skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Where are you geographically? Why not work for a bio-tech or a physics related firm? They need good coders.

If you're in San Francisco Bay Area (or want to be in Bay Area, perhaps you could finish your degree at Stanford/UCSC/SJSU/SFSU/SCU?) and know (or would like to learn) Perl, C (and some Java), there's a really interested job opening I found on a local Perl mailing list. It's related to bioinformatics, which is different from your background but nonetheless would be something that "keep you sharp".

Another option that's even more closely related to what you're doing now is perhaps picking up machine learning/NLP/information retrieval. It's very heavy on (mostly continous) mathematics/numerical analysis. I have a feeling somewhere that you're probably pretty good with dealing with sparse matrices, graphs and the like. There's tons of Internet/e-commerce companies doing more and more with that.
Slimming For All - Diabetes and weight loss - An overview
I would be so on this if it didn't look shady for me to bid on my own site.
Have you ever dealt with over 1000 bounce-back messages? It's as if every email server on the planet uses a different bounce-back method and message. It's terribly unpredictable. And false positives are the problem I'm talking about.

If you allow bounce-backs or replies with personalized messages, as a larger company, you have to let them through or you will miss something. I don't know support departments big enough to wade through this amount of junk every time you have to notify your user base of something.
Slimming for all - All about Slimming for all
> http://www.stormweight.com/privacy

Your privacy page feels really shady to me.

WebBeacons (also referred to as GIF files, pixels or action tags) help Stormweight System Inc recognize a unique cookie on your browser. We use this tool to compile aggregate information about you, and it is not personally identifiable. This information includes IP addresses, search terms, domain names, and browser types. We use this information to track usage and other patterns on our Websites. We may share this aggregate information with our partners or service providers.

"WebBeacons"? -I knew "GIF files" as "images". And an IP-address is not personally identifiable? Right, as long as your ISP is not forced to personally identify you. How do you track an users's search terms with your WebBeacons?

I'd recommend talking to your users like a normal person, not in vague half-legalese.
I think it's a neat idea, but I don't think I personally would use it much - a lot of how I think and organize code is visual. For example, I'll write half of an invocation of a function, move it around a bit, and then complete the signature. Or I'll write out something three ways, jiggle them around a bit, combine two, and erase the third, and then move the block back to where it actually belongs.

It's similar to math - when I was in university, I broke several bones in my writing hand about two months before I had a calculus exam. I knew I wouldn't be able to write for my finals, and I spoke to the Disability office to make a reservation for someone to write for me. So I decided to hire a guy for a few weeks to get comfortable with doing math verbally, like I would have to do for the final.

After about a week I decided it was pretty hopeless - my whole workflow was gone, I couldn't sketch out ideas since there was such a mental load in "writing down" haldf an idea, etc. As a result, I just learned to write semi-legibly with my off hand, and had the guy whose job it was to transcribe my math recopy what I scribbled with my left into something readable.

Moral of the story, at least for how I work, is that you should have very good support for moving text around.
Got it. I'm a bit busy, too, so give me a couple of days ....

By the way, I'm not especially interested in throwing money away, even if it is for a good cause. And I'm rather clueless about some aspects of web etiquette; I occasionally see people screaming about ads for reasons that I fail to comprehend. So: Would it be a bad idea to put AdSense on the site, to help pay for it?
Well, I code python for ease of use and readability. Every language has its pros and cons. To be frank speed was never a forte of python but it was never meant to be as such. If you need speed there are options available, use them. However C have a faster run-time and slow development time. There are issues in all languages. However there is always a favourite language. Mine is python :)
Delicious is one of the Web's most under-rated services. I've been a heavy Delicious user since 2004 and it's invaluable to me. Not just to store bookmarks but to find stuff I didn't bookmark that I just remembered about.

For example, let's say I remember seeing a site about an awesome new WordPress theme a few weeks ago. I can go to http://del.icio.us/popular/themes and chances are I'll find it. If not, I can go through the tag pages (say, http://delicious.com/tag/wordpress+themes) until I find it. Google does not even compare when it comes to finding content in this way.

Even if I backed up my Delicious account and hosted it myself somehow, it still wouldn't have as much value as it does when combined with 100,000+ other people's links.
Mckoi Distributed Database (MckoiDDB) (GPL3)
One answer - "don't use the phone registered to you" after you "die"!
Agreed. I'm 20 blocks south of Sunset Park--that's the go-to place for Mexican in Brooklyn.
Did you wear that Armani coat on sales calls or to raise money?
Which is precisely why competition is so important. With no drive to innovate, they could saturate the market and park the technology where it is for decades (think Microsoft).

By being forced to innovate, they (or a competitor) can drive consumption up by obsoleting the current wave of technology.
Could Y Combinator Save The World?
the about page says it all: "This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.".

Or is finishing a proudct not one of the 'subtle differences' ?
Internet freedom and Digital Revolution? Grow up.
His whole point is that it isn't convenient for HIM. Consumers seem to think they should get EVERYTHING they want, but in this situation, the harm done is miniscule, and it isn't meant to create pain for the consumer, it's meant to run the business as efficiently and intelligently as possible.

He doesn't mention anything about offers I don't believe, and I'm not strictly talking about offers either, I'm referring to any email that HAS to get through to the consumer, whether it's an offer or an update.
Here's a feature I'd absolutely love: a button that brings me to a simple screen that she can use to input her own phone number when I hand her the phone. It's a pain to try that with the current Contacts interface. After she hits enter, there should be a "Take a Photo?" button that pops up.
For the second one, go to your contacts list, hit menu and select groups. There is an option to limit to contacts with phone numbers. I have no idea why that isn't the default.

Videos, there is an application called "Video Player" that actually, well, plays videos.
Yes, this interesting look at how hard it is to hide in a networked world. The rumor has it that at one time, the CIA manufactured new identities for their agents. I wonder how possible that would today - and especially how possible that might be tomorrow, when not only is everyone online but everyone has a record from being online a long time.
I completely agree if the email was the only point of access, but forcing customers onto a site is a classic case of forcing customers into a work flow that makes sense for the organization instead of providing tools to work with the customer's natural work flow.
Efficiently? This would be FAR slower and FAR less accurate than typing.

Frankly, I can't see any programmer taking this idea seriously at all. Go look at a piece of code, then dictate it PRECISELY in a way that could be unambiguously interpreted by such a thing. There's no way...
Your bounce-back to the reply can simply be to redirect the user to the proper channels of support based on their specific request.

If a customer needs support, you don't want them pulling up that last "offer" email they received and trying to get help with a technical problem. From a company perspective, you would lose control.

Just bounce back 2 links:

1) Click here for sales.
2) Click here for support.
No.

That's easy enough.

The worlds problems are massive and while I'm sure there are plenty of great people involved with YC I highly doubt that they have the power required to do what you suggest they could do.

What's more interesting though is whether YOU can change the world. Not save it, not all of it, but just that little patch of it that you have influence over.

And then to try to get as many people as you can to do that same thing, influence the small area of the world where they have a foot on the ground for the better as much as they can.
I did not downmod you, but I don't really understand what you are trying to say. You emphasized some vague words, but adding stars everywhere does not really help get the point across.

Please explain in detail what you mean.
The brave new world of slacktivism
Lots of reasons and I'd be happy to share.

1. I'm from the advertising industry. There's a reason Prada sells jeans for $300 and Old Navy's are $30, and we're not targeting Old Navy shoppers with this app.

2. I believe we're selling a rather niche product, therefore $.99 is simply unsustainable at the type of volume us and the other BB's are sold. We also increased the price by $1 with the release of 2.0, and we have plans for addressing the $.99-1.99 market.

3. Utility vs. Disposability. Most $.99 games (though often amazing) last about 30 days or less. We offer a product that we hope you'll use for much, much longer than that.

4. We're the Rolls Royce of black books from a design perspective, and outselling 3 competitors priced at $2.99, 1.99, and .99. We lack a few features to be able to claim total feat. domination, but we do have a few unique ones of our own.

5. We offer anonymous relationship advice and pricing it at .99 opens the door for all kinds of nasty UGC that drives away advertisers.

So in short, think about your product and market thoroughly before you set a price and don't give in simply because "everyone is pricing to $.99". As the AppStore continues to grow rapidly, $.99 doesn't leave much room for marketing expenditures either.
When pg release his first RFP yesterday http://ycombinator.com/rfs1.html my first thought was everyblock has the best shot at doing something in this space. So a YC oriented plan might be to build around/on where everyblock has succeeded.
You mean... First Impression? Check. :)

http://blackbookexclusive.com/images/slider/little-black-boo...

Hit plus button on cover to trigger it so you don't have to login. I timed it versus the traditional Address Book and it's about twice as fast to enter a contact.
It is cheap, on ebay the unsigned version goes for $85. (I checked ;) ).
TEDx event held in Kibera in Nairobi, Africa's largest slum
+34, seriously? Apparently HN is like a high school girl clique that's decided Zed Is Bad.
What would be best paths through product space?

My first thought was “doesn’t Amazon already organize things independent of vendor?” But what we’re really looking for here is a recommendation engine, and Amazon really isn’t very good at that. As I see it there are three main steps which should be done in order. The more you know about ahead of time, the further you can skip ahead. Here are the steps:

Step 1. I don’t know what I’m looking for.

Maybe I’m looking for a good science fiction book. Or a gift for a 14-year-old niece. A deep gift recommendation engine alone could probably make a good startup. The engine should ask some probing questions and give recommendations—either specific products or product categories, depending on the type of question. This experience mimic the experience of having an experienced salesperson ask questions and point you towards good options.
A beautiful browsing option would be a great way to conclude this step.

Step 2. I know what I want, but I haven’t decided which brand or model to get.

Here we need a deep comparison. The ability to rank priorities would be really helpful. Let’s say I’m buying a laptop. The site should ask me how much I care about weight, screen size, processing power, etc. It can then recommend models that fit within my budget.
There’s a huge amount of domain-specific knowledge required to get this right for a variety of products.

Step 3. I know what product I want.

Here we need to give comparisons among vendors. Price, shipping speed, return policies, and other general customer feedback are important. This is where it helps to be a trusted third party.

This problem is a huge undertaking, which is why no one has come close to solving it yet. Frankly, unless the domain is very restricted, I don’t think a three person team will be able to do enough specific programming and testing to make it work.

The principles and mechanics would best be discovered in a very narrow marketplace, and one full of confusion. Electronics would be the natural stating place, but a less crowded market might also work.
Because companies that get complacent seem to lose the ability to innovate, so you get ten years of steady profits, and then finally someone eats your lunch.

Anyway, I have an ethical problem with companies maximizing profits at the expense of doing anything useful. Why not innovate even when not necessary? You can call it R&D and not be blamed for wasting shareholders' money.
Please next time link directly to the article.
Agreed. From a bookmarker's perspective, I love /popular/tag filtering
Actually the Pre has all the features the article is recommending for Android: Over-the-air calendar, contact, and email syncing through Google services; background-capable apps; and no centralized App Store under one company’s ironclad control. (OK, there's no app store at all, although precentral.net and others are already distributing homebrew apps that can be installed if you download Palm's SDK).
I wouldn't say advertising campaign specifically, so much as basically little marketing campaign targeting actual phone-buyers at all. I didn't hear about the Palm Pre via those creepy advertisements I saw a pile of tech reviews and youtube videos for it.
Home 3D printers like RepRap (http://inventorspot.com/articles/engineers_build_selfreplica...) seem certain to cut into Lego market share? You need a shape - just print it.
The New Math of Financial Aid
+1

In the book "Marketing Warfare," Reis and Trout emphasize that a strategy should attack a competitor's strength, not its weakness.

Weaknesses will all be fixed over time, so attacking a weakness is simply making hay while the sun shines. Of course you should do it, but it shouldn't be a cornerstone of your strategy. It costs your competitor nothing to fix a weakness, they simply fix it and get better.

When you pick a competitor's strength and attack the strength, your competitor has a problem. Fixing the strength will cost them customers.

For example, it's a strength of Apple that they control the hardware and the software, so having Android run on multiple hardware devices from different vendors is attacking iPhone's strength, much as Windows attacks Macintosh's strength by running on commodity PCs.

Offering iPhone on other devices would cripple the user experience, so Apple can't respond without weakening itself. The AT&T deal, OTOH, is just a wekness. When it expires Apple loses nothing by offering iPhone through other carriers.
Haha, fair enough point. But I think the interesting thing is that your description of influencing "that little patch of it that you have influence over" (which is great phrasing, by the way) is exactly what I'm asking YC to do, right?

Their little patch is the organizations that come through their door. When Paul Graham writes "Be Good," his orgs (at least a bunch of them) listen, and it matters.

If they took the initiative to prompt for organizations that had a particular social impact, there could be some amazing results.
Shorter: Based on one or two poorly coded web apps, which are also examples of the best web programming ever, I have concluded that web developers are stupid.

Shorter comment thread: I have decided that all of the hard CS problems in web programming, including, but not limited to, scaling, machine learning and recommendations, high availability and fault tolerant systems, and everything google does, are called "server programming," because I would otherwise have to admit that many web developers are smarter than me. Also, javascript was not designed from the ground up by Microsoft to draw graphics on a canvas, so everyone who uses it for that purpose is also stupid.
Customers as Main Investors - rethink your business model
The /popular/tag algorithm is busted now, and regularly coughs up very obvious stuff (python.org for tag python, iirc.)

I wish they hadn't messed with my algorithms so much.
I sync my music with a Perl script that looks at my xmms2 playlist and copies the music in there to the phone.

For some reason I don't think this is exactly what Gruber had in mind when he said, "The goal should be to make a phone that is better than the iPhone. Better."
Mac 201: Preparing your Mac for Snow Leopard
In other words, iPhone is about style over substance.
It's better for me.

I think a lot of people design systems for imaginary users that don't actually exist. I try to make stuff that works for me, because then at least it works for one person.

(I assume "normal people" use some sort of GUI for this. If you are using Amarok, for example, it's a simple matter of drag-n-dropping your playlist to the icon that says "Android Phone".)
Agreed. I enjoyed that delicious.com was a place I could find articles related to a subject, not the site itself (if that makes sense).

delicious.com is not a stitch of what it was.
I did something similar recently on a 5 city trip from SFO and I would not recommend it. Depending on the airport you could be in for some MAJOR hassle. I had an expired ID and I brought in mail from my current address along with credit cards.
A couple of the airports it took a 15min longer than the regular line (they call over supervisor now), and a few of the airports DHS called up to 5 friends with a long list of questions to verify who I was. Who wants DHS calling their friends and associates, I sure don't.

I flew with 0 ID a couple years ago and it was like having a zip pass to get through the line. Times have changed.
We all learned to program in a non-concurrent manner and we're trying to reuse knowledge from that. Instead, we should focus on re-learning programming, namely what it means to have side-effects and global memory and what we should use instead to operate on those things in a safe way.

Concurrent programming isn't hard, debugging concurrent programming is hard. Eliminate side effects, use Software Transactional Memory, and figure out how easy concurrent programming _can_ be.

obvious Clojure plug
He didn't, he left it at a gas station so it's finder would use it and lead the investigators astray. It's later in the article.

The author seems to think this was a good ruse, but I think I disagree; if I were an investigator, I think any coincidence, such as a cell phone accidentally left at a gas station, would be something I'd want to look into.
If you keep reading past the first page, it turns out that he didn't: he deliberately left it in a gas station in the hope that somebody else would pick it up and start using it -- that way the police would wind up pursuing that person and give up when that line of inquiry led to a dead end.

The first part of the plan worked, but the second part didn't -- they never tracked down the guy who picked up the phone, but the fact that the phone was being used was enough to convince the police that he was still alive.

I guess the real lesson here is that simplicity is the best policy. His plan probably sounded brilliant in his head, but made too many assumptions about the way other people would behave.
_The seductive futuristic fantasy of being on a business trip and still being able to have sex with the lover you left behind is more than appealing, it is irresistible._

Highly unlikely, unless the world has changed so drastically business trips for most males meant and probably still means a look-out for adventure and a break!
The Spaser Will Not Save Us From 99942 Apophis
Wasn't it always suspect?
Ask HN: What is the worth of an hour of your life?
How do you guys value time?
I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Time is a scarce resource. So what is the worth of an hour of your life?
Is it what you could earn in this hour?
Is it $5?
Is it $5000?
Ist it priceless?

I try to think about it, because I want to estimate the worth of my product idea, that could save a customer up to 1000 hours of her free time. So what is this product worth?
I am not attacking you but your argument. What decade are we living in? The 1960s? Why must I sort my question into the correct category before choosing an emal address for the company?

Email filtering and classification software can and should handle this with aplomb. Is there any argument whatsoever that existing technology can't classify questions by email in such a constrained problem space?

The point here is that the company can and should handle responses and figure out how to route them in a cost-effective manner, not throw up roadblocks in the form of links to click or multiple email addresses to use to post a question.
I want this, but when I signed up I only got 100 credits. I sent them an email.
I used Dr. prescribed Amphetamines (Dextroamphetamine) for six years until 9 months ago when I gave them up in order to quit smoking. During that time I was the happiest and most productive I have ever been in my life. If you can get a Doctor to prescribe them go for it, but to take them (even pharmaceutical grade) without a doctor's ongoing advice is foolhardy at best and life ending at worst.
Hi James,

Well, if this is your site you are about to have an unsatisfied customer.

I thought of helping your auction along a bit, so I signed up and made a $100 deposit in 'credits' on the off chance that I would be winning the bid.

Only AFTER going through all that (10 minutes of form filling, credit card hunting and so on) and making my bid I'm being told that I'm already outbid, because the highest bid shown is not the highest bid.

This sucks.

If the bid shown is not the highest bid you should say so loud and clear before accepting payments or bids. Not afterwards, that's just plain scammy. Sorry for the harsh words, but that is my opinion about this.

Now we'll get to see how well your return policy works.

Not impressed.

The refund option is somewhat hidden, care to point the way ?

EDIT: REFUND RECEIVED.

That's pretty good customer service, I'll give you that much.
What technology can deal with spam, where the originator is actively and maliciously trying to break your filtering algorithm, but is helpless when dealing with bounce-backs, where there is no such intent?
I'd be happy to - though I guess I'll have to get one of those "blag" things the kids talk about.

I'm also pondering SUSE's real time extensions. They at least make it easy to get a trial version of their enterprise distribution plus a trial version of the real time extensions to install on top. Redhat of course have a 30 day trial of RHEL but not, as far as I know, of MRG.

30 day trials aren't ideal - I have no intention of going into production without a real license but it'd be rather useful for educational purposes to be able to experiment without a timed trial (especially when hacking in the evenings only on it).
A handy Firefox tool for HN.
Perhaps, if you need a replacement piece. It must be quite costly to to "print" a new set Legos vs. just buying the set.