skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
FWIW, I voted it up because I think you made the best comment on this post so far.

I tend to think in similar terms to you regarding that list and thinking in that way got me out of a slump. I thought being a techie or an entrepreneur was a waste of time because of all the disadvantages, but I realized that if you're creating technologies or anything that helps others push the species forward, you're part of the good side of life.
I like Seoul, NYC, D.C., Tokyo, London, Paris and Barcelona myself.
SomethingAwful is, hands-down, the best forum on the Internet. If you've got time, this is probably the quintessential SA drama, and it's epic in scope:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=1a3f8a1a28...

Also from SomethingAwful, though the original post is now archived, the P-P-P-Powerbook prank:

http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

And, if your day hasn't been thoroughly wasted yet, this is my all-time favorite product of SA:

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Animal%20Crossing/index.html
I happen to work on development of the software, whose aim is to alleviate human suffering (it is used in hospitals.) But we also use bug tracking system, as well as company collaboration software during our development. So those actually fall in your point 3).
It should be interesting to see how they recover from this. I would have expected some sort of rebranding effort and to have them 301 fundable.com to the new site.

Even without the ridiculous public drama of last week, they could have used an overhaul of their image.
besides there is no worthy competitor with Adsense (for small blogs)

If your blog has a product focus or could contextually be linked to a product (e.g. if you blog a lot about cameras, say) then I know people have had a lot of success with Chitika in this regard.
Open core, closed heart?
I moved next to a big park and got a dog. The dog park is about 1 mile away and I take my dog (rather she pulls me there) there about 5 times a week so that's about 10 miles I end up walking/jogging each week.

and this doesnt include the regular walks we go on.
Start-up people should be a bit more careful about what they write. There is a reason why big companies see blogging as a danger, imagine the CEO of some big company making a public gaffe like that. It wouldn't go down very well, it's your credibility, and by extension the credibility of your company that is at stake when you blog.

Better be a bit more careful, even if you feel strongly about a subject (or maybe especially then).
Haskell: The Confusing Parts
Would you guys be interested in a site that contains various workout programs?
What a great idea! Attach a famous person's name to your pet theory. And for geeks, who better than Einstein?

I can see it now:

The Einstein method of parsing strings.

The Einstein theory of data minimalization.

The Einstein principal of funding your startup.

Who could resist? Before you know it they'll be naming everything after Einstein, even bagels.
I don't know if I use any MS stuff in my day to day life anymore. I don't have Windows, but more importantly I don't use office. I do all my office related work on Google Docs. With that out of the way and being on the Ruby stack I don't have any real need for MS apps.
Also third point seems valid. In software any change can be made technically at any stage, at cost of work hours (that can be sometimes priced as low as 0$ in case of unpaid overtime) and the software quality.
The quality is hard to quantify. You can tell apart perfect from usable from unusable, but software very rarely achieves perfect quality and usable software has fair margin from being unusable so changes rarely bring easily noticeable degradation of quality.

But changes do have cost. Developer time has to be paid one or another way eventually and degradation of quality raises maintenance and bug fixing costs. All this has to be (and is) factored in the price of the software.

On the other hand I think the first point is completely bogus. Computers are extremely cheap. Before personal computers I'd have to buy very expensive manufacturing machine to provide such value with so little work. If I had no money to start with I'd be forced to work for somebody who had capital to purchase the machine. I might never be able to afford one myself.

Actually software is extremely cheap because computers are cheap. Software that costs zero could not be possible if computers were expensive.
There seem to be quite a lot of designers out there strongly opposed to 99designs and its ilk:

http://www.no-spec.com/
I don't think having a major officer posting an entry based on a false premise is good for your brand in any way.

So I don't buy the ulterior motive angle. Jason Fried must by now be seriously regretting choosing Mint in the way he did to make his point. He's lost a lot of credibility while trying to argue something that actually needed to be said.

Let's get passed the point of the Mint exit being VC driven, and let's look at the larger picture he is painting, because I do believe it is correct.
Whoops, thanks for pointing that out. Sorry about that, had my email in the email field instead of the about me field. Anyway, it's added. :-)
That was indeed the most stupid post they ever wrote. It made me wonder if they realize that if you use your PR channels for silly fluff like that they'll dry up quicker than you could possibly imagine.

April fools posts should be done around April 1st, if not you're burning up one of your most valuable resources.
I would love to read this, but I have a policy of not visiting SA while at work.
Excellent points. That's why Elon Musk scores very high with me and 'dandies' (that will go unnamed here, but I'm sure you can picture the kind of person I have in mind) are a net loss.

Given the chance to really change the world you should grasp it with both hands and run with it.

Too many people still treat money as a goal in stead of as a tool, there really is no point in being the richest guy in the graveyard, if you do not apply it to something useful you might as well never have had it in the first place.
$200 expensive?
He had no idea whether it would work when he set up the relationship so he was taking a risk and she wasn't. His risk paid off.

She was happy to get X money for Y job. Should the fee be renegotiated whenever he finds (or more likely, creates) more value? Should he also pay higher hosting fees, and maybe more for his domain because now it's worth more?
The 37Signals blog still has a ton of great information in it - particularly on design. However, their opinions on anything outside of design have been getting more and more obtuse. There is more noise than signal these days but they're still relevant enough to read.

Their one-size-fits-all approach to business models has always been as ridiculous as their holier-than-thou attitude towards funded startups. They just seem to be getting more gratuitous as of late. The company clearly had a mental investment in Mint and were disappointed by their exit. That investment and let down led them to act immaturely.
Wow, MySQL roll out for our Python software is a complete pain - I cant believe I have never come across this before!

Thanks so much!

(it's apparently been about for a year - yet i9n all my Googling I never came across it... :()
It's expensive by Malaysia-- a third world country-- and most third world country's standard.
Isn't this review a bit harsh?

Didn't Steve Souders basically invent this field, do a great deal of research and testing in order to find out what actually made a difference and then publicize it?

If I was wanting to be harsh I would suggest buying this 2 year-old book, when both Yahoo and Google have automated versions of the same checklists, was the real mistake here.
Also, this has been picked up by TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/05/causata-launches-custom...
After reading all these comments, I wish that I'd known Dan. It sounds like he was a pretty great guy.

My condolences go out his family and friends.
Where Microsoft gets you is with advanced uses. People with sophisticated macros, vbscript, corporate workflows integrated with some Outlook feature -- these are the reasons why M$ is entrenched.
Interesting, but that's a really thin layer to argue your 'original contribution' over. I think the script writer would have a pretty good case.

And hey, at least one guy read your comment :)
>Computers are extremely cheap. Before personal computers I'd >have to buy very expensive manufacturing machine to provide >such value with so little work.

That's because you not living in a third world country. In a third world country one brand new dell laptop ( not very high end one) can easily cost as much as the salary of a programmer.
Color Psychology In Creative Design
In general, Microsoft hardware does a lot better with standards compliance than their software.
Ask HN: Your favourite programming language dissertation
Looking for a few high quality programming language dissertations. Thanks. :-)
A View on Database Storage
maybe, maybe not. I prefer that dying breed of big-co's CEOs that speak clearly what's on their mind instead of usual BS corporate speak. Remember that Larry Ellison rant on cloud computing last week? Or ousted Seagate CEO Bill Watkins saying "let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn." in an interview. That's what I mean and that's what I miss.

Anyway, I wouldn't call 37Signals provocative posts gaffes. They're meant to stir up things, sure, but they're usually written in quite good taste (unlike many pieces critical of them) and they clearly express 37signals LLC vision and principles.
Cheep programmers = buy cheep PC's. You can get a lot of HW for 300$.

Edit: Ok, I understand the downvotes, but I spent a lot of time developing on HW far worse than what 300$ can buy you today.

From dell:
Starting Price $269
Windows
AMD Sempron™ LE-1300 (2.3GHz, 800MHz, 512KB)
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
320GB4 Serial ATA Hard Drive

PS: I would still suggest 2 x 17+" monitors but those are not that expencive.
Yes, exactly. Efficiencies like bug tracking systems are like derivatives, in the calculus sense. Point 3 in the list is the first derivative of the first two points, while bug tracking is the second derivative for specific cases.
Readable code is not for maintenance only
There's likely to be a bit of a performance penalty though.
9/27 Reddit Tribute Song (Comedy - nerdy parody of country songs)
Singularity Channel - Bob Metcalfe -'father of the Internet'
"Most writers do. Most writers write to persuade, if only out of habit or politeness. But I don't write to persuade; I write to figure out. I write to persuade a hypothetical perfectly unbiased reader."

This is one of those pearls that makes reading Paul very satisfying. This inside view is vital when it comes to understanding people.

Why we write is essential to crafting the best version of a post/essay/article. I write for the most biased observer, myself. If I can respect the point and style of one of my posts, it gets published and the yardstick I measure content by does fluctuate daily.

When I cover a topic well, I can easily link back to that thought process within other posts to convey my ideas in a well thought out manner. Modularized web commenting if you like the concept allows for more rapid responses of higher quality to ongoing discussions.

The great part is, I can go back and update older concepts with a fresh perspective by writing follow on posts.
Einstein bagels.. man that brought back memories. Are they still around? EDIT: It's a good article if you take the time to read it. Don't knock the guy just for being good at marketing.
I strongly suspect that I am (was) a lot of both. I also strongly suspect that the distinction is hard to make.

I smoked to wake up, to go to sleep, to be alert, to relax, to suppress hunger, to get an appetite to think, to take a break or to sooth the lonesome heart. I really loved smoking. Still dream I'm smoking (and feel guilty) about once a week.
If it's well thought through I have absolutely no problem with it. It's just that your 'soapbox' is now standing on a global stage and if you are not critical about what you write you might end up doing your company a substantial amount of harm.

I like the Bill Watkins quote.

A variation to it was from someone that said "The best business models will get people laid". Not sure who came up with it first though.
Isn't it the other way around ? A derivative needs something to be derived from. So a toolset allows people to build neat stuff, making the neat stuff the first derivative of the tools it is built on.
Notes on Python Fabric 0.9b1
The problem with online “local” businesses
Also a lot of POS (Point of Sale) software runs on windows. So no overpriced Starbucks coffee for 30 days.
What do you think the answer to that question is? Your larger point is correct, it is too expensive for most white people to have 2.2 kids and a Volvo in SF. It's also lacking for restaurants, sucks for outdoor activities, and has poor public transit. Best to move to Oregon, Canada, or Europe rather than suffer the indignity of life in San Francisco.
Thank you or abridging "sex" from the title. It's appreciated.
My apologies if I'm stating the obvious, but this funny Q&A is not actually present in http://www.fundable.com/static/faq/ . It might have been a lighthearted way to acknowledge the troubles and say they're back at it.

It appears they are simply in full denial.
62% Say Today’s Children Will Not Be Better Off Than Their Parents
In my country (that fortunately is not third world but also not the first world exactly) I can buy decent (not high end) computer for my monthly developer earnings and I consider this to be really cheap. There is no other machine so cheap that could provide me with way to produce so much value.
Actually, this is precisely what happened to me a couple years back. I was shopping for a suit, and have found a brand-name pre-made suit costing about $1000 (that's converted, I don't live in the US); then I simply crossed the street and ordered one at a tailor. I had to wait a week or so, but the cost was half the first one. (Of course, there were less expensive pre-made suits available too, but the price of the cheapest one I found was only about 15% less for than the tailor-made one.)
I Can Has Cheezburger tops one billion views
"Recursive Functions of Symbolic Expressions and Their Computation by Machine" http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6096

The lambda papers http://library.readscheme.org/page1.html
What Makes NYC's Web Startup Scene Special?
Im guessing next to network latency it wont be a huge factor.

There is some C in there too - I haven't dug too deeply but I am guessing that certain core aspects will be in C for performance reasons.

EDIT: I apologise - I believed the Launchpad description which says Python/C. Checking the src it appears to be pure pure python. :)
Just needed to point out, risking being seen as a hypocrite is of greater value to shaking out the truth through varied perspectives than being paralyzed.

Valid points on TCs double faceted appearance (reminds me of nature vs demeanor). I still enjoy the heck out much of their articles. Specific authors usually mean more to me than the "brand".
How to Be a Stalker in 6 Easy Steps (and prepare for the job interview)
There's this thing on my desk with buttons and it beeps and I don't understand it (and the people who do wouldn't let me copy their homework) and I WANT MY 1960s BACK DARN IT. Help me, Mandelson, you're my only hope.
"3. Transparency would be a core element of our journalism. One example of many: every print article would have an accompanying box called 'Things We Don't Know,' a list of questions our journalists couldn't answer in their reporting. TV and radio stories would mention the key unknowns. Whatever the medium, the organisation's website would include an invitation to the audience to help fill in the holes, which exist in every story."

That's a very good idea. As a former reporter myself, I have to say that this is what many conscientious reporters wish they could report, if only the editors would get over the idea of pretending to be omniscient. And as a reader of journalism, I think I would like this invitation to be engaged in each story, raising questions about implicit unanswered questions and answering questions that were explicitly identified as unanswered.
Yup, SA is definitely the best. It's well moderated, tons of knowledgeable people there. Definitely worth the tenbux.
What's your neighborhood? Which other areas are good?
Ask HN: How do you record and develop ideas?
I am performing research into how people like myself record and develop their ideas.

Please fill out or pass along this survey. Or if you like, just leave a comment!

http://9mp.com/MBQ
> pure pure python

Yep.

The benchmarks will be interesting. If they managed to get good performance out of this then I'll be most impressed.
How to Calculate Start-Up Costs
Spectral Connectivity Analysis
The curse of prevention
Suicide Prevention Information
agree with DC, best in the US
Steve Carell's Daughter more successful than some startups?
I am using ctrl+l on chrome, so 2 keystrokes to get to a search 73,000 key presses (asides from search terms + enter) if I am doing 10 searches a day for 10 years.

If you are using the mouse to get to the location bar that's an insane time delay, but if you are using ctrl+l then typing "www.google.com" you are at something like 584,000 over the same 10 per day for 10 years period. That's an entire novel of "www.google.comwww.google.comwww.google.comwww.google.comwww.google.com", plus the time spent typing and the time for the extra unneeded page load. Think hard about changing to ctrl+k on firefox or ctrl+l on chrome (or ctrl+l plus "g" hotword on firefox if you got rid of the searchbar).
I actually quite amused by the following statement:
"Imagine being able to boot up your Operating System in 3 seconds"

That is, after you booted up your real operating system.
Agreed. Not seen the Animal Crossing LP's yet, but am a big fan of the raocow super mario ones where he plays insanely hard rom-hacks and just rambles and rambles :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UYFSvsN1CY&feature=chann...
Zero Friction Marketing Review
> Is it just that I've gotten unusually lucky in my experiences with Ubuntu or something?

I don't think so. I made the transition from Windows XP to Ubuntu earlier this year and it was surprisingly painless. In fact, the main thing I noticed is that most of the things I do with a computer actually got considerably easier in a Linux environment.
Poll: Have you ever comtemplated suicide?
This is obviously a great community. But there are some things that are still unspoken and for which we suffer silently. I'm not sure if technology can help, but I figured it is worth a small effort even if it only shows one person here that they're not alone.

I've known people within all of the following categories. I've also read enough Camus to know that the only philosophical question is whether life is worth living. Though like any good philosopher he says an answer isn't possible.
But in the back of my mind Camus' question has always lingered.
Yes, in the abstract
Yes, with a vague plan
Yes, with a concrete plan
Yes, with one attempt
Yes, with multiple attempts
The content is not bad. Basically, he says to focus on the most important thing and provides antecdotes on how he accomplishes this. This is a recurring theme here at hn:

http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

http://paulgraham.com/hamming.html

I'm not knocking the guy, but I would not agree that this is good marketing. Am I the only one who is becoming immune to sensational titles and tactics?

Here's an idea: Just call your work what it is, promote it well, and let it stand on its own merit. But, "The Einstein Principal"? Please.
Einstein's way of marketing. Before Seth Godin, was.. Einstein.
I have no idea what the answer is, but I'm betting it's not the first two. I have no idea why nice housing means "white people" though. My guess is that pretty much anyone would prefer nice housing to crappy housing, wherever they're from.
Can we please stop the 'thematic' posts ? I understand there is a sudden interest in the subject and the related subject of depression, but I find two posts in 10 minutes on the subject of suicide a bit much.

On the other hand I wouldn't mind that black band being there for a bit longer and maybe a permanent link at the bottom of HN, two days and five*width pixels, then back to business as usual seems somehow too little. Something a bit more permanent would feel right.
Is GNU Smalltalk a fully-compliant Smalltalk-80 implementation? I have tried messing with Squeak Smalltalk in the past, but the UI always puts me off.
Ok, here's the ghist:

- Guy's housing company provides backdated letter of deposit deductions, which they are obligated to provide within 45 days else refund the entire deposit no questions.

- Mailing stamp doesn't have a visible date, instead has an encoded datamatrix http://img.skitch.com/20090928-q76qg7y1w575ghbqn4t2uwx4eg.jp...

- Goons (SA users) tidy up the barcode image with photoshop, and do some internet detectivery to track down the tech specs for the image encoding used: http://www.springerlink.com/content/l847l1357j811101/

- Date of mailing turns out to be encoded as 26 90 32 01. Little-endian so, flip and to decimal and it becomes 2009-09-18. Letter is backdated!
Web Reviews: Average Online Review Is 4.3 Out of Five Stars
productivity!
What to expect from Gnome Zeitgeist
Exploring Adobe InDesign CS4’s Built in Scripts
CMSmatch.com comparison matrix of Drupal with EZPublish
Revolutionary Angels' new business plan competition: $250K prize, $5K entry fee
According to http://smalltalk.gnu.org/faq/146, it is.
Majority? Where's your proof? I think "majority" is just conjecture... show me some numbers and I'll believe you.
I have no idea what the answer is

I thought you said you had lived in SF?
Isn't that pretty much setting you up to be a non-profit? One would typically have to use a similar "stretched analogy" to turn those few areas you mention into a for-profit company in most cases. I guess in my greedy little capitalist mind, its also worth working on if it solves any problem important enough for people to pay for it.

Read "I, Pencil" by Leonard Reed sometime. Its available online for free.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html

Then give some thought to how the invisible hand is really doing your point 3 on such a massive scale across all of society that it enables not only points 1 and 2, but also just about everything else anyone might think is worth working on.

Its not a stretch really. Its a natural by-product of people having freedom to choose and pay for the things that are most important to them. If that's what's most important to you then that's great. But that doesn't mean nothing else is worth working on.
I may be wrong but I think it all started with

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859669
I struggled with whether to post this. But I think it's a simple way to gauge a common thread. I've known enough college students to know how often the thought and act of suicide comes up. Ultimately I decided that leaving it unspoken is worse than a poll that can fade into the ether if you disagree.

I agree on the black bar.
I was still growing at that age (peaked in weight at around 16 or 17, so I wasn't done growing yet). Perhaps I'm off a bit on the height (could have been 5' 11"), but I definitely grew a bit more.

Interesting theories about posture though. I have no idea if that affected it or not.
An analogy of the mathematical analogy I had in mind is acceleration, velocity and displacement: making a difference (displacement) in the world requires velocity, and tools can increase your velocity.
Vonage Unveils Mobile App for iPhone and Blackberry
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/55745