skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Concrete Mathematics is (as it says itself) intended for first year grad students. It is certainly good, but it is NOT for a "complete noobie". I am in a similar situation, and am finding Vellman's "How to Prove It" extremely useful. Having poked around the edges of math for about a year, I finally realized that proofs are central to mathematical maturity... No more eyes crossing when I read a new CS textbook!
From The Dark Knight:

Harvey Dent: You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain
I started Simian Systems (simian.ca) when I was 20. Still going, so I guess it's not a startup any more...

Also co-founded Dojo Learning (dojolearning.com) which is still a work in progress.

I'm considering a switch to a "technomad" lifestyle and becoming a full-time touring musician, which I guess will be my next business venture. I don't think that quite qualifies as a "startup" though :)
I strongly agree with this. It's never too late to start hitting the gym either. I, like many others, gained the 'freshman 15'. Then I started hitting the gym and lost the weight and got myself into the good habits that helped me for the rest of my life.

An understated portion of college life is that it is independence with training wheels. You have the ability and chances to make wonderful mistakes and learn the reflexive life-lessons from them, but without suffering the odious penalties that one would incur as a fully self reliant adult. Learn to do laundry, to cook, maintain a healthy diet, balance your finances, to meet people who haven't known you since kindergarten, to act ways that the 'rents wouldn't approve. Find out who you are and shape it.

Enjoy yourself, and good luck.
HN doesn't change the url.
After the Google IPO he never took any salary with the intention of making money. Anyways why would he do it? After all he's on #59 (4.4b net worth) on the richest Americans list. (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Eric-Schmidt_O...).
Thanks. I accept that installed apps have privileged access to such per-device IDs, and can see why Pandora finds it useful... but it seems there should be some guidance against such use, or a mechanism for breaking such associations after a 'full wipe'. (Perhaps, the last part of the ID is an counter that increments each wipe.)

My sister seeing my Pandora stations is no big deal but if it had instead been a stranger I'd sold the unit to, that'd be more of a concern... and if other apps do the same thing, more important personal information could be at risk.
U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears
When you order the matte option, the whole glass panel and bezel are removed and replaced with an aluminum frame like the earlier models. It is not merely a coating applied to the glass, it's a different part entirely.
Hyperbole, like exaggeration, is a euphemism for a lie; it is a common and socially accepted lie, but it is still a lie. If you catch someone lying about something, wouldn't you worry about whether he was lying about something else that you were less informed about? I admit neurotypicals don't seem to care much about lying, probably because you can't seem to help yourselves, but some of us do care.
A Metal Coating That Repairs Itself
Product manager's checklist for this functionality:

_✓_ can claim to privacy advocates cookies are viewable and clearable

_✓_ obscure enough no user ever finds it without help

_✓_ so hard to use no one would revisit casually

Your questions confirm: total success!
Really? I would naively expect the outcome to matter a lot more. As a PhD, your work product has a lot more transparency than B.S./M.S. degrees, because people will actually hear about your work if it matters (for several different, valid definitions of "hear about" and "matters"). However, I would also naively expect the name of the school to correlate with outcome, but only because because different professors work at different schools.
I wish I can upvote you a million times over. This is something most people don't really appreciate until they leave college.

As a recent grad this is something that bothers me. In college almost anyone you meet (of your interested gender) is in your dating pool - you are at most a couple years apart in age, everything works out, you're at the same stage in life, etc.

Once you leave you will find that:

1 - Chances for socializing drops through the floor. You actually have to try at it, but that isn't the main problem, though you do end up meeting way fewer people per day than you used to.

2 - Only a very small portion of the people you meet and befriend are within your dating pool (age, expectation, stage in life, etc). Add this onto #1 and you might actually start thinking about dating services. I know I am.

Any other HNers with similar experiences? I'm at a bit of a loss here - clearly I can't be the only one in this situation, but it seems odd that we allow this gigantic social hole to exist. Am I missing some dynamic of "being an adult"?
Founder of http://www.blibu.com
I'm the developer, designer... and the rest
Here is some general advice.

First have some kind of goal. Do you want to be able to determine the orbit of an planet, evaluate the complexity of algorithms and computing models, study human interactions as walks on graphs, or use statistics to model and predict complex systems. Decide on this first, don't wonder around mathematics aimlessly.

Secondly, work the books. Maths can not be learned by observation, and reading proof after proof is simply observation. Memorize proofs, work from your current point back to first principles, and do all the problems you can. Of course there will be times when you simply can not find a means to start on a problem, and at that time find help or try and come back to the problem later.
Currently cofounder of http://devver.net currently acting at CTO mostly doing development.
if flagging a post like a down vote ? I don't feel that the 'community' based filtering of news is working too well here..
yes, founder of http://wwww.kartamobile.com
This project has about it a whiff of the quiet, almost understated elegance of the La Brea tar pits. I like it.
TA as soon as you can.

Do research as soon as you can.

Surround yourself with the smartest people you can.

Don't make partying a priority (this is a painful one, but binge drinking, fun as it is, won't help you towards accomplishing either of your goals).

If you're learning a new language or tech, find a way to leverage it against something else you have to do for class. If you want to learn LaTex (for grad school, of course), write a paper for a class in LaTex. If you want to learn C, brute force the answers to discrete math problems with a problem written in C. There are lots of opportunities to do this.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, there will inevitably be a group on campus that is all about being geeky. Inevitably, they'll know something about tech as well, but they'll mostly want to use memes in real life, play weird card games, complain about athletes, etc. Including yourself in this group means ostracizing yourself from everyone else. Not worth it.

Take the hardest classes you can, and ahead of schedule.
If you have some decent background in reasoning and logic, I would suggest Linear Algebra Done Right by Sheldon Axler. It provides a general introduction in mathematical reasoning as well as providing a strong framework for maths needed in many fields.

http://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Right-Sheldon-Axler/dp/...
I didn't do this in college and I regret it. Thankfully I am now on a schedule, controlling my diet, etc, and I feel far better than I have ever in my life. I've always been overweight, and you have no idea how good it feels to know that your health trajectory is improving as opposed to the opposite.

I have never been more glad that practically my entire wardrobe needs to be replaced. My BMI is now on the low end of "overweight", and I cannot fucking wait for the day when I finally drop back into the "normal" range - something that I haven't been since primary school.
yes, founder of http://www.kartamobile.com
Hard data: how small businesses are using Twitter
Very nicely done. I'm gonna use this.

The name is a bit weird though. I own makefoodnow.com and usemyingredients.com, let me know if you're interested in a trade of some sort.
See elsewhere in the comments for how to break the hash.
Let's assume that's the case (although it's a strange custom because, again, it's quite conceivable someone comments something that in itself is newsworthy and comment-on-able).

If it's impolite, presumably the magical social filter will take care of it by downvoting or ignoring. Calling in the heavy artillery for something trivial like that is still ham-handed and unwarranted. You can't have said something like that unaware that it will end up all over the place anyway, as it did.
It's often distributed as scores (source code) designed for a particular classic synth chip (an API), not rendered audio. It's very hacker-friendly.
Co-founder of http://zintin.com (with now only one real product left on the iPhone: Scribble). Co-founder of: http://photophonebook.com
Well, google may in fact have specific qualifications that they require in order to work for them, but that's hardly representative of whether or not you can be successful, unless your entire definition of success is a job at google.

My point is that outside of academia and a few outliers, most employers don't give a lick where you obtained your degree. Sure, some people are charmed by an Ivy league school on your resume. I can bet though that more people are charmed by what you are actually doing than where you went to school.
Oh awesome. I've heard great stuff about you, keep up the good work! :)
How Jessica Abroms Made Thousands from an $800 iPhone App
Male Enhancement Website Attacked
This website seems to have been attacked over the weekend, with spurts of traffic coming from the Netherlands, German, and Russia. The site seemed to have withstand the attack.
Neat, I like the website. No offence but I think you guys could use a bit of UI improvement. If you need any help please feel free to contact me.
Great to see Olin getting some attention.

I was one of the 30 student Partners they talk about and I can't even begin to enumerate how many wonderful experiences I've had. After graduating, transitioning to work for a small software startup was quite natural.

Also, it is interesting to note that several Y Combinator teams have been made up of Olin students. (Flagr and Thinkature come to mind)
Now there is a complete waste of time that I can really dig! Very cool. Brings back lots of memories.
Thanks for the response. I only asked because I had thought of that idea as well and stumbled on how you'd be able to get enough traction to make it work. Chicken and egg problem.

Good luck to you!
It's often cited in political philosophy as an example of a fair procedure.
I'm not sure why somebody linked to this site, but it's another site of the person linked to from this HN link http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755033
Rap and coding don't mix.

Any kind of music with lyrics is to me very distracting while coding. Unfortunately the human brain can't really mix processing spoken language and written language.

Try writing while listening to someone, unless you're writing down what they say, you'll surely mix up somewhere and write down what they say anyway.
Wow, the website looks awesome. I always wondered if one of these existed.
Running Hadoop On Ubuntu Linux (Single-Node Cluster) - Michael G. Noll
Looks like there are a lot of founders here!

Me too. Cofounder and CTO of http://www.woobius.com
I think glossy screens are a lot easier to clean.. I'm pretty picky about fingerprints :(
> I once knew some people who wanted to create a "startup" to compete aginst Tally.

Heh - every year we have dozens of Tally clones that come up. In fact, I know at least two people working in Tally who had, at some point in the past, developed products that were Tally competitors/clones.
Glad to see that you're still around and still kicking it, with a better looking webpage.
What Staff Really Need From The CIO
Thanks - I was guessing the commenter was trying to go to jedwhite.com rather than clicking the title because the label in the title in parentheses was shorted to just jedwhite.com
It sounds like the problem for some users is some issue with opendns and blogger though and nothing to do with that anyway.
Cheers
Interesting idea but no parties in the protocol would be motivated to do that. This might be useful in a situation where a group entity exists that is approximately the same size as the division group -- e.g. an endowment, shared property, common business, or co-op.
Cool office.
In life, too, most choices lead to death.
This depends on the perfection of market information. If both participants can perfectly determine the value of their and their adversary's goods, no one can or will cheat.

So barter should work for metals traders but not cattle traders (but they have other problems...).
Ask HN: Python vs. PHP
I developed my website using PHP and I believe that PHP could handle all of the features that I have on my product roadmap.

However, now I as I look for additional resources I feel that most talented developers would prefer coding in Python instead of PHP.

What do you think? Is it worth transitioning to Python in order to get better developers excited?
Yes, when I read his critique of fluent interfaces I realized that he is just disagreeing with everything to be contrary. "fluent interfaces are setters in disguise. So, Stephan, which one is it?" - he is not actually critiquing the fluent interfaces, just nitpicking the inconsistency. Its usually a mistake to be overly concerned with consistency.

Yes you can come up with a case where every one of those guidelines are wrong, but I think that there are a lot of cases where they make sense.
Yep - co-founder of one startup too many. :)

-- http://tumblon.com

-- http://zencoder.tv and http://flixcloud.com
Ofcourse, theres the super easy Cloudera distribution, but i found this tutorial to be more informative, as you understand the steps in installation better.
It's particularly interesting to read Sweeney's views on this subject, considering that he's been talking about the shift back to software rendering since 2000 or so, when GPUs started becoming programmable.

Check out this old interview: http://archive.gamespy.com/legacy/interviews/sweeney.shtm

2006-7: CPU's become so fast and powerful that 3D hardware will be only marginally benfical for rendering relative to the limits of the human visual system, therefore 3D chips will likely be deemed a waste of silicon (and more expensive bus plumbing), so the world will transition back to software-driven rendering... If this is a case, then the 3D hardware revolution sparked by 3dfx in 1997 will prove to only be a 10-year hiatus from the natural evolution of CPU-driven rendering.

His timeline was off by a few years, but I think he basically had the right idea all along.
How To Solve It is a great recommendation.

I had a physics professor that did an amazing job of teaching problem solving; even though the class wasn't directly to my major, it was probably the single most useful class I ever took. Next semester I read How To Solve It and realized that the way he taught followed closely to what Polya lays out.
Correct, especially if he wants academia.

It's not as bad as it is for MBA, law, or (at the extreme) humanities PhD programs. In those fields, it's not even worth going if you can't get into a top program. Nonetheless, the ranking of the PhD program matters.

What matters more than the ranking of the program is the reputation of the advisor. However, at a no-name grad school, there may not be any reputable advisors in the field he wants to pursue.
Well, I've never been bullied, but if an adult "bullied" me (as an adult) in any serious way, I would refer him to the police within a matter of minutes. This is the proper solution. Any assault on a child should be dealt with legally, and if it means moving a thug to a reform school, then all the better.
The way she describes winning at roulette is bogus.

First of all, if your money is doubled when you hit the right colour, you don't make any profit in the long run. You will stay on the same amount.

Second of all, there is a 0, and often also a 00 on the roulette wheel, which is neither red nor black. This means that the chance you're correct is less than 50%, so you stand to make a loss in the long run.

There is no way to win at roulette, without using a computer to predict where the ball is going to be, based on the movement and spinning of the wheel. And I seriously doubt that even that is possible using just human observation and a trigger in your foot.

[edit: the author is female, sorry about that]
I'm co-founder of http://agilezen.com/ -- lean project management app based on ideas from the Toyota Production System.

I'm in charge of developing and maintaining the product, and my other co-founder/wife is in charge of keeping the business running.
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with PHP. It has it's shortcomings, but if you program carefully I don't believe those become an issue, especially if you've found that PHP is sufficient for your current issues. I think PHP's biggest strength is that PHP has an abundance of free libraries, and works on virtually every OS, etc...

However Python shares those strengths, and in many ways is considered a superior language. Switching may even spark your creativity about how to improve the site.

I think what you need to consider if you can afford to spend the time redoing your site in Python, and learning Python sufficiently well to really get the benefits out of it. If you can, you may also want to look at other emerging web-dev languages and see if other languages suit you better. But if you can afford to do it, a switch could be good for you.
I usually hate these one-size-fits all outliner type summary of events because they tend to be super dry, middle-of-the-road, not really saying anything type pieces, but this was a nice surprise.

The provided quotes and examples used by the TS companies highlight the importance of pitching concisely and emotionally using narratives.

Since picking up girls and selling in business share a lot of similarities, does TheFunded have a focus on neuro-linguistic programming when it comes to pitching?
Agreed. I've never personally sold to big companies, but I have a consulting client who has/does. Ugly process.

What about getting through the back door via consulting? I know some people who have taken this route, and it seems to work at least some of the time. Basically, you sell a license to your software wrapped in consulting time (setup, customization, support). This has potential, at least, to be a leaner sales process.
"Students (well, students are likely pre-founders but they're occupied with school for the time being.)"

Beg to disagree. I'm a student and find plenty of time to work on my startup.
build a good company that people in general will want to work for and you'll pull in the top developers. a top developer might prefer something else to whatever you're using, but a top developer will also be able to solve the same complex problems in any language.
2.5 here :/
The Complete Beatles in One Hour
The thread was flagged and removed before PG got to it. So yes, it was voted against social mores.
It works for me, at least now.
1) Get a Github account, fork projects, fix bugs, and send pull requests. Write your own libraries and apps and push them there as well. When you graduate, you will have a corpus of code to show people, and a documented history of playing well with others. That will matter more than your GPA to any company you would actually want to work for.

2) Have a social life. As someone else here commented, don't be afraid of girls. If you ask her out and she says no, it's not the end of the world. Don't be afraid to take risks.

3) If your study/organizational habits are lacking, seek out the people who have their act together and duplicate their habits.
Ask HN: Twitter down again ?
HN breaks the story before TC!
http://www.hyperspin.com/en/quicktest.php?action=result&qtid=292510&r=4751
Cloudmoney: a nonfiction tale of the future.
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/
The Mooney/Kirshenbaum crusade flops again
Why is that a security hole? I suppose it might make it harder to detect an existing one, but it doesn't add a security hole in it's own right.
Definitely agree. Generally, I think good hacking music is unobtrusive (doesn't become a distraction), and somewhat repetitive (causes me to maintain focus). I hate a lot of electronic music because it's often too formulaic, but when it's right for hacking it's oh so right.

Some of my hacking favorites: Aphex Twin--Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (the one essential for hacking IMO), Sigur Ros--Takk..., The Field--From Here We Go Sublime, Linstrom--Where You Go I Go Too
The way he describes winning at roulette is bogus.

New Scientist appears to be in serious decline.
Like with anything, creativity can spawn some really good 8-bit music that isn't only re-hashed zelda tunes. For a good starting point, have a look at that documentary I posted in the comments, I used to think it was just "living in the past" until I watched it and looked up some of the music.

edit: I'll include the link again for the lazy: http://www.vimeo.com/3734864
Secure Passwords Keep You Safer (2006)
Yeah, definitely inspired, though I think it's just the homepage, we are working on a new one.
Dolphin Speak Relies on Brevity
I started http://feedfliks.com
We already run a XMPP server for direct user notification.

I'm not familiar with Growl.fm, but I can say we're not at all ideologically opposed to using an open source web service. In general, we're looking for:
- Good UI/install for end users
- Minimal hassle to setup for us
- Sensible authentication

When you think it's ready for primetime, shoot me an email (ben [at] fluther.com) and we can talk about setting something up.
http://www.hyperspin.com/en/quicktest.php?action=result&...
If you would quit school for your "startup", then you are a founder.

If you will definitely not quit school, you are a student.

Somewhere in between is "Pre-founder".
It doesn't even make any sense. Microsoft doesn't care what applications I run on Windows, sometimes to a fault.
Thank you! I take pleasure in knowing that somebody, somewhere, will say "That's exactly what I've been looking for!", and use it in production.
Developer Tools You Don't Use - And Why You Don't Use Them
So is this good or bad overall? Because people are giving money to banks, rather than spending it, it should be raising bank's capital. Right? So the Fed won't need to give as much money to the banks, because people are giving it to them to pay down their debt?

OTOH, if people aren't spending, then unemployment goes up, which is bad.

Unless people aren't paying down their debts, but rather going bankrupt and the banks are writing them off. Then we're in trouble.
Music Labels to launch CMX, a new digital album format.
No, you don't have to, but we take security very very seriously. However, we are not a covered entity in the eyes of HIPAA, but we do go above and beyond their guidelines for storing and transmitting patient data.
Google App Inventor uses Scheme under the hood
I would love to know why they think this has any chance of success without the support of the iTunes eco system.
Pecha Kucha: Preventative Medicine for Death By PowerPoint
If glare is coming from one direction, glossy can be good or terrible depending on where you point it. Matte is just always equally bad, and turning the brightness up is all you can do.
As a child, I was mystified by this CYOA, where I once reached an lavishly favorable ending and on further readings was unable to determine how to get to it again... Great hack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_UFO_54-40#Plot