skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm not whining about BATS, I'm saying - not whining - that the 'regular' exchanges really have no reason to exist any longer.

Market making and such could be done algorithmically.

I'm hoping - perhaps in vain - that BATS will take over the NYSE and with a little luck something similar will happen in other parts of the world.

The stock exchange as we know it should really be retired.
You bring up a very good point. I do not have any equity. I was always promised it, but of course it never materialized.
A friend of mine has been through something like that, not happily; here's another employee of the same startup telling the story: http://www.sixdemonbag.org/yomu.html

(Summary: founder trying to keep stringing everyone along gets convicted of securities fraud.)
Infinity is the substrate on which numbers are defined. It's the space that numbers are carved out of.
I hate statistics. Seriously you can just about link anything to anything. I should create a study linking writing Ruby code to increased sex appeal.
You're getting to the point where you really need to use some number theory and define "number" more precisely. I would imagine you could construct a definition of number based on multiplication whereby 0 would no longer be a number... but only according to your new definition of number. There's nothing wrong with having a new definition of number, but there is something wrong with writing the statement in English "0 cannot be a number" without providing your definition of number. By the standard one that English usually means when the word "number" is used without mathematical qualification, yes it darned well is, just as infinity isn't. And, correspondingly, you can construct numerous number systems where there are various ordinals that have characteristics inline with what we expect from "infinity", but those aren't the usual infinity anymore, either.

When somebody asks whether infinity "is a number", I don't think it's really helpful to start dragging in constructs from number theory and defining new definitions of number for the apparently sole purpose of dazzling the poor question asker. Either just answer the question: "Is the simple, traditional infinity I learned about in high school an instance of the simple, traditional number I learned about in high school?" ("No."), or be more explicit about the fact that you're not talking about either the "infinity" or the "number" the asker is asking about. (And when I phrase it that way, my objection should be clear: You're not answering the question that was asked, and you're not telling them that's what you are doing. That's not educational by any useful metric.)

Sure, neither "traditional number" nor "traditional infinity" is particularly well defined, with pathological behavior readily demonstrable to even a high-school educated person... but not in such a way that affects this particular question.
Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages and Tools - OOPSLA 2009
I was using SSDs as an example that people care about startup speed to back up my assertion that improving startup speed is a good thing.

I wasn't suggesting SSD startup speed changes are illusory.
It's not obvious that the difference in computer science degrees by gender is due to brain chemistry. With the "politically correct" idea that everyone should be able to pursue whatever field they want without social barriers, researchers are looking (http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~rpowell/documents/sigcse204-powel...) at ways to improve the teaching of computer science.
ok - what the hell possible reason could there be to downmod that? I am genuinely interested in pg's recipe for goop on rice - it wasn't a joke. Jesus Christ.
This is correct. When payroll was missed the first time, we learned that the software consultants we were working with had not been paid in a month. I can only assume at least the same is true for our hardware suppliers.
I'm waiting to see Juan Valdez and his trusty mule to be equipped with the Google "Trail" View equipment.
<obligatory comment on "Feinman" spelling>
How would buyers and sellers discover one another?

Perhaps there could be some sort of thing that they all connect to? What would we call it?
What was ignored here is that springs are specifically designed to absorb kinetic energy, or more specifically, the spring would tend to spread the energy of the impact out over a longer period of time due to compression. (Much like the tyre wall that Masa slammed into seconds later).

This would obviously depend a lot on the orientation of the spring when it impacted the helmet, but there's a good possibility that the outcome would have been very different if he'd been hit by an object of similar mass but different geometry.

That isn't to say the impact wasn't incredible and horrific. I'm very glad that he appears to be recovering well.
I really like the conclusion, about not waiting for a death to realize what can happen.

The thing is that it is not the open cockpit that can kill, it is the speed. And the speed is why this sport has so many fans.

Also remember that apart from being hit in his head Massa also hit a wall of tires at 200+ kph. I know they were there to absorb the shock, still, try doing that in a regular car...
Thank you for this link, I'm still laughing about the side bar tips :D

I like this one best: Always tweet in all-caps. BECAUSE CAPSLOCK IS CRUISE-CONTROL FOR AWESOME!
Spotify Puts Apple On The Spot
Early stage web product management master class
speed does not kill, it's acceleration (o rather deceleration ) that does :)
Obama team using twitter to help people push their senators on health care
Ask HN: What should I do with my domain(hack-android.com)?
So I have a few domains, but the one I am trying to find something to do with is http://hack-android.com , currently I have it parked with google, but I have been considering doing something with lately.

I originally got the domain with the intent to do an google android news site, but I rapidly discovered that blogs/news sites about android are a dime a dozen and generally would be a waste of my time to do.

So I thought I would post this question to HN community because it seems to be a place filled with great people/ideas.

Just to get the ball rolling here the latest Idea I have had was to create a Android Developer community to try to bring together Android Developers.
A $20 rice cooker with a timer works great too! Don't feel the need to shell out for a $150 Zojirushi cooker.
There seems to be a lot of anger among the photographers on the message board - anger that they are competing with 'enthusiastic amateurs' with high quality digital cameras.

The question that comes to mind is, why would Time pay $2500 if they can pay $30?
Yahoo engineers explain their homepage design with captions for the nerd-impared
It's how Viacom became the company it is today.
My earlier statements about the carriers still apply. They're just prolonging the inevitable, which isn't so surprising. I think the fear that people will be able to SMS for free is a big deal to them, though things like AIM on the iPhone offer something similar, too.

As for the Voice revenue, we would still be using our minutes. I had just been considering using GV on my iPhone (through the GV website), but I've now realized that I would lose the benefit of free AT&T-AT&T calls since they would all forwarded through my GV number.
I think you are probably right -- IIRC (IANAL), you have to be able to show that the test has direct bearing on the job. IQ tests would be suspect.
This past May I was on vacation in Orlando, Florida, and while visiting Sea World, some Google employees were capturing the attractions inside the park using this type of bike.
What's been astonishing to me is that there are new devices being produced for the C64 (not mass-produced, but there are a few companies and individuals doing it). Some of them are astonishingly modern, and the C64, for all its limitations, just accepts their existence. I bought an SD card based internal "hard disk" recently for my C64. It's really cool. Quite complex DOS commands are required until I get JiffyDOS installed, but still, it's astonishing to me that a C64 can deal with a device that can hold thousands of 1541, 1571 and 1581 disk images.
Exchanges provide anonymity. How volatile would the market be if every time Soros or Buffet made a trade, a horde of followers-on tried to do the same thing.

They eliminate counterparty risk. If you sell some shares in exchange for $$, you get $$, period, even if the other party is broke.

They are centralized points at which the market can be regulated. How else can you discover insider trading?

They provide a market for every listed stock, whereas many thinly traded concerns would be essentially unpriceable for much of the day. Imagine what this would do to attempts to calculate risk, etc.

Market making can be and in fact already is done algorithmically, even on the NYSE. That issue is orthogonal to whether a security trades on an exchange or not.

Look to the FX or bond markets to see what happens without good, popular exchanges. These places are widely known to be rife with fraud, counterparty risk, and arbitrariness.
I suspect Google is doing this for more reasons than "just because". Imagine all the data they're collecting other than just pictures.
Have you ever felt "trapped"?
Right now I'm feeling a little bit "trapped" mentally and emotionally. I have a very demanding full time job with a company whose values don't match mine. I have several interesting ideas for a startup that could generate some revenue on the side in hopes that it may lead to me being able to quit my job (or at least find a less demanding one), but I seem to be in this viscious cycle of never being able to muster up the motivation to actually start working on my ideas. After I'm done a gruelling day at work and have dealt with all of the other responsibilities in my life (I'm married and have a mortgage, but no kids), I'm just too exhausted to get to work on any of my "side" ideas.

Have any of you ever been in a similar situation? Did you find a workable solution? Is it just a matter of wanting it bad enough to work through your exhaustion and give your ideas the time they deserve?
Revealed: the secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hide
The images: http://gfl.usgs.gov/Publications.shtml
I don't know about the political implications of harshly criticizing volunteers, but it sure makes those who do it come of as unpleasant people.
Not trying to be critical, but any position that is associated with managing revenue tends to have a high correlation with success. What kind of startup hires a CFO? Exactly. I know a controller who has a similar track record.
He felt that I really owed him something just because he had hired me.

Never fall for that trap. I have seen quite a bit of this attitude - mostly pulled off on younger employees during salary negotiations.

In fact I have witnessed it so often that I think this must be something they teach in business schools, probably under the "optimizing employee performance"-tab.

You don't owe your boss anything beyond the regular performance that you are paid for. In most companies I'd even go as far as to say that they technically owe you for the various "extra miles" that have become the norm in our industry.

And I guess that's exactly the point they are trying to camouflage when they attempt to push you into the guilt corner.
He started out selling records (as in, vinyl disks that stored audio data, crazy I know) at a market stall. That grew into a music publishing business and a chain of high street stores. He used that as his springboard into his other enterprises.

Stelios from Easyjet is an example of someone who made a small fortune in the airline business... By starting with a large fortune he inherited. Branson is a self-made man. His leverage is his mystique and his charisma.
Unconventional CSS: Free-flowing collage [BIG]
Have you actually met your potential cofounders in person?
If it is a mere opinion, it would not constitute libel. For something to be libelous, it must be an assertion of fact - it must also be false and tend to injure the reputation of the party within the community.

The company would here argue that her tweet asserts that company policy deems it acceptable to expose tenants to serious health risks. It would say this is false and highly injurious to its reputation in the community.

Had this firestorm not arisen, the company might easily win through intimidation in such a lawsuit by coercing a settlement. A court could let the case get to a full trial, meaning that it would (if nothing else) take many thousands of dollars to defend it.

For this reason, it is not wise to use Twitter as a forum to vent in this way.

That said as a general matter, in this case, the company's patently idiotic response did far more to hurt its own reputation than the original statement possibly could have done. Unless it has lost its mind, it will drop the case pronto.
Xen
Exactly. Time doesn't care how much it costs. They just want a good looking photo.

Ultimately, the photographers on that site are in denial. They believe that nobody should be capable of putting out a quality photo but them.

It's the same denial newspapers and record labels are in.
Norway has (had? I moved to the UK a decade ago) a great protection against this: Be late with payroll and any employee could have the company bankrupted without paying a fee. All it took was filing a form.

Now, of course, at the bankruptcy hearing the company might be able to pay money due to staff and avoid being put under administration and shut down, but it's a very effective way of ensuring companies keep on the good side of their staff when cash gets tight.

Taxes also pay for a fund that covers back payment of salary for up to 6 months in the case of a bankruptcy where staff have been more lenient, and so provides both a safety net and a reason for staff to be more accommodating if there's hope of improvement.
Note added for clarity: this was not a startup, it was a long established company with around 30 employees. It is in an industry where raising funding would be a disaster and guarantee no orders ever again.

I was working for a company some years ago, and pay started to get late. No word from management, no explanations, and when it did turn up, no apologies.

We were all starting to look to jump, and some did. I found out what really was going on and started to make serious plans.

I won't go into full details, but after about 6 months we managed a hostile management buyout. We dealt with some unpleasantness from some people who jumped early, and half of those who had stayed were made redundant. That was a horrible, horrible thing to do, but we had no choice - we had no money. It cost us a bundle, but it was the only way to save the company.

The ones who stuck with us are now secure in their jobs, have equity, have 50% of the six months of missing pay restored (we weren't responsible or liable, but we honored it anyway) and have a fantastic work place.

In the middle of the worst, when negotiations were bad, we asked a few people why they were still working 5 hours a day, four days a week, when they hadn't been paid for three months, and everything was uncertain.

"We don't want to work with anyone else." was the rather humbling reply.

Since then there have been months when cash-flow was tight, and money wasn't on time. Company directors, I have learned, are legally obliged not to destabilise the company, and telling employees the exact situation when money is tight can be regarded as that. It's not always the owners' fault. Employees are quick to say "You should've told us." but legally, the situation is not always that clear.

I have to say that we, the directors, never took more pay than the employees until they were back on full pay. even then we took 1/4 pay for a further few months, then 1/2 pay until the cash-flow stabilised. We never asked employees to forego pay without ourselves first taking nothing.

I'm not making excuses for your bosses, nor suggesting that you stick it out and hope it all works. My employees did, and they're very, very pleased about it. I stuck it out, took steps, and now (part) own the company.

Take control, one way or another. In a smaller company, jumping is not the only option.
Wolfram Alpha: a shortlived fad
Base upon their job description, looks like their messaging platform is built on C++ and then they want some Python... http://www.batstrading.com/resources/employment/bats_trading...
If there is one thing that has turned me off apple it's the iphone + appstore combo, as well as their exclusive deals with certain telcos.

I know it's a huge hit businesswise and everybody is really happy with their iphones - well, not everybody but for the most part - but instead I find myself thinking about how great it would have been if Apple had made this a completely open platform.

There would have been an order of magnitude more applications for it and people would have bought their iphones 'plan-less' from the apple store and a plan to go with it from their favourite provider.
Post agile, one third of you will be gone...
I have to agree with that.

I've been in my current job for 10 years. One of the things that initially sold me on the company was that besides the technical stuff, they took time to get to know me as a person during the very long interview day. A bunch of us went out to lunch and chatted, back in the office we discussed everything from hobby projects to old work, etc.
Since they had flown me over 1,000 miles for the interview, people suggested some places to visit until my return flight two days later (I came up on Friday and left on Sunday) so I could see if I might like living in the area, etc...

And in the end I had a really good feeling about working for these guys that has pretty much persisted for the time I've been here.
Porting Syck - a Story of C, Parser Generators and General Ugliness
I think you might be solving the wrong problem here. Someone could very easily set up an account and have it vouch for a bunch of spam accounts before you figured anything out. To solve that problem you'd have to limit "vouching" privileges to a few trusted accounts, and then you're not getting much of a benefit, IMO.
What's the traffic difference between your highest visited essays and HN?

I found YC and HN through your essays. I'm wondering if that's a more general phenomenon.
I think it would be cool to use it as a hub for something similar to http://startupweekend.com/

Basically, hold an Android hack-a-thon in various cities across the globe. People would get together, make app(s), and then release them if they want.

Each hack festival could be themed, or it could be a free-for-all. Example: Twitter interfaces, facebook app, etc.

Alternatively,
This is simple abuse of the court.

Do we know this? All we know is 1 tweet and a couple of quotes (possibly) taken out of context. Was there a history of tweets by this woman regarding Horizon? Sure, she only had 20-something followers, but her message was publicly available. This could actually be an interesting precedent-setting case for how courts define tweets. Is it comparable to a newspaper article, or a conversation between parties?

I wouldn't be so quick to judge the company or the woman in question. Something else to consider: Who told the media about the lawsuit?
Dear Mr. Jobs, I have some ideas about how to improve your phone
I too have been wondering about the slowness of GV invites, but I finally got mine. And it is everything they said it would be. Of course, it's not perfect; text transcription of voicemail is pretty weak...but nevertheless, the tools for managing it (playback through your browser, with word highlighting as it plays back) are good enough for it to be useful.

Don't want to sound like I'm shilling for GV here, but it does feel like gmail for your phone. Although this might not switch many or any away from the iPhone, it's going to highlight the weakness of the walled garden approach, and put off potential new buyers (like me).
WIN-WIN vs LOSE-LOSE: Two Approaches to Conflict Resolution
The work of an artist is to change the value of things.

--Yoko Ono (http://twitter.com/yokoono/status/2498738317)
While this isn't a major pain point for me, I think it's a great mini UX case study by one of the folks at Cooper Design. Definitely spot on about the redundancy of checking the voicemail and then click on recent calls just to get rid of the dot.
Agreed.

As much as I like the fact that ideas coming from this site are spreading, I would also like people to work at least as much as I did to find HN.

A direct link from the NYT would be way too easy.
Just do it. Read some books. I like Harry Beckwith's books, also The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost Your Sales by Dan S. Kennedy.

Highlight the benefits over features of whatever you're selling such as "Increases sales" vs "1000 of x with the pro plan."
Gruber is a tool.
As a hacker, I prefer a system to do something outside my core strength. David Sandler has the best sales system I have found.

You may want to check out a current a book about Sandler for about 16 bucks:

The Sandler Rules: 49 Timeless Selling Principles and How to Apply Them (Hardcover)

http://www.amazon.com/Sandler-Rules-Timeless-Selling-Princip...

Here's the Table of Contents:

1. You have to learn to fail, to win.
2. Don't spill your candy in the lobby.
3. No mutual mystification.
4. A decision not to make a decision is a decision.
5. Never answer an unasked question.
6. Don't buy back tomorrow the product or service you sold today.
7. You never have to like prospecting, you just have to do it.
8. When prospecting, go for the appointment.
9. Every unsuccessful prospecting call earns compound interest.
10. Develop a prospecting awareness.
11. Money does grow on trees.
12. Answer every question with a question.
13. No mind reading.
14. A prospect who is listening is no prospect at all.
15. The best sales presentation you'll ever give, the prospect will never see.
16. Never ask for the order - make the prospect give up.
17. The professional does what he did as a dummy - on purpose.
18. Don't paint "seagulls" in your prospect's picture.
19. Never help the prospect end the interview.
20. The bottom line of professional selling is going to the bank.
21. Sell today, educate tomorrow.
22. Only give a presentation for the "kill".
23. The way to get rid of a bomb is to defuse it before it blows up.
24. Product knowledge used at the wrong time can be intimidating.
25. When you wnat to know the future, bring it back to the present.
26. people buy in spite of the hard sell, not because of it.
27. You can't sell anybody anything - they must discover they want it.
28. When under attack - fall back.
29. You meter's always running.
30. You can't lose anything you don't have.
31. Close the sale or close the file.
32. Get an I.O.U. for everything you do.
33. On your way to the bank, key one eye over your shoulder.
34. Work smart, not hard.
35. If your competition does it, stop doing it right away.
36. Only decision makers can get others to make decisions.
37. All prospects lie, all the time.
38. The problem the prospect brings you is never the real problem.
39. When all else fails, become a consultant.
40. Fake it 'til you make it.
41. There are not bad prospects - only bad salespeople.
42. A winner has alternatives, a loser puts all his eggs in one basket.
43. You don't learn now to win by getting a "yes" - you learn how to win by getting a "no".
44. When your foot hurts, you're probably standing on your own toe.
45. Express your feelings through third-party stories.
46. There is no such thing as a good try.
47. Selling is a Broadway play performed by a psychiatrist.
48. A life without risk is a life without growth.
49. Leave your child in the car.
Hero Honda bags title sponsorship for 2010 Hockey World Cup
Mathematics isn't that rigorous, I think you've been misinformed.

history (which actually deals with factual content)

Uh, not so much. Lots of documents and facts are missing and we have only guesses to work with. Mind you, they're good or even great guesses, but there are still some doubts.