skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I use CodeIgniter extensively and have also tried Kohana. How did I get there in the first place? I believe that the best code you can find is the one you can write, however, I only have one life and not enough time to rediscover the wheel, so I went for the second best and decided to use CodeIgniter as was closer to what I wanted in that being a smaller framework I could mould it around to what I wanted to develop. Before selecting it, I downloaded CakePHP and gave it a try, it was just too big a framework for me. Have I got any regrets not really, would I use it again, yes but at least this time it comes with all the additional bells and whistles that I have attached to it. In reality the more you use a framework the more you .. forking it out towards your own needs and style.

For blog variants I have mostly used Drupal and I have a couple of blogs using Wordpress. Don't underestimate the power of both of them and that is one reason why I am still sticking with PHP for the forseeable future. I can attach a Wordpress installation to a CodeIgniter framework and with very little additional work, I can have a blog working - albeit with ugly code! After all wordpress is only 10 tables, Drupal is about 50.
You are asking for what evidence he has of the existance of a god. That question, by its nature, is a scientific one. The poster you are responding to stated that they do not base their belief in God on science. You are asking the wrong sorts of questions.
There are lower hanging fruits for the time being, imo.
Apple and the great stealth tech social media survey
What inspires someone paperless since 2002 (because it's his job to research this stuff at Microsoft) to create a print book?
There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.

-Phil Karlton
Employing the Domain Model Pattern
What have you found that suggests that there isn't a god in the first place?

Please, everyone on earth knows proving or disproving the existence of god is impossible, so why did you ask a moronic question like that?
On reducing the size of compressed Javascript
i for one hope that we don't discover nearby life. why? think about what it implies. if life is so phenomenally common that it pops up twice in the same solar system then it becomes downright unsettling that there is no sign of galaxy spanning civilizations out there.
That font is beautiful.
Jeff is an amazing guy. But, he clearly does not value design.
And yet they carry on supporting it?

End of the day, you just have to convince clients that the concept of graded support makes the most business sense. IE6 on our sites will definitely work, but might miss out on some design niceties if they’re trivial in new browsers and very difficult in older ones. It doesn’t mean we don’t support it, just that the level of support is different.
Way cooler: http://www.ladyada.net/make/wavebubble/index.html
Mostly you should ask about what is important to you, if they haven't covered it already. I would add their stance on side projects, and power of developers(to say hold up a release because of show stoppers) to the list you have.
No, focus on pre-college education. As funny as it sounds, we don't need another top-flight university (which would cost billions alone) as much as we need better education in our local schools.
Adding lots of application servers isn't the hard part, generally (from what I've read... I have to admit I've never had to do more than the 'easy stuff'). The database is. How's Mnesia scale up? Where does it work well, and where does it not work so well?
Thanks! I haven't updated my SD yet.
ITunes Now 25% Of All Music Sold In U.S.
This is illegal but guns are not
Ask HN: Review my Startup -- wokhei.com
Does anyone know how to make a cellphone booster? I'd love to be able to get a bit more range out of my cell...
Mini-guide to scaling your app:

Step 1. Measure, measure, measure: response time, page load time, query time

Step 2. Identify bottlenecks: Why isn't your page load snappy? Too much JS? Round-trip to DB is killing you? Your mongrels are overloaded?

Tip: Use YSlow for frontend measurements and take most of its advice

Step 3. Fix bottlenecks: Lots of techniques to fix faster frontend performance, start with YSlow above. Architectural and backend issues can be solved with a combination of hardware (load balancers, more web boxes, more db boxes) and software (better caching strategies, evolve your DB architecture, break up your application into smaller micro-apps that scale independently)

Step 4: Go to step 1 and keep at it.

I'd have to say that if you're not doing Step 1, you're going to fail now, or eventually. As one of my first mentors taught me:

"You cannot improve, what you don't measure"
In a way though, VC money IS your money. Your reputation is on the line, and if you spend/manage the money wisely, there is a great potential windfall for you in the future.
Www.www.extra-www.org
One way to make banks boring and predictable would be to define precisely what kind of products they are allowed to sell. This sounds like what Taleb would want, but it don't think it would be good to entirely eliminate innovation.

But if regulators would forbid any product valued by models they don't understand, it would probably be a good start.
Not necessarily true. He may just be prioritizing releasing new functionality and sites over improving the design for now.
What's a good book on algorithmic trading?
To those who feel that human exploration of the solar system is something they'd like to see near term, if a govt. agency tasked with the job is doing an incompetent job of it while spending billions to develop capability that already exists in the private sector (read: Atlas V), I could understand why they might focus on this particular "govt. jobs program".
Are you not being hired to build it?

I guess it would come down to them letting you know how far along they are or does that even matter?
I kinda figured that you'd sort of shove date/time, link URL, browser info, and referrer in there to collect the data. So it's probably more like 50 lines of code. Whatever.
Why copy when you can bookmarklet: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
I wish we do. I just don't want to feel so lonely in such a large Universe. Life is probably something very common out there, the fact that we are not observing galaxy spanning civilizations doesn't prove that life is not out there. After all is only about two hundred years that we came to know that there are microbes all over the place.
While I'd like to see a new, well-funded private university show up (preferably in Portland) the specific ideas here seem to be a combination of "vague" and "bad". Frinstance:

"Nor would you sequester faculty members into departments organized around academic disciplines... Gates's programs would cross traditional disciplines, organized around goals for what students need to learn."

What does that mean, exactly, in practice?
On powerful bikes, just a few millimetres of grip twist provides a huge amount of accelleration/decelleration. It's not the big kind of twist that you do with a boat outboard engine, but a small movement. I can't think of any time in all my bike riding when I've inadvertently 'given it the nuts'.

There's something particularly Teutonic about that thing with the turn signal switches. It's the same with how Mercedes always try and keep their car switches and buttons in the same position, and with the same design.
I suppose the psychology is, we make the best machines, so why would you ever want to buy anything else. If you only ever drove a Merc or a Beemer, why would it bother you?
I appreciate your feedback and thank you for the clickable link.

The banner text is there to try to tell people what the site is about on the landing page. I didn't want them to have to go to another page to figure that out since normally I believe that is considered a bad thing if they HAVE to read an about page. You're right though that the information is a bit disjointed. The "What's a Launch?" link is meant to be more of a feature tour (maybe I should just call it that). The About page is supposed to serve as a standard about page that tells what the idea is, why it's different, etc etc. Is it not common to have both these days?

I have seen the problem with the voting widget before and will look into it, thank you! The pop-up is for category voting, the big up/down arrows are for overall.

To clarify, the site offers a few things:

a) Iterative (multiple rounds) of feedback. The site was basically created because this seemed to be frowned upon on HN. Maybe I won't get boo'd off stage this time since it's been two months in between!
b) Analytics. We track a number of specific things pertaining to your launch and then graph them for you to track how your launch is performing over time.
c) Exposure. Your launch is actively pushed out to our primary audience (and anyone else watching social media streams). You also get front page attention on our site and depending on your launch's quality you could make the hottest launch or highest rated lists as well. If your app is especially standout (like Guestlist and TweetBlocker) I'll also give it a full review/write-up on the blog.

HN and an "Ask HN" post are great ways to get feedback and exposure for your site but I think we can do better!

1) HN's primary function is not to serve as an app review forum so by using Launchly in addition to HN (all you would have to do is follow on Twitter or RSS, not visit daily like HN), HN can go back to being about... well... Hacker News! I'm not saying review my site posts do not belong here but I think there is room for a dedicated community.
2) Launchly offers analytics that are not offered here and a comment system that is better-suited to feedback (screenshot attachments are just the first improvement, more to come).
3) Many times app launches get lost in the madness that is HN and go without any (or very little) feedback. Sometimes they end up with very little exposure as a result (heavy news day for example). That won't happen on launchly so if you really want feedback, we would be a better option.

At this point in time, Ask HN may still get you more exposure than you get on launchly because of sheer numbers but we're growing and if people start participating in the community soon that won't be the case.

The pricing is still in flux and I'm not sure where it will end up. It's always easier to go down than up though! There is a Basic, free plan as I'm sure you saw. The Plus plan adds guaranteed feedback plus the full suite of analytics. I plan to add further differentiators as the site grows.

I will work on decluttering the site, thank you!
You can access our services only through a Google Account. Why? Because virtually everyone has a Google account and this way you don't have to remember yet another password.

I see the logic in using OpenID for signin. But only google?

Defi9nitely not everyone has a google account (though perhaps your target audience will have). Also what about the people that do not want to use Google's services (there are plenty). And if you dont have a Google account it's a pain to go elsewhere - sign up - then come back.

However.... www.clickpass.com will do exactly the same thing and offers a much wider range of logins :) (HN here uses it). YOu might want to look into that - I doubt it will take much to switch to using Clickpass (as the openid sequence for them is similar to Google I believe)
Doug Richard Does a lot...My New Year’s List* (Yes I know its August)
He operates in the industry where he does not brand that much as 37signals.
Yep. If you've made a promise, you keep it, even if you hate doing so. That's something I'd expect from someone I entered into business with; wouldn't you?
First-time entrepreneurs are OK too, if they can prove they have determination (can finish things). But make sure their ideas about "company culture" mesh with yours. Company culture starts at the top.
How to File Tax Return Online Without Worries
Bonus points because it means that they will let you work on the platform of your choice regardless of the hardware being more expensive. Starting my current job I was very happy when they asked me if I preferred Mac or PC.
I think a lot of people would agree that what he really wants is a large custard pie in the face.
Perhaps having Mac is more a sign that a company is willing to shell out for decent tools moreso than Macs being some super development platfrm. A developer area full of high-end macs tells me that a company is willing to pay good money for developer tools in a way that a room full of generic Ubuntu boxes does not (independent of their respective merits).
Not all of business believes in more efficiency as you describe it. I'd argue that most IT departments are just as much a jobs program as NASA, and probably for a lot of the same reasons.
Agreed.

My three year old picked up how to manipulate the planet in Star Defense[1] straight away after seeing a friend of mine play it on his iPhone. Also Shape Builder[2] (some kid's puzzle game) was immediately obvious.

She had a little harder time figuring out how a mouse works.

[1] note: I'm sort of affiliated since that friend's company made that game

[2] not connected to this game
I'd be interested in a nice logo for www.hecl.org , but I would need a BSD open source license for it. I would be willing to link to you guys, but probably not shell out the full price for it, since it's an open source project. Let me know if you're interested.
I just read the article and I don't recall seeing him saying anything specifically about where it would go. He alludes to Seattle, and it is apparent that his words do lend to a US based institution, whats to say that Gates shouldn't do this somewhere else. Why not build it somewhere where its 10X cheaper to build and run, then do the research he's already funding "in house" as competition to the other researchers.
The recipe is: take any x, and combine this with any of mobile, social, real time, touching etc. (I once thought that readwriteweb is more interesting but it seems to be TechCrunch without what makes TechCrunch)
My top reason for using a framework for a new project is typically that I want to learn it. Since I worked for myself for most of my developer career so far (but don't any more, to be clear), that wasn't a problem.

However, to continue using a framework, my top criteria are low (or no!) boilerplate and whether it keeps its hands off my SQL and templating.
That's why the word virtually is there :-)

Anyway being this a beta release that's exactly the kind of feedback we're looking for - definitely something worth looking into - thanks!
I agree that probably the audience would increase, especially that it's an easy change. How to say, not a big effort with a big benefit in return. I like the idea behind the service though, looks fresh.
The best framework is the one you would have built yourself, but which is improved and promptly bugfixed by someone else. :)
Why would any organization, especially one heavily based on knowledge gathering, prioritize a reduction in workforce.

If someone is designing a car, and one of his criteria is that using more steel is better, is that a good thing? If someone is writing a novel, and wants to raise the word count, is that useful?
Interview with the COO of Unity, iPhone game development platform
Yes, it is the third party developer's job. It's his job to look at the marketplace for the product he's creating before he spends too much time developing it, and analyze what the current and potential future competition look like. If it's likely you're going to be competing against someone with an insurmountable advantage (the first party), you need to think long and hard about investing resources into that product.

I don't think elegant and innovative is the line here. An idea can be elegant and innovative and something the first party never thought of, but unless it's patentable, you risk first party competition.

Again, I'm not saying first party competition is necessarily death, but it's definitely a challenge.
Why's this crap even on HN ? Take your politics to digg.
I don't think that's true. Well, it is true that there is less funding now. But it's also true that in nearly every industry, the overwhelming trend is to do more in absolute terms with less in relative terms. E.g. what percentage of the average person's annual income would it cost for a transatlantic flight in 1969 compared to 2009, and how many people do it? (That will have to be rhetorical for now as I can't find the numbers with a quick Google). Yet in 1969 (50 years after the first non-stop transatlantic flight) transatlantic travel, while expensive, was unremarkable. By now shuttle flights ought not to be an "event" but routine... And the first 747 flew in 1969, now you can buy 'em off the shelf.
I read this whenever we are currently on a down swing on the roller coaster that is a startup.
Limor is a first-class hacker and this is a first-class hack. I was present when, a couple years back, she used her Wave Bubble to prevent interruptions to a wedding ceremony. It worked perfectly, and upon shutting off the jammer, there was the sound of voicemails arriving to a number of the guests. Bullseye.
Sorry to say but personalized home pages and RSS mashups are like five years ago. Competing in this sector takes much more.
Talking to an operater to make a call is a long, slow, and complex process.

Not when compared to trying to find an entry on the iPhone when you are elderly and blind.

But, yes, it's got tradeoffs, like any designed object. This is why designers get paid: There's no simple checklist of things you can do to make your design good. It has to fit the use case. This is what the essayist is trying to say: From a certain point of view, the iPhone has a lot of interface elements that are hard to use. But, nonetheless, it meets a different important design criterion: It's delightful to explore. There are interface elements that are incredibly obscure, ("Why have all the application icons started shivering like they were cold?") but once you find them it's kind of thrilling, like a magic trick, or an Easter egg. (I find those shivering icons highly amusing, even if nobody has any clue what they mean the first time through.)

But not everyone wants that. The fact that no one design can suit everyone is one reason why we want a diversity of options in the marketplace.
haha fair enough :)

I do like the idea - have you seen sites like 99designs? How do you stack up next to them - not competing / different market, or are you a better implementation.

I like the "fun" on the site btw :) made me smile to browse around.
I look for evidence that they really know what's going on in their target market (especially if it's a narrow vertical), are engaged in that market, and that they're not just a bunch of technologists with a cool product in search of a market.
I can remember 3 huge contractions in the IT industry (early 90s recession, NASDAQ meltdown, present day). When was there ever a comparable mass-layoff scenario in the government?
Another MVNO Bites The Dust: Qwest Discontinues Wireless Service
Direction of the TOP of the steering wheel. Doesn't work if you look at the bottom.
The failure of this argument is that it is not critical to NASA to retain knowledge as far as they have contractors that do the bulk of the work.

Retention of knowledge is not synonymous with retention of workforce. NASA should strive to have a lean workforce and to contract as much work as possible with the aerospace industry, seeding money into the industry. I prefer NASA to give money to aerospace contractors that will spend the profits on research and development than to spend it maintaining a standing army.
On the side note about most of the goverenment's programs:

If there is no demand for your work, you do not do what do you do for love but money and you do not enrich the society in the long term, you are a parasite.
Have you ever used a different framework?

I started my web development career on asp.net but now that I have experience with django I wish to never see another line of asp.net code again.
A good list until he had to put in "Bonus points for Macs". I'd rather have a company let me choose my own hardware and development environment (unless I agreed to use their specific environment in an interview).
yeah but the non-crappy twitter posts are almost always just links to these same blog posts
Ask HN: Learning Industrial Design
I'm looking for a means to learn more about design in general and the concepts, but more specifically Industrial Design. The first step is to get down the basics, but what is the next step after that, and the next one after that.

So essentially I'd boil it down to: Can you recommend any Industrial Design Books?
Maybe this is an oversimplification, but I think the point of the article is "if you're going to do something in a non-standard way, there should be a reason", and the author didn't see an obvious reason for BMW's deviation.

As a motorcyclist I don't see an immediate, obvious advantage to the BMW approach vs. the standard approach but like most things on motorcycles, you may need to actually use it before it makes sense to you.

So it looks like I now have an excuse to spend some time riding Beemers...
Maybe this is the issue -- I've seen these things explained the other way around.

My experience is in Ruby (specifically Rails), with Test::Unit (usually used to espouse TDD), and RSpec (recommended for BDD-style development).

With TDD, I follow the pattern of using real objects for almost everything (only mocking out API wrappers, etc.), setting some initial values, poking a method, and then testing that some final values are as they should be.

With BDD, I end up mocking and stubbing almost everything, and then writing a test that checks that my object under test calls the right methods on other objects.

I like the BDD school for its focus on testing one class in isolation, but often when writing BDD-style tests I just end up echoing the (eventual) implementation in test-form, line by line. It's entirely possible I've got utterly the wrong end of the stick, but I can't shake the feeling that it seems a bit redundant at best, and of little added value at worst.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is already working on making better high schools.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/Pages/high-schools.asp...
"Companies generally don't much like firing people."

Perhaps not, but obviously many of them get over it. And if you think they don't like firing, they really don't like hiring.
Functional PHP 5.3 - What are Anonymous Functions and Closures?
Generally, you should ask questions to help YOU decide if the place is a good (or not) place to work at. Many people use the Joel Test as a guideline. As time goes by, you'll add your own questions to find things that went wrong/right at previous places.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

Since some questions aren't approprite, such as "do you have any psychopaths working here?" then you'll have to find some proxy questions that will help you decide if you're going to end up in a mental wood chipper at this place.

http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/...
That means that they're letting people choose, and that's what some people chose.
Not sure if those 6 are up my alley, but YC RFS #2 sounds like the perfect fit for an idea I had in 1999. Maybe the technology has caught up by now!