skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So stupid. We don't worry about this with dangerous chemicals, and those don't have a half-life. They'll stay deadly forever.

There is no need to treat nuclear waste massively differently than other kinds of waste. There are some special considerations, but it's not so dangerous as to require the vast storage expenditures being talked about.

This problem is endemic in the whole nuclear industry. People don't make rational risk/cost assessments when it comes to nuclear power. They don't even make irrational risk/cost assessments. The locals where I live are deadly afraid of a local air force base's small reactor. But nary a worry about the actual nuclear weapons they have that could (potentially) devastate the entire area.
Part of it, I think, is the lack of imagination factor (on the part of the person playing the game). Movies try to get you to look at the world differently; books make you conjure up your own imagery to match the text. Comic books even force you to imagine the voices of the characters, their motions and motivations.

Video games give you a very well-defined, discrete rule system. You are X character with Y motivation trying to achieve Z goal. If you don't achieve Z goal, you lose. If you achieve Z goal, you win. Winning Z goal means nothing in the "real world". Chuck Klosterman[1] described video games as similar to masturbation; there's a sense of achievement, but the feeling of gratification can be very shallow.

That said, I think there are video games that are more conducive to creative and interesting behavior than many books, just as there are many TV shows that inspire better thinking and creativity than mediocre movies. As another poster said, it will take time for the stigma of "video game brain-rot" to end.

[1] He's a pop-culture commentator with no real expertise in this, but I wanted to credit his analogy.
Great for the team, but this sucks as a user. I've come to frequently use Etherpad for ad-hoc chat rooms, and now its impossible to make new pads.

I really hope EtherPad doesn't go the way of Jaiku. I really liked the product.
As history teaches us, the answer is 'yes'. Personally, I think it most likely that Facebook will end up stopping Facebook, by failing to ameliorate ways that it currently annoys its users (or allows its users to annoy each-other) and by coming up with new and creative ways to annoy its users in the future. With one eye on recent history and the other on my crystal ball, I find it probably that future annoyances will come primarily in the form of privacy breaches.

Either that or I'll be the first up against the wall when Facebook becomes SKYNET.
mostly it's a filter. If you can't make an OpenSSH public key, you should probably not be managing your own VPS, and you should certainly not sign up with me, as all my interfaces are command-line only, and I don't have a nice GUI web control panel like many competitors do, and my support is email-only. go, pay the extra bucks, pay slicehost, and get someone to talk you through it on the phone. I don't charge enough to deal with that sort of thing.

If you wanted to hire me by the hour, that'd be different, but we're talking about people giving me $8/month.
What happened to Second Life?
Ask HN: What do you think about the people behind ObjectMentor?
Ask HN: alternatives to EtherPad?
EtherPad was probably the most useful web app I have ever used. The main use case of EtherPad for me was that I embedded it into my startup's blog, so that we could seamlessly collaborate on blog posts together and it would auto-save, etc.

Now that EtherPad has been killed, what are some alternatives? Is there any other embeddable, collaborative text editor out there?

It looks like old EtherPads are still active for the next couple months, so until March, I will probably be abusing the crap out of a poor, used EtherPad. It would be great to migrate onto a more permanent solution though.
I'm amazed at how good TicketStumbler is at keeping off all YC-related lists! You can add another "Active/Accidental Stealth" to S08 if you like ;)
AJAX and Flash is a generic technology, telephone guided co-browsing is a specific implementation, most likely using that technology. There's a big difference there, especially when Flash and AJAX are ubiquitous on the web and the phone guided browsing is more innovative.
"Does anyone have any theories on why appjet never took off as a product?"

Basically people aren't going to switch to a new way of doing text unless someone forces them. Only a very small minority of people use something like FreeMind or EverNote instead of Word as their primary writing tool, so how could appjet ever hope to get more than a tiny fraction of those people when their best functionality only works when you have multiple people?

The only way to get mass adoption would be to force people to use it, which is possible, but only if you design the company around that from the ground up. Which I don't think they were organized to do, at least as far as I can tell.

If Google wants to, they actually have the ability to force more people to use it. Not sure if that will happen, but I hope it does since I wish I were able to use it more myself.
MIT's Red Balloon Challenge team
Agreed...since when is "ship early and iterate often" either new or controversial?
I recommend taking a look at http://www.wordnik.com. It's a startup launched by an experienced dictionary editor (sorry, Erin, I don't know what else to refer to the profession as:)) and they have an API as well.
Congrats to J.D. and Aaron.
One of my coworkers commonly uses pointer math rather than array indexing, so inline asm isn't that much of a stretch. Some C programmers are just thinking in assembly.
I was a heavy appjet user. It was indeed an awesome system.

I think there were two reasons it didn't succeed:

1. It's niche was razor-thin. It required some skill to use, but was so minimalistic that many programmers would prefer to take the extra time to set up a "real" server.

2. Too ahead of its time

I suspect tools like appjet will be commonplace in a couple of years. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the "Google Wave" thing is a ruse and that these guys are actually working on an online editor for Google App Engine... This could, in theory, turn Chrome OS into an awesome dev environment, no?
Google's webpages are really easy to scrape. lxml, django & 40 lines later and you have a really nice json formatted data stream
I think the release of the Droid phone has had a significant hand in the sales increase. I've read accounts from other Android developers who didn't make it into the ADC final round who still saw significant sales jumps around the same time due to the Droid phone release.
uhm... I don't think you know what the original appjet program was for- It was a tool for building web applications.
New company, new history
That "faux-to" at the bottom is a HORRIBLE photoshop perspective hack. It's obviously a 2D image that's been skewed and hacked to look 3D with the buttons moved to look like they overlap. I call shenanigans.
You can read how I do tail recursion at http://wiki.github.com/krestenkrab/erjang/how-erjang-compile...
Here's a few articles pointing to the number. I assume that an individual buyer faces a higher rate of recission than those in a large group.

http://tauntermedia.com/2009/07/28/unconscionable-math/

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/09/02/think-youve-got-hea...

http://wintershaven.net/2009/08/04/recission/

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/company-news-story.aspx?storyid=2...
this appears to be some sort of silicone compound vacuum packed with a softening agent that evaporates in ~30min and finishes in 24hrs. So don't need to heat prior to use, and probably a bit more flexible once cured
I think the benefits of having a successful peer far outweigh your ability to use a free online text editor. Whatever loss in productivity is caused by the absence of Etherpad (or god forbid, having to use a G-branded version, or another service) can be made up for with the rush and motivation you should get from seeing one of your own get off the Ramen diet at last (or at least not have to worry if their effort will ever pay off; stuff like Etherpad will get built into browsers and OSes RSN)

Any big fish could have taken their client base without paying a dime; everyone from Skype to Computer Associates could have obsoleted them without even trying. Heck, Open Source IM packages like Pidgin could easily add a service like Etherpad and those boys would have labored for nothing.

If you don't like what I am saying, the next time you cash out, just know that I am just as happy for you :-)
It's not just you. This is probably my #1 complaint about the Android market that I have. Unlike iTunes, where you can search and browse the entire app store on your computer, with Android you can only browse for apps on your phone. There isn't even a Google website where you can browse for apps, as far as I know.
Or more accurately, the minimum requirement isn't always best for business. You could say that cheap packaging and presentation is an inefficient use of a marketing opportunity.
Looks like you have to add an acquisition: AppJet/Etherpad - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=977015
Google has an api for such situations as these (I think), so I don't think facebook actually gets your credentials.
awesome interview
From the website:

http://live.lmgtfy.com/

A live feed of queries being entered. Some of them are extremely amusing, one I chuckled at: "where can i buy a wife"
> Where is this magical free basic healthcare? Does not exist.

It's called the county hospital plus medicaid.

> Medicaid is only free if you've already become bankrupt.

Medicaid is extremely cheap to free if you don't have an income, which is the premise of the question.
Burger King gave McDonald's a run for its money sometime back in history. The person to "stop" Facebook will recognize that to beat Facebook, you can't me-too Facebook, and you have to provide something that Facebook can't duplicate either. Burger King offered a product that they touted as more sophisticated than the kiddie-image McDonald's. When McDonald's tried to follow suit, they fell flat on their face.

That said, I think there's more to be done in the social networking space than mere marketing differences. Twitter was just the first and probably simplest example of what you can do once you get away from the traditional count-my-friends social networking model.
Remember the $200 price drop after all their rabid fans waited all day in line for a $600 phone? Remember how it was followed by the $100 gift certificate? [1]

I think it's been clear for awhile that the Apple marketing department takes tips from abuse victim psychology 101.

1. http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/
Wordpress 2.9 will bring easy solution for Repairing and Image Editing
It's not cheap if you live in a trendy neighborhood, eat out a lot, and own a car. But it is cheap if you live in a safe working-class neighborhood and rely on the CTA. In 2003 I lived in an apartment in Pilsen with 2 startup founders and lived off of $800/month - that was my share of the rent, utilities, internet, and company cellphone plan along with food. And I probably could have saved $100/month if I didn't go to bars.
If you have a mac, then you can purchase SubEthaEdit. That's what EtherPad was based on.
that's a pretty narrow definition of inefficient. i would say efficient practices are the ones that add the most value, but i suppose that wouldn't make as interesting a title for an article..
Free vector and raster map data at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales
I had really trouble reading this URL after you mentioned it looked like "a hat here it is".
A friend had his PayPal account frozen for no reason. In my experience their API is terrible and it is a torture to use their test site.
1. No white on black text.

2. Don't use the pattern verbing adjective noun unless you're Bill Clinton and even then don't use it either.
Good points - but I have to say that the follower-count dynamic on twitter is totally uninteresting and unsustainable as a motivator for new users. It should have been hidden long ago.
Cool! This is exactly what I had in mind. I didn't know about this project.

Unfortunately, it seems to have been abandoned...
don't most users ignore advertisements by now?

Not well targeted ads! One of the forums I frequent has a fairly new ad up almost all the time. A number of people have commented on their experiences purchasing the products from that vendor and as a result, many more (myself included!) plan to buy from them when the need arises. It's a simple banner ad and clicking it takes you to a gorgeous website that is a perfect showcase for what they're selling.

I really don't think most people (non-developers) dislike ads; we dislike annoying, generic ads that have nothing we're interested in.

Then again, my wife and I love the "messing with sasquatch" TV ads because they're so funny although I can't even remember what they're selling!
It struck me the same way. He projects a salesman's confidence and glibness, so my knee-jerk reaction is to roll my eyes and wonder what the hell he's selling. Well, it's obvious what. The entire post is plain and simple bragging. He says himself that he didn't do it out of altruism. He did it to maximize his happiness, which includes -- he says this explicitly -- enjoying the fact that he made such a bright decision. And though he doesn't say it, it's obvious that another one of the benefits he gets is the joy of telling everyone about his enlightened, tasteful choice.

Nothing he says is new. Choosing a life of utter freedom, security, and modest luxury over the relentless drive for more wealth and power is probably as old as stable urban societies and has probably been admired for the same reasons just as long. So we're not here to learn; we're just here to gawk at one of our celebrities. If HN had channels, this would be E!

Admire the man for what he's done, but for God's sake, have the sense to roll your eyes and stop admiring for a second when he tastelessly brags about it. Resume admiring when this little faux pas passes out of consciousness.
The band comparison is a fallacy: musicians are not in my line of work, I don't watch musicians for social cues and I sure as hell do not use their business decisions, lifestyle and success as a benchmark for my own. Software developers and entrepreneurs I do.

Game recognizes game, and right now I don't see much of it in this thread.
I'm so excited about this, it's actually a little bit embarrassing.

I've got two geo-related projects that are half-finished -- both because I was dealing with poor / non-existent geographic data. I haven't had a chance to plug this new data into my code, but I can already tell it's vastly superior to any other free sources out there (OpenStreetMap may have more data, but it's not as conveniently packaged).
Google is not stupid, they will not kill but improve Etherpad and merge it into google wave making both google wave and etherpad more awesome.
Does every startup need a Steve Jobs?
In my experience most startups live and die based on CORBA timelines. Once you leave a job with health insurance you can pay both the employee and employer portions of the bill and continue your coverage for up to 18 months. This is probably a different story for startups that are mostly composed of post-grads without employer coverage to continue...
Oh, the real fun begins with SSE4.2 and things like PCMPISTRM (the whole PCMPxSTRx family), where you not only have the mnemonics, but also an 8-bit immediate with each bit specifying a different aspect of operation for the string comparison engine.
As long as Etherpad is given creative control, I think they will create the next google product I love.

At JamLegend, Etherpad was the preferred tool for interviewing developers. Ccombined with video chat, we could meet anyone in the world.
I actually did a ton of research on this a few weeks ago to figure out which collaborative editor to embed in my blog, and I'm sorry to say, EtherPad is 100x better than the nearest competitor, which is probably Google Wave or Google Docs.

Frankly, the best alternative is to try to scrounge around for old EtherPad URLs and just reuse them until March. :(
I get my first 0-point comment in nearly 2 years for that? You really think "frequently forgotten fundamental facts" was unintentional/necessary? It could have just as easily been:

Overlooked truisms
Oft-forgotten truths
Commonly forgotten fundamentals

"Fundamental facts" is a stupid phrase anyways since "fundamentals" is basically the same thing.

This was obviously a case where the author was thinking, Ooh, I will look clever and poetic by starting off my blog post with a pointless tongue twister.
I got a call once too regarding some issues with my screenshots and the "large" icon. Same deal, fix it, no requeue.

That app does single digit sales a day, so it wasn't because I (or the app) was important or popular. Though I got the impression the caller wasn't the reviewer. Somehow, certain issues get escalated.

All in all, a nice gesture.
JQuery Wins .net Magazine’s Open Source Application of the Year
I'd love to chat with you for a bit about what you liked about AJ, but your email isn't public. If you have some time, I'd love to discuss. cdavis@darkenedsky.com
We looked into using Wave as the basis for http://squadedit.com. But we quickly realized to really use it effectively you needed a different Wave for each of say your model, view and controller. The mail like interface vs. something like tabs gets confusing pretty quick. You have to invite people each file or put then together and then pull them apart later. It's also a challenge to execute any of the code you're working on in a Wave. It's hosted but not in a development environment you can really access or control.

All that could maybe be done in an interface outside of a standard Wave client. But not being able to follow where someone is editing makes it hard to use for instruction or code review.

We ended up just creating a different kind of interaction that we think works a lot better for working with code.
JQuery 1.4 Alpha 1 Released
Statistics to English translation: "significant" does not mean important
I started reading this with the idea of just taking a cursory glance, but the slides really drew me in. I ended up reading the whole thing!

The whole thing seems like good clean fun, the author is obviously an interesting and quirky sort of guy...
I'd put it another way: on VLIW DSPs they HAD to provide a good assembler, or they would be too difficult to program. From what I remember on some of them you have to manually manage the pipeline -- e.g. a jump instruction needs to occur several instructions BEFORE the actual jump, because by the time that instruction gets executed, several instruction after it will already have been decoded. You really don't want to do that manually.

The only non-DSP processor I know that required programmers to schedule jumps ahead of time manually was the Intel i860, and it WAS too difficult to program, that's why it disappeared.
What's your point? You make it sound as if he's hypocritically passing off his action as an altruistic gesture.

Bottom line is: it was a smart tax move. He created a company worth a lot of money. He wanted to "donate to charity" as efficiently as possible.

What he did ended up benefiting his charity a lot more than if he had made a donation after selling the company first. The fact that he is sitting pretty doesn't change that fact.
The geoscientist being interviewed addresses that point at the end.
Next up: Google Public ISP

(vertical integration)
OpenBSD Hardware Hackathon h2k9 Summary
I agree!

I did all this over a year ago, and didn't plan on telling anyone. I knew it would sound like smug bragging.

But in a few entrepreneur-focused interviews since then, (VentureVoice, etc) - the interviewers seemed particularly interested in the details on how and why I set up the trust.

Yesterday I did another one of those interviews, and he pushed for details again - so today I thought I should just write it down once and for all, so I don't have to keep re-telling it.

Sorry if it sounds like bragging. Perhaps it is, a bit, but I hope that someone somewhere in the future selling their company might be aware that this is an option and read someone else's experience with how to structure it.
Congrats on getting closer to a new version!

Minified size, non-gzipped is almost 90k (up from 57k) -- will it stay this large?

Any news on the lite version?
4 Common Venture Capital Myths
Weird. It works now, unlike the last time I checked. Something must have changed, but I don't know what.
Reia
http://wiki.reia-lang.org/wiki/Reia_Programming_Language

Lisp Flavored Erlang
http://github.com/rvirding/lfe
How Did Israel Become the “Start-Up Nation”?
So MIT is giving out the entire prize in bounty/donations. That's a luxury tax exempt or incorporated entities will have. Normal folk will have to pay income tax on the prize before paying out bounties.

I think if I were competing I'd already have a half dozen red weather balloons ready to be deployed in obvious places at about $100 each.
T-Mobile's My Touch 3G Review | Ready2Beat
Add RPMForge to CentOS or other yum using distro
The prime example of inefficiencies helping business is elBulli? Really?

Somehow I doubt that all, or even most, of elBulli's inefficiencies are helping it "succeed" - according to Wikipedia, it has operated at a loss for the last decade. The only reason it stays afloat is that Ferran Adrià leverages his status in the culinary world to bring in income from other sources. The restaurant is not a business, by any stretch of the imagination; it's a playground, maintained only as a labor of love, managed more for the pleasure of the owner than to make money. It's easy to create something fantastic if you don't have to think about costs or profit...

If you're one of the most highly respected Xs in the world, and can make a good living writing books and giving lectures, sure, go ahead, follow suit, create a fantasy world for yourself that you can finance based on your fame, and run it without fussing yourself over any difficult tradeoffs. Who knows, it might even help your real business by giving you more credentials in the industry, so it could be a net win.

That doesn't make it a business model for everyone else, though.

If you can't leverage your fame into a substantial paycheck, please don't try to emulate "businesses" that survive only based on cash infusions from the owners..
Interesting choice of headline, both by submitter and the article. Actually, the three things listed are, in their words, "three ways the new audience’s demands differ from the early adopters."

At the end of the first item, the author even says "I’m not convinced yet that Bing is better or faster at decision-making, but it’s an appealing promise." So we've established we're not actually talking about what Bing is, we're talking about what it wants to be.

Which is fine. Except that at the end of the third item, the example they use is based on weather results:

"Most people like having a canned answer atop the results, as long as they can trust that it’s correct. What’s the top reason most people hit a search engine? Bing researchers found that it’s to decide what to wear, based on the weather outside. You don’t need t0 search every page on the Internet to figure that out."

Indeed. Try seaching for "weather" on Google, it offers up a weather report at the top if you supply a zip code or keyword (like "nyc" in my example below), and has an input box for you to specify one if you don't. It seems an odd example if you want to show how Bing Is Not Google.

http://www.google.com/search?q=weather
http://www.google.com/search?q=weather+nyc
You may have the wrong sport.
Apple in advanced acquisition talks with Lala
Salon.com looks back at paywalls
Indeed, snootiness, as you exhibited in your post, is a far greater asset.
I think swombat is talking about advertising, not development