skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This would be fraud. Microsoft would never do that!

Now, seriously, Microsoft is not be likely to commit fraud in order to get more money from T-Mobile. But they are perfectly capable of engaging in any unethical behaviour that would prevent T-Mobile from investing more in Android, and, less specifically, of anything that could prevent Android from gaining foothold.

They should really worry because many phones run Windows Mobile only as a kernel and the users seldom see its underpinnings. It would be rather easy to port those front-ends to other platforms. Actually, I would fire the developers who didn't isolate them from the underlying OS as much as possible.
At least you had the drive, In my case I never knew what I truly wanted until a year ago. I kind of slacked all the way through college, thinking I was just going to be another cog in the wheel when I graduate. I felt that I wasted too much time.

That said. I agree with having focus. Narrow down your area of focus to a couple of things and drive the nail all the way. As in my case, I'm focusing on learning graphics programming and image processing, and considering my current skill set and timetable, it would take at least 3-5 years to acquire reasonable expertise on this. Along the way, I will try to learn how to create and run a startup. This is my current plan for the future, just to give an example.

As for webapps, you don't have to work on something that others might use or be happy with, rather, work on something that you, yourself can be proud of, even though nobody knows what the heck it does.
I see that people have already told you that it's fine, you're 18, everybody is a dabbler at 18, and those who aren't will have a midlife crisis where they wake up one day and wish they were you.

This is all true, as far as it goes, but I needn't say it again. Let's try some coaching instead. Vince Lombardi mode, engage!

Stop trying to look smart. Being smart is wonderful as a source of personal pleasure, and is also really useful, but looking smart is an empty experience. Too easily faked. Any idiot can look smart. Many idiots specialize in it. Bernie Madoff looked smart.

A sure sign that you're trying too hard to look smart is that you are "applying for finance internships" and "modeling the stock market". These are understandable mistakes -- the media works hard to convince you that these are respectable goals, much as they work hard to convince you that blackjack and poker are sexy games that you should play all the time -- but to a scientist this stuff is the badge of the lightweight. It has the intellectual content of a whiffle ball, and the only reason to do it is to collect money, generally from the gullible or the corrupt. (See "Bernie Madoff", above.) Real businesspeople don't "apply for finance internships"; they sell things or make things. And real investors (as opposed to gamblers and shills) don't waste time modeling the market, because they've all read Malkiel.

You are in college. Do you... study anything? Your resume is seriously scary. Where do you find all this time? Your academic work must be way too easy. You are in college right now. You are surrounded by the infrastructure for learning stuff. There will never be a better time for that. Do not waste this time collecting C.V. entries like so many stamps; that is for later. I call upon the spirit of the geek's Vince Lombardi: Yoda.

All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on Where. He. Was. Hmm? What. He. Was doing.

You claim to be interested in physics; do you understand Maxwell's equations, stat mech, quantum decoherence, general relativity? You claim an interest in math; have you run out of math courses? Chemistry: Do you understand the band structure of solids? Biology: Do you know what siRNA is, can you do graduate-level molecular biology lab work? Computers: Have you finished SICP, learned operating systems and algorithms? Have you even considered linguistics, or geology, or anthropology? Study any foreign languages? How's your music theory?

Dabble, but dabble smart. Dabble like a scholar: Study things. Study the hardest things you can find. Study like you mean it.
I have to thank you first anewkid for posting this thread. I can relate to you very much. You had the courage it takes to accept and say it all.

I actually feel this way: I don't want to work for a body-shopping firm a few years after i graduate. I fear that very much. Coz thats what's been hapenning all around me. The mindset of the people around me is such - graduate, get a job.

So i keep trying things, and have been doing it since i was 14. I'm now 19. I'm still trying :)

So all the best to both of us and everyone around who's in this kinda situation.
I love tip number 6. I get that overwhelming sense of guilt for not being able to finish a book.
As a long time Kohana user, it really does make working with PHP much cleaner and faster. It takes the best architectural aspects of CI and adds some excellent functionality (full OOP, ORM, cascading filesystem, Events, Auth module).

The Kohana framework is actually at a critical turning point. Check http://dev.kohanaphp.com/ for more information. The version 2.x codebase has been optimized in the 2.4 release (cleaned up libraries, enhanced DB library and ORM). The new 3.x codebase was completely rewritten from the ground up by the BDFL and is currently managed on GitHub (http://github.com/kohana). 3.x was just released (http://forum.kohanaphp.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=3479) and supports the HMVC design pattern and is shaping up to be an amazing framework. A new website for Kohana for both 2.x and 3.x (aka KO3) is close to being released along with complete docs for 3.x.

For those interested in a quick preview of the code:
KO3 API (http://www.kerkness.ca/ko3/index.php/guide/api)
KO3 User Guide - Work In Progress (http://www.kerkness.ca/ko3/index.php/guide)
Oh please. It only looks odd because you can't notice the millions of times it didn't happen.

It's in the same class as confirmation bias, survivor bias, etc.
Communicating person to person through the power of thought alone (w/ Video)
Being A Start-Up: Basic Guide For A Start-Up[video]
Evolution of the human diet: the known, the unknown, and the unknowable, edited by Peter S. Ungar. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to the 'indie' image-manip apps now the big brand has entered the marketplace. There are plenty of people who would just search for 'Photoshop' on the App Store, or buy the app on brand trust, regardless of alternatives...
It looks like you're good at finding the wrong side of everything you do. Just look at the bright side. You did a lot of impressive things. Nobody is successful in more than a small percent of what they do.

Moreover, in every success there is always some way to find flaws (it was too easy, nobody cares, I didn't learn anything....). So, you have to take yourself lightly, continue to work hard, and enjoy the things that you do. Try to define success for yourself, not for others.
You can try to gently disprove someone's misconceptions but it's easier to help them do so themselves. Whatever you do you can't batter their door down with logic and facts, unless they're a truly scientific type; ideally, there's some harmless proving ground, or solid analogy, that can open their eyes to the reality of the situation. Like if someone is saying "I'll just start a social network and be the next Zuckerberg", get them to read a book on the history of Facebook and another on why things fail, get them to start a Ning group and really experience a "safe" failure.

I often find myself as the voice of reason/realism among starry-eyed people, but it's quite fun helping people work out that actually they can get to where they want, even though their assumptions were totally wrong.
The comparison between the frameworks was more relevant at the initial fork, when Kohana was simply a PHP5 port of CI with a additional functionality. However, at this point in time, the code bases have diverged to the point where no more CI code currently exists in Kohana. Some of the underlying architectural concepts are still shared between CI and Kohana 2.x, but Kohana 3.x has diverged even further.
Trying is fine and you will eventually succeed, but don't try to bend reality. If you really need to take a job later, you should do it confidently, not in panic.
Would it make sense to automatically filter submissions that contain the word "should"?
Success attracts success. It's the herd mentality. "If they're doing well/have customers/have funding/have a boyfriend, they must be worth buying from/investing in/dating since someone else says so!"
How to Write Clearly, Think Clearly, and Learn Easily
Have you been Penalized by Google? | TechJaws
Dont give a fuck. Just sell things.
That's really true. The media will always put on the magazine cover the guy how is billionaire in their twenties. Not necessarily because he is a genius (he may be) but because it sells magazines.
So yeah, loops kill the server, I want none of that...
To be a first-time founder in your mid to late 30s, even early 40s, is not unusual at all, especially for ultimately successful companies.

E.g., John Warnock and Charles Geschke founded Adobe when they were 41 and 42, respectively.

Ignore the media fawning of young founders; it's only so much noise, and means nothing in the end.
I think you're doing great. A lot of people on this thread say you should spend more time being social. There's nothing wrong with that, but if I had it to do over again I would do it your way.

Yeah I had some good times as a kid. But now as I'm approaching 30 I don't really care about good times. I just want to do something big and I wish I had more of a head start.

Life is a summation of experiences. The more diverse your experiences are, the more perspective you have on any given situation. Perspective is what allows you to see things that other people can't. Get as much perspective as you can and treat it like gold. The earlier you start, the better off you'll be.
I thought this was "Bullet Impacts at 1,000,000 feet per second". Frames per second is still cool though.
This monkey will dance for anyone
That really wasn't the purpose of the article. I was trying to raise the awareness and interest in Kohana by showcasing some websites that are built in Kohana.

When I first mention that I use Kohana or am going to use Kohana on a project, the first question is usually do you have any examples of sites built with it? So I was answering that question by blog post that hopefully others would find useful too.
Great job! just one small thing. For Python, the code editor doesn't allow you to type in the "tab" key.
Does this really matter? IMHO, this is more of an ego issue to 'nerds' than selling the product in itself. The latter being the purpose of ads.
So you want him to implement the Observer pattern?
Java isn't really appropriate for something like this. You could, I suppose, paste the entire main class into the text box and run it that way.

If Java-like syntax is desired (although I can't imagine why it would be), BeanShell would be the way to go.
I sometimes feel the way you do. I started a local ratings company and then google and yahoo ratings took off. Interestingly enough it never really caught on and yelp perhaps has done a much better job. I've tried babysitting coops, and several other ideas all which failed. However the more I read, the more you discover that the key to success is working hard and trying lots of ideas and constantly refining those ideas quickly. I take myself too seriously at times and I really need to start having more fun with my side projects. Your broad range of ideas and knowledge is the important thing here, it will greatly benefit you in the long run.
Pedant:

6. Extract natural resources from the earth or space.

with your 1, 2, and 3 could be seen as including all there is to say about energy; there are many perils trying to classify things.
This is a great book! I just started my mom on it!
SDL + Game Development in Perl
I had a Pavlovian response to the Canon EX-FH20 when it was announced late last year.

"The 1000fps videos are 224 by 56 pixels, which, on our screens, is slightly larger than a stick of Trident. For liliputians, this is more than enough resolution. But for the rest of the macro world, a 1000fps video clip from the Casio Exilim EX-FH20 is useful as a novelty act, and that's about it. The 210fps clips are 480 by 360, which looks like a movie theater screen after viewing the tiny 1000fps clips. Regardless, the high-speed videos are fun to play with, as you can see in our samples in the Image Quality section below."

http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/digital-cameras/casio-e...
...though Kohana 'suggests' some good practices, it doesn't force anything. So its still possible to work on a project where a lot of the 'wtf' php allows to happen still come up, albeit just inside a more sensible way of organizing things. The good intentions of your fellow developer still dictate the wtfs-per-minute..
Education isn't a panacea. Most people who get into debt do understand the system, but choose to ignore their indebtedness.

I cannot remember where I read it, but the evo-psych explanation for this behaviour is that prehistorically most problems could be solved by hiding for the problem and waiting for it to go away.
I was almost in the same situation my freshman year around ~2006. I even wrote to pg(before knowing much about YC) on how he focuses and completes things. I was surprised when he responded.

My context was startups. I kept building sites which I was promptly shutting down after launch because no one used it--and more importantly because I didn't do much to get people to use it. If I remember correctly, pg said to pick something and allocate the next x months to it--no matter what.

It worked for me. A few months later I picked an idea, and said no matter where it goes, I will work on it for six months.

I think you merely making a post like this means you are progressing. A lot of people would kill to just have tried so many things. You are clearly bored of trying stuff. Time to buckle up and get a little focused--because it's more rewarding and fun!
The Zombie Game Experiment - New Concept Art, New Game Story and Zombie Clothing
Great techniques indeed. Bookmarking!
I doubt that could be used as proof that al-Jazeera isn't evil outside of tech circles.

Obviously the common person doesn't understand that Real is about as evil as Nazi Zombies as they still willingly use it, despite it being crammed full of spyware/adware and since I stopped using it (about 10 minutes after I started using it over a decade ago) probably malware too.
Does anyone know what is under that key? Component wise? Anyway, that dude should go see a Genius and get his Mac replaced.
I think you could benefit greatly from Gary Vaynerchuk's ideas in this keynote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4&feature=playe...

The general overview of what he says: it's never too late, you don't have to jump neck deep into it at first (i.e.: quit a job and take funding), you need more passion than Gandhi, and just fucking do it.
The ability (and willingness) to pay to pitch to angel investors is a filter of a kind, but it's selecting for traits that you don't want in startup founders:

1) An inability to network and sell - if they can't get to see angel investors without ponying up cash, how on earth are they going to get customers?

2) A willingness to spend what is (at the time) a large portion of their capital on something that isn't necessary. By definition if you're looking for angel investment you aren't flush with cash and some of the amounts listed (up to 10K), are substantial amounts of money to waste.

3) An inability to understand the role of incentives in human behavior, specifically, if the angels they're pitching to are being paid then they're more likely to be interested in listening (and getting money for doing so) than actually investing.

Essentially these people are paying money to overcome their lack of entrepreneurial ability. Why any serious angel would view these as better candidates for investment is beyond me.
Generally now almost everyone uses Media Player Classic if they're in a tech circle. Ironically with the right codecs it can play media smoothly from almost any format. It even lets me push 1080p without killing my processor.
Anyone else feel there are too many books on how to start and too few on finishing?
I'm afraid I'm 0 for 10 on that list.
The hulu version didn't exist when the original was posted. Hulu posts are delayed.
The JVM is threaded, and threads will require a little bit of (careful!) work for the codepad security sandbox to support. I haven't had time for that project yet.
Loops don't kill the server -- it runs them until they reach a timeout, and then aborts them.
I always wonder why they need a scaffold. Isn't the programming for the shape of the bone programmed into the DNA?

If for some reason we can't access that programming, how do we tell the cells "divide anywhere you want until you fill up the scaffold"? It seems like that's something they wouldn't naturally do.

I guess long term, we should find the point in fetal development where the first jaw bone cell becomes differentiated. Then we want to to tell a single stem cell "that's you, you're that first differentiated fetal jaw cell, now do your thing".

What do you guys think? Is anyone working on that?
Keep going. Don't give up and don't beat up yourself.

You're trying and that's what really counts - most people have ideas and then never try to execute on them. It sounds like you are executing on a whole lot of things, which is really great.

Also I don't get this thing about "my school has never produced any startups" - how do you know? Its not like anyone keeps a detailed, thorough and completely accurate history about this start of thing. People from all types of backgrounds - big name schools, no name schools, and no schools - start companies and are huge successes. You shouldn't look at just a few examples (which can be more hype than fact) and think that you have to follow in the same exact footsteps and life-story.
http://codepad.org/MzI2fqg7

from itertools import *

primes = (i for i in count(2) if all(imap(lambda x:i%x,xrange(2,i/2))))

My Python code for a generator expression to loop on prime numbers.
I think he's also looking for ideas, notice several commenters on his blog have already provided links to other projects. He does that frequently, sometimes explicitly; as when a few months ago for example he asked for alternative 1911-based concealed carry guns.
Get to know the companies you are going to compete with and their products. You're interested in their culture and ideology. See how they used to react to new threats, and whether given the scale and scope of their products they would consider you a threat to their business.
Motorola StarTAC

Wow, I believe the part of my brain that knew about those had been repurposed until just now. :)

I think the StarTAC is a great example of what happens when engineers are let loose and no one is concerned about actual usability.
Neat, but couldn't he just use Screen on the gateway terminal to get around the issue of wanting to have more than one session at a time (assuming its installed)?
Remind HN: Boston / Cambridge HN meetup, 20+ attending, tonight
As discussed at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=865417, there's a HN meetup tonight at 8PM, organized by Chris Kelley.

Thirsty Scholar Pub: http://www.thirstyscholarpub.com/home.htm

70 Beacon Street, Somerville, MA 02143

Hope to see you there!
When the StarTac came out, it was revolutionary in size and function. I don't know what you think was wrong with its usability, but compared to other phones of the time, it was pretty great. Let's see more engineering driven projects!
Don't be afraid - there are some great works on that list.
Dr zb7 hacker hacked by www.msn.com
Perhaps supporting something like Groovy would make for an easier-to-implement compromise?
What is "finishing"? Everyone has the same definition of "start" but there are thousands of versions of success (i.e. finishing). Selling a company is not what everyone is trying to do...
Won't every interface end up obsolete? Seems like the only interfaces with real staying power are serial and mini phonoplug.
We need a snappy name like "analysis paralysis" that is focused on people who spend all their time studying rather than doing. They (we) intend to do, but never fell like they know enough to start.
This is a pretty old school method for using a master connection.
Now-a-days, if you don't like screen for some reason, you can still do much better by using the ssh ControlMaster feature. This allows you to have an SSH session open up a socket that allows subsequent connections to that machine to re-use the secure communication channel.

That said, fanout can still be a useful utility.

I should make a blog post detailing my setup, but for now, I'll share the critical pieces:

In my local .ssh/config:

==========

Host vpn
ForwardAgent=yes
ProxyCommand none
ControlMaster auto
ControlPath=~/.ssh/%r@%h:%p
HostName myvpn.domain.com

Host dest??
ProxyCommand ssh vpn 'nc -w 60 %h.internal.domain.com %p'

==========

Then, if I ssh to any dest machine like dest01 or dest05, the first one will create the connection to the vpn jumphost, and all the subsequent ones will reuse that connection.
Damn I really liked this feature, most of my gems are installed from github ;( I wasn't quite clear what this means now, gemcutter is handling it? or Are we supposed to move back to ruby forge?
The Best Thing My Parents Taught Me About Money
Ask HN: Name for people who study without getting around to doing
We need a snappy name like "analysis paralysis" that is focused on people who spend all their time studying rather than doing. They (we) intend to do, but never fell like they know enough to start.