skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
While it's tempting to refer to the "San Francisco Bay Area" as a single cultural/economic entity, it really isn't. The male/female ratios will vary considerably within this region, along with the economic base.

I read an article a while back (which I could remember the link) that pointed out that as you move from south to north (ie., from southbay/San Jose to San Francisco), you gradually move from engineering/hard science to software to UI design to marketing/PR. There are major, substantial exceptions, of course, but as a general trend, I think it holds true.

As you move from South to North on this continuum, the male/female ratio changes substantially as well. Obviously, the PR, advertising, and design firms in SF have a lot of women working at them. Law firms, especially the ones that are not patent-law oriented, also have a lot of women - as paralegals, secretaries, and lawyers. I'd also guess that there are more fashion/interior decorating type firms in SF than in San Jose (it's not New York, of course, but insofar as the Bay Area has an industry, it'll largely be in SF). SF does have tech/software companies, though I've heard (I can't support this, it's just conjecture) that they tend to be less hardcore tech than the peninsula. The mission bay campus of UCSF may bring a lot of biotech folks to SF - not sure how that will influence things.

I've lived in SF, LA, San Diego, and New York. Because I grew up in SF, I don't have as good a sense of what it's like trying to "meet women", since I already had a large social network from high school and so forth. New York was the best (Manhattan) - girls would actually initiate conversations and give me their phone number. LA has lots of beautiful women, and it's a pretty good scene, but some (not all) women seemed to lose interest when they learned I wasn't a part of the entertainment industry (well, I was doing software for post production, but that counts as outside...)

San Diego was the absolute worst - the ratio of men to women was so high, and the men were so aggressive, that the women seemed to almost shut down and go into a shell. I learned something here - women don't seem to have as good a time when the ratio gets too favorable for them. It's surprising, but it makes sense. Women actually do like to pursue men, but if they're surrounded by a 3-1 ratio of men to women, and the men are very aggressive, they get hit on ever five minutes by a guy who they aren't interested in, it becomes nearly impossible to "make yourself available." Maybe they see a guy they'd like to meet, but if they appear open to conversation, five other guys will pretty much rush in right away. So they shut down and lose all interest in talking with people, or just stop going out to those bars altogether.

Nobody likes a bad ratio, but I've actually found that men and women are happiest closer to a 50-50 ratio.
I suppose the problem is that he's viewing media and communication tools as strictly utilitarian. It's the first time I see "One on One Coaching" bundled as media like movies, books, and television. That seems odd, but of course he's coming from the point of view of a marketer looking for the benefits and usefulness of things. I mean, he put a PDF in higher "quality", or "higher bandwidth", than Art.
I really hope you're right. I would love nothing more than to see flash go the way of .rm
This is where AwesomeBar is... well, Awesome.

I'm here so much I just type ne <tab> <enter> and I'm here.

There's something unsettling about using a domain that forwards to the site you actually want to use; especially when they aren't owned by the same person / organization.
For some reason my brain showed me the picture of a star piston engine when you said 'rotary', my bad :)

We call those 'Wankel' engines here.

Pretty cool stuff.

Beautful animation by the way!
Masking Latency & Failures with Squid Cache Server
The Ultimate Movie Paradox ? RedBox vs Downloads
Somebody should tell this guy about the infinite robot brains we're all going to have by the 2030s.
He should release these interviews as an audio book...I would buy that.
A reddit comment on this purchase says this:

Google tends to look a few steps ahead.
Remember that whole debacle with GOOG-411
and speech recognition? They intend to use
the free GOOG-411 service to improve their
speech recognition so that YouTube videos
can eventually have automatic closed captioning,
and can -- in turn -- be searchable by Google
and can offer a whole new era of video search
results.

The automatic closed captioning is especially interesting. Any truth to it?

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/97rc8/if_youtube...
there are a lot of people that could be on this list but it is hard to argue with the people on it, many came from mediocre upbringings to become brands
I've built an ALU for a simulator ;)

But I wouldn't know where to go from there and I wouldn't know how to make a physical one.

Are there any OCW-courses (or similar) on the subject? Preferably with a hands-on approach :)
I'm not sure what's up with that deaded comment.

Most 'outlying opinions', when reasonably defended (e.g., with paragraphs and citations) seem to do pretty well. There's a clear 'winner', in that one set of responses will have scores that dwarf the dissent, but rarely do I see earnestly given, somewhat supported answers drowned below -1. (Example, from the first headline on /best that appeared politicky enough to incite vitriol: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=738357)

Iconoclastic comments are difficult to discern from foolish comments because all votes get pooled- the disagree vote and the 'not contributing' vote count the same (as they should).
A potential method to prop up iconoclastic comments: when a post has received a large number of votes on both sides, display both counts, as opposed to the summed count. This gives a fighting chance to differentiate the 'derp derp derp' from the controversial, and helps reconcile the differences in how downvotes are used against arguments of differing qualities.
It's sort of lost - the info is still there in the form of the information they entered, which is a pretty strong hint. You're not likely to forget your name or website url, for example.

You still have a point about the usability of labels outside the form field, especially given the caveat in the article that "this plugin still has problems when the browser tries to pre-fill the fields".

But it's still a useful technique because it makes the labels a lot easier to read because it's possible to left-align both the labels and the input fields. Just to give you a sense on how much thought needs to go into the graphic design of labels and form fields, here's a breakdown of the pros and cons behind labels arranged vertically, left-justified and right-justified:

http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/web_forms.html

There's so much to learn about form design that the guy milked into an entire book.
To elaborate on qhoxie's statement, NoSQL is great for some things, but there is this idea out there that it's a panacea for scaling your webapp. And while all the things highlighted in the article are performant, few of them even scale, and none of them are perfect.
Ask HN: Please advise me on liability insurance and on finding a lawyer
I have a CA single-member LLC through which I perform Ruby / Rails / JavaScript consulting for a couple of clients (income of around $100k / year). I also run a couple of web properties through the LLC that are based around aggregated content and mashups. Combined they make about $15k-$20k per year from advertisements. Finally, I have a couple of new projects in the works, all also through the LLC.

I have recently heard that LLCs don't offer as good liability protection as I had previously thought. I don't currently have liability insurance. If I run my LLC responsibly (separate bank account, everything in the company's name, etc.), will it shelter my personal assets in the case of a lawsuit? Should I have liability insurance, and if so, what kind? I have liability from consulting, and from my web properties which could be candidates for copyright infringement or deep linking lawsuits, although I haven't had any problems in the four years of their operation thus far, and I run them in good faith.

It seems like I should talk to a lawyer, or at least a good insurance agent. Does anyone have recommendations on how to find a good, but affordable one? Any specifics in / around San Francisco?
I am not up on my python, but I'm definitely interested in knowing more.

I looked at this:
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0274/

List comprehensions are great, but they're typically used for iteration/map-like functionality, right?

For this, we could use with_object in Ruby (as mentioned in this article).

The question was more about if you have an iteration combined w. other transformations that are not iterative.

Is that something that could still be solved with dict. comprehensions? If so, I'd definitely like to see it for inspiration.

But it's definitely a valid question as to whether we should even bother to worry. The purpose of this series of articles is to expose ideas around Ruby 1.9 features, to see whether they sound promising or not. This one, maybe not so promising :)
No, you're not. This point is made in the article.
I agree. Fading the text but not removing it may be confusing to some users who won't understand why there is text they can't delete in the text box.

It is pretty, though.
Maybe someone with enough karma to produce a poll on HN can submit a "Would you hire Zed Shaw?" poll.
I particularly like the founder of Wal-Mart's quote: There is only one boss. the customer. and he can fire anybody in the company"
I think it just saves space in applications where UI space is scarce. It's also a useless trick that amateurs can abuse for fun. Yay!
I wonderi f there are any implications for conversions on the web. Someone should do an A/B test.
Since when did labels cause harm?

The main pain point of that is that you can't see what field means what once you've got content in it.

Oh and its dreadful if you disable Javascript.
Strangely, in cinema it's a rule of thumb to bring the protagonist in from the left of frame and the villain from the right.

Perhaps this is due to a higher concentration of lefties in the arts, but it's also theorized that it's because we (mainly) like to read left to right. This may be well-grounded; I can think of opposite individual cases from countries with R-L writing but haven't seen enough to draw statistical conclusions.
...From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
If you're interested in this I suggest you get the reference manuals for one of the simpler 8 bitters (6502, 6800, 6809, Z80 or 8051) and have a look at the block schematic for the cpu.

here is the 6809 (my favourite of the ones above):

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/documents/chipdata/68...

You could go several routes to make one, first build a software simulator so you have something to validate your design with, then either use an FPGA or use wire wrapping like the author of the OA did (that's possible but also very very time consuming, and if a cpu is your first project is going to be a very frustrating experience).
Regulatory capture anyone?

Yep. Sadly I personally don't see anything I can do about it.
Why doesn't Oracle Coherence ever come up in these discussions of RDBMS alternatives?

I've been going over its documentation, and it looks like the cat's meow in getting rid of the database scalability bottleneck. Think of it as memcached done right. Coherence has automatic clustering, needs almost no configuration, supports many flexible distributed schemes, easy API. With Clojure and Scala, you don't even have to use Java to use it.

Has no one heard of it? Does it get no love because it's commercial and (probably) expensive?
maybe i am too stupid but bookmarks are just too complicated for me... they are always on the wrong computer, organizing them is a pain, and i just don't trust them to a 3rd party to keep them. google always seems easier :)
Ustream Finally Launches A Recording iPhone App.
I don't know that being schemaless is fundamentally different. Instead of thinking that key/value stores are schemaless, I think of them as having a single rigid schema: key and value. The data you stick into a k/v db will still have essentially, a schema, you just end up writing your application to be flexible to data inconsistency.

The comparison to dynamic vs static typing doesn't hold much water.

Can you explain how meta-programming relates to this topic at all?
It's more of a poke at Linux users in general than the kernel development team. The lack of flash and video codec support are one of the main reasons the predicted "Linux on the Desktop" revolution never happened. At the same time, I don't understand why Adobe won't back Linux as it's in their best interest to weaken Microsoft.
Google’s Android Jumps to the Living Room
Again, I make no claims about whether this program actually works just that it is clearly not as trivial as the broken window example. However, if you believe that tax cuts work, then I see no reason why this sort of rebate wouldn't work, too (it's like a tax cut for people who buy new cars).
"If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use?... Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?"

- Seymour Cray (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray)
Frequently affirmed but rarely followed advice.
Take Feedburner feeds to the next level: A visual how-to guide
Feedburner offers fantastic ways to get more from your RSS or Atom feeds. The features discussed in this entry aren’t enabled by default, so make sure you read each one!
How I (almost) use my computer without a mouse
Code in hand goes further than request in hand.
I found this article to be interesting, however completely un-useful. No one actually uses P-Store and I'm not sure why anyone would start?!? Why not just use BerkleyDB? I believe it has ruby bindings.
For onlookers who want to learn more about evolutionary theory, here's a long video of a lecture by the researcher who studied the SNP map.

http://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2008/feldman-lect...

1) The United States federal categories don't correspond to the categories he found.

2) Most phenotypical traits of interest have WEAK correlations with any of the groupings he found, as he says near the end of his lecture during the Q and A. The reason for that is that the SNP lineages that show founder effects are not subject to selection pressure, but most phenotypical traits of interest ARE subject to selection pressure, and so those gene frequencies will change over time in any population, whoever the founders are, for the fitness of descendant individuals.

On how general national policy should treat immigrants, didn't I imply clearly that it would be a good idea for all immigrants to the United States to build together a common American culture? But culture is not tied to "race" in the federal definitional sense. Some new immigrants from the Third World think like First World people, and some native-born Americans of many generations of American ancestry think like Third World people. A democratic republic needs citizens (voters) who are rational and well informed and committed to building a strong joint community, yes, but it's not clear at the outset who should be excluded from an opportunity to show that they can join that cause.
The biggest risk is that one day they turn into a phishing site...

That's a long shot, but if enough people would start using a non-related domain as an alternative front door to a site that would be a very nasty way to catch a bunch of people unaware.

Even more sneaky to forward them to the real site after they log in (or to proxy the requests).
The Marmite equation?
Front-running is what the street assumed Madoff was doing. It is a convenient scapegoat to explain fabulous returns. Any firm who was getting front-ran would see this and switch brokers.
Incredible! Both thumbs and both big toes up!
It's only a race to the bottom if you make it one
You can trivially opt out by not buying publicly-traded stocks. If you'd prefer the 5-20% transaction costs of buying into private companies, so long as Goldman doesn't get .05% of your purchase in exchange for making a market, nobody is going to stop you.
Are you looking for a Facebook Social Game Developer?
Its true that social game developers spend millions on facebook advertisements, likewise there must be a reason why they spent so much. Facebook may be generating significant revenues from these application developers spending on ads but it is without a doubt how beneficial the advertisements become as a resultant and help boost application developers business in the long run.
If your tysk is still fresh, try Keller&Paul[1]. It was the text for my second-semester hardware course, in which we "built" a real processor from 74somethings. "built" because we didn't really touch hardware, we just looked at schematics and computed timings.

[1] http://books.google.com/books?id=u5kIA7iyfl4C&lpg=PA276&...
It's Never Going to be Good Enough
Private online messaging escrow service with safe deposit box
I hate to be that guy, but I liked this more yesterday when it was linking the presentation instead of techcrunch: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=740524
When considering the Marmite yeast extract product, in the UK x is somewhat above 50. In the US, x is well below 50. Similar values of x probably apply to Vegemite between Australia and the US.
* So how would you recommend doing it different?*

National leaders and government policies have to tend consciously and intentionally toward reminding people who share a country that they are more alike than different, and that "race" categories are arbitrary. The United States Census officials who post the official definitions

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68176.htm

already acknowledge this when they write, "These categories are sociopolitical constructs and should not be interpreted as being scientific or anthropological in nature." But the federal officials who have academic training in demography and who know about all the failures of definitions and ambiguous cases need a lot more back-up from elected officials and everyday members of the general public in insisting that we are all mostly Americans here, and terms describing a person's general pattern of physical appearance and presumed ancestry may say nothing about the person's ability to get along with his or her neighbors or to be an active contributor to free, democratic, free-enterprise society. In earlier days, there were race-conscious policies of a different kind in the United States, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Jim Crow policies of legally enforced segregation. If we stay race conscious for too many more years, the segregationists will have won, as their corrupt thinking will have spread all around the country, to regions that formerly didn't know it.
Once they can make the resolution similar to that of a real life pen I would be interested.
I'm sure that just doing this is a major project, and that if I read it right he did this in his spare time. Between having a wife, kids, a day job and a house to keep up he's done pretty good. And it's very well designed from the aesthetics point of view as well.
"Strings and other types" is up. I can't wait for 3 to 6.
Improving Facebook Style Tagging
You may enjoy reading James Madison's Federalist Paper number 10, on the dangers of faction in a democratic republic.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers/No._10
A Java ENIAC simulator (pdf)
You are absolutely right--sorry, and sorry to Mr Seibel.
Where's Ambani at?
By "no easy task" he doesn't mean it's some kind of intractable problem. (Though it is much harder for some than others.) The problem is that it takes non-negotiable amounts of time. Writing is work.

Even if you're one of those rare people who can just sit down and type press-ready copy (cough Isaac Asimov cough) it takes time to physically type it all.
The fact that the ratio continues to grow seems like a fundamental property of technology -- personally I don't find it sad. In exchange for more powerful tools, you inevitably need to accept more levels of abstraction and more underlying complexity.
I bet you're a redditor. lol
You're a busy bee :)

An LLC is not ironclad but enough for most needs, you are getting in to an income range where a full 'inc' is probably smart (tax wise too!).

Talk to a lawyer, but don't be too worried about the insurance unless you are really exposing yourself to a specific liability (such as being responsible for a customers data).

Regular corporate liability insurance should be enough for almost all cases, you may want to add an insurance for corporate legal assistance on to that (in case you ever get sued).

If you want your personal assets to be secure and you are married one simple way is to put all the assets in the name of your spouse (not such a good idea if you ever get divorced...).

The way I found my lawyer while we ran an office in Toronto was to ask friends that also ran businesses in the same town for a good reference.

good luck!
Tumblr Launches StumbleUpon...Oops I mean TumblUpon
Yeah, that's the next stop. :) Thanks.
I didn't bring my copy because I didn't want to seem like a fanboi! Damn, I could've got it autographed!

Heh. That would be pretty fanboi of me...
Hulu CEO Justin Kilar on Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
A few more of my tips through the years:

Windows: Alt+space, [n, x, s, m] (n for minimize, x for maximize, s to change size. s, then arrow for which side of the window to drag, then move with arrows. m for move, also with arrows). Ctrl+esc, menu bar. windows key+e = explorer, windows key+r = run dialog. alt+print screen = system preferences. (Haven't used windows in years, so not sure if these shortcuts persisted through Vista and 7. I hear they did)

OS X: First, get Quicksilver. Seriously. Other then command+tab to switch apps which everyone knows, command+` (tilde key) switches windows within apps. I'm surprised how many people don't know that. Also, an awesome shortcut is Command+tabbing to a minimized window, then before releasing command, press down option, then let go of command while holding down option. That restores the minimized window and switches to it, really not bad after you get the hang of it. command+m minimizes. ctrl+f2 (might need to add 'fn' on laptops) puts the selection in the menu so you don't have to use the mouse to select it.

bash: ctrl+r is invaluable. that will do a reverse search through history on whatever you type next. only caveat: once you leave the search mode, you'll actually be in that place in history, hitting up will go back even further. I usually run an empty command (like echo) to get back to the bottom. Hitting meta (esc in my case), then dot inserts the last argument of the previous command. Great for edit,execute cycle. i.e.
$ vi script.py
$ ./[esc, .]
running '^str^strb^' in bash will run the previous command, replacing str with strb. !! is previous command, !!:0 is first token of previous command (usually the binary running), !!:1 is first arg, etc.
Congrats on the extremely positive writeup. You got the full Arrington!
Feldman and his crew at Stanford are at the forefront of the "your lying eyes" crowd. http://genomebiology.com/2008/9/7/404

Hawks at Utah has written about Feldman on his blog, I believe.

In fact, SNP maps tend to be very detailed and show the variation one would expect plus variation we didn't know about before. Click for some pictures: http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2008/02/npr-on-human-variation.php

Your philosophizing on immigration strikes me as informed by equality theory rather than reality and evidence.
The Suck/Rock Dichotomy