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Any Open Source Projects Looking for help from College Students? | brandnewlow: There's a whole host of under supported and underdeveloped Drupal projects that could certainly use some love. |
am I too old to learn the guitar/music? | route66: No limits. Before I switched to software development I paid my bills as a Jazz guitar -player and -teacher. Observation: the "too old" only applies indirectly when you're "grown up" schedule is already very full with everyday activities. Even then I watched people with no time to spare but with lots of enthusi... |
am I too old to learn the guitar/music? | JCThoughtscream: There is no such thing as "too old for music." Rather, picking up something new helps keep your brain nimble. You have no reason at all NOT to do it - and, hey, you even have a free tutor! |
am I too old to learn the guitar/music? | alanthonyc: My grandfather started learning how to play the violin in his 70s.I don't think you have much of an excuse. |
When data is code, what is the meaning of a config script? | cchooper: Several Lisp applications have config files that are just Lisp files run at start-up. Emacs is an example. You can (and people do) put absolutely any code in there. There's no need to restrict it to just setting variables.So what's the difference between a config file and code? Config files aren't compiled (s... |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | vorador: I didn't try http://librelist.com/ but I've heard good from it. |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | pieter: I've been looking for one too. The Google Groups interface is really bad, Google Groups is riddled with spam and Google seems to make no effort to do anything about it.I've looked at librelist.com, which seems OK, but they subscribe you as soon as you send an email to a list, which makes it useless, at least fo... |
am I too old to learn the guitar/music? | CyberFonic: Never too old! If your wife is a decent muso, then why won't she give you shove in the right direction. I play many instruments, and with your background, I'd suggest learning to read music and playing a keyboard would be an easier start. Guitar is harder than it looks. Assuming that you type reasonably... |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | oscardelben: I think Zed Shaw is working on an alternative but I don't remember the name |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | jarsj: I wish google groups had an API and then I would love it. |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | jokull: Because if you look closely - they're all different. There's a great deal of feature overlap however. It's like the community collectively is throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. It's the healthiest way to eventually get the best. My bets are on redis and perhaps MongoDB. |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | jdp: NOSQL is definitely not a new idea, but the current favorite mode of access and interaction is (REST). I think the explosion in popularity for the creators is due to a lot of things, including: the ability to start an open source project in a new environment, giving it a real chance for wide adoption; the need to ... |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | pierrefar: Because they're all different. We have key-value stores (Berkley and MemcacheDB), column stores (Cassandra), document stores (CouchDB, MongoDB), and even new data structures (Redis).They all solve different types of problems (e.g. document stores vs key-value stores). Even similar databases solve the same pr... |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | silentbicycle: The new non-relational databases have fairly different designs. For example, if your data set would fit entirely in memory (on one or a few servers), Redis would probably be a great choice. Their different strengths come out of the design choices that set them apart.A while ago, there were several differ... |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | simonw: It's a cambrian explosion. A lot of the concepts involved (eventual consistency, CAP theorem, map reduce) are relatively recent innovations, so there's plenty of scope for exploring them with software. I imagine things will settle down eventually. |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | moe: Just want to second that google groups is a pain, and it's a shame that everyone seems to be using it nowadays (albeit for understandable reasons).My pet peeve is their ignorance of traditional mailing list behaviour in terms of echo'ing back your own posts to you.
Google Groups doesn't do it, every other mailing ... |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | keefe: I'm a big fan of document databases. It was one of those things where I was working on my app, thinking to myself... self, aha! I need documents or arbitrary kvp storage... then thinking, yeah somebody else must have done that already and there I am on couchdb or whatever. Having to have schemas is just an unnec... |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | koenbok: It's a hip thing to work on, an interesting problem to solve, has some nice ideas around it, has great potential to get lots of users and there are no widely accepted solutions yet. |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | nawroth: To answer your question I think things will settle down -- in the long run it's too hard for developers to deal with all the alternatives and their differences.
To get a high-level overview of the NOSQL space you could read this blog entry: http://blogs.neotechnology.com/emil/2009/11/nosql-scaling-to... As Ben... |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | bitdiddle: I think people have been doing these things for years, in the past they were just more apt to be embedded in desktop applications and so forth. Issues with scaling for the web have changed the dynamics, so the new non-relational approaches are quite distinct from the earlier ones such as Statice, ObjectStore... |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | bradfordw: Because monoculture is bad and the more options we have, the more they all learn from one another (which drums up competition). In the end, like the other fellows on here have stated, you'll have a few emerge as the "standards" based on the type of problem you are trying to solve. |
Why are there so many NoSQL databases? | majke: > Do people genuinely believe that the world needs this many NoSQL systems, or are we just in the infancy/resurgence of schema-free, ...The non-SQL world is still pretty young. Well, the ideas themselves are old - but recent implementations try to solve unique problemsets.> ... and things are yet to settle down?... |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | aravindhanv: Hi,
This is not a new crib. Another recent complaint is here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=905520, and I responded to that asking him to try Zoho Discussions (http://discussions.zoho.com). Though not a mail listing software, it is fairly advanced and is capable of handling posting through emails t... |
What is the role of an Engineering Manager? | clueless123: Look at Agile best practices. it is not a silver bullet but it does puts in place a basic environment & practices to produce good usable code at a fast pace.For me, the idea is to treat your developers like profesionals and have a method to measure that they are behaving like such.The hardest part for non ... |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | nate: If you need a private group, we built http://tgethr.com to be an alternative for us to use instead of a private Google group. We have things like code formattinghttp://support.tgethr.com/faqs/how-to/how-do-i-use-code-form...Integration to services like bug trackers (unfuddle) and dropbox. |
How do you vet the startups behind the job postings on Startuply? | clueless123: As the saying goes: You gota kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince |
Get in touch with low latency people from Sun, IBM or RedHat? | dvhart: HockeyPlayer, I lead the Real-Time Linux development team at IBM. Feel free to contact me directly dvhltc at us.ibm.com, I've shared this link with the Real-Time Java people so they can get you the appropriate contacts there. |
What is the role of an Engineering Manager? | plinkplonk: "I have been asked to be a much more proactive manager who actively keeps tabs on the developers and pushes the project forward."(This may sound flippant but that isn't the intended effect.) If you are the technical co founder of a startup and the early hires aren't managing themselves well, maybe you hired... |
Get in touch with low latency people from Sun, IBM or RedHat? | fultonm: My name is Mike Fulton and I am the lead architect for WebSphere Real Time, which is a real-time Java runtime environment for use on Linux and AIX.
We provide real-time technology in our JVM, including Metronome (already mentioned) for improved determinism, improvements to our JIT compiler to reduce jitter, s... |
Get in touch with low latency people from Sun, IBM or RedHat? | whenry: Consider looking at Red Hat MRG's realtime offering. Red Hat have done work with both IBM's and Sun's realtime JVMs.http://www.redhat.com/mrg/realtime/
http://www.redhat.com/mrg/faq/It's geared towards low latency.
Let me know if I can help more. |
What are the good alternatives to Google Groups? | kbob: Mailman.
http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/ |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | raxiux: http://www.rhok.org/ |
Am I the only one having problems with SparkFun's website? | ErrantX: Check their IRC. The free day offer meant about 3000+ ppl are trying to place orders at once :) |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | jeffmould: Check your local papers for volunteer opportunities. If you are located near a big city, some of the local non-profits/government funded groups may be looking for assistance with social marketing, web development, marketing, etc.. These are usually part-time, low pay (or even no pay) jobs, but are great op... |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | tezza: * I do a lot of work with IT4C[1] here in the UK.Its basically a listings board where charities advertise for tech people to help them.Through various "Meet the Charities" nights I've met lots of charity founders and I help them in detail. Some charities are looking for any sort of help available, not merely tec... |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | maxklein: Who do you want to help? Human beings? Animals? Plants? Progress? Life in General? Exploring?What is a good cause for you? |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | edw519: I've always thought that the best way to put your technical skills to the greater good is through your day job, not instead of it.Some of my days jobs have been to write software to ensure that: - people get the right prescription medication on time
- firetrucks and ambulances get to where they're supposed t... |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | access_denied: Giving free courses / seminars on how to prevent computer fraud. (Like explaining "password", "phishing", ect pp) |
Am I the only one having problems with SparkFun's website? | bockris: I had my cart full a couple of days ago and was sitting on a checkout page and never got through. |
Is asking your friends to vote your HN postings to the front page ok? | pasbesoin: I think HN wants ranking based on content and not the poster's social network. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | jonnyrotten: http://www.idealist.org |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | Quarrelsome: Wikileaks were recently looking for some technical help. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | Vindexus: I've always wanted to use my web skills to create a site that generates revenue for a charity. Perfect example: http://www.freerice.com |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | wgj: Assuming your technical skill is related to software: More and more non profits, charities, and even for profit companies that are serving the greater good, are using a lot of open source. Contributing to, or improving, open source projects is one way to make a difference. |
List your Etherpad alternatives | nathanb: Dropbox + vi? |
Insights into securely distributing binaries (call home)? | fragmede: There are various proprietary solutions to this, and for better or worse, flexlm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexNet_Publisher) is the first that comes to my mind. |
Insights into securely distributing binaries (call home)? | lann: In case this isn't obvious: expect whatever protection you employ to be cracked if your product is ever successful (and maybe even if it isn't). |
List your Etherpad alternatives | seiji: If those sites have email set up correctly, you can sign up for free pro accounts. Just go to /ep/pro-signup/ at any etherpad domain. |
List your Etherpad alternatives | tomh-: What about Google Wave? :) |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | sachinag: http://www.codeforamerica.org |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | ryanwaggoner: "Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."-Howard Thurmon |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | portman: Digital Divide Data
http://www.digitaldividedata.comThey are a nonprofit in Cambodia and Laos who hire and train the disabled - people who otherwise would not have ANY job - to do data entry and other outsourced IT.And they're always looking for technical minded people to help out, either remotely or (even bet... |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | mechanical_fish: Build something people want.Whether or not that's your day job or not is immaterial.My favorite parable about the societal role of an engineer's technical skills is this story about Steve Jobs:http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...Steve's pitch is an attempt to capture the essentia... |
Simple, fast JavaScript Framework? | mbrubeck: I'd look into jQuery 1.4 (currently in alpha), which is broken into modules so that you can use less of it. This isn't yet released, but it's possible to build and use it from the source tree. See the comments in build.xml for instructions on building a smaller jQuery.There's also http://xuijs.com/ which is... |
Get in touch with low latency people from Sun, IBM or RedHat? | HockeyPlayer: I've gotten good IBM contacts, thanks all!Anyone from Sun here? |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | cjoh: come help the Sunlight Foundation. Please!http://sunlightlabs.com |
Hacker News Los Angeles Meetup? | krisneuharth: I'm in Irvine but I would be willing to make the trek up there. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | vanessa: I’m working to startup a web service called Catchafire that connects professionals who want to volunteer their skills with non-profits and social ventures who need them. Catchafire just finished a pilot program in NYC – I was able volunteer my tech skills then and it was a great experience – and we’re currentl... |
Am I the only one having problems with SparkFun's website? | marcamillion: I know...i emailed them and by the time my email got to them, the reply I got was "freeday ended 2 minutes ago".How convenient. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | abyssknight: Hackers for Charity! http://www.hackersforcharity.org/I also have a friend who runs a non-profit called Caring Compy: http://caringcompy.blogspot.com/There's a ton of things you can do to better yourself, and the world. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | ddemchuk: Build a startup that creates revenue for both yourself and your clients. Employ people, get your clients more capital to employ people themselves because of what you can do for them, and help reinvigorate America's economy.In a capitalist country, the best way to contribute to the greater good is through prod... |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | a-priori: I'm currently hiring a small team of developers at Philanthrokidz, a new startup in Waterloo, Ontario. If you've got programming chops and want to use them to make the world a better place, drop me a line. My email's in my profile (behind a CAPCHA).http://philanthrokidz.com |
Have you used Appcelerator Titanium for mobile or desktop dev? | codeslinger: I haven't used it for a production app, but I will say that it kicks AIR's ass with regards to CPU and memory usage. Titanium has way lower resource utilization for the same app as compared to Adobe AIR. |
List your Etherpad alternatives | waldrews: Anyone here with Java hosting experience want to do a (cheap) paid account model? Looks like we all still need a well maintained one. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | apsec112: http://www.givewell.net/giving101/Changing-Someones-LifeYou can save someone's life for under $1,000. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | rmijic: http://lesswrong.com/lw/1hn/call_for_new_siai_visiting_fello..."At bottom, we’re looking for anyone who: * Is capable (strong ability to get things done);
* Seriously aspires to rationality; and
* Is passionate about reducing existential risk.
" |
Framework or no framework | zeynel1: Link to previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=946640 |
Framework or no framework | paulgb: Take a look at pylons. It's like django, but it offers more flexibility in choosing which components you use. If you think you would be better off without the ORM or template engine or form library, it's easy to just not use it. |
Why are video games violent? | mbrubeck: I think it's partly because the game market has segmented by console; you might find more high-quality non-violent games on the Nintendo Wii. |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | keefe: First, make sure your own responsibilities are under control so you don't become a drain on society. Next, volunteer your time - maybe as part of an open source project, something you think is valuable. |
Framework or no framework | yannis: I would stick with a framework especially during the initial phases of the Project, especially if you are new to Python. I am also fairly new and I found that I learned more by peeking my head in Django's codebase than any other book! Agreed it has a rather steep learning curve but is worth the effort.You can i... |
which features shall we charge for? | pmichaud: Typically people pay if they have a desperate need and.or if you provide almost exactly what they need, but not quite. So #1 and #2 might work if people have a need more just a little more information... but why would they? Answer that, and you find out what you can sell. |
List your Etherpad alternatives | erikwiffin: Not etherpad, but I found it worked better for me on a bad internet connection with a slow processor.http://moonedit.com/ |
How to apply for positions that require government clearance? | yan: Usually, the company/agency hiring you would sponsor your clearance and they'd ask you to start if they're interested in you. Once it starts, expect it to take 5 months to a year.edit: see http://www.opm.gov/Forms/pdf_fill/sf86.pdf |
How to apply for positions that require government clearance? | jleyank: Well, if Lockheed's in the US, they you better be a US citizen. Better have a clean criminal record, and be comfortable with having your past prodded and poked. And you'll be pissing in a bottle, probably as a condition of employment, maybe more often. Probably good to not have connections with "unusual gro... |
Framework or no framework | csuper: I think you should stick with the framework, at least until your requirements exceed the frameworks capabilities.There is always a simpler solution that you can one off. But is it worth your time to reinvent the wheel?Also, I'm curious - were you able to do the same thing in Python that you did in Scrapy becau... |
How to apply for positions that require government clearance? | pwnstigator: Clearance takes about 6-9 months. Foreign associations and illegal activities get a lot of attention.They'll ask about drug use. Don't lie. Any illegal drug use in the past 12 months is disqualifying, but it's better to fail on this and get the clearance a year later than to get caught in a lie and have th... |
How to apply for positions that require government clearance? | hga: Actually, Top Secret is not very high (e.g. well below DOE Q or of course TS/SCI).Basically, you just have to be honest in your application, and of course you have to be a reasonably trustworthy person (and not black-mailable; e.g. it's OK to be GLBT, but not in the closet).As noted elsewhere in the comments, you'... |
Why are video games violent? | ddemchuk: Reptilian? What about human society isn't violent?Violence is (generally) illegal and because of that, it's taboo. Allowing people to do something that is taboo without threat of repercussion sells. Allowing someone to say, race each other to see who can buy the most groceries fastest, can be done in real lif... |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | apsec112: Learn to think better. (www.lesswrong.com is a good place to start, especially the sequences.) Learn new skills. Learn how the world works by reading books that challenge you and by seeking new experiences. Work outside your standard identity. Also, simply be kinder and better to the people around you in yo... |
The best way to put technical skills to the greater good? | tigerthink: http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/intro |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | csuper: Because all of the necessities are covered? Death by comfort? |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | gprisament: The movie Idiocracy explains it all. |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | makecheck: Part of the problem is that there are too many lock-in and obfuscation mechanisms in place: monopolies, patents (ironically created to "help" innovation), and legal nonsense making everything 1000% more complex than it often needs to be. How many people have jobs whose sole purpose is to sift through this c... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | gkefalas: In terms of medical advances, there may not have been any major blockbuster disease cures found, but there were several very important advances & innovations. I'll crib from ABC News and call out a few that I think are impressive as a layperson: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Decade/genome-hormones-top-10-m...-... |
How do you organize your git branches? | rlpb: I use branches called feature/foo, feature/bar, etc, and bug fixing branches named after the bug, eg. bug/42. Before a complicated rebase I often back up by branching to a branch named backup/foo, and I also have bits of experimental code in branches like experimental/foo or deadend/foo.I rebase feature branches ... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | robryan: As a society we put a lot of effort at the moment into incremental improvement rather than completely new innovation.When TV, Cars, Computers, The Internet were invented they were all breaking new ground in innovation because they were big areas that helped with life.Now I think more smart people look at the w... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | shib71: Access to knowledge through things like open courseware and one laptop per child. These movements are in their infancy now as they get bigger the 00's will be known the decade they were born.Mobile phones (and the related communications) have gone from first world luxury to being more common than clean fresh wa... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | brlewis: This has been a great decade for computing. 1.4MB removable storage was the norm 10 years ago. Right now I have incredibly fast 4GB removable storage in my pocket. Ten years ago we didn't have USB 2.0. Wireless protocols weren't as good. Digital cameras were mostly toys, and digital video was almost nonex... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | whatusername: The # of people lifted out of extreme poverty in China/India is pretty substantial.The Human Genome project and sequencing.Wikipedia is pretty substantial. All that information for free for everyone. |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | drcode: I agree completely- I don't know why so many people insist that technological progress is improving at an exponential rate when the empirical evidence seems to contradict this so clearly. |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | DTrejo: HN was created. |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | gabrielroth: There were a lot of innovations in the financial sector in the last ten years, because that's where a lot of the incentive to innovate was coming from. Unfortunately, some of those innovations were very destructive, and most of the rest had no benefit to society. There were probably some new tools that res... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | jsz0: I think you're being a bit too hard on humanity..-Dozens of extrasolar planets discovered.
-Confirmation of water on Mars.
-Completed the principal construction of ISS
-Cassini–Huygens
-AIDS drug therapy drastically increasing life spans
-US elects a black President
-Lowest number of homicides in the US since th... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | jacquesm: I think it may be that you simply have enough bandwidth to do whatever it is that you want to do, would you be willing to pay a premium to get more ?I have 20Mbps here and 90% of the time I'm under 10% usage.And I consider myself a pretty heavy internet user.Innovation is probably not measured very well by lo... |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | tigerthink: Google Maps is pretty cool. |
Git Hosting | sophacles: IME git configuration on a decent host is pretty trivial. Just do it over ssh not http. Its a little bit of effort to set up, but not really. If you want the fancy web fontend, things are a bit different, and I can't offer experience there. |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | epochwolf: Well we have wikipedia now. I think that's a huge leap forward. |
Why has humanity failed to innovate in the past decade? | ynniv: Any increases in privacy, civil rights, human rights, intolerance?These are ancient problems... don't expect a quick fix, especially via technology.http://www.ted.com/talks/billy_graham_on_technology_faith_an... |
How to apply for positions that require government clearance? | ciar: I was recently hired for an IT position that required a Secret clearance. I had read a great deal about obtaining the clearance and had help from my prospective employer that made the process much easier. The best advice (as an earlier poster noted) is to tell the complete truth. Leave nothing out, no matter h... |
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