skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Hire the people with the skills and aptitude to do the job, leave their personal lives out of it.

Fact is, it's not always easy to determine the skill and aptitude levels of a prospective hire. Even if you can accurately pinpoint these things, a high skill level alone doesn't always translate into hard work as an employee. You can never know exactly how things are going to work out in the end, so your best bet is simply trying to raise your chances of making a good decision.

When it comes to coding, it's safe to say that the more time one spends doing it, the better one gets. There are tens of thousands of people who enjoy coding as a hobby, so why hire someone who doesn't?
But having to position them manually is just tedium. Let me choose which palettes to display and which side of the window to display them on, and then let the application take care of the rest. If I'm running at fullscreen then I don't want anything covering up the document/image/model. Otherwise, I only want to have to move/resize one window.
You can almost do that now, by just arranging your pallets.

But I like the tabs for images though - that's a big plus.
From, "Back to School," Rodney Dangerfield's rules for learning Kurt Vonnegut:

"Dad, why don't you join me on a little reality break, OK?"

"Just 'cause you're in love with Dr. Turner does not mean you're gonna pass her course."

"You got a major paper coming up on Kurt Vonnegut."

"You haven't even read any of the books."

"I tried."

"I don't understand a word of it."

"So, how you gonna write the paper, then?"

"Hi, I'm Kurt Vonnegut. I'm looking for Thornton Melon."

"Want to come in? Dad?"
No short urls here please - even for very long ones.

The url is:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FJH0hYZmVtc/SsuTeVas_WI/AAAAAAAADl...
Why "ls *.c" is at least dumb, and possibly dangerous
I wonder if that's a generational thing. When I hear "nuclear," I tend to hear "exciting source of relatively clean renewable energy." Of course I know about weaponry, and I know about Chernobyl, better than most, but I also hold that atomic power is a tool, just like any other --- dangerous in the wrong hands, and dangerous if misused, but also a source of progress.
>biggest low latency trading shops

RenTec always made money from superior quant analytics. Like almost everyone else in quant business, they used high volume, low latency trading, so it wasn't a differentiating factor. Hence I doubt SEC would have grounds to go after them on low latency or more specifically on front running orders using low latency capabilities.
Mmmm, what he said wasn't offensive. He didn't say that anyone who doens't program as a hobby is mediocre. He simply pointed out that in his experience that has been the case. Read his post again...
Better yet, it's the location box in Chrome. Turns out, it's fairly trivial to tell the difference between a url and a search string. I wish firefox would adopt this design as well, it just makes sense.
Supposing for the sake of argument that you were actually passionate about more than one thing in the world, can you imagine why someone might want to spend six or eight hours doing some of the others after spending eight or ten hours doing one?
I am not a lawyer, but I believe that judging a job candidate based on their outside-of-work activities would actually be considered discrimination and illegal.

Judging passion is a different thing, but anyone reading this article and agreeing with the sentiment of it better be really careful about how they act about this during the interview process.
edited for tone and temper:

I'm sorry you're offended, but I think you're being way too defensive.

I certainly didn't make the stronger case that you seem to think I did; all I did was state my experience. If that's too much for you to hear, well, that says more about you than it does me.

There are probably tons of genius coders who never, ever code in their spare time. I just don't know any personally.
I have made plenty of web applications that did not require replication. I would guess that 90%+ of web apps do not need replication due to their low profile.
Seconding the request for Browser/OS Stats.
Good question. I can think of two tasks for which I routinely use the shell, and wouldn't really prefer one of the newer scripting languages:

1. Customizing my interactive shell, although I personally favor zsh over bash. I write shell functions and automate PATH setting and discovery where possible, so knowing how to script the startup file helps.

2. Startup scripts for software I distribute. Perl or Python would work, but then I would have to be careful about which version of the language to use. With /bin/sh, as long as I use purely POSIX constructs (which means no arrays, unfortunately), scripts work anywhere.
There doesn't seem be any fitting involved. I think he just took the speech spectrogram and used it as a piano score. Thus the acoustic output of the piano is not meant to approximate the acoustics of talking. We hear speech nonetheless because there's enough of a speech-like signal for our auditory functions to hold on to.
The non-usenet part of Google Groups needs serious attention. The volume of spam is ridiculous.

They have just purchased recaptcha and should make use of it.
In what way is AI a coding problem? Hacking 4096bit RSA is not coding problem. It's a math or hardware problem. For now true / classic AI is the same thing.

We have the hardware so you could build a self balancing robot, that walks around and picks up trash by the road. It would be incredibly hard to build it yourself, but it's possible. However, we don't have the HW that would let you build a robot that can read a random book and the assignment and then write original essays which would consistently get's a 95 - 100% in English 101 at Harvard.
Obama’s Government Grants Can Provide Debt Relief - Available for 2009
I'd argue that David Flanagan's excellent The Definitive Guide To JavaScript is better known than Resig's book.

In addition, "beginner" books tend to sell better than advanced books aimed at professionals, which might explain the relatively low sales of Resig's book.
Google Sites? Distributed through Mininova? Um, I don't think this is legit.
The agile manifesto is a marketing tool used to sell consulting services and books. Those who adhere to it quote it like it was some sort of revelation from on high. A new ten commandments. A great religious insight.

Nope, I'm not a fan, although I agree with the items. Software development does not need manifestos any more than it needs new methodologies. What it needs -- what it has always needed -- is pragmatism. Where the application of the manifesto is pragmatic, it is good. Where it is dogmatic, it is bad.

So I respectfully disagree. I'm just not a platitude kind of guy.
Cozy like a bed of nails. So many sharp pointy bits that you barely notice. Just don't try to move or you'll get spiked.
Shoulda used a picture of all the dollar bills remaining after not buying Photoshop :) GIMP's pretty good for a free project, but using their own logo as the example picture makes it look like it's only good for editing sprites.
Ask HN: Soma or North Beach
I am moving to San Francisco to run / work on my startup and I want to avoid driving / getting a car if I can. I want to be around like minded people (techies and such) and I was wondering which neighborhood would be better soma or north beach. Or is there another neighborhood that would be better?

--thx
How to create a hi-tech start-up
WTF? I didn't d/l this, but it looks like this is not an official ChromeOS release from google.

On the Download page there is some small print
"Chrome OS is not related to Google. Service provided by SUSE Studio"

BOOOO!
Wow. It's about time. Have no idea what the holdout was.
I assume "it looks AMAZING" is perfectly within the usual editorial standards of "omgbuntu", but wouldn't mind seeing a different headline here.

How about "it looks REASONABLY GOOD" or "it looks ABOUT LIKE YOU MIGHT EXPECT"?
What about using a small graph instead of a sum total to show karma earning/loss over time?
Chrome just plain has this functionality nailed (I hate to sound like a chrome fanboy, but this is truth).

There is only one box, it's a combo location/search box. Type in a url: you navigate to that url. Type in a search string: you navigate to the search (using google or whatever search provider you designate) for that string.

I'm not sure if this is pre-release chrome 4.0 specific or not, but when you visit different sites (wikipedia, amazon, youtube, stackoverflow, etc.) the first time you perform a search on those sites they are automagically registered in your browser as available search engines. Then, to search those sites specifically direct from the address bar you simply start typing part of the site name/url, hit tab to autocomplete the search provider (much in the way the awesome bar works in firefox), type your search terms and hit the enter key. Thus, 'wiki+tab+napsack problem+enter' takes you to the wikipedia article on the napsack problem, and 'yout+tab+keyboard cat+enter' searches youtube for "keyboard cat" videos, and 'ama+tab+coders at work+enter' searches amazon for "coders at work". It's a very elegant, very practical design that I hope catches on.
The multi-window aspect of Macs makes them almost unusable IMHO.

I can't conceive of a particular reason to have some completely unrelated program showing up in the same visual space as the one I'm currently working with.
Actually I've done this with a number of sites before and that scenario rarely happens. Non technical people almost never delete their cookies (at least from what I've seen).

The way I've tackled it before is let them do X first (select their celebs lets say) without registering. Drop the cookie and create a user record linked to it. Then tell them that if they register they can access their list from any computer (work and home are big sellers). It's pretty effective for getting registrations and you shouldn't encounter as many problems as you think you will. If you're encountering a lot of trouble getting users to register, give it a try for a couple of weeks and see if you get more adoption.

Alternatively you could let them pick their celebs first, then make them register. It's kind of annoying for the user but let's them see what's available (and get a little invested) before registration.

Anyway, just my 2c.
One option may be to consider what sounds like multiple needs (a place to host people, dedicated business space, a space to sleep) and see if separating those allows you to spend less on rent.

For the bought property to cost you less than renting (making generalisations about the area you live in, interest rates etc) the Investor would probably need to stump up a sizable chunk of cash into the property. Most property investors (myself included) are mindful that equity growth in real estate, when it happens, is normally only a few % points above inflation - it's profitable because you leverage a bank's money - you only put in a small amount of cash, so those few % points are pretty good against your investment. A simple example that clearly ignores interest costs, maintenance etc

I put 10% ($30K) into a $300K apartment, and owe a bank $270K.
The market grows by 5%, so the apartment is now worth $315K
but I still only owe the bank $270K so my $30K has grown to $45K
a 50% return.

Now if you need an investor to put in a sizeable chunk, that equation will be different.

I put 40% ($120K) into the same $300K apartment.
After the growth of 5%, my $120K is worth $135K.
That's a 12.5% return.

At the upper extreme, if I invest 100% of the property my growth is 5% - better than bank interest in the US at the moment, but only just. Not an attractive deal (and I still haven't factored in interest and other cashflow costs).

So that's my response to your out-of-the-box idea - for it to help you (by reducing or removing rent / mortgage costs) it probably won't be attractive to an investor (smaller returns than more diversified investment). Happy to be proved wrong, and different investors do have different needs!
A pragmatic engineering approach often beats the theoretic "correct" approach in most applications.
First, remember that SF is a relatively small city, and you can get from pretty much anywhere to anywhere else in the city via public transit in about an hour max. So don't immediately discount all the areas that don't have startups. There are plenty of other areas in the city that get you more apartment for your money, and more diversity in the people around you (diversity as in not just tech workers)

That being said, if you really want to live where you work, probably go for SOMA. Most of SF's startups are clustered there. Be ready for high rents though. And talk to someone who's lived there for a bit to find out which areas of SOMA you'd want to live in, and which you don't. (Actually, I can help you with that if you want!)

North Beach has some good bars, lots of good restaurants, lots of crappy clubs, and tons of d-bags. Not many startups that I know of. Nice to visit friday nights, I wouldn't want to live there.
Interesting discussion on Peter Seibel's experiences with TDD and unit testing. I think one factor that clouds this discussion is that people tend to conflate testing in general, with the practice of test driven development. Testing your code is a good thing; running your code a couple times is testing, though it may not be as rigorous or repeatable as a suite of unit tests. Driving your design by first writing tests... well I think the jury is out on that one. It may work in some problem domains, but not all.
Due to the inherent unreliability of the Sun/Oracle acquisition of the software, my company quickly tossed MySQL for an embedded desktop dB and moved to use SQLite, haven't even bothered to look back. That was the far better choice for our application by far (and much much cheaper).
This is the coolest thing I think I have ever seen (or heard for that matter).
Is it really 2.5 years? I am always skeptical of these numbers because they are always way shorten for PR purposes.I am really curious on how much time Aaron spent during his spare time working on Mint before he started seeking funding. Pre "Garage" phase in his own terms.

Btw if you haven't watch this video yet, you should. Definitely well worth it.
The human auditory system does a remarkable job of filling in missing data. Sometimes it's amazing.

For example we can:

Hear a song we recognize, playing softly in the background, in a crowded noisy room

Talk and understand conversations over the telephone even
with it's amazingly small bandwidth

Understand speech with something like 70% signal loss

Hear the cry of a baby in the middle of a battlefield over the sound of guns

and on and on and on
Yes, we'll email everyone.
IMHO it needs more cowbell.
Microsoft announces ad-supported Office 2010 Starter Edition
First thought: Well, that looks rather painful to use.
That would be awesome; what parts of soma should I look at? One of my friends said he lives around Bluxome Street and he likes it so I was considering something close to that.
Thanks for correcting that title.
You mean something like that? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9D-kUEp03c
I'd recommend the Haight (upper) or the Mission (closer to 24th than to 16th). They're good places to live, and you can get to anywhere else pretty easily. There will be techies wherever you go in SF.
I agree, but I've also been a professional editor and know the extent to which editing can improve a manuscript. I personally won't work with a so-called traditional publisher again; I find their contract terms -- especially remuneration -- one-sided and unacceptable.

I neglected to mention the value of distribution. The only way I can imagine working with a traditional publisher again is to increase the potential audience of a book through a dedicated sales and distribution channel -- but I'm not giving up 85% of gross revenue to do so.
I didn't say that I never "found the opportunity" to solve problems with code outside of work. I said I didn't have the energy to code outside of work. Your incredulity concerning that fact is irrelevant to my ability.
Lets start a list of applications we could use with nuclear batteries:

- Nuclear powered electric cars. Recharge like how one would change oil.
this is one of those things no one cares about until it affects them.
With apple's brand recognition, how does being a member affect their business?
I have a technique I used many times to train myself to resist better: I accept invitations to meals offered by real-estate companies.

They will employ every high-pressure tactic in the book and then some that are considered crimes against Humanity and in more civilized societies are punishable by death. You will be able to observe a sequence of increasingly confrontational salespeople, male and female, pretty and ugly, that seem hell-bent on selling you some nice time-share in a chain of resorts. You will also see others succumb and be applauded for making a really stupid business decision.

I advise you to do it as many times as it takes for you to master the game. You may consider yourself ready when you consistently beat up the final boss and get your prize (usually tickets for some tourist attraction). I particularly like to play rude paying more attention to the food than to the salesperson, interrupting and leaving the table to get more food.

Do it a couple times a year, just for the kick of it.

It's like an immersive videogame.

OTOH, your faith on Humanity may end up a bit scratched. That's a small price to pay for this kind of enlightenment.
We moved from the upper Haight to South Park (Soma). Even w/ all the gutterpunk kids and tourists the Haight was much move liveable and felt like a neighborhood.
In my humble opinion, it doesn't matter so much where you sleep as much as where you hang out/hack/work (you are an entrepreneur, yes? why are you sleeping?). I presently live in NOPA, and for me, it's easier to find cheap housing, and a quick bike ride or bus ride on the 5 to (or 24) to downtown (SOMA'd be a few more blocks' walk).

natemartin's right, though; north beach probably wouldn't be the best fit.
the only university text book i've held on to.
Depends on which part of Bluxome.

Basically for SOMA, you'll want to be east of 4th street if you can, maybe 5th as the furthest west. Once you get to around 6th the neighborhood gets pretty bad.

There's a lot of startups clustered around the 2nd/3rd and Bryant/Brannon, with more up towards market as well. South Park is a very nice area, but high demand as well.

If you're near 2nd and Brannon-ish area, be prepared for lots of crowds during baseball season.

The area north of harrison and east of 2nd is fairly industrial.

Email me (check my profile) and I can tell you more about the city.
Dumb on whose behalf? If you need to know the inner workings of the shell in order to know that is "dumb" then I submit that in and of itself is dumb.
15 Common Mistakes in E-Commerce Design
Personally, I'd avoid both areas for the reasons you stated. The homeless/gutterpunks/tourists in Haight get pretty annoying, and there really is no neighborhood feel in SOMA. In SOMA, people are there to work, or to network, or because it's trendy. Other parts of the city it's a lot easier to get to know your neighbors.
"$31m to $170m in 2.5 years" just doesn't have the same ring, does it? And yet it's more accurate.
You shouldn't have been downvoted; email is almost the least reliable communication method we have.

The only method I can think of, off the top of my head, that's less reliable than email is carrier pigeon.
Yeah, what's wrong with lower haight? It's way nicer/more unassuming.
I lived in SOMA on Market St. Super awesome for quick public transport to anywhere in the city. Try to be on Market St and you should be fine!
Yes, he carefully caged his words to avoid explicitly making the generalization, while still communicating that's what he believes. Fortunately, the English language is not strictly literal, and I am allowed to respond to the intent and implication of his comment.
Choosing a License
It's fascinating to listen to but I wonder about extending it to other languages. Does American English lend itself well to this sort of thing or are other languages and accents reproducible. I imagine that languages with much harsher stops like German or Russian would be more difficult and those that are easily broken down, like Japanese, would be even easier than English.
It does occasionally. In my experience, however, sometimes improving a pragmatic approach requires doing things correctly from the ground up. Sometimes the performance gain is worth it, sometimes it isn't. But generally it is there.
Nob and Russian Hill aren't bad. I have a 20 minute walk to downtown, and easy access to buses and cable cars. It's quiet (compared to the Mission or North Beach), not terribly expensive, and pretty safe. The walk home through Chinatown is a nice change of scenery, too.
Ask HN: Improve your concentration?
Hi, I've noticed that my concentration tends to lapse after spending 12+ hours in front of a computer. At a startup thats a way of life so I want to find good ways to concentrate better and remain focused even while working long hours. So far, I've tried drinking a lot of water throughout the day, eating a lot of light meals, avoiding sugar. Also, I try to avoid multi-tasking. Its hard to avoid checking email because you always feel like you are missing something impt but thats an area where I definitley waste a lot of time.

Any efficiency gurus out there with any tips?
Ironically, if I were as defensive as you, I could have misread the parent I responded to as saying that I must not be a top coder because I do code outside of work. Thankfully, I was able to simply respond respectfully with my different experience instead.

Since I default to respecting the experience and ability of everyone who posts here, I indeed found it ironic that my experience would differ so sharply from Retric's.
"judging a job candidate based on their outside-of-work activities would actually be considered...illegal."

No, not in this case. This is relevant to the job. An employer can easily ask, "Do you have a software project portfolio?" or "What's your experience in python, professional or otherwise?" It's very much on-topic.
I lived at the top of Nob hill for about a year.

Nice neighborhood -- close to everything, yet not too much in the middle of things.

Got tired of the streetcars, though. The clacking and clanging was cute for the first day or two. After that it got old in a hurry.
Filenames can contain newlines?

You learn something new (and vaguley horrifying) every day.
from wikipedia: Vonnegut played himself in a cameo in 1986's Back to School, in which he is hired by Rodney Dangerfield's Thornton Melon to write a paper on the topic of the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. Recognizing the work as not Melon's own, Professor Turner tells him, "Whoever did write this doesn't know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut."
Just sharing some Python
I thought I'd share a couple things from my Python working environment for my first HN submission. Hi all, I'm here.
I understand the employer's point of view: Such mono-track, passionate programmers will be easy to exploit to work long hours and weekends.
The last are a few folks behind *BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD) whose logins/monikers I happened to recall. I only omitted Ken (and others too numerous to mention) mainly because I've not had the pleasure of corresponding with him.
Computer bugs in the year 2000 (from 1985)
Filenames can contain plenty of happy stuff.

$> touch -- --

$> rm --

usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...
unlink file

$> rm -- --

$> touch \

$> touch \\ \ \ . \-

favorites of malware authors everywhere.
Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts
I thought you were referring to the macro level (ie someone selling all your stuff). I think from the micro level you probably lose your char but no one else in the universe is going to be affected significantly.