skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I've asked all my j-school (USC, Columbia, UNC, Berkeley) friends and they don't know. Most are just switching focus into media (ie, broadcasting) studies.
I think the major publishers are missing out on an opportunity to define the next-gen of aggregators.

What I mean is, part of the appeal of the aggregators isn't only that I have stories from a bunch of different places. An important part (to me) is the consistency of the layout. It isn't that the articles are of higher quality (80% of what shows up on HN is dreck, too), it's that I can mentally sort through them.

Once a link is selected and clicked, though, my entire experience changes. Inconsistent layouts, ad placement, all sorts of "tricks". Once away from the aggregator, the experience begins to suck.

To me, there seems to be an opportunity there for online newspaper sites to take their existing model (original reporting), and combine it with aggregation. Rather than link to another site, package the content with a consistent interface. The tricky part is making sure that everybody is compensated fairly.

If paying HN (or Reddit, or even Fark) to aggregate the content as well as the links resulted in an easier experience for me, I'd do it. How much, I'm not sure, but certainly more than "free".
Your advice is sound. The first requirement is 'desire'. One must desire mental acuity.

(Time will tell if he will regret giving up physics and mathematics for the ephemeral ego boost of having his "work" viewed by n people.)
Yes, exactly. "Please don't touch my screen" has always worked fine for me. Especially if you get it out quick before they actually make contact, always say it politely, and make sure that you repeat the warning 100% of the time that there's a finger heading towards the screen.

"Hey, you see that thing right--"
"Please don't touch my screen."
"I didn't touch it, though."
"I know. Thank you. Please keep it that way."
"Ok... anyway, the thing right here--" (pointing)
"Please don't touch my screen."
(mildly annoyed, steps back a foot) "So, the thing under the red bit there..."

The downside is that the obsessive screen smudger will be a little bit annoyed at you. Which, in my opinion, is better that you being annoyed at them. At least it's in the open. And, there's a good chance that they won't come bother you f2f as much, unless it's really necessary, which is a bonus.

If that doesn't work, just work remotely.

And, seriously, what kind of unevolved cretin can't communicate without pointing anyway? It's embarrassing. If you have to point, point with the mouse, or learn to use Skitch.
Now I just throw all those ideas into a drawer and ignore them, tantalising as they are!

I second the importance of having such a drawer.

I once heard Jim Coudal talk about how at his company they have "The Book", where they put exciting but fruitless ideas, and how often they know before acting on them that that's where they belong.

Since starting such a file, that's been my experience as well. It makes it easier to distinguish good ideas from ones that are just fun to think about, and gives you the freedom to revel in an exciting idea with the knowledge that you're not going to actually have to do any work on them. It also lets you share ideas with others without being that guy who is always talking about things he's gonna do.

Just throwing them away and trying to forget about them doesn't work as well. Recording them prevents the feeling that ideas are scarce and you might "run out", because you have concrete evidence that you already have more ideas than you can handle.
RFS1: write a crawler to gather as much information as possible on trending topics, rank the sources, then have a writer look through the autatically gathered data and use his intelligence and skill to put it into a nicely flowing story that makes sense?
I'm not sure that an opensource version of StackOverflow would be as useful as StackExchange. Let's ignore the re-implementation issue, and assume that an open-source clone appears by magic tomorrow morning. You still have the support problem.

Anyone doing this as more than a hobby needs a supported solution. The reason to pay $xxx a month is so that you can outsource worrying about the site's maintenance and upkeep. The cost (in man-hours) of building such a clone would be dwarfed by the hours spent bug-fixing and performance-tuning and dealing with hardware/software issues. If the site is ancillary to your business (if it's your customer support site, for instance), then there's a lot of sense in letting someone else handle the support, especially if web software isn't your core-competency. At $1300 for a dedicated, hosted server, you're essentially betting that it'll require more than 12 programmer-hours/week ($15.6k/year hosted vs. $50k/year for the programmer) to maintain the open-source version and run the hardware. And you're betting that someone at Fog Creek dedicated to maintaining Stack Exchange is going to be better at it than whomever you lasso into maintaining it part-time.
Don't touch my screen. Yes I'm serious. Go clean it up. Now.

I use this method and it helps me avoid building up resentment towards people.
I'm interested in the opinion of HN readers: PG says 'start from how to make money'; should j-startups be starting from advertising, or paywalls, or something else entirely?
Good article, thank you for sharing.
This sounds very similar to what my company already does:
http://hubpages.com

Google Knol has not done well in this space:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=757287

America Online seems to be shooting for something similar:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/29/aol-newsroom-now-has-wo...

There's also squidoo and mahalo. Mahalo has recently done quite well in terms of growing traffic:
http://www.quantcast.com/mahalo.com

It will be very interesting to see what startups emerge from this!
Your initial claims were much broader than that ("I think that people talk about C as an important language because it is difficult to write programs in.", "Every year that goes by, C becomes less useful. How is this a good language to teach students?"), but let's go with your current claim.

Part of me sees the benefits of teaching computational complexity using a high-level language like Python. But part of me still can't buy into it, because what is the computational complexity of this excerpt of Python, in terms of n?

strings = ["X"] * n
concatenated = ""
for s in strings:
concatenated += s

The answer is that it depends on the implementation of Python!
But I think its always over-the-line when a touch can actual do some small amount of damage to the item - any touch to laptop screen is going to be reducing its lifetime at least a bit.
Bah. Well, in theory, maybe.

But can anyone here honestly say that they've ever had to get rid of a laptop even one day earlier than they would have anyways because of the damaging effects of finger oils on the screen? There are so many things in a laptop that degrade more quickly than the screen surface, I just don't think it's a very legitimate worry.

What's the worst case scenario from touching a laptop screen a lot, other than the minor annoyance of having to wipe the crap off from time to time?
Well yeah, and the computational complexity of a program which calls a function in the C standard library depends on the implementation of C.
so is this just going to be a rehash of http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html ?
I've had the exact same problems. Had to use Safari to post updates.
Speaking of highly recommending traveling without an ID, on my way back from school last year, I got really stoned in my friend's car on the way to the airport. Me being stoned, I left my wallet in the car, and ended up at the airport with no ID.

I also got to go through the much-faster special screening, but I had to step into a chamber where they puffed you with air. Not for weed scent, for bombs, though I was mildly concerned at the time.

All in all a fun experience. Next time there's a big line at security, I'm going to tell them that I forgot my id. w00t
Another obstacle to worry about is micropayments!
There was an article here the other day from some hacker that almost proudly stated that he went through 2 or 3 laptops a year. I thought this was absolutely ridiculous. My laptops last five years or more. What a waste of money.

If you love something, take care of it and it'll last longer and treat you well. We live in a disposable society. I was always taught to take care of things so they would last. You too apparently.

I like a clean screen.
"most of those companies were successful" - that's not even true
Ask HN: Unknown or expired link?
Sometimes I click threads open and read through them and then add my comment. When I do this, I get a single line that says, "Unknown or expired link."

If I refresh, the thread appears and I can post my link.

What is the purpose of this timeout?
Simple patterns for better arguments about programming languages
Volkswagen to Raise $5.7 Billion for Porsche Acquisition
Intended as a helpful correction: You mean 'pidgin English.'
Reducing its lifetime? How on earth can a touch reduce the lifetime of your laptop lcd? The insides that actually create the pictures are separated by layers of plastic you know...
As you move out of urban and suburban areas, it seems like it gets harder and harder to make news matter. In exurban and rural areas, there's not really going to be a lot of news within the (geographic) area people care about. It's too fragmented.

For instance, the fight between the mayor two-towns-over and the county government isn't really of interest to the rest of the county most of the time. I don't care about a murder that happened 30 miles away. News generation is probably a function of population density - in less dense areas, there's not a lot going on that needs to be reported on, so to fill even 4-6 newspaper pages, you've got to cover hundreds of square miles, and so each article isn't "local" for a large percentage of the population.
This is an interesting read regarding HTTP over SCTP.

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-natarajan-http-over-sctp-02
Does the web gold rush constitute a brain drain?
A while back I was reading up on Dr. Eric Brewer's CAP theorem. That lead to watching his talk on the Computer History Museum [1]. From there, the trail led to the various computer scientists mentioned by Dr. Brewer in that lecture. The trail stopped at Paul Gauthier and diddit.com.

So I am asking HN (and perhaps this is the wrong place to ask this!), but does the web constitute a brain sink, and, what will be the long term consequences of diverting top end brain cells down the web drain?
It would seem like an AP or Reuters membership/subscription would already solve most of this problem. Lots of college newspapers, including top-rated ones, do exactly this, and pay the AP fees to re-run those stories.
This article is built on a mountain of silly assumptions.
Because your internet explorer does not allow apps to access low level functions. It still resembles its original purpose: the serving of static pages.

Web apps should break out of the prison that is the browser.
You think it is fine to touch the screen, but this thread is showing you that many people do not agree.

Please do not touch my screen.
Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think (Theory in Practice) is not an instructional programming book per se, but more along the lines of what I would consider "vacation reading". Each of the chapters is a self-contained entity, authored by a different luminary, so you can read them in whatever order suits your fancy.
I think it could be useful for a reverse proxy when talking with the backends. SCTP would be contained to your LAN traffic so adoption on the open internet & firewalls is a non-issue, and you get some benefits from avoiding head of line blocking. Possibly. Discuss below! :)
Yes, it's Caltech- where white males are a larger chunk of the population. Yet they don't seem to be killing themselves at a proportional rate. That was my question.

Anyway,
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?artic...
The Computer Data Bank: will it kill your freedom? (1968)
hi there,

thanks for all the work; i came across the quote a couple of years ago (i believe google was not even "big" then) and never bothered to check back (for this post i just googled and found a couple of attributes, just for reassurance--obviously i should have been more careful)

nevertheless, i think it's a great quote, too. (i find myself citing it from time to time, about twice a year or so...)

ps: i know a couple of italians, probably they will be able to clarify on etymological issues...
This is particularly interesting as a RFS because Paul Graham's support will get you publicity from the beginning, and if there is a social aspect to your new news model, it will be able to get around the chicken-and-the-egg problem of being able to attract initial users.

Best of luck to the takers, but I would guess that the future of journalism looks like TechCrunch: organized by topic rather than by location, not particularly unbiased, and much smaller in terms of both number of employees and size of profits.
Ok, if someone used your favorite line on me it would provoke an entire hand rubbing across the screen, but then I'm a bit of a real life troll. :-)
This problem stems from a limitation of the way HN maintains state. An earlier post with some links to the problem code is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=163755

This is a well known problem pg hasn't gotten around to fixing. See YC: "unknown or expired link" -- fix it already
(790 days ago)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28944
Thank you, sounds like a good book!@
What use is a mouse if they don't know how to use a finger to point without touching? They'd probably start off by licking it or something.
I can't champion this book enough, if you're doing C# stuff then this book is a must have.
Music library is too locked to a single device.

If I put podcasts and music on my iPod with Rhythmbox from my work PC, iTunes will happily eradicate everything it doesn't know about as soon as I plug it in when I get home.

If I plug in my iPod while someone else is logged into my mac, iTunes immediately asks if it can wipe my iPod.

Maybe this protects the interests of the record industry, it sure isn't useful in any way to the end user.
Well, they're certainly cut from the same cloth, a year apart, so it's likely there's going to be a lot of cross-over. It seems a lot more direct and focused, and less of a nudge than an out-and-out statement that they want to fund ideas along these lines this year.
What to do if you're stopped by the police
"Oh, you like the screen, apparently if you clean it with urea it stays brighter [hushed tone] I know a cheap source, I manufacture my own [looks down momentarily],[returning to conversation] now where were we ..."
Thanks for explaining this. Here is the unshortened link:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/roylevin/osrresea...

I will use unshortened links in the future.
Achtung!
Alle touristen und non-technischen lookenpeepers! Das machine is nicht fur fingerpoken und mittengrabben. Is easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzen sparken. Das machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur gerwerken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren keepen das cottenpicken hands in das pockets. Relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.
Microsoft sells more software than IBM.

http://www.softwaretop100.org/list2009.php
Or "touch the screen and I'll fscking kill you" ...
Thank you for returning my faith in civil rights and the US Constitution. The home of the free and the land of the brave is at grave risk of becoming extinct as long as good men and women sit and watch their basic freedoms eroded continuously in the name of fighting illusionary 'terrorists'
This is one of those ideas that seems so obviously good after the fact that it just makes one marvel
[vid] Does creativity work, or: 5x'ing a product's price w/ brand storytelling
"...makes me wonder."
makes you wonder if the author sounds intelligent, and official explanations which require new physics to be plausible sound stupid, then maybe, just maybe the emporer really does have no clothes?
Apple and its iPhone get fleeced in China, but will Google fare any better?
Lolcats: Building a Media Empire Around ICanHasCheezburger.com
So we can change the velocity at which we travel through time? To what, 2 seconds per second?
Perfect Site
You've just described the standard news editorial process. Instead of a "crawler" they have the wire services, and source rankings are fairly static, but otherwise, yep, that's how it's done. The problem is not the means of production (so to speak) it's how to make money from it.
Thank you for tracking down the papers.
It's mostly clients who touch my screen, and they also happen to be the last people I would ever say anything to. But truth be told, I don't really consider it that big of a deal. I am of the opinion that you should pick your battles in life and in most cases it's just easier to take a cloth out of your drawer and wipe the screen than it is to say something to someone who may take it too personally or cause you unneeded grief in some way. When you tell someone not to touch your screen, most of them will immediately feel embarrassed. Some people will channel this embarrassment into not touching screens anymore and others will take your comment too personally and channel this embarrassment into making your life unpleasant in some way that just isn't worth it.
More the latter: there are particular things we wish people would do.

I don't think we've funded anyone to work on #2 yet.

I don't remember pikluk.com, but the ideas on that list are deliberately vague. There are a lot of possible permutations, some good and some bad. If we didn't fund you, it wasn't necessarily (or even probably) because we were waiting for someone else to do it.
Wow. I must admit that I'm guilty of being a screen-toucher. It's not out of ignorance or disrespect or anything like that; I've been around computers my whole life. I have no idea why I do it, but I've even done it a couple of seconds after someone asked me not to. I don't get annoyed at all at people when they tell me not to, I get embarrassed and sometimes annoyed at myself for having done it (especially if it's repeated).
Does this imply hiring a rock star programmer brings down the productivity of the team?
If you have lost your passport, you have to go to a police station and make a claim. You can only board the plane with that claim (and there is normaly a police station on every major airport)

And PS: I hope that they wouldn't let in the ignorant author of the article in without a valid passport.
It's not so much that you're pessimistic as that you're assuming too much about the solution.
I see a lot of posts from the anal retentive crowd. Here's the opposite opinion:

I think it's ok to touch laptop screens. I touch my own and if I'm interested enough in pointing something out I may touch yours because at that point I'm at a completely different place mentally and not thinking about your little quirks. One of my co workers stressed out every time I touched his screen but it didn't make me stop. I'd avoid it when I remembered but I frankly don't believe it's a big issue. He'd let a loud annoyed sigh and reach for the cleaner that he kept by his desk and I'd laugh at him.

Your pet peeve is not really my problem.

Your expensive screen is not brittle and will not crack at the slightest touch. It will not melt under the powerful corrosive force of my finger oils. It just makes a little streak. Get over it and carry one of those fuzzy lcd wipey things with you if it bothers you that much.

Anyway, people like me exist. We will annoy you but it's (mostly) unintentional. You can try to point out your annoyance in all sorts of amusing/passive aggressive ways but it's not going to completely work. It's still going to happen. Realize that you're being a bit irrational and get over it.
It does build community, as long as anonymous comments go into a moderatation queue. Otherwise it builds noise. The point of logging in (and having karma) should be skipping the queue.
The tax code was ridiculously complicated before TurboTax existed. Banning TurboTax will not magically simplify the tax code.
You have to carry your ID card in all the european countries!

At least in Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France, Germany and also in Switzerland (not EU)
so RFS #1 starts with advertorials and sell data about the readers? that is the model you see on TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, etc run on.
Information, when properly applied, yields a competitive advantage. The next Bloomberg.
Sounds like subscription-only reddit wherein some algo flags trends and topics of interest for which the staff writer(s) then crank out quickly-researched / fact-checked summaries (possibly also scanning other aggregators / twitter / etc for discernible trends and dispatching a human to investigate + summarize, also).

If that's what it is it seems like a poor investment; hopefully it's something better.
Here are some similar threads on recommended books for hackers:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135185

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=348019

If you would rather relax with some fiction, try Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
Yeah, play hard ball and you hopefully will go to jail. What's the problem of showing your id?
I think this can get you most of the way there, using some form of atmospheric steering. Best case you could get your nearest approach tangent to the highest spot of atmosphere. You still need a bit more to avoid the atmosphere entirely, but your are mostly there.
Precisely my problem... apathetic developers!
Two other links you might like:

- http://www.rickard.gunee.com/projects/video/pic/gamesys.php (tetris and pong on a pic 16f84)

- http://www.quinapalus.com/picsi.html (space invaders with just a 16f628).

They both use a single microcontroller also for sending the video signal (like the submitted project).
I fear that this will hit the same problem that I've seen over and over again in the open source world when people show up with the question:

"What should I work on?"

If they weren't driven enough to already have a list of things they would like to do, they rarely were motivated enough to latch onto ideas when given them. A much more promising question was:

"How do I...?"

(Blog entry of mine from 2006, "On Being Unresponsive": http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2284)
Well, I am pessimistic in that I don't think there is a simpler solution :) Assuming the consumer of the content is paying.
Can Consciousness be Created in Software?
Actually I think people spend more time raping people than using .net at the weekends:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=rape%2C+.net&ctab=0&g...
I come from the same school.

From my experience, ideas are worthless because they don't exist. Sounds obvious but think of it is this way:

Everything can fit neatly and beautifully into anything else whilst it exists in your head. "How do we monetize this...? Easy! just do xyz!" The answers are clear, the solutions are elegant, and everyone and everything is holding hands, dancing around in a circle, singing their hearts out.

As soon as you actually get to work, and you make the transition from fantasy to reality, well: shit instantly hits the fan, and you've got a mess of a mess of a mess, and that's what really counts. Nothing works right, nobody wants it, you deal with endless bugs, its never ready, all your "plans" don't really mesh with this thing called reality.

It's kind of like fighting in a video game. You can fantasize all you want about how badass you are at street fighter. But get yourself into a real street fight and you won't ever think you know anything about anything ever again.
Nine Overhyped and Misleading Health Headlines Debunked
If they ever manage to develop gene therapy to enable people without the mutation to sleep less they'll make a fortune!

Who wouldn't pay to have more time to work or play without side effects?