skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I wished I could disagree with you :)

It's absolutely true, a series A is like a lottery ticket, suddenly you're a gambler, no longer working day to day to make ends meet, but the clock is running and you have to 'score' at a much higher level than you would have to score at without that investment.

Your chances of 'scoring' just went up, but your chances of staying alive just went down about as much.

It would be nice to see an analysis of how outside investment changes the sum total, in other words, is this a 'zero-sum-game' and are the 'funded' companies taking away as much by their much bigger chances at collapse than what they would have made if none of them got funded (keep in mind that lots of money gets lost not only because these businesses fail, but they also take their investors money down the hole with them) or is the capital injection a net gain ?

Incidentally, I know of one very successful exit (and IPO) that was done without outside investments but it was in the mid-80's, not related to online business, and I know of one online venture that got bought out for a fairly ridiculous amount of money. But that's the total score.
Is it better (for some arbitrary definition of good) to get VC money than angel?

I always figured that between angel and VC money, these incubators would bat right near 100%...
RiP A Remix Manifesto - Great documentary about remix culture and copyright.
Now they've done Image Swirl in Flash. What is up with Google using Flash; they used to know it was crap.
Agreed, it's a bit sensationalist.
Risk Factors
The iPhone has had RedLaser [1] for quite some time - which works both with the 3GS and older phones, and from my quick test just now, seems to recognize barcodes faster than ShopSavvy.

1. http://redlaser.com/
they look to be doing pretty good:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thesixtyone.com

Maybe IUMA has finally found a valid successor. If IUMA was started today I think it would have a much better chance at survival, bandwidth now costs a very small fraction of what it was in their heydays.

What a waste the way that ended by the way.
Imagine a statistical correlation of the semantic content of briefs versus the deciding opinions. The result might highlight the outliers holding attorneys and judges to consistent standards of professional practice heretofore hidden in the court records.

>If< it can be done what a wonderful result for the betterment of the practice of law.
Ask HN: How can a Web Developer get into Bioinformatics?
I've been doing web application development (and general programming) for almost 10 years now. I've also done a lot database design, working with very large databases, and optimizing queries, etc. But I have no biology experience.

I've always wanted to work with new biological technologies, for example figuring out what genes do, or how proteins fold, or anything cool like that where I can increase the world's knowledge.

It seems to me that a good programmer would be useful for these types of jobs. Does anyone have advice for how to enact this career shift?
You don't spend much time around athletes, do you? Athletes compete because they want to do well. Certainly, only a few at one time have a realistic chance of actually winning, but I reckon that most don't want one person/team to win continually.

This is easiest to see in US football and baseball leagues--the fans and the league prefer some degree of parity so a single team doesn't dominate the sport.
> Dawkins letter to his 10 year old daughter (already vetoed by the teacher - this one I felt compelled to get prior approval)

Why would that get vetoed ?

It seems like an excellent choice.

How about Feinmans story about how his dad would talk to him about 'small things' by pretending he was very small ?

Another alternative, a bit from The Planiverse by AK Dewdney ?
Don't sweat the random walk of comment scores. Good comments sometimes wind up negative based on the arbitrary tastes of the last few voters.

Even if attempting "self-employment", if there's no money coming in, it's arguable as to whether it should be called that for the purposes of some government form.

Trying earnestly to launch a new corporation isn't precisely "self-employment", either. If it succeeds, you get some mixture of capital gains, dividends, and W-2 income -- none of which may ever be classified for tax purposes as "self-employment income".

Scrappy bootstrapping doesn't map neatly into the fixed labels and "hours worked", "wages earned" boxes of a state bureaucracy. Unless I was an employment lawyer, a judge, or a TWC functionary, I wouldn't confidently pronounce someone else's self-reported status as "illegal".

(I know I felt differently in my 20s. I'm more tolerant of different routes to self-sufficiency, now, as long as they're in the right spirit.)
How to Build a Chicken Plucker From a Washing Machine
Blown to Bits by Hal Abelson et al. (free ebook)
Journalism? What's that? I don't think we use this... "journalism" here at (newspaper name).
Next: Apple Macs no safer than PCs from sledgehammer attacks.
Tsk tsk, Wired. You should have consulted Z., from your own Geek Dad column, when this article was being written.
Appears to be closed source.

Edit: stricly speaking it seems you can get a look at the source if you pay: "The price range is from $10,000 to $400,000. Regular updates to our current source levels are available for separate update fees."

However, what I mean is there won't be a lively community of open source developers working on J. If the company crashes with that holiday jet, nobody will go on working on J. To me it is effectively the same as closed source.
Oh, I see. You were responding to the M-word.
they used to know it was crap

I'm sure the ~20k people working at Google span the entire spectrum of opinions one can have of Flash.
I don't see how launching and iterating are mutually exclusive.
From PlayStation to Y Combinator: The Reddit Origin Story by Alex Ohanian
They must be A/B testing it, only the 50GB/100GB show up for me: http://grab.by/D6f.
I agree that it was an excellent choice :-) The response, in fairness, was not a veto so much as a polite request to consider something else - recognizing that it would require additional discussion for which there will not be time in order to avoid (or at least provide adequate cover from) metaphorical lightning bolts being shot from a certain type of parent. I have a couple of books of/on Feynman that I was going to look through - I like that idea, too. Not familiar with Planiverse - thanks for the suggestion.
'"It has both currency and potential longevity," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, in a statement.'

Really? I don't think I've ever heard anyone use this in conversation outside of specifically referring to a particular Web site. It's jargon. (BTW, maybe some time should be allowed to pass to see if a word really does have longevity before rushing to enshrine it.)

"Sexting", for example, seems more widely used outside of any specific social clique, and does a good job of succinctly describing a modern concept. It also feels more clever than the blunt, Newspeakish "unfriend".

My verdict: New Oxford American Dictionary needs to hire more people outside the 18-24 year-old demographic. Younger or older would be a big improvement.

On a related note, can any one recommend a good dead-tree dictionary that doesn't weigh more than a small cat? I'd leave New Oxford American Dictionary out of the suggestion list. :)
It sounds like they're targeting startups, but if you're a startup you're adding quite a bit of risk by depending on another startup (in beta) for something so critical as your cashflow. It's easy to imagine scenarios where they go bust at a critical time and take you out too.
If I'm not mistaken, part of it is that reds age better (due to the tannins).
But doesn't this prevent you from taking advantage of AR validations and form_helper stuff, which is precisely the stuff that patio11 is saying makes meta-programming most useful in this case?
The C runtime (and language and compiler) was a very accurate abstraction of the underlying hardware, and later the hardware makers made their hardware to be compatible with the ecosystem.

That is why low-level parts of systems continue to be written in C. Only recently, with the advent of multi-core processors, we started discovering the deficiencies of the almost 40 year old language. The biggest is the missing memory model issue, which makes it impossible to write correct and portable multi-threaded code, which is inevitable at system level.
I'm fine with paying for music, but I consider ~$20 for a CD outrageous, and $1 for an MP3 on the high side. :) Lala.com lets me listen for 10c/song; that's a price I'm willing to pay.

I like the lala.com model the best. 10 cents to stream a song an unlimited number of times. No fixed monthly fees. Joined a couple of weeks ago; so far, I'm loving it. (If you want to "own your bits", you can get a DRM-free MP3 for an additional 79c).
I'd probably go with Feynman's 1974 Caltech commencement address concerning cargo cult science.
I think the strategy google is pursuing with Chrome, ChromeOS, SPDY and even google docs is to make web-centric computing more widespread, both among the established base of existing desktop and laptop users, and among non-users like people in developing countries, and people who aren't doing mobile computing yet. Google benefits both because they are well positioned to monetize this type of computing, through both advertising, and fees for services like Google Apps; and because this kind of computing devalues the cash cows of their largest rival.

The tactics they are using are to drive down costs (ie give Google Apps away to small businesses, and make it a lot cheaper than running exchange, deploying office, etc, for larger orgs), and to enhance the overall experience (ie make web apps faster via SPDY, fast javascript, etc).

Against this background, projects like Chrome don't have to achieve market dominance to be successful, they just have to achieve broad influence. I don't think just delivering better performance when Chrome users visit Google's properties counts as success, though; I think they need to get other browsers and services to change too.

I think SPDY is most likely to take off on mobile devices first. First, latency is a much bigger issue for cellular data than it is for WiFi, etc. Second, it looks like Google is going to get decent browser share on mobile devices. If Google implements SPDY in the Android browser, then makers of mobile web apps will likely embrace it. If that happens, then Apple, etc will feel the need to support it as well, lest the iPhone end up at a big disadvantage.
The video uploaded to the screens is Displayed on 3 large screens in Dublin City Centre (Ireland) all day, and allows people to request their video be played via sms.

If anyone has any feedback, suggestions I would love to hear them. Version 2 of the website will go live in a few days, and I'm hoping to include any good ideas I hear. Thanks.
Free music is infeasible? Tell that to people jamming with their friends, or buskers, or radio.

Is it feasible for free music to make big money for the majors? Different question, but we know the answer: "who cares?"
For a very young startup, the pricing structure is much better than competitors. If my revenue is really small, 3% of total rev is better than $39 plus a smaller percentage of sales.
I think this -particular- author would content that there is no such thing as an anonymous representation (see http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/abstracts.html#netflix)
I had the exact same desire about a year ago; I was bored with web development and wanted to learn a new discipline (I never went through with my plans though, so I have no real advice for you). My planned route was to get a formal education at the university. I'm sure there are self-taught bioinformaticians out there, but my perception of the field was that it would be very useful to take at-least a few courses to get into it.
http://www.toodoc.com/j-std-025-b-pdf.html
While I agree that most people don't want one person/team winning all the time, I believe that this does generate more interest, ie. Many people will take a vested interest in a baseball game so that they can cheer against the Yankees.
It seems the only unfeasible thing here is the amount the labels charge for the streaming companies to license the music.
Seconding the cargo cult science speech.
Palm pre ads
Some of these jobs look like a good place to start in the field.. http://www.bioinformatics.org/jobs/ The best way to get in is to find what these companies are looking for and start honing your skills in that direction.
They don't look so good compared to imeem.com, mog.com, last.fm, ilike.com though. I don't see flocks of people giving up on mainstream music.

Your point that free music is feasible for some music is valid, but I'm not sure it's that important if it's relegated to niche status.
I'm not too familiar with multi master replication. What happens when a request handled by server A is followed by a subsequent request that is routed to server B before server A has replicated the changes from the first request? The client would expect a certain state on the "server" given the first request but it certainly seems possible to invalidate that.
That's really funny, if there is one thing that I would like to see improved in Django it is the templates.
Mistry of Android
Maybe read a textbook on bioinformatics, implement a couple of non-trivial programs/algorithms, and put them on your resume?
Is this in private beta or available to everyone? I don't see intelligence in "My customizations"...
LOL - I'd sure have their attention after the opening...

"At Esalen there are some large baths fed by hot springs situated
on a ledge about thirty feet above the ocean. One of my most
pleasurable experiences has been to sit in one of those baths and
watch the waves crashing onto the rocky shore below, to gaze into
the clear blue sky above, and to study a beautiful nude as she
quietly appears and settles into the bath with me.

One time I sat down in a bath where there was a beautiful girl
sitting with a guy who didn't seem to know her. Right away I began
thinking, "Gee! How am I gonna get started talking to this
beautiful nude babe?"

I'm trying to figure out what to say, when the guy says to her,
I'm, uh, studying massage. Could I practice on you?"

"Sure," she says. They get out of the bath and she lies down on a
massage table nearby."

Good general idea, though - I like the Feynman angle - just have to find some of his stuff with minimal sex references...
Trying to Compete Against Google
Mystery Of Droid Autofocus Conspiracy Solved (For Reals This Time)
Ben & Jerry's founders to speak in Melbourne
The API (http://support.recurly.com/faqs/api/accounts) looks very similar to the Authorize.net API, so I'm not sure that this service simplifies the integration all that much. Also, it isn't clear to me whether the accounts are stored in Recurly, or whether they are stored within the payment gateway.

Overall, I can't say that I agree with the premise -- I haven't found online subscription billing to be very painful. However, if I can be convinced that this service adds value without creating third-party risk, I'd be interested.
From a chemistry standpoint, the biggest factor is the acidity of the wine. Acidic wines (particularly whites) can be very crisp and palate-cleansing, while less acidic wines taste softer and smoother.

I don't have my copy of Harold McGee's _On Food and Cooking_ with me, but that's the first place I'd look for more info.
Key-Value Stores in Ruby: The Wrap Up
How about carpentry?
It's been slowly rolled out over the last couple of weeks. I'm guessing everyone will have it by the end of the month or so.
I have a friend who is doing his master's thesis in Bioinformatics. If you like running batch jobs that can run days and fail in the middle, then its a great discipline for you! All kidding aside, the local University might be a good place to start. Often working as a grad student you can learn the books as well as get practical knowledge when working with a mentor. If you're near Orlando, FL I can get you in touch with my friend at UCF.
They use flash all over the place: Uploaders for most of their services, Audio Players, Street View, YouTube -- they probably have several custom flash development toolchains.
The pricing is in addition to what you pay for your merchant account and gateway.
Imeem.com peaked over a year ago and has since just been declining, last.fm is pretty steady.

Mog.com is relatively steady and ilike is going up fairly fast but that may have to do with their recent acquisition.

The fact that thesixtyone is doing this under their own power and with indie music is very impressive, of course it could be that they will never be as big as their 'big label' brothers but so far they've been doing pretty good.

And 400% growth per year essentially without marketing is not too bad either. They've got about 60,000 uniques daily now, I would not be surprised if they manage to push that to a quarter million by the end of next year.

And why would people have to give up on mainstream music in order to listen to indie music, there is plenty of room for both.
Great writeup. I use CouchDB behind nginx anyway for simple authentication so I'll have to try this. The only problem is "continuous replication currently does not survive server restart" - that is not so good.
Using Google Voice To Track Performance of Online Ads
Snapz Pro X
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/fbifile

Link for those interested in that case.
The video was just removed from Motion Box because it exceed view rate for that account. We need to find a new home. Feel free to contact me if you know of a place.
How's this better than just finding a free PHP host in a free subdomain? (honest question)
Also, wikipedia articles can now site the relevant cases through google. This means you can actually verify the information you find on wikipedia, which is crucial to wikipedia's credibility.
Unless I am mistaken, this is also what Chargify is trying to solve. When I built my first app, I thought about spinning off the billing layer into a separate service, but then realized that established companies like Auth.net have all of the real leverage. We'll see how this plays out in the long run, but I have a feeling that these types of services are in for a bumpy ride as their customer base is probably the least stable of them all (start ups).
I believe (not certain, Andrew may know better) the average for previous Techstars years was around half got funded. I've no idea on other incubators, anyone know YC's batting average?
How exactly do you plan on getting 1,000 new visitors every day, without a big media blitz for them to start hearing about your site? Sure you could buy ads, but you'll probably end up spending a thousand bucks per day just to get that 1,000 users.

And if you want 1,000 new people per day organically, you pretty much need 200-300K users for them to tell their friends about you.

A big media launch will put you on the map, sure only a tiny portion of users will stick around, but those few will give you that starting base to jump off from.

I don't see why that 10% stickiness you talk about, wouldn't also work during a launch. Sure you'll probably get a lot more lookie loos, but surely you'll reach a wider audience.

I'm actually doing a "launch" tomorrow, Hopefully I'll get some coverage, and if it's nothing but lookie loos, I can always go to doing the X users per day thing.
I ask in all honesty: What is the point of reading something to a child they won't understand?
Something from the Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. After nearly 30 years, it continues to both amuse and edify.
If you attempt to update a record, you send a uuid to server B representing the document you're attempting to update; if sever B doesn't have that document yet (either because it hasn't been created on server B or because it is not yet updated to the latest changes on server B), that change will be rejected.

If you are just expecting the document to be a member of a list (say, you put an order on server A, then look for all orders belonging to a customer on server B), you're not guaranteed to see it. This is 'eventual consistency' -- in practice, you want to be sure that you can live with this as a tradeoff.
OK, apparently this is not such a problem; from the book: "At the time of writing, CouchDB doesn’t remember continuous replications over a server restart. For the time being, you are required to trigger them again, when you restart CouchDB."

So, put something in /etc/rc.local for each server to start the replication again.
It's the incubator being judged here, not the startup.
I encourage anyone who needs something like this to check out Spreedly (www.spreedly.com). We use them for the Ars Premier subscriptions and they're fantastic, don't kill us with fees, and have a really nice API.

3% of transactions on top of the credit card fees is pretty nuts.
Hey Lhorie, do you have an example ?
it would probably also get vetoed for many reasons, but i still love this story:

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html
YouTube sets itself up for crowdsourcing TV news
So we could spend all the money and happily report that as a result of huge investments in education half of all low-income students now have above average test scores - a great improvement indeed!
I keep finding interesting things out about central florida--does Tampa Bay have anything interesting in that area?
I'm not sure which of the suggestions you'd put in that category, but my intent is not to select something they wouldn't get. I acknowledge the GEB idea is at least close to that line, and way past if "get" means GET.
From what I've observed, YC would be the most enjoyable place to be, in comparison to others; but it depends on the type of person you are, and what exactly you are looking for.
I want to go against the misconception that high level languages mean that you have to give up control over bits. You can control particular bits that matter, even if your language runs on a VM.

I don't see why arbitrary pointer operations are necessary anymore for memory management and the other things. I think this is something left over from the days when we had to squeeze every iota of performance out of machines. I suspect that entire systems could be built with references and almost no pointer arithmetic, and that we're simply stuck in the way we've always done things.

So what if we give up 20 or 30% of the CPU to do this? Pretty soon, we'll be trying to figure out how to keep 8 cores busy on a typical desktop. How about we use some of this to allow greater abstraction in the OS kernel and device drivers?
I trialled this a while ago. Whilst good in principle, you lose a lot of the power of the web forms view engine, particularly with the strong-typing of hyperlinks and routing integration. Not only that, it's written in F# which no-one can maintain effectively as noone (affordable) knows it.
One of my fav's, too - good idea.
Not in total agreement here.

The web was just a tad simpler over a decade ago when Google 'launched' initially. In fact a lot of the web's titans like Ebay, Paypal, Google, Amazon etc.. were 'launched' during a different era if you will... It was called the 90s. I'm not so sure the same rules apply today. One should at least consider that things have changed in this regard.

Every other product Google's come out with since then was 'launched' in what we'd consider the 'traditional' way. Gmail was invites, Wave is invites.. Maps was released with a lot of fanfare.

What I do agree with is that immediate or front page media attention after launch is not indicative of the app's future success. In fact it seems the more hype things have in the beginning the less staying power they seem to have in the long run but I suppose it can go both ways and there is no one rule..