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Is a distcc style plugin for professional workgroups an idea whose time has come? | pmjordan: I've never used it, but I hear that IncrediBuild does exactly that:http://www.xoreax.com/main.htm |
Streaming stock market data? | epi0Bauqu: People have pointed me to http://opentick.com/ before, though I have not yet tried it. |
definition of a highlevel language? | msg: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/05/dynamic-languages-st...So one way to say it is that high-level languages are like porno, "I know it when I see it." Another way to say it is that there's machine language... and everything else. Or fill in the blank for machine language, "C is the last low-level language, ev... |
any interest in a hacker social network? | ambition: I say go for it, it'll be fun, but I don't share your sense that there's a problem to be solved here. Personally, I'm most interested in communities where I can meet folks in person in addition to online interactions, i.e. geography-based in addition to shared-interest. |
definition of a highlevel language? | jws: I think a high level language is anything other than assembly language. That is from the perspective of someone that started with machine code and assembly language.I don't think anyone ever set out to create a "low level" language. There was simply "coding the machine directly" and then "high level language".Now ... |
definition of a highlevel language? | gills: Most abstractions are a little leaky, and we usually need to consider the 'how' when specifying the 'what'. For example, adding numbers in C can be accomplished with the abstraction '+', but the programmer must consider whether the operation will overflow the register on the underlying machine. Some even-highe... |
definition of a highlevel language? | presty: high level languages are languages that are close to natural language |
definition of a highlevel language? | aaronblohowiak: In the beginning, there was machine code. this is essentially inputting what the computer actually executed, without any translation or compilation ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-generation_programming_la... )Then there was assembler/assembly. This is similar to the aforementioned, except easier t... |
any interest in a hacker social network? | jon_dahl: I don't personally feel any pain by having these in different places. If other people do, then you might be on to something, but otherwise, why not focus on a piece that isn't done well elsewhere, rather than replicating common things (job search, news, forums, etc.)? In particular, I haven't seen a quick-and... |
definition of a highlevel language? | ken: "A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant." --Alan Perlis |
definition of a highlevel language? | bayareaguy: One language is higher level than another one for a given problem when it allows a solution to a given problem to be specified in a way that introduces a minimum of concepts and issues external to the domain of the problem.For example if your problem is to allow a doctor to find the best treatment for a pat... |
definition of a highlevel language? | yan: I think asking what a high level language is akin to asking "What is tall?" If you're talking about buildings, tall can mean one thing, if you're talking about toddlers, tall can mean another. Haskell can seem like a low-level language to, say, English.A "level" of a language is a very relative concept, but you ca... |
good place to store code online? | izak30: getdropbox.com
works like a charm. |
good place to store code online? | rw: Do you require privacy/crypto? |
good place to store code online? | sant0sk1: http://github.com |
good place to store code online? | mosburger: For all of my projects, I have an assembla account (http://www.assembla.com) with SVN access. I don't know the privacy/crypto details, so if you're storing private/sensitive data I can't help you with any details there - I'm doing open source stuff and couldn't care less who sees my code. Your situation mi... |
good place to store code online? | mark-t: Until a few months ago, we hosted our svn repository on berlios.de . It went down every few weeks, so I don't recommend them. We started using them when sourceforge only had cvs. Nowadays sf.net supports svn, so you might look into that.Somewhat recently, we switched to git and started hosting ourselves, but yo... |
good place to store code online? | njoubert: My suggestion is to get Dreamhost (500GB, 5TB transfer) and buy this for a 2-year time. Enter the promo code "5050" to get $50 bucks off, making this a $150 for 2 years hosting plan that runs svn and you'll never run out of diskspace. |
good place to store code online? | ra: I run a VPS with SVN and Trac. Does everything I need.My backup job runs from home using a scheduled script (cron, tar, scp).You could just as easily send your tar files to Amazon S3 |
good place to store code online? | zvikara: For small projects I use http://www.8svn.com which is pay as you go service, similar to nearylyfreespeech.net |
good place to store code online? | anonym: I use http://duplicity.nongnu.org/ to backup to Amazon S3 (it has support for various other backends). It encrypts with GnuPG. S3 charges a few cents per GB of transfer and a few cents per GB of storage per month. |
good place to store code online? | johnmartin78: We use Beanstalk for hosted Subversion. They've been pretty good so far. And have super integration to Campfire and FogBugz, etc.http://www.beanstalkapp.com/ |
good place to store code online? | vikas5678: I use svn and bought my space from http://svnrepository.com/ |
good place to store code online? | Husafan: My start-up has had an absolutely terrific experience so far with cvsdude.com. If you want a subversion/trac/bugzilla package, the pricing is reasonable and their customer service has been great. Also, if you want to host an open source project, they have free options.I highly recommend it. |
How hard is your problem? | brianlash: I think most technical folks' occupancy of your latter two problem sets isn't so much for lack of interest in new, hairy-scary problems. It's for want of the necessary tools to do so.On the flip side, it's my guess a lot of hackers consider themselves new-problem-solvers-in-training. A 22 year old computer... |
good place to store code online? | tlrobinson: I'd recommend a cheap VPS, which you can then use for any number of things, including running svn, git, whatever.You get root access, so you can do whatever you want with it. They're great for prototyping web apps.I like Slicehost (as low as $20/month) http://www.slicehost.com/ |
good place to store code online? | khyron4eva: When I started using Mozy, they offered 2 GiB free and that still seems to be the case.http://mozy.com/free |
good place to store code online? | smanek: I got a VPS with vpslink.comI paid for 2 years upfront and got a 50% discount - total price was ~$12/month for a Xen instance (debian) with 256MB RamI have SVN/trac on it ... although, I've been thinking of migrating to git.I also use it to host a lot of other stuff too. |
definition of a highlevel language? | anamax: > how did lispmachines work? was the basic system programmed in LISP?Yes. However, I'm not sure why that's relevant. |
good place to store code online? | natch: S3. I have a script that takes one argument, a directory name.It encrypts the directory name and adds a timestamp, to make a filename that reveals nothing about the contents of the file except for the time it was created. It stores the original directory name along with the encrypted directory name in a local lo... |
How hard is your problem? | johns: I disagree with your assertion that the safer bets are less satisfying. If my users like and use my app over our competitors', that's more satisfying to me than building something challenging that no one uses or likes.If you're working on something in a crowded market, designing your product to stand out/work be... |
How hard is your problem? | mooneater: Interesting work seems to flow naturally from interesting data sets. Start by seeking the data. |
How hard is your problem? | SwellJoe: We're doing a bit of both, with the known and quantifiable (web hosting management) supporting our pioneer efforts to be part of a new and almost entirely unsettled territory (cloud computing). I wouldn't necessarily recommend it over other tactics, but it's what fit our business and our existing codebase--w... |
How hard is your problem? | LPTS: We are going to create a 21rst century patient facing medical experience.The experience of going to a pharmacy sucks, and is obsolete. The entire medical industry is complacent in allowing 100 billion in unnecessary medical costs because of non-adherence to medications. The doctors don't consider it their job t... |
good place to store code online? | ardit33: codespaces.com subversion account, and it is free for the basic one. |
How hard is your problem? | dejb: I agree that solving 'new' problems is a lot of fun. This can cause problem if you try to turn more mundane problems into interesting ones by making your code cover substantiatlly more general cases than is necessary. This is what has happened to me sometimes.I guess you could consider the optimisation problem of... |
How hard is your problem? | cousin_it: I'm solving a newish problem, posed (but not yet solved) by MS Photosynth: build an immersive, 3D-like experience from photos. But then again, I'm not a startup, but a one man nonprofit/research thing, releasing my code under the GPL. http://openphotovr.orgMy next project is definitely gonna be a for-profit ... |
How hard is your problem? | jfornear: For fun about a month ago I actually bought the domain letsmakepuppies.com to make a social network for dog breeders with a subtle dating aspect for humans. I thought it was a cute idea, but then I saw a sticker that read, "Please don't breed or buy when pets in the shelters die." |
good place to store code online? | rms: Is github really the only one that sells hosted git accounts? How come no one is competing with them? |
How hard is your problem? | swombat: Problem toughness is not only defined by technical difficulty. Most programmers (myself included) tend to focus on that, but the toughness has many other components, such as the number of users, their fickleness, the strength of the competition, etc.I wrote an article about this some time ago on my blog:
http:... |
How hard is your problem? | ecuzzillo: Yeah, we're doing it. We make humanoid robots.http://www.anybots.com |
How hard is your problem? | ericb: I'm working on a hosted load testing solution. I would say it is challenging compared to many of my ideas since I have to basically build both a website, and a load testing tool, but not in the difficult-computer-science-problem category. The site is: http://testomatix.comI'm getting there, but I am behind sched... |
How hard is your problem? | iron_ball: I make Flash brochureware!...no, it is not satisfying. |
How hard is your problem? | brlewis: I'm making photo sharing work the way it should have worked five years ago, using programming techniques I learned twenty years ago. I'm enjoying it immensely and wouldn't trade it. |
good place to store code online? | gcv: Another vote for github.com. If you're interested in a more generic storage and backup service, try rsync.net. You'll have to write your own rsync scripts to do backups, but rsync.net's uptime and support have been fantastic for me. |
How hard is your problem? | Prrometheus: Tipjoy is confronting a hard problem, but not in the technology space. They are trying to create a useful convenient payment mechanism without running afoul of finance laws. I don't envy them. There's a reason why all banks are the same, and basically the same as they were decades ago. |
How hard is your problem? | wheels: We are. Actually I think more startups are than you're assuming. There are two reasons that this is not obvious:- Usually a good solution to a hard problem looks easy to users.- Simple problems get a lot harder when they're forced to scale. Just keeping things from flying apart at the hinges often involves s... |
How hard is your problem? | nelud: I'm wokring on local climate model. But one question that bothers me - how will i sell it?... May be i should change direction, i wonder... |
How hard is your problem? | engtech: The title had me at a/s/l |
Closed beta or release the product now? | ajbatac: If you think you have a great product and will surely hit the roof with traffic, an invite only service is recommended. Else, you might as well open it up now and see what happens. |
Closed beta or release the product now? | nickb: If you have no beta testers currently, I think it's unadvisable to open it up fully. Have a closed beta, get 50-100 people in there and get some feedback ASAP. Fix outstanding issues and then think about launching openly. |
Closed beta or release the product now? | aaron4411: Closed releases seem to give you 2 chances at publicity (closed release, open release) to at least an immediate circle, which can't hurt |
Grad School | xynny: Well, as someone who has worked in startups for three years. I think you should at least take on an internship with a startup to see how much you like working in a startup. There is a pretty big financial cost with going to grad school especially if you do a masters. I know that payrates for a person fresh ou... |
Closed beta or release the product now? | mechanical_fish: If I just release the thing now with little content and no community then it could just look like a failed website...To paraphrase Twain [1], which would you rather do? Launch an open version of your website and let people think that its userbase is too small? Or deliberately limit the size of the user... |
Closed beta or release the product now? | warwick: Limiting te number of people each tester can invite seems silly if part of the goal is to generate content. You could even add a beta signup page so people could get in without an invite. They'd still understand that you were still building content that way. |
good place to store code online? | jmagar: I can't help but think that there are better ways to backup your code. Once you give it to an online service, you give up total control over how that data is handled.Your code is everything. You should take care of it properly.On the other hand, if you are working on OSS, then of course your need for privacy ... |
Program to build webpages? | zach: Someone on the Joel forum recently lamented the lack of decent prebuilt web app templates:http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.632032....I quite agree. Open Designs: http://www.opendesigns.org/ has bazillions of blog and corporate designs, so I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect a ... |
Program to build webpages? | davidw: Emacs. By the way, you ought to attempt to improve your writing as well - it's painful to read something with a nearly total lack of punctuation and proper capitalization. |
an archive for RSS feeds (similar to the wayback machine)? | apgwoz: > The main advantage of RSS over scraping is that there's little noise due to formatting, TOCs, ads, etc.How would you get past the fact that not everyone publishes the entire piece of content in the RSS feed?Slightly off topic, but related... I've often wondered why no one has created an RSS delivery protocol ... |
an archive for RSS feeds (similar to the wayback machine)? | ntoshev: Google Reader archives the feeds. Just keep scrolling back. There is also a not-very-official API. |
what would you like to see in Windows 7 to be happy? | makecheck: I've done very little Windows programming, but I am amazed how few tools it has "out of the box". If they want me to push my customers to use a new OS, they could ensure it comes with a good set of primitives: preferably the GNU tool set, as well as perl/python/tclsh/ruby/sh in predictable locations. They ... |
What's your search traffic breakdown? | tonystubblebine: We're 95% Google, 2% yahoo, 1.7% live/msn. Of course, these are stats reported by Google. |
What are some good biographies to read? | visakhcr: If you want to go philosophical, read Gandhi's My Expirements with Truth. |
What are some good biographies to read? | antiform: The Man Who Knew Infinity, about Ramanujan, is a biography that I reread regularly, if only as an example of somebody who continued to do what he loved against all odds. Whenever I get overly frustrated with a math or programming problem that I can't seem to overcome, I go through some of my favorite passages... |
What are some good biographies to read? | tgdavies: Tim Pat Coogan's "Michael Collins" is good -- it's as much a condensed history of Ireland from 1916 to the mid 1920s as about Michael Collins. |
What are some good biographies to read? | colortone: Gandhi's autobiography is greatAlso Jan Swafford's biography of Charles Ives is amazing (genius American composer who was also an early 20th century multimillionaire insurance tycoon) |
What are some good biographies to read? | byrneseyeview: The most entertaining and useful biographies are of people whose most interesting features are flaws. You could read about JFK winning elections despite his crippling levels of charm, and the fact that his dad was one of the richest people in the world; or you can read about Mao, who (according to the la... |
What are some good biographies to read? | dmharrison: I liked 'Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction' interesting read. It wasn't a cover to cover for me, more something I could pick up during lulls |
What are some good biographies to read? | rglovejoy: John Forbes Nash: "A Beautiful Mind" by Sylvia NasirRichard Feynman: "Genius" by James Gleick"The Passion of Ayn Rand" by Barbara Brandon"John Adams" and "Truman" by David McCullough"Lincoln the Unknown" by Dale Carnegie |
What are some good biographies to read? | mattmaroon: I highly recommend Born Standing Up by Steve Martin if you're at all into comedy. One of the more enjoyable books I read recently. I'd say it was entirely unrelated to Hacker News, but pmarca did paraphrase it in his talk at SuS. |
What are some good biographies to read? | gruseom: Ray Monk's biography of Wittgenstein is superb if you have the slightest interest in him. |
What are some good biographies to read? | DTrejo: Craig Venter's autobiography was intriguing. It would be especially good if you were already familiar with Biology and DNA. I ripped through it and reading it was quite enjoyable. |
What are some good biographies to read? | markm: These might not be biographies but they are good non fiction.It's not about the bike, my journey back to life. - Lance ArmstrongSurely you're joking Mr. Feynman! - R. FeynmanInto thin air - J. Krakauer |
What are some good biographies to read? | ra: Shantaram - amazing. |
What are some good biographies to read? | mattdennewitz: Lincoln's War Cabinet by Hendrick Burton - learn to surround yourself with ideas you don't necessarily agree with and be influenced by the most unlikely minds |
What are some good biographies to read? | rms: The auto-biography of Benjamin Franklin! Incredibly relevant to entrepreneurship.http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/franklin/ orhttp://www.gutenberg.org/etext/148 |
What are some good biographies to read? | hendler: If you have any relatives, famous or not, that have kept a journal, or written family history - it offers a unique biographical reflection. You can read biographies about the greats, but you also can not be something you are not, and reading about relatives can offer needed perspective about your capacities. |
What are some good biographies to read? | astrec: Monash: The outsider who won a war. - Roland Perry. |
What are some good biographies to read? | msg: Linus's biography, Just For Fun, is not bad.I have sentimental attachments to Man Out of Time, the Tesla biography.No Man Knows My History is about Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church. It is naturally controversial to the LDS, for its depiction of Smith as a polygamist con man who fell sideways into a relig... |
What are some good biographies to read? | albertcardona: Richard Feynman: "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman".Not a conventional biography, but Richard wasn't a conventional man either. |
What are some good biographies to read? | mynameishere: Peter the Great: His Life and World, by Massie (this book won a Pulitzer but all his histories are very good) |
What are some good biographies to read? | dedalus: The key thing is to differentiate between a biography and a hagiography.Oppenheimer is a must read let it be "American Prometheus" or my favorite "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195166736/qid=1151026828/s...".This guy is awe-inspiring in almost every sense of the word.Despite reading all biographies you sti... |
What are some good biographies to read? | aheilbut: It's a bit more than a biography, but I'd recommend "The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America" by Louis Menand. It's about the lives and history surrounding Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles Peirce, and John Dewey, and the pragmatist philosophy they were involved in creating. |
What are some good biographies to read? | aniketh: Iacocca: An Autobiography
He was responsible for the ford mustang, and later went on the revive Chrysler. |
What are some good biographies to read? | ComputerGuru: Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin. Such brilliant minds with some many little anecdotes us hackers can relate to. |
What are some good biographies to read? | colinplamondon: The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie- there's an unmistakably personal feel to it, as if Carnegie is sitting right there imparting the lessons and stories of his life to you and you alone. He's an incredible writer and it shines through in every page.Free download link (don't you love the public domain?... |
What are some good biographies to read? | lux: Not that it's an actual autobiography, but "Journey to the End of the Night" by Louis Ferdinand Celine was based closely on his own life and was really something to read, albeit a tough something to get through at times.I was warned that it would be difficult to relate to as a "modern-day young democrat" and in my... |
What are some good biographies to read? | uuilly: The Last Lion - Churchill |
What are some good biographies to read? | herdrick: http://www.biographicon.comhttp://www.biographicon.com/view/lypys/Democritushttp://www.biographicon.com/view/r8r22/Hypatia_of_Alexandriahttp://www.biographicon.com/view/4yf4i/Ethan_Allen - a good start on the New England rebel. One of my favorite books is this entertaining work on the amazing life of Allen:... |
What are some good biographies to read? | sohamdas: "Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman" [absolutely rockstar of a autobiography]"Every Second Counts" Lance Armstrong [poignant]"A beautiful mind" John Forbes Nash [moving, and heart wrenching]My personal favourite:
"Icon" Steve Jobs |
What are some good biographies to read? | kaens: I found Peter Kropotkin's autobiography (Memoirs of a Revolutionist) to be rather interesting. |
What are some good biographies to read? | herdrick: Don't miss this short read by Tom Wolfe on co-founder of Intel, Robert Noyce: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=190524Better yet, read the full version: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60385 It's excellent. |
What are some good biographies to read? | nmeyer: theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln. Great leaders |
What are some good biographies to read? | epi0Bauqu: I'm just finishing reading The Fabulous Showman: The Life and Times of P. T. Barnum by Wallace, Irving. Recommended. |
What are some good biographies to read? | notauser: One about the Roman statesman Cicero.He was an idealist with huge character flaws, which makes him pretty interesting to start with. But he lived in a time when Rome was descending from Republican rule into autocracy - and both resisted and accidentally advanced the change.On top of that it is pretty interest... |
What are some good biographies to read? | augustus: I must have read close to 50 biographies.I love "Titan" about John D. Rockefeller (in many ways a hero of mine).
and
Losing my Virginity - Richard Branson (so honest and realistic). |
What are some good biographies to read? | dhbradshaw: "Made in America" by Sam Walton turned out to be an unexpectedly good read."Let my people go surfing" by Yvon Chouinard (climber and founder of Patagonia) is an all-time favorite. |
What are some good biographies to read? | apstuff: "Yeager"
The biography of Chuck Yeager -- first test pilot to break the speed of sound. His description of going above 80,000 feet, the subsequent failure of the aircraft and what he does to regain control is chilling. The book's a good read. Direct and to the point -- like the man himself. |
What are some good biographies to read? | rrival: J Paul Getty - As I See It.Carl Icahn (unofficial, out of print) - King Icahn |
What are some good biographies to read? | dcminter: Assuming you're looking for a slightly hacker oriented biography then I can heartily recommend "The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Inventive Life of Robert Hooke" by Stephen Inwood.It gives an interesting insight to what it might have meant to have something of the hacker mindset in the 17th Century, and his conn... |
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