skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Acai Berry
Check out this berry that some people are calling the most nutritious fruit in the wild.
Send Rakhi to USA
That's true in the public square. It's not true when you're trying to build and maintain a specialized community. The opposite of censorship is 4chan.
Web apps are already a better solution for a lot of kinds of apps - apart from some additional eye candy that you can implement with native apis.

Full control, no approval process and instant updates.

It is already happening on the desktop sw for the vast majority of users (whether we like it or not) and I can't see how this shouldn't be the future of mobile apps as well.

Browsers are not inherently slow. They're slow if you want to make them do things they were not designed for.

Take real-time 3D, for instance. We just need standardized APIs to do things like O3D (http://www.youtube.com/html5) and we're set.

MobileSafari, the PalmOS and the Android browser are all built on webkit. So here's where these things will happen in the near future.

An API for real-time DSP would be another milestone, in my opinion.
For that matter, the Apache Software Foundation has a Java implementation called 'Harmony', although I'm not sure they're allowed to call it Java.
Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics
Python 101 cheat sheet: a quick reference document for newcomers to the language
They published a paper on how they intend to increase browser security. Silent updates was a big factor because, basically, most internet users don't have a clue what they're doing.

"Why Silent Updates Boost Security"
http://www.techzoom.net/publications/silent-updates/
Hyperlinking Reality via Camera Phones
Already done. http://laconi.ca/
"Classic flamewar topics" is interesting enough to define further. Is it a small list of banned arguments? Is it more a set of behaviors?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_%28Internet%29

My favorite of these topics (edit: I meant "classic" on the internet as a whole, not specifically to Hacker News. How many classic flamewar arguments do we really have?) is the discussion about .999 repeating equaling one. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=692338 links to a physics forum discussing it for 400 forum pages. It goes on because no one ever gets the right answer because both sides are correct and wrong at the same time and it's completely an issue of definition. The answer is to define the problem more precisely which allows you to argue that the naive perspective is ultimately correct for the hyperreal number system.
Good idea. It would be great to see a lot of incubators popping up, as it can have a significant impact on the overall economy.

It is not the funding that is the main reason for applying. Although some small amount of money is great to cover living costs so that you can devote full time to your project, it can be handled differently. What I think most of the people here are interested in is the post funding period - getting big investments and connections through those that already did the talk and walked the walk. Note that I am not referring to YC only, but also to all those that YC helped or involved. There is a lot to learn from such condensed entrepreneurial community.

However, don't idolize YC. They are not best. They are not even the first ones to do so. They are just best known and publicized.

I would highly recommend doing a criticizing and constructive thesis. That is - seeing the shortcomings of YC and suggestions on how to do it better. Your question to HN should be how to do it better?

Such thesis is benefiting to all then, YC and other that are copying the model, but most of all - us :)
One risk of preventing cell death is that defective cells may be allowed to survive which could then turn cancerous.

However, the researchers found no sign of this happening in the laboratory tests on mice.

It doesn't stop cancer, it stops cell death from radiation, which incidentally may allow higher doses of radiation therapy.
Reading primary documents may or may not be the best way to get an unbiased view, but regardless, it's not actually what you suggested in your first post. You said:

> "To maintain the ability to think for yourself, the best material to read are those works that are very clear and honest about their axioms."

It's unclear what this means w.r.t. choosing materials to learn economics from. Luckily, you clarified your position by recommending Rothbard's For a New Liberty as an economic primer.

As far as I can tell from taking a quick look at it, For a New Liberty spends at least its first fifty pages talking about the basic principle of libertarianism and how it should be applied by a good libertarian. It is undeniable that Rothbard is up front about his biases, and when I looked through FANL I sort of figured out what you meant by "very clear [] about their axioms".

It is equally undeniable, however -- and this was my point -- that his biases are adhered to out of a mysterious near-religious conviction, and not because he thinks that they will get him to the truth, and that as a result he is probably not an ideal person to learn economics from.

And it is also true that recommending an enormous tract whose first fifty pages (at least) consist of heavily biased pseudophilosophical tripe to somebody who wants to learn economics from an unbiased source is really really stupid, and makes me think that your basic agenda is to push Rothbard's ideas or something like them.
The difference between 1970's and the early 90's is the Walkman. Personal, portable stereos wasn't a proven technology 30 years ago, it was 15 years ago. These "uuh, the future" TV-shows usually predict the future in terms of extrapolating current popular technology, sort of the guys Henry Ford said would have told him to make a really good horse carriage.

Looking at the (cassette-tape) Walkman and extrapolating beyond the limitations into an MP3-player device isn't very rocket science. Making it a marketable product is (almost).
In any more or less civilized, urban environment you should be able to choose from a selection of used CRT screens. Of course, you should be knowing what you are buying and check them rigorously, as not all of them will be in good condition and CRTs develop various defects when they age. But generally, you can get yourself a decent CRT (or other piece of old equipment, for that matter) if you really want to.

I bought 2 CRTs half a year ago, for me and my brother. They were 21" Sony E530, mnf. 2001-2002 Not the top models (F520/G520 are better, and there is also 24" widescreen Sony FW900) but I was not willing to hunt for the better ones, those were quite fine for us. I think of buying 2 more 21" CRTs for the country house.
Indian Clone of Swoopo
Product Idea: Build browser plugin to encrypt Google Docs
Given how many are expressing their concerns about privacy and security in the cloud, here is an application that can fix this:

Browser plug-in that encrypts Google Docs data before posting it to Google and then decrypts it when users read their Docs. You just need to find this in the plug-in - OnBeforePostDocToGoogle(data), OnAfterReadDataFromGoogle(data).

I am not into encrypting and I am also not into browser plugins, and I am working on my own thing here (apart from full time job), and I am not going to do this. But the right person with the right knowledge might build this in one afternoon (and possibly users will be willing to pay for it)
My instinct is that I agree. But YC seems to be the top-tier choice for companies applying to the whole group of incubator-type programs. Is that because YC is seen as a better/bigger step toward connections and further investment?
I think this must be a troll. The first couple of paragraphs are a reasonable executive summary of GPL's lack of affect on service providers, and then this gem:

"the gpl serves to rigidly control what you can and cannot do with software covered by it, and is thus the license equivalent of digital rights management."
Just FYI, this is from February 2000.
Your Dating Expert
This blog offers great advice on a host of relationship based issues which vary from simple dating related advice, advice on how to get the man that you want, tips on how to save your marriage, how to deal with infidelity, etc. So, the next time you want some advice on any relationship related matter, you know exactly where to look.
.999 wasn't really a flame topic is it? Some people learned stuff they didnt know about infinity. Others presented fairly good arguments for .999... != 1 and we spent time disproving that. ANd others introduced Hyperreal numbers whihc some hadn't heard of.

No one got angry or passionate or flamey as I saw it... the topic never made it much onto the main page and was a nice discussion.

Im not disagree with the sentiment "avoid flame topics" - I just dont think that is a good example.

A better one would be the current TC article on the main page (and all the boring meta discussion on "ban techcrunch" and flaming about pg & ma being buddies).
A Simple Recipe to Ace General Chemistry
Chemistry is all about understanding its core concepts and relating them to problem solving. Teach the concepts and learn to do the problems, step by step.
> Apple just doesn't seem to really care about making the experience better

They do. They're just not moving fast enough to please everybody.

Case in point: For months, ad-hoc distribution would fail unless you made up a config file with a special key (get-task-allow), fed it through gcc, and attached it to Xcode via some bizarre build settings. Just recently, this trick became documented in the official "how to build things" manual, even though ad-hoc builds have been broken without it since forever. (Also, nobody seems to know what exactly get-task-allow does, although there are reports that it maybe affects debugging. Somehow.)

For months, you had to put exactly the right incantation into the bundle identifier in order for things to sign correctly. Maybe you have to put in the part before the first period, or maybe you put in the part after. (Wait, you didn't include a period? Wait, not period, you're supposed to include an asterisk in there. WTF Apple added a period !? Wait, you expected a Unicode character to work just because that was how it was documented?) Maybe Xcode doesn't tell you when you've done it wrong. Maybe iTunes connect doesn't tell you when you've done it wrong, and you get an app rejected because the documentation is fail. This has all since been fixed, although it's still more complicated than it should be.

The iPhone is just a series of secret handshakes, and everybody winks very hard. If you are okay with that, and are okay with searching the forums for undocumented Apple bugs every few days, you will be fine, and possibly make lots of money, because there are lots of people who are not willing to wink hard and look the other way, and so you can bill $150/hr.

Don't get me wrong, I get angry too, and have little fits of rage at Apple for some stupid, stupid problem. But at the end of the day, I get a pretty good check for not much work, I write things that I'm proud of, and occasionally Apple fixes their bugs. Good project, good paycheck, good stack: pick two.
In Pennsylvania, the "Y Combinator clones" AlphaLab and DreamIt Ventures are funded by the state of Pennsylvania (and a DreamIt partner is running for Congress!). AlphaLab is an overt incubator run by a larger early stage investment group and DreamIt is more of a direct YC Clone. The goal of the money they are given is to create jobs. Their motivations get more complicated when the taxpayers are footing the bill.

Probably the most common flaw in cloning Y Combinator is to make an incubator investing in micro seed magnitudes. Y Combinator is not an incubator; it's a micro seed stage fund. http://seedfunding.weebly.com/
Your first letter in a trademark case will always be a cease & desist, if I understand my IP lawyer friends correctly, so as long as you cease & desist you should be fine. You'll get sued if you don't cease & desist.
I was a bit disappointed with the Zed Shaw flame war. On a good technical article people started to express their feelings about Zed, avoiding to discuss the technical issues raised.

Still the subject remains shady even it is affecting seriously the hacker world.

[UPDATE] A separate thread was made to discuss the shady issues: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=709583
Facebook uses users' pictures to promote dating sites
I've said it before, but I don't understand why firms trying something YC-like don't try to differentiate themselves more. The accelerator for mobile, the accelerator for B2B / SaaS, etc. It would seem easier to differentiate yourself from YC along industry rather than geographic lines (assuming you're not crossing a national border).
Right, it wasn't a flame war here, I was referring to the 400 page version on PhysOrg. We could handle the topic -- by the end of the PhysOrg thread (I only read the last page) they're calling each other retards over the definition of continuous for limits.

A topic that gets ugly here sometimes and where no one ever has anything new to say is genes, nationality, and IQ.

Meta discussion is a very different type of flame topic. It's also been extremely important to defining the character of this board so seperating it MetaFilter style is a drastic step. How can we discourage metatalk when it is annoying but allow it when it is interesting?
Just because the court rules in favor of the victorious party does not mean that it is the victorious party.

For the 1st amendment to be invoked, the federal/state/local government has to be on one side of the "vs." in the case name. Otherwise, it's a normal civil case between two private parties, and the appropriate laws apply.
False Positives and the Database State
Microsoft and Yahoo finally close to a deal
Jimmy choo shoes
jimmy choo shoes
Ok yes so the thread was a flamewar - but the way I saw the topic was as a conversation starter (rather than just post an Ask HN thread). I doubt many people read past the first page :)

But I take your point.

In terms of meta discussion; all that is fine. I just mean it should be considered "non gratis" to bring up flamey meta topics. Like Ban TC and so forth. It's been discussed a billion times before and always leads to flaming.

EDIT: I also love the rule that says if you've been here for less than a year dont moan about thinks going reddity - that's another pet-hate meta topic of mine :(
E cigarette
e cigarette
I believe you are making a ton of money because by the tone of your note, you seem to need to get back to work right away.
Sounds like a political PR for internet cenzorship.

Remember in the last couple of months US, UK, France, UK, Netherlands and Australia started legal procedures on internet cenzorship and against web anonimity.

As politics started to loose influence on masses due to the mainstream media crisis it would be very actual to start an internet war like this.
Continue Time | Accessories | Sander Mulder
I love incubation. YCombinator and others FTW. Although you need to understand that there really isn't a secret sauce. Just like there is opinionated software/frameworks (rails) there is opinionated venture capital.

Ycombinator funds companies based on certain principles. Paul Graham and co. pick ideas based on what they see fit. They have built relationships with successful entrepreneurs,VCs, angels and other outfits based on their judgement which has lead to their some success. They do things a certain way and you/others should not try to copy them.

I think you can definitely try to tell their story and motivate others. You are not going to be able to make other people create or build another Ycombinator.
The right way is to not copy it. Learn from it, see what worked and what didn't and adapt it to your specific goals.
I didn't realize AlphaLab and DreamIt are funded by the state. But as part of my project I hope to recognize the different types of funding sources & people that are starting YC clones. I've even heard about companies that are looking at running small programs like this. I agree that the motivations are complicated, and that's what I want to explore.

Interesting note about the funding. I was talking to a VC about this and while he wanted to support a similar type of program locally, he was very hesitant. Mainly because if he chose not to follow-on with funding, he would likely be killing the startup before it even really got going.
It's not just that YC is seen as better; by the numbers alone they offer the best outcomes of any of the micro incubators/micro seed stage funds.
Google launches voice-based search on mobiles
A bunch of these group have popped up but everyone I know will only apply to YC and TS... The other groups just don't have the credibility yet. I think techstars has done alright because it slid in as #2 and it has really gotten out front on the community side of things -- great job differentiating themselves from YC.

I don't think it will work to copy anything, I'm always going to give 6% to Paul Graham in the valley before I give 6% to Opie Taylor in Mayberry.

I think there might be an opening on the lower end of the market. Right now these groups are making total investments in companies around 50k (after program costs). That still requires a serious potential return to make a profit. So while they will tell you otherwise, they will rarely invest in an idea unless it has a very large potential market size. They will take 1% chance at a billion dollar return over a 50% chance at a million dollar return. Which leaves a decent number of smaller ideas on the table. The truth is that a company providing great software to dentist's offices will probably be ramen profitable before an idea like tipjoy -- but obviously the potential returns are a lot lower.

Intellectual capital is also a big problem. If you are ambitious and talented you have probably already moved to a tech hub. That said...

I would buy a giant house and go Heaven's Gate style. Recruit local talent that hates their demeaning code-monkey job and sell people on the vision. They get free rent and a very small stipend. Dig up 10 people like this in a secondary town and now you've got a little community going... Hackers in these small towns are usually really hungry for people who "get it" so it's not about the money. Snag really sharp kids right out of high school or college and spend some time building into them in a really intense way. It's really talent development in a lot of ways, but it could potentially be a great funnel for getting people connected.

And just to soapbox for a second, post-industrial age-graded education is dehumanizing and bureaucratic -- although it's been great for making mindless factory workers. But it's not working anymore, so sooner or later we'll move back toward an apprenticeship model where people learn in a holistic relationship-driven context. That's what these seed stage funds are doing right now -- and it seems to be working.
Exactly. I'm hoping to write a generalized framework to help guide others in what's important and what's not, and how to adapt it to specific goals!
Instead of restarting flamewars just link to the original flamewar?
It's interesting how difficult it seems to be for people -- in this situation in particular -- to formulate an opinion independent of their emotional bias(es) with respect to the parties here. It seems like the people who are fond of Twitter (and let's just say 'not-so-fond' of TC), are playing the 'ethics of journalism' card a bit hastily.

The other side has taken to simplifying the circumstances involved in a way that's willfully reductive. The details matter.

The info was stolen. It's out there. It's really unfortunate that it happened. It would have been a kind gesture for TC not to publish the info, but then again, kindness pays minimum wage. Anyone who claims that they're somehow offended or appalled that TC published in this case is being intellectually inconsistent -- every major news outlet gets their hands dirty on a daily basis to get headlines.

TC displayed some ambiguous ethics, to be sure -- it's just a bit childish to claim that the scenario is somehow unique when the other party happens to be popular.
> Mainly because if he chose not to follow-on with funding, he would likely be killing the startup before it even really got going.

Good point. I'm pretty sure pg said someone similar on this site at some point.
Google releases an Open Source NX Server
We've been selling electronic cigarettes in the last year. As a smoking addict I've tried a couple of times but no satisfaction.

First of all it is heavy, uncomfortable to hold in your hand. Then the sensation is far from usual tobacco products: you can't feel, taste the smoke because there is no smoke just some light puffing.

At the beginning we've sold many of them with regular refills but now sales are dropped.
In general, a discussion that revolves around the exact definition of pretty much any concept is more or less sure to lead to retarded internet raging.
Firefox 3.5.1 update is now available for download
The OpenBSD Release Process [YouTube]
I would love to be able to verify that, though I agree it looks to be true. My dream would to get a fairly comprehensive list of startups to come from all of the different programs, and see which of those are a) still in business, b) received follow-on funding, and c) exited.

I know PG has these stats for YC, I'm just curious if he would share.
Israel is engaged in Nuclear Blackmail. That is why this is significant, and many Israelis are aware of this fact.

It holds its nuclear arsenal in conditions guaranteed to instill fear in governments around the world, and if indeed the Israeli state holds the key to diminishing the threat of radiation sickness as a result of the use of these weapons, then the threat level just increased.
One thing I've wondered about as a working substitute for cigarettes is smokeable plant matter that isn't poisonous, mildly psychoactive or not. Could it be legal to sell smokeable plant matter flavored to taste like tobacco (or anything) but with no tobacco in it? The nicotine addiction could be tapered with any of the existing remedies, but of course in the US it is impossible to market your new smoking cessation device as having anything at all to do with smoking cessation.

Unfortunately, in the USA it's basically impossible to sell anything other than tobacco rolled into convenient smokable units, even if it's otherwise Generally Recognized as Safe by the FDA, because nothing you smoke is on the FDA GRAS list. Tobacco is grandfathered into legality.

Is this your site? (no, it's not his site, this submission should be flagged to death)
That's unfortunate because many of the most difficult and interesting discussions, philosophical or otherwise, boil down to the meanings of English words.
Interesting... particularly as it's probably easier to build sufficient expertise in a vertical outside the normal geographies. The question to me is how many of these kinds of startups need seed-level funding versus proper VC funding? I honestly don't know.
This sounds useful for other cell-suicide problems, such as stroke damage.
Ask HN: Whats your screensaver?
Interesting hackers have interesting screensavers. Would be interesting to see what others use.

I am on Windows and use Sysinternal's BSOD screensaver (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx).
A Simple Recipe to Ace General Chemistry
Developed by the college professor with 20 years daily teaching experience in organic chemistry and a science book author with six published chemistry books.
Australian town wins fame for ban on bottled water