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know any good browsergames? | dkd: It's desktop tower defense. Don't get too close. (you've been warned.) :Dhttp://www.kongregate.com/games/preecep/desktop-tower-defens... |
Is microfinance a smart way to park your savings? | noodle: well, it depends on what you're trying to do.microfinance charity-type organizations have little risk, but no matter what, you're not really making any money on your investments. you'd make more from an online savings account.if you want to do some good, those are good options. if you want to grow your savings, they're not that good. |
How to package this algorithm? | answerly: You will need to be very careful about which sites you allow users to extract content from as many larger sites have TOS which prevent this type of activity. You could be opening yourself up to some nasty DMCA take down notices depending on how you plan on displaying/redistributing the scraped content. |
Is microfinance a smart way to park your savings? | theantidote: Maybe invest $100-200 in microloans but Kiva at least doesn't pay you any interest on the loans. I don't know about the other two organizations. These are different from charities in that they aren't tax deductible so if that's important for you then look elsewhere.I heard some advice on the radio the other day: invest your age in bonds. So a 40 year old would put 40% of their invesments into bonds. Bonds are slow but reliable sources of income and are basically the same as a loan to a large corporation. Try that if you're looking to back loans and earn interest. |
Is microfinance a smart way to park your savings? | vijayr: I've given 10 loans so far at Kiva, and 3 have been totally repaid (others are in various stages of repayment). I don't think you should look at microfinance as investment options. That said, there are a few micro finance organizations that give out a small percent of interest. Microplace is one example. But as noodle says, an online savings account would fetch you more. |
Is microfinance a smart way to park your savings? | kirse: At the moment I'm still a little averse to the stock marketYou're smart to have recognized that you need to diversify, but don't fear the stock market! How much of this applies to you depends on your age (I'm 22), but this is when most people should be setting aside a little money for higher-risk investments. Risk doesn't mean invest into a poorly-performing company and start praying, but try to find a couple profitable micro-caps or small-caps and stick $500-$1k or so into them. Personally, I look for foreign micro-caps that run great profit margins and make physical products that people need (primarily healthcare / transportation). Patented products are even better.Not only that, but right now there are plenty of large-cap companies that have lost a lot of value not because they're bad companies or losing money, but because everyone is simply dumping stocks out of fear.Either way, do your research on the balance sheets + income statements, take a good look at how they well they approach their core competencies/products and make an informed decision. Regardless, the job losses and increasing foreclosures have only begun to take effect, so don't be surprised when 2009 brings the market lower and opens up even more investment opportunity. |
know any good browsergames? | quantumhobbit: http://fantasticcontraption.com/fantastic contraption. It's a physics simulator/puzzle game. I'm not aware of how it would be scripted, or why you would want to script it. But, the open ended nature of the puzzles should appeal to hacker types. |
Is microfinance a smart way to park your savings? | jhancock: you missed a new cool one: http://qifang.cn China education loans. They just were recognized as a World Economic Forum 2009 Technology Pioneer.Its not my company, but I keep a close eye on them and they have good things happening.http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2008/gb2008... |
know any good browsergames? | teej: Are we talking flash games (i.e. Auditorium http://playauditorium.com/) or "text-based" browser games (i.e. Kingdom of Loathing http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/)? |
know any good browsergames? | fragmede: This might be too niche to help but:
http://play.typeracer.comAs far as 'hacker friendly' maybe you're thinking of something like tetrisapp?
http://tetrisapp.appspot.com/static/howto.htmlThis isn't a browser game, but certainly could be and targets a less-targeted demographic:
http://www.zachtronicsindustries.com/pivot/entry.php?id=40 |
What's your philosophy? | KevBurnsJr: To experience the beauty of existence. |
What's your philosophy? | rw: Working to make self-actualization more likely for myself and others. |
What's your philosophy? | swombat: It's fun. |
What's your philosophy? | sundeep: Determinism. |
What's your philosophy? | run4yourlives: My Son. (and his soon to be bother/sister)Sounds hokey, and it's a relatively new feeling for me, but everything I do these days is all about enabling him. |
What's your philosophy? | marcocampos: I'll die anyway so why not make the most of the time I got? |
What's your philosophy? | a-priori: Humanism. |
What's your philosophy? | pavelludiq: Not knowing everything. I don't know exactly what drives me, but i have an enormous need to find out. The same with all sorts of other questions, if most people were me, and asked themselves the same stuff as i do, and got similar answers, they would be either mad, or really weird, I've managed to stay slightly mad and moderately weird, but i don't know for how long, and I'm eager to find out. |
What's your philosophy? | gibsonf1: The quest for happiness |
What's your philosophy? | drwh0: do unto others then run like hell |
What's your philosophy? | noodle: i ain't got nothin' better to do |
What's your philosophy? | mihasya: Testosterone. |
What's your philosophy? | sanj: Always taking the fork in the road that'll result in the best story. |
What's your philosophy? | iloveyouocean: Don't experience life through the filter of a philosophy. |
What's your philosophy? | jcapote: why not? |
What's your philosophy? | endtwist: I want to live my life, not just exist within it. |
What's your philosophy? | flashgordon: well trying to prevent a midlife crisis. By the time I hit mid to late 30s I want to be spending a lot more time on things that I am passionate about - my family, kids (hopefully when I have them), my violin and entrepreneurship, and lot less at a job that sucks out my life! |
What's your philosophy? | sarvesh: I exist to misbehave, it's fun. |
What's your philosophy? | dmpayton: Curiosity, and for the pure enjoyment of it. |
What's your philosophy? | javert: The only metaphysical purpose of a human being is to survive.The only moral purpose of a human being is to pursue happiness. |
What's your philosophy? | cmos: To make something from nothing that has an impact, hopefully for the better, in how people live.Hitting payroll, though, in the more short term. :) |
What's your philosophy? | cperciva: Strive for excellence. |
What's your philosophy? | shaunxcode: I would like to think that java programmers adhere to objectivism thus I must be into functionalism which I feel is an analog to utility? Making proceduralism futility? |
What's your philosophy? | Prrometheus: Seems to be the thing to do. |
What's your philosophy? | DanielBMarkham: I'm toying with being an Anti-Solipsist, which basically states that everybody exists but me. I am completely imaginary and just a figment of real people's perceptions.Since you exist, you should find this interesting, except that it came from me, an entity that is just a figment of your imagination.Then again maybe not.As you can see, I'm still working out some bugs with this worldview.(grin)I joke because I find the question slightly inane: people are who they are. It's not like they choose a philosophy and suddenly become something besides the emotional, reasoning hominids they've been all their lives. Philosophies can be bent, and people are really good at bending them to suit their predisposed character traits. In my opinion, of course. |
What's your philosophy? | noodle: existentialism.because i want to. |
What's your philosophy? | illumen: Great to see that no one sees themselves as a Hacker... on 'Hacker News'. I guess it's more 'Self Help News' these days anyway. |
What's your philosophy? | bokonist: to figure out a philosophy ( and have fun trying) |
What's your philosophy? | petercooper: If I continue to contribute small pieces of knowledge, technology or such to the world, hopefully someone will be inspired by all those collective bits and pieces (in combination with those of others) to eventually answer the big questions and promote the well-being of our species. |
What's your philosophy? | unalone: Things are better every year. You can do anything you want to, and your actions inspire others to do the same. There is a joy in masterful creation. |
What's your philosophy? | zitterbewegung: Thought that can be changed due to experiment (bayesian thought). Deconstructuralism applied to society and preconceived notions of truth (or even if truth exists). Nondeterminism and how that applies to free will. Thats what makes me get up in the morning. |
What's your philosophy? | rnc000: secular-humanist-singularitarian-objectivist |
What's your philosophy? | dill_day: To become united and in line with the beauty and vitality of Nature, and to become united with those we love - what other ultimate object in life is there? Surely all these other things, these games and examinations, these churches and chapels, these district councils and money markets, these top-hats and telephones and even the general necessity of earning one's living - if they are not ultimately for that, what are they for?(Edward Carpenter) |
What's your philosophy? | jderick: I like the fact that there is such a 'long tail' here. |
What's your philosophy? | pg: It feels good to make something that didn't exist before. |
What's your philosophy? | steveplace: Work like an Arminianist, sleep like a Calvinist.;) |
What's your philosophy? | streblo: I might die tomorrow. |
What's your philosophy? | ekpyrotic: I live for the moments when I forget I exist. Can happen when doing math, physics, philosophy, or listening to music; being able to transcend my existence. |
What's your philosophy? | bootload: "... What's your philosophy? ..."Sum ergo cogito |
What's your philosophy? | qqq: Karl Popper. |
What's your philosophy? | jmtame: To put a ding in the universe. |
What's your philosophy? | rms: EntropismThe goal of human civilization is to conquer entropy. Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale |
What's your philosophy? | rms: and for those that haven't read it: http://www.paulgraham.com/philosophy.html |
What's your philosophy? | charlesju: Buddah; I don't want to reincarnate into a bug. |
What's your philosophy? | sammyo: Why should one have 'a' philosophy? There are many fine mutually contradictory philosophies, I choose all. |
What's your philosophy? | helveticaman: I abide by game theory. |
What's your philosophy? | ninjaa: It's asking myself your question that drives me. I do whatever I do because I _believe_ (taken on faith) that it gives my existence meaning, and that ultimately, by doing enough of what I do, I hope to glean some insight into why I exist.I dislike doing anything based solely on faith, but in this case I regard my "belief" as certain as my "belief" in mathematics describing the truth, i.e. I consider both pretty much absolute.Here's a related commentary I found helpful, 2nd para lists (in a relatively archaic style, you have to parse it a bunch of times - 3 different religious answers to a similar existential question):
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/divinelife/auro/auro_fateandfree...(note: I don't advocate Hinduism, Sri Aurobindo or promote belief in God, am merely searching the answer to the question - "why am I not a fatalist?") |
What's your philosophy? | arakyd: I exist because of a certain chain of historical events. I continue to exist because I am programmed to maintain my existence and because my environment makes doing so with high probability (at least in the short and medium term) remarkably easy. Everything else is post-hoc storytelling. |
What's your philosophy? | kirubakaran: Screw philosophy.Is that a philosophy? |
What's your philosophy? | icey: I'm firmly Dadaist. Also: Spoon. |
What's your philosophy? | rokhayakebe: Life starts at the end of my comfort zone. (that has been my philosophy for the past few weeks. I usually change it every other week.) |
What's your philosophy? | awt: Understand as much as possible. Especially about how we came to be who we are. |
What's your philosophy? | programnature: Almost all processes that are not obviously simple can be viewed as computations of equivalent sophistication. |
Do you think primarily in English? | inerte: I speak english fairly well, I think... and have an IELTS certificate, so in theory I could even teach it. This is strange to say here, since most of you either speaks english as your primary language or also had several years of exposure to it.Anyway, I can think in English. I told this to a co-worker and he mocked me, "hahaha you're so full of yourself", but he asked a friend, an english teacher, and she told him that she also does it.My guess is that this s something that comes with usage. I read a lot of stuff written in english. Heck, sometimes I know the english term but not the portuguese one, something specially true for things related to my profession. Sometimes I am not sure how to spell an word in english, or even if it exists, and I google for it, and the first result is from a dictionary... meaning the word isn't even used that much.Here's an anecdote: I have a friend who is a musician and works mixing movies. Once I told him that I can't think, or make sounds in my head, using multiple tracks. By that I mean, when I think about a drum sound, and try to imagine a guitar riff with it, the drum always "stop". The notes don't intercalate. And well... he told me that he can, which is way cool. |
What's your philosophy? | rkowalick: Be Happy |
What's your philosophy? | callmeed: I believe I was created in the image of my creator–I think that's why I have an innate desire to create myself (and why we all do). And part of the reason I exist. |
What's your philosophy? | vorador: it's übermenschism : i'm a nietzsche fanboy |
What's your philosophy? | ryan-allen: It doesn't really matter, the Universe will prevail!!! |
What's your philosophy? | jobeirne: I cannot prove the existence of anything, except for myself. |
What's your philosophy? | gills: To create.To leave this place just a little better than I found it. |
What's your philosophy? | comatose_kid: I follow the philosophy of the Divine Porcine. Briefly stated, followers of this philosophy believe there must be a divine being, since how else could you explain that bacon, ham, and pork chops all come from the same wonderful animal? |
What's your philosophy? | abijlani: I just live in the moment |
What's your philosophy? | travisjeffery: Objectivism. |
What's your philosophy? | SapphireSun: The pursuit of truth mixed with novelty drives me. I honestly cannot answer why I exist though ;-) |
What's your philosophy? | ntoll: > Why exist?
Just ask yourself why you don't commit suicide... |
What's your philosophy? | bayareaguy: I'm on the Nietzsche 3-step program.http://books.google.com/books?id=v5DFOleeTeAC&pg=PA13... |
What's your philosophy? | zupatol: I listen to my conscience. I can really tell when I'm going in the wrong direction.I am surprised no one else has mentioned anything of the sort in this thread. |
What's your philosophy? | jgrahamc: Be excellent to one another |
What's your philosophy? | jsmcgd: I don't think I have a philosophy. Do you need one? |
What's your philosophy? | paraschopra: I exist to kill boredom |
What's your philosophy? | ice_man: The existence of nothing is equivalent to the existence of everything; neither can exist without the other since their respective definitions can only be expressed in relation (as a negation) of the other.Both existence and a lack thereof are a part of the one same entity.This entity mirrors itself infinitely both in "space" and in "time".It mirrors itself in "time" by alternating between the states of existence and a lack thereof.It mirrors itself in "space" exponentially by necessarily drawing a border around itself because the very existence of both existence and a lack thereof must give rise to a lack of existence and a lack thereof, if and only if it is to adhere to its own rule, to which it must by its own definition, which itself must exist by definition in the first paragraph.This process of progressively expanding the "borders" of existence continues ad infinitum and gives rise to what we know as reality.As depicted in the following moving picture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH45ffITujI |
What's your philosophy? | noblethrasher: To discover truth and beauty and then then share them through empathy in design and argument. |
What's your philosophy? | mantas: There's no tomorrow. |
What's your philosophy? | diN0bot: To do good better. |
What's your philosophy? | lallysingh: Ugh, really?Here's a simple one that usually works: care about other people, contribute to the world around you. After that, the rest of life figures itself out pretty easily.If you want some sort of logic or math proof on why this is, remove head from rectum. |
What's your philosophy? | orionlogic: will your philosophy change by anti-aging discoveries?So you might ask: will you live the same life as if you would come back again after you die?if yes,then you live well now...(so in short, this is my philosophy) |
What's your philosophy? | Eliezer: I am here to debug an unstable, confusing, and feature-poor universe. |
What's your philosophy? | pstinnett: be here now |
What's your philosophy? | rodrigo: Its great to be in movement;
dont know for people in other ages, but in our time, things seems to be acceleratin and that makes it a great time to live. |
What's your philosophy? | anamax: Minimize dependencies. |
What's your philosophy? | biohacker42: Cheerful nihilism. |
What's your philosophy? | jonallanharper: Objectivism |
demo video do's and don't's | fp: A very important point is comprehensibility of any voice and readability of all the text in your video. Some demo videos I've seen are not too great at these. |
demo video do's and don't's | neovive: I would suggest also offering an alternative screen tour as well. Since not everyone will have sound enabled or speakers on -- especially in offices. |
Review my Web Design | mstefff: Just finished this for a client. Hulu-esque theme / mimic. Slideshow powered by some custom jQuery + scrollTo plugin. Backend is Drupal. Best viewed in IE7. What do you think? |
buying options in a privately-held company | tptacek: First, let me be "FIRST LAWYER POST" and tell you that you have to have counsel check this.Second, it's actually likely that your friend cannot sell options in the company; typical boilerplate employee stock option agreements prevent this. Without that agreement, a competitor can buy options from a former employee and wind up with common stock.Third, once your friend left the company, a clock probably started ticking on those options; they'll either expire or the company will automatically get the option to buy them back at their strike price (or some other nominal price). They may not be worth anything at all.Fourth, it may not be lawful for the private company to have non-employee shareholders; private companies are typically only allowed to sell shares to SEC accredited investors, who (simplifying) have more than $1MM in the bank or $300k+/yr in salary.Fifth, you want to seriously consider whether you even want to hold shares in a private company. Your friend was an employee, is probably last in line for liquidity, and probably has no meaningful voting rights. I have several friends who wound up paying for their employee options only to have them become worthless due to restructuring (companies can restructure, terribly dilute existing options, but issue new options to current employees to make up for them) or M&A terms. |
buying options in a privately-held company | rstonge: The main issue here is: does the company allow the early employee to sell shares from an executed option when there is no public market for the shares. Most companies don't allow these shares to be sold (or have right of first refusal on a sale), so in this case the early employee would have to hold the shares.If you are going to approach the CFO and let him know what you are thinking, this is the main issue to bring up. If the company will allow the early employee to sell the shares, than I would structure the $10,000 as a short term loan with tangible property as collateral (such as his car). The loan can either be paid back in 30 days or a set number of shares can be delivered at a set price. The $10,000 would be subtracted from YOUR_PRICE * SHARES_SOLD when the shares are delivered. You would write a check to the early employee for the difference. If no cash or shares are delivered you would get title to the car.If a liquidity event is required to sell the shares to a third party, you could simply extend the loan period long enough for a liquidly event to emerge. This is more risky as the time frame is unknown, and would bring in concepts such as interest on the $10,000, etc.The CFO should know the share price the board set at the last meeting. These prices tend to be low, but in general I think you should pay less than this amount for the shares. A discount of 50% is not unreasonable.The other issue is taxes. The early employee will be incurring taxes at exercise on non-qualified options and at sale on incentive options, so in either case this needs to be factored in. The early employee will pay ( BOARD_SET_PRICE – EXERCISE_PRICE ) * NUMBER_OF_SHARES * MARGINAL_TAX_RATE for NQO at exercise and (YOUR_PRICE - EXERCISE_PRICE) * NUMBER_OF_SHARES * MARGINAL_TAX_RATE for ISO when he sells them to you. As long as the tax amount is greater than (YOUR_PRICE – EXERCISE_PRICE) * SHARES_SOLD he will be covered. His profit would be the shares he retains from the deal.Good luck. |
Review my Web Design | scott_s: There is a very strange bug with Firefox on Mac. Sometimes when the slide transitions, the explanation text appears to the right of the arrow, instead of overlayed on top of the image. This causes a horizontal scroll bar to appear. Sometimes I even see all of the explanation boxes.This will probably be nasty to debug; I can't even figure out what the exact circumstances are that cause it. I thought it might have to do with restarting at the beginning of the animation, but I'm not sure.For the design itself, perhaps reduce the font size of the navigation text on the right? It would offset it more from the body text, and then I could view all of the navigation without having to scroll. |
buying options in a privately-held company | rstonge: tptacek's forth point is probably correct. You also may need to bring in someone with a series 7 license to close the sale. It's just the government looking after you for your own good.tptacek's third point is moot as you will be getting shares in the company, not options, since the $1 per share is an exercise price. |
buying options in a privately-held company | brk: See other advice above, ie: it's very unlikely that you can actually execute this arrangement.Supposing that you can, however, I would recommend that you either purchase shares outright, or now. Stock is not really a good thing to have joint ownership of (excepting cases of spouses, etc.).I would never "purchase" (I'm using the term loosely here) stock that I didn't have ultimate control over. If the ex-employee wants to make some money, you could agree to purchase his options at a price between their current value and his strike price.If you don't follow the above, you'd need a fairly rigid contract outlining how and when either party could force the sale of the stock (price, criteria, RFR, etc.). |
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