skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: I want to start a company but I'm blocked at level 1
Got diploma: check.
Got many years in technical (software dev): check.
Got many years in startup companies: check.
Got enough money to quit my current job: check.
Got last paycheck: check(no pun intended). 4 months ago.

For many years I want to start a web company. Last month I finally resigned, but since, I can't start.

I'm blocked. at. level. 1.
I have some ideas, but nothing really interesting or without a business model (and I dont pretend to be the next FB/TW/etc). But I can't successfully start.
I spend more time on drawing mockup / listing feature on a notebook than launch a real product.

So I try to connect with startup guys where I live but this is essentially a bunch of non cto who are looking for a cheap dev/ partial cofounder (= less equity) because they have no money to pay.

Bonus point: yes I have a technical brackground but no I do NOT want to become CTO of my (or your) company. It was funny, but years after years I lost my love for software dev.

As I am avid reader of HN, I know I can have good feedback/advice here, even if some of you can't help to add acid with their answer ;) (so it explain why I use an anonymous pseudonym)

- SLOM
ps: if it changes something for you: around 30yr old, no family, enough money in saving account to live two years.
ps2: again, not interested by your top-sexy-[insert word] CTO / tech position
Curso Sobre Estruturas Offshore em Luanda
Maybe this is why its possible - $10k for blood test

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08...
There are REPL like implementations for Java, like Eclipse's scratchpad.

For C and C++ you can use CINT, for example.

Two nice REPL experiences for strong type languages similar to Interlisp-D and Smalltalk, were the Mesa/Cedar environment and Oberon, which was inspired by Wirth's experience with Cedar.
This comment isn't an article, but here's some criticism anyway: seems like an AWFUL place to work. I phone-interviewed there, and the thing the guy on the phone stressed the most is that they work 60+ hour weeks and would I be okay with that. He said they were especially proud that it used to be 80 hour weeks but they had gotten it down to 60.
Neat idea, verging on "security through obscurity", but that's not necessarily a bad thing when you just wish to obscure services from view. As long as people don't rely on it for authentication (which will undoubtedly happen).
If you want to jump in and go, I highly recommend Ruby, though I will warn that Rails can be very imposing if you aren't familiar with web development already.

If you want to understand more low level concepts, you can never go wrong with C, and these days Rust is a good choice for that as well (though steep learning curve if you have no previous experience).
If Project Euler is trying to make itself less interesting to hackers/less vulnerable by storing less information(email), why don't they consider OAuth for login?

I know OAuth has it's own warts, but isn't part of the point to offload the burden of authentication to someone else?

Also, feel free to replace OAuth with Mozilla Persona or OpenID.

[edit] - s/storing less password/storing less information\(email\)/
And with Linux? I'm only on *nix based platforms and I see Python everywhere
OTAS Quant 1: Position Keeping
Where do you see room for improvement, if any, for blood testing? As far as I can tell based on what I've read and what you've said, they've basically made certain types of blood tests easier, cheaper(?), and accessible via an app? Is that accurate? If so, even without any new technology, that seems like it could be interesting, if only as a business with a marketable product. Not sure about $10B interesting, but hey...
“Joe DePalma’s SONIC SECRET: LAW OF ATTRACTION MUSIC SYSTEM
People who think that email can die are the people who don't understand technology. Email is simply sending text from one user to another. There is nothing more simple than that. Therefore it probably won't die as long as we use text interfaces to our machines. What cute interfaces you put on top or machine learning features, that's all up to the marketing department. But all cool social networks and chat Apps can't do better than simply sending text.
The engaged learning process is not new, or unique, but is certainly not common. My undergrad institute called this "The Thayer" method and required students to do the reading before class and show up ready to discuss. There were often even homework assignments based on the work that was not covered in class yet to force pre-reading. Class time was then a productive discussion and a chance to ask questions. During class students would be asked to "Take boards" and perform math or chemistry calculations immediately and on their own so that the teacher can assess the class's progress. This school also offered chemistry and engineering classes which will never work at Minerva because of the lab requirements. A liberal arts degree should include a basic chemistry + lab course, but I don't see this working with the program they describe.

To me Minerva appears to have a sound business model based on bringing foreign students in for an education with low overhead. This will take the most profitable students away from traditional schools, and require tuition to go up for the types of degrees that can't be offered in this environment.
Python is a good pick.

The goal of learning to program shouldn't so much be about one language, but learn about the concepts of what variables, control structures, operators, and data structures. So that you can apply them in different languages, and be more flexible.
Show HN: Getting Warmer! A POC for providing visual cues for password inputs
Maybe I'm not understanding the quote correctly, but I see no explanation of how they figure out the correct scale (i.e. the size of a shape - obviously, with 4096 robots, they could make the shape twice as big).
China dissident lawyer Gao Zhisheng 'destroyed by jail'
Learn Swift. Mobile is the future.
> often times the person getting the degree is not the person paying the tab – not for today anyway

The same thing -- only an indirect connection between buyer and seller -- could be seen as a primary cause of the rise in healthcare costs as well.
Pseudocode is a good start unless you already have a project in mind?

Remember there is no one-language-solves-all-problems, you gotta pick the right tool for the job and you shouldn't be afraid to hop between those tools.
Gavin Andresen, the Most Powerful Person in the World of Bitcoin
Beat your child's ass
I don't get your comment. Python is great on each platform but Windows where you must put some extra effort to get it running.
RFC2549
Ask HN: “Soft” tech career options for future ex-teacher?
I have been a high school English teacher for the last 8 years. Due to a combination of long commutes to suburban high schools, a little burnout, and a growing need for diversity in my working life, I am considering changing careers to something related to the tech sector. Based on my English degree and work experience, I think corporate training or technical writing jobs would best use my existing skill set. For those of you who have experience working in or hiring these types of positions, I would appreciate your advice on how to proceed in terms of upskilling, certification, and how / where to pitch myself.

With regard to training roles, I am already comfortable working with large groups and presenting complex information to novices. However, I don't know how much emphasis is placed on instructional ability as opposed to content / product familiarity. Similarly, both writing and editing are central to my skillset, but I would like to know what other skills may be valuable for technical writers. For example, I've seen a number of positions calling for front-end web development skills. I have some modest HTML/CSS and LaTeX experience, but are there other specific technologies that I should invest time in learning?

Though I would love to find something before this fall, realistically I expect to start another ten month teaching contract in September. This gives me some time to consider certification programs, MOOCs, or other resources that you suggest. In addition to your thoughts on the specific jobs mentioned earlier, I'm open to suggestions for other roles that might fit my skills. Finally, I'm based in Seattle, so any Seattle-specific advice would be most welcome.
I agree, the opposite happened to me. I learned Ruby on Rails, but everybody around me was Python/Django, so inevitably I made the switch because friend knowledge makes it easier to pick up.
Something like the .tel domain? http://telnic.org/ You don't get to run your own server, all .tel domains are run by the same company. You just set up yourname.tel with your contact info. Example: http://mark.tel/
Doesn't matter, pick one and move your focus to algorithms and data structures.
Choosing any language because it's in high demand is a bad decision, see "Why SICP matters"[0].

" I tell my students, "the language in which you'll spend most of your working life hasn't been invented yet, so we can't teach it to you. Instead we have to give you the skills you need to learn new languages as they appear." "

With regards to your statement, "It all depends on how you learn JS": That could be said of any language. The fact that you learned the differences between JS and C is what helped you when you were beginning, not that you learned JavaScript instead of Java, Ruby, or Python.

[0] - http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/sicp.html
Is it ever okay to ignore feedback or is the customer always right?
Swift will not teach you the fundamentals of programming
If your talking total energy then you need to include food and farms already take a lot of land.

So, while close it's vary misleading as going 100% renewable would take less new land than he is suggesting. Add to that you can mix wind farms and regular farms at the cost of less than 1% of the farm land. Not to mention off shore wind farms. Which further reduces the land requirements well below his calculations.

Also, Hydro is vary efficient built in storage using it 24/7 is vary wasteful.

Wind is 24/7, and solar aligns with peak demand fairly well. Anyway, rather than storage your better off with extra wind capacity that's often wasted, with solar to meet your daily peak and hydro to fill in the gaps.

PS: Adding a few peaking power plants is still a good idea, going 80% renewable is a much more reasonable goal until most of the world is at that point. It's silly to chase a few extra % when china is using so much coal power.
Show HN: Whatsrapp (a side project)
Mobile may be the future, but Swift is limited to one vendors mobile platform, while there are a ton of languages (C#, JS, Python, Ruby, even Haskell) that you can use for mobile that aren't limited to one vendor''s platform. Plus, "mobile" usually has a server component, and those other languages can also be used for the server end.
As an Oxford grad who used to go to a lot of OE events, I agree with you completely (and have definitely encountered the OP's disappointment!). I set up my first company in Oxford just after I left a few years ago, and there was almost nobody else there - 6 months later, we decided to move to London to find a bigger tech scene.

Since, we've built a company almost exclusively out of London and Oxford technical graduates, and we've just started an internship programme this year (and they're awesome). If you'd like any involvement from inside the industry, get in touch, we're really keen to build a stronger relationship! The same goes for any technical student groups - if you're engaged enough to organise or attend tech events then you are what the London tech scene needs.

That's toby at http://gearhart.co.uk/ if you want to get in touch :)
I think you are missing one of the fundamental thing to create a startup: the team. You can't do everything by yourself, even the idea, you can find it during a bbq with some of your friends that will become your parteners.
I am not planning any nuclear attacks
Python is just some extra effort. While Ruby is much more of a pain on Windows.
Couldn't agree more. Seven Types of Ambiguity published as far back as 1930 by William Empson launched a school of criticism called New Criticism. A definition of ambiguity is then "alternative views might be taken without sheer misreading." For Empson poetry is heavily reliant on ambiguity. And, arguably, poetry is language at its most wrought with ideas most distilled.
> 1) Mono hasn't been updated for five years due to licensing issues on iOS. GC pauses with a complex game can be hundreds of milliseconds, being stop the world non generational.

I really don't get why this is like this still.

Currently they seem more willing to implement their own IL2C++ generator, than agreeing with Xamarin about a new license.

Personally, specially given that C++11/14 is quite an improvment over C++98, I would go Unreal instead.
I am committee member of the PyData London Meetup and I'd argue that the tech scene in London is simply more vibrant outside of the universities at the various meetups, hacker spaces and conferences so often you are better served going to those than a University society.

There is a certain amount of red tape organising events at Universities (my basis for this is KCL and Imperial) unless they are either explicitly educational and you often have to liase with security so we've had a lot less friction by engaging tech companies to host meetings. You get the industry links by making use of their facilities, you get students, devs and business types and in all honesty companies in Silicon Roundabout are gagging to look cool and host a meetup.

Saying that, I'm about to start post-doc work at KCL (been here since Undergrad) so I'll be kicking around for the next 3 yrs so I'll be signing up.
er, i'm not familiar with how things work so i'm curious.. if, say you rewrite ".nyud.net" behind every media file extension so that it supposedly will get cached by coralcdn what could be the outcome? would you save on bandwidth? would coralcdn ban you? and what if you used cloudflare for dns? would that save some hits and bandwidth as well?
If you want to learn to program, and not to program for the web, then I'd say Javascript is a bad choice. Apart from his quirks, you can't really just learn Javascript: you would learn HTML and CSS with it, it's overwhelming (compared to other languages).

Personally I'd go with Python to learn the joy of programming, and then some C (or Rust) to understand which problems were lifted by the higher level language. Javascript is too useful in the Web to not learn it, and then go functional to open your mind. Well, it's a long road :-)
JavaScript. Everyone has the runtime already installed.
Ask HN: What should I look for when hiring a junior developer?
I've got experience hiring developers, and I'm used to asking a mixture of technical questions and interview questions to gauge a person's skill and their passion.

However, my company is now hiring for a junior developer position. I'm completely baffled at how to approach the interviews. I feel like I can't ask my usual technical questions because we're specifically hiring under that skill level. What's a good way to get a read on somebody's ability to learn new things in an interview?
Whatever you choose, learn git along with it. It helps to answer the question, "This used to work, what did I do to break it?"

Also, call me sentimental but I learned C/C++ as my first language and would recommend it. I don't see a codeacademy class for that though, and it's not really perfect for web development.

If you find that codeacademy isn't working out, I've also personally used codeschool.com and had great experiences there.
Exactly. Don't learn to write code, learn to program. Even BASIC or PHP will do; learn how to think about problems and how to bare different tools on it.
Pascal.
Pick JavaScript or Ruby. JS because you can go full stack and can move on from some client-side work to full stack pretty easily with node.js. Ruby because it had beautiful data structures and I'm not a fan of forced whitespacing.
> College has pretty much boiled down to institutional prestige and the credential that comes with it.

For top 50 maybe. But outside the first page of US News report there's very little differentiation. Quick, what's the difference between Minnesota State University, Mankato and California State University, Fullerton, and which one is more prestigious?
And here I thought that Franco won the Spanish Civil War.
I always felt the big story was not the tech but the business. Publishing prices and distributing to retail pharmacies is revolutionary. Sure, it's been possible in the past, but this appears to come at a totally new level of transparency and availability.

The FDA question is still really vital, of course.
Apple begins storing users' personal data on servers in China
That assumes he has a Mac. Many people do not. I could say the same thing about Java and Android, and that dev environment at least runs on all platforms.
It depends what your goal is. Do you want to learn to be a good programmer, or are you looking to, for example, make a website as soon as possible? Is your vision to eventually make apps? Do you want to learn the "art" of programming or the "craft" of programming? You'll end up learning both if you pursue it, but this may impact where you start out.

Some people argue that starting with a functional language will make you a better object oriented programmer later on, while the reverse is less often true. If you believe in this, I would recommend Clojure from personal experience.

In my first programming courses at university, we used Lisp and ML. This was for learning the "art" of programming, i.e., learning to think like a programmer. Once you picked a course that was arguably more about the "craft", you were exposed to a language more native to the domain. As I choose to go towards front end related stuff, I was exposed to JavaScript and (at the time) ActionScript.

I ended up not working as a programmer; I'm UX designer. When I need to, I program most of my interactive prototypes in ClojureScript. Two years ago, that would have been JS, but I found that Clojure conforms to my thoughts rather than the other way around.

So, depending on where you are and where you are going, you might benefit from different advice, I think.
Of course he got hammered for it because it was a) ideologically driven by his religious supporters and b) a terrible idea because handing out some free condoms and teaching women and men family-planning techniques leads to a more prosperous and stable environment at every level of society.

Just another one of the many poorly-thought-out policies he pursued during his presidency.
Email is not a person's unique ID, although sometimes it's used to serve that purpose. The ID layer of internet is not established yet. I'm not sure if it's possible in a decentralized system. Centralized management may be necessary.
I started learning with Python and then HTML, CSS, JS with Angular+Firebase! This allows you to start building stuff right away.
Yes, you can see examples of games done with kivy in the two contests (kivy.org/#contest), and there are also a few games on the market, it's also interesting to look at kovak's efforts on kivent.org, a 2D game engine built on top of kivy and cymunk, which seems like the way to go for games with a lot of actors.
Infodump
Attacking Node.js and MongoDB – Part To
That's a really good point. Entertainment does do the "presented by" thing quite well. I will say though that for me at least, part of why it works so well is most shows have trained me to see that "presented by ..." segment as basically a slightly different commercial.

Maybe entertainment has just had more time to learn the ropes. I watch Pardon The Interruption occasionally, and I think they have a "presented by ..." every episode while listing a few beers. However, if in the middle of a discussion Wilbon stood up, showed off his duds, and said "This episode presented to you by Snazzy Suits Inc" ... well, that'd feel pretty crappy.

Maybe that's basically the point news media is at right now. I wonder, then, what would doing it better look like? I think something like "This week's spotlight on 'Videogames and Violence' sponsored by: Blizzard and Madden 2015'" could potentially be better. Remove the sponsorship from a single article to a swath of articles with differing viewpoints, and always have a couple sponsors instead of only one. I think that's closer to something that feels right, as a reader. Maybe.
I guess this will also help- http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/
Tracking SSH Would-Be Intruders With Google Analytics: A How-To
For serious work, starting with something like Python is probably a good idea (as many people have suggested), but if your goal is to learn about programming, I'd actually suggest you start with assembly. Assembly is really tedious to do anything practical with, but as a way to understand some of the most fundamental concepts in programming it really can't be beat. Doing the equivalent of hello world, in assembly and really understanding exactly what each line of the program is doing will pretty much make you better than most newbie programmers right from the start. If you jump to C next, do a little bit more there, and then finally jump to something like Python (bonus credit for calling C code from Python and vice versa) you'll be well on your way to being a fairly well rounded programmer.
As an extreme but interesting case, I know someone who has had a majority of his endocrine system surgically removed and now relies on self-treatment of hormones. He has had in the past extensive excel sheets tracking his dosages alongside behavior, appetite, energy, etc. It's utterly amazing the amount of correlation he could derive between various hormone levels once he was made directly aware of them.

Similar kinds of information about day-to-day blood chemistry might be available through retail-available blood testing. This is QS all over again, but with a significantly more powerful bite—blood chemistry is a quantitatively powerful look into your body's current state. It's a human debugger.
Show HN: Tools and frameworks you should know
Yeah, no idea what you're talking about. I'll acknowledge that I'm white, male and come from a middle class background, so yeah, pretty privileged. But when I look at who gets "stick" for their background, it's pretty universally people who come from money. Now, that's not to say that there isn't jealousy relating to upbringing; I am the product of a state school, so I am jealous of grammar/scholarship kids, and generally dismissive of private/public school kids. And schooling is significant; every September the Oxbridge recruiters begin the arduous task of trying to get more state school applicants, and that disparity does manifest itself later on in life.

However, it is never explicit. Someone saying "how very working class of you" is not something that would happen. Hell, I'd consider that person uncultured for saying that. If you really want to talk about British culture's reputation, then the first thing you should talk about is not acknowledging things, responding in a passive (aggressive) manner, maybe looking down your nose, but never ever confronting anyone.

Also, I really wonder how much British culture matters in the tech scene. I'm in London, so that probably changes my experiences, but at my start up, we have 4 Italian employees, 1 Swiss guy, and me, the sole "British" member (though half my family is Polish, so go figure). The tech scene in London is incredibly diverse, and at least in my experience, British culture is pretty far from universally prevalent.