skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
1. Setting all the Step-Over and Step-Into shortcut keys to be the same in eclipse, Xcode as well as the Visual Studios

2. Going through my life-todo list and just getting rid of a lot of stuff that I am not going to ever do

3. Deciding that instead of the vague 3-4 foreign languages I wanted to learn in my life, I will just pick one and stick with it

4. Generally cleaning out the past - getting rid of peoples numbers I will never call, throwing away all old bank statements etc

5. Having a series of pictures of the concepts and figures that motivate me directly above my desk. In case you are curious they are all from movies (I have Mr. Glass, the Lina Leandersson Eli, Wei Tang as Wong Chia Chi, Omar Little, Alfie)

6. Using TheLastRipper with Winamp to play my songs, such that I discover new songs, but get to save those I like

7. Using XMarks

8. Synchronising my work across both of my computers (laptop, desktop) using Dropbox

9. Being sure to read every single night before I go to bed
A friend of mine lives in Argentina. It just hasn't captured my imagination like Chile. Maybe I like the ocean too much. Maybe I'm too gun shy after it's economic troubles. But I should visit him and get a better feel for it before writing it off.
You will probably like what we are coming up with. Will release on hackernews once its ready.
Yeh we'll see about your prophecy. But chose ur side, dont take the middle route by adding "this is not disparaging india or Indians" crap. Poser.
Until you pick one that has the background colour by accident!

Be weird to see that floating semicolon in there.
Setup git bash completion + put the branch name in your PS1 (previously mentioned on HN).

http://www.simplicidade.org/notes/archives/2008/02/git_bash_...
Is the reddit thread a response to raganwald's post?
The brightness values are nowhere near extreme enough, and they're not adjustable beyond a few presets. The intent, which it does okay, is making your computer match the color tone of whatever your indoor lighting is, which makes the display more red than it makes it dark. But what you really want it to do is make the display dark enough that it won't keep you artificially awake late at night when the monitor is the only light source. On the Mac, the best tool I've found for that is Shades (http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades) which unfortunately doesn't have a timer. But binding to alt-space or whatever is pretty much just as good.

As a side note, the effect that monitors and other bright lights have on preventing sleep is the suppression of enzymes in the pineal gland that convert serotonin into melatonin about an hour before bedtime. There's a deletion mutation in the genes that code for one of these enzymes (ASMT) that's very common in autistics and relatives of autistics (which is a non-trivial subset of hackers/coders/geeks), so you might not be benefitting from the darkness anyway. You can solve the problem more directly and reliably by just taking melatonin supplements.
Not sure either... how does RubyForge stay afloat?
I was hoping for more meat in the argument too, the plural of anecdote is not data. If Steve was the sole factor behind Apple's success, then why didn't Next take over the world too?

I'd be a lot more interested in the mechanics of how 'great men' make a difference. I'd argue in Apple's case Steve's biggest influence was building a culture fanatical about the customer's experience, replicating versions of himself across the company. He's also been amazingly hands-on about the details of the business.

Most fans of the great man theory in business seem to be looking for a quick fix, a savior they can recruit. That leads to hiring apparent visionaries who spend too much time thinking deep thoughts about strategy, and not enough on the operational and personnel nuts-and-bolts of the company.
Basically, it automatically adjusts the RGB elements of your display to be more subtle on your eyes depending on what time of day it is and lighting conditions in your room. It does a fair job at it. I highly recommend it.
We've been using Pivotal Tracker for about a year on our nights-and-weekends genealogy research webapp. It's intuitive -- even fun -- to use, costs nothing, and takes almost no time to administer. For user-sourced feature requests, bugs, and support responses we're currently quite pleased with GetSatisfaction. So far, we find we can migrate issues between the two without much difficulty.
In my view, contracts can do the "redundancy" thing much better than typing can. It's explicit, it's optional, it's a better guarantee that you're getting what you want, it's more flexible, etc. Contracts and TDD are my favorites right now, i guess.

TDD is particularly great, though, as it's an in-code description of what the program should do. If it doesn't pass the tests it doesn't do what you thought it should do--ie, there are bugs.

(Of course, then we have to figure out how to write the tests... but hey...)
I just wanted to point out the interesting juxtaposition of

"P.S. Another trait that good programmers tend to have is not seeing themselves as good enough and not getting defensive about proving how good they are. Exercise to the reader."

followed immediately by:

"I find this debate insulting."

This seems to always happen with hiring debates - last time, it was the "Would you hire someone without a college degree?" question on Reddit about 8 months ago. Interestingly, all the degree-less folks I would hire kept their mouth shut in that debate. They know that they're good enough to hire with or without a degree, so they don't need to prove anything to anybody. It's the folks who aren't quite sure that need to rant on and on.

It doesn't matter if everyone likes you, so long as someone likes you. Applies as much to jobs as it does to friends, girls, or customers.

FWIW, I do code at home. And I find this debate rather baffling. I code because I want to, not because I care whether someone will hire me for it. If it gets me a job, so much the better, but if it doesn't, I can always start a company, compete with them, and kick their asses. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive to having a life, either. I read, too, and play violin, and occasionally go hiking or see a movie with friends, or play Starcraft or board games after work, or any of a number of other activities.
I'm writing a short compilation of essays(http://tinyurl.com/health20essays) which attempts to crystallize the currently changing HealthCare space and offers introduction to various aspects of this vertical for an information technology professional looking to familiarize himself/herself with this domain.

In this survey I wanted to get early feedback if such a book will be useful, or if you an expert in any of the area and would like to contribute part of a chapter.
NASA has some rather particular requirements, though. If their systems fail their spaceships crash and explode. Possibly killing people.

It's a much stricter requirement than most people will ever deal with, but wow do you not ever want to get that wrong.
And it's the song from the end of The Bourne Identity. Thanks!
I love Maths, but this one got me. I admit publicly it is beyond me. When I was small my grand mother used to tell me this story:

One night as the priest was lying with his wife, he said, ‘Wife, if you love me, get up and light a candle, that I may write down a verse which has come into my head.’ His wife, getting up, lighted the candle, and brought him pen and inkstand. The priest wrote, and his wife said, ‘O Master of my soul, won’t you read to me what you have written?’ Whereupon he read, ‘Amongst the green leaves methinks I see a black hen go with a red bill’.

To this day I have not grasped what she meant with this story.

Please can you remove the Layman from the title?
"In one" is frequently the opposite of simplicity. And, I already have everything in bazaar repos.
I've written a lot of Java, C++, and C#. I currently write a lot of MSBuild (not by choice) and Python. Static vs dynamic typing is neither a mutually exclusive choice, nor a choice which can occur in a vacuum. Use the right tool for the job, or else one of these things will happen:

Java/Swing: You will be woefully unequipped for the natural cascading property nature of GUI applications; forcing you to jump through giant hoops to get anything to not look awful.

C++/COM: You'll cast IUnknown to ISomethingElse so many times that it will lose meaning.

MSBuild: You will make a typo in a parameter name, but won't find out until two hours into your build when you get an error that could have been caught by a compiler.

--

Static typing works for problems that demand rigor, but may be hard to unit test. That includes most larger projects worked on by companies of overworked and slightly disinterested developers.

Dynamic typing works when you can iterate as fast as you can refresh the browser, or when your application is small enough that it is reasonable to full text search the entire thing anytime you refactor anything.

You can build dynamic type systems on top of static ones, but it is ugly. Don't be WPF's DependencyObject system cringe. It is safe, however, to layer dynamic code above static code. Feel free to use a dynamic language for scripting a statically build application.

You can build static type systems on top of dynamic ones, but they will leak. It is also awkward to layer static code above dynamic code. Odds are your code will be dynamic, but more verbose because of the type system getting in your way.
I'm not sure Pressflip is very good evidence for him being a skilled programmer. I've seen some of his Google code and it's pretty decent though. I just wish he didn't have the habit of throwing shit at other people.
Would love to hear more about living and working in Chile. Are you chilean? How hard is it to find smart people? Is there a local startup scene? Is all of this government propaganda or is there really a thriving culture of risk-taking and entrepreneurship? What about VCs?
My experience is that most workplace issue come from, or at least start with, the boss. I sincerely doubt a toxic boss would fire himself just because of anonymous complaints, and good bosses don't need this system.
Be like Panera Bread
There's a bug at exactly one minute, ten seconds.

150 0.6 1:10.5

149 0.5 1:010.0 <- This one.

148 0.6 1:09.4
I stopped reading at "strong typing". (well, not really... but I started typing this comment roundabout there)

First of all, what he describes is not called strong typing, it's called static typing. Ruby, for example, has strong typing (every object is one type and one type only), but not static typing (you don't declare the type of an object when you declare a variable).

Secondly, there are many powerful languages that don't have static typing. Is the author implying that those languages are inherently buggy?

Thirdly, the author is not advocating what he declares in the title. He proposes methods to catch bugs, not to avoid them. His methods are also flawed in that redundancy does not ensure bug-free code - only that you haven't made any silly mistakes in your coding. Bugs come from all sorts of sources, and "code typos" are only one minor source. Other sources include: maintenance changes (which cause unforeseen effects that were not previously covered by tests), design flaws, and changed external circumstances. None of those are covered by the technique he lists.

Sorry, but this is just a poor attempt to capitalise on a catchy title. Nothing to see.
In gVim

au WinLeave * set nocursorline nocursorcolumn

au WinEnter * set cursorline cursorcolumn

Everything
http://www.voidtools.com/
for searching files fast in Windows ( it makes use of the USN journal so doesn't need reindexing)

Reinteract
http://www.reinteract.org/trac/
for hacking Python code. It can re-evaluate from where you made changes, so it doesn't run the whole program, just from where you changed something, I wish I could do something like this with IPython.

Xrefresh
XRefresh can refresh browser as you modify source files
http://code.google.com/p/xrefresh/

SharpKeys for remapping caps-lock to esc.
http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/

oh and do watch these in succession to feel better.

http://www.ted.com/talks/garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_every...

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_inventories_the_invisibl...

http://www.whatthebleep.com/
Laundry: big time saver. I only use it occasionally (it's $/# where I go), because it seems extravagant to pay another human to handle my underwear all the time, but when I've run out of time it's great.

There were two in my local area, one laundry stopped offering the service. I assume the labor was too much to support the service, vs all other costs for that particular business. I expect this service to gradually disappear.

Windows desktop: I like http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ , provides multiple desktops. It's the only one I've tried that I didn't eventually uninstall in disgust.
If a company reorg (something most competent people can navigate without too much stress) makes you suicidal, I'd say that the wealth of impending disasters in a start-up (only some of which feel under your control most of the time) will drive you insane much more quickly.
Of course not!

I'm a swombat!
That's my biggest gripe here, too. Why are people so black-and-white about this? I work 40-60 hours/week depending on what's going on. Sometimes while working 40 hour weeks I don't write any code at home preferring to do one of the many other thing I enjoy. Other times I'm practically buried in work and come home and poke around on a side project. This just varies depending on my mood and what (if any) interesting stuff has my attention. If you enjoy something, you'll find time. If you don't enjoy it, why is it your career again?

If you ask me the whole point of this discussion shouldn't be 'coding at home' but instead 'giving a crap'. Even just a little passion for your field will get you a long way in any profession - and I think that is especially true in creative fields like programming.

Here I am on a Saturday afternoon putting some thinking time into my field... have I devoted the day to it? Hardly!

You're right on that there's absolutely nothing mutually exclusive about enjoying coding (and lots of other completely unrelated stuff) as a hobby and as a career.
Quicksilver on OS X.

I know it's far from obscure, but if you still haven't tried it, it's worth it.
Since this is getting upvoted, I'm curious how people make the distinction between a startup and a website.
ClearCase: I hated it because it was used by management to micromanage the workflow. Too big and cumbersome. (circa 2000.)

JIRA: too heavyweight. More options than you would ever want.

FogBugz: the client picked it because it could be used for project estimating, but if anyone (like me) didnt keep their % completions up to date the completion dates went really wacko.

Trac: nice and simple, good features, easy to setup.

Lighthouse: too simple. I like to be able to select and sort my bugs by various criteria and I cant. (Could be I havent taken the time to figure it out yet.)
I'm making a lot of web sites just in case.
> PS: Ok, I did just start working on an iPhone app, but that's mostly because I stopped coding at work.

Aha!
Is this Emacs 23-only? I don't get that behavior with 22.3.2.
I'm currently using GitHub's issue tracker. It's nice and simple, integrates well with development, and you can customize it how you like with a simple Gmail-like label system.
I completely agree that the system shouldn't allow him to do this either. Both the graphical and command shells for Linux (GNOME and bash respectively) do not allow files to be created with newlines characters as far as I know.
i'm on Win XP so:

1. PomoTime: One of the new things i'm into for productivity based on Pomodoro technique
Although i don't follow it religiously, but i still get manage to get a lot more done than before.

2. Microsoft OneNote: i jot down almost everything and anything there before it slips my mind.

I am fan of lightweight apps:

3. VirtuaWin: lightweight multiple desktops

4. Q-dir: file mgr

5. Console: instead of cmd.exe

6. Locate32: i dont use content indexing stuff like Google desktop yet. I find them too heavy and also, i already have everything arranged in folders with relevant names. So searching by name is instant with this.

7. TeamViewer: a free app to share desktop. It found it a little bit easier/better/faster/lighter than VNC, DimDim.

8. Miranda: for twitter/irc/gtalk/yahoo

9. Most importantly, Executor: moved from launchy a while back.
I can't predict when. I think it will, at some point, but I can't tell whether it'll be a gradual slide or a catastrophic panic.

As for what to do about it - own assets that generate continual revenue streams denominated in foreign currencies. International bonds are the obvious ones, but stocks of companies that make most of their revenue abroad also work well. Paradoxically, that means the S&P 500 is a pretty good bet: most of the top American companies make most of their money outside of the U.S.
(01) Pixel ruler has been with me for a couple of years http://www.mioplanet.com/products/pixelruler/index.htm

(02) Reverse image search, good if you sitting with a hardisk full of images and want to use some on your blog

http://tineye.com/search/1c6e572120c79bf875264447d3f08eb9fbe...

(03) Answering emails on odd days of the month. Opening my mail 3 days after payday.
Realtime Related Stream Bar: A Collecta-powered jQuery plugin
A jQuery plugin to create a bar of real-time stream of information related to your post powered by Collecta search engine.
http://puttycm.free.fr/cms/ multiple putty sessions in one tabbed application.

Related, get cygwin ssh server running on your windows box (and set it up to disallow password login, only keys). If you use putty then you'll like being able to use putty for shell access to your own machine. You'll also like putty to your own machine as just another tab in putty connection manager above. Your option whether to allow connections from outside your machine.

Setting grub to prefer linux over windows on a dual boot machine. :)
Have used roundup for a while. Pretty bare-bones, but it is being used in a helpdesk-type environment rather than bug tracking. It has e-mail, command line, and web interfaces to suit different types of users.
We use Redmine as well. It's fairly easy to install and run (especially if you are familiar with ruby/rails). The source control integration is great (putting 'closes #123' in a commit message will change the state of the actual issue).

What I like about it the most is its level of verbosity for issues. It asks just the right amount of information, and no more.

A good example of redmine is the official Ruby language project: http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/
I have a family. I understand where he's coming from, but only to the extent that I have to balance family time with passionate hobby time, but...

I would not hire a writer that does not write in his free time.
I would not hire a lead singer that does not sing in his free time.
I would not hire a chef that does not cook in his free time.
I would not hire a prostitute that does not have sex in her 'free time'.

OK, that last one is a stretch perhaps, but my point is simple: if someone loves what they do, the act of doing it is not a chore and never "something they do for money" but "a state of mind". You can never learn all there is to know "on the job". Perhaps MANAGERS do not have to manage in their spare time, but anyone producing tangible stuff better love it.

He sounds like he's trying to tell himself he can still be a good programmer without putting in the time. I'd like to tell myself the same thing, but sadly, those days are really gone (it's a slippery slope, it started with a kiss, a gf, a relationship, living together, marriage, children... pooof!)
Using Putty (Windows) or iTerm (OS X) in full screen. Or use Visor in OS X http://visor.binaryage.com/.

This allows distractions from other stuff to vanish for a while.

Also, I don't check the email as often ... productivity^2
Probably the worst bug I ever encountered was a documentation bug.

Back in 1970, I was at my first programming job, working for a very small consulting company. The contract was to convert a large system from 1401 Autocoder to System/360 Cobol. However, instead of the source code for the current system, we were given system specs, which were almost flawless.

However, in final acceptance testing, one program, for one particular accounting line, kept producing results that differed from the current system. The customer would not accept this, even though my code implemented the specified calculation precisely.

Eventually, after a few rounds of back and forth, I demanded to see the source code of the current system, and after much more back and forth, the source listing was produced. Looking at the source, it seemed to be doing exactly what my code was doing.

There was one fact not taken into account - the present system, rather than running on the 1410 for which it was written, was running in emulation mode on their new 360. And they hadn't bought a license for the compiler. So the small accounting change they had made a few months prior had been made to the object code - the card deck itself. Luckily the programmer who had made the change had written a note to that effect on the listing - in the object code part, where he eventually sheepishly showed it to me. We then got paid.

(I also once had a bug that almost got national distribution via Time magazine. Luckily they had only printed a few thousand copies before someone noticed it. That one would have gotten me fired, but for the fact that the same release also included a halftone compression routine that enabled them to push back their photo deadline by a day. The reason the bug escaped my testing was that it only occurred in pictures where the line count was of the form 4n+3 - I had tested with both even and odd line counts, but never managed to use one that produced the off by one error.)
Well, to summarize: like attracts like. Even in business world.
Considering that your competition is a mobile device that costs anywhere from $1 (basic model) to $30 (deluxe models with many more features than your website), can be used anywhere in the world (or off it) without concern for internet access, has a battery life on the order of 5 years, and a total service life of over a decade...

I think you're screwed.
Judging by your post, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you don't have children....Your anecdotal observations about parents did little to advance your point.

Either way, I think the entire debate belongs in the 'bike shed' category.
I tend not to code in my free time, because whenever I feel like coding, I apply that effort to a project designed to make me money, so that time becomes work time.