skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Hm, maybe one could lend dogs to people who want to flirt with other people who have dogs.

Like suppose you take a stroll in a park and notice a hot specimen of the opposite gender walking their dog. Desperation kicks in, until you notice the helpful dog lender.

I would say sports items would be too boring, unless it would be some really hot new item (like those springs you attach to your feet). Plus you would have to worry about insurance - what if someone breaks his leg while playing with your sports item?
When I left my day job, I expected to be in a uncomfortable zone and I am luckily still in an uncomfortable zone :)

Only thing I would like to add is that uncomfortable zone is not for everyone, I think you need to be a certain personality type to actually enjoy the uncomfortable zone.
no, but it would have been a lot more impressive.

If the point was to show that artificial limits were, well, dangerous I dont think it was made hugely well.
I would argue that the problem with broad generalizations and fuzzy definitions comes not from me, but from the article in question. The logical fallacy in the article is that he seems to be equating perceived value in the modern workforce with human worth as a whole.

I agree absolutely with what you are saying: there are different definitions of value depending on the arena in question. The issue is that we seem to be taking one area (technology) and equating it with all others, which as you say, isn't useful or valid.

I've enjoyed our discussions :)
> But one nice thing about 30 years is you have the opportunity to get really good at the job.

As someone who is early on in ther career, this is good food for thought. I am still employed at the first company I worked for after graduating from college 2 years ago. I was always told that the way you get a raise is to "job hop" every couple years.
$50K would be nice. I would probably create an alter-identity and enter myself.
Wave doesn't even work with IE6. It's dicey with IE8 - thus their release of chrome frame.
Good idea for a tool, great writeup of the implementation. This struck home for me:

I realized recently that some things I do are so specialized that my parents and non-programmer friends will probably never get them. For example, Compleat is a program to generate programs to help you… run programs? Sigh. Well, maybe someone out there will appreciate it.

Just about all of my research falls into that category.
i've always thought this would be an interesting idea. it's neat to see someone doing it. if u think about it, the YC program operates under a similar concept (people are more impt than the idea).
The Case for Aspects
This has been discussed here before. I can't believe someone actually did it.
There's substance, they just ended up disproving what they intended to prove I think.
I have never heard of the book. Is this a serious suggestion?
I can't think of any valid excuse. Quite a few very good open source projects are in java and it will be highly beneficial if you know Java to use the code for your own purposes. Also I believe Java is one of the heavily used language in the industry currently if not THE most used. And it is also a well designed object oriented language (so I find no harm in learning it). It is also a good entry into the Java platform/ecosystem.
I never really understood that. Why are other companies more willing to give you a raise? Is it just irrationality by your boss?

The way I see it, you're worth more to your current company. You already know their stuff, and don't have to get up to speed. And you know the stuff you made for them well. And to them you're not an untested new hire who could flop. So in a rational economy, on average and when you're a good fit where you are, you ought to get the best offer from your current company.
Agreed.. I'm surprised by the comments here where many seem to think that some ways of making money are more fair than others. I would have expected the Hacker News crowd to really admire the winning team's 'hack'.

But anyway, as long as it's not illegal, I don't see what the problem is. The instructor didn't say how (or even whether) to spend the seed money.

Another way to look at it -- a good idea and good execution can overcome almost anything, even shortages of time and money.
Thankfully, USB is starting to solve this, esp since digital electronics don't need the 120V that most analog elecs do.
Glad the articles were useful for you :).

I really like Euler's Formula, but feel many explanations focus on the raw bits (showing the series are equal). The physics explanation "90-degree rotation" is a good one. Here's how I explained it to my mom:

"The formula is saying there's two ways to get to a place on a circle. One is to go across (cos) and up (sin), and the other is to go out (1.0) and rotate (x radians)."

This is a beautiful result which ties together radians, exponential growth, and complex numbers -- I have a post drafted that I want to share on this :).
most entertaining link from that article: http://whatwoulddondraperdo.tumblr.com/
paid system definitely has its benefits, while you are debating free vs monthly charges, how about one time nominal sign-up fee till the site is in business? Similar model as iPhone Apps, where for some odd reason, people are more inclined to pay than for web apps. I wonder if anyone has had serious success with such a model on the web ?
Scientifically Haunted House Suggests You’re a Sucker
2009 jQuery Halloween Pumpkin
I'm not a fan of the "I'm a Mac" ads but the "Think Different" ad is probably among the best commercials ever made.
"being a man has no particular meaning anymore"

And unfortunately, men are also not needed much anymore. I read somewhere recently that people are descendants of many more women than men (meaning women have children more often than men - few men are fathers).

Women not needing the money of their spouses - will they really just be attracted to a wider variety of men? Another thing I read recently is that women are becoming more likely to care for physical attractiveness now. Good for them, but I can't really see the benefit for men gained from that.

Also what tires me is the assumption that women where held down by barriers we erected. I think in "former times" it simply wasn't possible to survive alone, and the traditional roles where one successful approach to managing life. Women were supposed to do the household chores because men were working at their jobs earning the money.

What really freed women therefore was not the destruction of barriers. It was the invention of dish washers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and frozen food.
We used amazon mechanical turk for Ramamia. We've thought about building a solution for the general public, but we're pretty busy. Pretty easy to do, but if you need help drop me an email: j[at]jasonlbaptiste.com
Facebook Aspires To Divert The Data From Your Website Into Its Data Stream
Only the second time this has been on HN today. I first saw it on HN 4 weeks ago.
In this case, I get the impression that it's a toy/perk that you get just for the heck of it, not that it really plays an important part in running things.
Thanks for posting this, there was some really cool information in there. I found myself meandering a little (read: after the first three or four paragraphs I started scanning and scrolling fairly quickly) until I started seeing some names I recognized, then I had to go back and read everything else to see how they all compared to the ones I'd heard of.

I'm going to have to look for a Django interface to some of these, if I can plug it in and get started with it without too much work it makes it so much easier to familiarize myself with some of the unknown (to me) technologies.
No offense, but I don't think the post was direct towards you.

It's like when Smashing Magazine puts out "here's how you write a 5-line JavaScript" function. The post is obviously directed towards designers with little programming knowledge/skill, and it would be boring to most programmers, but most of them realize that and don't litter the comments with "This is easy, I knew this when I was 12 years old. Just hire a developer."

It's called spreading the knowledge and targeting different content at different folks.
This is really weird. It sounds like indentured servitude.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant
Yea, but they were talking about a previous ruling in another case. Off-hand, I'm not sure how many such rulings they have. It was just a thought that I figured might generate a bit of interesting discussion.
He's going for that iTunes transfer dollar. That's a big dollar.
It's a funny stunt once, but it's not an admirable business, because over time it would create less value than it destroys. Stanford classroom hours are limited and vastly expensive for the students.
There is no reason for not knowing something. That being said, knowing Java at this point might be advantageous in many respects because of the mature state of third party libraries available to support all aspects (development, testing, deployment) of any kind of work you are into.

If you are a good programmer without a job, it will definitely help you as there are plenty of Java jobs available in the market now.

I have personally come across a couple of startups, started by smart engineers from MIT/Stanford, which suffered because they found excuses not to do their work in Java and do it in Ruby/PHP. One of them ended up rewriting everything in Java (which made their initial 6 months of development a throwaway) and sadly, another one got stalled. Am not implying that its better than other languages as each language has its own pros and cons. However, you will not know if it can serve your specific purpose better because you don't know what you don't know.
Sell frozen orange juice futures.
Seattle company allows you to rent goat herds to clear brush
If you clicked on this story, you might also enjoy "The Age of Persuasion" on CBC radio. No podcast yet unfortunately, but streaming audio is available. (See right margin.)

http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion
The other side of the story of course is maybe that the entrepreneur needs to rethink their product, reconsider their strategy and take it as a signal after it is passed on. Just because you got in to a prestigious program, doesn't necessarily mean that you have a product with a lot of potential. Funny thing with potential is that it doesn't always turn into something fruitful.
My neighborhood sportsclub uses sheep to cut the grass. My uncle rents bees out to fruit growers. Why didn't I put two and two together?
Actually oranges and extremely cold winters heavily impact businesses. Jamba juice 2 years ago stopped carrying fresh squeezed OJ and smoothies with orange juice in them were 25 cents more.
How we ran a micro-lab course at our University
that nominal sign up fee will kill 90% of your potential users.
This is perhaps true. But how would you ever know? Maybe there are people coasting along thinking "I'm not the type of person who enjoys being uncomfortable and I don't need to be" when in reality they're just boring or not changing much.
I'm running a D90 :-)
Find a co-founder with this new MeetUp
I just created this MeetUp based on my experience with http://FairSoftware.net and the Founder Institute: everyone who has a great idea also needs great co-founders.

But finding co-founders is tough. Doing it in person is a good way to go, hence this MeetUp.

Feel free to pass around to everyone who's interested.

Also, a discussion on how you met your co-founders would be great.
Before watching the clip or reading the comments: I'd use the $5 to have coffee in some posh hotel or something and try and network.
frankly this brings up a major point...why are so many products in life have so many seemingly pointless variations?

I'll give you some examples.

1. Power Adapters? Why do we need 50 different versions. Why can't every electrical product have 1 type of power supply?

2. Wheels - why do we need 20 different bolt patterns? Why can't every car company just make 1 bolt pattern?

3. USB cables, yes the USB that connects to your PC has the same end, but I'm talking about the end that connects to your camera, printer, fax machine, why can't they just have one type of connection?
She published a book called "what I wish I knew when I was 20". If you like the story, you'd probably enjoy the book as well (the $5 funding story is in there). It's a good motivation recharger for those entrepreneurs in the thick of it - get's you pumped up to innovate. Also, might make you want to go to the d-school at Standford because a number of stories are based on her class there.

http://tinyurl.com/yzj5hlj

*that's my shameless amazon referral link to the book (muahahah!)
According to genetic research, 80% of women reproduce, but only 40% of men reproduce.
Presumably they didn't line up the deal just before the presentation; presumably that was done in advance.

Look at it this way: if you can do things like that, you could just as easily form a "company" and spend the whole assignment period accumulating liquid but non-monetary assets in whatever manner you see fit. Then, at the last minute, open the envelope and buy the company from yourselves with the $5. Liquidate the company and pocket the value of the assets.

Would that be a valid solution to the assignment? If not, why would arranging a deal before starting the "timer" be any more valid? The agreement is still an asset, just a somewhat less liquid one.
Google Wave's Phased Beta is Disappointing
With wall street as with most things, there is no "outside the system" everything is the system even if other people don't recognize it. I'll argue outside the rules is still inside the system, and that not all rules are created equal.

On another note, Breaking rules isn't what caused the recent wall street collapse it was a lack of looking ahead at consequences of actions.
More information for the curious:

http://jchrisa.net/drl/_design/sofa/_show/post/HTML5-Storage...

http://jchrisa.net/drl/_design/sofa/_show/post/The-P2P-Web-p...
Everystockphoto: free stock photos search
Optimizing homepage for returning and first-time visitors
Hi,

our site displays a "how it work" diagram as the entire above-the-fold content of the homepage. This is really useful for first time visitors and makes our sites value prop crystal clear. However, after a user visits the site a few times, the "how-it-works" isn't very useful and it takes up the most prime real estate on our site. We were thinking about dropping a cookie for all visitors and only showing them the "how it works" diagram the first time they use our service and having an alternative homepage for returning users. Do any sites do this? We've had a hard time thinking of example.

Thanks!
Why would your company want to pay you more than they are right now? What is their incentive? Retention?

Other companies are willing to pay you more because they need your expertise and you are offering a higher level of skill/experience than you offered the company you are with now.
Fundamentally, you're not rewarding creativity at money-making, you're rewarding creativity at rule-breaking.

And there's your insight. If what you want is money, and lots of it, finding creative ways to game the system is how it's done.

I am not lauding that, just pointing it out.
I am not surprised in the least!

Hackers have historically had very strong ideas of morality that extend way beyond illegal vs. legal. This is why some hackers advocate doing certain things they consider moral but illegal, and abhor other things that they consider immoral but legal.
Next thing you know this place will be called Hacker News instead of Designer News. Kidding; both your and the parent's points are well taken.
Why should someone have to know Java?

I know Java because it was the language of choice for my undergraduate software engineering lab (6.170), but I specifically do not take Java work because I've found other languages I enjoy more. One of the joys of being a professional engineer is the freedom to choose your tools.
Git and Microsoft Development: A Success Story
i'd totally go for this
I'd say .NET is more valuable than Java if you're looking for an 'industry' job.

But at the very least you should have some familiarity with C.
I created a couple of websites because I don't want others to go through what I went through....I documented what happened to me on one of my websites, and the seo company said that if I didn't take down the site, they were going to sue me. So I took down some information, but I still got comments from x-employees to the effect that what they did to me is what they do in general....They either were once a big player in so. cal, or they still are...i don't know.

The websites are: www.seoincscam.com and www.seoscaminc.com the latter has consumer protection info in it.

Thanks for posting this...it is helpful
The visual works of David Pache (making of Directed Edge logo)
In what way is offering to check someone's tire pressure and then inflate it for a nominal fee, or a donation, "dishonest"?

The first scenario is one a lot of Jiffy Lube-type garages and auto parts stores like Pep Boys do all the time (although typically with more than just tire pressure, e.g. transmission fluid).

The latter -- asking for donations and letting people pay what they want -- is something the Boy Scouts in my hometown used to do all the time. Free air for your tires, free coffee by the side of the Interstate ... I saw them doing free brake light replacement once. In theory they'd do it for free if someone really couldn't afford it, but in practice people pay what they think the service is worth (or whatever of that they happen to have on hand), so it's a sort of self-defined "sliding scale."

I don't see any misrepresentation there so I don't see how it's inherently dishonest.
A variant on this that I've seen proposed is: find a (medical student | apprentice plumber | law student | etc) that you think is talented and honest. Pay his/her way through school and provide enough money to get them comfortably set up. They now owe you free service for the rest of their career in that field.
That was the first thing that came to my mind. If someone owns the rights to your future labor, then don't they own a % of you, since you're treating yourself like an LLC?
The beneficiary isn't required to work. They're simply required to pay N% of their income and gains if they do.
(to paraphrase:) "Do you want 10,000 users paying nothing or 1,000 users paying something"

This is the key take-away for me. I know a lot of founders who, frankly, are building startups for megalomaniac reasons.

I think there is some "look at all these users who like my product (and thus me) so now I'm a rock star" philosophy in there, which isn't helped by people like Ashton Kutcher and MC Hammer coming into the scene.

We're about to complete a pretty tasty angel round for an SaaS app that has a healthy monthly recurring subscription on it from Day 1. I'm pretty psyched.

However, because its b2b it's never going to achieve me the 'rockstar appeal' that running a startup with millions of free accounts on it will would. I don't mind, but I know that frankly that's what dis-interests a lot of founders.
I'd love to know the monthly cost for using all of those hosted tools. Sounds very expensive.
Stanford videos on Entrepreneurship
Really! How so?

From that wikipedia page:
" An indentured servant is a laborer under contract to an employer for a fixed period of time,[...], in exchange for their transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities. "

Here you are paying a fixed sum of money that they can use for whatever they want (instead of the minimum necessities like food and clothing) and you are not the employer, the person can work on anything they like as long as they pay back the dividend.

I don't see what makes the two cases similar.
In one case you pay the minimum so they work for you.
In the other you pay some amount so they can work whatever they want but you get a percentage of that.
This is still true - but the stigma of "hopping" can be lessened if you work within the structure of a large company. I think being "really good" at the job could be a disadvantage to a lot of hackers - essentially being "stuck" within a role at a company due to necessity.
Well, so does the alternative. (Read the post)
If stuff you already own includes a bank account with 2 million bucks in it, and you burn through it in order to excel in one class, that's a lesson in itself. Or, more realistically, if a student had $100 in their pocket and used it as additional funding.

You can easily be in a similar situation in real life. You can get a mortgage on your house, or sell your car, or pawn family heirloom, etc. You can extend your runway (and hopefully increase the possibility or size of success), while ensuring deeper fall if you do fall.

So back to the class, if one group did spend invest their $100 along with the initial $5 seed funding, they'd have to earn more than the other groups to have a comparable return.
Because people have learned to live with them and the pain they cause is acceptably built into society. None of those things provide competitive advantage or a reason for consumers to switch.

For instance, few electronics travel outside the country where they're sold, and even for devices that do travel like cell phones or laptops, it's still easier to just buy an adapter than to choose a model based on its charging characteristics.

If something weird happened, like we all started being like Quantum Leap and the room we went to sleep in teleported to a new country every night, then the international plug problem might be worth fixing. But people would still probably just buy adapters as a cost of doing business and count on batteries to get them through the day. It just adds so little value.
Agreed.

The #1 goal of a platform is adoption. Maybe I'm reading Google Wave wrong, but it does seem to be a platform. So unless you're adjusting for scale, why would you do anything at all to slow adoption? In fact, Twitter's failures to increase capacity didn't seem to hurt it as much as not making it completely open would have.
Ford skeptical about battery-swapping stations for electric cars
Violent agreement indeed! I said also because I was adding to, expanding on your point :)
Yeah, that vibes with I've seen in SBCL (and been told about CCL). Thanks for the inside scoop.
The biggest issue with this one is its unrepeatable... it's a one time deal.

They executed the advertising opportunity, now they have nothing. The other two, issues with their business practices aside, have set up businesses that could continue to operate, grow and scale.

To me that deserves more recognition than a flash-in-the-pan idea.
> The point of the puzzle is to work inside the constraints

The constraint here is (your current resources + $5 + 2 hours), not just the $5 and 2 hours. And the point is to get profitable. It's an entrepreneurship puzzle, not programming puzzle.
It would be stupid to include a $50 dollar power supply with a $20 switch. You wouldn't want to try powering your laptop with the $2 power supply that comes with your switch.
I thought this little corner of the web was about startups, not how to get industry jobs.

If you want to be big and lethargic. If you want to write twice as much code to get the job done then go ahead and use java or C#.
Find a co-founder ... for a startup in 5 years' time. Because someone you just met is not likely to be marriage or co-founder material until you take the time to get to know them. At least judging by what I've read here.
Heroku vs EngineYard Cloud vs Joyent
Your current company's budget doesn't automatically go up just because you've become more skilled and experienced. People and organizations change, and their value to each other does too.
Your complaint seems to be that few people are logged on at any one time, but that's not necessary to use Wave. It isn't a very good IM system anyway, so it's pointless to try to use it that way.

http://danieltenner.com/posts/0012-google-wave.html
They scorched the earth in The Matrix, and that didn't go so well...