skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
False dilemma? There is a gmail labs item that allows for "fancy stars" or something like that. I really like the yellow and red circles with the exclamation mark because they give an indication of severity.

Instead of using stars of flags - why not use something that represents "save for later" like a little floppy disk?
pg said in an interview that there is no generic name for YC-like programs, and he likes it that way because whenever a new program copies them it is introduced as 'another YC-style firm'.

'Seed Accelerator' sounds interesting. I wonder if it will stick.
Thanks for sharing that. I'm intrigued by your wording "we inducated a mobile UAV into the platoon". I've long thought that battlefield robots (especially those that have some sort of autonomy) would be considered almost humans by the flesh and blood troops along with them.

Sounds very cool to be working on military bots.
I used to be completely in my own world. I would never talk to people who I didn't know. Then a while back, I decided to change that. I get into conversations all the time with random people I meet on the street.

It's interesting how friendly a lot of people are if you just make an attempt to be nice or polite. You can get, for example, all sorts of interesting information from security guards...
Helped build a cardiovascular diagramming system that converts diagnostic(textual) reports of kids with congenital heart defects to "circuit diagrams" of the heart annotated with various cardiovascular measurements.
I'm not sure that's a complete definition though. As an introvert, while I don't hate interacting with other people, I do find an excess of interaction (in terms of either the amount of people and/or duration) rather draining, and my interest in interaction is somewhat volatile.
5 things you can do to come up with original content for your blog.
Strange, how the "rooting for the underdog" effect makes fighting for software patents a noble act of a single person versus the big ugly faceless judicial bodies.
I use to be into baseball cards back in the old days, but then I turned into a geek and they were no longer of interest. An entrepreneur from the early days is capitalizing on the baseball card problem with one of their online games, and they are funded by Sequoia.

http://www.baseballboss.com/collections/view/
Markup language: describes content.

Programming language: performs tasks.

There are languages that fit both (such as Tex, and consequently, Latex), but this does not preclude us from drawing a distinction between the two in clear-cut cases (such as HTML versus C).
Rate my web app: 360 Voltage is in Alpha (see comments)
Good morning, HN. We've been slaving for months and we're finally launch-ready.

This community was so amazing last time we launched a web site that we're taking our own advice (http://blog.200nipples.com/2008/07/launch-the-first-24-hours/) and doing a Hacker News launch. We're basically in Alpha right now, we'll be in Beta next week with all initial features online by 4th quarter 2009.

Anyway, this site was built with guys like you in mind, so let us know what you think.
It's pretty hard to write about an event in which not much really happened. Especially when people really, really want to hear about what happened. I don't think this is a personal failing on the part of the journalists.
This is the setup I use too, but the main downside of it is that sending a message from within Gmail, as an account other than the main account you're logged in as, reveals your main account email address.

For example, if you're logged in as somebody@gmail.com, but send the message as evilperson@gmail.com, you'll reveal somebody@gmail.com to the recipient. In fact, Outlook proudly displays this address by stating "From: evilperson@gmail.com on behalf of somebody@gmail.com". I think you can also easily get this info from the mail headers from most web-based clients.

Maybe this isn't an issue for most folks, but it can create havoc with your filters if folks start replying to an address you had hoped to keep hidden from them.
I love the way such things makes using Windows machines increasingly painful. Maybe this can spur a little more diversity...
Good morning, HN. We've been slaving for months and we're finally launch-ready.

This community was so amazing last time we launched a web site, that we're taking our own advice (http://blog.200nipples.com/2008/07/launch-the-first-24-hours...) and doing a Hacker News launch. We're basically in Alpha right now, we'll be in Beta next week with all initial features online by 4th quarter 2009.

Anyway, this site was built with guys like you in mind, so let us know what you think.
I like the notion of "downward mobility" and seeing it as desirable.
Sharing an apartment for a night is not like selling things on ebay or amazon. People use services like AirBnB, couchsurfing etc at the cost of their security. That's one hurdle these kind of business may face. Any thoughts?

Also, these kind of violations need to be taken seriously.
Being Turing complete is a sufficient but not necessary condition to be called a programming language.

The best necessary condition I can come up with for a language to be called a programming language is that it expresses computations.
Well, by not just coming off the standard but by constantly debasing their currency, constantly increasing taxes, not preventing counterfitting, and putting the state into the hands of the military.
As for surviving direct shilling, I present "The Biggest Loser" as a data point. The most recent season became a barrage of direct product placement experiments.

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/04/jillian-michaels...

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/the_biggest...

More discussion of product placement rankings at the Neilson blog:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/amazing-race-ap...

This isn't even close to new, we're just finally catching up with online media.
Well, there is no choice between toilet paper and a chair. He was trying to explain how Aeron chair is not as expensive as one may assume from the price tag.
In most cases and for most occasions there are enough resources out there. So why write something "new" when you can just link 10 or more of such articles?
If you don't have anything to add, compile a list instead of just repeating.
Yeah, it seems these days that Jeff Atwood is a has-been who keeps rehashing the same old points that he made on his blog 5 years ago. I'm not sure why we give his blog posts such prominent attention on HN…
It'd sure be nice to start moving away from all the politics submissions.
Yeah, but you can outrank where you already have an article. ;-)
Once Knol ranks above Wikipedia more people will notice and contribute.
I'd say if you're just a list compiler, you shouldn't be blogging. And what are you saying? onreact.com isn't guilt of any of these blogging sins? :)
I wonder if CouchSurfing.com has any mechanism in place for removing users that are convicted of this type of activity.

For that matter, can surfers leave comments about their hosts?
There you go, you've wrongly interpreted the "flag" option on Hacker News: it does not report to the admin, it saves it for later reading.
Great idea for a site and I love the look of it right now. Simple to see what the site does and visually appealing.

You should add your site to my startup launchly (http://www.launchly.com). I started launchly (with a HN launch as well) to try to help other startups get the feedback and exposure they need to succeed. It also comes with some powerful analytics to track how your launch is performing. Oh and it's free too so that helps!

*Edit. ROFL... "it seems like this is taking awhile... maybe you should grab a sammich"?? Ok that's the first time I think I've had a webapp suggest I go eat while it spins. Awesome.

Also you have a typo here "Upgrade to PRO now to lock in current pricing (over 50% off) for as along you have your subscription." Should be "for as long" not "along".
I agreed with the post right up until the bit about "..unless you're Smashing Magazine".

Smashing Magazine only gained their popularity by regurgitating other people's shit - they're no better than the rest.
You might pick up a few nickels, but you might also get crushed. (I'm not sure how it applies here.)
There is some "New Math" being invoked here. If the conversion rate goes from 24.4% to 29.6%, it's disingenuous to claim a 21.2% improvement.

I stopped at the first misuse of statistics, but by that point, they had taken out informative links from their web site and turned it into a landing page. Frankly, a 5% change in conversion rate is in the noise compared to the effect of targeted advertising (and I have no faith that these sloppy reporters actually did a properly controlled experiment).

Edit: Downmodded for asking for real math over marketing math?
In some ways it could help if they deal with the overproduction issues. I lost interest in baseball cards in the early 90's when the market became over-saturated with brands and specialty sets. Every company seemed to have 3 different sets (basic, premium, team, rookies, etc.).

The key to bringing the sports card industry back to relative popularity, is to bring back the enjoyment and "magic" that was mentioned in the article. However, now that baseball, in particular, seems to be declining in popularity with younger generations, it may be very difficult to ever accomplish a major turnaround.
Try it right now by clicking "Run Voltmeter" forces me to join. No thanks.
Last time I tested W3 Counter it added off topic hidden links to the actual counter code.
Sites that don't innovate and add new features over the years often end up feeling stale and stagnate. Maybe Facebook has solved the dilemma of how to keep "innovating" if you're already close to the ideal form from the beginning: gradually add new features that no one wants, then unveil a "Fresh" version that's basically what worked in the first place.
Some good points about contributing your time for free, but the comparison is a bit inflammatory. Sharecroppers had no real choice, lots of risk, and such an arrangement was their only income.

Most instances of investing your time in an online activity are not so vital to one's financial income.

Contributing to stack overflow helps other programmers, gives you a some exposure, and perhaps answers questions of your own. Founders of SO put up capital and energy to build and maintain the site, and don't claim ownership of user-contributed content (cc-wiki license), and get revenue from advertising.
Didn't see that coming at all.

Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't seen this story earlier, or maybe stories about getting robbed, etc.

While I would love a society where trust is perhaps more freely given and received, we don't live in that kind of world.

A friend of mine was going to use AirBnB for an upcoming trip and I wondered out loud if your personal security was worth the savings.

I'd love to have faith in humanity, but current conditions don't necessarily warrant that at all.
I noticed that too but in their defense the signup was ridiculously painless. Only required a login and password. Email was optional. No confirmation required.
Discussion Here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=757504
"I for one would immediately discard a software developer as less than worth his salt if he felt he needed any sort of paid tuition to pick up new technologies. If you're not learning something new practically every week, you're probably not a good coder." - from a comment on the linked article.

Different people learn in different ways. I actually learn better from books than from lecture type courses; unfortunately, there are always bits of information that slip between the cracks in writing. I have been teaching myself to use linux and programming in my spare time for years and I all too often have to waste a lot of time in trial and error because some minor detail that the expert writing the book thought was "too obvious" to include explicitly.
I don't know how much you've distributed this, but it seems like your data will be biased toward companies interested in these programs. There are several (I'm guessing most) companies that don't go to "seed accelerators" for seed money.
If politics were less important (more or less == "if government were smaller and less intrusive") it would be less interesting and submissions about it would crater.

It's the same reason why SCOTUS nominations are so contentious now. Previously the Supremes had both less power relative to the other two branches and far, far less power to actually impact the lives of regular folks.
Here's a reddit comment/thread on the patent: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/99utb/judge_ord...
He's not a victim for not wanting to take the course at the price asked, he's a victim for whining about it.
"Conclusion: Simplified design improved conversion by an average of 20.45%." is the most important sentence in this post.

To be honest you don't have to use Google Website Optimizer to notice that.
Well, they are trying to charge for the application. If they allowed anonymous use, who would ever pay for it?

You don't have to give them your email address to try it out - you could easily make a throwaway username and password.
In order to move past this, we have to accept a basic lemma of reporting: There can be no objective reporting.
Taking more math in school will raise your income
Well this was bound to happen sooner or later. Couchsurfing.com is just a way to come into contact with someone who may share a couch. They do some background checks with people vouching for others. But even then, there's no way to prevent something like this happening.

If you use the service, you're taking a risk and you'll have to be aware of that. It doesn't really seem smart as a woman alone to go sleep on a couch of some guy you met on the net.
Yes, and yes. Guests can write positive/negative reviews about their hosts, and vice versa. Those reviews will show up on the user's profile. Statistics are also available to see how often a host has hosted travelers, whether they have been vouched for by very active members of the community, etc...
"Adobe should rejoice that Microsoft is competing with Adobe on its own turf (i.e., media plug-ins) rather than putting all its energy, as it once did, into Web standards and innovation."

Microsoft putting all its strenghts in standards and innovation?! On what planet does the author live?
Book Review: ActiveMQ in Action
Review of Mannings upcoming book "ActiveMQ in Action".
For all practical purposes, this would be like the replicator on Star Trek. You select from a menu of offerings, press a button, and whatever you ordered pops out a little while later.

(sigh) Nothing that cool would ever happen in real life.
I was wondering if I was asleep when that happened, cause I sure missed it. Both parts.
Also if you're offering your place, you open yourself up to other risks and liabilities.

Does your renter's or homeowner's insurance cover rental activity?
Chemistry is to Biology as X is to Computing
The whole forum shebang
Can we get a english<->russian version? (or any<->any)
I tried it out and got some very interesting and probably useful results. For those who do not want to register:
http://360voltage.com/voltmeter/?u=c0175cf2-d8a6-102c-aea2-0...

Bugs:
The url field disappears on my iphone when it gets focus. Works fine on my laptop.

The logo links to http://index.php/
The problem is that political submissions are by nature very contentious. Just because they get upvotes doesn't mean they belong here. Half the population will agree, and the other half can't downvote. I don't think may people flag them because of all of the other political submissions that have ended up on the front page lately.
Near Sweden?
It seems the pirate party from Sweden is more dangerous than previously thought ;-)
RethinkDB performance data
The news site seems to be driving a healthy bit of traffic to couchsurfing.com as well, the site is terribly slow right now. There is no such thing as bad publicity it seems.
I may be an Austrian, but I don't agree with everything that any Austrian ever wrote. And I am definitely not a Friedman fan, although he is preferable to many alternatives.
One of the dangers is most projects do get killed, and even if it doesn't you put more risk by not releasing it. Once its released and people are getting value from it the project is a lot safer position to put more effort into design.
Minor but helpful in UI: put <label>s on your checkbox text, like "Remember Me", so I can click the words.

Also, it'd be awesome if you could show me which pages were 400/404. A number on it's own isn't too useful in improvement.
Read closer man. They're not all the same. The descriptions range from the meeting including "skeptics from whom he sought questions..." of which "...plenty responded" to a crowd that "soft-balled him opportunities to knock down criticism."

The NYT's description sounds like a good, thoughtful debate, the Fox News description sounds like a staged PR event. The others fall somewhere in between.

It's about the image you draw in your head of the meeting while reading each passage, and while they report basically the same facts, each article emphasizes said facts differently, creating quite different pictures of how the meeting went down.
Card collecting is a phase for most people. I was big into basketball cards for a couple years when I was about 10.
Well, the problem is that it is a fact that he is currently on trial for these crimes.

"An unidentified local man was accused of raping an unidentified female traveler" doesn't make for a very good article.
I just tried it and it works great - I like that it produces real suggestions/actionable items.
Well, I think there is room for every kind of post, but Smashing Magazine does roundups WAY better than anything else. What I was saying is if you're going to try to be another Smashing Magazine, just link to Smashing and give up :)
It wouldn't work if it was explicitly known. The others could just as easily decide to cut him out of the distribution entirely.
It is easy to believe the things you want to believe. A/B testing is useful for convincing you of the things you don't want to believe.

Example: I'm releasing my Rails A/B testing framework this Sunday, with a case study writeup taken from my site. My site currently allows people to defer signup for the trial by means of a guest login. That sort of option is popular here. I'm told it increases usability and user engagement, right?

Without ruining the surprise: that is a testable hypothesis. ;)
Wordpress 2.8.3 Admin Reset Exploit
I've got far too many things that I wouldn't trust some stranger around: cash, rare books, tens of thousands of dollars of tools, firearms, dogs.

If it works for some people, great, but I thought the idea of CouchSurfing.com was insane the first time I heard of it.
Identified local man got convicted of raping female traveler would be a better one. Until the verdict is in this is speculative.

Not that that ever stopped any news organization from ruining some guys life by plastering his photo all over the net.
On how to analyze the Federal Balance Sheet
Player types emerge from unsupervised learning
Lots of data about your playing style are stored on central servers when you play e.g. Tomb Raider. This data can be mined to discover player types, and automatically classify players, which can in turn be used to adapt games to suit you better.
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the bait-and-switch input box there. It'd be better to put the signup form on the front page and be up-front about it, than have someone put their site's address in and get their wrist slapped.
Yeah, you're right. We should also make dates illegal as date rape is quite common as well. Don't trust anybody. Just close your door and don't leave your home. Don't forget about security cameras, a loaded gun within reach etc.
You never know! People are evil. ;-)
I don't think you are their target demographic, either on the offering or on the using side.
http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&...

Not cool.

I have no problems with his name being everywhere if he is convicted, but at this point it's his word against hers. I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that his life is basically ruined. If he IS innocent, then I find this just as frightening, if not more frightening, than the alleged acts.
LG KM900 Arena Black 
Featuring the very latest in cell phone technology, this unlocked cell phone performs better than many other cell phones out there. This gladiator of an unlocked phone has a 5 Megapixel Camera that captures still images while retaining all of the visual quality. DVD quality video recording capabilities allow you to playback your favorite moments in real-time.
That's fair, but my goal is to develop a framework for thinking about new and different programs. (Partly so that people stop blindly copying YC.)

The companies that are interested in these programs today are likely to be the same audience for any YC / seed accelerator program that will be created in the future, so the data should be relevant.
The "You must be logged in to do that. Log in (or create an account real fast) and we'll send you on your way." text is almost unreadable for me (Opera?). Thin red monospace font on big fat red background.

Good job on making your frontpage usable without Javascript (probably a SEO thing, heh). It is not very beautiful but all information is accessable.

Maybe show some examples of what one gets from the Voltmeter? Why would I give away my mail address for something I don't know much about. I too find the "Run Voltmeter" -> "Oh nonono, you have to signup!" questionable.
Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure
The Rise and Fall of FriendFeed
1. Sad that the society has come to "guilty unless proven innocent" instead of "innocent until proven guilty".

2. Another cunning headline. Why can't they say "Man accused of.." instead of "man allegedly..". Say anything. Just add 'allegedly' in front of the statement and you are safe.
So if the trial takes a year, reporters should be barred from disclosing his name until the conclusion?

It's a slippery slope when you start dictating which facts a newspaper can and cannot print.

The newspaper article is a pretty straightforward account of the facts that have been presented at a public trial. It is unfortunate that there are people who will automatically assume these accusations are 100% true without waiting for a verdict.

But newspapers shouldn't withhold facts or information just because other people might use them to jump to damaging conclusions.
I know this article isn't specifically about this, but it's something I've been thinking about for a while now.

I strongly disagree with the use UAVs like the Predator and the Reaper. They detach the operators from the very traumatic act of killing another human being. Military Brass will argue that it makes war safer. That's a fucking insane statement to make.

I'm not sure where I'm even going with this, but I wish more people would really consider the repercussions of such technologies.
Это же Саакашвили.
Yup, it is super irritating
In other countries it is actually very common to withhold pictures and names of the accused until after the verdict.

'trial by media' is not a very good thing imho.

It also tends to taint the judicial process because it gets harder to find people that have not been biased by information from the media.
I wish there were fewer black tshirts out there. I will buy any color but black.
I can do plenty of physical activity and labor without going to a store (an activity that I very much dislike, with the exception of the grocery at 3am when I'm the only customer).

The point is I can now choose how to do my physical activity.
Thats why I started reading the book "How to be invisible", very good actually.
In utter fairness I think it depends where you go. I have a few forums I hang out where theism and atheism are debated in a sensible, relaxed way.

The end of this post seems something of a rant about atheism in general: one I thought was a bit unfounded but is probably valid in many cases.