.)
There seems to be something really slow about javascript-heavy sites on Unix, I think.

I'm really curious what the underlying cause is, if it's not just perception bias on my part.
When Google fails, the Internet wails
> But, do not reply to that question that way. Instead say, "Over the weekend I got into my car, started it,
drove 5 miles West, took a right turn, then a left turn, then drove another 10 miles, ..." Go at it for
several minutes until your colleague gets frustrated and interrupts you with "What's wrong with you."
Now simply reply, "oh, I though I'll tell you how my weekend way like you write your methods."

Wow. I'm pretty sure being passive-aggressive is not the solution.

If there's a really concrete case where a method doing too much is making code hard to correct (because you cannot change just one part of it in isolation), show it to the developer, and don't be a dick about it. While they may just be writing sloppy code, there's a good chance it was a smaller method that grew so gradually that it never set off their mental alarms.
Totally agree. A long time ago, someone once told me that "contacts aren't contracts" - sure, it's cheesy but it's perfect for this situation.

If I were in your shoes, I'd plan on going to events and steering clear of your "friend" -- doesn't sound like he had your best interests in mind.
aargh! Politics! why is this on HN? And that too at #1?

At best , this is an article on US foreign policy. What's next? Obama's policy for Afghanistan and how it should change?

flagged!
Speaking of moving my data, is there a way for me to migrate out of Gmail? I read an interview (Playboy interview with the Google founders - http://kottke.org/plus/misc/google-playboy.html) where Larry Page specifically said:

'For example, we just released Gmail, a free e-mail service. We said, “We will not hold your e-mail hostage.” We will make it possible for you to get your e-mail out of Gmail if you ever want to.'

But I haven't actually figured out how to do that yet. Does anyone know?
eBay is losing its monopoly due to lameness.

Also, Froogle is a definite eBay competitor, and Google lists brand new products, too.

You used to be able to buy old hardware cheap off eBay, but their stupid fees have ruined buying cheap stuff.

Also older eBay stuff seems to break down quite quickly these days.
http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/death_by_chocolate/the_ls... (Yes, I know it's only a cover...)

I fly to the land
Where my hands can see
And my eyes can walk
And the mountains talk

I hear with my knees
Run with my nose
Smell with my feet
My mouth is a rose

Just as much modern tech is attributed to pop culture sci-fi (id est Star Trek), stuff like this make me wonder if the drug culture was also an influence...

EDIT: I'm surprised this discussion hasn't mentioned synesthesia yet, which is the "natural" precedent of senses misdirecting themselves in the brain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
I'm going to paraphrase, so I apologise in advance.

Remember that any system that gets its users laid or makes them money can have the users jump through hoops to use it. Anything less than that has to have increasingly more finesse.

Could I distil this to: "Skype got away with not having this because.."?

BTW, I'm not saying that creating something that is useful without a network is bad. It's good. I'm just saying that in many cases it's very hard. Say skype had gone down this path. They may have failed to find some way (eg phone book) of making it useful to just one person.

Forcing the approach seems like unnecessarily inserting a another binary hurdle.

On the other hand, the slightly less elegant approach of getting your small number of users that want to save on phone bills to nag their friends seems more suitable. The existing users have in-built incentive to do this. It's pretty much guaranteed to produce some results.
I can't comprehend why this was modded down. The book is fascinating and provides us with an insight into valuation. It really is a topic that is difficult to sum up in any reasonable time. I wish I could find a free source for it, but I found the google preview.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=F3WpzcinFc4C&dq=Didier+S...

Please go easier on the thumbs down stuff.
Looks interesting, but I'm not sure if I see the need for a Python-syntaxed C# (that is essentially what it is). If I want to use the features of C#, I'll just use C#. For me, the appeal of Python is not as much the syntax as it is that it is a dynamic typed, interpreted language with some great libraries and frameworks available.
Hey Commie: This is America. Monopolies are perfectly fine.

Go back to the Soviet Union where you belong.
I think the main problem here is not if Google is a monopoly at this very moment. But when you consider the speed with which they acquire new data from virtually every area where a lot of information exists, you have to ask yourself, how dangerous can it be, if they at some point in the future decide: "Hey, lets just kick the don't-be-evil nonsense and start making more money."

Of course something like that would have legal consequences, but regardless of that, Google could totally change the web within a day if they wanted to. For all the good they are doing, I think it is absolutely vital to always consider where the whole thing might be headed sometime in the future.

Just some problematic examples:

1) Like last week, something broke at Google, a good part of the web was non-usable because of embedded analytics code and so on. In the future this could just mean, that any downtime of Google would have implications alike to when your ISP is down.

2) Thanks to analytics and their own various services, they must have user-data that is beyond any imagination. Like a whole shopping history nicely matched to your email and health problems. That is just scary.

So, I think the real question is not whether Google is a monopoly, but more like 'How scary could a Google-monopoly be?'

What do you think?
No, the anonymous functions do capture the current context. See here: http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/browser/cobra/trunk/Tes...

Search for the test that increments the "count" variable.

I don't really like the syntax for these anonymous methods. Boo is more readable in this regard: http://boo.codehaus.org/Closures
> see Manufacturing Consent: it should have been a warning taken seriously.

They did take it seriously. They thought that they were manufacturing the correct consent. (To be fair, their major disagreement with Chomsky was over what consent to manufacture and they're not as far from apart as Chomsky would have you believe. Compare Candidate Obama with President Obama.)
Calm down, and give the Guidelines a read:

"Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or egregiously offtopic, you can flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did."
The question is, can they monetize their users to the point of being profitable? I am confident that they can.
get yourself a discrete math textbook (I can't remember what I used). A sprinkling of things that will come up: set theory, probability (Bayesian), Big-O notation and associated meanings, worst/best/avg case analysis, amortized cost, induction, some algebra, ect

if you don't really understand all the math surrounding some fancy algorithm it probably isn't all that important. and everyone's favorite line in a CS proof is of course "without loss of generality".
No, of course it does not. Revenue is NOT profit and I would say that Facebook's burn rate is quite high, so their profits might still be a hugh disappointment.
gmail has pop and imap. what more do you want