skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Family of means, I think, can include "someone I can live with rent free for a couple years." There is not as much in the way of means required as some think, but family itself has become a bit of an economic luxury.

But the larger issue is this: ballooning debt and harsher bankruptcy laws. The simple fact is that if you want to be an entrepreneur, it is hard these days to justify a college education if coming out of it means five figures of debt that you have to pay back. This debt hangs like a stone around the necks of the younger generations who are struggling to swim in turbulent economic waters.

So entrepreneurship becomes a privilege of the wealthy, and yet another way to suck money from everyone else. We don't need a government safety net. We need an organic one.

One option as you say would be something like an entrepreneur's guild. This could be a good idea--- it could function as a sort of labor union among startups, and also a safety net for founders. It could also help ensure that people who enter as early employees make the kinds of contacts that could let them go into business for themselves. And despite functioning as a labor union it would not be one, because the stated business would be to help new entrepreneurs succeed (i.e. it would not be adversarial against management). To work it would have to count as members investors, founders, and workers.
More specifically, heat pumps often have a COP of around 2, even in very cold weather (-20℃). That means that for every two joules that a light bulb turns into heat, you will save only one joule (and less in most conditions) on your overall energy consumption.

In very, very cold areas, the COP of the heat pump will reduce to 1, and in those cases the incandescent bulb isn't wasting any energy.
I once wrote a website (a search engine for a specific set of websites) in C. It actually worked, once I spend 20 hours in valgrind. I've grown since then, in two important ways. First, I'd probably do a better job now, and not have to spend any time in valgrind at all (I still use C quite frequently). Second, I'd never, ever, try to pull that stunt again.
How DAC's Work
The burden is heaviest for those who bear it...

Existential angst...

I try not to adhere to any chronological ranking scheme, but rather rate individuals based on demonstrated ability.
How can you make shelter, clothing, food, education and medical care rights without taking away other individual rights?

If you believe that everybody has a right to food, are you prepared to take away the property rights of land owners so that you can grow the food?

If you believe that everybody has a right to medical care ("medical care" being defined as the services of a doctor), are you prepared to take away the rights of doctors to their labor?
The same religious economic dogma we've had pushed on us for decades predicts that the things he's advocating reduce economic prosperity. They don't.
I recently consumed a piece that argued that auto manufacturers have been supremely successful in linking our personal cars to our egos. "You are what you drive." It really hit home for me and appealed to the part of me that finds little appealing in attachment to physical things.

However I will say that your issues are pretty easily solved, imo. The car service simply customizes your ride experience with your radio choices. Car seats are necessary because of imperfect human drivers and (?) not necessary when robots are driving.

Removable/secure trunks could be stored at some site until needed, retrieved from cars and stored by robots since lifting and carrying are simple tasks for robots. When you request the next leg of your service, the first stop is the storage center where your secure trunk was stored.

I already mentioned about the maintenance facilities Musk is working on. Cheap and effective sensors detect gum/soilage, modern fabrics repel dirt and detritus and are cleaned to tolerable levels. Or another car comes instead. And your 2 hours in a car drops precipitously as smart-queuing greatly improves travel times.
What about "we hire from the pool of those who contribute to our open source projects. If you want to work for us, that's where to start?"

The problem with unpaid internships is that they are closely supervised and hence end up with something like an unpaid employee. But what if the relationship is more loosely coupled? What if "just because we won't pay you for this doesn't mean someone else won't" is a part of the message?
Maybe you're overthinking this. If your motivation in building this app is to have something to show off a little and earning income is only a secondary concern then the things you mentioned in your original post don't matter. The choice is simple - keep going, finish your app and launch. It's a win-win. If it does well, great. If it doesn't do well it still serves its purpose.
Next step: people getting cold called for "post this on your Facebook and earn X" schemes.
Unless there is some sort of significant impediment to changing a bulb (eg. a covered fixture), it takes 30 seconds to a minute maximum to change a bulb. It will probably take everyone reading this more time to read the article and participate in this thread than it will to change every light bulb in their house for the next decade. It's negligible.

There are many things to take into account when purchasing bulbs; chance are, the time it takes to change them is not one.
Agreed. I'm not counting them out, I'm just saying that the current public perception isn't what it used to be. At least that's what I mean by "shininess."
> coalition of entrepreneurs

In a lot of ways, isn't this what YC et al. are for? Essentially an interview for funding so that you can get a company started. If it works out, YC makes some money for the next group of people. If it doesn't, you got an investment. It's up to the panel of investors to decide whether they want to make that investment (i.e. if they think your idea is worthy of investing).

You're welcome to start your own coalition of investors, and lower the barrier of entry/investment. Guarantee entrepreneurs a certain salary for a certain amount of time. It could be interesting. I wouldn't invest in such a fund, personally, but it's an interesting idea.

Unless I missed your point and you simply meant that entrepreneurs should politically support such an idea. That's a different point all together!
You have no idea about student debt, underemployment, life-long renting. “Stop feeling special” is some shitty advice. I don’t feel special or entitled, just poor.

Uh...yeah, we do have an idea. We've just lived long enough to take a look around, discovered there are alternatives, decided to stop making stupid decisions, realized that life isn't fair, learned that shouting "fuck you" at others results in a pretty poor life, and decided to make it better.

http://xkcd.com/23/
Another perspective, not so flattering of the author:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2003_04...
On the flip side of that, taxes for the very wealthy are much higher in most European countries with a social safety net, especially when you consider the legal loopholes available to the rich in the US, so the potential payoff to successful entrepreneurs is greater.

The payoff is greater in another way too: Because our culture is generally less shameless about its love of materialistic success, the social reward is higher.

Said another way, we Americans love us a good lottery ticket, risks be damned!
I delivered pizzas after I got my architecture degree and didn't magically find my dream job. The internship program is 3 years at near minimum wage after a masters degree, because that's the way it has always been. Never mind trying to take and pass the architects exam which staggeringly few pass the first time.

I 'do' architecture for fun now and make far more money than nearly everyone I went to college with. Assuming that they are even working.
Last.fm + status page down
Welp, I admit it. I'm finally too old to use the Internet. I tried clicking the "tap here", but that didn't do anything. I have a touch-enabled tablet, and I tried tapping there. That didn't do anything either. Then I gave up.

Why does my VCR blink 12:00 all the time, anyway?
You should really know why using sudo fixes your problems before using it imo. Otherwise you might find your system in an irreparable state one day.
You have the right to not be deprived of life by others.

That doesn't mean you have a "right" to compel others to facilitate yours to an arbitrary level of your choice.
One thing to note is that CFLs take time to "warm up," which is significantly irritating to ensure that I don't use them in most cases.
I can't help but think if there's another catch. I know phone number portability probably helps them track us better.
Could it possibly just be that he's poor because:

1) he's not a good enough writer to earn more.
2) he's chosen jobs that have little hope of a lucrative payoff.
3) his personality is such that he gets fired from everyplace he works.

Or is any of that too far-fetched?
This is one of the most thorough reviews I have ever seen. I loved all the information and benchmarks.
The carrier might not be able to charge a large enough early-termination fee on the contract to fully reimburse them for the cost of an expensive phone.
perhaps it just seems like it is down more because as developers we spend a lot of time using github's services
The Allure of the "Quick Solution": Rooted in Ignorance or Emotional Exhaustion?
Don't evade the difference between a right to life, and a right to the products of others' lives.
Unions don't necessarily help. Look at pilots, for example: The unions are run by the pilots with the most seniority, and as a result those pilots get (a) all of the job security, and (b) most of the money.
Best Job Ever
My application for the best job ever
What I Have Learned From My Summer Internship Search
Have you heard Let me be By Freddy D 
At First i was just like any listener. looking for something new, well this video came on, with this funny sounding beginning, i did it like it for the first few days, and then it grasp my attention, while my 13 month hum the rhythm of
the tune,smiling while daddy did his workout. wow
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoxSwnujwCY
You'd take a job that provides real income, as would everyone else, and the people wanting journalism work done would offer to pay up... ???

The problem is that there's always someone willing to go work for free, often with crappy conditions, because they hope that maybe someday someone will throw them a low wage bone because of all their 'experience' at working for free.
FYI this article is dated 2003.
This idea has come up before, but may make more sense as a feature of a browser extension. (I think the Reddit Enhancement Suite extension does this for Reddit.)

You might be able to find something if you use the searchbox on the bottom of this page. If not, consider writing it yourself. :)
>You mean that it's not clear if copying the handle will copy the data or just create another reference?

Exactly. In the STL, if it looks like a value copy it is a value copy, but the handle pattern that Stroustrup prefers gives you no clue whatsoever as to what's going to happen. You have to figure it out one class at a time.
Only 1GB RAM?! bah humbug
I moved into an apartment not too long ago that was full of CFLs. For me I found the quality of the light incredibly bad, a bit like being under office strip lighting but not as bright. I replaced them all with Philips LED bulbs and am extremely happy with the quality of the light. The light is more bluey than a tungsten bulb but apart from that I found them to be the best bulbs of any type that I've ever had.
A Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics
Yeh this is Substack, I have seen this design and concept evolve over the course of several nodeconf's and jsconf's.
You're honestly arguing against feeding people? You're trolling, right?
> If you believe that everybody has a right to food, are you prepared to take away the property rights of land owners so that you can grow the food?

Not at all. Discontinue all farm subsidies. Purchase farm land at fire sale prices. Provide jobs to the unemployed through farming what can't be automated, and automate the rest. Food provided.

> If you believe that everybody has a right to medical care ("medical care" being defined as the services of a doctor), are you prepared to take away the rights of doctors to their labor?

Take their rights away? No. Destroy their income earning ability? Probably. I would provide more rights to nurse practitioners, subsidize their training with job guarantees, and automate most doctor decision making to expert systems. I would invest heavily (through DARPA and the NIH) in continuing the development of vaccines and protocols for chronic illnesses (thereby providing STEM jobs), and leveraging DARPA (again), continue to invest in robotics for robotic surgery apparatus (a la DiVinci Surgical System).

Socialism and capitalism may dine together now, at the table of ruthless efficiency.
Counterpoints: ceiling fans in high places (like, ceilings), flood lights at the corner of a three story house, sealed in-ground lights, ...
The fun thing about these sorts of viewpoints is the lack of comparisons. We can never really compare with other people regarding where we were born but unless you have spent significant time living in other countries, I really wonder about this. It's like saying "Budweiser is so great beer I will never even try another!"

Now a different perspective. I have spent around four months in Ecuador living with middle to upper class families there, and around three years total living in Indonesia. What I can tell you is that poverty in these countries is qualitatively different than poverty in the US, so much so that it is really hard to say one is worse than the other for most of the bottom 20%. For the bottom few percent though there is no question. The availability of affordable, nutritious food and basic shelter is much better here in Indonesia (and in Ecuador) for the poorest of the poor than it is in the US. Water is somewhat different but availability of water that won't kill you in the short term isn't a problem (drinking boiled polluted water is however).

Economically the poor have more stuff in the US, but they also carry a lot more debt, have more restrictions on what they can do, and they have weaker family ties, which means they have access, paradoxically, to less capital.

So I am not sure. I think that the bottom 50% may not be that much worse off in most other countries and I think there is a certain American arrogance which looks at the way we destroy the families, neighborhoods, and communities of the less well off as "progress." But if you never live elsewhere for long enough to really get the sense of how other people live, you don't see it.
Treehouse is good but costs $25/month.
The budding Google-Facebook-Twitter war
I had the same reaction at first, but then recognized (possibly after reading someone's Slashdot or HN post) that the slowly increasing output is actually quite welcome in some circumstances (e.g., late at night, first thing in the morning). It's not a feature that I'd request, but I don't mind the tradeoff now.
First World Problems?
I'm in the US; I'm probably going to jail just for talking about this /s
It's not only turning on/off that wears it out. CFLs lose efficiency over time anyway, down to 80-70% of the light output in as soon as 6 months. After a year or two they can be below 50%. Tri-phosphorous ones stay efficient for longer, but are harder to find, usually labeled for professional applications, and cost more.

If I'm not mistaken, LEDs being solid state don't lose efficiency over time like that, so it's always working at peak output as long as the driver lasts. That alone should make it more cost effective.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Why don't they tie up with Google?
I have no problem saying that people should have a right to minimum sustenance and medical care. If this was not the case, we would not bother giving either in prison. A doctor in an ER has a moral imperative to not deny life saving treatment due to lack of ability to pay. If someone is literally starving to death, let them eat the farmer's food; that is the price civilization pays for the truly destitute not to overthrow the system. "Rights" are a creation of humans, and we can choose to make them pragmatic and reasonable. The whole modern idea of personal property rights is not even that old.
Rumors persist about interference between LED bulbs and WiFi networks. Any HNish insights?
The way it's usually set up is that collective funding through taxation ensures that providers of these basic necessities are duly compensated.

Unless your notion of individual rights includes "the right to not pay tax" it's quite a fair way to provide a social safety net.
I find #14 odd, as shiny luxury brands, especially fashion brands, are some of the oldest in the marketplace.
Sounds entitled to me. He feels that his degree entitles him to wealth and financial security. It does not.

He acts surprised that other people aren't providing for HIS child. Again with the entitlement, as if he and his kid are somehow owed something from someone purely by virtue of their existence.
He didn't demand an arbitrary level of support, he wanted a basic level of support.
Ask HN/PG: This essay focuses on phase 2. What is the advice for phase 1?
> religious economic dogma

Whatever this means that you feel persecuted by, the science of economics is clear enough about what promotes economic prosperity. History corroborates.

You should be making a moral argument, though that would also be wrong.
Cool. So you're going to buy me dinner tonight?
God it sucks to hit 35 doesn't it? That was a really rough couple of years for me. You are like halfway to 70, and 70 is like way old. What is worse is all these "You can be anything" dreams start becoming undeniably impossible, like being a fighter pilot or competing in the Olympics. But the worst bit for me was thinking "Wow, that didn't seem all that long, am I really going to be 70 in just that much more time?" And frankly a mixture of panic and depression set in. I'm never going to be "somebody", I'm over the hill, all of my heroes were famous by this age, Etc. It doesn't stop.

And for me it was the time where I really internalized that life isn't about the goals, its about the trip and the stops along the way. Imagine your life is to drive from the San Francisco Airport to JFK in New York and catch a flight and fly back. That is your life. And sure you put goals in like "see the Grand Canyon" or something which takes you down a side path but once you have seen the Canyon, maybe hiked Zion, skiied the Rockies, you just have to keep driving east. And you hit Kansas which goes on and on and on and on and on.

I had started piling up things from the 'someday' pile into the 'remember when?' pile, like from 'someday I'll have kids' to 'remember when we didn't have kids?' When that 'someday' pile gets smaller you can imagine it has nothing in it but 'someday I'm going to die' well that is a scary thing to imagine indeed.

So it sucks, but what can you do about it? The thing I found that got me past that was focusing really hard on what I had (a great family), what I could change (where I wanted to be), and how I felt about the world (my outlook on the future). By focusing on that I kept from looking at that ugly visage of Christmas Yet to Come, and the fear and guilt that came along with it. I stopped following the news for a while since it only wanted to reinforce my fear of the future. I fed my curiosity and tried to seek out sources of wonder again (rocketry, quantum physics, and robotics systems are all amazing things to me).

That keeps me engaged and interested and learning, and in so doing keeps the future away in the future.
There exists a form of survivalist mindset in some programmers. It goes roughly like this: if you can't boot it, it's fluff programming.

The attraction of C to this mindset is that it can be transliterated (vs translated) into machine code. This transliteration is so straight forward that if you know C and are familiar with the basics of the instruction set you can do it by hand.

The survivalist mindset fears dependence. VMs and interpreters are the essence of dependence. So those with this mindset always seek find a way to do it in plain C when they can.
Cool project, thanks for the link.
> "Last weekend my baby had a fever, and we contemplated taking him to the ER, and my first thought was - had to be - “Oh God, that could wipe out our bank account!"

For the sake of your family, consider moving somewhere in the world that treats you like a human. It is happening elsewhere too ("this financial system that establishes complete social and political control over us") but not nearly to the extent that a gainfully employed individual can't reasonably expect basic healthcare for his children.
> If I'm not mistaken, LEDs being solid state don't lose efficiency over time

You are mistaken, LEDs most definitely do lose efficiency.

http://web.archive.org/web/20090410145015/http://www1.eere.e...

LEDs and CFLs are about the same as far as losing efficiency.
Ngrok - secure introspectable tunnels to localhost
Clearly very much inspired by Eve Online but still in the Fantasy/Roleplaying vein. One of the interesting things was a physical model of the world with actual geology such that ore and such took a lot to mine. Of course SWToR was kind of down that path and it failed miserably so it may not be possible.
I don't understand how so many of these top-tier organizations miss the simple axiom of truth; build a great product.
The beauty of open source development is I can do it in my free time, and because I want to. Often times having open source development on your resume is simply a way to show you're a motivated developer and to demonstrate the quality of the code you produce. I'm not sure it can be directly compared against an unpaid internship, apples and oranges.
Fluorescents and CFLs have not hummed in about a decade - just how old are your bulbs?
I'm in DC I would expect around $100 for a mid to sr level freelance Dev in iOS or Web. I know for sure because at times have had to sub contract work out.
There are hardly any benefits in writing your web app in C ove r Java or Go. That 1% speed increase is nothing compared to the huge amount network wait these apps will be doing.

If you really consider it, what 95% of people write these days is glue between various services, and the parts that do matter, where you need the most performance, are already written in C. The reason why Redis, MongoDB and Postgres have good C bindings, because they themselves are written in C.

So when it comes down to it all you are really doing is string parsing and string transporting, thats really the last thing you want to leave to C. I haven't done straight-C code that has required me to do a lot of string manipulation, but I guarantee I'll probably leave a buffer overflow exploit open when trying to parse GET variables.

Or I can just do it in Java, and get all the performance and almost all the advantages of doing it in C.
I've been wondering the same thing. One question I have: Will LEDs over my bathroom mirror bruise my self esteem as much as the harsh CFLs do?

Seeing a close-up of yourself with CFL complexion when you first wake up and brush your teeth, when you get out of the shower, before you leave the house... it subtly takes its toll after a while.
DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) Model built using JavaScript. Enter a ticker 'GOOG'
> I wrote a little backend section in C once to do a FFT on some data

yeah, this kind of thing is what i thought the article's title meant and was going to say "no, actually quite common," but then read the article. and given the choice between "crazy" and "crazy like a fox," i'd say "crazy like a fox, but still crazy."