skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Oh no! Not green lasers!
This sounds incredibly whiny. Is there peer edit at tech crunch anymore?

I've noticed, and I think other hackers here will agree, that tech crunch is like the spoiled brat of tech blogs these days. Nothing more than tech-pop TMZ. Move on.
Reputation for your IP takes time. Some providers are smarter than others about how long you need to establish a reputation. Google seems quick if you follow the rules. Microsoft and AOL seem on the slower side, we give an IP a few weeks to "warm up" its reputation. And you need to be active about handling bounces, spam reports, etc. from day one.

Sending rate is also a huge signal for some providers (Microsoft) and seemingly not for others. In our experience, if you send more than one email per second per IP to Microsoft over a few hour period, that IP is almost guaranteed to get put in the penalty box for a few days. Stay under the limit and adhere to the other guidelines in that post and you're fine.

If you're going to be sending at higher volume, use different IPs for "transactional" mails -- signup, password reminders -- than for monthly mailings, etc. This way you protect the reputation of the IPs sending the stuff you really need to get through. (In all cases, you better be sending mail to registered, double-opt-in addresses, otherwise look in the mirror, you're a spammer.)

Also as another poster stated, sign up for the feedback loops. Some are a huge pain (Microsoft), some are very straighforward (Yahoo).

http://feedbackloop.yahoo.net/
http://postmaster.aol.com/fbl/fblinfo.html
http://postmaster.live.com/Services.aspx#JMRPP
http://feedback.comcast.net/
Brief Introduction to Clojure, for JVM folk
I'm curious about why adding two additional fields to the registration actually improved the conversion rate. Was this just an example, or does someone have some ideas as to why this happened?
A Haml-inspired mini-language for jQuery: Jabs
No, no, no. Everyone needs to lets the "porn wins" angle go; it's plain wrong.

Porn helped VHS because the only way to get it otherwise was in a crowded theater! HDDVD did porn and lost. YouTube was big before any adult websites caught on to Flash video.

Porn is freely available to anyone, anywhere. Nobody cares anymore.
Whence Comes TechCrunch's Perception that Seattle Angels Aren't Active?
Am I in the wrong major?

Yes.

You (and some others) may not like what I'm about to say, but you asked for it, so here goes...

In all the years I've been in technology, it has typically taken me about 28 seconds to determine if another person was "fluent" more than one or two levels below the surface.

Those that were were almost always programmers, engineers, or technicians at one time or another. Everyone else was at best managers and business people, or at worst, administrators or posers.

I know some might disagree with me, but a Computer Science major who doesn't want to code is like a dental student who doesn't want to look into anyone's mouth.

To get good in technology, and I mean really good, you must get under the hood, deeply and often. The best and most logical way to do this is by programming. And you will have to do this intensely and for long hours, so you have to love it.

The single biggest difference I've seen between great programmers and everyone else is a pure love for what they do. Intelligence matters, work habits matter, ability to work with other people matters, but make no mistake about it, there is no substitute for passion.

Great technologists love what they do so much, they can't wait to get back to it. They have to check on their work after dinner. They have to review their notes at bed time. They are often the first in the office in the morning and just as often the last to leave. They read and learn voraciously and can't wait to apply their skills to new problems. They're so busy doing what they love, they don't even think of it as "working 9 to 5".

By your own description, you do not sound like this. So do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor and find something you love and major in that. If, on the other hand, it's too late or it doesn't make sense to switch majors, then go ahead and finish your CS major, but please find a direction to follow that puts you in work you love. Be forewarned, though. Unless you're a programmer first, you probably won't make a very good sales engineer or project manager. You may want to consider sales or even (dare I say) proceeding on to business school for your MBA.
fine, but losing it undermines the overall case and any present justification there is. how much is a matter of opinion, but it's bound to be non-negligible given the continuous obstructionism to releasing it in the first place.
> Science is better when other scientists can reproduce what you are doing

s/is better when/requires that/

Right?
Thinking About Advisors
"Before admitting to "losing" the data, the CRU tried all sorts of excuses to evade their obligations under Freedom of Information"... I really think you're attributing malice when bureaucracy would suffice. What little malice there is in the equation is a bunch of scientists frustrated with the sensationalist tactics of some colleagues who fight the data with public opinion and fast talking instead of a real scientific line of counter-evidence. Asking to go through the raw data at this point is going to be nothing but the climate-science equivalent of looking for EVPs in a haunted house; you're anomaly hunting. Even with the original data gone enough of the post-processed data and the code that generated it remains to paint a clear picture of what is going on. If you doubt this specific line of evidence please feel free to look at other corroborating lines of evidence.

I think you have a specific lens you're viewing this situation through and when you're hunting for witches, you can always find evidence. Every action becomes part of some sinister plot. Be very careful of conspiracy thinking, because it's extremely hard to get out of it once you're there.

As I've said before, this event damages the public's confidence in the CRU. They've shown how grumpy scientists can be in private (who knew?). But there is still no evidence–in any of these emails–of misleading fabrication of data. That is, unless you're convinced AGW is fake already, in which case you're going to say, "AHA! See I knew it!"

While I concede the case for the "antrhopogenic" is certainly not as ironclad as we'd like it to be, it's also not unsupported or implausible. At this point denying global warming itself is roughly akin to denying evolution: it's asinine. Multiple lines of evidence converge on one conclusion, and if a few odds and ends don't line up for reasons we don't understand, that's not significant enough to do anything more that continued research.

P.S. This is not to say I know AGW is real. All I know is that we have a greater body of evidence that it is real than counter-evidence against this. _That_ is the science here.
I don't know about that!

Normally I avoid TechCrunch and their drama. But this one is shaping up to be pretty good. If it happened the way Arrington said it did, then the company he chose to partner with is monumentally out-of-touch. But I've got a feeling that there is going to be more to it than that.
No, the tech-pop TMZ is valleywag. Techcrunch is actually a good site that, from time to time, does some decent journalism (see: Scamville)
Selective unit testing:  costs and benefits
$1 and $2 are probably still there do to Ruby's Perl heritage. I don't particularly mind their use, but that's probably due to my long history with Perl.
I'm saddened to hear what happened (even if what has been explained about his Singapore-based partner, Fusion Garage, is not really what happened). The dangers of long-distance outsourcing - emails can be ignored easily, connection can be broken at will. No ACK. Hopefully this doesn't become a HBS case study (on dangers of outsourcing and IP ownership).

"I have to applaud Michael Arrington for going out of his comfort zone and taking on a sizeable project that is not guaranteed to be successful but if fairly successful, will make a small impact on the tech industry, rather than just reporting on it (like he does now)."

I wrote that comment 5 months ago, and I think Michael Arrington has a better understanding of the tech industry now. I don't think he will give up on launching a product.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=686137
http://apprejections.com/ This one seems to be non-joke rejections.
You are conflating all socialist policies with Marxism.

I do not know what issue Marxists would be trying to avoid, as my personal experience suggests most Marxists will try and conflate every issue with their specific economic and social ideology.

We're talking about policies that could be considered "socialist." No one is talking about a wholesale abolition of the free market system. At least, in this stage of the game.
That is nothing. You come to India and in any metro city you will find several software DVDs being sold for 1-2$. This includes things from Windows 7 to Photoshop. From all games to Autocad.

If something is not available they arrange it within two days.
That would be my dream job too. One obstacle is that it's in some foreign country, Switzerland I think?
Most countries have similar laws. The US is fairly unique in its strong laws about inadmissible evidence. The argument for those policies is that it stops people being let go on a technicality due to someone signing the wrong form or whatever.

However just because evidence is admissible doesn't mean it has to be taken into consideration. Often the court will decide that certain evidence won't be taken into consideration due to how it was obtained. This is an entirely separate decision than whether or not it should be admissible.
But the OP is not a theoretician, nor does his post indicate any desire to be the next Dijkstra.

Dear [here I'll say it for you] But-I-am-not-a-geek: Obviously you are neither interested in the non-people-oriented ;) aspects of "technology" nor are you (or your university for that matter) projecting any signs of aspirations to the heights of application of "mathematics". Switch to a business degree and minor in the non-people-friendly-and-not-for-just-anyone CS.
Any idea if this was part of a talk that was given somewhere?
Seems kinda related to Juggernaut? (http://github.com/maccman/juggernaut_plugin/)
This article does little to prove that doing both was the wrong choice. What evidence are we given that it was a bad decision? Both groups of users bought the chips, didn't they?

I doubt that MIPS Computers was in a position to dictate standardization to their market, so building a flexible but less simple product may have been the right call at the time.
Ask YC: How do I use flash to let users upload videos from their webcams?
I want to make a site where people record videos of themselves using laptop webcams. I know that Flash can do that.

Have you ever made a site which does this?

Are there any open source tools that I can use to grab a quick clip easily?
Hardware is difficult. Not just a bit more difficult than software, but WAY more difficult (and is inclusive of software, usually at a lower level). For a small company at least the manufacturing is outsourced, and often the design as well. Who gets the IP and who has ultimate control are MAJOR issues that are often not given enough attention up front. Sure, every relationship is rosy at the start. But imagine that you have hit a major roadblock that prevents a release (because invariably, you will get stuck and have to find a solution), what happens now? Who gets to decide? This stuff needs to get hashed out before the first contract is signed. And often time the problem is going to be your outsourced design firm or manufacturer, so I'd say the contractor needs to stay at an arms length away so that you can change if need be, even if it costs more cash. The flexibility might keep your venture alive.
I use Rubular all the time for testing my regexes with ease. Give it a shot, its really well done:

http://rubular.com/
Bangalore hackernews meetup on Day 5 of foss.in
foss.in is india's biggest open source related event, now in it's 9th year.

The schedule of talks is at http://foss.in/2009/schedules , and you can follow updates at http://twitter.com/fossdotin and http://foss.in

looking forward for a HN meetup on Dec 5th ( Sat )

~B
The College Board change to Java is not a recent development. The last year that CB tested AP CompSci in C++ was when I was a freshman in high school (circa 2002-2003). Since then, they have used Java as the teaching language.

As someone who went to school during the transition period, it was weird to take intro to programming in C++, then swap to Java for AP-level work, but at the same time, the change wasn't that great since the syntax is quite similar.

When I was in high school, the explanation for the change was always along the lines of "Java is cross-platform and going to be the industry-standard by the time you come out of college." Now as a senior in college, I wonder if that statement is true these days.
+1

That is one of my favourite Orwell essays. This site is more readable and has all of them - http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79e/part42.ht...
The full report makes clear that it wasn't the colour that was the problem as such, but the fact that they where stronger than what is allowed to own without permission.
My university switched their CS 101 course from C to Java to Python. I tutored students in CS courses, so I've seen what problems they had.

C is easy enough until you hit pointers (and arrays give people trouble, strangely enough). Eventually pointers were just dropped entirely, and the students were told to memorize that scanf is magic.

Then came Java. It was taught as if it were a prettier C. No objects anywhere, just a bunch of static methods. The students were told to memorize a bunch of magic once again (what's a "class"? why do I have to type "static"?).

I did not get a chance to help anyone struggling with Python. I think it is a better teaching language, but you still have to teach a subset. If you show beginners a list comprehension, they will likely swear off programming forever :) The advantage is, the subset you teach can avoid magic.

One problem: Java is a (current) standard. Schools want to teach things they think are useful in the workplace. Interestingly, students want to learn these languages for the same reason. Just google "what programming language should I learn", and read the responses. A large number will base their answer on "what's used in industry".
Nice effort - it looked like a cool device. Of course, once Apple hinted at coming out with a tablet, the CrunchPad's chances of success took a hit.
I'm not convinced corporations would necessarily hire more people due to lower tax rates. If sales forecasts don't look promising, the additional workers' net contribution may be negative even with a 0% tax rate.
How To Build A Remarkable Career In Computer Programming
3x Improvement: Great sign-up page split-test for a web-app
Great A/B split-test posted by @bokardo
Yes, you are in the wrong major. If you're looking to be involved in the business aspect of a technology company, a computer science degree will not be very useful. I have a BS in computer science, and in my experience, the curriculum was often too theoretical even for people who become full-time programmers. If you're not interested in the nuts and bolts of software, it offers even less.

Unless you're planning on continuing education to get something like an MBA, switch majors now.
Good Lord. I almost feel sorry for Mike Arrington. But not quite.
No One Peer-Reviews Scientific Software
Notes from Eric Ries' Talk on Lean Startups @ MIT
I believe the College Board's choice stemmed from the fact that most large corporations use Java for their infrastructure. While unfortunate, Java is one of the most taught languages in colleges.

I took AP Comp Sci AB last year, and I found that although the material was somewhat easy, many of the students had difficulty dealing with the syntax. Another major issue i noticed was with the concept of OO programming. IMHO it would be better to start an AP CS course with a semester of Python, so that the students can get an idea of how programming works, without having to deal with Java's verbosity. Then you can spend the second semester exclusively on Java. Because the students will already know the basics of programming at this point, they only really have to deal with the syntax and with generics, instead of having to learn syntax and coding at once. That's just my 2 cents...
I always loved to ask a single super obscure question that almost nobody would know the answer to. I didn't expect, or desire the 'correct' answer, I wanted to see how they handled the fact that they were asked something they almost assuredly didn't know. Did they say 'I dunno' and just shrug? Did they make some shit up? Did they try to work it out? That reaction to the uncertain/unknown is, I think, a pretty important part of figuring out if they'll be good to work with - who doesn't run into something unknown on a fairly common basis?
Berlin Hacker News Meetup? (Germany)
Anyody interested in a Hacker News Meetup in Berlin in December?
I don't know much about the College Board's reasoning, but I know that they don't seem to be able to make up their minds. In the 7 years since I was in high school, the AP course (which may have some freedom in the language it uses, but ultimately must teach the language on the AP exam) has used at least Scheme, Java, C++, and, possibly, C#.

The real question is: if you're going to teach an extra-curricular course, what do you want to expose the kids to? A practical language that makes it easy to do projects at home (like Python)? Some more theoretical CS ideas, which can be expressed elegantly in Scheme? Both?

Keep in mind that the kids who take this course will probably also be in the AP class, so you should try to complement whatever material they get there.
The argument is that even in that case they'll at least fire fewer people than they would with the original tax rate.

But yeah, the big problem facing companies right now is not excessive corporate tax.
At my old job we had a few Ambient Orbs (https://www.myambient.com/productDetail/OrbBeaconSupportPage...) hooked up to serial ports on our PCs and had a Ruby server polling our logging db for different activities (commits to the repo, errors on live, etc...) and would change the colors on the Orbs accordingly using their developer API.
Thanks for the info.

I wish the focus, especially for the AP program, was less on what the industry is doing and more on what is best for becoming a successful computer science student.

If a student is taking an AP course, they're not looking for vocational training, and I don't think that's what colleges are looking for, at any rate.
Finally there's a Hacker News meetup in Atlanta.. and I'm at home (TX) for the entire month. My startup work flexibility makes it all too easy for my parents to convince me to visit home for extended periods..
Ask HN: Review our webapp - Apollo
Link: www.useapollo.com

Hi there,

We are a small Ruby on Rails shop, based in Shropshire(UK), and we've been using Apollo to collaborate with our clients on designs for sites. Based on some feedback, we've released it for general use.

We intend for the core functionality to remain free, and we'd appreciate any feedback on features the community might find useful. This isn't aimed at the high end graphic design company market, it's just something that's simple to use for quick feedback from a team or client. If there's any reason why you wouldn't use it, or any suggestions about how we can improve it, please let us know.

Thanks for reading! :)
Joe Pym
27 Stars
There does come a point when this ceases to be realistic. It's unlikely, for instance, that a doctor is going to develop software to use in his office himself (especially with HIPA regulations!)
Trading data comes in many flavors. If you're talking about the executions the bank actually performed, no, that's not going to get tossed away.

On the other hand, if you're talking about the terabytes upon terabyte of quotes (even level 1 quotes on equities mind you), yeah, those get tossed. And key decisions get made based on that data. That stuff gets kept around for a while, but it gets deleted eventually.
2010: The Year Information Pollution Takes Off
Wow, that makes a lot of sense suddenly. I hadn't thought about that, but the 64-bitness is probably why I'm tearing through my 256mb slice so quickly on tasks that shouldn't really take up that much space.
Yeah, that post has the subtle stench of BS. I haven't followed the Crunchpad ordeal all that closely, but they've never been all that forthcoming about problems and this announcement smacks of manufactured drama.
I like taking out the trash because it makes my place less smelly. Like, there's a logic to doing some of those things beyond just "somebody told me." But in other situations you find yourself doing things maybe you don't have to do.
Apparently there is - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/crunchpad-end/#comment-.... It would be interesting to know what "the other side" of the story is.
What a huge disappointment. I was really looking forward to this as an example of how one could work themselves into the hardware market as a start up, and as healthy competition to any other large touch-capacitive device to come out in the next few years.
Well, I'm a CS major (or whatever you want to call to the european equivalent) and I don't code for a living.

I'm a systems administrator, and while I like to program and do so fairly frequently (both for fun, and on the job), I just can't see myself as a programmer, at least in the near future.

I find most "real-world" programming to be quite boring. And doing it day-in day-out would just burn me out of it real quick.

Of course, there are some programming jobs I can see myself taking. But making business apps or web stuff isn't one of them, and that's pretty much the whole market right now.
Yeah, when you think you're good at something, you think you know how it ought to be done, and thus (likely) close your mind to other possibilities (because you already know the 'right way', and that means the other way must be wrong).

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is the book it's from. Very, very worth the read, and this coming from someone who thinks the whole new-age zen hippie thing and most books are BS (and they miss the point).

He has another book, but it isn't as good.
I thought Becker was phoning this one in. I was much more persuaded by Krugman's argument over Beckers. Becker's didn't even get to the freaking point until the last two paragraphs. Then he basically said. "Uh cut taxes. Especially corporate taxes." With exactly no supporting evidence as to why that would help. All of our stimulus money we sent banks and corps has basically gone to play the market, and has saved zero jobs. So why would cutting taxes directly lead to job growth? In this climate I don't see it happening like they think.
So opensource it all right now. If Fusion Garage plans to sell it on their own anyway then release all the specs and software so that anyone can build one themselves.
so now that the cruchpad is gone, what would you buy instead now?