skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Go ahead, don't spend money on his business.

But there's no need to make a huge deal out of it, as the boycott is doing. Just read the article, and read the 'About' section on their website, and see whether one seems a justified response to the other.
Gas (presuming he means gasoline) would definitely be useful even if it took more energy to produce. It's fungible, has a high energy density, and won't require overhauling any engines or distribution infrastructure.
Voltaire never actually said that. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations)
Being poor at modeling is essential to OOP (comment on LtU)
I'll be there, man.
Sony Reader Daily Edition Goes Wireless, Promises Library Books
I have had to commute on two of the top ten worst rush hour stretches of highway in the country (and they're within a few miles of each other in southern California, on the 91 and I-10). Noodle is exactly correct that such driving "cultures" do exist, and they make this consciously regularizing driving style worse than useless.
"So, his words are quite a threat"

I resent your use of the word "threat" in this context; a threat implies the pending use of force to harm. Are you sure that you want to equate a man expressing his opinion publicly to the promise of inflicting pain?
Not quite the same. Your Mazda shift lever's manual slot doesn't disappear when you're in automatic. You can still sign a draft contract, it's just not binding.

In the software case you explained, the interface changes so you can't even try to do the wrong thing. On real-world objects, you can always try to do the wrong thing, it just doesn't work.
I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KPCG100NP-Coffee-Grinder-Ni...

Slightly pricey, and a cheaper one would probably work. But I can vouch for this one; it is quiet, easy to clean, and works very well.
This is a representation of classic game theory. If all participants cooperate to drive as described, the traffic clears. If nobody else helps to open up space, however, you will personally arrive at your destination slower by driving passively, even though many others behind you will benefit. And since this type of driving requires some degree of altruism, you can pretty much rule it out as a realistic outcome without introducing another constraint (eg. as mentioned in the article, state troopers merging into traffic and forming a rolling barricade).
IKEA has the added challenge of copycats. Brazen customers are known to come in with carpenters armed with measuring tapes to make replicas.

Wow. That's a great indication of how different the Chinese economic landscape is: it's cheaper to hire a carpenter to build you furniture than it is to buy it at Ikea.
Go ahead, don't spend money on his business.
But there's no need to make a huge deal out of it, as the boycott is doing.

From our perspective, perhaps. I don't doubt the people behind the boycott think there is a substantial need to make a huge deal out of it.
If they're sensible, IKEA will embrace this, even if they're losing a bit of money now. It's establishing their brand and turning it into an aspirational product which will pay dividends as China gets more developed and more of these customers can afford their furniture rather than simply aspiring to it.
Liquid: RDF meandering in FluidDB
Teenage hackers: Making a better world
This is getting ridiculous -- they're double-shortening links! Aren't they a sibling to bit.ly anyway?

I don't understand why the fuck people don't implement link-click-tracking in JS on the client-side instead of fucking with URLs.

The tracking that Google now does for logged-in users on SERPs infuriates me -- it adds a ridiculous amount of latency when you're connected via 3G.
Ask HN: How much?
I am using an anonymous account for this post. Indeed, I registered this account solely for the purpose of this post. Sorry, pg.

I have been freelancing for almost a decade, and I still never know what to say when a prospective client asks me this question.

Given that I have always worked alone, and given that I have never talked to anyone about this topic openly, my response has always been based on personal intuition. Now I wonder if I am underselling myself.

I am not sure if this is a taboo topic among hackers, but my impression is that such a thing does not really exist. But given that I don't know any hackers who freelance personally, I have a real need for getting some more datapoints. If I don't know what others are billing, and I therefore bill significantly less out of my own ignorance and misestimation of effort, I reduce the average price at which others are able to charge. The compound effect of this is tha we are all running like hamsters on wheels for very little money.

Between 16 and 21, I made 5 to 10 HTML-only websites for between $2,000 and $5,000. I also made 3 to 5 flash-based intros/websites for between $5,000 and $20,000.

At 21, I made a .NET-based windows desktop app for $50,000.

At 24, I wrote a RoR web-based app for $100,000.

These were all freelance projects built by me from scratch while doing HS and Uni.

Does anyone else feel like sharing what they billed for contract projects (not subcontracting gigs, client-direct only -- before any type of broker takes their cut)? It doesn't have to be something you did personally. Maybe you know what the company you worked for billed for developing a specific type of app. The results will only be interesting if we get numerous data points, and the best way to motivate more responses is to respond yourself.
> Rare is the artist who takes the time to build a solid foundation of fans/patrons.

Amen. I'm just getting back into music as my next "career" move (touring musician/technomad starting 2010 :). This year has been spent getting the small stuff in place and slowly building a listener-base online and around town. Blogging, twittering, posting songs for feedback, playing open mic nights, joining song circles, networking. Mostly the type of stuff any real business person has to do to make their business succeed, and for artists it's no different.

I've been self-employed for 8 years now (time flies!), and I know over-night successes are fiction. It's a constant struggle to maintain or improve where you're at. Things are made to appear over-night when they took years getting to the point where the forward motion reached that level. I'm hoping to take the same approach to slowly building a music career, and I don't expect it to take just a few years. It will take as long as it takes, doing what it takes, but it's the only approach that works. It's great to hear of others doing the same thing too, right on! That's the main reason why I love HN as a community.

One story that stuck with me, cheesy as it was, was from a speaker I saw back in high school. He was talking about how you see a basketball star, or the math wiz in class, or your favourite band, and how it's easy to say "wow, that's magic!" as if they were just born with the natural aptitude and were instantly where they are today. He said that what's magic is what you don't see, Michael Jordan practicing every day for hours, the band rehearsing and playing small gigs for 10 years, the math wiz actually doing his homework. I always took that to mean we make our own magic happen when people aren't looking :)
Nice use of "peloton".
I agree that it's pretty stupid, but the people doing this boycott aren't restricting anyone's rights. They're just exercising their own right to choose where to shop based on whatever factors they like, even if those factors happen to be stupid (which they are).

Free speech isn't about freedom from consequences. It's about letting people say what they like, if they're willing to accept the natural consequences. One of those consequences is that, if people disagree with you, they can choose to take their business elsewhere.

Problems arise when the consequences are things that private individuals would not be permitted to do, like imprison or harm the speaker.

To put it more simply: I may disagree with what you boycott, but I will defend to the death your right to boycott it.
Haha, I love how every time someone (usually someone who works for fogcreek no doubt!) posts a story about Fog Creek on HN-- because they always get exposed for their irrelevance. Fog Creek is as relevant to HN as a ".NET Solutions Partner" from Muskogee.
No, I'm complaining that it has implicit type coercions, which is one flavor of weak typing.

(I suppose, I would also complain that it does implicit coercions in a way which results in loss of precision.)
Photos of Demo Day on FanChatter
Can you elaborate on Y Combinator's definition (or scale) of techie -> non-techie?

Is someone with a knowledge and understanding of the tech landscape and years of experience in the industry considered a techie...even if they're not hackers? Or does Hacker=Techie?
http://jwz.livejournal.com/1002269.html

Yelp have always been extortionists, and don't even have the courtesy to be upfront about it.
Mentioning how you made a cake from scratch and linking to a video of seemingly scientific research claiming an event to happen out of nowhere and for no apparent reason are two completely different things, due to the two completely different contexts.
My biggest complaint about this is that it's going to give many people who don't actually help traffic, and just drive slowly, feel self-righteous about their driving habits. Yes, in some circumstances this driving style can help traffic; no, it doesn't mean that driving 15MPH slower than ambient traffic is justified "for the greater good", especially if you're the type who jealously guards the thirty car lengths in front of you, accelerating to keep people from changing lanes in front of you.
BTW, sorry if this sounds off-topic, do you know any good books/articles on Traffic? I'm very much fascinated by this too. Thanks.
I am a fast driver, but in traffic I switch to wave abatement. It seems only logical to help the system when there is no way to personally benefit. (Except that moving to the right-most non-merging lane will help you avoid waves and move faster.) My prioritized rules of the road are:

1) go whatever speed you like
2) empty lane to your right? move right
3) no car in front of you and a car behind you? move right as soon as possible
4) slower car in front? move left if you can

These simple rules cover most situations in a way that benefits everyone involved. They do not cover some minority cases: aggressive tailgaters and high relative lane speeds (I leave a buffer lane if > 10 mph and no cars behind me).
Planning on starting a side project? Read this before you
You know what else what be a cool service for them to offer? Feedback from experts. Obviously it'd be more expensive, but if you could submit the site to be reviewed by a panel of UI experts, software engineers, etc., I think that'd be a pretty worthwhile service as well, especially for startups.
Stand Turns MacBook Into a Desktop
I read a quote somewhere (forget where) saying "folks in favor of universal healthcare keep saying 'lets have a debate'. OK, then Mackey's editorial was a PERFECT example of having a debate ... and he's getting castigated for it. This shows that folks in favor of government run healthcare are not really interested in a debate - they are interested in complete victory, with zero dissent. It's an ideology, not a rational position."

I 100% agree.
This isn't a free speech issue, and equating it to a free-speech issue is fallacious.

People can say anything they like, even if they are standing centre-stage and making my blood boil, but that doesn't mean I'll want to buy something from them afterwards.
It was a weird interaction between my JS code and Amiando's JS code. It's fixed now.
If anything, a rabid boycotting effort seems detrimental to the case of reformists; fear-mongering and verbal abuse simply because a man authors an eloquent article stating his opinions? That sounds scary to me.

Besides, Mackey's stance has been empirically expressed for a long time now; just examining the way he handles health care internally, with his own employees, should tell much of what he believes in. To rifle and shout for blood now, just because he's released a minor articulation of something he's been advocating a while now, would seem sort of silly on the part of conscious Whole Foods consumers.
I've only used it once previously, but I was also surprised at the verbosity of the responses. (both a good and bad thing)
3 Web 2.0 business models – where do you fit?
There are a lot of driver douches which will always overtake whatever is overtakeable, driving like this makes you an easy 'target' and that gets me all worked up.

edit: spelling
But if your business strategy is targeting a specific demographic, you get what you deserve if you go publicly opposing what that demographic overwhelmingly supports.
The reason some of the pictures have robots in them is that YC shares a building with Anybots, Trevor's robot company, and the robot part of the building becomes "back stage" on dday.

Notice Slava with the graph of RethinkDB's astounding performance.
Ye have sown the wind, Mr. Fish...
I absolutely believe in free speech. I would be the first to yell if he was censored by the government, or was unable to make his logical appeal in the appropriate forum (which it was.)

However, as a consumer, I also try to patronize companies that share my ideals and do not actively work against what I work for. Many progressives do the same, and were shocked to find out that the CEO/founder was a libertarian.

I am not boycotting Whole Foods (though I do not shop there on a regular basis to start), but I do not feel that such an action is censorship.
Doesn't this imply that cities could alleviate traffic pathologies by hiring people to drive carefully down the highway?
You cannot sign a draft, signing is a legal thing, not just a putting your name on a piece of paper thing. Imagine you're a manager and you call your EA: "Henderson, get me the YC contract to sign!"

Henderson replies back on the squack box: "Sorry sir, it's still a draft, it has to be approved by legal before you can sign it."

> Your Mazda shift lever's manual slot doesn't disappear when you're in automatic

No it doesn't, but you can't actually move the lever there without changing the gearbox's state from Drive to Manual.

So, we can say that it has an interface including the messages "+" and "-" at all times (The slot), but there's no way to send it a "+" or a "-" message unless the gearbox state is "M."
I have actually tried but could not find any scientific evidence that these type of technical interviews actually result in the best hiring decisions.
thanks! that makes much sense..

I will also be writing my master dissertation on this subject, so I was glad to find a bibliography at the end of your paper. It’s quite hard to find good reference material on the topic. Thanks again!
Not even close to off-topic. Traffic problems (and queuing theory) have a long history in CS, and the related problems have applications all over the place.
Especially in the case of pain this makes total sense to me. Pain is just a signal that something is wrong with you. If you believe in some deep way that the problem has been fixed, then there's no reason for your body to keep making you feel pain.
I'm sorry, but the idea that the boycott is somehow threatening freedom of speech is utterly absurd.

> A boycott is a ban and bans on other people’s opinions are stupid and childish.

I don't know if this was a massive logical slip-up on Berkun's part or what, but: nobody's banning Mackey's opinion. As far as I'm aware, copies of the Wall Street Journal containing that article are not being burned, nor is the website being hacked to prevent anyone from reading it.

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with guaranteeing that people should keep patronizing your business if you say something that rankles them.
That's not the only meaning: "a person or thing likely to cause damage or danger". There are economic threats (the threat of bankruptcy), social threats (blackmail), etc. etc.

I think what's important here is that the boycotters perceive the Whole Foods CEO's opining as an actual threat. In the "battle" for ideas, it makes sense that you wouldn't actively support your opposition.
These two concepts -- that many people are ignoramuses, and that more convincing evidence might help -- are not exclusive of each other.
Why am I in this brain?
I prefer face to face to texting, texting to phone, and phone to email/im. At least, for keeping up with local friends. For friends who live several states away, I prefer facebook > im > skype. I hardly get any personal e-mail.
This seems to be news to many people, but "free speech" does not mean others have to listen to you, agree with you, or least of all financially support you.

The guy delivered a big Fuck You to his customers - the same people who are responsible for him having a stronger voice than an ordinary person. Now he has to pay the price for his stupidity, and they are absolutely right to boycott WF.
In Indiana and Michigan, left is a passing lane.

One problem here is that people driving the maximum lawful speed are still driving too slow for the prevailing speed of traffic.
I thought we were pro-"letting other people express their quite reasonable opinions without fear of illegitimate retaliation" around here.

Look, there are certain opinions which are so far beyond the pale that I think it would be reasonable to boycott folks who express them. But these are opinions lying well outside the mainstream Republican/Democrat opinion blob. When the ~50% of society who believe one thing start retaliating against the ~50% of society who believe the other thing, then that's really bad for society, and reflects very badly on those who want to lump all dissent from their own position into the "unacceptable" basket.
It's pretty clear in English that when we say "threat to X" and X is an abstract concept, we don't heave to mean literal force. It simply means it puts the concept in some kind of danger.

For example, "Your capricious coding practices are a threat to the quality of our code base."

You're stuck on the first entry in the dictionary for "threat." The parent was using the second entry: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/threat
Responses from The Oil Drum to Michael Lynch's NYT essay on Peak Oil
> It will take as long as it takes, doing what it takes, but it's the only approach that works.

And that right there was my first big mistake. I'd jump into an art career half-assed, and if it didn't take off like a rocket in six months, I'd put it aside and collect a Day Job paycheck. As a result, I'm pushing 40 and my art is at a stage right now where it should've been fifteen years ago.

But I didn't stick with it, and all that time is wasted time now. I listened to people who didn't understand a thing about art, and measured my success by the "get rich quick and get a Hollywood deal!" crap that everyone thinks is the true measure of success. I fucked it up and missed out on all those years of working every day to get better. Right now, I'm scrambling as fast as I can to catch up.

Those of you in your 20s, let me say this: If there's something you can't stop thinking about--whether it's art, music, coding, or whatever--then just do it. Even if you suck at it right now, it's better to get all the suckitude out of your system now, while you're young, so that by the time you're my age, you've put all that behind you and your craft is nice and polished.

Hook me up with a link to your music, man! I wanna hear it. If it's something that jives with my artwork, I'd be willing to give you a free plug. If you'd like to reciprocate, let me know.

Currently, I'm creating a comic and related artwork for that niche of people who are tired of all-ages, family-friendly nonsense. The comic's NSFW, but it's nothing racier than you'd find in an old copy of Heavy Metal.

Link to the comic is: http://locus.keenspot.com

You'll wanna read it from the beginning, or it'll make no sense. TOC link is towards the top, under the banner and above the nav buttons.

And good luck with your music career! I've always wanted to make music, but have no talent for it. I live vicariously through all my musician friends. :)
That would be unfortunate, since a heavy truck has the most to gain by not changing speed.
I disagree that expressing a well thought out opinion on an important social issue is a dumb action.
Surely you cannot fail to have noticed how much Americans currently spend on health care, and how moving from private industry to state industry consistently increases the amount spent (at least in the US!)? Now, a case could be made that health care is an exception, largely because it's so heavily regulated already as to be effectively a poorly-run state industry with private profits. However, taking any other country's efficient or well-run government program and trying to build one like it in the US is probably doomed to failure. The US government has very bad incentives for "efficient" and "well-run".
Except it doesn't. Like I said, I rarely experience drivers cutting in front of me.
Even so, the word has a devious connotation. There is nothing devious about open speech.
Can you recommend any good books related to Traffic issues for a beginner and intermediate? Thanks.
I've spent the last 15 months watching what and how my baby girl learns, and I can definitively say that she does not learn only by example, which means that some other form of guidance in necessary. It's certainly true that children mimic many things we do which become ingrained behaviors in time, but it is not the only way they learn.

Case in point; my daughter has never seen a person touch a hot stove, run into a table at full speed, spit food across the room, pee on the carpet, bite someone's toe, chew a crayon, or any of a thousand other things she'll attempt to do until we teach her otherwise. Let's face it, at this stage she's a chemically fueled entropy machine. Her instinct is to try everything she can think of just to see what happens.

In activities where she does behave by mimicking, for instance eating, we've adopted the behavior we'd like her to learn - we eat almost exclusively what she should, but this won't stop her from attempting innumerable dangerous or socially unacceptable behaviors before she can reason for herself, and in those case there is more needed than just leading by example.

Of course, the children in this research are a little bit older, and I am very curious to see how her behavior changes in the next few years.
Seconded. Cheap, fast and was blown away by the quality of the feedback.
I find the inference that you must be a dolt ("If you're able to not make such silly mistakes ...") to want an type system to be both insulting and positively ridiculous.

A powerful type-system provides tools to concisely express business/logic constraints and automatically enforce those constraints across the entirety of your codebase.

Advanced type systems are a powerful tool to enable you to write less code that is guaranteed correct. It's not a seat belt for morons like myself who apparently lack your mental caliber.
Driving in Los Angeles, this is exactly what I do... I'm convinced that most traffic jams are caused by people needlessly applying their brakes and slow cars clogging the fast (far left) lane.
That doesn't follow rationally, I don't think. The argument looks like this:

1. Some people support universal healthcare.
2. Some people are boycotting Whole Foods.
3. All the people boycotting Whole Foods support universal healthcare.

Therefore, all people who support universal healthcare are ideologues who are incapable of carrying on a rational debate.

Eh, I guess it appeals to the same sort of people who think Glen Beck is representative of everyone who votes Republican, though.
"Each "Sprint" lasts around 15-30 day"

This seems to be ignorant of the use of one-week sprints on some projects.
Also, what kind of sprint lasts "around 15 days"?
Sprints are always fixed-length (scope is varied to fit the sprint). Two-week sprints are used by some, but nobody does 15 day (aka two weeks plus one day) sprints.