skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> "then why doesn't the sector expand to take advantage of the low wages?"

It is. See: the huge presence of multinationals in Canada like IBM, SAP, even gaming giants like EA and Ubisoft. The Canadian tech industry is by no means shrinking, it's just growing in a way that doesn't fit Silicon Valley's "high pay, high benefits" mold. Canada has not seen the massive software engineering wage explosion that the US has.

Which naturally leads to your next question:

> "Contrarily, if the sector is small because high wages attract workers to the states, why can't Canadian companies pay as much as the American companies?"

This is a big and complicated question. The short answer is: because it somehow got this way and now we can't change it.

It's important to note that the US tech industry isn't all shuttles and gourmet meals either - the bulk of the industry is paid a fraction of Silicon Valley salaries, with none of the cushy benefits. The tech industry is divided into the low/mid-end and the high-end, and the two sides could not be more different.

There is an active war for talent in the high-end that keeps driving up salaries and benefits, while low/mid-end software engineering remains relatively stagnant. It's largely a group of companies working on computationally hard problems that's driving this war - folks like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. These companies are uninterested in low/mid-end talent, confining the insane salaries to only a small segment of the total industry.

This segment of the industry also largely does not exist in Canada. Canada's tech scene has, for many complex and perhaps unexplainable reasons, developed into one that is largely enterprisey. The tech jobs are largely at not-tech companies (where you're a cost center, not a profit center), and where they are at tech companies, they are at satellite offices of American or European companies.

This doesn't create a market where there is high demand for top-level talent. Complicating this somewhat is the fact that the talent war in the US has bled across the border, thanks to relatively easy immigration laws for Canadian citizens - the bleeding of talent to the south prevents the establishing of companies locally that would feed on a top-level talent pool.

So this really circles back to OP's original complaint. The reason why wages aren't rising in Canada is because companies that demand high talent do not exist in Canada. There are no major companies working on truly hard problems that would demand campuses full of top-level engineers, and thus no drivers for salary growth.

The companies that do exist cannot raise salaries wildly for a few reasons. Firstly, because they are not having trouble finding talent at the level they want at their existing salaries. Secondly, because their business model may rely on being cheaper than the US. Thirdly, there is a lack of institutional employers who employ high-end engineers which would kickstart a talent war.
Exactly.

I'm just happy that GS found a use of Detroit.
Timing attack in django.contrib.auth
I posted it because I think HN attracts people who have the traits expressed in the article:

- high potential for development
- innately aware of problems in the world
- over-exciteable
- drawn towards 'escapes' that help them grow
In the old days, this was one of my task to ask candidates that I interview, "Can you show-n-tell a CSS Zen Garden Design."
Crickets and worms I don't know, but if you ever get a taste of ants or tarantulas you will think why the hell are people not eating it.
Looks cool. My little feedback point: I clicked contact and it directs to a page with a button that is just a mailto link. Unless you plan on re-doing the contact page soon, skip the extra click and page request and just have the contact link be the mailto. Not super insightful on my part but something I noticed.
It is nice that they break up mobile from the total and that they provide daily active users. That said, I didn't see anything on that page that actually defined what they mean by 'active', so I think my point still stands. Then again, it's known Facebook usage is, for the time being at least, significantly higher than G+, so I guess it doesn't really matter.
woo! fellow kidney stone sufferer here. I had a 9mm stone i had to have busted up ~18 months ago (and a few 5mm ones i didnt). Ended up owing a few grand on it even with insurance. still paying it down (owe only like $400 on it now, thank God).

yes. health reform (and lots of others) is/are needed.
Runs fine in Arch Chrome... though Contad Presents (the first bit) is centered based on window height. I didn't even see it until I made my Chrome window wider.
Maybe it's just your Chrome isn't Blink enough.
Totally understand, and I did open my laptop and check it out. Looks nice!

FYI - The link you posted hangs up on:

"Loading... (or you have javascript disabled)"

Using Chrome / iOS
Not only do you make more as a software developer in the USA, the living costs are much less (I believe the average price of a home in Canada is currently close to double that in the USA [1])

I think a person is more likely to pursue a startup and succeed at it when they can spend less time/energy covering their basic living expenses. A lot of SV giants were started by people in their garages, they simply had enough surplus resources to pursue their ideas[2].

[1]http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/06/05/business-oe...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Garage
Canada had Nortel and RIM - both were pretty big in their heydays
What does rationality say about subjective experience?
I think XenForo uses bcrypt: http://xenforo.com/
I like it. I have been accused of being gifted, but my best quality is my hair.
Good point! Design is still early stage but that'll work for now
Hootsuite is Canadian too, from Vancouver.
Still, isn't it strange a Nobel prize winner was unable to see his results were wrong? What force makes someone act like that?

Here's Wikipedia's version of the vitamin C controversy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Pauling#Molecular_medici...
But he's not going back to school for an MBA.
I'm surprised by the supposedly ultra-rational hacker news crowd to be swayed by this feeble defense of a theory, charitably being called "culturalism"... (but which is basically a rehashed version of oriental exoticism made slightly more palatable for the highly educated, western upper middle classes he's pandering to.)

My simple question to Gladwell is this: If Korean culture explains the bad safety record of Korean air, what explains the excellent safety record of the japanese airlines. All Nippon (No fatal accidents in more than 40 years) and JAL (last fatal crash in 1985 and even that due to mechanical failure) ?
Does that record prove that Japanese culture is not only completely different from Korean culture (in-as-much as respect for elders and superiors is concerned) but it would also imply that Japanese culture is somehow better for air-safety than that of all the other national airlines of the world who've had a far worse safety record than those two airlines.

I'd be really interested in hearing how Gladwell's cockamamie, quasi-racist theories explain the above. Either directly from Gladwell or anybody else who might care to defend him in this matter.
Prediksi Skor Kosta Rika VS Honduras Gold Cup 22 Juli 2013
Prediksi Skor Kosta Rika VS Honduras Gold Cup 22 Juli 2013 - See more at: http://www.situsjudi.org/prediksi-skor-kosta-rika-vs-honduras-gold-cup-22-juli-2013#sthash.XFFEyeep.dpuf
I don't understand why so many Science Fiction authors attempt push the limits of material science while clearly being almost entirely ignorant of it. For example, carbon fiber composites do bend. You can make springs out of them. Also, if you could figure out how to manufacture anti-gravity thrusters at a scale large enough to use them on a space ship you'd probably win the Nobel.
This kind of collective hand wringing always gives me a chuckle. I'm from Vancouver and moved down to the valley in 1998. My rationale:

- Vancouver has a high cost of living without commensurate salaries (and often no equity).
- Because of the wealth of technology companies, it's easy to find a job here.
- The weather (at least in the valley) is far better than sitting in the rain (Vancouver), or snow (rest of the country).
- Quasi-reasonable immigration policy (TN-1 visas are easy to get, although have weird drawbacks)
- A common language, and a fairly similar culture.
- Proximity to home (it's only a 2 1/4 hour flight back to Vancouver with no time change -- can someone start flying out of SJC instead of only SFO?).

The start-up culture really fuels the tech industry here. Since moving in '98, I've been through two IPOs where both companies ended up having billion+ dollar valuations. I think the reason why it's so successful is because of reasons I (and others) have already mentioned, but also because of:

- decent universities
- former military/government technology jobs
- easy access to capital

and probably most importantly, past success. The Bay Area has this unique ecosystem where companies have been bootstrapped from nothing except an idea, and that gives other people confidence to try their own hand at a startup. This feedback loop is what keeps the valley humming.

After having been so successful being an employee at two startups that did well, I started my own company a couple of weeks ago. It's absolutely amazing the amount of support you get here, and the network of people who you can tap to ask questions and help out in your venture.

Vancouver and Toronto both have parts of the equation, but they don't have the whole package. And neither of them have the kind of past success which breeds future success.
Slightly off topic but if interested in learning more about DPI/fonts check out http://billhillsblog.blogspot.com/ and
http://thisdeveloperslife.com/post/2-0-5-typo
This made my morning. Not just the idea, but how it's motivated and described.

(I looked up Le-Mentzel, and apparently he makes he designs furniture that can me made cheaply: http://hartzivmoebel.blogspot.de/ It's German, but has a lot of pictures.)
That's exactly what Watson is doing these days, right?
Nobody is turning this into a political issue. This IS a political issue. The only people who argue otherwise are Americans that selfishly support the current system in their country.

Well bully for them. If they want people to stop "politicizing" issues that are entirely the result of the political game they play, then maybe they should stop being so selfish when a story like this comes up and some poor American has to pass around a hat so he can continue to live.

The minor inconvenience of ruining some feel-good story for you is nothing compared to the blind eye you choose to turn in regards to everyone out there who has the exact same problems but doesn't have HN to turn to to fund their treatment. One is barely an issue, the other is a travesty that you can help to change.

Expect this to come up every time until it's no longer needed.
[thumbsup] thanks!
Care to explain? Haptic = tactile feedback, regardless of the medium used to achieve the effect. Even rumbling gamepads qualify as such.
Yes, I'm sure it will.
No, I'm sure it won't.
I somewhat agree, but there have been plenty of exceptions to your rule. You make it sound like Canada has no startup market to speak of, which couldn't be further from the truth.

Flickr was based in Vancouver, as is HootSuite, ActiveState (the perl guys), Peer 1 Hosting, PlentyofFish. There's Shopify in Ottawa. Edmonton has Stormboard. Toronto has/had Kobo eBooks, Freshbooks, Well.ca, CryptoLogic (one of the main online gambling platforms, though they moved to Ireland), among others. On the more enterprisey side there's Layer 7 in Vancouver (API management), Bycast (bought by NetApp). There's also SMART technologies in Calgary (still independent though no longer a startup). There were many successful game companies (many WERE startups in the 1980's and 90's but are no longer): Bioware in Edmonton, Digital Extremes in London & Waterloo (Unreal & UT, Bioshock 1 & 2), BlackBox in Vancouver (Need for Speed), Uken Games in Toronto (a startup for once ;), and Ubisoft in Montreal (arguably French but most of their success came from the Canadian studio). There are also thousands of startups I haven't even mentioned in smaller communities like Halifax, K-W, Moncton.

I don't think it is necessarily bad that Canada is basically a "farm league", a ground for niche companies (only making millions, not billions). This is just an evolution of it being a "branch plant" economy for nearly 70 years since the early-mid 20th century. Clearly there is a small but thriving startup culture, particularly in Vancouver, or (for now) K-W, where good engineers don't have to go into IT, they can work at pure tech companies. Canadian startups tend to exit the only way MOST do - by acquisition. As Pmarca would say, the problem is with the poor IPO market.

Beyond IPOs, to become a disruptive multi-billion dollar play is by its nature a rare event. Add in the fact that Canada is geographically disbursed across five time zones, with huge (labour-intensive) natural resources to exploit, and the same population as California... the incentives need to be right to change Canada's industry structure. I'm not too worried about it - if one wanted to start a successful tech company in Canada, it's clear that there's enough talent to make it happen, and likely enough capital to get through seed or Series A. It might require foreign capital for subsequent growth investments, but by the time you're in the tornado, that won't be a problem.
>This site is running only on the world's best browser

Wow. Why don't people use feature detection or something? I don't understand the rise in vendor locking websites to Chrome.

I think we should just outright abolish the user-agent.
I was a fluid pump operator for a coiled tubing company and we went in and cleaned up after fracking. First hand saw the chemicals. each little spot too.
I think it's safe to assume that's pretty much the case for the majority of us to begin with.
isnt all the code open source now? seems i read that it was not long ago
The first amendment doesn't give you the right to market detailed instructions on how to rob individual branches of a bank, for example

Citation needed.
Exactly! And it's this cycle of successes that's harder to duplicate everywhere else.

Thanks for sharing Patrick!
left = y axis
> Insects are just animals that inefficiently convert calories into animal protein.

Non-sense. Insects, like other animals, are calories condensers that the human body can actually absorb. We don't have a rumen.
I'm not a Gladwell fan, but surely the idea that people in different cultures behave differently is not too surprising, is it? After all, you said yourself that the HN culture is ultra-rational. Or maybe I misunderstood what you are upset about.
I've dropped my iPhone 4 from a meter high onto surfaces such as wood, tile and asphalt more times than I'm willing to admit, and I've experienced no cracks. I don't know if I'm just astoundingly lucky, or if my particular device is just very well built, but I am satisfied with the state of phone durability at least from my limited experience.
Very cool. If you're interested in this technology, you can get larger handheld air cannons that shoot big blasts of air quite far. (They're a ton of fun!) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_vortex_cannon
There are potential big players but American companies come and buy them out when they get competitive size: Softimage, Discreet, Maya, ATI, Matrox, ...

Matrox didn't get acquired but kinda changed their target markets.
The problem is that we have to many beginner resources and not enough intermediate. Stop creating beginner level books we have enough already. Everyone says oh just go code. So we go to github and pull down some code and try to build something. What happens now is that we just used someones crappy code to show us how to code. Now we are a shitty programmer because of it. Stop creating beginner books and start creating a flood of intermediate books and resources. I'm so fucking tired of reading a beginner books over and over, because I fell flat trying to move from beginner to intermediate programmer.
I love CSS Zen Garden, but it seems like no new content has been added with this "relaunch." Maybe one or two designs at most.
This is a very news worthy story irrespective of the founder's origin. The founder being Nigerian makes it much more newsworthy. We all know what Nigeria's reputation is like on this thread.

Irrespective of what people would want to agree with, there is pattern matching going on. It is not exclusive to this thread or HN. See other blogs and the absence of comments. If it was a randon former Stanford grad and ex-Facebook employeee, he would have been a toast of the US tech world and definitely the HN thread. If it were a post about deciphering the motivation or techniques of scammers, everyone will have an opinion.

This is not the first time I am seeing this here and on the tech circuit. When a Nigeria company BASED in Nigeria raised $8 million, the tech newswire and HN was quiet. Do any of you remember this story? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3810466

It is nobody's fault or responsibility so I cannot or will not apportion blame. It is just how things are. It is only a reminder.

I am proud of Chinedu not only because he we attended the same High School with me, but that he surmounted the odds and has had a massive successful and useful exit. Hopefully, he will serve as an inspiration and motivate more Nigerians/ Africans to tackle problems on a gbobal scale.

PS: I actually mentioned him 3 years ago when I wrote about the dearth of black founders of globally renowned startups. http://oonwoye.com/2010/04/05/black-founders/
Indeed. In ribbonfarm's series about "The Office" model of office politics, the term 'Loser' referred to people who had a job that enabled them to live a life they enjoy without any work-related threat.
Diagrams as tools
"Second, I feel in some sense, the tide is turning the other way on the regulation front."

If a business makes sense, and consumers get a taste of it and have positive experiences, it's very hard to stop[1]. Institutional inefficiencies usually only last when better solutions are adequately hidden from consumers.

I was pretty skeptical of AirBnb a while ago because I underestimated the effectiveness of trust and rating systems. I thought that the initial excitement was really just because the system masked the risks people were taking. I should have known from eBay that it can be done.

If they do have the trust thing worked out pretty well, then it's a very solid business model. Net travel from any one city is generally close to zero[2], so having a ton of hotels is pretty inefficient.

(I'm not an airbnb user, but I see why it's appealing.)

[1] It could really only be stopped if airbnb were somehow vilified. For instance, if newspapers started running stories like "downtown overrun by out-of-town vandals using airbnb" (just to give an absurd example).

[2] It varies seasonally, of course, which might mean that there are more people in tourist areas in the summer, causing a need for things like hotels. But many tourist destinations are also major cities, with their own residents leaving on holiday as well.
California is still own equipment, own time, lack of conflict, can't argue. Doesn't mean the employer can't make things difficult for you since they have the bigger pocket book.
Site is giving a 500 error, here is the gcached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:piXqTtN...
Aaaaaand it's down.
Bookmarked for later use, I'm sure it will come in handy, thanks for posting.I wish it was hosted on GitHub though, but given that it's backed by Microsoft, I can see why not.
Use MailChimp [1] to collect and send your email blasts. They have a simple form you can throw on your site to collect the e-mail addresses for when you are ready. I use a simple "get notified" message. You can also configure some simple google adwords to see what type of response you get.

[1] http://mailchimp.com/
I am not sure that suicide rates are particularly independent of health care provision, especially suicides in the elderly, which is where there has been a massive increase.
Strange to see the term "Free" associated with a Disney product.
Ha! Great, I don't have to pay to read this one ;)
It says that subjective experience can be analyzed in terms of desirability, and that you should maximize desirable experience. (At least that's what I say. See http://www.collegeanswerz.com/morality)
Get Mars Weather Data With PHP
Ask HN: Getting involved in startups on the side from a non-tech background?
Someone said on Twitter the other day, I wonder what UI designers could come up with if they weren't hamstrung by the fact that it needs to be built by a developer? I can't help but think of exactly that whenever I see one of these hardware mockups. This is what designers can do when they aren't hamstrung by the need to actually have it built by hardware engineers.

An interesting intellectual exercise and a beautiful design, but that only applies if you think it could be real, or else it's the hardware equivalent of a Minority Report interface. I just don't see this in my hand within the next 20 years. That makes it easy to be pessimistic.

In reference to the top comment, that's why good Sci Fi tends to focus on how the technology affects the future society and interpersonal relationships, not simply marvelling at the technology itself. Calling this the "iPhone 6" mockup and not simply a future phone or even iPhone puts a certain expectation on it, as does the mention of specs that would only be impressive for a year or two.

You can't have it both ways. Either it's an entirely theoretical mockup that can't be criticized and it's simply design work or I'm supposed to imagine it as the iPhone that's on the market two years from now with the specs listed on that page.
Yes, you need a passport these days (or a Nexus pass if you're a frequent crosser). It's new, and it's mostly because Canadians need a passport to enter the US in the security theatre aftermath of 911. Until recently all you needed was a birth certificate or citizenship status card to go either way; the visa was implicit.
http://xkcd.com/167/
Is this a joke? Lol, how are you supposed to use this with one hand. The design (from a presentation perspective) is beautiful, the idea from a practicality standpoint is 100% useless. I couldn't tell if this was serious until I was like 75% of the way through.
I studied information systems and I am joining a major startup in the valley but also want to be involved in a small up-and-coming startup on the side from a non software development aspect.
Web job for a real pro (MTL)
If the right pieces fell into place, despite being a Bay Area native, I would consider Vancouver if I were starting a company. It would have to be one that didn't depend on bay area connections (VCs, etc). I've spent a lot of time in Vancouver, and yes, it has tech companies but for some reason has never become a technology hub. However, the blend of urban and amazing outdoors (yes, it rains, and I recall a July trying to get around during downpours and a bus strike) make it a tempting place for me.

It has great connectivity, cultural diversity, easy access to both Seattle and SF (a couple of hour drive/flight), a hub for asia, a great university in UBC.

There is a lot going on there that should make it more open to tech companies, but it has always been more of media than a tech town.
The Latest FairSearch Complaint to EU Commision About Google? A Lot That's Wrong
Not offended by profanity, or even condescending comments such as yours. I'm Scottish and quite an expert at it myself. For such an expert wheeler dealer in the domain name biz, larrys just comes across as being a bit of a dick, I have a rule of thumb in forums and general discussion, don't be a dick.