skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Do we allow top 10 lists again on HN? Or does it just depend on the source? Corporate media are allowed but not bloggers?
How To Fix Craigslist
I was assuming that when people open a business they like that business, I guess I assumed wrong for startup culture.
Engineering Judgment I: Database Correctness
Heh. There's literally not enough money on the entire planet for most of my projects.

From the description, he's stuck in a rut. Instead of starting a yet another company, how about using the companies you have to fund something worthwhile.

People are dying, you know.
So what made mint successful with their frontend then? Perhaps Yodlee hasn't tried hard enough for the frontend.
"Before it is too late you must master the art of knowing when and how to be bad - using deception, manipulation, and outright force at the appropriate moments."

When is the appropriate moment to use outright force? Like in "Get rich or die trying"? Should you be able to shoot your competitors?
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=830156
What is news.arc?
I'm going to guess that Yodlee made the switch around the time of the B2C collapse in Silicon Valley. At the time many companies attempted to redefine themselves as B2B companies believing that to be safer (essentially consumers expected web sites to be free, whereas companies would pay for services).
Hierarchical Read-Copy-Update (lockless synchronization for 1000's of CPUs)
Fear is a really interesting thing... If you can control people's fears, you pretty much control everything. Currently on display in US healthcare "debate"...
> "about 9 feet tall and weighed about 143 pounds."

that doesn't seem right. maybe the trex still had bird-like bones? it's quite a muscular animal...maybe it means head to tail rather than height, but that still seems awfully light. maybe it's the short arms.
A design community's crowd-sourced $50 logo
The problem is that Mint already has a head start, is well-designed, and actively developed. Intuit had nothing like Mint, which made it easier for them to compete. Any Mint competitor will have to outdo them and/or fill a different niche.

edit:spelling
It could be kept bare to keep away the digg, TC crowd etc.
"There ought to be limits to freedom."*

*George W. Bush 1999

I don't agree though. Now that you can do everything you want it's time to devote yourself to a good cause.
it's not irrational. it's fear off lack of control for ones live.

I do not know how to fly an airplane. I do not know the commander.

I do know how to pilot a bike. I ride a bike in heavy traffic at high speeds.

Despite the death rate for the bike case is higher, i crap myself on an airplane. because i'm not in control.
Adidas and Puma end 60-year feud
> It could be kept bare to keep away the digg, TC crowd etc.

Possible, but then let's just have that as a statement out in the open, then we can be done with it.

Instead of pointing people to the 'feature request' thread we could then give that as an answer. Right now it almost feels like giving someone a pacifier or a placebo.

In another thread someone literally used the words 'so he stops bothering us'.
This concept of control is a _very_ irrational one. Of course you steer and pedal your bike by yourself. But by taking part in traffic you give up at least as much control as flying by plane. Some guy hitting you with his car from behind is not exactly in your control.
Costly Construction - How Much NYC Suffers From One Closed Lane
One closed lane costs New York City's economy $55 Million a year.
"Do you, er, want a printout of yesterday's news?"

This line from the article shows a fundamental misunderstanding about the way many people see the newspaper business. Despite the name most good newspapers aren't so much about news (as in what happened) as they are about analysis (why it happened and what it might mean). I don't buy the Financial Times because I want a list of things that have happened the past 24 hours, but because I want to read what smart, knowledgeable people think about a subset of those things. That sort of analysis does not go stale over night. Going further, taking a cursory look across the whole business it seems that the relative health of various publications seems reasonably well correlated to the amount of effort the place in quality analysis as opposed to just writing down things that have happened.

In fact the reason I still buy (paper) newspapers and magazines is that they still seem to be the only people doing good solid analysis.
The entire essay fails at some basic level for me.

Background Situation: you maintain a heavy internet presence in which you write lots of articles on various "issues" and have attracted a sizable community of hangers-on who like to argue about the issues. The "issues" you write about are things you believe in strongly.

Puzzling Development: you have a fundraiser for the "issues" you care about and are disappointed in the outcome (more on this later, see (!)). You get some amount of donations but the most-visible response is a lot of arguing and discussion, which you (correctly) conclude is counterproductive to the fundraising process.

Possible Conclusion One: there's a sizable community of people who like discussing and arguing about these issues, the same way there's a sizable community of people who enjoy discussing lost, or star trek, or whatnot. The underlying issue isn't that important to them (no more so than lost or trek is important to losties or trekkies), but they sure do enjoy the arguing and discussion.

Possible Conclusion Two: there's a sizable community of people who deeply care about the "issues" at hand, as evidenced by the argumentation and discussion they exhibit. Sadly, the fondness for argumentation leads to counterproductive behavior when (eg) we try to raise funds, b/c the argumentation is public (producing negative feedback loops) but the donations are not public.

"Possible Conclusion One" seems the most warranted; there clearly are people who love arguing and discussion the issues but there's also clearly far fewer of them who care enough to donate (or otherwise do more than post comments on teh blog).

"Possible Conclusion Two" is more flattering to the writer but requires more assumptions about the community of readers and requires drawing more inferences from observed behavior than "Possible Conclusion One".

(!) Note that the reason the author feels disappointed is b/c the author looks @ the amount of donations vis-a-vis the amount of passionate argument the fundraiser provoked and is disappointed (that so much of the passion went into arguing instead of donations). This is tantamount to assuming "Possible Conclusion Two", as it is assuming you can correctly infer actual interest in (doing something about) the "issues" just from apparent passion to argue and discuss ideas pertinent to the "issues".

If you started from the assumption you had attracted a bunch of people who like arguing and for whom your "issues" are a kind of catnip -- the way losties and trekkies find lost and trek to be their catnip -- you might still be disappointed but for a different reason; you'd be disappointed with your ability to get your readers to make the leap from enjoying your work as "entertainment" to caring about the issues it raised, instead of assuming you'd already done that and then bemoaning their seeming inability to act productively wrt those "issues".
A friend of mine flies 737s for one of the major airlines, and he once told me, "When I'm up in the air I don't give a damn about the 150 people behind me. I'm sure as hell going to take care of myself though, and if I make it through they don't have much choice but to follow me."

You may not be in control, but the pilot is, and he wants to make it to his destination just as much as you do.
Oh for goodness sake.

If you don't want to read it - then don't!

If you don't want to consider it part of the "canon" - then don't!

If other people do - then that's up to them!

It's not complicated...
The Newline Legacy
Twitter Adds Explanations of Trending Topics
Windows Security: will rate of new threats soon outpace computing power?
I wonder why he doesn't take anti-anxiety medication before flights. It's a straightforward enough solution.
If "lack of control" is what defines your fears, then I'd assume you'd be afraid of almost everything. Our water supply, break-ins, the government, etc. Can you ride a bus or sit in the passenger seat of a car? When you ride a bike, do you realize how easily a car could just take you out?

At some point you have to look at the data and determine what's a reasonable fear and what isn't. If you maintain an unreasonable fear of a reasonably safe activity, don't try to make it appear rational by explaining it's a control issue.
The arc source distribution. HN is built on a dialect of scheme that Paul Graham came up with.

Arc is a pretty ambitious project, a language for 'the next hundred years' (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_(programming_language) ).

Not sure about how many people actually use it though, HN is the only application that I'm aware of that uses it.
Settlement solves your problem. Litigating solves your competitor's too.

The decision depends on the expected return of the settlement, which depends on the expected return of the settlement money considered as an investment against the competition, compared to the estimated cost of litigation, which, in turn, depends on direct costs, odds of winning and estimated awarded costs in case of a loss.

I bet the settlement covered their next litigations.

A settlement may enable you to continue to conduct business, but it also may fuel nastier litigation against your competitors, furthering your own abilities while shielding you from future litigation.
Check it out. Right below the box to tweet, this appears:

"Follow Friday is a popular topic on Twitter right now. Trend Info

A meme wherein users recommend other users to follow on Fridays."

This is pretty sweet. Yesterday, everyone was trying to figure out what made Pittsburgh a trending topic. This kind of meta information certainly feeds into that "pulse of the planet" stuff they were talking about.
Ugh, I know exactly how that guy feels. I hate flying with an abiding passion (indeed, I view their 30 day trip as about as much fun as hitting myself in the nuts with a hammer over the course of a month). It is completely and totally irrational, but there's not much to be done about it. Drinking helps, some, but they don't serve drinks during takeoff, which is the worst part (I usually manage to relax a bit after about a half an hour of total panic).

The "can't get off" part is really important too.
I tried that, and it had zero effect. Then I had another one, and something to drink, and that worked, but was probably not a bright idea. I did manage to sleep just a little bit, which was a first for me, flying. I was still terrified for the first half hour, though, so I wouldn't really say the anti-anxiety stuff had any effect at all.
Startup software to manage sales people and cold callers
Bah, this is just a conduit for pop-psychologist Robert Greene to sell his latest "Art of War" style self-help book.
Definitely neat. For people new to twitter this will be a huge boon as well as people dealing with unfamiliar topics.

A great idea, I was wondering what other metadata we were going to see coming out of twitter.
The preservation of one's own life is perhaps everybody's primary goal in life, and so there are many excellent reasons for somebody to avoid risks so that this goal is repeatedly achieved. But such a life (devoid of risk) is stagnant and hindered. I wonder if this is the difference between living and merely existing.
Someone I know ran into his manager at one of the conferences and the guy said something like how 50 Cents does not need to work another day and still be richer than the best of rappers because of the Vitamin Water deal. I hear he made over couple hundred mil.
Yeah. If he just shared his story and let these points come out implicitly, it would have been a lot more interesting.
Definitely. I have not spent a lot of money on my home theater system at all, but the screen and speakers are more than good enough, and I can pause and rewind at will. Also, my couch is much more comfortable than the seats.

I will go to movies with friends as a social event and very occasionally for IMAX, but I never go to regular movies for the movie.
the hack is that all the language in the piece is incredibly tied to Adam's writing. An over zealous fan? Perhaps. But hackers in the UK -- and all over -- who've enjoyed his work will feel some kind of connection to it.
You want to conduct a benchmark? Read this first: The Benchmark Handbook
What not to code: Why in-house apps need a professional eye
New Chips Loaded With Dummy Parts
So I wonder if taking a few lessons in a cessna 150 would allay this guys fears?
I missed that, do you still have the link somewhere ?
There can be a conflict of interest between YC (ie PG) and HN users, particularly long-term ones. That's how I've come to terms with it. This forum is first and foremost a hook for entrepreneurs into YC and a way for PG to assess potential investees by their participation and statements. Everyone else is going along on their ride, at the core.
In most of the situations you list, we can still convince ourself we're in control. We can ditch the bike to avoid the car, drink bottled water if we think tap water is unsafe, lock our doors, jump out of the escape hatch on the bus (or grab the wheel if necessary).

On a plane, you have no options, short of skydiving without a parachute. You pretty much hand complete control, and more importantly, any illusion of control, over to the pilot.

The point here is most fear is irrational. Also, the illusion of control is just that.
First, congratulations on your book.

Second, That is an interesting problem: without the publishers, who will function as the givers of credibility, the gatekeepers? Who will wikipedia cite?

This is an excellent question. But already some publishers are more respected than others. O'Reilly is generally well known in the publishing world and everything I have read from any of their author's has been of reasonably high quality. While others are hacks that will publish anything almost anything at all with almost no editing (and if the author is willing to pay, many will publish absolutely anything at all with absolutely no editing.)

Maybe some evolution of publishers will continue primarily as fact-checkers and editors of the information, and then make money through a combination of advertising or convenience aggregating.
Looks like a wasted chance to illustrate the difference betweent this kind of ‘cheap’ design and the process of ‘real’ designers.

You gave them a childish, nonsensical brief and utterly wasted the opportunity presented to show clients clear, definitive examples why this process is so much weaker than working with a proper designer.

All they've done is make themselves and supposedly ‘professional’ designers look like dicks, while utterly failing to illustrate to any non-design readers why they shouldn’t go with the $50 logo people.

Top work.
Ten Benefits of Litigation (on the receiving end)
There is an important parallel between the fear of flying and the fear of striking out on your own. There are so many things that are beyond your control, and taking-off (in either context) is the riskiest part.

I never cease to be amazed at the first moment when an airplane feels like a kite in the wind right after takeoff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8256589.stm

and discussion http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=827803
You make city-planning sound one-dimensional.

"If the shoe fits.."

A cafe on the corner doesn't sound residential, but, rather, mixed use at best.

More to the point, everywhere that I've seen traffic "calmed," the issue appears to be that there are no roads nearby designed for throughput, or, if they are, they are patently inadequate.

The other difficulty is that past city planning doesn't always line up with current city behavior.
OFX is not a replacement for Yodlee. OFX is a passive specification that relies on each data provider writing to the spec. Yodlee uses OFX, but also uses screen scraping and other methods to get data from the many sources not covered by OFX. If Mint dropped Yodlee, many of their data feeds would disappear.

Data aggregation is a messy business. No two companies have the same feed options, nor do any two feeds work the same. And for consumer-facing data, Yodlee is the best.
Could the sixth be any worse than the fourth or fifth?
Had he suggested that he'd pay off his mother's mortgage, I doubt there would be many objections. For some of us, close friends are closer than family. If I came into a sum of money that enabled me to help the people closest to me, I'd do it in a heartbeat - and I'm quite certain that my friends would, too.

I also can't imagine taking a heartfelt offer from a close friend as an "intrusion," but then I'm sure it depends on the relationship and the personalities involved.
As usual, I agree wholly with pg, but I think he is ignoring a very significant fringe group.

People are willing to pay for good information/entertainment/content on a tip or tip-like basis, especially if the author(s) is a frequent publisher they can maintain a long term relationship of some form with.

The online experiments of NiN is one example. Perhaps a more apropos one is ArsTechnica. They sell advertising and also premium subscriptions. They do reserve some content for the premium subscriptions and they turn on a few extra features of the site, but I suspect the vast majority of their subscribers think of it as a "tip-like" payment rather than thinking that little bit extra is worth the subscription amount.
I heard him interviewed on talk radio a while ago and he certainly plays his image up a lot while being very savvy and smart on the back end. Wouldn't be surprised if he turns himself into a mogul-type figure like Jay-Z in the coming year.
Scientists Unveil Surprisingly Tiny T. Rex Ancestor
Why do you say the stock market is zero-sum? People put money in & take it out all the time.
Off-topic right-leaning political banter? Ah yes, it's HN on Friday night.
No, there is no parallel at all, at least in my experience. Fear of striking out on your own is something that everyone should have a little of - it's healthy. But my fear of flying/heights is completely irrational and very strong.
Spoken like someone who has done time in the trenches. I've been there, done that, and it truly is a messy business.
LiMo Foundation: Mobile open source economic analysis [pdf]
I've never referred to it as anything other than an MP3 player. Of course I refer to my iPhone (all 3 of them) as a cell phone.
RAID is not a backup solution. Anyone that seriously uses RAID knows what it is and when to use it. If you are worried about the integrity of your data than you need a real backup solution. RAIDn won't restore your data incase of shock, fire, or hurricanes.

A thought that occurred to me is I don't know anyone that replaces a hard drive when it gets too old. They replace them when SMART says failure is imminent or the drive has already crashed. Hard drives should be treated like tapes. No one replaces tape when they are too ragged to be used. Tapes are replaced on a scheduled (like 30-40 writes). Replace drives after a duty cycle of 5,000 hours and you can minimize your exposure.
Also a lot to do with inflow of online ad dollars in finance vertical..look at bankrate.com earnings/stock history.. btw, speaking of minimal functionality required and just doing what is necessary for successful business - look at bankaholic.com which was acquired by bankrate (On personal level Johns Wu might have made near about equal if not more money as Mint.com founders -- given it was profitable company). Also, that is even better story compared to this -- Bankaholic gets millions by paying $0 for WordPress.
Yes, I hear you. I worked at a start-up doing insurance quotations on the web... horrible mess of backend stuff to connect to the insurers. The best ones had a responsive XML based interface over HTTPS, others just told us their algorithm for insurance quotes (which we then had to maintain), others gave us a buggy Visual Basic application that was never meant to be the backend for anything. Nightmare to link it all together and make it look like the consumer was getting real time quotes from different vendors.
Thank you!

That is one amazing story, I'm seriously impressed. Izzard always was one of a kind, with this he literally transcends himself. Whoever bumped that off HN does not have my gratitude, if there is anything at all that separates successful entrepreneurs from the failed ones it is stamina and the will to continue in light of hardship.

Deleting that is pretty much proof positive that HN moderation really is not doing a very good job.
How long has this feature been around? This should definitely be in use for all dmgs with only one file.
I don't get the fixation with the bowline... it's harder to tie than a figure 8, and not as strong.

Learn the figure-8 family (on a bight, follow-through, double loop, etc), and you'll know enough knots for almost any situation.

On a bight it gives you a solid attachment point in the middle of a rope (tie a double loop if your life is gonna depend on it), Use a follow through around an object if you need to tie a hitch (also worth knowing a alternative like a clove hitch). A figure 8 bend is a _very_ secure way to attach two ropes together (again, also worth learning a simpler alternative like the becket bend).

Once you've got the figure 8 mastered, pick up a couple more complex knot "systems" (trucker's hitch, tensionless hitch, etc).

There are plenty of neat knots out there for specific situations, but for general purpose knot tying, nothing beats the figure 8 family.

Obligatory "here's why I think I'm an expert" blurb: I've been climbing since I was 10, and am a New York State certified rope rescue technician.
Cell Phones in Africa - The neccessity of innovation
I'd be interested in knowing how much equity he had in that company. I think its safe to say his public endorsement (both in commercials and his frequent plugs) contributed a tremendous amount to its meteoric rise and its eventual purchase for $4.1bln.
Stay tuned for part 2...

No thanks.

(Am I the only one who wants the whole story now? Face it, serialized print may have worked, but serialized blogs don't.)
From what I've seen HN is more debate oriented than 'fun and uplifting' and it's probably natural that people care about how they are represented. I think the easy solution is to write a couple of lines of code, instead of having people stop caring. It's no secret that this site is very underdeveloped. Probably deliberate, but not without its consequences.
Next week...Kanye West's 10 lessons for success on award shows - and in life.
Yodlee's frontend was ugly, clunky, and unfocused. Probably still is. UI was not their strength.
English Units of Measure
Really awesome primer on the English system of measurement and its history.
His fear of private aircraft is comparatively rational. The big commercial carriers have a far better safety record.
Not at all. That was just the first thing that came to mind. Generally you could say that every major decision in politics rises and falls with people's fears. This was just a placative example, and not the least right-leaning.
Completely agreed. From the title I was really looking forward to seeing how they were going to highlight the limitations of these services. Disappointed.
Mint is likely going to rot, though, once most of the original people leave. That should give more than enough room to catch up. The hardest thing to fight will probably be the name recognition.
last.fm has the very long and thick tail.
Nothing for:
Today'sNewMoon
Apple'sAmazing
House
etc.

I'm not sure how useful it can be if only the already prevalent memes are explained. But then, how could you procedurally generate these? That would be tough.