skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Actually, they do make their money from us. If no one used FireFox then Google wouldn't continue sending them checks because the money comes from you and me doing Google searches. Saying they don't make money from us is like saying that ad supported sites don't make money from us, they do. More Firefox users = more money for Mozilla.

It turns out every single company works on limited resources, is human, and has to prioritize: these are not unique shortcomings of open source software.

No one is asking they do exactly what we say, in fact if you read the post that you responded to, it was not mean spirited in any way and simply listed a number of bugs upon a Mozilla workers' request, so I don't really understand the "fix it yourself" response.

Also, the idea that their job is to provide a usable browser for platforms that wouldn't otherwise have one is somewhat silly and particularly ironic in the context of a conversation about not providing a good enough experience for "half a dozen users". Windows is arguably the platform least lacking in browsers, and Mozilla has clearly demonstrated through their actions that their primary concern is Windows market share, and this is fine and a good strategy in my opinion. All I'm saying is to not paint them as white knights for the minority in one sentence and then complain about vocal minorities in another.
In my own experience, the great testers (both of them) were also good developers. The Catch-22 is of course that they were "promoted" to development and therefore left huge holes in the test team. I can't imagine that these were unique circumstances.
N = 1.
Wal-Mart's green efforts
Wow, I can't believe I never noticed that. I've always gone to the local store page, and then looked for a book search there; I never saw the "enter a zip code" box on the normal product page. Learn something every day...
How not to secure your network printers
I've got to go with the "none" crowd.

I don't consider coding an easy or natural activity to me... until I really get into sort of a zone. Sometimes I have to close my eyes (as well as ears) and stop staring at the screen... so that complete lack of input lets my brain percolate a fresh way of looking at a project.

What can I say? There's lots of different mind-styles out there. Took me a long time to find my own.
> Suicide is never the result of outside details, it's a personal disorder.

If you look at the Wikipedia link tokenadult posted, it's clear that there are huge variances both over time (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Hungarian...) and between different countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_ra...).

That strongly suggests that some component of a society does influence the suicide rate. Of course, it's not the only factor, but it is surely a factor.
yes. A moon base established by any one country would be a massive massive coup. Your on the very frontier of space and if you get a foot hold chances you will be at that fore-front for decades.

From the economic perspective there is a massively lucrative tourist market to sell.

And above all of that you have proof of the countries dominance over the earth. Some of their residents are literally untouchable :)

EDIT: if China makes it to the Moon that would establish them and the next biggest super power. Chances are it will be them anyway but still...
uuh surely most editors can do this for you? m-x comment-region in emacs for instance
We need an offshoring tax
Once again, it is shown that the NoSQL crowd's complaints about relational databases in general are in fact only complaints about MySQL in particular.
"The "you don't own your computer" paradigm is not merely wrong. It is violently, disastrously wrong, and the consequences of this error are likely to be felt for generations to come, unless steps are taken to prevent it."

"Ethics for Programmers: Primum non Nocere"

http://glyf.livejournal.com/46589.html
I'm going in the opposite direction from NoSQL. I'd like as much sql as possible. I'd enjoy using a language with an in memory database, one where you could create and discard databases as easily as a set, list, or map. To me, some of the issue here is that people are rebelling against a language (sql) related to a branch of math (relational algebra) because they're dissatisfied with the way SQL persists and scales (which is debatable, but seems to have some merit).

So in this case, I think "nosql" is a misnomer.
Oh, I completely agree, I just don't think you could compare it, since the OpenMoko is just so subpar.
I think the artist was implying accuracy that he probably couldn't vouch for.

So it's supposed to be geographically correct, but the advanced reader can take it as shorthand for wiggly coast.
I like this one better.
http://web.mat.bham.ac.uk/pgweb/random/2009/04/proof-without...
This is a common practice in Sybase-derived RDBMSs.
Helium-3

In a nutshell human beings have depleted helium reserves on planet earth to the point that within 20 years we run out. Now you say, big deal, no more party balloons. But little do you realize that the manufacturing processes for just about everything super technical requires helium. It's a big enough deal that both Russia and China are developing standalone robotic systems to harvest helium-3 from moon rocks where its found in great abundance due to the suns constant bombardment of the surface rocks which creates the substance. Helium-3 is also a core ingredient in fusion reactor processes and as such is required in great quantities to sustain the fusion reactor operations.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.08/helium.html

So there is a strategic value which while not important at this moment, will likely be a driving force in space economics in 20 years...
It's probably telling that his code sample is PHP. Though I seem to remember Eclipse having support for CTRL+/ style block commenting/uncommenting. Most other good IDEs (and emacs, as noted below) do it too.

But yeah, I sometimes take for granted how nice VS.NET is at these little detail things (though I use resharper-style CTRL+/ bindings for this particular feature). Thanks to this author and his pain for reminding me how good we have it.
Thanks, that makes sense.

I have also found that wanting similar (or at least compatible) things from the startup is also essential.

I tried to start my first real startup (one where we started writing code) with a friend from gradschool. We had known each other for a while, but it didn't work because we had different goals and approaches at the time. He wanted to build a world changing product and focus on that from the get go. I would have loved to do that but wanted to start with building something small that was useful and build up on that. Thankfully we realized this fast and parted amicably.

I was incredibly lucky the second time. I found and recruited someone who is attending the same school I did, but who I didn't know, mainly because he is a great programmer and a frank person. In our first meeting he was direct about everything ranging from his motivation to his weaknesses as a coworker and he expected the same of me. We have now become good friends but in the interim this transparency served as an effective substitute.

In the past year there have been multiple occasions where one of us has felt like the startup is below the X axis. When that happens, having an enthusiastic, frank and committed colleague who believes in the startup and can boost your optimism is a big boon.
Lunar entrepreneurs: privately funded SpaceX orbits Earth.
Can someone with some experience with Hadoop tell us if this is a big deal or not?

I'm inclined to think that it is, but I only have the press release to judge by.
Sorry for the confusion. I only mentioned properties=>columns to differentiate from the concept of rows/tables/values etc.

What I meant was that different properties can be added to each object in the store without having to worry about the effect of the same properties on other objects in the same store. If you add "cellphone#" property to an object, it doesn't mean all objects in the store will now have a "cellphone#" property (defaulted to NULL). It means other objects will not even have a property "cellphone#" unless you go back to those objects and edit them.

This has nothing to do with the length of time it takes to add a column in whichever SQL database you use.
I think we have to remember that wave, the UI experience, is simply 1 application built using the new platform/protocol. To me it looks like, in large part, a proof of concept that gets the ball rolling for devs, more than a surefire new product for end users. The google wave UI will evolve, and in theory other devs will offer entirely new visions built on top of the platform in more and more exciting ways. Wave's success will be more based on the platform success imho, than whether this early UI is a game changer.
You're wrong:

If we're counting this by language, we should figure out how much Ukrainians (or Belorusians) use internet in russian language, primary, and how much don't; and then we should sum up those numbers.
Everything else would be a speculation.
I'm not so sure. It seems less immediately obvious.
Of course all documents can be a web page. Sumerian clay tablets can be a web page. Does it make sense to introduce hyperlinks and other markup to Sumerian clay tablets? Not to me, but that's something I don't feel the need to worry about.
PragPub Issue 1
Lots of married couples run businesses together; it's somewhat of a change that this is now viewed as a bad thing.

Of course, there is also a difference between hiring family and cofounding with family. If you cofound with a spouse, this problem might be unique to a startup environment where your early employees expect to be treated as equals. In a more traditional business, it's definitely not an issue.
Apple is part of the problem here because they are positively anal about their product releases being kept secret to the point where they will sue left right and center if they suspect some kind of breach.

Why the cult of 'new' is so crazy about having the latest gadgets and how much that drives sales is totally beyond me. If it works and I need it I'll buy it, otherwise you can keep it.

I never realized how bad it really was until a good friend - who shall remain nameless - vowed to queue to be one of the first to have an iphone. Seriously, who cares. People think they're cool because they have cool stuff, not because they do cool stuff.
People kill themselves in "the West" over losing jobs or pressure at school, too. I've heard that students in Cambridge have a high suicide rate, for example.

Also the question is would the people be better off without the jobs from foreign companies? Surely they put up with pressure at their jobs because they don't have a better alternative?
I'm sorry for using hyperbole on the Internet. I'll never ever ever do it again.
It's extremely difficult to avoid Chinese-made products when you buy electronics...
Item 11; stop reading hacker news... ;)
I'm sad to say that this comment depressed me more (call me self-centered) than the original article (since I'm 25 right now).
Aww, social networking is growing up
Don't know much about the author and don't really understand his points .. I've always wondered who are writing and reading the List Apart .. For me looks like literature about web design and web frontend technology which is weird
You may be surprised to hear this: that part about "stay in one place, do not talk to each other and look straight down" is true even in Japan and Korea, even in many high tech office settings. My vivid recollection when I worked in Japan was "These people are so nice outside the office, why do they become such expressionless robots inside?" I have many close friends in Japan (and we have done a lot of fun stuff outside the office), and so I would ask them this. They would shrug and say "At work we have to wear a mask, that is just the culture here, everyone has to conform to it." It felt oppressive to me, but they seem to take it in their stride.
Identity Theft on the Internet-The Silent Crime
They can do such things like opening new credit card accounts by using your name, date of birth, and social security numbers. Then when they use the credit card and they do not pay the bill, the account is reported on your credit report. The can also call the card issuer and pretend to be you to change the mailing address on your credit card account.
Emacs users: try the comment-dwim command, usually bound to M-;. This will toggle the commented-ness of the selected code and be relatively smart about it. "dwim" stands for "do what I mean". :)
V.Kamal Farslar Etnogentik Baximdan kimdir?
Forget Lightning. How Do We Catch Sunshine in a Bottle?
Right side of page. First link under RELATED INTERNET LINKS.

Medieval soldier database

http://www.medievalsoldier.org/
One small step for startup kind
Sad, but I wonder what really happened to it...
It's usually command / in TextMate.
I'm of a torn mind on this subject. There is really a lot of tragedy in the living circumstances of the ordinary people creating so many of our mindless consumer products. But at the same time, the jobs creating such products are highly coveted because they beat the hell out of manual labor on a backcountry farm. When you've got such an enormous population bootstrapping into a modern industrialized economy there are huge disparities while the modernization process takes place.

I don't think that assigning blame to Apple is warranted here. Apple certainly is horrified at what has happened - not just due to bad PR, but because an engineer took his life over a consumer gadget.

There are no easy answers here. My hope is that within a few generations the societal earthquakes will settle down with respect to modernization. Even then though, what does it take to overcome millennia of societal acceptance of suicide?
Good News for iPhone Devs: Tapjoy + Pinch
Tapjoy allows developers to serve ads from 8 different ad networks from a single SDK. This increases fill rate (up to 100%) and increases overall eCPMs (usually by 2x or 3x).

Today Tapjoy announced that it has partnered with Pinch Media to give developers a single SDK for ads and analytics.
It's far more cost-effective to bomb people from the Earth, or from low-earth orbit, than going to the fucking moon.

As for gravity wells, why not just build a space station outside of the Moon's gravity well?
Predicting Movie Ratings: The Math that Won the Netflix Prize
Real-time web : Reality Checked
I like the assumption that wifi shouldn't be open. Why would you want to share your resources with friends and neighbours?
China is historically the cultural juggernaut of east Asia. I don't know why the culture has taken on this aspect, but yes, it is ubiquitous in these nations.
Weather forecast is concerned with the value of the temperature (or some other variable) in few days; climate research is interested in the statistics of the temperature in a longer timespan.

I can't predict the outcome of the next toss of a coin, but I can say that it'll be 50/50 for the next million years. ;)
TaskFreak web based task manager / todo list
We should be actively colonizing space to increase our survival chances. However, behind every technical reality, there is a far more important economic reality. First, the need for a back-up planet isn't that high yet. Second, NASA isn't self-supporting. It can't amplify its achievements like business can. Putting men on the moon was the peak of what it could do without requiring an unrealistic change in the nature of people. The market needs to step in and develop a genuine space flight and colonization industry. This is a slow process, but has already started.

In general, if you think a large group of people are idiots, you should count yourself among them. People are competitive creatures and won't all step in the same direction because you want them to. They'll act in their own interest. They'll do business. That is how mankind achieves things.

Think distributed.
All very vague. What is the actual strategic value in this? What would you be able to do that other spacefaring powers couldn't, and why would it matter in a strategic context?

"Some of their residents are literally untouchable"

It's trivially easy to stop shipments to the Moon. How long can a lunar biosphere last?
The best measure will always be revenue. Can YouTube generate better revenue for film producers than movie theaters? Not even television in its heyday could do that.
Not to mention TextMate, e (the windows textmate clone) and vi...I feel like this is a pretty basic text editor feature, for programmers at least.
I think the original example is more obvious.
I take a different stance as well. I want a non-SQL RDBMS. I want transactions and declarative queries, etc, just without the brain-dead SQL syntax and string manipulation to write a query.
It's probably telling that his code sample is PHP

Excuse me, but last time I checked PHP was one of the most widely deployed languages in the world, which a lot of people smarter than you and I spend their working time hacking. Can we please stop the PHP bashing.
Anyone who discovered, went bananas for and then eventually stopped using this trick on their own, raise your hand.

:)
Wow - Bush's approval jump in the two polls after 9/11/01 is unbelievable!
(Dis)Functional Bowling (FP/TDD debate)
What advantage does the moon give to fabrication plants other than, say, building fabrication plants directly in high orbit as space stations?
Mr. Abrams will contend that S.& P.’s ratings deserve free-speech protections
I used to until they started using my network for bittorrent to the point that it consistently had poor performance.

I'd set something up to throttle bandwidth and restrict certain protocols from unregistered MACs, but I'm not motivated to make that much of an effort to share my network.
It's interesting that YCombinator, which values hackers so highly, included one pure business person (Jessica) among its four partners. Could you explain the reasoning behind that decision? What expertise did Jessica bring that Paul, Robert, and Trevor lack? More generally, when should founders consider bringing on a non-hacker as a co-founder?
In C I don't use block comments, I just use:

#if 0
...
#endif

One character, no comment syntax hacks.
"Security through obscurity". That sums it up.

And obscurity is an increasingly scarce resource.
I find it really helpful to have a duplicate-and-comment-block command, so you can immediately start hacking on an uncommented dup. Used with another command to dump blocks to a junk file, it's like a wee block-level SCM.
How to take decisions in the development team
Internal representation is different from display representation. So long as it looks good on a screen, I don't really care what the markup looks like.

You can then represent it internally in any format that you want. XML sounds good, because it is completely general, but that generality can also be a curse (due to its self descriptiveness, it is pretty much never the most compact way to represent structured data).

Screenwriters are old fashioned, but will definitely come around over time (just like filmmakers are slowly switching to digital). There are already web apps that allow you to write screenplays online - http://www.scripped.com is one. I'm sure that, in the long-term, the collaborative aspects of the web will trump any technical difficulties.
People still look at me funny when I say I'd like to have 3-5 kids...
Even on my lowly 8800GT with quad-core I'm hitting 83+ megahashes per second -- my lowest distance is currently 37.

CUDA is pretty neat :)
It looks like a real time forum to me.
The article neglected to mention that the next generation iPhone will be a current one with U2 colors and signatures.
very weird. I have the same feeling about places I worked in the US compared to Europe. People wear mask, are quiet and pretend someone they're not, don't trust anybody.
You can't let your users do things that add arbitrary 'columns' whenever, or grow to 10,000+ on every 'table' to model attributes.

That kind of usage works really well when the DB is a Entity-Attribute-Value tuplestore underneath. It's not so hot with tables, much less relational ones.
Sadly this is true. I've removed his blog from my RSS reader quite a while ago. Seth Godin got ditched for the same reason :(
brlewis is close, I will add mortgage :).

I can live on a Ramen-diet (I prefer cereal though), but not everyone is in(or just out of) college.

The process I'm envisioning is:

1) YC helps founders in this situation vet their ideas, possibly get in touch with others in similar situation and form teams (if needed).

2) YC obviously takes a small stake, but not necessarily puts any real money (or puts just some money).

3) Teams build whatever they are building. Yes, these teams will take longer than dedicated teams.

4) YC helps along with guidance.

5) Once the product is beginning to take shape, founders quit their jobs and try to get funding and launch venture.

I know it will be argued that in this case I'm just trying to have my cake and eat it too, but I don't think what I'm suggesting is totally unreasonable.
I leave my network open with a note to please not abuse it :)

I haven't had any problems yet, but I do have QoS set up to preserve the traffic I care about. Honestly, it's rare that I've had guests log in to the network. Looking at the MAC analyses it seems that it's mostly sporadic visitors with laptops and so on. Which is exactly the sort of borrowing I encourage.
Excuse my naivete (I'm not a Twitter user), but what is the purpose of artificially inflating your number of followers without tweeting anything interesting? Are there straightforward ways to monetize this solely based on your number of followers?
In the original, the (1/4)^n is more obvious to me, while in the second, the 1/3 part of it is more obvious.

But the coloring scheme in the two are different too. The first uses three colors, the second two colors. What if the light gray in the first was white instead? I think then the 1/3 might pop out better.

Wait a second, does everyone even see the same thing? Although it doesn't matter which color you pick to represent the sum of the geometric series, I defaulted to the black squares representing the series. In the second, I assumed the gray represented the squares of the series. How about others?
People will hate working with you if your company is failing to execute. If you haven't hired your husband, they will find some other reason to hate you. In any group of smart, opinionated adults, there are 100,000 reasons to hate your coworkers --- compensation, effort, strategy decisions, nepotism, cliques.

Kawasaki's comment ignores the upsides of working with your spouse. You can both keep longer hours. It's easier to balance childcare needs. You can get another unquestionably committed team member.

Singling out family involvement is a fallacy. There are thousands of successful family businesses. There are hundreds of thousands of companies that fail that never even considered hiring a spouse. There's simply no data to back this point up, just supposition.
Do Elite Colleges Produce the Best-Paid Graduates?
No one color represents the series. They all do.