skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Oh I agree, especially in the context of craigslist. However in RentHop's situation I view it a little differently--you're not getting 50,000 crazy brokers fresh from their license exams inputting stuff, instead it comes from the RE management companies who can be expected to do a slightly better job of things.

Also, I only asked about it once I saw that 4/5 listings I looked at on RentHop actually had that field filled in!
I seriously hate these lists. Top 100 universities at doing what?

There's no point being in the crappiest department of the "best" university.
No, not yet. C and C++ are not only alive, but thriving.
An interesting semantic snafu! I've changed it to "a single book" rather than "one book." Since, yes, anyone who's written, say 10 books has written "1 book," "2 books," and so on - technically speaking ;-)
Try with audacity, import the audio file, select a region then I think its shift + space to loop
Using Social Media As Your Main Portal For Contact, Don't Do It
I thought I would reply just in case you were referring to the video that I linked to. If so, that is most certainly not a beginner's tutorial on the basics that one would need just to make a simple GUI!

Rather, it's the other end of the spectrum: an example of how the toolkit allows a large team to bring serious, large scale software engineering practices to bear on something ambitious and complex.

One of the great things about GWT is that it offers something to that entire spectrum.
The wireless is actually pretty cool. On long drives, my girlfriend will finish a book, and then just buy the next in the series, on the road. It's quite a bit nicer than having to plan ahead. The DX also ships a really crappy web browser, which can be pretty useful. I've put my recipes on my colo, so when cooking we use the kindle as a recipe book. Once again, not a killer app, but it's nice.
Female oriented apps with what, pink unicorns and fluffy bunnies?

That's a pretty silly statement no matter how you take it. Remember the myth (or the myth of the myth) about nobody needing more than 640K of ram? There will always be opportunities for novel applications, more user friendly applications, applications which take advantage of new technologies, etc.

However if you do market research or usability testing, dependent on the use case please do with both genders and perhaps different ages - for example, soft thumbboards may be perfectly fine for someone with one size hands to use and ridiculously hard to use with another. That's an obvious example, and there are other things not so obvious that may come out from that.
Ask HN: Seeking advice from programmers for non-programmers
In light of your experience working on startups, what advice would programmers share with non-programmers?

I'm a "business/marketing/sales" type who worked with three others (two programmers) to launch an app two years ago. We didn't make millions (or thousands) but I'd never call it a failure. I think the four of us would all say that we learned a lot about working with others, working on a startup, and our individual habits. I'm eager to apply what I learned to another startup - I've never stopped wanting to create things.

I'm not a programmer, so when I have an idea, corresponding wireframes, and a sales and marketing strategy, I'm missing the most vital component. I work a full-time job. I've considered taking classes to learn a programming language, but pragmatically, I face an uphill battle to master a very difficult skill. Moreover, it might not be the most efficient strategy. Two experts working together are more powerful than one attempting to solve for everything.

I see programmers as the most important cog in this gear. I want to improve my ability to work with software engineers, so I'm asking the HN community to contribute stories about working with what I'll call "business types." Maybe that's pejorative. But startups are often a combination of these two actors uniting to create great things. Here a few prompts: feel free to share anything you'd like.

- How do software engineers perceive business types?

- How do they come to respect or disrespect someone in this role?

- How can I best approach a software engineer with an idea?

- What can a business type do to build trust with a programmer?

- Horror stories or success stories about these two worlds coming together in startup glory or catastrophe

- What motivates programmers? Success? Personal fulfillment? Money?

- What do programmers think motivates business types?

And so on. Thanks for your time. Also, feel free to email me if you're in NYC and want to meet up to grab a beer and talk about these things.

Dan

drc617 at gmail dot com
From OP:

"I talked to 100 clients last week and got 1 client."

"Let's try for 500 clients this week. 100 clients per day is more than doable," you tell yourself.

"I'll up my calls to 150 per day, and direct mail the rest to reach 2000 contacts this week."

"2000 contacts produces 20 new clients."

I dunno, "talking", "calling", and "direct mailing" in volume sound significantly different (and way more time consuming) than SEO, mass marketing, and word of mouth. Just different enough that a programmer can make time for the latter but not the former.
Google Apps: A Long Road Ahead
What they should do also is write how much it costs to actually attend these schools, then throw that in as a .2 weighing factor.

Continental Europe would fare quite a bit better in that case.
http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%...

Appendix B.
Excellent read, but I have some contrary thoughts.

Complex functionality and harsh deadlines push us to make brash decisions in software. If the software doesn't do A, B, & C yesterday, you'll never have to consider it's elegance because you'll be out of a job.

Not all code should "live forever", the assumptions it is founded upon change with time, so should the code. Of course often used utility functions/classes serve a professional well.
20091013 - q0008: AddThis - Language Database
Ask HN: Where Can I Get Some Free / Royalty-Free Music Tracks
Hey guys,

I'm writing a couple of games using XNA. One is a personal project, and one is for school. Where can I pick up some decent background music which I could include in my game? Note that I'm probably going to distribute through XBOX Live and maybe the Windows Marketplace for $1-$5 if I ever get around to completing them both.

Preferably looking for a electronic/techno/ambient style of music.

Thanks
Am I just behind or are there a surprisingly high number of free textbooks online recently?

I wonder how this is affecting/going to affect the textbook industry.
Yeah, definitely don't just take Adderall. I'm diagnosed with ADHD and I take Adderall every day and I still have a lot of trouble focusing. Especially when the problem gets boring. Especially when I want to solve a much more generic problem than the one I really need to get done. Especially when I'd rather be outside doing God knows what. If you seriously suspect that you have trouble focusing even on things you are interested in--and I mean seriously suspect; I routinely get distracted from very enjoyable activities like eating or sex, so it's not just "I can't focus at work"--go see an appropriate professional.

Honestly, I tend to use my imagination to concentrate. I mean, really stupid things like imagining that my code is slaying dragons or something, or that I'm actually developing software for an asteroid mining platform. Really, use whatever it takes to make yourself INTERESTED in what you are doing.

Also, avoid Hacker News. ;)
NICE doesn't face the same choices as insurance companies.

NICE picks treatments based on trying to get the best results for the whole population whilst only spending a finite amount of money.

Insurance companies pick treatments based on trying to get the largest amount of profit compatible with people being willing to carry on paying for insurance.
I am only distracted when I have no problems. Show me a good problem or show me money, and nothing can pry me away from work.

I am a heavy chain smoker, averaging 30 cigarettes a day .. except when I am in hack mode. I can go for up to 10 hours without even noticing I haven't had smoke all day.

The other thing that motivates me is phone work and emails; when I have a contract or a deal in my sights I am in predator mode :-)
So Sparky's Magic Piano could really have happened after all :)
CEATEC: Body transfer system
First I write a test.

Then I write just enough code to make that test past.

Then I refactor my code so that it meets the 4 rules of simplicity.

Then I write another test.
A problem I've seen from both sides of this fence is that one side tends to over-simplify what the other side needs to do to get something done.

A business guy may say "oh just slap this together and you're done", while a software guy might say "just go get some sales and we're golden".

I think taking a few minutes to find out the actual effort required to make something happen can go a long way; for both business people and software people.

The other thing that I see happen a lot is that business people tend to want to say "yes" to everything, while software people tend to want to say "no". It makes sense in context, business people want to do whatever it takes to make successful sales, while software people generally want to keep a manageable feature set (they also tend to know the full problem domain a little better than most of the business people they deal with; at least from the technology front).

Of course, these are all generalizations, so you have to take them with a grain of salt.
Theres a wikipedia article that might have better sounds to loop, although they are shorter I believe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise

Also this seems like a perfect excuse to program a solution, if you are so inclined. I've used supercolider in the past and it was easy to pick up quickly. http://www.audiosynth.com/
I can't answer that question, but I find that simple breathing exercises can help.

http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/pranayama/complete.asp

-Sit comfortably, either on a chair or on the floor. Close your eyes.

-Lengthen your spine up towards the ceiling, as if a string were attached to the crown of your head.

-Relax your shoulders by rolling them down your back.

-Breathe slowly and deeply through the nose. Fill your lungs from the bottom up. Focus on feeling your abdomen push out, then the middle of your chest, and finally your upper ribs.

-Breathe out through your mouth in the reverse order - compressing your chest from the top down (ribs, solar plexus, lower abdomen).

Repeat this a few times, breathing slowly, deeply and mindfully. To breathe mindfully means to focus on the act of of breathing, and how it feels inside of you. Notice the temperature and moistness of the air in your nose, the ribs expanding, the shoulder blades being stretched, the sound the breath makes...

The idea is to calm your body with deep breathing, and calm your mind by focusing solely on the breathing. Try to allow your muscles to relax and be stretched by the breaths (but keep the back straight). Your mind should be empty at the end of this.

It may take a few practices before you're able to completely clear your mind. You might consider taking free meditation workshops or yoga classes offered by your community centre.

P.S. - HN - how do I do bulleted lists?
Windows PCs are like TVs or landlines; everyone has one, whether you want it or not.
Very interesting but the damn reporter talked too much. I wanted to hear more of the piano.
This seems like it might have some similarities to sine wave speech synthesis. Of course, its far more impressive with a real piano.

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Sine-wave_speech
This is probably the most irritating comment I've seen on HN so far. Boo.
I agree.
There are pretty good technical specialists coming out of Russia, China and India. I have not found a single university from ether country.
How does this help you concentrate?
Nice find, but sadly it only demonstrate how insane the system abuses authors - I though pragmatic programmers 50% was way too high, but this just seems an industry that badly needs to be shaken up.
She has the leadership we need in an FBI director.
Well, how hard is it for a virus to modify the hosts file on a machine?

(p.s. the answer is "not hard at all")
Hey, AT&T: Where's The iPhone Tethering?
I like using smart bookmarks like this for specialty searches, e.g. only searching Wikipedia

http://www.google.com/search?q=%s+site%3Aen.wikipedia.org

But if I'm searching the entire internet, I just hit CTRL+K to jump to the search box. Beatcha by two keystrokes! :-p
CEATEC: Researchers turn to eyeballs to control devices
Truly they were film making visionaries.
If you just want to understand the basics, Andru Luvisi has written an interpreter in less than 400 lines: http://www.sonoma.edu/users/l/luvisi/sl5.c
and an interpreter I threw together based off his design adding garbage collection & more ops in 500 (though the macro system is non-standard and maybe broken): http://codepad.org/sQvOeqN9
Wait, WTF? Isn't getting bitten by SuperTick exactly the sort of low probability, high cost event insurance is for? Just because something is chronic doesn't make it low cost.
Yes. When I'm studying math, I work best if I just dive right into the practice problems, then go back and review the notes as needed. Once I find a challenge and get hooked on a problem that I can't quite answer, I'm fully focused.

I focus best when I have an immediate challenge or a problem to solve. Same for coding - diving right in to stimulate myself, and then I can start thinking of solutions/designs as I tinker with the small stuff and (re)acquaint myself with the structure/API.
Agree totally on 3 and 6. Not a coder, no advice on the others, but I zone out and work for 3-5 hour stretches when I come to work prepared and put on some music I'm familiar with and like (lyrical or otherwise).

Fell into that pattern in college when I had to write my philosophy papers.
I turned off email notifications. I put on earbuds and listen to instrumental(sometimes ambient) music and focus.
Downloadnewmoon.blogspot.com | details | folkd.com - social bookmarks
1. Right click rescue time in sys tray.
2. Click "Get Focused"
3. Enter three digits (at least)
4. Get back to work.

Not being facetious here at all. The internet for a computer worker is the biggest concentration killer out there. Blocking it all means losing part of your toolbox (i.e. googling some obscure/unknown language reference or topic), but relying on you being able to kill your temptation is not effective.

RescueTime solves this problem brilliantly. (There are other programs too, I just happen to use RescueTime)
I thought that was obvious from the starting point. Lacking features is a problem for large subsets of users.

This would be a way to add functionality (and possibly to integrate with other services, so you e.g. could do "legal" XSS.)
I take speed.

After 30 years I decided I probably have ADD. Talked to a doctor and he agreed.

Very small doses give me hours and hours of concentration.

Only about six months in, but the difference is night and day.
Dan, I can't speak to all your questions, but I'll try to help out where I can. in my experience the easiest way for a techincal person to respect a "business type" is for the business guy to know a thing or two about coding and software development. This doesn't mean knowing how to build Twitter over a weekend, but you do need to know what they're going through.

With that being said, the best way to pitch an idea to a technical person (again from what I read and experience) is to build something (even tiny) yourself. It's sort of like asking a programming question: doing all of your research and going through the problem before saying "I'm stuck, please help" generates a better response.

This is the process I'm going through now. I don't have a technical background, but I'm trying my damn hardest to build something before I take the time to con some hacker to help me with building out he product :-).
I was burned out (from writing) after almost completing the beginning Merb book, which Apress cancelled after the Rails/Merb merger. I must admit if I were to write a book again, it wouldn't be with Apress. I'd be knocking on PragProg or PeepCode's door.
So it itself consumes ~5 watts, does this include the hard drive and routers required to store and transmit the data, or solely the device itself?
But (a) that would then be a different list, the 100 best bargains, not the 100 best universities, and (b) if you really want to measure what it costs, you have to factor in European taxes, since you have to pay more unless you are an EU resident.
Also interested in hearing people's thoughts on this, as a "demand side" guy who asks programmers to do stuff.

My advice, FWIW, is that talking to and really trying to understand the problems faced by the engineers/developers working for you goes a VERY long way. Typically, they just want to know that someone is aware of their issues and is working with them, not against them.

Not a unique problem though - that's how all management needs to function. Although the technical barriers in programming can be daunting (as I think the OP notes).
ccmixter is good.
About That Fine ... FTC Tries To Calm Blogger Concerns About Product Mentions
This is very cool stuff. I usually debug my programs through log messages, but this looks to be much easier / less performance impact.
Shark Eats Entrepreneur Alive
Wordpress Blog Designs
Quality, again, doesn't signal value to the consumer.

The three Evil Dead films have grossed ~38 mil profit (IIRC). The first film cost $375,000 to make, but pulled in ~2.5 mil on its initial release and has now made considerably more, about $30 mil by last figures (2006). Essentially it made ~80 times its budget, compared to the ~10 times Titanic has made.

Consider that The Shawshank Redemption barely made over double its budget, but is the #1 IMDB movie with nearly half-a-million votes. Titanic, by comparison, doesn't even appear on the top 250 by a considerable margin (lowest rated is 8.0, Titanic has a 7.3, the bottom 51 movies are all 8.0, assuming the same trend of ~50 titles per .1 (doubtful) it wouldn't even hit the top 500).

If the producers knew Shawshank would be the best made movie ever, they would undoubtedly have charge more for admission than Titanic, which would likely have made it tank.
Interesting post, and I do agree, it is important.

Your testimonials example is good, and is definitely a reason to promote the idea, but as with anything, I suppose there are several different angles on this. In the case that you use AJAX to drive a "linear" process (say a series of login screens), there's no advantage to having Step 5 indexed and accessible, without ever beginning at Step 1.

Worst case, we can always fall back to the flash band-aid, keep the same HTML content all on the same page, just place it -10000 off-screen where only the robots can locate it...but this, along with the "right way to do this for SEO" above are labor intensive...
CEATEC: Typhoon Melor rains and blows down havoc on the show
From my own experience as a confirmed programmer with little interest in business, here's a couple of observations:

Programmers end up knowing a heck of a lot about the business just by virtue of needing to know how it operates in order to turn it into software. Use this knowledge. Include programmers in high-level discussions occasionally to get "buy-in" at an early stage of development (before anything like "requirements gathering" happens). This reduces the possibility for mismatch in expectations between "business people" and "programmers", which is a ready source of unhappiness for programmers and business people alike.

I've always been happiest and most productive in situations where the business people above me shield me from the other business people and let me get on with my job. So many others have observed how detrimental interruptions and rapidly shifting requirements (i.e. more rapid than 1 iteration) can be. Insulate programmers from the kinds of problems which are really no concern of theirs. Be the point of contact for other people who need programming things to happen (either as external or internal stakeholders). That's not to say that a programmer shouldn't be interacting with all areas of a business, rather, they should be able to do it in a structured way, not as a never ending stream of interruptions and fires to extinguish on an ad hoc basis.
Love this: it's about remembering why people come to the page. Grandparent-proof.
Strange how this is different for everyone. I'm the opposite, for example.
Are you concerned about medium/long term damage to your brain or endocrine system? I'm not judging at all, but for me, the fear of damaging what is my #1 asset has kept me away from anything beyond the occasional cup of tea. The idea of being "in the zone" easily and for hours is very appealing, but the unknowns and risks make my shy away. What are your thoughts?
Are you sure it's XOR? Anything wrong with doing it through an iframe? You use javascript to control which is displayed and for responsiveness (your cycling), but each testimonial also has its own page.
I agree with you if you use lists such as this one to pick the University in which you go to study or work. But I would think that as a Country, or a State they might serve as a (very) high-level indicator of how you are doing in education.
"DNS is fine. Website being DoS'd, our ISP has been working to mitigate."

http://twitter.com/EveryDNS/statuses/4711230139
If you just want to understand Lisp, and not platform-specific stuff, I recommend tackling it at a higher level.

Haskell is a great language to implement other languages in:

http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp-in-haskell.html
I have enormous respect for business people who have no technical knowledge, and behave accordingly.

Conversely, if you know that you know nothing about parts of what I do, then why do you feel it's necessary to have input into it?

I think knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and allowing others to employ their own strengths is just as valuable a skill as actually learning a bunch of technical stuff.
Car makers use tech to battle ‘impaired driving’
How would you know it was working?
Certainly not at brand recognition. Everyone's heard of Harvard, Yale and Cambridge, no-one's heard of UCL who didn't go there (and I say this as an alum).
LispKit lisp is a pretty good example. A good description exists in "Functional Programming: Application and Implementation" by Peter Henderson.
Does the Music Industry Need Big Cities?
IIT certainly should rank right up there.
Cool. Visual Studio 2010 was supposed to do that also, I'm glad to hear GDB already has it.
you might be able to find something you like at http://www.youlicense.com/ they have a lot of bands and if you can't find something you like for free you'll still definitely get a good licensing deal.
Any idea why Craigslist is so vehemently opposed to either providing an API, or allowing others to scrape their site for data?

It doesn't seem to align with many of their other principles of openness.
Yes, if you hire him.

But you said that he is a powerful proponent for low-cost, self-run tests... and he's not, really, as I pointed out. Lukewarm at best, perhaps.

Meanwhile, why do you think he doesn't recommend testing for differences when he makes his announcements regarding findings? Or even mention that they vary?

This is just pure speculation, but it seems as if he's more concerned with sounding authoritative -- so people hire him -- than pointing out the ambiguities in statistical usability research.
They are institutes, not universities.
I find this list hard to believe. University of Illinois Chicago is in the list and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is nowhere to be found.

I think it is widely held that UIUC ranks higher than UIC.