skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
We were talking about finance, not economics.
I had a similar problem many years ago. Switched to a Microsoft Natural keyboard on all computers I use heavily and haven't had a twinge since.
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/ProductDe...
I'd like to see this but I get a blank white page on the iPhone.
I've been fighting wrist pain for a while, mostly when i'm having to drive more than an hour and a half a day; I recommend 3 exercises from here, DynaFlex spining ball , power Web rubber net and wrist curl bar, AKA wrist roller. Gave substantial relief after using 3-4x/week for 3 weeks.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_12?url=search-alias%3Dap...

Also, in your other daily activities, make sure you keep your hand in line with wrist, i.e. top of hand in line with top of forearm, center of forearm in line with middle finger. It's easy to cock your wrist at acute angles when you're driving, riding a bike, using power tools etc, without noticing.
I'm assuming their researchers wanted email, to chat with their university buddies.
That was my thought also, in which case they haven't miscalculated at all. Expensive enough that TechCrunch will want to ridicule them, but cheap enough that a few people will grab it for the hell of it.
With the exception of solving integrals, diff eqs, or other CAS things, is Wolfram Alpha particularly useful when you'd have google at your disposal? I would think no, but that's just my experience.
Tufte called it the "lie factor" and you can actually measure it. LF = (size of effect in graphics)/(size of effect in data).
My suspicion, and only suspicion, is that you are largely right. Of course, I also think it matters how far along you got in the process and waht kind of stories you can tell from it.

I suspect that the founders of a company that put out an actual product with real users, hired non-founder employees, and perhaps got VC level funding at one point is much more valuable in the market than someone who filed the papers to officially incorporate but died while still working out of a garage with no non-founder employees and few users.
Google is a search engine, Wolfram Alpha is a computation engine.
"the discomfort was so intense that I switched hands"... Is this a mouse problem ? 3M ergonomic mouse is fantastic.
There's plenty of good suggestions in here, so I'll just add a small pointer: SmartBoard keyboards from DataDesk Technologies. "Oh, go buy an ergonomic keyboard!" sounds like trivial advice. A few years ago, I had wrist pain--not as bad as yours, but plenty sufficient to scare me. I bought this keyboard, and it vanished. They are also durable: I've had one for 5-7 years, I use it 8-10 hours a day every day and it's just starting to lose some keycaps.

The only problem is that they are almost impossible to find.
No one said otherwise.
I see what you mean but I'm having trouble translating this from lawyers to computer programmers. You can get a programming job at a large company and then impress someone with your skills and become a tech lead and an engineering director and eventually a Senior VP, is that what you mean? The odds for a hard working hacker of getting rich that way seem worse than for an attorney of becoming a partner, or for the same hacker of getting rich through a startup.

In my experience everyone who got rich did it by owning a significant stake in a business (not necessarily a startup or even anything high tech.) I'm aware there are people who got rich from writing bestsellers or becoming movie stars but I don't know anyone like it and I think such people are extremely rare. And I may be wrong but I would be inclined to classify hackers who got promoted to VPs and CTOs together with the movie stars.

I don't really know much about the ownership structure of law firms, but I always assumed becoming a partner is a big deal because it means co-owning the firm in some sense, and getting a share of profits directly, not through salary and bonus. So that's why I figure this is different.
You can do that on AT&T
I have a feeling this is all a publicity stunt. The hype has pretty much died down. What better way to get people talking about your Service and your iPhone app (beside apple rejecting it) than to grossly overprice it (see "I am rich" app)? At least you get to see if people will actually pay for it and the free press.

Edit: I'm pretty sure they'll lower the price, which in turn will trigger more press. Seems to me a good marketing ploy, but how far can you go before you dilute your brand message?
I wonder how it compares with the two android phones sprint is coming out with. I've been out of contract a while and I won't move to AT&T do to service problems in nyc, but I'd really like a more powerful smartphone then my blackberry. I've got my iPod Touch for my iApps.
Quibbling, perhaps, but "entrepreneur" is not a profession. Professions have codes of conduct, organizations that certify members as part of that profession, etc, etc. "Entrepreneur" appears to be on the opposite side of that spectrum.
"There is only one success--to be able to spend life in your own way." Christopher Morley

See also http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/11/23/success-for-a-boostr... which expands on this.
I think you just set my itinerary. Thanks a lot.
or for a mind expanding classic : videos of the 1986 SICP lectures by Sussman and Ebelson -
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussma... [torrents work ok]

book - http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/
I do the following to prevent wrist/shoulder pain.

* keep the hand from elbow to your wrist on the same surface.(if you use a laptop on a table, your wrists are placed higher on the laptop, that's ok.) The key is make sure your elbow/shoulder doesn't move, while you type. This is guaranteed if you rest your elbow on the same surface as your wrist.

* When placed on a table, don't keep your keyboard away from your chest - keep it at an arms length(almost). Once you have found your chair's relative position to table, stretch your arms towards the monitor and place them on the table (placing the elbows first) - place your keyboard in the area where your fingers landed(wrist pad helps)

* Surely helps, if you can forego the laptop keyboard and move to a regular keyboard.

* most keyboards have a "lift" option at the backside- in my experience, I had some pain when I kept the keyboard flat. The lifted keyboard in conjunction with the wrist pad worked fine for me (took few days)

* Never, Never - use laptop (or wireless keyboards) on your lap, pillow etc or places that prompt your shoulder movement.

* Never, Never lift your wrists or elbow while typing?

* (my most effective weapon against pain) - Never, Never use the mouse keypad. Don't touch it. I have disabled mine and use the mouse all the time (again the elbow rest on the table rule applies)

* (edit) work out: swimming helped me.

PS: use the keyboard as you would use a pen.The pain/symptoms of using a pen "abnormally" are similar to pain inflicted by a keyboard.

public places like airport and other places where you don't get a table and cannot rest a mouse, I prefer to read a book, rather than code with hunched,lifted shoulders. It has helped me so far.
Assuming the people defined as "business owners" in the Gallup data have been running their business for a while, they represent a very small minority of entrepreneurs, those who actually succeeded to some extent.

"Entrepreneurship certainly has vastly more potential to make you rich"? Well, you might be the next Larry Ellison, in the same way you might start a band and become as rich as U2. If wealth is your goal, an MBA and a job in investment banking is a far more reliable and reproducible path.

As I see it, most just hope to be able to make a living building software (/playing music/farming/etc) independently. Getting rich is a very rare byproduct.
I guess if they really want to poach iPhone users they'll need to make a non-flash site ;)
An Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism [pdf]
Could you describe a bit more the numbness and inflexibility you experienced when you started using weight machines?

I used to work out a while back, 3 to 4 times per week, and one of the things that made me stop (besides boredom to be frank) was that I felt quite a bit of pain in the wrists. I've kept that exercising schedule for 4 months at a time, but the pain didn't go away in those periods. My thought was that I was damaging my wrists in some way.

How long was it until you stopped feeling numb? Did you use any restraining device (gloves or something like that) while working out?
One of the finest, simplest Unix implementations anywhere. Also gave us OpenSSH, OpenBGPD, OpenNTPD, and PF. Donate to a good cause: http://openbsd.org/donations.html
Is Droid really going to have 800 x 480 screen resolution? Are screens with DPI that insanely high really capable of making it into devices sold for $200 with contract?

I've been waiting for a phone with such a usable screen resolution but it never seems to actually come true; it's just rumor. At this point I'd be happy just to get 640 x400.
I use the Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard and it made a world of difference. A simple wrist pad like the OP has is not equivalent to a good ergonomic keyboard.
Who is downvoting this comment!? It's a non-inflammatory, relatively accurate portrayal of Alpha. WA does some things well (sure, more than just CAS) but at the end of the day its cool factor far exceeds its useful factor for the vast majority of people---especially because of several problems with its UI that have been discussed at length in the past.
All of the things you've tried are steps down the right path, but I hate to say the one thing I don't see you mention is a new KEYBOARD.

The keyboard is a tool you use every day, during those 40 hours. A poor keyboard is guaranteeing murder on your hands. I had issues for years, which were/are exacerbated by an injury I sustained when I was younger (nerves, all tendons and significant portion of artery destroyed in my left hand, which required extensive surgery).

The one change I have found, repeatedly, that has made the most significant different is a keyboard. I won't go overboard in recommending any particular setup, as I find different people have different preferences - I find the best relief in mechanical switch (I used das keyboard for years but have moved to majestouch recently as DKs have wonky controllers), but a lot of people swear by ergonomics, etc. I can't use ergonomic/split hand keyboards well because of limits on my bad hand, but YMMV.

One of the best resources I've still found is from JWZ, who talks about all the different steps he went through in his own wrist pain:

http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/wrists.html

Another set of things I recommend is to make sure you use your muscles in different things than just typing. Get a stress ball and some light-weight finger exercisers (You can usually get them at guitar stores, it has a spring loaded "weight" for each finger and you can flex individually).

I am by no means a doctor, but I've dealt with a lot of re-constructive therapy on my own hand, and my own typing issues (seriously, look into a better keyboard. The $20 membrane switch piece of crap that came with your computer is NOT helping things at all). On top of it my mom was an OR nurse for ~30 years and had hand issues of her own that stemmed from the fact that apparently holding medical instruments in one position for ~12 hours a day is bad for your hands too.

Make sure you get good tools, not just augmentation (like padding) to the tools you already have. And give your stressed muscles other things to do, so you aren't just straining them in the same positions and actions day after day.
Fanbox let's you  earn $5 per reader in your blog
You're definitely quibbling.
I have a lot of concepts, I'm still narrowing down and going through in terms of what I'm working on next. Time and getting going is a big source of anxiety. This post helped calm that down a bit. Worth the read.
But how often do people actually compute? The majority of all computer use is for information retrieval/display. If wolfram alpha had a spreadsheet interface then maybe people would use it, but once again right now there isn't that much that people compute.
I agree, and also suggest playing guitar, if you like music. It helps in a few ways: switching the activities of your hands (left hand gripping the guitar neck, instead of right hand gripping the mouse), it builds finger strength, and most importantly, you have to keep your hands loose and sensitive as opposed to the robotic motions of hammering at the keyboard.
And the "compromise" part hits their Mac commercial as well.
And on T-Mobile.
I remember an HN comment about Dr.Wolfram over estimating himself (in a book preface or something). No wonder that the iPhone app follows.
We can’t turn back the tide of Internet piracy, says TV boss
That's why I defined it as optimization. SEO in my opinion is NOT (or rather, should not be) getting links. That's SEM. Optimization is the technical aspect of things (headers, etc.). Marketing involves getting others to link to you. That's the manipulation, or 'tricking' that I talked about.

I agree that inbound links (and many other off-page factors) contribute significantly to SERP rankings. I would just rank them under the SEM tasks.
Hal Abelson's foreword is worth reading, if just for the footnote (about the AP CS exam that used to be based on Pascal):

[1] Since Hal wrote this Foreword, they've switched the
AP exam to use Java, but the principle is the same.
This is good, but I'd also add in algorithms, data structures, and basic complexity.
The redhillonrails core plugin keeps foreign key constraints in sync in schema.rb. No such luck for triggers or views. But no reason someone couldn't add that functionality.
Verizon has done an unexpected about-face around a year ago, turning from the most closed carrier (crippled phones, removing bluetooth etc) to the one who, at least on paper, embraces open everything.

My guess is that they looked at the network capacity and realized that if they push other carriers into "who's got more open access?" war they will come out on top by virtue of having more bandwidth to sustain those apps. Their latest attack ads against AT&T pretty much underscore that with point made on watching mobile video.

I may be ascribing too much to Verizon, but I know if I had more XYZ then competition I would certainly make my current and potential users appreciate XYZ more in order to gain advantage. True for any value of XYZ.
I have always thought the fact that software has so many "weird" people is due to the fact that we're one of the most meritocratic fields out there. In software, if you can code well then people will generally accept you, whether you have a degree or not, and yes; even if you're strange. This is one of the things I love the most about our profession, and I hope it never changes.
I think they priced the iphone app high so people will think their free web version is a bargain and actually worth using. "Hey, I can get it for free on their website!" Even though they weren't using it at all before.
I had the same symptoms, started exercising my hands and within two weeks, no problems at all. I highly recommend this approach.
I don't understand the statement people are making when they say Apple has had no competition. They did not create the phone or smart phone market. Maybe I'm missing something, but didn't Apple only raise the bar in terms of usability for smart phones and marketing to the consumer? In what area does Apple not have any competition right now?

I have an iPhone 3G and I'm quite excited to see Android become more popular.
This is another example of a company trying to price software like its a physical product.

The justification for the price is laughable; just because it contains more features than an unrelated product (for which it is not even a feasible replacement) is not going to convince someone to pay for an iPhone app 25-50x the normal going price.

I'm venturing a guess here by saying that a good portion of the market for graphing calculators is comprised of high school and college students, and I don't know of one teacher who would allow an iPhone during a calculus or physics test.
I'm not sure what your point is. 'Trick' could be read as manipulation. An ad campaign could be considered a form of manipulation. The advertiser is manipulating the behavior of the viewer by convincing them to take action. It's driving users to your site because of something off-site.

With my post above I really just wanted to say that the broad term 'SEO' would be better divided based on the type of work done. SE Optimization is on-site. SE Marketing is off-site. I think the current definitions are too broad.
That is very misleading. There is a difference between having a million in the bank, and having a home that is worth a million. I would choose the first.
If you ignore this you will end up not being able to tie your shoes or button your shirt.

Pretend that already happened - how would you work? Whatever method you choose, do it now. Don't wait till you can't function.
I think it's more like their answer to Tumblr
I wouldn't say it quite that strongly, but I agree. I don't have and iPod or iPhone or whatever iItem apple is putting out, have better software music players and a far cheaper mp3 player to carry around and tune organizing via other means (namely filesystem operations) that keeps me happy.

I found that like most Apple products I've encountered, I don't particularly care for the workflow designed into the software, and can't seem to coax it to work how I want.

That, and getting prompted to update iTunes every week is annoying as all get out.
How efficient are the ads on your site? Are you tracking the actual conversions?
I'm having a hard time addressing your concern, because your notion that it's harder for a developer to eventually become a director or VP than it is for a lawyer to become a partner is neither (a) supported with any evidence or (b) apparent from my experience.

I don't know anybody that you know who became rich, and so that whole second paragraph sails right past me. Especially when it concludes with a suggestion that hacker VPs are as rare as movie stars.

As for the partner track at law firms, uh, fine. Substitute MBA -> investment banker, or CPA -> CFO, or Med School -> Anesthesiologist, or any number of other careers that don't have partner tracks.

Even if your salary never breaks $110k as a dev, you're still fantastically lucky to get that in any career, and perfectly capable of becoming a millionaire. So, I guess, cry me a river about how hard it is for techs to succeed without starting entirely new businesses?

Finally, let me just leave you with an uncomfortable truth: it is a safe bet that you will never get rich starting a company, or any number of companies.
Even on Second Life.
The Nokia N900 has that as well. Right now the instant availability of a Linux userland has me trending toward the N900, but when they're both out, I'll see how they handle. I chose the G1 over the iPhone mostly on physical use factors.
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Does it strike anyone else here as ironic that people with $600 phones that cost $100 a month with a two-year contractual minimums would look at software priced more than $5 as conspicuous consumption?
It won't have the same effect, but it produces another incentive -- to get rid of our national debt all we have to do is print our way out of it thus drastically inflating our money, and robbing all holders of US Dollars.
I have a Nokia n800 with a 4.3 inch 800x480 touchscreen and it looks absolutely amazing. The n900 coming out soon will have a 3.5 inch 800x480 sceen, so it looks like it is possible to shrink a high-resolution screen down to a smartphone-sized device.
The Importance of Being Earnest: How Superfreakonomics killed contrarianism
Southern California's vast desolation indoors
There is such a thing, but it has a different meaning than how I believe you used it.

You said "scripting languages have run-time type inference built in everywhere". I don't think that's true for most scripting languages. Inference refers to determining facts which were not explicitly provided, and usually implies a statically typed programming language where inference is done at compilation time. "Runtime type inference" might be used for, e.g., Python's Psyco project, where the just-in-time compiler infers properties about a particular variable (such that it's always an integer) and can therefore compile out boxing, unboxing, runtime type checks and so on.

Speaking of runtime type-checking, I inferred that that's what you meant when you said "runtime type inference". Type-checking IS something that happens at runtime almost everywhere in dynamic languages. It is also more closely associated with RTTI -- a dynamic_cast in C++ would not be termed type inference (the previous and new types are known), but a type check does occur at runtime.
A note on price — it is listed at $49.99, which is basically less than 1/2 the price of a graphing calculator with inferior functionality in comparison, which is how the company came to that number.

That's a bit disingenuous, considering that the hardware doesn't come free.
> I see what you mean but I'm having trouble translating this from lawyers to computer programmers.

It was pretty obvious to me.

>> "I eventually want to be rich, so I'm going to be a lawyer, not an artist."

Of course, it should be possible to "get rich" making >$100k year. All it takes is money management.

> In my experience everyone who got rich did it by owning a significant stake in a business (not necessarily a startup or even anything high tech.)

Partnership is "a stake". It can be significant in dollars even if it is insignificant in percentage (and the reverse).
How does it compare to old stand-by players like Winamp?
Considering that WA's iPhone app seems to be little more than a wrapper around their free offering, it seems entirely reasonable to question the $50 price tag.
Calacanis Vs People charging for pitches. Key interview at 69:53
Exercise will also improve your posture, settle your appetite, clear up your skin, and help your mental focus.

but try not to get caught up in the hype of gadgets. pushup bars and ab-machines usually just collect dust. jogging, crunches, and pushups are fine. If there's a college nearby, grab your sweats and run their stadium on the weekends.

also-- crossfit.com has a new workout everyday which is short and intense. good if you don't have very much time.

rock climbing is also fun, great for your hands, and a good way to meet cool people.

along these lines, the best workout is the one you don't notice. you'll run more in a pickup soccer game and have more fun than if you go out for a jog.
Management theory was mostly invented in the 19th century on the basis that you have a bunch of smart, ambitious people (management) overseeing a bunch of dumb, physically more able people (labour). The weirdness is that suddenly what Marx would call "the factors of production" have to be smart. Not only that but how smart they are, rather than how strong they are, is the basis of their productivity.

Invariably, they end up being smarter than the people overseeing them, and that's the source of the weirdness.
We're off in a little rat trap now about what the terminally awesome state is in any given career. If we were talking about salespeople, someone would be saying, "yeah, but how likely is it that you'd ever be a CEO? And hey, if you're a CEO, you might as well have started a company anyways, because most of your wealth comes from a stake."

But it's just a conversational rat trap. Unless your definition of "rich" means "owning a private jet", you never have to come close to being a VP/Engineering to become rich over a carefully managed career. You just have to be good with money.
Foursquare, a Social Network Site, Puts Users Face to Face
Excellent article. Not exactly a myth, but the wrong goal. Striving to maximize financial return is simply not the sort of motivation that is most likely to result in a successful startup.