skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I like a movie as a first date. You meet and get to chit-chat for about 10-15 minutes before the movie. Then you get to just quietly get used to being by the other and no pressure of conversation during the movie.

After you can continue to chit-chat and get dinner or coffee. If things aren't going well you can easily bail (or they can). I find it's a nice simple format. Compared to starting with say dinner.
It clearly states on the site they make money of every text message sent.

edit:
from the info pages

"We charge a transaction fee every time you receive money. Sometimes, the person sending you money can pay for the fees associated with the transaction. Those fees are outlined on our Venmo Fees page."

There's also a premium service for businesses.

http://info.venmo.com/pricing/pricing-plan-comparison/
Warren Buffett on castles and moats
Biologically Inspiried Algorithms, in particular Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming.
Time to Suit Up
Excellent! Maybe I can use this to build my very own Situation Room.
Especially agreed on Amazon. Visionary leadership without the ego or high profile of Jobsian guy in charge (not knocking Jobs -- he's really effective at it). I'd say that Bezos is probably up there with Henry Ford level businessmen in American history, albeit without the massive glory.

Also, Coca Cola type companies. They've been around so long, they make so much money, and they're so rock solid.
http://codeoffsets.com/

Also, I think that the idea is not that stupid. Bad code have many (business also) consequences and I can imagine a savvy company that punishes teams for poorly written code with similar mechanism.

For instance, let's say that team has $100k bonus budget for a year. Every poorly written SLOC means $1, or $10, less in a budget because the company has to spend this money on QA or customer service.

Of course, what's really complicated is how to measure poorly written code (cyclomatic complexity, length of methods etc. basic metrics?), and how to adjust it to the deadlines.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu visits Googleplex (41 mins video)
great idea, very clever. i posted this to pikk: Thrive or Fail? Send And Receive Credit Card Payments Through SMS Text Messages [VOTE] - http://www.pikk.com/297fd
C4G reminds me too much of an exploitative business for me to really call it "best". It certainly is lucrative, but I'd group it with Swoopo rather than some of the others mentioned on this thread.
The most positive thing that came out of that keynote was that they focused on talking about achieving feature and performance parity with competing browsers, not adding useless features like Accelerators and Web Slices.
I would argue that brain simulations are the ultimate "biologically-inspired algorithm".
But the person who submitted the story says otherwise:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=948793
100 Delicious Cheap Recipes
The Composite Structure of Web Apps
$15,000 over the course of how long? To them that's a very small fry. Many of their AdWords customers spend tens/hundreds of thousands per month. Those people are getting support.
Where do you mention that you used the PIN number to get a reply in your blog post? Where do you mention in your blog post if you are or aren't paying Google for support? You really need to be clear about what you're talking about here. You mention that you had trouble getting support for FeedBurner -- a free Google product -- yet you are complaining about a 150 hour response time from 'Google Enterprise Services?' Huh?

So you're saying that, as a paying customer for Google Apps for Domains (I'm assuming since you don't mention any of these details in your post), you couldn't get the same level of support on another Google product that you're not paying for? When you pay for support with Google Product 1, it doesn't entitle you to support for Google Product 2. It might be good business for Google to give you extra support on Google Product 2 to keep you as a happy, paying customer of Google Product 1, but don't suffer from any delusions that just because you pay Google money at all that you deserve support for everything that they offer you.

I'm not saying that this is a good way for Google to run their business, but I'm having a hard time seeing the huge issue that you're making this out to be. It really comes across as you getting upset at Google and hoping that you'll get everyone else pissed at Google too (or you're just trying to drive site-traffic).
Yes, this is the same problem that the Pharaos tried to solve, and look how well that turned out.
Hey Paul, it's more fun when we just volunteer for instruments (that way I can always play the drums). :P
In my dreams, yes, but you're going to have serious problems with that implementation. Think about your cell phone in your car on a plane, etc.
Playing "here's the catch" with customers isn't right. When the product you are selling fails, you must be available to help.
As I understand it, GDI+ does software rendering into a window buffer which then gets hardware-composited by DirectX. Direct2D now does hardware-accelerated rendering and compositing.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd861344.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/directx/archive/2009/09/29/comparing-d...
What makes a business good?

To me, there are multiple inputs: profitability, efficiency, building value for customers, ethical behavior, innovative-ness, leadership, brand.

Companies like Swoopo / C4G are really profitable, but they score very low on everything else (except perhaps brand). They prey on people's stupidity, which can be really good for a smash and grab type operation (high profitability over a short time), but I don't see them being sustainable in the long run (could be wrong on this -- anyone know how long C4G has been around?)

Companies like Apple are 2nd tier to me -- their strength is in leadership and branding (they aren't bad in the other areas, but they aren't really that innovative except for form factor).

My all star list has companies like Amazon on it. Started as a bookstore, now is one of the leading providers of cloud services (in addition to everything being sold there). They put a huge investment early on in infrastructure, which was a really interesting tactic that looks to be paying off.
Repeat entrepreneur seeking architect/engineering co-conspirator
Repeat entrepreneur seeking architect/engineering co-conspirator and other great software engineers. I've been around the world of startups for 20 years, and am starting another company in Palo Alto (this would be startup #7). I'm passionate about building great, customer-centric, elegant consumer technology products and services, and am looking for rockstar software engineers who share this passion. If you are interested in digital media (photos, videos, audio), social networking, community and mobile, you've come to the right place. Your colleagues would describe you as the ultimate team player who is passionate, aggressively realistic, and unafraid to reach for greatness. You know a well-designed product when you see one (or design one), and you're not willing to compromise until you find that perfect balance for your customer. You know startups because you've been involved in one or many, and you're ready to help create and nurture an amazing company culture. You do this because you love it--and you wake up every day thinking how lucky you are to be living your dream. You are also careful to make sure that your loved ones remember what you look like. If you're just in it for the paycheck or are looking for a 9-5 gig, please look elsewhere. This is a groundfloor opportunity to help create a new startup.<p>I wish I didn't have to write this, but I am getting lots of responses from QA people, product managers, and consultants/contractors nowhere near Palo Alto who are not appropriate for this position. If you are not an experienced architect looking for a full-time opportunity within commuting distance of Palo Alto, I would ask that you not waste either of our time. Only senior web software engineers, please. Thanks!<p>If you are interested and meet the criteria above please send an email with your resume and/or a link to your LinkedIn profile. Please describe relevant startup experience that makes you ideal for this opportunity. Email jbeninato [at] yahoo [dot] com
I was at a U-Haul and was trying to pay with my Amex card. Kept getting denied (I don't have payment issues) and I finally had to pay cash. All the other customers used Visa/MC. The guy at the checkout counter later told me that Amex cards get denied a lot.
I've been using priceline for all my vacations and it's great. I have been able to get $100 for $20.

The only think I don't like is that you can't cancel a reservation. Once you pay win a bid, the only way to cancel is an act of god.
Another option is to use PAD. That stands for Portable Application Description. Read FAQ here http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/padfaq.php

Once you got PAD that describes your software, you could use PAD submitter tools to submit it to a lot of shareware sites.

HTH
You want Enterprise support for Feedburner? LOL. As far as I know they don't offer that, and I wouldn't have expected it. You're talking about Google giving support for one of their products which isn't actually covered by their Enterprise policy, even though you might have had a product that was covered, the issue you were having was for a product that wasn't.

Their Enterprise Policy explicitly states which are services covered and which are not.
Does Adblock Plus hide these offers? I don't remember ever seeing anything like this.
You could base your meet-ups on anonymity and uniformity. I've always wondered why these sites focus so much on pictures. I think they should be based on personality and similar interests. Take the pictures and user-ids out of the list of people going to meet up. Also you can add structure to the event. I find people are much more likely to meet a bunch of strangers if they know exactly what to expect and what is going to happen.

The social map idea isn't bad at all: you might not get a great idea about a person by their biased autobiographical profile. Looking at their facebook or myspace activity may glean much more insight as to their personality.

One of the things that strikes me about dating sites is how they're designed for people who are the absolute best at communicating and putting forth a good impression. If online daters were so good at that they probably wouldn't be trying to get a date online! There needs to exist mechanisms that help people to express themselves. Also, I could just be crazy, but it seems like there's some inherent dishonesty in presenting yourself via online dating. Are you lonely? Horny? Bored? There doesn't seem to be a way to express any emotions or desires that others may share without appearing undesireable. Some way for people to connect based on their emotional state seems useful to me, I just don't know how you'd present it to users (other than perhaps through hidden settings and a "show me users who feel similarly to how I do" list method).
BestApartment4you.com - New York's largest holiday apartments provider.
I wonder if the author isn't barking up the wrong tree. I don't think that the App Store review process can be 'fixed'. Instead, it might be doomed.

Android allows for unfettered development, as does Symbian. WebOS is headed that way too, according to their developer relations team. On every other smartphone platform, you are (or will be) able to just develop an app and deploy it onto people's phones, without running the gauntlet of an approval process.

Judging from the current state of the App Store, the review process doesn't materially improve the quality of applications. However, it does slow down and frustrate developers. If open platforms like Android gain enough market share, I think a lot of devs are going to jump ship just so they don't have to deal with the headaches of review any more.

The folks running Apple aren't dumb. They're sticking by their guns because the iPhone ecosystem is working marvellously right now. However, if they start to see a large migration of developers, they'll probably do whatever it takes to bring them back. And that might mean killing 'review'.
This is almost exactly how Paypal started - except they 'beamed' it over instead of using SMS.

Eventually they realized that people were much more interested in using their website to transfer money, hence what we have today..
Ask HN: How would you spread a new Twitter service?
We have a new service called tweetswitch (http://tweetswitch.com) that we launched last week. It allows you to get all your tweets on your favourite instant messenger. We have 35 users and they are all very happy, but how do you spread this wide and fast? We know there is demand, but we struggle to deliver it to the people who need it.
Simulating one million users
Hacking Paypal In 1 Hours
I suspect the other replies are way off base. Legal concerns are probably the largest blocker by far. Apple and Google don't have enterprise customers for WebKit, but Microsoft has many for IE. Since buying Microsoft software is effectively like buying job-insurance for IT staff, Microsoft's risk accounting is wildly different from Apple and Google. I'm not saying deciding not to use WebKit is the right risk/reward trade off, but IANAL.
I'm not sure that they can't. Give Microsoft a compelling business reason to build a great browser that also supports IE 8,7, and 6 rendering modes, and I bet they'll do it.
Or, PayPal Wars: http://www.amazon.com/PayPal-Wars-Battles-Media-Planet/dp/09...

It also mentioned the legal hoops they had to jump through...and was a very interesting read.
There are a few things here -
1) You don't have to remember that you need to pay. You pay instantly and be done with it.
2) Jenny may be someone you don't often see.
3) You're away but want to pool in for a gift or celebration back in town.
I think the right thing to do is to make the site look as boring and indistinct as possible until you've dug down to only a little bit above the danger area.
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/kbcategory.js...

http://www.jumpbox.com/go/virtualization
Hack Bing Search engine By SQL Injection
In the world of free stuff most of the time support is not granted. "You are free to e-mail us, and we are free to ignore you" -- that's fine. In the world of google free stuff it's "we made a business decision not to give our customers the opportunity to contact us", to my biased opinion this decision is bad because not only I'm not able to ask for support but I can't even fill in a bug report.
IE 9: First look at the new JS Engine
Another candidate for an 'up-front' end of life policy or a we we-destroy-your-data guarantee.

Imagine this companies assets get bought up by a health insurance company.

What is the status of a privacy policy anyway if companies as a whole can be bought and sold.
Family of Women tied up defend rest home | My Complaint
If their offering to mobile app developers isn't revolutionary, why is the number and quality of apps revolutionary?
What do you mean by "enterprise customers" for IE? I don't understand the point you're trying to make.
$1995
Three of my favorites are How Much Should I Charge Don't remember the author, but she reinforces the point that most small businesses are undercharging for their product/service and shows how to solve the problem.

The E-Myth Revisited kinda starts where the above one ends in that it points out the tragic flaw in many entrepreneurs: they want to practice their "craft" to the detriment of the actual business.

Growing A Business my copy of this disappeared over 10 years ago, but I still consider it one of the most important business books I've ever read.

And pick up one of the many editions of The Portable MBA at a used bookstore. Good, basic foundations in Finance, Accounting, Marketing and HR.
The problem is that consumers have given control of their debit cards over to the merchants. When they do this, they (possibly inadvertently) give them a blank checkbook. A credit/debit card should be more like a virtual wallet than a blank checkbook. I would love merchants to have to ask my - not my banks - permission each time they wanted to charge me.

The system right now relies on the honesty of the merchants. If all charges had to go through the consumer's approval first, then I don't think we'd see much of the free credit report scams anymore. Instead of having to call up a recurring (and unsolicited) biller, just decline all payments to the merchant and let the merchant figure out that they're not getting paid.

If I had the means, I think I would start a Bank 2.0. It would have a killer web interface, charge authentication through cell phones or control panel, and instead of dealing with loans and interest, I would probably make make money through Visa charges.
Ask HN:  Have you noticed that link submissions rank higher than non-link ones?
Link submissions rank higher than non-link ones with the same number of upvotes and submission time.

What is the formula used to score each type for ranking?
> So you're saying that, as a paying customer for Google Apps for Domains (I'm assuming since you don't mention any of these details in your post), you couldn't get the same level of support on another Google product that you're not paying for?

I'm just saying I am unhappy with their customer support, being it for Google Apps Premier Edition or any of the free services.
Coders Anonymous: The Programmer's Support Group
Spain regulates the price of Internet to implement "The Right to Broadband"
Microsoft can replace IE8, but can they replace IE6?
PayPal is completely different than a credit card. What you probably should have done, if the PayPal charge was coming off of a credit card, is dispute the PayPal charge with your credit card company.
This is really helpful. Thanks a lot.
the paypal EULA involves waiving rights to dispute paypal charges. i've known people to try, who got punished/billed/fined for trying to do so.

i try and avoid using paypal whenever possible, especially for recurring billing.
Looking for some feedback on this concept.
Seems like saying, "x000 tons of nuclear waste below" would work a little better than being mysterious and vague. Fairly warned, if they want to dig it up, it's their own fault.
A compiler for Lambda Calculus to LLVM, Part 1
Isn't reclaiming the 20-30% market share they lost to Safari/Firefox/Chrome reason enough?
Is there any way to tell if you have code that has been added to the components directory?
First-class methods would be a win, but the syntax leaves a little bit to be desired. Closures would be much more of a syntactic eyesore if they A) had context-based type inference on the arguments, so that if I'm passing a closure to a method that expects (String, String) -> as its type I don't need to redeclare the variable types and B) allowed for embedded expressions rather than requiring them to be full function definitions with a "return" statement in there. Unfortunately, the FCM proposal doesn't allow either of those.

To use their example, it should be much more like:

Collections.sort(list, \str1, str2 -> str1.length() - str2.length());

instead of:

Collections.sort(list, #(String str1, String str2) {
return str1.length() - str2.length();
});

There's no technical reason you couldn't do the former in Java (and their proposal seems to infer the return type just fine?), but no one involved with the Java language seems to really value conciseness.
boucher seems to be running into some pretty stiff resistance here, and I totally get it. That said, I opted to pay for the beta. While it probably should have been marketed as an alpha instead, it was worth much more than $20. Really, many people probably blow more than that on coffee in day. The Atlas alpha/beta appears likely to provide me with more value than an afternoon's worth of coffee, so I subscribed.

If doing that doesn't float your boat, then working with rough, buggy, pre-release software that may never love you back probably isn't going to be your thing either. Then you're out $20 and wish you'd bought the coffee. For their intended market, I think this program was priced right.
In human subjects, I would wonder if exercise outdoors in sunlight is more efficacious for reducing anxiety and stabilizing mood than exercise with indoor lighting. I also wonder if exercising with a friend is better than exercising alone for Homo sapiens. All I've got on this issue from personal experience are anecdotes,

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

but I would be interested to see if there are human-specific effects that wouldn't generalize back to other animals.
No one will buy ranch raised meat when In-Vitro meat is so cheap? This guy has no business sense.

I raise chickens as a hobby. I don't even try to market or sell my product, yet I have people asking me if they can buy eggs (no, I just give them away if they ask) because they're willing to pay more for fresh eggs from chickens living in natural surroundings than the "battery farmed" ones in supermarkets.

Premium products will always command premium prices.
Because the link doesn't point to an actual resource anywhere, it's just a hash of the file in question.

That doesn't mean the MPAA won't try, they've argued that file hashs are equivalent to the file before, and they may win in the US, however, I'm not sure that arguement would hold up in the EU due to the possibility of hash collisions, and the fact that you can't make the file from the hash.
If I recall correctly there's some weird incestuous relationship in the HTML rendering in Outlook, Word and IE.

I agree it's almost definitely technically infeasible.
Nicely done interface. A minor nitpick, if you send SMS to 646-863-9557, shouldn't the second screen have a different phone number?
Or does all of the interaction you show there happens on the person sending the money?
Misleading headline from The Register; no fault of alexandros for posting to HN verbatim, but misleading nonetheless.

After all, I think this 'lockdown' is a great idea. FF has a totally reasonable interface for addons, so there's no need to circumvent it.

Anyway, if you're using an OS that provides sensible privilege separation, I believe you're already prevented making the sorts of modifications that 'lockdown' targets. As a result, this will lead to more consistent and predictable behavior across platforms.
Reducing friction as a standard operating method
That sounds like a very good idea, a feature rather than a bug.
That's a fine idea, but how do they plan to prevent, e.g., Windows operating system updates from adding their own extensions? Microsoft updates have added, what, three different extensions to Firefox, without notice to the user and with no easy way to uninstall them?
I'd say its about on par. Which is better depends on the problem your trying to solve. Sure, Java adds some nice features, like garbage collection and potential compile-once-run-elsewhere and a bunch of other things, but C++ has its advantages either. Heres a small few:

C++ can have much better startup time. While I no longer buy into the speed thing (the JVM has become quite fast), I still find Java mesurably slow while starting up. So much, in fact, that projects like NailGun were started to improve things.

I hear Java's floating point hurts everyone everywhere: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~wkahan/JAVAhurt.pdf

C++ supports unsigned arithmetic, Java doesn't.

Javas generics use type erasure.

Checked exceptions in Java are a bad idea.

C++ allows tight OS integration.

And so on. While I'll be the first to admit that C++ is far from perfect, I also don't buy that Java improves it. One is better sometimes, the other is better other times, both are terrible in other situations again. I prefer C++ in more cases than I prefer Java, hence my comment.

But.. maybe I missed the point of the comment I replied to, since memory management in Java might really be an improvement over C++.
In the spirit of the article, the first real result on http://www.google.com/search?q=A+Constitutional+Case+in+a+Bo... doesn't require registration.