instruction stringlengths 4 105 | output stringlengths 8 56.7k |
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the risks of blocking IPs | ScottWhigham: I've done IP blocking for about 5 years on my site and will continue to do so. I put up a special page when the IP is blocked that has my phone number and I explain, "Hey - this sucks for both of us. Here's the problem and one of the possible reasons your IP might have been blocked. Those stupid spammers ... |
Grails hosting (or is 100mbit enough?) | lsc: 100Mbit is way more than enough, unless you are trying to break into the adult industry or similar.The problem with doing it at home is usually the reliability of network and availability of network, ventilation, and the reliability of power. But if you have some 100Mbps FTTH then sure, buy a UPS and rack up a se... |
Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread) | jgalvez: * I wrote a book on ActionScript when I was 14* Dropped out of school the same age (8th grade)* Wrote another book on Flash when I was 18* Worked as a remote consultant from ages 15 to 18* Still working as a remote consultant for startups (I'm now 24)I had a great start but I think enjoying success (and money)... |
finding partners for hobby/experimentation projects | fleitz: Take the DIY approach.A couple suggestions:
Get a Photoshop WOW book. This will teach you how to do the things you want to do graphics-wise.Get a design book, the principles of design and spacing are fairly straight forward.WikiMedia Commons: There are lots of great graphics on that site, they are all public do... |
Is artificial intelligence/natural language processing a futile pursuit? | sdrinf: I'd like to address the market risks:Did you know, that large retail sites increasingly employ people to post merited positive, and no-merit negative reviews to funnel consumers into a buying decision? And, by economy of scale, they do this in volume -usually massively overwhelming genuine on-site reviews. Work... |
Exclusive startup coverage TechCrunch vs Mashable? | rwhitman: I get the impression these days that TC and Mashable aren't super psyched about covering startup launches anymore unless said startup has a pre-established relationship or part of their sponsored events.If both of them give you the cold shoulder, I'd definitely go for ReadWriteWeb. I'm always impressed by the... |
Can your website be different than your LLC name? | dctoedt: 1. If your LLC will be doing business (that is, holding itself out to the public) under a different name than its official name, you should probably file an assumed-name certificate in the appropriate office (which varies by state).2. If you put a copyright notice on your Web pages (a mouseprint copyright noti... |
Help For Clojure Addiction | mahmud: I am a "PHP" developer at work. All day I sit around writing "PHP" code. Here is how I start my day: "You guys want this done quickly and reliably or should I do it in PHP" ..We're a PHP shop with a huge Common Lisp code base. |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | Quarrelsome: Do you have security concerns besides someone guessing the id?
I always figured you just make sure you only allow authenticated users to edit/view the data they are authenticated to see.I always figured people used GUIDs over ids to avoid the performance implications of re-pinging the database to get the n... |
What's the most simple way to accept monthly subscription fees? | stympy: Don't forget the SaaS Rails Kit at http://railskits.com/saas/ if you're writing a Rails app. :) |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | ratsbane: GUIDs (UUIDs) are not necessarily good for cryptography; some implementations or versions make it easy to predict subsequent values. Originally UUIDs were created to provide uniqueness in cases when you didn't own the namespace: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4122.txtI'm trying to figure out a solution to a simi... |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | cperciva: Substitute the obvious character for $%^& below -- I couldn't figure out how to convince HN that I wasn't just delimiting italics.What was the historical reason for using the $%^& operator for both things?I think the argument was that it allows you to say "foo is a pointer to an integer" == (int $%^&) foo == ... |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | dasht: The * in the parentheses is part of type name and it indicates that the type being named is the sort of type to which it makes sense to apply the run-time * operator. |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | jey: (Mentally replace all ^s with asterisks in the following:)I don't understand your C code. What is "(int foo^)" supposed to do? It looks almost like a cast, but "int foo" isn't a valid type in C. Maybe "(struct foo^)" or "(int^)"? |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | Locke1689: The second * has nothing to do with type-casting -- it is part of the type identification. The operator performing the typecast is the pair of parentheses.Consider: int and int * are two different types. So typecasting to int when you really mean int * is completely different. |
In C, why is the * operator both reference and type casting? | tmsh: I imagine the rationale was something like: how do we indicate that types are references to memory? Let's be concise and use the asterisk after the type of the memory.How do we dereference an address? Since it only makes sense that types with an asterisk will be dereferenced, let's use an asterisk like we did in ... |
What do you listen to when you code? | zellux: I don't feel like listening to music when I'm coding, especially songs, it may disturb my thoughts. |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | nreece: patio11 (http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11), who's a regular HN user, is based in Japan. You can touch base with him. |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | jason_tko: There are a few of us around. Perhaps we should organise a Japan HN get-together. Patio11 is out in Nagoya though I think, which might make things a bit difficult.If anyone in Japan is interested in this, please contact me through my email address, and I'll organise a small event. |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | pwim: You should investigate some of the events that go on.Here are some more internationally minded ones:Tokyo2point0 - web related: http://www.tokyo2point0.net/Business In Japan - general: http://businessinjapan.jp/TLUG - Linux related: http://tlug.jp/MobileMonday - mobile related: http://www.mobilemonday.jp/Ninjava ... |
Where can I meet entrepreneurs in Japan? | delackner: Check out the next Pechakucha night in Tokyo maybe? The few entrepreneurs that I know usually attend. |
What do you listen to when you code? | froo: Thanks for this thread, I was just thinking about this myself and was going to ask HN... figured I'd check the ASK section first. |
What advice would you give college students about starting a business? | ostrichpincher: Although it doesn't address your questions directly, this talk about making money online by David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of 37Signals and creator of Ruby on Rails, makes quite a lot of sense when you're juggling around all the thoughts about becoming an entrepeneur.
http://37signals.com/svn/pos... |
finding partners for hobby/experimentation projects | sushi: I will just say like everyone is, that you should start doing designing on Photoshop as much as possible but it takes time to learn design. I have been doing it since last two years and only now starting to create designs that I will use myself (since I am my own harshest critic).I have although so far only done... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | Kliment: I'd suggest you start dissecting small programs written in C. Those UNIX tools you were talking about? Grab some UNIX tools, see how they work. Dissect cat, grep, etc. It's the best way to learn. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | bensummers: K&R is still the best book on C. Short, simple and accurate.C++, on the other hand, is a moving target. Difficult to know what to recommend, apart from suggesting you get something modern which concentrates on using the STL, and perhaps Boost. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | plinkplonk: First, K&R. Second , C interfaces and Implementations by David Hanson. |
Is artificial intelligence/natural language processing a futile pursuit? | fezzl: I was probably careless when I did my research, but I just found a company that does the exact type of sentiment analysis on Amazon reviews (as I have independently envisioned):http://techcrunch.com/2008/06/30/pluribo-is-cliffsnotes-for-...Not sure how to react to this but sigh. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | prog: I found "The Complete C Reference" by Herbert Schildt to be quite good. Most of the language is covered in about 250 pages followed by standard library function, algorthims and data structures and ends in a good project "The Little C Interpreter". Its about 800 pages but then its a reference so you don't need to ... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | 1331: I highly recommend _C: A Reference Manual_ by Harbinson and Steele. It has many tiny examples, but it is mainly used as a reference manual (as the title suggests).http://www.amazon.com/Reference-Manual-Samuel-P-Harbison/dp/...A good book for learning C is _Mastering Algorithms with C_ by Loudon. The source code... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | andrewcooke: not for learning, but as a reference to keep on your desk when programming in c - harbison + steele http://www.careferencemanual.com/this is also worth reading once you've got the basics down - http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | tptacek: C Interfaces and Implementations by Hanson. It'll give you back most of the things you depend on in Python, like variable length strings and dictionaries.I'm teaching a 4-month weekend C class for Ruby programmers starting in April, and my syllabus is pretty much built around CII. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | pvg: http://www.c-faq.com/resources/books.htmlTake a look at the Amazon reviews of some of these, you'll probably find something to your liking.K&R is an important book to have on your bookshelf but the idea that it's the only or best book to learn C from is absurd.Another thing to do is scan the C FAQ and some of the ... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | kiwidrew: Slightly off-topic, but in case you haven't checked out Cython (www.cython.org) before, please do! It allows you to write Python code which is _translated_ into C code that uses the CPython API. This includes classes, list comprehensions, generator expressions... practically all Python code is valid Cython... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | numeromancer: Try this:http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/cclass/cclass.htmlOnce you can stand on your C legs, you should read the C-FAQ, here:http://www.c-faq.com/and get a copy of the C99 standard. It's supposed to be here:http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC22/WG14/but the site was unavailble when I tried to check it before writing... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | j_baker: I might get downvoted for this, but I'd recommend going with C++ before you get into C. You don't have to learn all of the crazy stuff like template metaprogramming, but C++ does have some tools to make C-like programming easier. Personally, I'd use C++ just for the string and vector classes.If you do want t... |
What do you listen to when you code? | J3L2404: Pandora QuickMix of Sound Dimensions, Ratatat and Menahan Street Band, at very low volume. |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | johkra: I read 15 Bytes from /dev/urandom, use base64 on it and cut of the last two padding characters.That's 2^120 possibilities - just guessing a valid id will require a lot of luck and a collision is very unlikely. |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | bballant: I will second the vote for Mastering Algorithms in C. This book will bring you right into the details you want:
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Algorithms-C-Kyle-Loudon/dp/...Accelerated C++ was also mentioned and I just love this book. It brought me back to C++ after years of being away: http://www.acceler... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | Apreche: Pointers on C helped me really understand pointers like no other book was able to do.http://www.amazon.com/Pointers-C-Kenneth-Reek/dp/0673999866/... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | nfnaaron: From my C days, I second and third Harbison & Steele. I learned from K&R, but I learned better from H&S.From this list (can't say how current they are),http://www.c-faq.com/resources/sd19.htmlI liked: - K&R and H&S (if you have to choose, H&S)
- The Standard C Library, P.J.Plauger.
- C Traps and Pitfalls... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | gcv: After K&R, I highly recommend Peter van der Linden's Expert C Programming (http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp...). It's fun to read (yes, really), and you'll understand the language better for it. C is fairly quirky, and this book helps navigate those quirks.For example, I bet most people... |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | pchristensen: The hardest thing is the lack of a "batteries included" standard package. There are competing implementations (which all have strengths and weaknesses) and lots of libraries (many of which are good, few of which are widely accepted as "standard").The short answer is to setup SBCL and Slime/Emacs (here's ... |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | conanite: For me, coming from java, macros and closures were the two concepts that were completely alien and made a huge difference. Java provides a lot of structure (packages, classes, interfaces) that result in a lot of reassuring boilerplate code. If you're using lisp for conciseness, there is no boilerplate to comf... |
I want to write a book (fiction) | yesbabyyes: Well, starting with tools, I have heard good things about Scrivener: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.htmlI think it helps you to start just writing stuff down, and then, as your story takes shape, helps you organize all that to a story.Since you say that you have writing abilities and imaginatio... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | Maro: A number of people have recommended David R. Hanson's C Interfaces and Impementations, so I'll mention his A Retargetable C Compiler: Design and Implementation. I own this book though I haven't read it, but it's about writing a C compiler in C. You should pretty much just go out and buy these two books because th... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | adrianscott: If you really want to do Python modules, I can understand.In terms of hacking small Unix tools, have you considered other options like perl, bash, combo's of unix commands, etc.? I suggest that those options could be a lot more productive for your time investment than C. IMHO. Hope this helps. |
Anyone willing to build a "ls" with Subversion integration? | zeugma: svn status does not provide you enough information ? |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | suhail: I upvoted just because I'd like to know myself and to hear your guys' thoughts =). We're always open to discussion with our potential customers. |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | hga: Hmmm, I started learning it in 1979 (sic) when my major experience was FORTRAN, BASIC, and an obscure language called PPL who's major features I hadn't taken advantage of (it was for a summer class). I'd toyed with/looked at COBOL, PL/1 and C.The biggest thing, I think, is that it's based on expressions rather th... |
I use and love Python. What's the best book to learn C ? | gte910h: This post only contains non-aff linksWhile I'm certainly good at C, and have been the guy people asked the C and C toolchain questions at a couple places I've worked, I'd say you're in for more than 1 book to grok the topics you've expressed interest in, and haven't met the single book that does all you want.1... |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | jfarmer: http://kissmetrics.com/ is the most similar product.R is a programming language with huge number of data analytics libraries. It's not really an alternative any more than, say, Python is an alternative. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | SlyShy: I'v been using http://wingify.com/ and have been quite happy with it. It's by a fellow HN member. Not sure if it fits your exact needs, though. |
I want to write a book (fiction) | Scott_MacGregor: Well since I am in an "out of the box" thinking mode today, here is my idea for you based on that. For me it’s all about the folding green.First off, I’m not a fiction reader at all. I only read technical stuff, but I do not believe this specific idea is being done in fiction works.Why not offer to wor... |
How do you build a self-serve ad network to compete with Google? | maxdemarzi: I would look into http://www.openx.org/ad-server and that community for advice. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | emmett: I don't really understand your problem fully, but if Mixpanel looks like a good fit I would recommend using them for your new data, and creating a separate system for viewing your historical data.That reduces the requirements for the code you have to write (it only has to be able to deal with historical data, y... |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | revorad: mtarnovan, I can try to help. Drop me an email at hrishi@prettygraph.com. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | dotBen: I'm not aware of any service that lets you import historical data.For a start, each of these services collects a slightly different dataset measured in a slightly different way-- and so if you wanted historical data to analyize trends, you might be comparing apples to oranges with the data from the old system v... |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | eel: Metricly seems to allow importing historical data. However, I suppose being in a private beta is a drawback. |
What makes Lisp hard to learn? | hernan7: I come from a C/Unix shell/Perl background mostly (with a sprinkling of Java). The main stumbling blocks that I found were:1) oddly-named functions -- rplaca, cadaddaddr and the like2) weird "macho" indentation -- more so than the much-maligned parens. I found that at some points of The Little Lisper, I needed... |
How do you keep track of your group/shared expenses ? | roam: 1. Spreadsheet shared through Dropbox
2. No, no problems |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | siong1987: There is Vanity for Rails: http://vanity.labnotes.org/ It does not support funnel analysis like Mixpanel tho. |
Best practices for creating unique IDs | dan_sim: You can take a look at this : http://www.rubyfleebie.com/encryption-with-alphanumeric-outp...It cares more about readability than security but I guess it is safe enough. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | RevRal: I used to like working with MathCad, but I haven't needed it since ~1995. |
Book recommendation for a future Angel Investor? | joshu: There isn't one. You learn on the job. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | noonespecial: Laplink, baby! Copy that 200meg hard disk over your LPT port in just 40 hours! |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | MattF: +1 for XTree Gold, I was stoked when I got my hands on that.Stacker was magic too. |
Raise your hand if you're tilting your external Display | weaksauce: I have a 24" hooked up to my 15" MBP. The Monitor is up and to the right of the laptop. It does not bother me to have different height monitors because my workflow is such that I use keyboard shortcuts to move windows to the other monitor.(sizeup and cinch are the best apps that I have purchased) If you have... |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | khangtoh: Thanks for starting the thread, I would be interested in knowing what you eventually decided to go with. I too had been running our own analytics for a while and started looking at Mixpanel to see if we could possibly migrate to mixpanel in order to make more sense of the data we've collected and collecting. |
Are there any alternatives to the now-closed DocVerse? | aptimpropriety: Tag-along: Are there any alternatives to the long-closed Grand Central (or Google Voice if you don't have an invite)? |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | joshu: vi! |
What's the YC startup that detects motion changes in video? | jonallanharper: I remember seeing a YC startup a while back that allows a user to analyze a long video recording and find the points in the movie where motion was detected. Does anybody recall the name of that startup? Thanks in advance. |
Any alternatives to Mixpanel ? | aditya: http://chartbeat.com/ is pretty impressive. |
What's the YC startup that detects motion changes in video? | pclark: HilightCam |
Your Failed Startups | jolan: 1) 7 minute abs2) Work out your abs in 7 minutes instead of 83) Our "If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free." policy |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | nfnaaron: Gopher. Usenet (whatever client). Stacker. HP made some replacement desktop for Windows that I really liked, not New Wave.Tapcis addon for Compuserve. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | protomyth: PFE - I dearly miss that editor |
Common sense emacs tutorial that doesn't assume I'm stupid? | Ixiaus: DrScheme (included with PLT-Scheme) is best for learning Scheme IMHO - the different language packs are really helpful, the stepper is AMAZING (using the stepper was the only way I was able to grasp/see a continuation and collector in real time).Emacs is my primary programming environment but thus far DrScheme ... |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | revorad: Not that old school but I miss Winamp. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | nathanb: Definitely +1 for LapLink. Sure it required a null modem cable, but at least it beat sneakernet!QBASIC that came with DOS. The built-in context-sensitive help is how I taught myself how to "program".Also, Norton Commander and Norton Disk Doctor. In the bad old DOS days of no tab-complete and dodgy floppy disks... |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | hga: Stuff I'm still using:Windows Eudora (nothing I've found has the features from it that I really want).All the rest are from the '70s:UNIX and cygwin. Specific utilities I started using in 1978 include dd, du, dc, ed/ex (death before vi!), tar, ls and ps.EMACS, of course ^_^.Scheme.A bit later, command line FTP an... |
I want to write a book (fiction) | xl-brain: Please start here: It was thirty years after bogleron emancipated the children of the shadowrealm... |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | bootload: "... Your favourite (oldschool) software? ..." > You are in a twisty maze of passageways, all alike...
Advent ~ http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/ The first bit of software I really used & liked. Still marveling at ths source code now ~ http://www.wurb.com/if/game/1 |
How can you proof that your website content has been plagirized? | proexploit: While that's a difficult question depending on your meaning, you can get some info at http://copyscape.com. I paid for some premium credits personally, allows you to automatically check every page of your website.Edt: clickable link. |
Good Drupal resources? | 1331: Smashing Magazine has an article with links to many resources:http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09/24/drupal-developers... |
Raise your hand if you're tilting your external Display | ableal: I just use the external 24 (or 25) inch display, and turn off the laptop display. I paid a bit more for 1920x1200 pixels, not the 'HD-TV' x1080 screens they're selling more of nowadays.I also found simple plastic laptop stands with USB hubs. Plug regular keyboard and mouse into stand, shove stand+laptop to the ... |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | johngalt: This old sysop enjoyed Wildcat v4.0 BBS |
How can you proof that your website content has been plagirized? | jacquesm: Proof, as in 100% proof ? Or prove ? And Plagiarized.You are going to have to prove 'provenance'.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProvenanceThis is a very complicated subject, the best thing you can do is to document very carefully the process of creation, time stamps and so on, and then to use those to challenge... |
Is artificial intelligence/natural language processing a futile pursuit? | ffhix: Hmm. you should probably look at http://adaptivesemantics.com/ . I just heard their founder present at SXSW, who was introduced as a "machine learning guru". they do machine learning for sentiment analysis |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | jacquesm: The dos xcopy command. Command line globbing seems like a great idea until you find out the hard way that command lines have a maximum length. |
Your Failed Startups | vitovito: Answered in reverse order: I'd have done market research first. They all failed because the intended market didn't exist and I couldn't afford to retarget.The ideas:1) Unrealty, a 3D real estate startup. This was tech-driven: Quake 2 and Unreal had recently been released, and I was doing consulting for a re... |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | smackfu: My dad still uses DOS Quicken. At heart it's the same as the current program, just without all the bells and whistles. Plus it was a very mature DOS program: think his is version 11. |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | weaksauce: I would put the projects and job experience above the classes. Classes are easy and everyone with a (decent) brain can do well in them but spearheading a project and working without getting fired are two things that employers like to see.Most employers do not care about your research interests. They are self... |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | mpk: Filling a resume at your age (yes, making an assumption here)/level of experience is tricky, but one the plus side it's easy to stick to the 1 A4 rule.I'd strip the details of the courses you've followed - people reading the resume will probably know the general details already and use that space to add a section ... |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | alexgartrell: Work on an open source project. A real one. Mozilla is super-friendly to new guys, and working on Chromium means working with Google Engineers and other smart people.Also, go to an epically good college. That'll be a huge help down the line.You should probably consider working for a medium-sized compan... |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | aaronbrethorst: Definitely put practical project/job experience above education. That'll help differentiate you.When I took Csci 1901 (at the U of MN, see Matthew's resume), I—and the other 200 people in the class—had an end of term project that applied what we'd learned. I'm guessing you probably had to do the same, r... |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | patio11: Your resume is all about you. Successful sales is all about them. I'd focus less on what classes you're taking (of rather less intense interest to other people than it is to you) and more on what you can do for them. Give higher billing to the fact that you have Actual Shipping Products With Code You Wrote ... |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | lambdom: My 5 cents, but I don't really like the A, B, A-, etc. Focus on what you know and what you like.. and if you want to show your grades, just join them on another paper. |
Your favourite (oldschool) software? | MaysonL: Spacewaralso - the eve editor on Vax/Vms |
Help a Highschooler with His Resume | psyklic: Just list the titles of the classes -- they are impressive enough. Put your GPA instead of your grades if it is good.Emphasize your projects the most -- if you have a good GPA, you need to distinguish yourself b/c lots of people have good GPAs. So, startups and companies will be impressed that you do personal ... |
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