skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The authors speculate that this is because some people just can't handle the meaninglessness of programming

I think he cited the paper wrong here: It's not the meaninglessness of programming but the meaninglessness of programs. And it is obviously not meant, that a program makes no sense, but that a formalism can stand on its own, without any purpose. Programming, however, is creating programs for a purpose, thus, abstracting facts into a formalism and after running the program interpreting its results is not meaningless at all.
I think I can back the observations of the original paper. I occured people which seem to plainly don't get what a program does. They are not talking about what they themselves told the computer to do but they are speculating why the program/computer isn't doing what it ought to do (what its purpose is).

I disagree with Steve's opinion that the level of abstraction is a general problem. I started programming early, and I hit walls all the time. Back from the early times to now I always found things I just couldn't grok. For long years I couldn't understand programming graphical things at all. I watched with awe how my three years older neighbor could program animations on his C64, all I managed to do were Fahrenheit to Celsius converters. Later I was crazy enough to start learning C++ with only knowing BASIC before. It took days to get 'Hello World' running. I kept trying and eventually I found the right book which made me understand OOP. Programming some graphics came very late. And the list still goes on...
I can read a book without understand a thing. I come back to the book (or suddenly remember details) some weeks, months, years later and manage to understand what is going on.

The same applies to other areas: Playing piano is something where you hit your personal wall all the time. Sure, there is a natural anatomical caused level of virtuosity which simply can't be overcome. (See Robert Schumann, who tried to hack his weakest finger which ultimately failed) But there are "mental barriers" which can only be overcome (aside from exercising) by keeping cool and sometimes stop trying to come back to it later.

Another example: As a child I always divided the physical world from the living world (the christian heritage?). As such it was for a long time unthinkable that creatures are made from the same stuff as everything else. I recall that accepting this knowledge was really hard...

Regarding the original paper (they've done much research, I can only guess and tell from observation): The humps they observe, couldn't they just be the indication of a clear mental barrier which has to be overcome? Perhaps being taught and some pressure is just not enough to grok these abstract facts about programming? Perhaps, what is needed is just time to (un)consciously chew on the ideas? So, shouldn't be children exposed to 'some programming stuff' as early as possible?

In Germany at least it is left to chance when children become exposed to programming. In most regions there is no teaching at all before a pupil is about 16 years old (11-th grade).
Actually, it's ok having something to do between the sparks of inspiration..
What, no data for Colombia?! This map shows the street price of a gram of "cocaine", as advertised, but it doesn't tell us anything about the purity of that gram. A recent police report in the UK suggested street purity had dropped from 30% to around 9%, compared to the 70% of stuff hot out of the factory. A recent government sponsored report on drugs misuse in Britain found the supply chain to be completely flexible: big busts higher up the chain would simply result in more cutting agents added lower down, with customers seemingly willing to pay standard street price for whatever purity they could get. Demand is rising, if anything. It's interesting that police have now turned their attention to the supply chain of the cutting agents. We're fighting a war on laxatives.
And remember to drink beer in Maßen not in Massen.
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I see an opportunity for arbitrage.
Prices seem to be in $ instead of purchasing power. So not really meaningful, except insofar as it indicates where someone buying with $ would find the cheapest.
Nokia, Siemens and Iran: When technology gets bloody
Interesting article.

From having a friend who has an addiction to cocaine here in Perth, I can confirm the $285 figure is pretty close to correct, although it is in Australian dollars, not USD, so with that in mind I decided to run some of the figures in the article through a currency converter (against the US dollar) to get a more normalised view.

USD - $97/g USD
CAD - $83.47/g USD
AUD - $227.18/g USD
NZD - $198.87/g USD

So umm, yay us for having the most expensive cocaine in the world?
Somewhat related - measuring consumption by looking for metabolic byproducts in waste water:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/aug/05/highereducation....

Given some more data points, and the above map - one could get some idea of the amount of money involved.
Are VC's "Eating their own dogfood?"
Japan, right now
Well, it's not that expensive. GB is much, isn't it? Here in Russia we pay around 1 ruble/MB which amounts to £20/GB, that's with recent price drops, which I consider decent.

There are no cellular providers like the "3", but on the other hand, phones are not locked to the operator as a rule.
There are no actual suggestions here, just purported evidence that worthwhile risks will be taken to get MySpace back in the groove.
Ask HN: Should I give up?
(Posting this under a different account to my usual, for reasons which will become obvious)

So, I find myself in this situation: After developing my start-up over the last 2 years outside of work, I quit, and launched doing it full-time 3 months ago, and have been working at it since then.

Without going into too much detail, my start-up is in the B2B space, in a reasonably conservative industry. I have been doing everything myself, from development, to sys-admin stuff, to sales, marketing etc. I'd characterize the feedback I've got from people in the industry so far as "mildly positive" - they express some interest in the idea, but are not yet willing to commit to it.

At the moment, I have enough cash on hand in the business to last until November, at current boot-strapped burn rates, and I have enough cash on hand personally (since the business isn't paying me a wage) until the end of September. After that, I can sell some stocks (around $10K worth) which would give me enough personal income and business income to last until around January 2010. However, if I took that path, and the business didn't then succeed, I would be facing bankruptcy.

My feeling is that I have perhaps started a business which attempts to do too much for a single founder with no employees and limited capital, trying to do something in the business/enterprise space which has long lead times, big perceived risks (for my clients, not me) and in an industry which is very slow to change.

I don't want to give the impression that I've already decided to give up, because I haven't.

So that's why I'm asking HN: How should I decide whether to give up, and go back and get a job until I have another startup idea, or keep going with this one, knowing that there is perhaps only a slim chance of success (but if I do succeed, it will be well and truly worth it)?

Happy to provide any further information if you think it relevant.
You can do it in jQuery very easily. Give your password field the id of "hover-password" and add the following jQuery snippet:

$(function() {
$("#hover-password").hover(
function() {
this.type = "text";
},
function() {
this.type = "password";
}
);
});
TV misses out as gossip website TMZ reports Michael Jackson's death first
All I get is "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.". The Telegraph seems to have retracted the post ... It's in Google's history, but doesn't seem to be cached.
Did the BBC really just use "Fail" as a one word sub-header?
Thanks for posting your experience.

What do you mean with you got lazy? Were you too busy (eg meetings) keeping the right sleep schedules? How hard is it to wake up at the right time if you are accustomed to it?

If you would have the possibility to do it again, would you do it again?
"Prices seem to be in $ instead of purchasing power. So not really meaningful, except insofar as it indicates where someone buying with $ would find the cheapest."

I decided to use the Big Mac Index to satisfy your hunger for knowledge (pardon the pun) to figure out purchasing power.

Appropriate Links at the end of the comment. As with my above comment regarding street prices here in AU - it is assumed that the prices are in the local currency, so these figures represent local currencies.

US - 27.17 big macs
Canada - 23.71 big macs
New Zealand - 63.67 big macs
Australia - 82.61 big macs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?st...
How should that arbitrage work? (As far as I know exploiting arbitrage on foreign exchange markets tends to need insane amounts of money.)
I'd so go back to those folks that have given you a lukewarm reception and change the question -- what are they looking for? What do they want? What are the problems they're trying to solve?

Take a really close look and make sure that you're not a hammer looking for a nail, but that you're solving a problem people actually have.

Three months is nothing in the B2B space. It usually takes longer than that to figure out the stuff above. I'm not saying to continuously beat a dead horse -- if you solved the wrong problem you need to find the right one, but that's a process not a crap-shoot.
Are you using the straight Big Mac Index, or the Working-time Big Mac Index?
They will have to compete against games that are nicer to you.
I think there are several really great frameworks out there, each one target to specific audiences. I see the current situation as follows:

jQuery: The "I don't have to learn JavaScript" audience, quick+easy to improve certain page interactions. Tons of plugins, but quality and customization options vary wildly.

Prototype: The "I'd like to roll my own components" audience, very Ruby-like, super-easy to do your own specialized UI stuff. Has a learning curve, however.

Dojo, YUI: The "I'm enterprisey and like to edit configuration files" audience. Componentized frameworks, which can do everything (but make tradeoffs for complexity).

And of course there are others, serving various niches.

Your choice depends: Site or app? And do you just want to skin some prefab components, but your site will look like thousands of others, or do you want to roll your own and do more complex stuff and stand out of the crowd?
Please don't post OPINION pieces!!!
Never give up and never surrender. The difference between failure and profitability can be as small as changing a few paragraphs on your sales page (it was in my case).

Reduce your costs, and experiment as much as possible.

The worst that can happen is you end up getting a day job.

Bob Parsons (found of GoDaddy) has some pretty good advice in this area: http://www.bobparsons.me/SuccesskeyNevergiveupbutbeveryquick...
UPDATE: It's back up now.

http://twitter.com/Bash/status/2342437314

"Yes, my latest Telegraph post about Nokia and Siemens' involvement in Iran has been pulled. Updates as I have them."

Wonder what's going on there... Do you have a link to the cache for others to read?
Pretty good advice from "wheels" but ask another question.

What have your potential customers got to do to get a benefit from your start-up? That could be adding to the inertia - mild interest will only turn into a sale when everyone else is doing it OR there are no barriers to entry. It may be that you can offer to solve your first customer's problems by doing the leg work, development work, managing process change (what have you) for them. For instance, most businesses plan IT development work 12 to 24 months ahead - with competition for resources.

A pain yes - but others will follow soon enough if they see someone else getting an advantage.
From Unhealthy Non-competes to Modular Innovation Everyware
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It seems the author missed the point of a woonerf. To clarify:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woonerf

and a better picture:

http://transportehumano.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/woonerf-...
Such foolishness, strong and weak are two sides of the same coin. What could be stronger or weaker than water?
Don't listen to what this article has to say - it's not worth it.

Read the chapter on growth of functions in CLRS instead (a preview at http://books.google.com/books?id=NLngYyWFl_YC&lpg=PP1... - gives the general idea, although it's missing a couple of pages).
Without knowing anything about your product or industry, is it possible to do some contracting for these potential clients that would allow you to earn some extra money as well as get your foot in the door for your product?
Seeing them at full speed doesn't either. Firehose much?
Get somebody to take a look at your service/idea who has some experience in the B2B market. Talk about it.

Maybe you're so in to it, you don't see what's missing.

I think it's especially hard because you're on your own. Try talking about it with friends or family. They'll mostly give some high level advice, but you'll see it will give you comfort to a certain degree.
I'm not sure NSN did anything wrong here.

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/global/Press/Press%20rel...
September to January is 10K of expenses? That seems like a lot to me. Do you have a family to consider?
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More detailed figures and trends here, with both wholesale and retail prices:
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2006/wdr2006_chap5_cocaine.pdf

With those price differences, it's no wonder the illegal drugs trade is so tough to shut down.. you can lose 9/10 shipments and still be profitable.
Yes - I'm single, with no kids, and living pretty much at the level I was when I was a student at uni. It's not a comfortable lifestyle, but it keeps me in food and shelter.
This is probably easier to do with someone in person... I'd find another entrepreneur that you respect and trust and get a second opinion on what you can do. You may find that there's actually a whole range of things you can do (and you'll hopefully get some pretty direct, no-bullshit evaluation of whether your business makes sense). Be open with that person, so that you get equally candid advice.

As a piece of generic advice: I think it is never, ever, ever a good idea to get in the situation where you will go bankrupt if your business fails. Be relentlessly resourceful, but also be relentless at managing your risks to ensure you don't lose everything if things don't work out. When it all comes crashing down, you need to be still able to pick yourself up and move on to the next thing (perhaps even another start-up).
I respect and admire your positive thinking, but the poster has already established that "the worst that can happen" for him is not getting a day job, but bankruptcy.
Well, a major part of it is the almost constant flow of interruptions from people who's computers are "broken" (I am "the I.T. guy" [a title that I despise], so every problem from a phone cord with a loose connection to a user that has pressed the insert button on their keyboard and now how a "broken email" gets handled by me).

Many of us know the problem of constant interruptions.
Fortunately there is a workable, mechnical solution to this problem.

1. Get an office with a door (this may require some social engineering).

2. Buy a solid wooden panel (about 1m² in size), two hinges, two screws and a nylon string. Make sure to buy the heaviest type of wood they have on stock.

3. Glue a piece of paper onto the panel with the answers to the most common questions printed on it. Think of it as your FAQ panel. There's a lot of room on a square meter, so in 8pt type you should be able to fit on there the answers to pretty much every question that ever crops up.

4. Mount the panel directly above the door with the two hinges at the bottom end. Make sure the panel has good travel and can swing into the "straight down" position. Bonus points if it can even swing through the opened door.

5. Flap the panel upwards so that it rests straight to the wall, pointing up to the ceiling.

6. Use the screws and the nylon string to the connect the upper part of the panel with the door knob.

So how does this help with the daily support workflow?

Whenever someone opens your door for support they will be provided instantly with the solution to their problem. The solution will hit them like a brick, so to say, before they even ask.

You still have to get up and swing the panel back into the home position after each case but that's more quickly done than discussing numlock-issues. Moreover you will soon notice a sharp decline in support requests thanks to the improved workflow.
Real url:
http://www.bobparsons.me/SuccesskeyNevergiveupbutbeveryquick...
September up through January is 5 months. 2K a month doesn't sound like a "cheap" lifestyle to me... I would think that even in SF or NY you could squeeze more out of that kind of money; potentially by moving somewhere cheaper (the East Bay for instance).
Thanks for proving me wrong. It was the gripes I always had with Prototype and Scriptaculous, how cool that they finally addressed that.
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Well the guidelines say "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."
I had my own small experience with multiple personalities when submitting my game. I used the back button image meant for rewinding as an undo button. I submitted the full version and free version at the same time. The full version got accepted and the free version denied for "Rewind button only meant for rewinding media like audio/video. Please change and resubmit."

I didn't care so much about the rules, it was the additional one week wait as I had to get in the back of the line for a small change.
I would recommend reading The Dip by Seth Godin. It is all about deciding when to quit and when to push through. My favorite line is "Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers"
Yeah, but you need to do some sanity checking to see how likely things are to ever be competitive...

I agree that wind research should be done, but I really think/hope something better (lower investment costs and lower aesthetic impact) will be found.
question: given the current state of machine learning and artificial life research, should we expect the first AI to be silicon or carbon based? both?
I never fully understood how citizens of such countries expect to remain anonymous on the internet.

The explanation "if you build the network for somebody, you also give them monitoring tools" sounds plausible to me.
"[proofs] are pretty sloppy, and are really just a form of persuasion."
yes... with one of these computer brute force proofs, you must take it on faith that the result of executing an algorithm is as someone has claimed, be it the paper author or your own machine. this is proof by handwaving.
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Time Wastes Too Fast
If a public plan is inserted into private insurance markets, the American health-care system could rapidly evolve into a single-payer system, which would have devastating effects on R&D for new medical technology.

The author underestimates the power of prestige in regards to medical R&D. I worked outside of Boston for a number of years as critical care nurse, and there's _tons_ of research that goes on because of Harvard Medical School, Boston University Med School and Tufts. And, a lot of those physicians compete with each other to publish research. Why? Not because they are financially reimbursed, but because they get prestige. Once prestige and published research gets to a certain point, the doctors can spend more time on the lecture circuit.
Funny because I think Reddit degraded into:

+Atheist fundamentalist site. Look!!, people believing in fairly tales and rejecting the truth we the superior-smart-logical-thinker know.
+ "Reddit if you think my underwear stinks" kind of site.
+ Superficial articles for 15 years old.
I have 2 signs above my desk.

One says, "It doesn't matter". This is for when I get so stressed out, I have trouble doing anything. It helps keep things in perspective.

The other says, "Jabez Wolffe". His guide boat forced him to abandon his swim across the English Channel because they couldn't see through the darkness and fog, and it was too dangerous to continue. What they didn't realize was that they were only 100 yards from shore, but they had no way of knowing.

How far from shore are you?

I would suggest doing whatever you can to find out before making any decision.

[Aside: Please contact me off-line. I am in a similar situation and would like to talk.]
These shoes have nothing to do with the moonwalk.
You're being downvoted, but you're right to point out the commercial knock-on effect this will have. My sympathies are with all of the people involved in producing the forthcoming comeback tour - that would have been the shining diamond in nearly all of their résumes (dancers, lighting folks, producers, audio technicians, etc) and likely have changed many of their careers.
One thing about marketing is that it will take time for people to get to know about a product and then decide to try it.

How much time did it take for you to adopt twitter/google/whatever? Even for trying out free products people take months (you have a product that solves a real problem, but people don't know yet that they have a problem!).

Give it enough time. Learn more about and be good at sales. Be at their face all the time. Be so good that they cannot ignore you.

Just try to keep the buzz around your product/service alive. It is difficult in the B2B market, but not impossible. Then again, B2B (like any other market) is about the people involved and nothing else. Get to know more people and persuade them to use your product.
Technology makes infidelity trail easy to follow
the reality is that engineer types are often conditioned to be spineless and that is what leads to the attitudes by management that you always hear about. if a company will fire you for standing up for yourself then you shouldn't be working there. you have to establish the rules of the relationship early and be consistent.
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