skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Before the big recognition of the H1N1'09 in April, my workplace seemed to have slightly more-than-usual flu-like illness in February/March. I had a very brief flu-like illness at that time, even though I'd received the seasonal vaccine last fall. I think there's at least a small chance this was a mild form of the H1N1'09 flu circulating early. (It was said to have been circulating in Mexico for months before being recognized, and the California-Mexico travel-commerce links are strong.)

Since the April panics, a number of other coworkers or acquaintances have reported flu-like illnesses, either among themselves, family members, or other acquaintances. As far as I know none of these cases have been definitively identified as the H1N1'09 flu, but I suspect many were. Everyone within 1-2 social hops from me has recovered without problems; I don't even know of any who took antivirals.

So I don't definitively fit in any of the poll categories. There's a very small chance I had it before April (but with no diagnosis). There's a strong chance I've interacted with someone who's had it (with no formal diagnosis) but recovered.
If no small portion of it is a good idea by itself, then I don't think it really is a good idea.
Write it down in my ideas book and think about it long enough that I either can implement it (MVP, get the resources, etc) or it mutates into something better within my reach. Sitting on it also means when I see an opportunity that might fit it (e.g. funding available for $foo) it's there ready to go.

Of course, this doesn't always work, some ideas are too timely and then you have a different decision process; but sitting on an idea from a year ago and spotting a funding source specific to it this year is how I'm doing what I'm currently doing.
>Indian companies aren't (by and large) startups and/or doing technically sophisticated things , which is what would need great (vs just decent, or worse) engineers.

I downvoted you because of the offensive generalization you made. I would have appreciated a thoughtful analysis rather than a general bash that your reply seems to be.
You could just do it for fun and to see the world. Make a video if you want--500k views is enough to be proud of. I don't see why in the world you want want to, or much less expect to be able to, monetize the trip.
Not surprisingly, above page created in MS Word. What one can expect further.

<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12">
<meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 12">
> Note to self: start asking candidates to write SQL in interviews.

Heh. Quite a few people (~20%) take the attitude of the parent poster, saying they're not solid on SQL since they've been using ORMs for a while. So I ask them to write the same select in LINQ or their ORM language of choice. Not a single one has been able to do it.
I feel dumb asking this, but what does EV stand for? Obviously, it's an electric motorcycle, but does it just mean electric vehicle?
If this guy is innocent... rule of the wise; don't open your home to women you don't know. Gents you should already know this.
Do libraries have wifi?
One thing I've always wondered about Hubble — if it's orbiting earth, scooping up protons for long periods of time, doesn't that mean it'll create a photo made up of the captures from every part of that small area....in the entire orbit? So two galaxies next to each other on the photo could be on the opposite sides of us really?

I really fail at cosmology…
What's the mileage like? You'd have to be proud if its comparable to a technology giant like Siemens!
Look what else is happening, though. The people who are explaining why they upvoted this story in a very Hacker News-ish way are being down-voted. It's not all cut and dry.
"I downvoted you because of the offensive generalization you made."

Interesting. Why should you be offended? Let's take a look at the statement you quoted as "offensive".

"Indian companies aren't (by and large) startups and/or doing technically sophisticated things , which is what would need great (vs just decent, or worse) engineers."

The "by and large" bit of the statement you quoted is a qualifier that means exactly what it says. In other words by saying

I am saying

(1) Most Indian companies aren't startups. (But a few are).
(2) Most Indian companies aren't doing technically sophisticated things. (But a few - in this case a very small minority) are.

If you think either of those statements are wrong, please make a counter argument with logic or facts instead of being "offended". I would love to hear a convincing argument that most Indian companies are startups and/or that they are doing technically sophisticated things.

That said, downvote away if it makes you happy! I couldn't care less about my karma score! Downvoting is your privilege as a member of HN. Whether you use that privilege blindly or thoughtfully is completely up to you. :-)

PS: I am Indian, live and work in India etc, fwiw.
Blackhole alert: I did apply at twitter a month and a half ago, and never got a reply back. Neither positive, or negative.

They probably do get too many applications. They are like the brangelina of sillicon valley right now.
Yep, EV stands for Electric Vehicle
http://www.siggraph.org/ - this year's conference is pretty soon, I think.
especially since it hasn't been 4 days since the last re-run of this:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=750113
Video Quality Goes Up, Up, Up
People are wondering who upvoted, I think it's interesting to see that as most people who are upvoting this do it from title. Often people vote from interesting title, then click to read, only after. Title was appealing, expecting some article pointing and explaining what is wrong with "big shot" programmers. And finally, it's not, it's a stupid thing. But it got upvoted, thanks to title. Interesting, really.
I'm struggling to put together why we even need a "CIO of the United States". Shouldn't all of these things be managed by the relevant department's professional IT staff, not pointless bureaucrats? If they're trying to coordinate an IT strategy between the departments ... didn't they learn anything from DHS? Adding more layers doesn't make anything any simpler, just creates more neglect, more waste, worse policies, and slower response times.

If they were serious about streamlining IT, or anything else in government, they'd focus on paring down to a manageable size, not creating new bureaus and departments to oversee the old bureaus and departments.
After reading the article, I have but one question: What are eigen values?

A quick lookup on Wikipedia reveals that they are used in linear algebra and, for example, matrix transformations. I think this article failed by trying to relate eigenvalues to everyday scenarios, similar to when beginning calculus books give examples involving total pressure on an underwater dam door or mass of a rod as examples for the usefulness of definite integrals. In those cases, you end up calculating the area under the curve, but the curve happens to be the graph of a constant function or a first-order polynomial. Calculating such areas can easily be done by using the elementary formula for the area of a trapezoid.
We license Yamaha, Honda engines for now. We might even get this engine, but the body is custom built.

Current site is flash-based. The company is an Aussie boutique shop with A-list celebrity and activist clients:

http://deus.com.au/

I am bringing that to the U.S., Middle East and Europe.

[Edit: We're also offering a very handsome sales commission for referrals. Email in profile. I can say this in HN can't I? Fuckit, it's business!]
And that equal footing is pretty shaky. Simply put, without great luck or some intense marketing, your app is just one of thousands, only to be buried in the App Store after a day or two.
Command Query Separation?
Once something hits the front page it usually will garner enough votes to stay there for a while, once it goes above the fold it is going to go into a feedback loop simply because that's the page that most people start from when they read HN.

That and plenty of people vote based on titles, not on articles. That could be mitigated by requiring a click on the link before allowing you to vote an article up.
First Class Composable Events in F#
This is brilliant. Not cheap, not practical, but it'll add some big brand credence to EV technology that nobody else can muster, given the world wide fan base that OCC enjoys. Nice work junior :-)
Cần 2 trợ thủ nha khoa làm việc từ 8h-12h & 15h-20h
Làm việc từ thứ 2-thứ 7, chủ nhật nghỉ. Lương thoả thuận. Cám ơn đã đọc tin. LH: Tuyết, 275/24 bạch đằng p.15 q. Bình thạnh, Tel. 08-38994362
Windows 7 Boot from VHD
Here's another intuitive introduction in this article explaining the SVD:

http://www.ams.org/featurecolumn/archive/svd.html
Just the smell alone...
I see. But there must be something more to it, because an asynchronous request shouldn't lock up the browser. Maybe you could use the server as a proxy between the browser and the search-site. It would still load asynchronous, but it would be much swifter. That would also allow you to cache the results for common queries.
do you know rails? ping me an email if you're interested. We're based in Cambridge, UK - but maybe can come up with some remote working stuff.
Netflix Prize: It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over
Vacation rental condo
Does a family vacation to Siesta Key sound great to you. Log on to seacrestapts.com to find fantastic deals on a vacation apartments & lodging in the present days.
Adobe Reader's Security Woes a Boon for Foxit
Foxit Reader, a free PDF-reading knockoff of Adobe Systems Inc.'s free Adobe Reader, has won what its maker estimates is 70 million users worldwide because of its speed and light weight.
This was the one for me: "To be fair though, when confronted by the sheer enormity of distances between the stars, better minds than the one responsible for the Guide's introduction have faltered. Some invite you to consider for a moment a peanut in reading and a small walnut in Johannesburg, and other such dizzying concepts."

Like TP, he had an amazing penchant for explaining the unexplainable :)
Wow that are some pretty impressive tricks there - getting locations of radars via a reflection on the moon, spoofing radar signal. However, Im not sure if I would be as proud as this guy is if my misinformed report practically started a war where ~6 million people died. And that's why I dont want to work for military
How'd you get the .edu domain if you're a company?
Ahaa , we had just conceived this way several months ago in China ...
(1) Most companies in the world (including US) aren't startups. I don't see how that case is special to India.

(2) Most companies in the world (including US) aren't doing technically sophisticated things. I don't see how that case is special to India.

Even if data shows otherwise, it is unfair to put a qualifier "by and large" and then start the bashing. That is a safety device you have adopted.

It doesn't really matter if you are Indian or not. Your argument should stand for you, not for the country you belong to.
> Thoughts?

Why does it inspire fear?
"Which software developer wants to adopt a technology that can only be used on the latest operating system?" may be Microsoft's Achilles heel. Microsoft wants to sell the latest version of Windows, but third-party Windows developers want their software to work on all versions of Windows, not just the latest one.
"It doesn't really matter if you are Indian or not. Your argument should stand for you, not for the country you belong to"

Oh I completely agree. I was just wondering if you thought I was some Non Indian "bashing" Indians. Good to know you are not.

"(1) Most companies in the world (including US) aren't startups. I don't see how that case is special to India.

(2) Most companies in the world (including US) aren't doing technically sophisticated things. I don't see how that case is special to India."

First adressing the point you make above, I did follow up with a paragraph (in the OP) on how Indian companies are mostly outsourcing based or ODC's attempting to do low quality work their parent organizations shift to India. In other words I am making a direct Causal link between the fact that most compoanies in India do bodyshopping/outsourcing to why great enginers find working here frustrating.I've edited the order of paragraphs to represent that emphasis if it weren't clear.

You were the one who chose that sentence as specifically "offensive". Pointing out that this isn't specific to India isn't the same as being "offended".

If you are saying that there are companies, especially startups in India that match the technological sophistication of say Facebook or Google, I'd love to hear specific cases. I hold my opinions very loosely and am quite willing to be corrected/

That said,
"Even if data shows otherwise, it is unfair to put a qualifier "by and large" and then start the bashing. That is a safety device you have adopted."

I am not "bashng" anyone. I don't need a "safety device". What I wrote is what I genuinely believe. I am not a politician trying to convince anyone to think as I do!

This is a completely wrong argument. What "the data shows" is what is important. Instead of trying to guess my intent ("bashing" , "offending" and so on, without much to base these judgments on), why don't you counter my argument?

My argument is that outsourcing companies are very common and sophisticated startups are very very rare (practically no existent and less than say about 15 or so in number at most) in India and consequently there isn't a large market for really good engineers, who mostly migrate to the USA.

If you believe I am wrong,here is a challenge for you. why don't you name some Indian startups (say 10 would do) which are (a) funded (b) doing technologically sophisticated software? That way all of us benefit.
For a man whose user name has always been "bigthingist", I discovered that small things pay much much better.

Take your big idea and turn it into a very small one. Then do that one.
Hallelujah and Amen to Clojure. It is going to rock the world!
Interesting. Although I'm still in college (and also very busy with some projects of my own), I would like to keep a lookout for you guys :)
True.

the article says that there were three other people who stayed with him and he tried something similar, but couldn't since he was out numbered. This SOUNDS like he is "probably" guilty, but definitely doesn't mean that he definitely is.. and, like you said, if he is innocent, his life is ruined.

Its sad.. if its true, then the poor girls life is probably messed up now - if its not true, then the guys life is messed up... :-(
Not a good idea, or not a feasible idea?
I can think of dozens of good ideas that cannot be reduced to some kind of minimal, doable project.
What happens when you bring a n00b bf home to ur 1337 parents
I don't know about AirBnB, but couchsurfing is NOT about savings - or it shouldn't be. Most hosts I know won;t host you if they feel you're only there to save money. Instead, its about a cultural exchange, about meeting new people and making new friends.
This is an interesting and insightful article, but I absolutely have to disagree that "too much innovation" is our problem. Unfocused and inconsistent innovation? Maybe. Too much? No such thing.

Searching for a root cause, however, I would point to the leadership. Lack of focus and and consistency is directly derived from poor leadership, which is only partly due to poor leaders. I'd say that the absolute root cause of our problems is antiquated value-systems in use by leadership.

In order to get a mass of talented people doing amazing things, you need leadership to provide one thing effectively: alignment. Not mandated directives; you need clarity of purpose. I think Sinofski has proved this works in how he lead the most customer-focused, high quality versions of Office (2007) and Windows (7) ever.

When you have two different teams arguing over whose brand gets to go on the product, such that you get Microsoft Diet Cherry Dr Pepper with Lime 2008 Edition, just to settle a turf war, that is a failure of alignment. Each team is looking out for themselves, but the people who are supposed to be looking out for Microsoft as a whole, aren't. They have 9 Profit and Loss charts and look at them separately. When the CEO sets prescient for micro-optimization, how can you expect anyone to be aligned for macro-optimization?
Faster Websites with CSS Sprites
This is a pretty good explanation for an essentially mathematical/abstract concept.

Another name for eigenvectors is "identity" vectors, iirc (it's been a few years...).
They keep the telescope pointed at the same area of the sky of course. Stars (except for our sun) are so far away that both their real motion and their parallax motion (apparent motion of the stars due to us moving around the sun) appear very tiny. Hence the term 'fixed stars' from antiquity (as opposed to the 'wandering stars', which turned out to actually be planets one we got telescopes).
Parallax isn't going to cause much error here. We're about 8 light-minutes from the sun, but the telescope was trained on galaxies millions (edit: billions) of light-years away.

Edit: Proportionally, it's about the difference of the view between your two eyes, of the sun.
California Foreclosures Stabilize at New Level
Why "Safe" Banks are Risky
Or "not a feasible idea.. yet", I have some ideas which I definitely do not have the resources to pull off and don't know how to split into small chunks which I can, but I may well have the resources in a year or two, so it might be worth keeping them until then.
hypernumbers.com (Seedcamp '07)

Edinburgh, Bonnie Scotland - must be able to work in the EU.

Engineer with Javascript and exposure to functional programming (preferably Erlang). Contact gordon AT hypernumbers DOT com for details.
Roost.com has a JS/frontend open, and I would be grateful if you applied. (Yes, you!) The site hasn't been updated yet, but here's a link with a relevant email address: http://www.roost.com/web/jobs.action

We're well-funded (Sequoia, Shasta, General Catalyst, Geolo) and we're located smack in the middle of San Francisco.

(anigbrowl and I hosted the last SF HN meetup, so you might know me from there.)
Are you still in Chicago, Thomas? I have a house in Oak Park (and go to OPPL about once a week when I'm in the city.)

Didn't the fluorescent lighting (weird, flowery lighting fixtures) and homeless guys bother you? Or the kids that fight/argue and get kicked out by the security guards?

I definitely work better in the library than in coffee shops, but I'm too spoiled to do it full-time now. My concentration isn't what it used to be.
> If you can make connections horizontally rather than vertically you can be a very successful entrepreneur.

By this you mean getting to know people outside your current industry or sector? Or do I misunderstand you?
Well it all gets down to definitions and its more of a rule of thumb. However, I'm very suspicious of ideas that seem to be good only because the complexity gives them a certain gravitas. Its sort of a version or expansion (or misappropriation) of Gall's law:

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.”
This is only somewhat related to the article, but I rather dislike this trend about putting people in treehouses or what have you to make them think and do creative things.

First of all, it's insulting to intelligent people. "Here, go into this treehouse, put on the funny hat and start brainstorming. "

Second, it doesn't give justice to the art of being creative. Companies don't put people into rooms filled with balancesheets and numbers and expect them to be able to do accounting. Being creative is a skill you hone over many years. And it's not an easy skill either. Good creatives have vast general knowledge, are good listeners, good at crossbreeding ideas, good at visualising and great at thinking an idea through to the end to find the weak spots.

Interestingly I know quite a few people that are extremely good at coming up with ideas and being creative and they all absolutely hate being put in a room with people who have no idea and told to be "creative" and to "brainstorm". It's like putting the company accountant in a room with secretaries and marketing people and telling them to do the annual report. The accountant would run away screaming and the annual report would be flawed like hell.
My overall response is sort of meh. I say do what you love. If you're driven to do something you might as well do it rather than always second guessing yourself, or imagining what might have been.

On the other hand, there is a sort of frenzied mania that exists in the valley that I think is very limiting if you buy into too much. For the cool stuff that happens here there exists the same sort of herd mentality that geeks often decry in places where they don't fit in, the only difference being the fads here are more to our sensibilities.

FWIW I spent my teens and early twenties being a total slacker, and I don't regret it one bit. I went to public school and I got to know people from all walks of life. I did not move to the valley until I was 30. It's all been valuable experience, and not a detriment to mastering web development, because a regular 9-5 job on a good team was plenty of time to master the craft and still live life like a normal 20-something. The great thing about the Web is that all the best info about it is on the web itself, so physical location does not directly put you at a disadvantage.

As far as I'm concerned being young is about possibilities. Opportunities come up and you should take advantage of them. You shouldn't get bogged down with too much planning for the future, because the world we live in now is not the world of the future. Maybe that means hammering it out at a startup when you're 18. Maybe it means going into the Peace Corps. Maybe it means trying your hand at cat burglary. Whatever you do just don't let you or anyone else stick you in a box.
Surge in Tiny Loans Spurs Credit Bubble in a Slum
I sleep over them
'Fastest Dying Cities' Meet
Airlines' Expert on Missing Bags Loses Bags 7 Times
To me, the article isn't saying to abandon the road to mastery, but merely to take some detours once in a while. Dedicating a lot of time and energy to something is definitely fulfilling and has a compounding effect, but as many astute programmers have noticed, there is an echo-chamber effect if all the information you get is from programmers and the programming world. Worse, you could continue to hold incredibly inaccurate beliefs about other people like the professional photographer in the article, and make judgment calls based on that false information.

Of course you need something to bring to table in modern times, to be a productive member of society. However, that doesn't mean to specialize to the extent that you lose all context. Dig deep, sure, but come up for air sometime and take a look around. You'll be surprised at what you may discover.
I live in Melbourne, Australia, and had flu-like symptoms a couple of weeks back. I heard afterwards that "Australian Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said 80 percent of people testing positive to influenza now have A/H1N1 flu." so while it's likely I had H1N1 I couldn't definitively say.

I'm not sure whether it's worth adding an option for this sort of case in the poll, or whether it's too vague.