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Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | cschep: I always start the sentence with..."I know this is weird, but..."It helps me get to the actual point of direct confrontation, but by blaming it on myself it helps absorb some of the awkward.Truly though, I hate it when people touch my laptop's screen! |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | pmorici: Are you sure you want to read a programming book on your vacation? Esp. if your day job involves computers it doesn't sound like a vacation at all.That said I find the best instructional material for Python is the tutorial included in the Python manual itself. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | TweedHeads: Create a funny web page and have it bookmarked on your browser.Whenever someone approaches you, quickly switch to that web page.donttouchmyfuckingscreenorillkillyou.com is available. |
Staying Sharp | ken: Do you play music? |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | _pius: It's completely unacceptable to touch someone else's laptop screen without asking. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | cesare: I hate when people do this. And I'm surprised by how many people don't understand the problem.It's not necessary to touch the screen even if you're pointing something. Grab the mouse (or use the touchpad) or just point without touching. Is it so difficult?It's obviously a habit acquired by interacting with pape... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | SwellJoe: Try some fiction, instead. It's a vacation. I just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy a couple of weeks ago. It's really good.That said, if you're going to read programming books, you might want narrative texts rather than "practical" books, since the practical ones require you to also have a computer, and... |
You have a start-up idea. Now what? | khetarpal: - Be prepared to sell, sell, and sell
- But first, you need to be sold yourself. So start answering questions in a structured way. Dave Mcclure gives a nice framework here:
http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/
- Even though the slides are for a VC, that's a good framework no matter who you are pitching.
- O... |
Staying Sharp | caffeine: Some points about this:(0) There is no maintenance diet. Getting sharper is necessary to be sharp. If you're not getting smarter, you're getting dumber.(1) Reading is NOT the solution. Much as regular masturbation does not much improve your sexual technique, regular book/article/blog-reading does not much ... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | thingie: Well, I would just tell them not to do it, because the screen gets dirty and you have to either clean it all the time, or you can't see anything on it. It's not rude to say something like "Well, I'm sorry, but please, don't touch the screen, it gets dirty, ok?". At least I think so.Of course this is most likel... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | deutronium: I really enjoyed reading this book a fair few years ago on holiday "Stealing the network: how to own a continent"
(http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Network-How-Own-Continent/dp/...). Theres a few books in the series, they blend fiction with real security related attacks, its not strictly a programming book, ... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | defunkt: Grab The Little Schemer and a notebook. Do all exercises in the notebook with a pencil, without a computer.It'll make you a better Python programmer for sure. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | msie: First of all, you shouldn't apologize for telling people not to touch your screen.I would be curt about it when it happens: "Please don't touch the screen, thanks." And say it with a smile. That way it would almost be a disposable, passing remark like: "Watch your step.". Making a big production of it would be wo... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | rythie: You could read Sarah Lacy's "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good" (which was called "The Stories of Facebook, Youtube and Myspace" when I bought it in the U.K.)It's a light read (suitable for a holiday) and it will inspire you to build your startup when you get back. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | afed: That isn't fucking acceptable, invite the douche bag to clean your screen for you the next time he does that. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | dimarco: My boss used touch my screen with a pencil. He'd actually draw light lines on the screen with the graphite.I had to buy a box of wet wipes to clear the screen whenever he left my desk.Drove me nuts. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | jknupp: Only if he buys you dinner first |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | dimarco: Programming Pearls is nice to read while traveling. Doesn't really require a computer, essays are short. |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | weaksauce: "Hackers and Painters" or "Founders at Work" are both good books if you haven't picked them up yet. Not language learning or directly programming but interesting none the less.A book more directly related to programing would be "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" or "The Little Schemer." brin... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | travisjeffery: Haha, yay! Now I can bring people to this post to show them that I'm not alone.I agree wholeheartedly, why do they just have to touch our screens?I'm a direct person so I just say swiftly and quickly "Don't touch my screen." |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | abecedarius: Since it's a vacation, here's a novel with lots of interesting ideas about ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, etc.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_EndFun with Python: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Collective-Intelligence-Bu... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | caffeine: Nobody's mentioned it here, yet: Godel Escher Bach |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | abesapien: Code Complete 2nd edition is a good and interesting book about programming in general. I also recommend these two because they are much lighter reads, and maybe better for a vacation: "The Passionate Programmer" and also "Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Langua... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | TheElder: C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3 by Jon Skeethttp://www.amazon.com/Depth-What-you-need-master/dp/19339883... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | qeek: I told you homeboy
U can't touch this(...)Look in my eyes, man
U can't touch this |
Staying Sharp | cool-RR: Why don't you quit your job and focus on physics? |
Staying Sharp | pageman: I think we can help academia by using web apps to create ease off some of the computational requirements needed for papers like factor analysis, MDS, multiple regression etc. - also for surveys etc. My educated guess is that some of the confirmatory factor analysis for something seminal like Hofsteder's work ... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | dshah: I'll suggest The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas. Basic stuff, but lives up to the title of being "pragmatic".If you're going to write commercial software for a living, it's useful stuff to know (or be reminded of). |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | davewasthere: I put a sign on the top of my monitor saying "Don't touch the screen".And I'd smack people's fingers with my ruler when they did.Damn fingerprints! :-) |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | zackattack: Don't touch my screen. Yes I'm serious. Go clean it up. Now.
I use this method and it helps me avoid building up resentment towards people. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | pj: There was an article here the other day from some hacker that almost proudly stated that he went through 2 or 3 laptops a year. I thought this was absolutely ridiculous. My laptops last five years or more. What a waste of money.If you love something, take care of it and it'll last longer and treat you well. We ... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | josephruscio: Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think (Theory in Practice) is not an instructional programming book per se, but more along the lines of what I would consider "vacation reading". Each of the chapters is a self-contained entity, authored by a different luminary, so you can read them in ... |
Unknown or expired link? | bayareaguy: This problem stems from a limitation of the way HN maintains state. An earlier post with some links to the problem code is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=163755This is a well known problem pg hasn't gotten around to fixing. See YC: "unknown or expired link" -- fix it already
(790 days ago)
http... |
So, what's wrong with iTunes? (or what more would you want?) | cmars232: Music library is too locked to a single device.If I put podcasts and music on my iPod with Rhythmbox from my work PC, iTunes will happily eradicate everything it doesn't know about as soon as I plug it in when I get home.If I plug in my iPod while someone else is logged into my mac, iTunes immediately asks if... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | pbhj: "Oh, you like the screen, apparently if you clean it with urea it stays brighter [hushed tone] I know a cheap source, I manufacture my own [looks down momentarily],[returning to conversation] now where were we ..." |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | brandon272: It's mostly clients who touch my screen, and they also happen to be the last people I would ever say anything to. But truth be told, I don't really consider it that big of a deal. I am of the opinion that you should pick your battles in life and in most cases it's just easier to take a cloth out of your dra... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | planckscnst: Wow. I must admit that I'm guilty of being a screen-toucher. It's not out of ignorance or disrespect or anything like that; I've been around computers my whole life. I have no idea why I do it, but I've even done it a couple of seconds after someone asked me not to. I don't get annoyed at all at people whe... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | __david__: I see a lot of posts from the anal retentive crowd. Here's the opposite opinion:I think it's ok to touch laptop screens. I touch my own and if I'm interested enough in pointing something out I may touch yours because at that point I'm at a completely different place mentally and not thinking about your littl... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | tim_church: Here are some similar threads on recommended books for hackers:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=135185http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=348019If you would rather relax with some fiction, try Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | huhtenberg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_in_a_Boat:) |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | jerf: I would recommend a classic that you haven't read that isn't directly about a specific programming language, since it would seem to me that the virtue of reading a book about a specific language when you aren't in front of a computer is dubious. (Note I didn't say it had no virtue, I just find it dubious. YMWV.)A... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | vibhavs: I suggest Beautiful Architecture from O'Reilly.http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596517984/http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Architecture-Leading-Thinker...It's similar to Beautiful Code (also mentioned here) with various chapters on different, independent topics: e.g. Facebook's data-centric architecture, Xen hype... |
Should we as community create all-star groups for RFS? | qhoxie: How would that work? Who would make decisions about building the groups?
Would 'good' people just be placed together - that doesn't make a good team.It seems like something that could happen, but making it a community (as in HN) effort seems like it has too many issues. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | cognominal: With thé upcoming generalisation of touch screens it will be difficult people not to touch the screen. On the other hand a pal upgrading from the iPhone 3G to 3GS told me that his preferred feature was the oleophobic screen. So touching other screen may not be an étiquette problem anymore but a normal way ... |
Should we as community create all-star groups for RFS? | SwellJoe: If I had the inclination to do such a thing, I wouldn't post an Ask HN about it.I would:1. Look at the top 50 HN contributors, looking at their profile (and possibly checking up on some of their posts) to figure out if they are already committed to some project or company that would interfere with working wit... |
Staying Sharp | mattm: Are you physically active? The mind and body are connected. Try to pick up something active that is completely different from intellectual pursuits. Try something active that interests you like dancing, martial arts, cycling, etc. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | chrischen: Yea everyone loves touching mine too. But since mine is hard, it probably isn't harmful, but it is annoying.I have the macbook pro with the hard black screen. Though the matte screen might be more of a concern if someone touches it. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | tungstenfurnace: Buy some a soft cloth and some cleaning fluid (that won't dissolve your screen).Make a big show of cleaning it. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | quellhorst: I say "Don't touch the screen, it easily smudges or gets scratched." |
Staying Sharp | Mz: Maybe you are just busy and tired? I'm "duller" when I'm busy and tired. I suggest you get some sleep, try to fit in some exercise, work on your diet (assuming it has room for improvement -- most diets do). Having more energy and being physically fit can help with mental clarity. |
The Importance of a co-founder | brk: Neither.You need a good co-founder as a rule of thumb. You need to prove that at least one other person believes in your crazy idea and is willing to work with you.If you have had a few cofounder false-starts you should look very closely at the root cause for that situation. |
A new word for hacker? | brk: Haquer. |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | bfinch: Interesting to see all the followups. I had no idea that anyone cared about this. Reminds me of guys who don't like people touching their cars. I'd encourage all the folks advising the OP to be curt or to ostentatiously rub out the smudge to imagine a guy in a polo shirt wearing Ray-Bans. Perhaps his collar is ... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | jcdreads: The only proper response is to touch their glasses, leaving an identical smudge there. |
The Importance of a co-founder | pplante: The co-founder is incredibly important. They provide a sanity check, and hopefully some ability to divide work up evenly.Where are you located? |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | JunkDNA: I find that reading fiction on vacation really stimulates my programming brain. There's a lot to be said for letting your mind roam free for a bit. I believe PG talks about the value of letting your mind roam in one of his essays (or possibly Hackers and Painters). In particular, I've found Neal Stephenson's b... |
The Importance of a co-founder | sarvesh: Don't get a co-founder just for the sake of your YC application. In fact, it might hurt you chances of getting accepted if you don't have the right person. From what I have seen in the YC application you need sell not only your idea but also your team. There have been cases where single person team have been a... |
The Importance of a co-founder | apinstein: You definitely need a co-founder. You can do without one, but it's nuts. A co-founder is good to bounce ideas off of, take care of tasks so you can focus on your needs, and fill out your weaknesses.If you are already the techie, then you don't need another techie founder necessarily. You probably need the bu... |
The Importance of a co-founder | tonystubblebine: No doubt a co-founder is incredibly important if you're applying to YC, if just for the reason that PG says so. However, I started my company without a co-founder and we're doing fine. If you want to start a company, you shouldn't let anyone tell you that you don't have the necessary prerequisites. |
A new word for hacker? | sharpn: Not new, but:
entrepreneur
n. A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.[French, from Old French, from entreprendre, to undertake; see enterprise.] |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | andrewljohnson: Well, my girlfriend and co-founder flips out whenever I touch her monitor. I understand where she's coming from, and we're still together, so you can probably get away with warding off your co-workers paws.This assumes of course that they don't harbor some secret dislike for you, such that your complain... |
The Importance of a co-founder | spencerfry: I've had successful exits founding companies in all three ways (solo, with one co-founder, and with two co-founders) and from my experience having two co-founders has been the best experience. One co-founder means you get a bigger slice of the pie, but also means that there's no mediator if the two of you c... |
Staying Sharp | petercooper: I'm only 27 so take this with a pinch of salt but I'm finding that true "insight" tends to take the form of making connections between seemingly unconnected things. To make these connections requires that you have, of course, an inquisitive, sharp mind, but also a broad knowledge-base to pull from.So don't... |
A new word for hacker? | tsally: Invent a word to what end? Do you think it would change the daily behavior of actual hackers? I doubt the mainstream media and the average population will ever understand the hacker mindset, even if a different term is used. |
The Importance of a co-founder | hikari17: It's not too late to find the right co-founder before the application deadline, and it's worth working hard to find one:Your YC application will be strengthened not just by having a co-founder but by the process of seeking one out.
The triumphs and struggles you experience will be significantly richer when y... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | mhb: Related but tougher:s/coworker/other people's kids/s/laptop screen/your house/s/coworker's finger/food/ |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | kentbrew: Yeah, this makes me crazy, especially since it always seems to be the clueless project managers who touch my screen.Personally, I have long arms, big hands, and terrible close-up vision, so I approach other people's monitors very slowly, with the back of my pinkie, and really do my best not to touch the part ... |
Staying Sharp | strlen: I had the same situation. I worked for in a hybrid software engineering/operations role for a large Internet firm, while studying part-time. It was a great and challenging position, not just due to its content (how do you deal with running tens of thousands of nodes in clusters distributed throughout the world?... |
The Importance of a co-founder | petewarden: I just finished the Techstars program as a sole founder, and it's _extremely_ tough to both deal with the demands of an incubator program (mentor meetings, talks, pitch practice and investors) and make progress on the product too.I don't know enough about your situation to give you meaningful advice, but be... |
Do investors want a single CEO identified? | a-priori: Research In Motion has two CEOs, and they seem to have done fine. As long as you divide the responsibilities clearly, I don't see why it would be a problem. |
The Importance of a co-founder | icey: You should mention what sort of project you're working on, and you should include contact information in your profile. |
A new word for hacker? | procrastitron: I like this idea, but perhaps in addition to being overloaded, the term "hacker" is also too broad. The constructive sense of hacker can apply to any domain; hardware, software, social engineering, etc. I would suggest any new terms be more specific.Personally, I would appreciate a term that can be used ... |
A new word for hacker? | prodigal_erik: It'll never fly, but the one I'd like to see is: http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/Spark |
The Importance of a co-founder | moonchuck: I am in an almost identical situation, also out of LA.I am wondering where people would recommend looking for a co-founder if you are in an area where the startup community is hard to find. |
Legality of sharing personal data? | micks56: Facts are not copyrightable. Compilations of facts may be copyrightable. Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991). |
The Importance of a co-founder | brandon272: Some feel that having a mediocre co-founder is better than having no co-founder at all, which I wouldn't agree with at all.Let me say that I think that having a co-founder is great, so if you can find someone who:1) Has passion for the idea and concept and is willing to share in the risk.
2) Is a hard worke... |
Legality of sharing personal data? | DanielStraight: It sounds like this is 10 miles past the spammy line to me. |
A new word for hacker? | DanielStraight: Inventing new words works so rarely it's a wonder people keep suggesting it. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Invented...I think hacker is a great term. I don't particularly care how people perceive it. If someone wants to know what I do, I explain it in terms that will make sens... |
Staying Sharp | tmikew: Why do you think you are not sharp? I bet your problem is that all of your problems in your current business domain are solved and you are bored, not dull. What is a little dull is reading through lists of academic achievements and future academic proposals or thoughts. It comes across a little like trolling fo... |
Your Project/Startups Teamwork | dryicerx: I'll start off, tiny team spread apart geographically.We use Redmine as central hub for tracking progress, planning, wiki and forum for discussion and documentation. Google docs a bit for architecture and general info. IRC as official meeting room.Subversion for code repo, Redmine also as svn's browser.Projec... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | joechung: It isn't rude for them to do it until after you tell them not to. So tell them to stop. |
Your Project/Startups Teamwork | bkbleikamp: We use Git, Lighthouse, and a self hosted wiki. We also all work in the same office. |
Where can I find people to review a web service? | bdmac97: If you are looking for feedback on your site and exposure to an audience of other developers, designers, and entrepreneurs then I'd highly suggest my own startup service, launchly (http://www.launchly.com). Check it out! There is a free, basic launch plan that simply requires a bit of community involvement o... |
A new word for hacker? | indrax: I've never really liked the notion that true scots... hackers aren't the ones breaking into systems, or whatever you attribute to 'crackers'.Hackers can be black hat. Hackers can be nasty people. They can also be completely benign.Also, sometimes the law isn't in the right. I would definitely call Jon Johansen ... |
Where can I find people to review a web service? | mahmud: Vivek gee, just post it here and you will get the feedback you need.P.S. If website owners are just posting the text you provide them, what's the problem? :-P |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | sherrod: This thread is really fascinating, ranging from the hilarious to the intelligent. I agree that touching isn't THAT big of a deal that you need to get all worked up. However, there are legitimate reasons for not touching people's screens. I have a screen with a matte display -- that's without the extremely glos... |
Where can I find people to review a web service? | jbr: Some things I've learned in the last month of promoting my app:HN gave me a wide variety of feedback, some of it really excellent. Try posting a "Ask HN: Please review my startup vivekjishtu.com" or whatever.Launchly is awesome but doesn't have a lot of eyes yet. Do post there, though, you'll get some great feed... |
Staying Sharp | dmfdmf: This is an interesting post but the topic has drifted off the main question and into questions revolving around what you should do with your life. I won't presume to tell you what to do with your life because I don't know you... but I do have some tips related to keeping sharp.1) Find your "sweet spot" of how ... |
Where can I find people to review a web service? | vivekjishtu: The website is http://fefoo.com/Add-on for Firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12886Ways to add it to other browsers http://fefoo.com/add2browser |
The Importance of a co-founder | hwijaya: Reading dhouston (founder of DropBox) application - http://files.getdropbox.com/u/2/app.html, i think it's okay to continue working solo rather than settle for less than ideal when you apply for YC.From my personal experience, i also recommend the same. It's like having a relationship. Great relationship > sol... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | Calamitous: "can he touch my laptop screen?"Absolutely. As long as he doesn't mind losing the finger he touched it with.Of course, I'm assuming you meant with his finger... |
Programming books to read while on vacation? | jleung: For a programmer on vacation, I wouldn't recommend a technical book. Go for something that will exercise the right side of your brain, the parts that don't get as much work day-to-day. Your left-brain is what you're trying to rest and refresh; that's why you're on vacation after all.I'd go for something on the ... |
infrastructure in a box for distributed team | mrshoe: We've been very happy with Google apps. It's nice not to have to think about infrastructure at all. It just works.We run our own instance of Trac and svn on a slicehost slice, which is relatively painless to maintain. Using github or bitbucket would be another good option there.For a distributed team, I do have... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | sharjeel: I usually say "Here, you can use the mouse to point at the screen" and then clean the smudge in front of them. |
Legality of sharing personal data? | olefoo: This sounds like a fairly typical list broker operation, with a somewhat crowdsourced twist. A bit more wired, but not particularly new. If you are thinking of selling lists be aware that there are lots of competitors and that the industry as a whole is not in good repute. You would be up against folks like htt... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | kbaribeau: I think the problem with telling most people not to touch your screen is that often they don't see an alternative. So I always make sure I have a pen with me. If someone touches my screen, I usually just hand them my pen and say "Here, point with this".Not only do you avoid the finger-oil issues, but it's ... |
Trivial etiquette question - can he touch my laptop screen? | beefman: I used to clip a telescoping pointer on the edge of my CRT. Nowadays I just break your finger at the knuckle and say, <Moe>What's the matter with yooouu</Moe>. |
The Importance of a co-founder | DenisM: People are social animals, and go crazy when left alone. There are two ways not to go crazy:1. Have a cofounder or two2. Talk with customers all the timeEither is fine to preserve sanity, but beyond that one gives you more muscle power and the other gives you better direction. Your pick. |
feed for private blogs? | mahmud: You're looking at a webserver side technology to implement RBAC-style fine grained access control over the feed and use something lie OAuth to authorize users, as many of them as you want.We implemented something like that, but instead of a feed you have medical records. RBAC might be overkill for your purposes... |
Inspirational Biographies | asp742: I really enjoyed Isaacson's "Einstein: His Life and Universe". |
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