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A New Decade. Any Predictions? | brfox: No biomedical predictions yet...1. Everyone will have their full genome sequenced if they need some sort of medical treatment.2. Healthcare will start to become cheaper due to personalized medicine and more data based decision-making.3. Traditional drug discovery will be begin to be replaced by something: complex drug combinations, nanotech, ??4. Some gene-therapy will be more commonplace.5. End of cancer? infections? probably not |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | borism: - web will cease to be the delivery platform of choice for applications- internet will be heavily controlled by governments/corporations worldwide |
Early bird still gets the worm? | tyohn: The early worm gets eaten by the bird! First is great if you're first in the mind of the consumer but if you're not the first to gain traction (in the web world = users) in enough people's minds - there's no advantage to being first. It's quite possible your being first might pave the way for later arrivals to dominate the market you created. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | zacharypinter: I predict that the various phone (land/cell) and television services will become commoditized into internet providers. There will be no need for service providers to setup a phone number or voicemail. You'll simply have devices that connect to wired or wireless internet service and use whatever application is preferred for text, voice, and video communication. I think something like a skype username will become the defacto way of identifying people, instead of remembering or storing phone numbers.I'm sure the existing companies (verizon, AT&T, sprint) will fight this change (who wants their business to become a commodity?), but they'll only delay the inevitable. |
Does the color scheme in a website affect signups? | nfnaaron: After you've asked this kind of question informally, you may be interested in resources like this:Color Harmony Compendium, A Complete Color Reference for Designers of All Typeshttp://www.amazon.com/Color-Harmony-Compendium-Reference-Ann... |
Do you worry about ssh brute force attacks on your servers? | mschy: I started running ssh on port 443 when public ssh is required, because it works more reliably when traveling. A nice side effect is that it also avoids the Rumplestiltskin attacks.That said, my preferred solution is openvpn. |
Early bird still gets the worm? | pg: I don't think it simply meant that you had to get up early; more that it was good to be the first to do something. That seems to apply in most types of work, including startups. |
Does the color scheme in a website affect signups? | mschy: Yes. Hugely. It needs to be easily legible, and you need a clear call to action color.I'd suggest looking at successful sites that serve your target market, and looking at what colors they use. I'm guessing you'll find lots of black/blue/grey/white sites, with orange and green calls to action. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | zitterbewegung: PMC's will become much more prevalent and popular. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | slvrspoon: i see:
- some significant progress against cancer in the tenties and that being a big thing.
- growth of a chinese middle class with a voice and some balls and independence
- continued problems with islam, terrorists, and the first terrorist small nuclear detonation.
- possible but not probably achievements in nanotech or energy on the tech front
- wifi data collection on everything as the main tech change in this coming decade. internet and software basically a sideways moving bore and snore
- privacy as an issue for the common user |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | JulianMorrison: Oh and another thing - quantum computing will start to surge around the third quarter of the decade. It won't be a general tool and it won't be used for cracking crypto - it will be doing things like data mining, bioinformatics, and solving variations on the travelling salesman problem. |
Early bird still gets the worm? | rnugent: There are no absolutes. Sometimes early is good. Sometimes not. Next Question? |
Early bird still gets the worm? | jrockway: My adage is: "it's morning somewhere." |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | jsz0: -I think this is finally going to be the post-PC decade. The evolution of SmartPhones, set tops, cloud computing and other mobile devices is going to make the PC redundant for most people. By the end of this decade I could see the PC being exclusively a business tool or power user tool.-We're going to have some major Internet growth pains. We haven't prepared for the bandwidth on-slaught of IP video and we haven't moved fast enough on IPV6. In the US at least our broadband infrastructure is held hostage by corporations looking to maximize profit with little regard for quality of service and tons of conflict of interest as a content provider. |
What startups here are focusing on developing on top of .NET? | Dimebrain: I'm working on several web apps using ASP.NET MVC, either on Mono or W2K8. I have tried to launch startups in the past using ASP.NET WebForms, and I wouldn't recommend that approach to anyone, I can't get those years back. At this point, I believe ASP.NET MVC is a solid choice and I am extremely productive with it. It provides the same "programming is fun again" feeling that other web frameworks have boasted in the past. To be sure, you're still using a static language with C# 3.0/4.0, so there is more code to write in general and more considerations using the ASP.NET pipeline, however it produces solid applications. The open source argument is out of date; ASP.NET MVC itself is open source (MS-PL), you can run it on Mono, and there is plenty of open source projects in .NET at this point that provide either ports of popular Ruby or Java tooling or code specific to reducing development times on the .NET stack. You don't get the conventions of RoR, but there are alternative architectures available. |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | Shamiq: So I played a couple rounds of the game just now to get a feel for it. Could you do a timed variant of the game? As in free play on level 1 for N amount of time?EDITHere's a link to the demo: http://dropzap.appspot.com/ |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | jeromec: > - Major changes will happen in Iran, one way or the other. The current trajectory they are on does not seem sustainable for a decade.I feel bad for the situation in Iran. I also predict tumult, but with no real change for any amount of violence and bloodshed. This is because the people still want a theocracy, which will inherently be totalitarian. You can't have it both ways; demanding freedom along with a theocracy is paradoxical. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | timcederman: Ubiquitous computing will finally arrive, with smart cards/RFID on our bodies seamlessly interacting with computers in our environment. As you walk up to your refrigerator, for instance, you're logged in and presented with a customized display. Same goes for the car or the entertainment surface at the Dentist's.I wrote my PhD on ubiquitous computing, and I can tell you that I heard "this is the year" for ubicomp every single year I spent writing it. I finished it last year, and stuff I wrote back in 2002 was still relevant. It's an incremental design that will slowly, slowly come, but nothing dramatic anytime soon, even across a decade. I'm hopeful there'll be decent advances though. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | erikstarck: Facebook will be the Google of the decade.Google will be the Microsoft of the decade.Microsoft will be the IBM of the decade. |
Early bird still gets the worm? | kingkongreveng_: There's an inverse correlation to early rising and income, so I guess no. But that probably boils down to low wage people waking up to do shift work. Also, to my observation, less well off middle class people wake up early to commute in from the boonies.Lots of high income deal maker types do business in the evenings. |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | stanleydrew: For the love of god don't remove it! I played for like 4 hours straight the other day and I can't afford to waste more time. I wish you had an Android app though, cause I'd buy it right now. |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | windsurfer: It seems to me like you need to make the demo somehow not as good as the iphone version, but someone also giving you the same feeling. What about sprucing up the animation/graphics of the iphone version? Or create special features that are only available when you buy the game? That way, when you remove the level limit, players will get hooked on the demo and want to play more, and everywhere they go. |
Ask HN:Places to apply for machine learning? | nethergoat: The big guns like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are sure bets. Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn also have large ML teams and probably have decent internship programs.Many startups also have similar interships - try http://ventureloop.com |
Ask HN:Places to apply for machine learning? | imurray: Obvious choices are big firms with machine learning research groups: Microsoft Research, Yahoo Research, (Google, but I've had a poorer personal experience getting people from there to tell me what they're doing)You could search for funds and consultancies using machine learning. They are out there.Check out the sponsors of major machine learning conferences (e.g. ICML, NIPS). |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | richardw: No, the demo gives you enough to understand why you need to play more. I think you definitely don't need more levels there.What problem are you trying to solve? |
Ask HN:Places to apply for machine learning? | lrm242: Flightcaster - http://www.flightcaster.comHunch - http://hunch.com |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | Mathnerd314: Some people (e.g. me) don't even have iPhones. Right now, you have no way for us to give you money. Perhaps a donate button could appear after playing a few levels, instead of the game ending? |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | tomusher: Yes - use the web version to get people hopelessly addicted and as an advertising platform for the mobile version - removing the level cap won't stop people from buying the iPhone version, it just means you potentially get more and longer impressions on those iPhone version ads.Rather than worrying about crippling your online version, work on improving the mobile version, give it features such as a global/friends high score table (people love to boast), prettier themes, invent some new modes.You could even go as far as linking the two versions, perhaps if a user gets above a certain score threshold on the web version, pop up an alert with a code letting them unlock X (a new skin, etc.) if they buy the iPhone version in the next week. This should not only create an incentive to purchase, but create a sense of urgency - if someone's been wondering whether they should buy it, that will push them over the edge. |
Do you worry about ssh brute force attacks on your servers? | yourabi: Yes - three simple things to mitigate risk:
1)Run ssh on non-standard port
2)Disable root login PermitRootLogin No
3) Only allow specific users ssh acces via AllowUsers directive |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | chrischen: 1) Make the web version dependent on an internet connection. So maybe like you receive the next piece from the server side. This way if someone wants to play inside the stalls of a bathroom deeply fortified within a building, they'll need to purchase your iPhone version. I wouldn't advise using your iPhone on the toilet though, I read a pamphlet that says long periods sitting, especially with your asshole exposed, leads to hemorrhoids.2) Make the web version dependent on a mouse, or a keyboard. For example, use the mouse dragging to determine where the block above is. As far as I know you can only simulate mouse clicks on the iPhone. The keyboard takes up most of the screen. Use these to your advantage.3) Redo the web version in flash.4) Put ads on the web version and give it away for free. See how this does.5) If all else fails, block the iPhone safari user string. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | aristus: use different colors for .com, .net, etc columns.if it is free, use the black text "free". if it is taken, grey out that cell, with no text.that will make it much easier to scan with the eye |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | mikexstudios: Wow, this is very cool and elegant. I really like how the UI is simplistic and functional. Thank you for making it open source too.One small idea might be to add slider bars to adjust the weights. That way, one can drag these sliders and see the rankings update on the fly. Maybe these bars (vertical?) can be displayed next to the textbox when user clicks in the textbox. Or maybe you can place the bars (horizontal) in the right column where you currently have feedback.Additional cool features might be the ability to "watch"/receive notifications for new domain names that satisfy specified weights. Maybe automatically tweet the user or implement it as an RSS feed. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | cmelbye: Somewhat off the main topic: I really like the feedback form, very elegant and to the point. I think Dropbox does something similar for their feedback. I might try something like that in my app. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | DanBlake: Is there a way to sort out domains with numbers + hyphens in them? I imagine most people are most concerned with llll.com domains. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | secos: The scoring mechanism is weird, and not quite intuitive. However, I played around with it for a few min and it started to make /some/ sense.Overall, very useful for finding short names. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | lsternlicht: This is very interesting. Where are you sourcing the data from? |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | tewks: I really like it... it would be great, as I'm sure you know, to tie in registration.On that note, who is everyone using for registration these days? |
Should I remove the level limit in the DropZap web demo? | weaksauce: The demo is long enough to get a feel for the game. Instead of removing the web demo limit I would focus on making an android version and improve the app on the iPhone by improving the aesthetic appeal of it. Hire a designer to make the app look better if you lack the skills. It is a fun app for sure but I was actually not going to give it much of a chance because the game looked less appealing than a popcap game or something like that. The initial reaction that I had was that if the developer did not spend much time on making the app look great then they probably didn't spend a whole lot of time on making it fun. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | qeorge: This is fantastic. Otherwise I use freshdrop.net, but this is surfacing good domains more quickly. Well executed. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | bioweek: Why does it say magic.com is free? Or am I doing it wrong? |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | Scott_MacGregor: Here are my predictions (the lucky 7) for the next decade:1. Our vision for our company will be in place, our startup won’t be a startup anymore, it will be a full fledged powerhouse that will change the way certain things are done (that’s still under wraps) for a lot of people. Our company will be an important part of people’s lives and over this decade we will flex and grow to meet their demands and expectations. Some of you in this forum will be working for us. You will be well paid and you like it.2. The media as we know it now will fade away from people’s lives like the Oldsmobile and the Pontiac. Perfectly viable businesses, self-destructed, not important enough to qualify for taxpayer bailouts just gone from the scene like the horse and buggy. They had a good run but now it’s over.3. WIFI will be free for everyone in all major metropolitan areas and it will be 100% taxpayer supported.4. The governments (with the exception of China and Australia) will cease trying to regulate and criminalize the internet %100, and will allow it to exist and grow according to the will of those who use it and build it.5. Taxes in California will be the lowest in the nation. Arnold Schwarzenegger will admit he has read HN on a daily basis for years to keep his spirits up about the economy but has never made a single post.6. Politically, Generation-X will be in power--look out.7. No more airline travel hassles in the USA, people will be able to board and fly without government restrictions or searches. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | jdietrich: Great tool. I have one minor criticism - the domain availability seems to be just inaccurate enough to be annoying. The first few domains that caught my eye appeared to be free but were actually taken. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | DaniFong: Both solar and wind power will be produced at a lower cost than power from coal and natural gas plants, and sold to customers when they want it, how they want it. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | nicpottier: Very cool, as someone who has been searching for domains recently I can really appreciate the functionality.As for feedback, I think having the text boxes at the top for weighting treated graphically might be better. Either some up/down or +/- icons to just tweak those might be cool. (maybe an ajaxy slider that pops up?)But otherwise dig the concept. +1 |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | dotBen: I like the idea but the source whois data seems quite inaccurate.It said that digit.com and 6af.com were both free (which I obviously jumped on) but turns out they are actually registered and not due to expire for some time. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | krav: Just played around with it. Nice work. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | Edinburger: Very nice. I would like to be able to see more results at once. |
Ask HN:Places to apply for machine learning? | johnmyleswhite: I have a friend who was an intern with Siemens in computer vision while preparing for Ph.D. programs in machine learning. I would guess that other companies that build medical imaging tools have similar divisions. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | bioweek: What about the emergence of ubiquitous free internet? I'm thinking it will take of the form of everyones' mobile phones forming a global, giagantic mesh network? (Is that the right term?)How likely is that? It seems like the next step in the evolution of the internet, turning into something that no one can possibly control. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | diiq: Seems to be missing some short names --- for instance, while diiq.com and diiq.org are owned, diiq.net is unclaimed --- but 'diiq' does not appear at all, despite being four characters long. What qualifies a domain name to appear in your list? |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | dschobel: Very cool. What is the backend written in? |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | GavinB: This is very cool. TheMargarine.com is available--startup millions, here I come!Edit: Seriously, great work. Have bookmarked and will be back for my next domain search. |
Early bird still gets the worm? | ssp: Early morning is the most productive part of the day for me. There are no interruptions, no noise, and my brain is still well rested. |
Great books you read in 2009? | andrewcooke: is fiction ok? i live in chile and stumbled across bolano's books (particularly the savage detectives and 2666) in spanish just as they became popular in english in the usa (2666 was released in translation).savage detectives is a funny account of adolescent "poets" in mexico; 2666 is a much darker, somewhat rambling tome that addresses "evil". they're very different, but both great books.for non-fiction the book i've used most this year is an old classic - harbison & steele's "c a reference manual". it's invaluable (if you're writing c). i don't know how people can prefer kernighan & ritchie... |
Great books you read in 2009? | jakarta: Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin - a great blow by blow account of the financial crisis shortly after the fall of Bear Stearns. A really amazing look at how decisions are made under extraordinary pressure. It is fast paced and reads almost like a movie. |
Great books you read in 2009? | reg4c: Harmony Silk Factory - Tash AwSatanic Verses - Salman RushdiOld Man and the Sea - Hemingway |
Great books you read in 2009? | streblo: I just finished reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's really long and a little digressive (1079 pages, took me 3 months to finish), but was one of the most entertaining and brilliant books I've ever read. I highly recommend it. |
Great books you read in 2009? | nopassrecover: Some books that stood out this year (many not for their intended reasons)The 4 Hour Work Week (Tim Ferriss)
- In parts entertaining, interesting, self-promoting, educational, inspirational, attractive and undesirable. Definitely worth the read and a great call to action. Will make you consider what you want and how you can achieve it.The Game (Neil Strauss)
- Truly interesting story and an interesting view on human dynamics and hacking one of the more important systems (dating). A great view on what is most important - ends or means. Will make you consider how people work, what motivates them and whether success cures emptiness.Losing my Virginity (Richard Branson)
- The awesome and entertaining story of Virgin with lots of great advice and startup David vs Goliath inspiration. Will make you consider what determination and the little guy can achieve.Business Stripped Bare (Richard Branson)
- Branson's more focused take on business advice and patches on bits of the Virgin story since the first book. Will make you consider the power of being genuine and growing a company with people treated as smart humans.On Writing (Stephen King)
- Most inspirational and compelling book on writing I've read. Half writing advice half King biography all awesome. Will make you consider becoming a novelist.Coders at Work (Peter Siebel)
- Haven't finished yet but great interviews of leading coders. I didn't enjoy Founders at Work (personally found it a bit indirect/not deep enough) but in Coders at Work you really feel the connection between interviewer and interviewee while at the same time getting a lot of incidental startup advice as these coders have all had decent roles to play in Silicon Valley etc. history. Will make you consider if you're actually a better coder than you thought.Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
- Reads a bit like a bad Internet ad at times but that's because they stole that technique from here. This book summarizes the techniques that lead to success based on numerous interviews of most of the greatest leaders of the early 20th century. Pretty good bits in here and again inspiration fuel. Will make you consider how you can take charge of your self and your life.Letters From a Stoic (Seneca)
- Decent musings on living life and mastering oneself. As relevant today as 2 thousand years ago. Will make you consider how you can master your self and what you will let affect you.Here Comes Everybody (Clay Shirky)
- The best book on online community I've read. Shirky makes you want to make a difference and communicates his enthusiasm for the power of the masses with ease. Will make you consider how to enable communities to achieve unthought of goals. |
Great books you read in 2009? | tokenadult: My favorite read in early 2009 was What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought by Keith Stanovichhttp://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Tests-Miss-Psycholog...which is full of helpful information on developing the kind of cognition missed by IQ tests that constitutes rationality, very important information for parents, educators, and business leaders.2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book On the Origin of Species, has been a banner year for new books on evolutionary biology. Some of my favorites includeWhy Evolution is True by Jerry Coynehttp://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/0670...The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkinshttp://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolution...andEvolution: The First Four Billion Years edited by Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis.http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-First-Four-Billion-Years/dp/...All are full of up to date information about biology, which, as Thedosius Dobzhansky said, only makes sense in the light of evolution.SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubnerhttp://www.amazon.com/SuperFreakonomics-Cooling-Patriotic-Pr...is enjoyable and thought-provoking, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, for all the usual reasons applying to collaborations by those two authors. |
Great books you read in 2009? | diego: Recently I've been reading books about different facets of human nature. Some of my favorites:- Spent, by Geoffrey Miller (evolutionary psychology, sex, consumerism)- Gang Leader for a Day, by Sudhir Venkatesh- Predictably Irrational, by Dan ArielyHere's a short blog post about these books and a few others.http://ogeid.com/weblog/2010/01/some-books-about-human-natur... |
Great books you read in 2009? | adamhowell: The War of Art (again) - I reread this book at least once a year. IMHO one of the best books ever written on the creative process, no matter what you're creating.In Defense of Food - Best criticism of the problems with reductionist "nutrition-ism" I've read.They Made America - Good, quick history of some of America's most revolutionary inventors, businessmen and women. |
Ask HN:Places to apply for machine learning? | apurva: great replies guys... some very good pointers, especially ventureloop was a great find for me.
thanks for the inputs again.
probably another area for others interested in the field are domains on finance (like imurray suggested). i found
http://www.cerebellumcapital.com/ pretty cool.
but no internships, only jobs. |
Great books you read in 2009? | StrawberryFrog: introduce the tenants of ObjectivismHow much rent do they pay? And what kind of landlady is Ms Rand. |
Great books you read in 2009? | ardell: Atlas Shrugged - finally got around to reading it after dozens of recommendations from good friends. Shocking how relevant and prophetic it is, especially with respect to the events of 2009. |
Great books you read in 2009? | nailer: Anyone read 'Crush It'? Gary Vee seems like a scamster to me, but it seems really popular in the wider tech community right now. I'd trust HN better than my Twitter contacts... |
Great books you read in 2009? | bayareaguy: Although actually released in late 2008, my favorite book for 2009 was Neal Stephenson's Anathem. |
Great books you read in 2009? | rnicholson: Finally got around to reading 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Blew me away. So much better than the film adaptation. |
Great books you read in 2009? | zaidf: Game Theory At Work
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Theory-Work-Outmaneuver-Competiti...PayPal Wars
http://www.amazon.com/PayPal-Wars-Battles-Media-Planet/dp/09...Stealing MySpace
http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-MySpace-Control-Popular-Websi...Predictably Irrational
http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Hidden-Forces-D... |
Great books you read in 2009? | daeken: The Machinery of Freedom (David Friedman) -- Great book on a potential anarcho-capitalist society and how we could push the US government in that direction.The Game (Neil Strauss) -- See nopassrecover's response; he explained it well.Little Brother (Cory Doctorow) -- A fantastic novel about freedom and technology.Makers (Cory Doctorow) -- A great novel about people who create, whether technology or business models. Perhaps the best book I read this year.Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Cory Doctorow) -- The story of a man working in Disney World, which is now part of the Bitchun Society (a post-scarcity, post-death society). A story of love, betrayal, and death; how can you go wrong? Worth it for the concept of Whuffie (you'll need to read it to really get it) alone.Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson) -- The evolution of a society towards post-scarcity, written around the story of a young girl's growth into an adult. Best post-cyberpunk book written thus far, IMO. |
Great books you read in 2009? | coderholic: I finally finished "Godel, Escher, Bach" in 2009, after starting and giving up on it a few times previously. A great book, but it does require a lot of time and some serious thinking with a pencil and pad to do some working out (or at least it did for me).The best book I read in 2009 (and possibly ever!) was "Fooled By Randomness" - a fantastic book that I can't recommend enough. I also read the sequel, "Black Swans", that was interesting but not in the same league."Made to stick" was also a great book, with lots of great marketing advice that is simple to follow. |
Great books you read in 2009? | jamiequint: Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Poker-Rising-Through-Wreckage/dp...In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/01431...When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management - Roger Lowenstein
http://www.amazon.com/When-Genius-Failed-Long-Term-Managemen... |
What to focus on when pitching, product or underlying platform? | dirtyaura: My take on this (we have a bit similar situation) is that you pitch one long-term vision that you believe in. In your case, it sounds it is the platform, and the first product is a step that takes you towards that vision.When you are unsure about your long term vision (which it sounds that you are) you can also learn a lot for your thinking by pitching different versions to different people. |
Great books you read in 2009? | dschobel: The Bet by Anton ChekhovYou can read it here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bet.shtmlIt shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. It's so fantastically misanthropic, I cannot recommend it enough.The prisoner's polemic against society at the end is just legendary. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | dbz: I like it a lot; however, it seems that if I type, my name, for example (my actual name) it doesn't check it. It seems like there is a very limited list of domains? Although I like it so far. |
Great books you read in 2009? | DanielBMarkham: Finally got around to reading some Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina.It was terrific. Great book! |
Great books you read in 2009? | xorphy: I basically discovered Vernor Vinge.A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor VingeA Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor VingeThe Peace War, by Vernor VingeMarooned in Realtime, by Vernor VingeHyperion, by Dan SimmonsMrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt, a fun book about some math and physics problems |
What to focus on when pitching, product or underlying platform? | lrm242: I've built a platform company in the past, and it's probably one of the harder startup genres to master. One of the problems is its very hard to impress upon your listener how cool your platform really is. Even with fancy demos, we never felt pitching our platform was received as well as it should--the listener simply doesn't appreciate the work that goes into the foundation.Investors will take the time to try to understand if you can get them hooked on the market opportunity. Unfortunately, its typically hard to convince them that your platform, even though its very cool & innovative, can overcome the intrinsic inertia people have in adopting new tools.Personally, I would be focusing on the applications you can build with the platform. That's what we ended up doing at Metreos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metreos). Our pitches contained 10% platform and 90% real world application examples.Every company is different so please take this with the requisite grain of salt. Good luck! |
Great books you read in 2009? | chasingsparks: Death of a Salesman. This is yet another book that you are forced to read prematurely in middle or high school. At the time, it was a frustrating exercise; upon rereading it at age 25, I thought it was fantastic.I also enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It was very creative.Sadly, I had no books that yielded a personal intellectual epoch this year. |
Great books you read in 2009? | pingswept: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. A sad story about a guy named Zeitoun in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places by Paul Collier. Someone smart thinks about how to move failed states toward democracy in such a way that it sticks.Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama. A good memoir, but particularly interesting because he wrote it before he was famous.Cliff Walk by Don Snyder. An English professor gets fired and becomes a carpenter. Great if academia irritates you. |
Great books you read in 2009? | rjett: I'm a fan of reading biographies and Open, Andre Agassi's biography, was a very intriguing, enjoyable, and surprisingly well-written book.The only other book I read this past year that stood out to me was GK Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday. I thought this was a very well written allegorical spy novel that had some very quippy dialogue.Next on my reading list I would like to read some Vladimir Nabokov since I've never read any of his work. Has anyone else here read any of his books? |
Great books you read in 2009? | quizbiz: Started and finished Super Freakonomics on a flight just recently. I enjoyed it a lot. |
Great books you read in 2009? | teeja: Charles Stross, 'Accelerando'Stephenson, 'Anathem' (first 150 pages slow) |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | teeja: Citizens of the US will begin to publicly insist on being told what to think. |
Great books you read in 2009? | sivers: (The links here bring you to my notes from each book, and the ISBN number for each so you can find it easily at your favorite library/store/whatever.)How We Decide - by Jonah Lehrer:
Brilliant book with one clear message: our emotional brain is faster and usually smarter than our logical brain. Our emotions are trained by years of logic and experience, retaining it all for real wisdom. Many decisions are better made by going with the gut feeling. Gets a little too technical with deep brain/neuro/cortex talk, but brings it back to usable points.
http://sivers.org/book/HowWeDecideThe Investor's Manifesto - by William J. Bernstein:
Absolutely my favorite author and advisor on the subject of investing. Anyone with any money to invest (or already invested) please read this book. Such clear thinking, using only facts, and using numbers not guesses. Modern portfolio theory: use passive indexes of the entire market, no speculation, no stock picking, and avoid the entire fee-sucking financial industry.
http://sivers.org/book/InvestorsManifestoSum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives - by David Eagleman:
Fiction. Awesomely creative think-piece of 40 different short stories of what happens when you die. To be clear: the author is not pretending this is fact! The framework is inspiring for anyone: coming up with 40 different answers to any one question.
http://sivers.org/book/SumThe Talent Code - by Daniel Coyle:
A great book showing that deep practice - (struggling in certain targeted ways - operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes - experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them) - is what really makes you improve at anything.
http://sivers.org/book/TalentCodeInfluence - by Robert Cialdini:
Classic book on the psychology of persuasion. I read it 15 years ago, thought about it ever since, and re-read it now. How to get a 700% improvement in volunteers. How to sell more by doubling your prices. How to make people feel they made a choice, when really you made it for them.
http://sivers.org/book/InfluenceThe Time Paradox - by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd:
See my in-depth article about this book at http://sivers.org/time
http://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox |
Does the color scheme in a website affect signups? | twidlit: thanks guys! I was wondering if someone already made an a/b tests purely on color schemes. that would be very interesting. |
Great books you read in 2009? | jsz0: Maybe not as high brow as some of the other suggestions here but I really enjoyed Stephen King's Under The Dome. It's basically a story of small town political corruption and the human tendency to be easily exploited by dictatorial types in a crisis. |
Great books you read in 2009? | ErrantX: Risk, the science of politics and fear by Dan Gardner (absolutely fantastic book, I already mentioned it on here earlier in the year).The Game (again). I read this regularly to remind me of a few things - it's the book that originally got me fascinated in human interaction.Nemesis (Richard Mullers theory) after a recommendation on HN.A couple of Obama's books (seemed logical to read up on him)- dreams of my Father I especially liked.Snowball (though still chugging through that).In Search of Schrodinger's Cat - a book all about the evolution of quantum theory (and one that gives me my favourite quote of the year: In 1905 Einstein actually published 5 times. The fifth being his PHD dissertation; yes those three individually genius works, which shook the very foundations of physics, were published my a man called Mr Einstein. Despite the artistic license I still love it as a quote :)) |
Great books you read in 2009? | paulgb: The best book I read in 2009 was The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. It's surprisingly accessible (I've never taken a biology class), and talks a lot about evolutionary game theory which I found fascinating.Some other books I read last year:How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. It was a great book, Pinker's writing is accessible and entertaining. Much more so than On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.More with Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight by Paul Ciotti. I really enjoyed this one, it was the story of the first team to cross the English channel with human-powered flight.What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. I liked this one better than Gladwell's other books. There is less theorizing and arguing a point and more telling stories, which is what Gladwell excels at.The Mind's I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett. If you are patient with what is sometimes (in my humble opinion) pointlessly arguing semantics, some of the sections are interesting. |
Great books you read in 2009? | sidsavara: I just finished a ton of great books, some that immediately come to mind:The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris - Really made me think about life and the work I doTribes by Seth Godin - Love this book.The Dip by Seth Godin - read it before, reread it again this yearPersonal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina - really had to struggle to get past the beginning, was fantastic once I didFind Your Great Work by Michael Bungary Stanier - I liked this one a lot, motivationalThe Power of Less by Leo Babauta - no surprises here, I enjoyed the book, it reads like you would expect it to. Some new insights that aren't on the blogSuperfreakonomics by Stephen Levitt and DubnerBlink, The Tipping Point and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (I liked The Tipping Point the best out of those 3)Free by...Chris Anderson (?) I forget. Very interesting.Team Up by Pete Mockaitis - Great read about accountability groups, subset of a mastermind group IMO.Collapse by Jared Diamond - Very interesting looks at patterns in civilizations. Some people I spoke to get bored after a few examples, it is a little repetitive but I enjoy the parallelsMy old faves are of course Gettings Things Done, 7 Habits, Greatest Salesman in The World, and How to Win Friends and Influence People.More details here:
http://sidsavara.com/personal-development/best-personal-deve...I regularly (and will be posting a bunch in the next couple weeks) post reviews of books I read here:
http://sidsavara.com/product-reviews |
Great books you read in 2009? | herdrick: Judea Pearl's Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of Plausible Inference. I'm not finished with it yet, though. (It might be superceded by his Causality which I'd also like to read.) It's provided some "aha", scales falling from eyes moments. I'd guess it's the most important book - for me - I've read in years, perhaps ever. Highly recommended (with the caveat about his other book perhaps being better). |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | icefox: A new OS for the desktop is introduced and gains a significant following. And I am not talking about the next Microsoft/OS X/KDE incremental release. Probably based on a Linux kernel it would have a different security system, different application deployment and upgrade system. Pretty much taking all we have learned with desktops the past fifteen years and applying them without having to live with the existing legacy applications. |
Great books you read in 2009? | jdlegg: "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy
"War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
"What to Listen For in Music" by Aaron Copland |
Great books you read in 2009? | RevRal: A bunch of books by Kahlil Gibran. Read The Prophet twice.One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia MarquezLove In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia MarquezThe Problem Of Pain by C S LewisDisgrace by J M CoetzeeThe Road by Cormac McCarthyBlood Meridian by Cormac McCarthyThe Piano Teacher by Elfriede JelinekOn Writing by Stephen KingAtonement by Ian McEwanDictionary Of The Khazars by Milorad PavicCandide by VoltaireThe Labyrinth Of Solitude | Life And Thought In Mexico by Ocavio PazI finished that last one today. Read this:All men, at some moment in their lives, feel themselves to be alone. And they are. To live is to be separated from what we were in order to approach what we are going to be in the mysterious future. Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature -- if that word can be used in reference to man, who has "invented" himself by saying "No" to nature -- consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude.I recommend this old book. |
A New Decade. Any Predictions? | 10ren: - Spherical displays ("you inside")- Multi-core, with identical cores, is abandoned in favour of highly
specialized cores (like organs in the body, or firms in the economy,
due to the same pressures: "transaction costs" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Coase#The_Nature_of_the_...)- The first real AI is created, but isn't taken seriously until it
comes up with a revolutionary way of promoting soap powder,
which advertising executives describe as "blindingly obvious" in
hindsight. However, its success is tragically short-lived, as advertising
is mmediately redefined as not requiring genuine intelligence.
The search for real AI continues....- a formal theory of the "good life", that maximizes human
happiness - joy, contentment and satisfaction - is proposed.
To almost universal chagrin, it is experimentally tested...
and verified. A virtual reality game is created, based on the
theory. Massive hoards of users are anticipated, but no one plays
it. A competitor then creates a version with the suffering and
pain removed. It's a runaway hit. |
Great books you read in 2009? | alttab: How to win friends and influence people. |
Great books you read in 2009? | Asa-Nisse: Recommendations:- Collapse by Jared Diamond, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_%28book%29 about how we over-exploit our planet.- The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom, psychological and cultural explanations of how humans react to "memes" amongst other gems of knowledge.- The Eschaton series by Charles Stross (sci-fi). |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | ardit33: awesome! just bought beltoo.com from it. thanks :) |
Great books you read in 2009? | jseliger: I like that you ask for "Great books you read in 2009," as opposed to great books published in 2009, as so many newspapers do. The question as you formulate it will probably lead to more of the same books popping up over and over again, but that's probably okay.I actually wrote about the topic here: http://jseliger.com/2009/12/27/the-years-best-in-reading-not... . Of the books on the list, I'd say that Daniel Gilbert's _Stumbling on Happiness_ and Lev Grossman's _The Magicians_ were my favorite. Both might not qualify as "great," but they both moved me and made me think, which few books accomplish. |
Review my app: Search expired/available short domain names | NathanKP: You need better moderation of the suggestion feature along the right. I doubt you want it saying random garble and things like "gay hot lesbians." |
Great books you read in 2009? | NathanKP: My favorite book of 2009 was The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki:http://experimentgarden.blogspot.com/2009/12/critical-analys...The book shows how groups can work together to do great things. It also shows why some groups fail miserably. Overall I found it very helpful and enlightening in that it helped my understanding of group dynamics and how to take advantage of the full power of groups. |
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