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44,630 | 44,026 |
rms
|
Where can I find a good designer?
|
redrory
|
http://www.programmermeetdesigner.com
|
Heya Guys,
I am planning to re-do my site, as I am looking to upgrade from my free template look.
Any suggestions,
Thanks much
| 1 | 13 |
2007-08-21 03:55:34 UTC
|
44,634 | 44,567 |
augy
|
Valleywag: Bow down and Worship Xobni's Party Throwing Skills
|
gaborcselle
|
If that was their "we just got an office" party, imagine what it will be like if they go ipo. Fingers crossed.
|
There's no such thing as bad press.
| 2 | 18 |
2007-08-21 03:59:41 UTC
|
44,637 | 44,580 |
daniel-cussen
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
I'm learning on Lisp, and it's kind of weird. I'm using Practical Common Lisp (http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/) and I have to reread chapters a few times to really understand them. I downloaded Lisp in a Box for it, and that is weird because it's rickety. The tutorial isn't there, and it will keep kicking me out of the SLIME.I'm in the middle of a four-month vacation, but progress is pathetic. Lisp in a box and Practical Common Lisp aren't helping me stay on task. The look like they're made for guys who are learning their sixth programming language.If you're looking to learn Lisp, try to find something ostensibly beginner-friendly.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 5 | 20 |
2007-08-21 04:11:08 UTC
|
44,647 | 44,567 |
dawie
|
Valleywag: Bow down and Worship Xobni's Party Throwing Skills
|
gaborcselle
|
Good to see that you invited some girls
|
There's no such thing as bad press.
| 4 | 18 |
2007-08-21 04:38:32 UTC
|
44,650 | 44,580 |
alex_c
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Am I the only one who would suggest a more rigid language like C or Turbo Pascal? (am I showing my age here?)
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 16 | 20 |
2007-08-21 04:50:11 UTC
|
44,654 | 44,589 |
alex_c
|
Investors to Web Start-Ups: Where's the Advertising?
|
jkopelman
|
I'm sure part of the rationale is - given how cheap bandwidth/hardware/software is getting, if you're charging for your service on the web, chances are someone will come along and give it away for free. I guess when that happens investors aren't really willing to bet that the pay service will continue to grow once there's a free alternative.Which isn't to say that's always true...
| null | 0 | 6 |
2007-08-21 04:59:22 UTC
|
44,657 | 44,525 |
zach
|
Starting-Up and staying in Boston
|
ivankirigin
|
Boston seems like the Second City of startups. Great place to get started but not the big time.When the SFP started, I had no idea that Boston had much current startup activity. I mean, I knew a couple places that started there but not as many as, say, Seattle. But I think now it's a great place for the first stage of a startup's life. Lots of hackers and lots of financiers that can get you going. But the M&A, influential investors and press is just so extremely concentrated in the Bay Area.Don't get me wrong, I'm an LA guy and am fond of Cambridge, so I'm not a homer here. But that's the reality, especially for companies as determined to make it as the YC companies presumably are.
|
The HackerNews MeetUp last night was lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who made it!I asked someone in the current YC batch how many in the current YC companies are staying in Boston.To his knowledge: none! That is a big surprise. What does it mean for those of us that like the town and would love to stay?
| 0 | 8 |
2007-08-21 05:17:03 UTC
|
44,659 | 44,580 |
tel
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Learn whichever language is closest to your application. If you want to make a blog, go take a look at some blogging software already out there and learn the language it's written in. (Wordpress -> PHP w/ HTML & CSS just because they're always helpful)Then, once you've got your feet wet, learn another one. I feel like I never understood one language until I could compare it to another.Python and Ruby are great for hammering out functionality and learning. Common Lisp/Scheme are great for widening your perception of how problems can be solved. I don't want to say much about C because I'm not proficient with it, but it definitely gives you a closer feeling to how your computer runs your code even if it obfuscates the problem a little. Learn Haskell/OCaml when you're feeling lucky. They will break your brain and then rebuild it in crazy, inventive new ways.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 20 | 20 |
2007-08-21 05:20:15 UTC
|
44,662 | 44,580 |
michaelneale
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Python is certainly a good one (ruby as well) - "Learning Python" by Lutz & Ascher I think is suitable for someone like you (and it is not a bad reference as you get more experienced). Ruby can be a bit stranger to newcomers (in my opinion), people like to be "clever" in ruby, and then there is the hype (this is my personal opinion - although I find ruby much easier to use myself, and its OO approach suits me a bit more then python).As for mind expanding, I like Scheme - as taught by MIT in the SICP series (you can watch the videos on google video). It would be interesting to see that taught to someone new to programming (sorry to make an experiment of you !). Someone tried to teach this stuff (kind of) to me once in miranda (didn't work to well as a first programming language).As for practical messy stuff, then look into Java (for basic static strong typing and endless tools) and Perl if you must, the basics of C to wrap your head around pointers may help - I learned that around the same time as motorola assembler (much nicer then intel) and it helped form a mental model of 'on the metal' computation which I found helpful.Another angle: Haskell seems to be popular for functional programming (as it is pure) - many people think functional's time has come, and there are some useful videos introducing it here: http://sequence.complete.org/hwn/20070807Stick to things where you can get all the tools you need for free on the platform you use (and they are easy to get running).
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 15 | 20 |
2007-08-21 05:33:12 UTC
|
44,663 | 44,580 |
michaelneale
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Python is certainly a good one (ruby as well) - "Learning Python" by Lutz & Ascher I think is suitable for someone like you (and it is not a bad reference as you get more experienced). Ruby can be a bit stranger, people like to be "clever" in ruby, and then there is the hype. As for mind expanding, I like scheme - as taught by MIT in the SICP series (you can watch the videos on google video). It would be interesting to see that taught to someone new to programming (sorry to make an experiment of you !).As for practical messy stuff, then look into Java (for basic static strong typing and endless tools), Perl if you must.Another angle: Haskell seems to be popular for functional programming (as it is pure) - many people think functional's time has come, and there are some useful videos introducing it here: http://sequence.complete.org/hwn/20070807Stick to things where you can get all the tools you need for free on the platform you use (and they are easy to get running).
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 4 | 20 |
2007-08-21 05:33:31 UTC
|
44,667 | 44,580 |
thingsilearned
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Python is a great language to start, and even stay with. I've taught a few people to program in python. Very simple syntax, well supported, you'll love it and it will make a lot of sense. Start with python.org to download and learn.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 0 | 20 |
2007-08-21 06:02:27 UTC
|
44,668 | 44,523 |
asdflkj
|
Saving the Internet with hate: a technical solution to the social problem
|
bct
|
Yeah, let's make internet more like high school! Actually, this might be a good thing. It will separate the "hate" crowd from the rest, and the rest will be better for it.
| null | 1 | 9 |
2007-08-21 06:25:10 UTC
|
44,681 | 44,679 |
staunch
|
Bombshell Announcement for Flash Player 9 -- Support For Standard Video Formats
|
staunch
|
This is huge news for video on the web. Flash is going be able to play all sorts of common video/audio formats without any conversion to FLV. It's going to make a lot of things easier and some new things possible.One huge gain will be high resolution streaming. Until now you had to pay thousands of dollars to buy the proprietary VP6 encoder. Soon you'll be able to use H264 directly. This is going to be a really big deal.This is also a strong indicator that the iPhone is about to have Flash.
| null | 0 | 7 |
2007-08-21 07:30:47 UTC
|
44,682 | 44,511 |
mynameishere
|
20/20: "Stupid in America"
|
ivankirigin
|
A school is good or bad because of the population of students, rather than the teachers. And so, if you choose a school, and if you choose the "best", it happens to be the one with the best students. When everyone does this, it quickly leads to a regression to the mean. Depending on the geography, this isn't a problem. But in an area in which there are wildly different populations of students near one another (as in many cities, where the poor and rich neighborhoods exist close by) it won't work. Parents in rich neighborhoods won't stand and watch the average IQ of their public school drop 15 points as idiots are bused in.
| null | 1 | 11 |
2007-08-21 07:40:49 UTC
|
44,684 | 44,580 |
soegaard
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
The question is moot. The concrete language isn't important. What's important are the thought processes and techniques behind program construction. Unfortunately only a few beginner
books put the language in the background.My recommendation: Get the book "How to Design Programs". You can check it out at www.htdp.org first.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 26 | 20 |
2007-08-21 07:43:02 UTC
|
44,686 | 44,580 |
mynameishere
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
If I ever have children I'm planning on introducing "programming" through digital logic simulators, viz, "How to add numbers using transistors". This sort of thing has been done before:http://www.multicians.org/thvv/boyd.html...but I think it's more suitable when kids are younger. If you're old enough, you probably want to get web pages up and running faster than you could with bare wires.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 18 | 20 |
2007-08-21 07:58:35 UTC
|
44,688 | 44,580 |
euccastro
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Re: people around here recommending The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP), I'd warn a newbie that it may be a demanding way to start, and I've had trouble encouraging former coworkers (some with way more experience than me) into reading it. But don't get scared a priori; skim the preface and the 1.1 section to see if it's for you.Even if it's for you, you may want to check out The Little Schemer first. It's an easy, wonderful and enjoyable way to get introduced into programming. Don't spoil it by looking elsewhere first. :)[Edit: How to Design Programs (HtDP) is probably a good one to try after The Little Schemer. That one too is best if you read it as a beginner, because it tends to hold your hand a lot, and you'll have less patience for that when you consider yourself more expert.These three books are a strong reason to consider Scheme.]Given your current motivation, I think you'd be better off figuring out what kind of languages the programmers you'll be interacting with use, so you don't learn something that is too different.If you don't know those programmers yet, do you know anyone that could mentor you, or at least anyone who you could bug with questions often enough? If so, ask them about what language they'd be most comfortable helping you with. Having someone to rescue you when you get stuck will probably help you more than any qualities of the languages themselves.Failing all of the above, and if you can't get over the notation of Scheme, you can't go very wrong with Python. It's a piece of cake to get started with, it has a great joy to WTF ratio, it looks less alien than the Lisps for most programmers, and it's a very practical and powerful language for the future.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 6 | 20 |
2007-08-21 08:01:37 UTC
|
44,693 | 44,509 |
vikram
|
Jeremy Zawodny: There is no Web Operating System (or WebOS)
|
toffer
|
I think as there are no examples of a unique type of application on these platforms, it's hard to see what the point of them is.More over developing apps is still left to programmers (and a select group of them who are always interested in learning any new platform/language), it doesn't make it easier for Joe Average to do any sort of involved tasks.Specifically with YouOS (the only one I tried), why do I need to understand applications and installation? People want to ability to control their computers, not just use them. As Hamming said the purpose of computing is insight. If all you can do is install a new calculator, I don't think I can be bothered. I've got one which works just fine.Just moving the desktop to the browser isn't enough of a differentiator.Maybe this model might work for mobile phones, which is unlikely to have the full range of apps that a desktop has.
| null | 1 | 31 |
2007-08-21 08:13:15 UTC
|
44,705 | 44,580 |
vikram
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Which ever language you pick, try and pick up a book which shows you how to do functional programming in it. Try and do this before you start writing imperative programs.It's easier to go from functional to imperative than to go from imperative to functional.Do you have a friend who is a programmer who will be able to help you setup an environment so that you can write hello world? Then choose the language that she knows.Like learning anything new, I want to pick a safe first choice where you can spend time building confidence. As soon as you have a bit of a foundation then explore other choices.Personally I would recommend scheme. The little schemer is an exceptional book for a newbie and I think it's not hard to get scheme setup.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 21 | 20 |
2007-08-21 08:34:44 UTC
|
44,714 | 44,628 |
portLAN
|
News.YC's half birthday (with stats)
|
pg
|
Six-month anniversary of YC News, six-day anniversary of Hacker News.
| null | 2 | 33 |
2007-08-21 09:00:11 UTC
|
44,715 | 44,523 |
portLAN
|
Saving the Internet with hate: a technical solution to the social problem
|
bct
|
> The Internet gives little people the power, confidence, and anonymity they need to abuse anyone they want without any fear of retribution.So obviously the solution to anyone hurting your fragile ego is to make it easier to lash out at them. Or if you disagree with them on any subject, make them pay.
| null | 2 | 9 |
2007-08-21 09:06:56 UTC
|
44,720 | 44,580 |
iamelgringo
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
I'm teaching my 14 year old nephew programming, and I chose Python. Why? Because it's interpreted, so you get the instant gratification of writing command line programs. You also get IDLE bundled with the .exe (on windows) which shaves a bit off the text editor learning curve a bit.Also, I think that Python's beginner documentation is better than Ruby's. The beginner books for Python are a bit easier to follow than the Pickaxe book. Sure, Why's Poignant Guide is fun, but unless you understand programming already, you'll probably be lost.Ruby does have HacketyHack, which is fun and the tutorials are really well written, but it's still a little buggy. Some of the code examples in the tutorial are broken, causing a lot of frustration for a young noob. In another 6 months or a year, I'd suggest Ruby and HacketyHack, not right now, though.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 13 | 20 |
2007-08-21 09:19:53 UTC
|
44,725 | 44,509 |
7media
|
Jeremy Zawodny: There is no Web Operating System (or WebOS)
|
toffer
|
http://www.irintech.com/x1/blogarchive.php?id=1439
| null | 5 | 31 |
2007-08-21 09:52:08 UTC
|
44,732 | 44,675 |
bootload
|
The 100 oldest domains on the internet
|
mqt
|
att, hp, ibm, sun, siemens, tek, nec, adobe, unisys, apple, prime, ncr, sco, wyse but no Microsoft
| null | 0 | 4 |
2007-08-21 10:42:24 UTC
|
44,736 | 44,580 |
pbnaidu
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
What about symfony-project.com (symfony) PHP framework for creating webapps similar to Ruby on Rails?
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 32 | 20 |
2007-08-21 10:50:57 UTC
|
44,747 | 44,743 |
staunch
|
Work vs. Value
|
drusenko
|
The objective of school is for students to gain knowledge and grow their minds. It's not to see how much value you can produce. Everyone maxes their brain out at a certain point, the goal is to get everyone maxed out so they have to get smarter. Feynman's teacher gave him a college level book just so in his boredom he wouldn't distract the rest of the class.Most schools suck at handling people who are different than average. Thanks to the internet it's easier than ever to learn by yourself. It's an autodidact revolution!
| null | 2 | 15 |
2007-08-21 12:22:03 UTC
|
44,749 | 44,743 |
damon
|
Work vs. Value
|
drusenko
|
To me it seems the post wants to be titled "Work vs. Ability".I remember in high school (and perhaps college, but that was a blur) some classes gave "attendance points". That always bothered me.If the class itself had value, attending class would naturally produce, on average, better test scores. If classes don't add value, anyone with sincere interest in the subject could pull more value out of reading books and reading code than sitting through lecture.
| null | 0 | 15 |
2007-08-21 12:29:51 UTC
|
44,754 | 44,628 |
nanijoe
|
News.YC's half birthday (with stats)
|
pg
|
Wow...I had no idea this site was so new. I've been registered here for about 4 months and I thought I was a newbie
| null | 0 | 33 |
2007-08-21 12:50:57 UTC
|
44,755 | 44,548 |
vlad
|
HackrTrackr Now Allows For International Users
|
dottertrotter
|
East Coast is De Best!
| null | 5 | 21 |
2007-08-21 12:53:41 UTC
|
44,757 | 44,580 |
brlewis
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Here's a good starting place for understanding concepts:http://www.htdp.org/
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 31 | 20 |
2007-08-21 12:55:08 UTC
|
44,762 | 44,743 |
brlewis
|
Work vs. Value
|
drusenko
|
This reminds me of the "Working Harder" section of pg's essay:http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.htmlWorking harder does mean something, but only in the context of delivering value.
| null | 1 | 15 |
2007-08-21 13:00:09 UTC
|
44,765 | 44,580 |
kevinl
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Python. It's elegant and easy to learn. Especially you have no programming experience before, you can think python way more quickly before other language pollute your head:)
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 28 | 20 |
2007-08-21 13:04:38 UTC
|
44,767 | 44,580 |
RevolutionsEnd
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
If you are serious about learning to program, Im gonna have to recommend C or C++. Many people may recommend that you start out by learning a scripting langauge, but these languages have many weaknesses. I'll use python as an example. Python is an easy language to learn, but it is also a softened and simplified language aimed for ease of reading and writing efficiency, not performance. Python runs about as slow as Java (which is quite slow), making it hard to run complex and especially recursive algorithms. The OO in python seems very fake and inflexible, and as they say, it feels "tagged on". At first, learning a fully-fledged programming language may seem difficult, as there are all the blocks that you have to simultaneously put in at the right place. But after the first few steps, you will be surprised at the power of the computer at your command. C/C++ also forces you do develop good programming standards and habits, both of which play an integral role in your working efficiency.I myself learned C++ as my first language. Yes, it was hard at first. But the payoff now obviously outweigh the initial difficulties.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 10 | 20 |
2007-08-21 13:20:31 UTC
|
44,770 | 44,589 |
brlewis
|
Investors to Web Start-Ups: Where's the Advertising?
|
jkopelman
|
This is counterintuitive to me. I thought VCs did not want uniformity of business models among the startups they fund.
| null | 1 | 6 |
2007-08-21 13:26:38 UTC
|
44,776 | 44,683 |
pg
|
Why are we killing mmpcse's submissions?
|
dfranke
|
Because his posts are plagiarized.In future if anyone wants to ask about something like this, please do it by email, not by posting the question as a story on News.YC.
|
He submits all of his own blog posts. Most of them aren't very good, but they're still on topic, so why is this grounds for deletion? If the consensus is that his writing is really that content-free, then doesn't it make more sense for the oracles just to train his submissions as bad rather than killing them?
| 0 | 4 |
2007-08-21 13:49:11 UTC
|
44,779 | 44,764 |
damon
|
gBox: Give The Gift Of DRM-Free Music
|
brlewis
|
From gbox.com home page (local machine : osx firefox 2):"Hey, you need to be on a Windows machine and use Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, or Firefox 2.0 to get the full gBox experience. We are working hard to support Mac and Linux users, but it will take some time. Big apologies for the inconvenience."
| null | 0 | 2 |
2007-08-21 13:51:12 UTC
|
44,785 | 44,743 |
johnrob
|
Work vs. Value
|
drusenko
|
I think teacher recommendations follow a similar trap. Which people get the best rec letters? The ones who ask for help all the time (and get lots of face time). If you understand the material, what are you supposed to do - waste the teacher's time by asking questions you can answer yourself?
| null | 3 | 15 |
2007-08-21 14:32:30 UTC
|
44,786 | 44,778 |
epi0Bauqu
|
The Dark Side of Startups: 5 Corrosive Co-Founder Conflicts
|
epi0Bauqu
|
IMO, equal shares and consensus decision making go a long way in avoidance of a whole host of potentially fatal startup conflicts. And having a policy to openly discuss everything, which goes hand in hand with consensus decision making, creates a healthy forum to resolve conflicts before they blow up into unresolvable or annoying-to-resolve situations.
| null | 1 | 23 |
2007-08-21 14:33:12 UTC
|
44,788 | 44,580 |
rob
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
If it's for the web only, nothing beats PHP right now in terms of speed and deployment (especially if you're on a budget and need to scale). I'll probably get a lot of flack for this, oh well - but PHP isn't as bad as people say it is provided you take advantage of OOP and separate your logic from presentation.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 27 | 20 |
2007-08-21 14:36:22 UTC
|
44,792 | 44,791 |
amichail
|
My Facebook Word Association Prediction Game (feedback appreciated, 2 more users needed for submission)
|
amichail
|
It's a very simple game. If it becomes popular, I could use it to direct traffic to my Study Stickies app:http://apps.facebook.com/studystickies/
| null | 0 | 1 |
2007-08-21 14:53:01 UTC
|
44,793 | 44,548 |
bootload
|
HackrTrackr Now Allows For International Users
|
dottertrotter
|
works for me thanks @dottertrotter for the quick turn around
| null | 4 | 21 |
2007-08-21 14:56:55 UTC
|
44,797 | 44,743 |
rokhayakebe
|
Work vs. Value
|
drusenko
|
The issue is that individuals are forced (by family, school or the system) to work at things they do not enjoy, therefore the value they produce is not proportional to the amount of energy spent THINKing or DOing. The main cause of all these problems is the system. 95% of people are brainwashed and asked to follow a path that someone else designed. It is not always a bad thing to follow another path, but at least know who the heck designed it. The consequences are people make money and are not happy, people go to work and count down the hours before they can live. To them work is going from 9 to 5 ( or any schedule) instead of accomplishing "step n today". Now most of those 95% won't get it. If they did, forums like this one would not exist. Sometimes the beauty of life lies in " some of us not getting IT" (where IT could be anything).
| null | 5 | 15 |
2007-08-21 15:01:00 UTC
|
44,801 | 44,763 |
sethg
|
FCC to 700MHz Spectrum Bidders: You Better Have Bank
|
aston
|
IIRC there was a Supreme Court case involving a company that bid on one of the earlier spectrum auctions, won the auction, and went bankrupt before it paid. The government wanted to take back that piece of spectrum, but the courts said that the bankrupt company had title to the spectrum and the government would just have to get in line behind all the other creditors for a piece of its debt.Presumably the FCC is trying to make sure this doesn't happen again.
| null | 0 | 3 |
2007-08-21 15:23:40 UTC
|
44,806 | 44,384 |
augustus
|
Do you have no life because you work in a startup or...
|
vuknje
|
you know what?I feel sorry for employees who work their whole life for companies and then suddenly find themselves laid off.The initial hardwork is nothing compared to the great life ahead once we make it!!!
|
... do you work in a startup because you have no life?
| 8 | 16 |
2007-08-21 15:39:51 UTC
|
44,812 | 44,802 |
drm237
|
Search without Google Tracking You (My 'pseudo' Startup)
|
drm237
|
It may be worth noting that the iframe you see when you search is not google, but google's results served from our site. Of course, if we just showed google in an iframe, it wouldn't do anything for privacy.
|
There's been a lot in the news lately about search engine privacy, so I thought for a quick project it might be interesting to make a site that doesn't allow the search engines to track you. It's still alpha quality, but please take a look and give me some feedback. Thanks.
http://www.flyvault.com/safesearch
| 2 | 5 |
2007-08-21 16:01:57 UTC
|
44,818 | 44,802 |
nickb
|
Search without Google Tracking You (My 'pseudo' Startup)
|
drm237
|
Awesome! It's better, faster, nicer looking than Scroogle.org
|
There's been a lot in the news lately about search engine privacy, so I thought for a quick project it might be interesting to make a site that doesn't allow the search engines to track you. It's still alpha quality, but please take a look and give me some feedback. Thanks.
http://www.flyvault.com/safesearch
| 4 | 5 |
2007-08-21 16:09:27 UTC
|
44,825 | 44,580 |
tx
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
Nearly all software is this world is written in C. Web is 95% powered by C (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Windows, IIS). Everything else is just configuration :-)
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 29 | 20 |
2007-08-21 16:34:54 UTC
|
44,826 | 44,823 |
yubrew
|
devHouse in Cambridge, Sept 16th
|
yubrew
|
We had a lot of fun at the last devHouse, so join us and help make this into a fun, monthly event. Hack out your next idea, work on a cool side project, meet like minded people.We need help spreading the word to college campuses, and getting sponsors for food/drinks.If you're interested in helping out, let me know, [email protected]
|
We had a lot of fun last time, so join us and help make this into a fun, monthly event. Test out ideas, work on a fun side project, meet other like-minded people.If you're interested in helping out, contact me, [email protected]
We need help with spreading the word, and finding sponsors to get free food.
| 1 | 10 |
2007-08-21 16:36:51 UTC
|
44,830 | 44,828 |
aston
|
it's slow... it's unstable... it's... [reddit] beta!
|
aston
|
The contest between reddit and pg heats up...
| null | 2 | 9 |
2007-08-21 16:48:49 UTC
|
44,836 | 44,580 |
tim
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
I recommend to learn object-oriented programming with c++
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 34 | 20 |
2007-08-21 16:59:04 UTC
|
44,840 | 44,823 |
dangrover
|
devHouse in Cambridge, Sept 16th
|
yubrew
|
I've gone to two of the past ones. I highly recommend going if you're in Boston!
|
We had a lot of fun last time, so join us and help make this into a fun, monthly event. Test out ideas, work on a fun side project, meet other like-minded people.If you're interested in helping out, contact me, [email protected]
We need help with spreading the word, and finding sponsors to get free food.
| 2 | 10 |
2007-08-21 17:04:43 UTC
|
44,841 | 44,802 |
bls
|
Search without Google Tracking You (My 'pseudo' Startup)
|
drm237
|
Instead of giving our private information to Google to use for 18 months, we are giving it to you to use indefinitely?Where is your privacy policy?And, what is your hosting provider's policy? I found out recently that my hosting provider refused to make any guarantees; that means that I cannot make any guarantees either, since my hosting provider has full access to my server.
|
There's been a lot in the news lately about search engine privacy, so I thought for a quick project it might be interesting to make a site that doesn't allow the search engines to track you. It's still alpha quality, but please take a look and give me some feedback. Thanks.
http://www.flyvault.com/safesearch
| 0 | 5 |
2007-08-21 17:06:25 UTC
|
44,842 | 44,771 |
RyanGWU82
|
How does VC behavior change when interest rates are cut?
|
NoMoreSnow
|
Interest rate cuts generally encourage business investment for two reasons.1. Interest rate cuts make equity investment more attractive. Equity investment is riskier than making loans (buying bonds) or cash (money markets, CDs). Investors do it anyway because equity pays a risk premium: equity returns tend to be higher than the return on cash or bonds. Example: Today, a hypothetical venture fund might offer a 10% expected return, and a hypothetical money market might offer 6%. So, you could make 4% more by investing in a VC fund. That's nice, but not necessarily worth the risk. But if interest rates are cut and everything else stays equal, the money market APR might drop to 4%. Now you can make 6% more by investing in the venture fund, which makes it more attractive to investors.2. Reduced interest rates encourage businesses to spend money. Lower rates make it cheaper for them to borrow money, which means they can justify spending money on projects which would be unattractive when interest rates are high. If your revenue comes from other businesses, such as through B2B sales or through advertising, this may make them more likely to spend money with your company.Obviously, lower interest rates aren't going to bring customers to your door -- you'll still need to fill your own sales pipeline. But it may make it more likely that your customer will pull the trigger and close the deal.
|
I was an intern at a fixed wireless broadband start-up when the dot-com bubble burst and I witnessed how all of the excitement for the start-up vanished when investors were afraid to give out money. It came down to bad timing for this start-up -- if they had only started a year earlier.How will the speculation that interest rates will be cut further affect the investment activities of angels, private equity, and VCs? This may affect when a lot entrepreneurs may launch their companies, right?
| 0 | 5 |
2007-08-21 17:10:51 UTC
|
44,847 | 44,828 |
rob
|
it's slow... it's unstable... it's... [reddit] beta!
|
aston
|
Anyone know what language it was made in?
| null | 3 | 9 |
2007-08-21 17:20:15 UTC
|
44,850 | 44,823 |
brlewis
|
devHouse in Cambridge, Sept 16th
|
yubrew
|
What makes this better than hacking in solitude? I'm not against social events, but I don't think of hacking as a social activity.
|
We had a lot of fun last time, so join us and help make this into a fun, monthly event. Test out ideas, work on a fun side project, meet other like-minded people.If you're interested in helping out, contact me, [email protected]
We need help with spreading the word, and finding sponsors to get free food.
| 0 | 10 |
2007-08-21 17:34:06 UTC
|
44,851 | 44,771 |
zcoelius
|
How does VC behavior change when interest rates are cut?
|
NoMoreSnow
|
Ryan is right. Cutting interest rates is great for startups. But, that is not what people are scared. The problem is the economy might tank as a result of all the money being lost in the equity, and debt markets right now. If that happens we are in for some pain.
|
I was an intern at a fixed wireless broadband start-up when the dot-com bubble burst and I witnessed how all of the excitement for the start-up vanished when investors were afraid to give out money. It came down to bad timing for this start-up -- if they had only started a year earlier.How will the speculation that interest rates will be cut further affect the investment activities of angels, private equity, and VCs? This may affect when a lot entrepreneurs may launch their companies, right?
| 2 | 5 |
2007-08-21 17:34:53 UTC
|
44,853 | 44,849 |
mattculbreth
|
Bravadosoft's Trial Sun Server
|
mattculbreth
|
So at Bravadosoft we're trying a new Sun Fire X4200M2 for a bit. I'll keep folks updated on it.BTW, this is my first post of original content to the group. Please massacre as needed. Taking all the help I can get. :)
|
So at Bravadosoft we're trying a new Sun Fire X4200M2 for a bit. I'll keep folks updated on it.BTW, this is my first post of original content to the group. Please massacre as needed. Taking all the help I can get. :)
| 0 | 1 |
2007-08-21 17:37:15 UTC
|
44,862 | 44,771 |
mattmaroon
|
How does VC behavior change when interest rates are cut?
|
NoMoreSnow
|
Does it even matter? Build something people want, and customers will come to you. When customers come to you, VCs won't be far behind.
|
I was an intern at a fixed wireless broadband start-up when the dot-com bubble burst and I witnessed how all of the excitement for the start-up vanished when investors were afraid to give out money. It came down to bad timing for this start-up -- if they had only started a year earlier.How will the speculation that interest rates will be cut further affect the investment activities of angels, private equity, and VCs? This may affect when a lot entrepreneurs may launch their companies, right?
| 3 | 5 |
2007-08-21 17:53:13 UTC
|
44,863 | 44,778 |
donna
|
The Dark Side of Startups: 5 Corrosive Co-Founder Conflicts
|
epi0Bauqu
|
I had the pit-bull conflict, where 1 of the the 5 would instigate a dog fight by building doubt about two of original founders. He would call up the other two guys only to talk about how the original founders didn't do it right. The other two guys became so weak and confused, GAWD, it was a nightmare relationship. The project died, the money drained, what a great lesson in regards to making sure the team works well together, has the same intention re the project, and feels fairly rewarded.
| null | 0 | 23 |
2007-08-21 17:56:12 UTC
|
44,866 | 44,865 |
dpapathanasiou
|
Yahoo Challenge to Google Has Roots in Open Source
|
dpapathanasiou
|
From the article:If you want to get your hands on an open source version of some of Google's core technologies, maybe you should ask Yahoo.Yahoo has emerged as one of a major sponsor of Hadoop, an open source project that aims to replicate Google's techniques for storing and processing large amounts of data distributed across hundreds or thousands of commodity PCs.
| null | 1 | 1 |
2007-08-21 17:58:45 UTC
|
44,884 | 44,882 |
dpapathanasiou
|
Lisp web frameworks: which one should I use?
|
jsmcgd
|
You've got many choices.This thread on c.l.l. discusses most of them: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_thread/...
|
I'm about to start development of a 'web 2.0' site. I've learnt some lisp and now I need to get to grips with a web framework. Any recommendations? Scalability is obviously important. Cheers.
| 3 | 18 |
2007-08-21 18:40:35 UTC
|
44,886 | 44,876 |
ph0rque
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
As far as punishment goes, there's something really simple: the kid gets kicked out (and goes [back?] to public school). This won't be the first resort, of course, but the fear will be enough to keep the kids in line.Also, you could do trial runs during the summer, and if both the parents and kid like it enough, they get to stay.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 11 | 29 |
2007-08-21 18:42:46 UTC
|
44,891 | 44,771 |
byrneseyeview
|
How does VC behavior change when interest rates are cut?
|
NoMoreSnow
|
Any economist would say "Marginally."A more useful answer: not enough to be worth caring about. Unless you're a specialist in interest rates, there is no point at which the money you'll make from an hour of pondering the Fed will exceed the amount you'd make from an hour calling customers or something. And keep in mind that experts don't do very well at predictions -- their main function is to help people hedge. In other words, even the people who care the most about such problems spend all of their time helping everyone else care less.
|
I was an intern at a fixed wireless broadband start-up when the dot-com bubble burst and I witnessed how all of the excitement for the start-up vanished when investors were afraid to give out money. It came down to bad timing for this start-up -- if they had only started a year earlier.How will the speculation that interest rates will be cut further affect the investment activities of angels, private equity, and VCs? This may affect when a lot entrepreneurs may launch their companies, right?
| 1 | 5 |
2007-08-21 18:50:27 UTC
|
44,893 | 44,876 |
dfranke
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
Most 6th-graders act like idiots even when there aren't adults around to treat them like idiots, so standards for admission would need to be pretty tight in order to create the proper culture. It can certainly be done, though. Canada/USA Mathcamp (http://mathcamp.org) is one incredible success at creating an environment where kids act like adults.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 10 | 29 |
2007-08-21 18:52:13 UTC
|
44,894 | 44,882 |
mattculbreth
|
Lisp web frameworks: which one should I use?
|
jsmcgd
|
Pylons<ducking>
|
I'm about to start development of a 'web 2.0' site. I've learnt some lisp and now I need to get to grips with a web framework. Any recommendations? Scalability is obviously important. Cheers.
| 7 | 18 |
2007-08-21 18:53:02 UTC
|
44,896 | 44,876 |
pg
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
This wouldn't work for the same reasons it wouldn't work to have a k-12 school for theoretical physicists: (a) no one smart enough to understand the subject would want to work full-time teaching third graders, and (b) only a small fraction of people are suited by ability and temperament for this kind of work, and you can't select them at age 5.It might work to have a specialized HS for hacking (hacking, not founding startups), but even there you'd face problem (a). Probably the best bet is for HS students interested in hacking to take courses at their local college-- which they do already.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 0 | 29 |
2007-08-21 18:55:32 UTC
|
44,899 | 44,876 |
steveplace
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
Hi, first post for me.This is feasible up to a point. The all out "charter school" idea would have the most government and beaurecratic hangups. There would still have to be standards and accountability (read: testing) that would have to go along in order to comply with this. However, there could be some smaller, scalable, proof of concept models that you could deploy to both public and private schools. For instance, you could create that whole idea into a subject (Design, Hack, 'trep 101), or you could make it completely elective like during lunch or after school.Another way to approach it is create it through a vocational program. These programs exist for other trades, mainly blue collar, in which they get paid a little and learn to be an electrician, car mechanic, etc. Around my area, there is a vocational school that pulls from all the high schools in the area, and they take the second half of the school block to attend. Transferring that sort of model over into "Hacker School" would seem like a nice first step to see whether it would succeed.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 4 | 29 |
2007-08-21 19:01:18 UTC
|
44,901 | 44,509 |
justinsb
|
Jeremy Zawodny: There is no Web Operating System (or WebOS)
|
toffer
|
I agree that a 'WebOS' is slightly silly, but I believe it to be a marketing name for a much stronger concept - the 'InternetOS'. Today's OSes were largely built for a disconnected world - the 'my machine is an island' scenario - which isn't necessarily the case today.The pertinent question is: where do today's systems fail us in an always or often-connected world? Maybe you'd work on the networking stack, providing services that made transferring between connections as seamless as possible (hopping from public wi-fi to 3G to WiMax, and prioritizing traffic based on network bandwidth and costs). Maybe we change filesystems to better support synchronization - for example, build in better change tracking so that we can synchronize using the minimum amount of bandwidth. Maybe you'd look for ways to be able to transfer the state of your applications, so you can work on one machine, and then continue working on your phone, then on your hotel TV, then back to the original machine. What about collaboration and communication? How can we build applications that seamlessly combine web information with local information (maybe even blurring the difference)? Not everything belongs in the OS, but the supporting functionality certainly does.None of these ideas are particularly new, but today's software stack is in need of some pretty serious evolution to get the most out of the promise of a connected world. Javascript based desktops are an interesting prototype - maybe Javascript & HTML would be a good technology for portable applications. I'm not going to dismiss the bigger need because today's 'WebOS' systems are little more than toys...
| null | 0 | 31 |
2007-08-21 19:01:52 UTC
|
44,906 | 44,882 |
drewc
|
Lisp web frameworks: which one should I use?
|
jsmcgd
|
I've been using UCW with my own framework (lisp-on-lines) built on top. If you are going to be doing a lot of 'ajax', the UCW Ajax branch has already done most of the work for you. That said, the learning curve is steep and there is no documentation beyond the examples + source code.
|
I'm about to start development of a 'web 2.0' site. I've learnt some lisp and now I need to get to grips with a web framework. Any recommendations? Scalability is obviously important. Cheers.
| 2 | 18 |
2007-08-21 19:12:32 UTC
|
44,910 | 44,876 |
justinsb
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
But maybe school should be about education, rather than training? Broadening minds, rather than turning out cookie-cutter programmers. Teach someone how to think for themselves, start them in some (foreign) languages, introduce them to history and literature, give them the basics of mathematics and science, and they can easily learn programming and will have the broad base to come up with great ideas.Hot-house them on 'how to launch a startup' and 'coding in Fortran' and you'll probably turn out legions of people very good at passing exams in 'structure of business plans (in the year 1999)' and 'syntax of Fortran', but when the world moves on they won't be able to adapt.That said, I think your idea is sound, though your methods are wrong. A school should encourage creativity and intellectual development - that's how to produce your future YCombinators, journalists etc.I think we're seeing the failure of the training model in India, where they do turn out legions of capable developers, but comparatively few capable entrepreneurs.I guess I think that the best way to achieve your goal is actually closer to the current educational systems than one so directly and narrowly orientated towards the goal: education is more of a journey than a race.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 1 | 29 |
2007-08-21 19:18:57 UTC
|
44,911 | 44,876 |
andreyf
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
This idea reminds me somewhat of the [Sudbury Valley School](http://www.sudval.org/), but with more of a focus on math and computer science.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 14 | 29 |
2007-08-21 19:19:25 UTC
|
44,912 | 44,876 |
ivankirigin
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
I heard of a program in Seattle in which smart kids finished High School in 8th grade, and took classes at a local university from 9-12. That is, they got their undergrad degree out of the way by the time others were done with high school.Having a whole class do this makes sense. First, not everyone does it, only the smartest. I wouldn't expect everyone to be better off in such an accelerated program. Also, rather than enterprising individuals losing out on the social aspect of High School, I'd expect this group of kids to be much more mature for their age.A vocational senior project may as well be a startup for some in the group.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 8 | 29 |
2007-08-21 19:20:54 UTC
|
44,920 | 44,876 |
dfranke
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
Palish isn't the first one to get this idea:http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/07/wizard-school.html
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 9 | 29 |
2007-08-21 19:30:20 UTC
|
44,921 | 44,876 |
andreyf
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
I remember having this argument with my Math Reasoning professor: how old should a child be before learning simple math logic?More appropriate here, let me ask: how old does an average child have to be to comprehend all of the features of Lisp or Haskell?
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 13 | 29 |
2007-08-21 19:32:04 UTC
|
44,924 | 44,879 |
rms
|
Venezuela overclocked
|
byrneseyeview
|
It's not like the USA doesn't do the same thing...
| null | 0 | 4 |
2007-08-21 19:36:22 UTC
|
44,928 | 44,865 |
justinsb
|
Yahoo Challenge to Google Has Roots in Open Source
|
dpapathanasiou
|
I've played with Nutch, and looked at Hadoop, and it's pretty cool stuff. It's also a great foundation for building Google-style solutions to embarrassingly parallel applications. Combine it with Amazon's EC2 and things look really interesting...I'm glad to see Yahoo supporting/contributing to the community in this way. I think it's stretching the point to call it a 'challenge to Google' - more Yahoo seeking to level the playing field a little.
| null | 0 | 1 |
2007-08-21 19:43:10 UTC
|
44,930 | 44,876 |
Keios
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
I seem to have only a few questions...How does a 6th grader know that she wants to be a startup-founder?Are you attempting to replace an admittedly broken schooling system with another one?Are you attempting to increase creative space? If so, can creativity be decoupled from freedom? Are you going to force them to be creative?Finally, at a risk of sounding a tad off. What good will this do anyone? What pain are you fixing? Is there a pain big enough? Why hasn't it fixed itself yet?
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 6 | 29 |
2007-08-21 19:45:36 UTC
|
44,937 | 44,882 |
jsmcgd
|
Lisp web frameworks: which one should I use?
|
jsmcgd
|
Cheers guys. When I googled it before, Weblocks popped up. Does anyone have any experience with this?
|
I'm about to start development of a 'web 2.0' site. I've learnt some lisp and now I need to get to grips with a web framework. Any recommendations? Scalability is obviously important. Cheers.
| 8 | 18 |
2007-08-21 20:00:58 UTC
|
44,939 | 44,802 |
tomek
|
Search without Google Tracking You (My 'pseudo' Startup)
|
drm237
|
It's a nice initiative. You have probably heard of Scroogle (http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htl). How different is your thing from their thing?
|
There's been a lot in the news lately about search engine privacy, so I thought for a quick project it might be interesting to make a site that doesn't allow the search engines to track you. It's still alpha quality, but please take a look and give me some feedback. Thanks.
http://www.flyvault.com/safesearch
| 1 | 5 |
2007-08-21 20:03:40 UTC
|
44,945 | 44,876 |
brlewis
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
http://www.teach-scheme.org/Materials/
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 16 | 29 |
2007-08-21 20:08:01 UTC
|
44,946 | 44,879 |
SwellJoe
|
Venezuela overclocked
|
byrneseyeview
|
Wow. Batshit crazy. Who knew?
| null | 1 | 4 |
2007-08-21 20:09:34 UTC
|
44,947 | 44,580 |
seanpgill
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
I would go with Ruby, Python, JavaScript. You might want to even look at some Lisp dialects, maybe you are one of those people who sees things more like Church than Turing.They are all comfortable, require a pretty small platform, and provide some instant gratification...the excitement of seeing your code come to life as you type! I think if you simply want to interact with developers, understanding the thrill of creation is more important than knowing what to create.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 24 | 20 |
2007-08-21 20:14:46 UTC
|
44,948 | 44,580 |
damien
|
What programming language should I start with?
|
zenobo
|
If you are a non-programmer, give this free book a try: "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" ( http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/ ). As it explains in the Preface ( http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/preface.html#auto2 ), Python makes things easy to learn.
|
Oh no! a non-programmer on the hacker news! But I figure you guys know?I want to learn programming, maybe not to be a full-fledged hacker, but to be able to understand the concepts and be able to talk about this stuff more with programmers so I can work in tech?I hear python and ruby are good to learn on, but what would you guys do or are there any good books you'd read?
| 25 | 20 |
2007-08-21 20:22:06 UTC
|
44,951 | 44,876 |
pdsull
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
Seems to me that part of being a hacker is the ability to create despite restrictions. Embracing obstacles, and in doing so overcoming them. Maybe by remove the pre-existing boundaries, you remove part of what makes a hack so great. By simply removing the obstacle (traditional schooling in this case), doesn't that cheapen the creation? Put another way, if hacking is the status-quo, is it still hacking?
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 7 | 29 |
2007-08-21 20:23:28 UTC
|
44,954 | 44,628 |
ivankirigin
|
News.YC's half birthday (with stats)
|
pg
|
Removing the periodic data would be nice. Making a trend from every Monday, for example, would be clearer.You should post the actual numbers somewhere and let any bored readers on this site play with visualizations.
| null | 1 | 33 |
2007-08-21 20:27:34 UTC
|
44,957 | 44,835 |
bluishgreen
|
Coming to America?
|
redrory
|
We have talked a lot about this before..
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40208
|
Hello again guys.
I see alot of posts by persons wanting info about move to San Francisco , and stuff.
But I was wondering for the international persons among us, ( I am from Jamaica) on what bias do international persons come to properly develop their startup.
I mean like, will I need work permit?
Can I come on a Visitor's visa? etc.Thanks much..
| 2 | 3 |
2007-08-21 20:39:40 UTC
|
44,958 | 44,876 |
geebee
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
I don't think that a K-12 school for hackers would work especially well. That said, it would be nice if schools stopped practices that almost seem to deliberately extinguish hacking and startups. Schools teach you that you need to ask permission to do things. It isn't until you get to college that you don't have to ask permission anymore. Hackers and entrepreneurs become who they are by realizing that they don't have to ask anyone's permission. I remember learning violin when I was a kid. If I played something that wasn't on my "to-do" list, my parents would call upstairs "are you practicing, or just messing around?" I read that Andre 3000 used the three chords in "Hey Ya" because, well, he'd just recently picked up the guitar and those were the three chords he knew. Didn't ask any permission, just started composing. Recently, I saw a dude in a coffee shop with a guitar, and he was technically awesome. It was fun to stop and listen for a few minutes, but I wouldn't have been able to tell you what he was playing five minutes later. Schools don't really teach creativity, and I don't think they can. But they might do a better job getting out of the way.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 2 | 29 |
2007-08-21 20:45:37 UTC
|
44,961 | 44,944 |
yubrew
|
The Harlem Project
|
yubrew
|
Because of the upstart of two articles on education, this article may be a relevant means to help stop the systematic failure of education for the poor.
| null | 0 | 8 |
2007-08-21 20:46:49 UTC
|
44,971 | 44,828 |
palish
|
it's slow... it's unstable... it's... [reddit] beta!
|
aston
|
Jeez.. Take a look at http://beta.reddit.com/I guess this is why you don't significantly change the process. In this case, Reddit changed the process of submitting comments (It's now Ajax so that it doesn't refresh the page) and now everyone is going absolutely nuts trying out the new feature.They only saved themselves by having the beta be in a separate subreddit. Could you imagine if this was rolled out to the main page?
| null | 1 | 9 |
2007-08-21 21:01:20 UTC
|
44,972 | 44,940 |
pdsull
|
The Science of Magic
|
pdsull
|
Teller (of Penn and Teller) gives a definition of magic that I really like: "The theatrical linking of a cause with an effect that has no basis in physical reality, but that -- in our hearts -- ought to."
| null | 0 | 2 |
2007-08-21 21:01:59 UTC
|
44,973 | 44,890 |
acangiano
|
How to Make Your Millions
|
donna
|
The principle behind making millions is pretty simple: create something which is valuable to many people. Then there are three main ways of getting rich: 1) Enough people are willing to pay for your service/product; 2) Your service/product can be an asset for a bigger company, and they are willing to acquire you; 3) Your service/product creates such a large audience that you can leverage this by "selling" this audience to those who are looking for one. This can be advertisers (e.g. ads on your site) or a bigger company willing to buy this audience (e.g. Newscorps with MySpace). Why aren't we all getting rich? Because you need a decent idea for something that creates value, and excellent execution and marketing because competition, especially on the Web, is fierce. It's easy to know that you need to create value - a solution to a problem or need - but it's much less common to come up with a company which can readily do that.
| null | 0 | 8 |
2007-08-21 21:04:35 UTC
|
44,974 | 44,743 |
byrneseyeview
|
Work vs. Value
|
drusenko
|
See also: http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/cpr-20n1-1.html
| null | 4 | 15 |
2007-08-21 21:05:49 UTC
|
44,978 | 44,935 |
byrneseyeview
|
Relative Efficency of Programming Languages vs. Legal Language (by Jeremy Zawodny)
|
joshwa
|
If only: http://szabo.best.vwh.net/contractlanguage.html
| null | 2 | 12 |
2007-08-21 21:11:40 UTC
|
44,981 | 44,882 |
Zak
|
Lisp web frameworks: which one should I use?
|
jsmcgd
|
I build a fairly sophisticated project last year on top of TBNL (now Hunchentoot) and some other libraries (CL-WHO and CLSQL being the main ones). I don't think this set of libraries quite counts as a framework in the Rails/Pylons tradition - it's more like web.py[0]. It's worth noting that reddit used the same tool set before they rewrote it in Python. I can recommend it without hesitation, if you're looking for tools that stay out of your way.[0]I have a strong suspicion that web.py was influenced by TBNL.
|
I'm about to start development of a 'web 2.0' site. I've learnt some lisp and now I need to get to grips with a web framework. Any recommendations? Scalability is obviously important. Cheers.
| 0 | 18 |
2007-08-21 21:19:55 UTC
|
44,982 | 44,953 |
run4yourlives
|
How programmers get rich (Article from 1982)
|
acangiano
|
>and he recently bought himself a new $18,000 Datsun Turbo 280-ZX sports car.lol
| null | 0 | 15 |
2007-08-21 21:20:13 UTC
|
44,985 | 44,876 |
Mistone
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
It seems like K-8 is pretty much reserved for core skills - math, sci, language etc. Where I could see a lot of value in this approach is at the high school level (9-12). This type of program could be piloted at a few public, private and charter schools as an adjunct academy for students. Also it would have to really be multidisciplinary and the main focus would need to be on fostering creativity and transferring creative skills into the "real world", not just programming and a few art classes. There is a really interesting "entrepreneurial" program at Everett Community College (http://www.everettcc.edu/programs/bat/sbd/), that could possible be reverse engineered into the type of program described above.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 3 | 29 |
2007-08-21 21:24:36 UTC
|
44,988 | 44,876 |
jsnx
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
There isn't a formal process leading to creation or innovation; and doubtless, there is not a formal process to train creators or innovators. Mentorship is the way to go -- put your computer away and work with a child.
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 18 | 29 |
2007-08-21 21:26:45 UTC
|
44,991 | 44,990 |
andreyf
|
Brain cells work differently than we thought: Axons process information
|
andreyf
|
For those literate in neuroscience, original paper is here:
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn195...Is the analysis correct, and what are the implications for people pondering the "AI problem"?
|
For those literate in neuroscience, original is here:
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn195...Is the analysis correct, and what are the implications for people pondering the "AI problem"?
| 0 | 3 |
2007-08-21 21:34:52 UTC
|
45,000 | 44,876 |
ivankirigin
|
Hacker School
|
palish
|
There is a related discussion here:
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2007/08/back_to_school.h...I think there has been a significant and artificial extension of childhood, and it is a bad idea. Expecting more from kids and giving them power and responsibility is a good idea.From that blog (which quotes these paragraphs from Kay Hymowitz):
"
Teen paid employment is at an all-time low; about 35% of teenagers are working at some point in the year, compared with close to half at the post-World War II peak in 1979. That's because for kids these days, summer is no different from the rest of the year; it's always time for education, or, more precisely, resume-building.In the junior-high and early high-school years, middle-class strivers spend summers at soccer, hockey, swim, diving or baseball camp to sharpen their athletic skills; they go to science, computer and arts camp to pump up their academic records. In their junior or senior year they jet off to exotic destinations to fill in the international travel/community service credential, building huts in Guatemala, supervising nursery-schoolers in South Africa or, as one company offers, reforesting fruit trees in Fiji. And then, finally, for many older teens, it's an internship, a part-time, usually unpaid, job-lite at an office in a business or nonprofit organization.
"
|
It seemed best that this had its own discussion so we could really refine this. The original discussion is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44627The idea is to create a YCombinator-like process that starts at the K-12 level. Perhaps not as far back as kindergarten, but definitely before 6th grade. Students would be trained in programming, art, writing, and other methods of creation. When the students graduate, some number of them will be given the opportunity to start a company. In return, the school will get 2-10% of the company.But what about the students who won't start companies, though? Clearly not everyone will have what it takes to think of a viable business. Well, the wonderful attribute of this system is that everyone's a winner. Anyone who doesn't start a company could be a cofounder or go to work for previous companies produced by this program, or go to college if they'd like.Why would children be motivated in such an environment? My theory is simple: If you don't treat them like idiots, they won't become idiots. Show them the joys of creating something cool. They'll like it. The reason children aren't motivated in a public school environment is because most public schools are prisons for children. It was for me. This system is the polar opposite of that. Everything revolves around project creation and development, not rigid, unbreakable structure that beats compliance out of the children, which is how public high school is.The teachers would need to be extremely high quality. They need to want to be a part of the process of training the next generation of hackers, not hired because there's a shortage of teachers. Hacker School would focus on programming, but there's no reason why it couldn't train children to become excellent journalists, novelists, or any other creative activity the students like.One property that this system needs from the beginning is a way for advanced children to be placed right where they're mentally stretched. If it makes sense for an extremely bright child to skip three grades, so be it. There are social implications, but another theory of mine is this: If you give children an environment where you respect them and treat them like adults, they will respect and treat each other like adults. Sure, there will be social conflicts, but there always are in life. Yes, they will lack maturity to deal with those. Yes, there will be outlying cases where it's really bad. But the system can be flexible in dealing with things like that. There won't be childish punishments. There won't be detention. I don't know what the appropriate system of punishments is, but it doesn't seem like we need to even worry about that until it becomes a problem. Adults have a way of sorting things out, and I believe children can behave like adults.Please be harsh in constructively criticizing this. The system needs to be the best, and for it to be the best, I ask that you guys please tear apart anything about it that seems like it won't work.
| 5 | 29 |
2007-08-21 21:56:38 UTC
|
45,002 | 44,835 |
yawl
|
Coming to America?
|
redrory
|
You can come with visitor visa, but if you want to work in US, you need to start with H1B visa, which is now kind of a "lottery" (the annual limit is too small and no guarantee if you can get one).
|
Hello again guys.
I see alot of posts by persons wanting info about move to San Francisco , and stuff.
But I was wondering for the international persons among us, ( I am from Jamaica) on what bias do international persons come to properly develop their startup.
I mean like, will I need work permit?
Can I come on a Visitor's visa? etc.Thanks much..
| 1 | 3 |
2007-08-21 22:05:39 UTC
|
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