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nickb
Linus on git, central repositories, and commit access lists
jmitchell
I've been using SCMs for close to a decade and I really like git and I recommend it to a lot of competent devs. But there are some issues that irk me too much about SCMs ad they're fundamental enough to make me wanna start something that fixes these issues.Anyone else interested in transforming SCMs? Contact me (info in profile).
Linus responds to various questions about Git, development methodologies and tools.
0
10
2007-08-25 05:06:47 UTC
46,518
46,179
voidstar
Sex, shopping and thinking pink (Men's and women's brains are different)
charzom
these evolutionary explanations aren't falsifiable and therefore belief in them is as rational as belief in any explanatory heuristic you can dream up, always salvageable by postulating whatever new ad-hoc assumptions can help the theory. besides, if men are hunters, and hunters want meat, and meat is reddish-pink, then men should go for that color too, right?
null
1
7
2007-08-25 05:24:47 UTC
46,520
46,179
curi
Sex, shopping and thinking pink (Men's and women's brains are different)
charzom
This isn't very good science. There are plenty of alternative conclusions the data supports just as well as the one they chose. So saying they did science to support their conclusion is false.For example, they didn't even bother to try a control: do the same thing but fill the booths with non-food. Maybe the food was irrelevant.Or maybe the men were just more bored while doing the experiment, perhaps for cultural reasons. They didn't test for that either.etc
null
3
7
2007-08-25 06:29:25 UTC
46,523
46,460
nickb
Removing Backgrounds Quickly in the Gimp
thinkingserious
"Quickly" must be a relative term. Steps 3 & 4 would take you about 10-15 min on a really complex pic like they use in the example (hair is always hard to do with a pen tool).PS built-in tool and Mask Pro (http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=4 ) are the best and fastest ways to do this. You can do this task above in about 1 min with the right tool.
After publishing an article about removing backgrounds quickly in Photoshop, many have asked me how to do the same thing with the Gimp. While there is no equivalent to the Extract filter in the Gimp, you can still remove backgrounds fairly quickly. Here, I will show you how to do it with the Create and edit paths tool.
0
3
2007-08-25 06:58:35 UTC
46,535
46,474
nmeyer
Cool meet for lunch networking site
tocomment
it is a really cool idea. could be a lot of fun. social experiments are great.
null
2
4
2007-08-25 08:27:43 UTC
46,538
46,530
rms
Stretching crystals promises flexible colour displays
rms
Think display technology will get this far in twenty years?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo_QVq2lGMs (Music video for Justice's D.A.N.C.E., it is stylized images of people wearing animated t-shirts.)
null
0
2
2007-08-25 08:40:49 UTC
46,539
46,024
tx
What should a striving non-programmer do?
xzibitendo
Hm... Do you like to build something like a... robot that goes around and... huh... does stuff for people that people themselves don't want to do?I am sorry, but most of the ideas I hear from non-tech people are pretty much like that :-)Man, you have to realize that ideas worth nothing. Seriously: ZERO. What counts is the best possible implementation. Facebook is not the first social network and google wasn't the first search engine.Sorry to disappoint.
I have all of these ideas for a startup burning inside me, but with no real programming skills and no partner (yet) I feel trapped. Is it worth my time to teach myself programming? Any advice would be great.
19
23
2007-08-25 08:43:56 UTC
46,546
46,324
Goladus
IBM's response to Web 2.0 start-ups: We're Safer
cglynch
Part of the problem is that "Web 2.0" still doesn't really mean anything.When that article says Web 2.0, it vaguely means any web application developed by a small company in the past year or two.
With innovative web-based start-ups changing the business model for how software is delivered, IBM tries to play its cards by playing up its emphasis on security.
3
13
2007-08-25 11:07:41 UTC
46,548
46,527
mapleoin
First Coders at Work interview done
mqt
So... where is it? Where's the interview?
null
2
17
2007-08-25 11:50:29 UTC
46,551
46,550
kingnothing
20 Free and Fresh Icon Sets
kingnothing
I'm not completely sure of the license on some of these sets, so you'd be best off sending an email to the author before using anything in a commercial environment.
I'm not 100% sure of the license for some of these icon sets, so buyer beware!
0
11
2007-08-25 12:13:21 UTC
46,553
46,454
kingnothing
15 startups that want your lunch
rokhayakebe
Those Expensr guys seem to have done a nice job of implementing one of the ideas I had been mulling around.www.expensr.com for those who didn't read the article.
null
2
5
2007-08-25 12:36:36 UTC
46,555
46,501
epi0Bauqu
6 Easy Tips to Prevent Downtime
drusenko
Here is another: make sure one hard drive failure won't bring down your service.
null
0
31
2007-08-25 12:50:03 UTC
46,557
45,698
jjacobs
Holding a program in one's head
eposts
PG - Holding the program in your head "scales" - at least on well-constituted teams. I was a chief/architect (based on Fred Brooks' chief programmer team concept, long time ago) and was able to utilize some "ordinary" programmers and a couple gifted programmers by doing the highest level abstracting of the problem so they could each hold a sub-problem in their heads. Made the bosses happy, since there was less reliance on any one person, and I was largely replacable by one of the more gifted team members.(BTW - greetings from anotehr Gateway-survivor)
null
24
142
2007-08-25 13:02:36 UTC
46,572
46,570
danw
Writing Hacks, Starting
danw
"when people can't start they're imagining the precision of the end, all polished and brilliant, a vision that makes the ugly clumsy junkyard that all beginnings are, impossible to accept"
null
0
24
2007-08-25 14:52:57 UTC
46,577
45,081
AdamG
Is There Anything Good About Men?
jyrzyk
I'm surprised no one caught the rather bad statistics mistake: "Today's human population is descended from twice as many women as men... To get that kind of difference, you had to have something like, throughout the entire history of the human race, maybe 80% of women but only 40% of men reproduced. "If you really had only half as many men reproducing as women, you'd get the twice-as-many-women-descendants after a single generation. For the ratio to be 2:1 over the whole of human history implies that it was a much milder, but still systemic, bias. It may or may not be anything evolutionary, though.
null
4
32
2007-08-25 15:54:49 UTC
46,579
45,894
dwisehart
FireFox Bug running Google Docs?
gibsonf1
I have seen the same thing. Typically I have half a dozen doc tabs open and sometimes I have a calendar tab open but not too often. What I really hate is when I have 10 tabs open and I have to restart FireFox because it is over 1 GB of virtual memory: I don't want to have to reopen all of the tabs again. So I use Process Explorer to kill off FireFox. When I restart it, FireFox gives me the chance to restore my last session, which I do. FireFox is then back running again with all of the tabs that were there when I killed it and memory usage is down to a fraction of what it was before.
I've noticed a disturbing pattern when running Google Docs on FireFox. I typically run 2 separate gdoc gmail account tabs and 2 separate calendar tabs as well as other tabs for my web app etc. What consistently happens is that FF uses increasing amounts of memory. By the time it hits 1gig of memory used, the response time is amazingly slow.As an experiment, I tried running just the gmail and calendar on IE, and was shocked not to find a similar problem. Is there some kind of javascript bug running on Firefox? Or could this be related to Firebug and Yslow running on the browser at the same time? Anyone have a similar problem?
0
2
2007-08-25 16:09:03 UTC
46,583
45,698
pierredv
Holding a program in one's head
eposts
I wonder about the kind of cognitive access a programmer has to their program once it's loaded. Descriptions of walking through a building imply that moment-by-moment the programmer is only dealing with a subset of the problem, although the whole thing is readily available in long-term memory. He's thinking about the contents of a particular room and how it connects with the other rooms, not conceptualizing the entire house and all its relationships at the same instant. I imagine this is necessarily the case, since short-term memory is limited. If true, this imposes limitation on the topology of the program, since the connections between different parts are localized and factorizable X when you walk out of the bedroom you don't immediately find yourself in the foyer. Consequently, problems that can't be broken down (or haven't been broken down) into pieces with local interactions of sufficiently limited scope to be contained in short term memory will not be soluble. Does this make any sense?
null
16
142
2007-08-25 17:03:06 UTC
46,588
46,587
twism
"Fail Fast, Fail Often" is really an indication that we need a Web Science
amichail
success is not a science
Why do all that experimentation yourself? Shouldn't it be done by web scientists once and for all? You could then use the results of their research as guidelines to determine the sort of app to build as well as its features/UI.Also see:http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/ShneidermanCACM6-2007.pdfhttp://weblog.fortnow.com/2007/08/impact-of-facebook-platfor...http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2205007948&topic=1...
1
3
2007-08-25 17:22:24 UTC
46,591
46,540
dfranke
Matt Maroon: Demo Day B and Beyond
toffer
Matt, do you know where the bad poker players in Somerville hang around? I, uh, need to raise some angel money, and Seabrook is a schlep.
null
1
19
2007-08-25 17:41:34 UTC
46,593
46,587
gibsonf1
"Fail Fast, Fail Often" is really an indication that we need a Web Science
amichail
The biggest issue is something new. People aren't able to imagine the new big idea until they see it. When they see it, then they want it, but before that they had no idea they would want it. Case in point: the Iphone. Scientists are not the answer.
Why do all that experimentation yourself? Shouldn't it be done by web scientists once and for all? You could then use the results of their research as guidelines to determine the sort of app to build as well as its features/UI.Also see:http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/ShneidermanCACM6-2007.pdfhttp://weblog.fortnow.com/2007/08/impact-of-facebook-platfor...http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2205007948&topic=1...
0
3
2007-08-25 17:52:27 UTC
46,594
46,324
mynameishere
IBM's response to Web 2.0 start-ups: We're Safer
cglynch
Security is boring. If there's one thing that big companies do right, it is boring.
With innovative web-based start-ups changing the business model for how software is delivered, IBM tries to play its cards by playing up its emphasis on security.
4
13
2007-08-25 18:01:34 UTC
46,596
46,213
altay
Chain productivity tool launches. Accomplish something every day
palish
If I'm trying to reach a big goal, like "run a marathon" or "bench-press my weight" or "launch my site", the way to do it is to break it up into bite-size chunks with discrete milestones.It'd be cool to offer some "goal templates" (e.g. "how to train for a marathon"), and allow folks to make and share their own templates. Match up folks with similar long-term goals to form a support network. You could even use that to jump-start the community... market it to a group of people (e.g. marathoners) who are already working towards some big goal.Plus, this could be the basis of a better encouragement system. If every day's goal is the same ("run"), I don't have any particular reason to cheer you on the 12th day any more than the 9th day. But if you reached a specific milestone on the 12th day I'd give you props.
Fill in the blank: "I'm going to _____ every day." Thinking of something? Great! Head over to the site, and you can make posts about your experiences, share your chains with the world, and meet other people who are accomplishing the same things.No, the site won't delete any of your data if you miss a day. It simply gives you friendly reminders. :)
4
17
2007-08-25 18:17:42 UTC
46,600
46,540
aston
Matt Maroon: Demo Day B and Beyond
toffer
"I think Y Combinator should always do a Boston demo day first, even during the winter session, just to give people the practice."Pretty hilarious. Or sad.
null
0
19
2007-08-25 18:39:39 UTC
46,602
46,601
donna
Scientists Induce Out-of-Body Sensation Using Virtual Reality Goggles
donna
Wow, this introduces a whole new platform.
null
2
9
2007-08-25 18:55:41 UTC
46,605
46,152
extantproject
Scoble: Twitter etc are the next email
farmer
Twitter is the next distraction.
null
5
10
2007-08-25 19:21:51 UTC
46,606
46,007
pramodbiligiri
Is anyone making something women want?
aswanson
http://www.mizpee.com/ might gain a sizable audience among women.
Not being sexist, but they seem to -want- more than us, and walking into any shopping area seems to confirm that vendors know this. My problem is that from a tech standpoint, it's hard to gauge what a viable need for them is.
7
17
2007-08-25 19:26:42 UTC
46,618
46,614
neilc
New Book from O'Reilly: Programming Collective Intelligence
joshwa
I could do without the Web 2.0 hype, but the table of contents does look very interesting: it's basically an introduction to a particular subset of machine learning/data mining. I'd love to see more focus on solving these kinds of hard problems, and less on rounded corners and AJAX, among the "Web 2.0" crowd.
null
1
34
2007-08-25 20:33:30 UTC
46,619
46,614
codeslinger
New Book from O'Reilly: Programming Collective Intelligence
joshwa
Its not out yet. I bought it on Amazon and then they told me a couple days later that it would take until November to actually receive it. I cancelled the order.
null
2
34
2007-08-25 20:33:39 UTC
46,627
45,698
yagoda
Holding a program in one's head
eposts
I love your point - you alread wrote about this topic when in your article "love.html" - how to do what you love...for me the circumstances for working on my theory must be similar to the cristalls that grow especially good at zero-gravity - the best place for me to think is in the train where i have 6 hours without being disturbed!!!
null
54
142
2007-08-25 21:04:30 UTC
46,633
46,629
eusman
Unlocking the iPhone (with instructions)
eusman
what our lives would be without hackers I wonder?!
the blog of teanager George Hotz, with the instructions to unlock the iPhone
0
3
2007-08-25 21:22:09 UTC
46,634
46,614
seiji
New Book from O'Reilly: Programming Collective Intelligence
joshwa
It looks like a stripped down version of AIMA (http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/) with two differences: It doesn't cram everything into an "agent based approach" and it gives usable examples right away skipping theory (no 100 pages devoted to first order logic).In the sample text they mention Hot or Not, Google, Amazon, Netflix, and a few other companies to quickly give a "real world" view of what is useful. The book certainly will get more people interested in doing more sophisticated computations on their data. (Not that I think AIMA using Romanian cities or endless "sue is pat's mother. sarah is pat's daughter => sue is sarah's grandmother" examples make the material seem less useful.)
null
5
34
2007-08-25 21:24:20 UTC
46,636
46,601
mhb
Scientists Induce Out-of-Body Sensation Using Virtual Reality Goggles
donna
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45984
null
1
9
2007-08-25 21:32:06 UTC
46,638
46,540
henning
Matt Maroon: Demo Day B and Beyond
toffer
I wish that big chunk of bitmapped type he has at the top of every page was antialiased. The ugliness distracts from his thoughts on poker, Guitar Hero, and other profound topics.
null
3
19
2007-08-25 22:04:17 UTC
46,647
46,268
tomek
iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity
nostrademons
It's good news. This was pathetic from the beginning. They didn't even care to disguise their hunger for power and control. I liked Apple for Mac. I don't any more for iPhone.
null
4
36
2007-08-25 23:01:03 UTC
46,657
46,152
mynameishere
Scoble: Twitter etc are the next email
farmer
business memoranda:email::twaddle:twitter
null
6
10
2007-08-26 00:08:50 UTC
46,659
46,652
abrown
Vint Cerf, on the challenges ahead
adnam
Link to the actual article itself...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6960896.stm
null
0
3
2007-08-26 00:21:32 UTC
46,660
46,474
tocomment
Cool meet for lunch networking site
tocomment
We'll see where it sends me on Wednesday.
null
1
4
2007-08-26 00:30:00 UTC
46,662
46,378
stoptypingnow
Poll: Are you a suit or geek? ( I am not a geek )
rokhayakebe
geek - wear jeans to interviews, make clear that I will quit if offered management roles. Suits, as in clothes, are ridiculous. And most of the time suits, as in people, are just as ridiculous as the clothes they wear.
The latest poll http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41685 showed some interesting results regarding startup location. Now it would be nice to know what is the difference in percentage between the numbers of suits and geeks contributing to N.YC.
2
3
2007-08-26 00:59:08 UTC
46,664
46,617
inklesspen
The Slope of a Hacker News Thread Going Nowhere Fast
vlad
I note that amichall's involved. I don't want to stoop to ad hominems, but I figured he'd be involved somewhere, given his record.
null
0
5
2007-08-26 01:04:35 UTC
46,668
45,698
larsthegeek
Holding a program in one's head
eposts
It is amazing how difficult it is to get non-programmers to understand the affect interruptions have on the art of creating a program. A 10 second interruption really means 30 minutes of vastly decreased productivity, as it can easily take that long to reload a programs universe back into your head. More often than not, the reload is imperfect and parts of the universe are not restored, leading to more lost productivity as the programmer must recreate the solution they already had worked out. Another subtle side-effect of this imperfect reload are bugs caused by a mismatch between the pre and post-interruption program state.
null
14
142
2007-08-26 02:26:10 UTC
46,678
46,614
henning
New Book from O'Reilly: Programming Collective Intelligence
joshwa
"the defining moment of the Web 2.0 revolution was Google's invention of PageRank"Huh? PageRank dates from the late 90s. And it's implemented in a compiled language (C++, I think -- not even GC'd).And it involves elementary linear algebra. Heresy!Now, as for the book itself. It looks like it tries to cover waaay too much -- support vector machines and other forms of supervised learning, unsupervised learning/clustering, optimization and evolutionary computation, applications to collaborative filtering, along with using particular libraries. There's no way you could cover all that in 358 pages!I gave a talk on evolutionary computation to a Ruby users group and their jaws literally dropped. Web people don't give a shit about something if it doesn't involve HTTP, a programming language that's currently en vogue, JavaScript, or relational databases (really only MySQL or maybe Postgres).If you're interested in an introductory data mining book with a practical focus, may I instead suggest Witten and Frank's "Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques"? It uses Weka throughout, which is mature and nice.
null
0
34
2007-08-26 04:20:47 UTC
46,680
46,527
portLAN
First Coders at Work interview done
mqt
Just write a Lisp program to transcribe it for you.
null
1
17
2007-08-26 04:24:25 UTC
46,681
46,601
portLAN
Scientists Induce Out-of-Body Sensation Using Virtual Reality Goggles
donna
> In that illusion, people hide one hand in their lap and look at a rubber hand set on a table in front of them. As a researcher strokes the real hand and the rubber hand simultaneously with a stick, people have the vivid sense that the rubber hand is their own.> When the rubber hand is whacked with a hammer, people wince and sometimes cry out.That's not an out-of-body experience. That's called "oh shit I can't see my hand and he's about to smash it with a hammer!"
null
0
9
2007-08-26 04:27:17 UTC
46,682
46,540
portLAN
Matt Maroon: Demo Day B and Beyond
toffer
Great chutzpah setting the record straight in front of everyone. Note for presenters: Have a contingency plan if your demo breaks that involves something other than insulting a guy who's doing you a favor. Good restraint saying "I wasn't seeing any video" rather than "their demo was unrehearsed and the product didn't work".Cambridge sounds even worse than I thought. YC should do everything in SV and just have a trip out to Boston for demo day -- although from the sound of it there's not much point, if the Boston investors are such that the East Coast bunch has to move to SV for funding anyway. Good for warmups for the SV investors, though.If you want to give your start-up the best shot, why spend all that time in the distant-second place (Boston is #2) when you could be in #1?
null
2
19
2007-08-26 04:54:20 UTC
46,683
46,570
tigerthink
Writing Hacks, Starting
danw
>Maybe revise something old and unfinished to get warm.Are you kidding? Everything I've written is old and unfinished.
null
1
24
2007-08-26 04:56:41 UTC
46,684
46,614
herdrick
New Book from O'Reilly: Programming Collective Intelligence
joshwa
Holy cow - this could be really good. The content preview is giving me a feeling of wordiness though. Next time I'm in a bookstore I'll thumb through it to see if it's succinct enough.
null
3
34
2007-08-26 05:01:42 UTC
46,689
46,666
aston
Google preps own version of Ubuntu
bluishgreen
Entirely false. And a really old article, too (Jan 2006).Goobuntu is the name of the OS Googlers use internally (if they haven't switched from GHat). I'm not entirely sure if it even counts as a real distro, since they're not really distributing it to anything but new corporate machines.Of all the businesses Google isn't in, OS's are about the ones the furthest from what they care about. If it involves someone computing on their machine rather than Google's, it better be driving search engine hits...
null
0
14
2007-08-26 05:20:29 UTC
46,694
46,644
iamwil
Artflock - what Artix would be like in 2007
sharpshoot
Not bad. Though from a superficial glance, there's nothing particularly forward thinking or advanced about it, the site is well implemented and designed. I especially like the color scheme, though a little bright, it gives a sense that art is what's important here.
null
0
5
2007-08-26 07:21:52 UTC
46,695
46,530
iamwil
Stretching crystals promises flexible colour displays
rms
I imagine we'll get able to get floating holographic-like displays in the future.
null
1
2
2007-08-26 07:23:19 UTC
46,696
46,454
iamwil
15 startups that want your lunch
rokhayakebe
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2...Here's the list. The only two I found really interesting was zink and desktop factory. I've had my eye on desktop factory for a while now, and there is a lot of possibility there with 3D printing. However, I think machines are still on the pricey side. It'll still be another two to three years before they have a high enough adoption rate to do something interesting on top of it. Zink is interesting. Hadn't ever thought about no paper ink. The price of paper will go up, but the number of parts in a machine will go down.
null
0
5
2007-08-26 07:33:54 UTC
46,697
46,644
rms
Artflock - what Artix would be like in 2007
sharpshoot
There is also www.etsy.com which is for anything handmade.
null
1
5
2007-08-26 07:36:45 UTC
46,698
46,378
iamwil
Poll: Are you a suit or geek? ( I am not a geek )
rokhayakebe
Geek.
The latest poll http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41685 showed some interesting results regarding startup location. Now it would be nice to know what is the difference in percentage between the numbers of suits and geeks contributing to N.YC.
5
3
2007-08-26 07:37:25 UTC
46,705
46,699
RyanGWU82
A Summer Intern's Look Into a Valley Startup
nreece
Eh, I wasn't impressed... it sounds more like a sales pitch for Rapleaf than an insight into startup/valley life.
null
0
1
2007-08-26 08:45:24 UTC
46,712
46,614
vikram
New Book from O'Reilly: Programming Collective Intelligence
joshwa
try it on safari.informit.com free for 14 days.
null
4
34
2007-08-26 11:39:25 UTC
46,716
35,015
bootstrapper
The Equity Equation
rams
I am thoroughly fed-up hearing this self-serving tripe from investors. If all I am looking for is financial independence (say $3M), why would I trade an 80% probability of success for a 5% probability of achieving 100 times that by selling out to VCs? Sure, my expected return is 6 times greater, but now I need approximately 31 (=log 0.2 / log 0.95) bites at the cherry to guarantee an 80% probability [1] of success. That's 6 lifetimes of startups for a serious serial entrepreneur (most of us have energy for one, maybe two, startups).Unlike VCs, who invest in a portfolio of companies, I don't have a portfolio of lives.[1] This assumes only two outcomes from a VC-backed company: zero return or $300M exit. Obviously there are a range of returns, but this is a reasonable approximation since VCs have no interest in seeing low returns - they'd rather kill the company than waste their time.
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2007-08-26 12:09:52 UTC
46,717
46,656
staunch
So, if this is Hacker News shouldn't there be a category for jobs open to any company?
eusman
I would like to see jobs opened up as well. A lot more people would check the section if there were more jobs in it. It would help the YC companies and they could still be highlighted in some way to make them stand out as "special".(The question as written is stated with a sense of entitlement that seems distasteful to me.)
null
0
23
2007-08-26 12:13:48 UTC
46,722
45,561
euccastro
Stackless Python-like coroutines in Scheme.
euccastro
Sorry for keeping talking to myself here, but since this got saved I thought I'd post a bugfix:http://pastebin.com/d631795cdMy original code was not really R5RS compliant: continuation objects must be called with exactly one argument, unless the receiving end is explicitly expecting otherwise. Gambit C didn't complain, but Chicken did. Now this runs on both.
After some time of doing only toy tests and book exercises, I'm getting deeper into Scheme for a real application. One of the things I missed was Stackless Python's simple to use coroutine API. In Scheme you have- raw continuations, which I find a bit too wild and low-level for my current purposes, or- full-fledged preemptive threading systems, which seemed way too complex for my needs. Besides, these are implementation specific, and I didn't want to marry any implementation yet.So I decided to give it a try and roll my own on plain R5RS (I'm sorry it's quite verbose as a result. I may reduce noise with macros in the future, but this is my first shot at it). It was easier than I was afraid, and great fun!If you are into Scheme/Lisp, please tell me what you think about it. [Edit: I'm especially interested in comments on the API and semantics. This is more frugal than Stackless's, but I don't miss anything worthy. Do you?]http://pastebin.com/ff732013NOTE: This is just a one day hack; use it at your own risk. If you are interested in getting future versions of this, just write me at the address in the profile and I'll ping you when I'm confident it's reliable.
0
8
2007-08-26 13:17:12 UTC
46,727
45,698
jhrobert
Holding a program in one's head
eposts
I 100% agree. But there is a dark side of the force in programmers too.Programming is fun. Bug fixing is not. Selfish programmers, however talented, don't fix bugs.Filtering out selfish talented programmers is not easy. Yet they probably are the reason why organizations get paranoid.An extreme solution is to make sure bugs are fixed (somehow) BEFORE new code is created ; selfish programmers won't stand the heat very long.Fortunately test suites, automatized non regression testing, is becoming popular.
null
66
142
2007-08-26 14:16:43 UTC
46,729
46,527
khookie
First Coders at Work interview done
mqt
Without being facetious, I'm sure he could pay someone (that is better at transcribing) to do it for less, even if he wrote a nifty app in Emacs to help with the process.
null
0
17
2007-08-26 14:33:52 UTC
46,731
46,701
dpapathanasiou
Michael Lewis: In Nature's Casino (How Wall Street is trying to quantify the risk of catastrophic weather)
toffer
I'm a fan of Michael Lewis's writing, but this product placement is just ugly:She faxed the numbers to insurers, then walked to Au Bon Pain. Everything was suddenly more vivid and memorable. She ordered a smoked-turkey and Boursin cheese sandwich on French bread, with lettuce and tomato, and a large Diet Coke.Is the NYT so hard-up for revenues they're asking their authors to slip these in?I can't imagine Lewis wrote that on his own.
null
1
11
2007-08-26 14:40:52 UTC
46,740
46,701
falsestprophet
Michael Lewis: In Nature's Casino (How Wall Street is trying to quantify the risk of catastrophic weather)
toffer
more Seo spam...
null
3
11
2007-08-26 15:43:46 UTC
46,742
46,736
rokhayakebe
The Best House in Paris
jcwentz
what is this doing here?
null
1
20
2007-08-26 15:48:44 UTC
46,748
46,739
aarontait
The Internet Is As Dead And Boring As You Want It To Be
danielha
I kind of agree with Mark Cuban. Sure, there are a bunch of new services on the web, but anyone could predict this linear growth in innovation. The thing is, we are not seeing the exponential growth in mindshare and adoption that we saw in the 90's. We are still using the same or similar standards that we used in the 90's as well. When the internet started to gain interest, it was mind blowing. It simply isn't anymore. More bandwidth could allow us to deliver deeper innovations. Imagine if Gigabit connections were the norm. We could bring massively parallel grid computing to consumers. Just imagine encoding H.264 in seconds instead of hours. Right now we are in a stalemate with the telcos.
null
3
18
2007-08-26 16:40:37 UTC
46,753
46,666
Elfan
Google preps own version of Ubuntu
bluishgreen
Shuttleworth has shot this rumor down as well if it needed repeating: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/20
null
1
14
2007-08-26 16:53:18 UTC
46,754
46,152
alex_c
Scoble: Twitter etc are the next email
farmer
Given how much noise Twitter generates in the Valley ecosystem, I was surprised to find out it only has something like 300-400K users (I can't find a reference right now, please correct me if I'm wrong - Compete seems to support that number though).To me Twitter is the perfect example of the echo chamber.
null
2
10
2007-08-26 16:56:25 UTC
46,756
46,752
jsjenkins168
What Do People Want?
mudge
Here is a good essay on determining what is a good idea for a startup. Might give some guidance on what you should build:http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html
I want to build something people want. What do you want?
0
4
2007-08-26 17:02:27 UTC
46,757
46,739
steve
The Internet Is As Dead And Boring As You Want It To Be
danielha
> But even more importantly, the web is primarily a communications platform, not a broadcasting or publishing platform, those are secondary uses.Except he's wrong on this. File sharing has always been an extremely popular use for the web. Most of the social networking platforms allow you to publish to a large audience of people you don't really know. Facebook does this to a lesser extent, but that's why it's not #1.
null
1
18
2007-08-26 17:02:27 UTC
46,765
46,736
gibsonf1
The Best House in Paris
jcwentz
First off, I really want to visit this house, mainly to see what sound like very original and clever ways to modulate the space with movable elements. Also, the use of these movable partitions to change the use of the space from business to private sounds intriguing. For architects (and for users who may not realize how it works), differentiating between private and public use of space has always been a fascinating aspect of both life and the architecture that contains it.As much as I love the use of glass block, the main space looks to have no human scale at all - no attempt to enable the visitor to understand clearly the size of their environment with respect to themselves. The salon looks like a big spatial box - I am not impressed with that. From the article, it sounds like the architect used the surrounding spaces to give human scale, but to understand the full effect, one has to visit it. On the principles of preservation trumpeted in the article, I disagree. As an architect, a hundred years from now I would love to have my buildings restored to their original design, complete with non-broken and unblemished floors, polished elements that were intended for polish, painted elements intended for paint. The point of architecture as an art form is not to show how old it is, but to immerse the visitor in a world that is both real and idealized.
null
0
20
2007-08-26 18:18:23 UTC
46,775
46,752
gibsonf1
What Do People Want?
mudge
I recommend starting by understanding what you really want, and then see if others share your desire.
I want to build something people want. What do you want?
1
4
2007-08-26 18:32:50 UTC
46,782
46,752
pg
What Do People Want?
mudge
They want things to be easy.
I want to build something people want. What do you want?
2
4
2007-08-26 18:56:07 UTC
46,786
46,774
aston
Legos that build legos (vid)
nickb
The L Combinator.
null
0
11
2007-08-26 19:38:39 UTC
46,794
46,785
inklesspen
How do you handle claims of neglect from your significant other(s)?
aswanson
Take them seriously. If your relationship was healthy before, the fact that you have to be told you're neglecting your SO means you should have noticed a long time ago.
You work on that computer too much, etc?
2
6
2007-08-26 20:24:02 UTC
46,795
46,766
cturner
Facebook to open goldmine of data to advertisers (Huge privacy implications)
nickb
I read _Brave New World_ this weekend. I think Huxley's vision of dystopia is closer to the bone than Orwell's - we see in facebook that people (including me!) want to join what would in the wrong hands be a very effective police-state tool. "Tell us who your friends are."
null
0
10
2007-08-26 20:41:49 UTC
46,796
46,785
cperciva
How do you handle claims of neglect from your significant other(s)?
aswanson
Find an understanding significant other (preferably before this problem arises). My girlfriend moved to the other side of the continent less than a month after we started dating, with my encouragement, because it was the right thing for her to do at the current point in her career. Obviously there's a certain amount of reciprocity involved -- she'll equally understand if I need to do what's right for my career, even if it makes our relationship a bit more difficult at some point.
You work on that computer too much, etc?
0
6
2007-08-26 20:44:12 UTC
46,797
46,774
jey
Legos that build legos (vid)
nickb
Very cool, but I was hoping for something more general purpose, like the Lego equivalent of a molecular assembler. :-(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_assembler
null
1
11
2007-08-26 20:44:44 UTC
46,798
46,785
aaroneous
How do you handle claims of neglect from your significant other(s)?
aswanson
Life is about balance. It's not easy to do, but you need to pay special attention to giving the proper amount of attention, time and prioritization to all aspects of your life. It's easy to get caught up in only focusing on your startup, but it's not a good long-term choice if you want to maintain a happy relationship with your SO as well.
You work on that computer too much, etc?
3
6
2007-08-26 20:49:37 UTC
46,804
45,698
bootload
Holding a program in one's head
eposts
"... Take on the kind of problems that have to be solved in one big brain ..."That's on sentence that resonates and is probably a clearer definition and advantage of what working on a "hard problem" is really about.
null
42
142
2007-08-26 21:48:52 UTC
46,806
45,773
felipe
Philip Greenspun: Improving Undergraduate Computer Science Education
adamdoupe
I believe the key problem is that (most) students who enroll to a CS program expect to become engineers, but the CS curriculum is supposed to form scientists, not engineers. The key distinction is that in a SW Eng program the emphasis is on the process to build software (stuff like CMM, XP, quality processes, architecture methods, etc...).Sure CS grads can make fantastic engineers, but my point here is that the difference between CS and SE is not well understood in the industry.
null
5
45
2007-08-26 21:54:48 UTC
46,809
46,781
zach
Paul Graham and Walt Disney
drm237
Well, Paul's coming at it from an artist's perspective. Don't get in business to do art - beautiful algorithms, a movie that has a message for modern America, a meditation on the color blue. Forget about doing that to make money. L'art pour l'art. That's what I get out of it, anyway.Walt Disney, whom I never thought much about until I read a biography a few years back and I now consider a unique American genius, certainly wouldn't disagree with that. But his alternative wasn't "get money," it was to give people a certain kind of experience. But, in a sense, that's a great business plan too. So it works out.
Here's more of an opinion piece than a convention report. Needless to say, everything here is my own opinion alone and I'm not speaking for anybody else running Penguicon. I like to think that Penguicon is an incubator of Imagineers. This is a combination of artistic and literary imagination with engineering know-how, a word coined by one of my lifelong inspirations, Walt Disney:
0
19
2007-08-26 22:16:21 UTC
46,815
46,752
dawie
What Do People Want?
mudge
People don't know what they want.
I want to build something people want. What do you want?
4
4
2007-08-26 22:48:08 UTC
46,819
46,656
andreyf
So, if this is Hacker News shouldn't there be a category for jobs open to any company?
eusman
Agreed... something simple to match up people to hack together (for fun or for $) would be neat...
null
1
23
2007-08-26 23:04:23 UTC
46,820
46,656
rms
So, if this is Hacker News shouldn't there be a category for jobs open to any company?
eusman
Nothing is preventing you from submitting a job; it just won't show up in the jobs tab.
null
2
23
2007-08-26 23:24:01 UTC
46,825
46,774
cellis
Legos that build legos (vid)
nickb
tut tut, I see human input.
null
2
11
2007-08-26 23:54:55 UTC
46,827
46,739
myoung8
The Internet Is As Dead And Boring As You Want It To Be
danielha
I agree to a certain extent. I don't expect to see any mind-blowing innovations on the Internet until bandwidth constraints dissipate, but that definitely doesn't mean it's dead.Think about the automobile. Fundamentally, it hasn't changed since the Model T. However, there have been many incremental improvements that have made a significant impact on our lives (A/C, seat belts, power-steering/brakes, GPS, auto-parking).In about 20 years, the technology they're working on right now at Stanford for the DARPA Challenge will be commercialized and cars will drive themselves. That will be mind-blowing.Hopefully we'll see something game-changing on the net sooner rather than later.
null
0
18
2007-08-27 00:15:01 UTC
46,831
46,739
rms
The Internet Is As Dead And Boring As You Want It To Be
danielha
This is the same type of "dead" as when Paul Graham said Microsoft is dead. Of course they aren't literally dead. They're still profitable. But they aren't leading in innovations and they never will again. Similarly, the internet is dead because many breakthrough technologies will require exponentially more bandwidth.PG calling Microsoft dead worked better because all it takes for the internet to become undead (alive?) is fiber to many homes.
null
2
18
2007-08-27 00:29:01 UTC
46,834
46,829
jsjenkins168
Bottom-up Approach to WiMAX / Wireless MANs
revolvingcur
Are you in the US? I believe you would need to purchase a license for the spectrum, which Clearwire and Sprint own in most regions. But you might be able to lease from them.Here is a listing of deployed WiMAX networks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deployed_WiMAX_networksIf someone else already owns the license for the spectrum in a particular region you would need to lease from them. I dont know specific costs, but my guess is very expensive.
What are the numbers people have on start-up cost (equipment and installation of base stations), operations cost, and effective coverage range, plus downstream and upstream rates with recent WiMAX hardware especially w/r/t to operations by WISPs in fairly small cities?
0
2
2007-08-27 00:48:22 UTC
46,836
46,656
Zak
So, if this is Hacker News shouldn't there be a category for jobs open to any company?
eusman
I don't think so. I think Hacker News should only allow job postings from companies that hackers would be happy working for, which probably includes most companies funded by YC. Filtering companies outside of that seems like a hard problem.
null
3
23
2007-08-27 01:08:02 UTC
46,837
46,785
gwenhwyfaer
How do you handle claims of neglect from your significant other(s)?
aswanson
By not having one. ;)
You work on that computer too much, etc?
6
6
2007-08-27 01:21:42 UTC
46,840
46,785
chaostheory
How do you handle claims of neglect from your significant other(s)?
aswanson
Ironically, I'm building a web application to address this problem... you can check it out: http://muchcloser.comRight now it's still at an early alpha. For now it just has some features from highrise, but this will change in a few months. It's public so if you're interested, you (or anyone else) can let me know what you feel needs to be changed or added to meet your needs
You work on that computer too much, etc?
4
6
2007-08-27 01:37:30 UTC
46,844
46,833
nostrademons
Users Trash Wal-Mart On Its Facebook Site (advertising on social sites gets harder)
nickb
For another example, see http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/profile. All the Pepsi virtual gifts are a protest against sponsored virtual gifts by paid users, who were promised that paid/permanent accounts would never have advertising on them.
null
0
4
2007-08-27 01:39:47 UTC
46,846
46,845
palish
What do you think needs to be redesigned?
palish
Hey all :) So there have been some changes to Chain. I've tried to emphasize more of the social aspect of the site, but we're still wondering if there's anything that could be emphasized a little better. I've tried to keep the process of actually managing what you're accomplishing as simple as possible.What would you like to see? What would make the site useful or entertaining for you? I'm at your command.
Hey all :) So there have been some changes to Chain. I've tried to emphasize more of the social aspect of the site, but we're still wondering if there's anything that could be emphasized a little better. I've tried to keep the process of actually managing what you're accomplishing as simple as possible.What would you like to see? What would make the site useful or entertaining for you? I'm at your command.
0
3
2007-08-27 01:41:23 UTC
46,853
46,845
aston
What do you think needs to be redesigned?
palish
You asked for it... I'm gonna keep editing this post with suggestions.- Too many colors. I count like nine or ten. Taking that down to three or four would be awesome and make the site feel less complex. http://kuler.adobe.com/ to get some pretty ones.- A tag cloud style visualization for "popular chains" would be cool and would illustrate the data in a way that's not so tabular and numerical.- New user join times would be cooler as relative to now english statements (like "5 minutes ago" instead of 10:01). Same for new chains. And new posts.- I think you should put some thought into what people are going to be thinking when they see the front page. Odds are, a brand new user is going to be totally confused, because there's so much content named with some pretty site-particular jargon. Why not explain the concept there, rather than hiding it two links deep (About->link to a blog post)?- I have to admit, I don't understand what's going on when I click the name of an activity. Like, the chain pictures, what are they linking to? And what are the numbers underneath? Maybe I'm an idiot, but I'm seriously confused.- I see up arrows around the site. I eventually figured out that I could try to click them, but I have no clue why I'd want to (what do they do??) and when I try to click, it asks me to login (for what??). I'm so confused... - The register process was nice. Threw me right into using the site. I like. Maybe it would be nice, though, to give me the option to choose the interval of time when I'm putting in what I'm doing (rather than forcing daily, then letting me fix it).- So now I know what a chain gang is! But a faq would be nice. - Clicking the +0 next to my post took me to image moderation. That was wholly unexpected.- On the "What everyone's doing page," the link for me to do that activity too looks like a plus-or-minus symbol with the underline. I would vote for a real icon here instead of text, to avoid confusion. And maybe make it more clear what happens if I click it. Text that says "I'm doing this too!" (but in fewer words) might speak better to its effect.- Assuming I'm a continual user of the site, my number one priority when I visit is probably the ability to easily confirm that I've done the stuff I wanted to do. So, I think if I'm logged in, my front page that I see when I arrive should give me a way to check off everything I've done. As it stands, I have to click my name to get something like this, which is pretty unintuitive, I think.I'll be back later to add more. I apologize retroactively if any of these suggestions come across offensively. Just my raw thoughts as I use the site.
Hey all :) So there have been some changes to Chain. I've tried to emphasize more of the social aspect of the site, but we're still wondering if there's anything that could be emphasized a little better. I've tried to keep the process of actually managing what you're accomplishing as simple as possible.What would you like to see? What would make the site useful or entertaining for you? I'm at your command.
1
3
2007-08-27 02:05:25 UTC
46,854
46,781
greendestiny
Paul Graham and Walt Disney
drm237
This inspired me to write a bit about creativity vs usefulness, which I subbed to hacker news as this link: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46850
Here's more of an opinion piece than a convention report. Needless to say, everything here is my own opinion alone and I'm not speaking for anybody else running Penguicon. I like to think that Penguicon is an incubator of Imagineers. This is a combination of artistic and literary imagination with engineering know-how, a word coined by one of my lifelong inspirations, Walt Disney:
2
19
2007-08-27 02:06:53 UTC
46,858
46,855
aston
Do hackers care about workstation ergonomics?
inrev
If they don't, they should. RSI sucks.At Google, they've got ergonomics evaluators on staff. You can schedule one to come by and check out how you're working. They'll fix your chair, remind you how to sit, mouse, and keyboard, and also put in orders for special equipment should you need it. Things like vertical oriented mice, natural keyboards, and boosters for your monitor can make a lot of difference for comfort.
Do hackers care about seat height, table height, monitor height and distance, etc.?
0
5
2007-08-27 02:30:21 UTC
46,861
46,855
ecuzzillo
Do hackers care about workstation ergonomics?
inrev
I think so. I care enormously much. I spent an inordinate amount of time finding a correct keyboard position and chair configuration. I ended up with a GoldTouch adjustable-angle keyboard I found lying around my workplace, plus two books taped together held up by a waterbottle stolen from a coworker to hold up my wrists. Then, I pilfered a sideways mouse that wasn't being used in another part of the office. Nobody else at the company goes quite so far, but the two other main programmers do have Aeron chairs, at least.
Do hackers care about seat height, table height, monitor height and distance, etc.?
4
5
2007-08-27 02:41:33 UTC
46,863
46,855
nostrademons
Do hackers care about workstation ergonomics?
inrev
Seats? Tables? What are those? ;-)I suspect I'd give any ergonomic evaluator a heart attack. Right now, I'm lying down on the floor, propped up on my elbows. Other favored positions include cross-legged on the floor, kneeling on my bed with the laptop on my thighs, half-kneeling on the floor with my chin on my knee, prone in bed with about 3 pillows under my chest, in bed on my side wit my elbow propping my upper body up, reclining in a chair with the laptop on my lap and feet up, and sitting in a tree (no, I don't take the laptop up there, but I'll frequently bring pencil & paper to work out some design problem).The one place I absolutely will not work if I have a choice about it is at a table or desk. Been like that since before I had a computer; in elementary school, I absolutely refused to do my homework at the table, always preferring the floor.You'd think this would result in lots of RSI problems, but I haven't had anything since I was 12, which ironically was when my parents made a concerted effort to get me to sit at a desk and do my homework like a normal person. I suspect it's because I don't actually do anything repetitive at a computer. I get up to pace a lot - 5 times in the process of writing this comment, and I've switched to 3 different positions. That's another reason I really dislike desks - they make getting up a chore, so I don't get up, and so I find my productivity dropping off from lack of exercise.
Do hackers care about seat height, table height, monitor height and distance, etc.?
1
5
2007-08-27 02:49:48 UTC
46,864
46,771
mhb
Hack: Revealing Reddit Score for Just Posted Links with FireFox and GreaseMonkey
nickb
By clicking "details", you can see the voting for posts for which the total is not yet displayed on the main page.
null
0
3
2007-08-27 02:50:51 UTC
46,867
46,785
dfranke
How do you handle claims of neglect from your significant other(s)?
aswanson
What is this mythical beast of which you speak?
You work on that computer too much, etc?
8
6
2007-08-27 02:58:50 UTC
46,871
46,850
_bq
Creativity and usefulness Re: Why smart people have bad ideas
greendestiny
Your research paper is the work of brilliance. Thanks for sharing it. I'm definitely going to be using some of your techniques. The citation will be yours my friend....the citation will be yours.
I think this is topic that interests most of us at hacker news. Please comment here and consider this a draft, I'll be happy to change the post based on feedback.
0
5
2007-08-27 03:32:07 UTC
46,874
46,701
ctkrohn
Michael Lewis: In Nature's Casino (How Wall Street is trying to quantify the risk of catastrophic weather)
toffer
Yet another example of how derivatives are transforming financial markets for the better by transferring risk to those best able to handle it. It's also a great example of how mathematical and computer-driven models are helping us understand the world in practical ways.
null
2
11
2007-08-27 03:41:16 UTC