instruction stringlengths 4 105 | output stringlengths 8 56.7k |
|---|---|
Where should I move to maximize my career potential? | wdr1: I'm from Chicago (and still consider it home), but without question, California is the place to be. I moved west 10 years ago and it's been a fun ride. |
Hacking ability related to teaching language? | stonemetal: No, ingenuity isn't restricted to a single language. Besides after you have your eyes opened to new experiences in other languages your first language doesn't matter that much. When you first pick up a new language sure you drag your old programming habits into it but if you make the effort\spend the time... |
Where should I move to maximize my career potential? | noodle: if everything else is equal, SF bay area. if you have other considerations that do have sway beyond brazen careerism, then that might change things. or it might not. |
How do you reach women 18-25? | CoreyLoose: Just got the opinion of a real live 21 year old woman on this topic. She uses Facebook on a daily basis and is tech savvy enough to use Gmail filters intelligently and download torrents.Here is the rundown of what she said:
-Doesn't read online news/blogs
-Clicked 5 or so Facebook adds lifetime
-Watches a c... |
Hacking ability related to teaching language? | hs: yes, functional languages because they're more mathematical |
How do you keep away from HN? | timothychung: Reserve time for HN in your schedule. So you won't spend too much time on it. :-) |
How do you keep away from HN? | grinich: I go outside. |
How do you keep away from HN? | oldgregg: Build something like this for web monitoring:http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/snuznluz.shtml...5 cents every time you visit a page on your blacklist. Money is automatically donated to AIG pension fund or the enemy dujour... Parlay the user base into holy grail micropayment service = profit. |
How do you keep away from HN? | manish: I can't stay away when in office, but when working on my own at home, I hardly visit HN once in may be two hours for 5-10 min. |
How do you keep away from HN? | zasz: What's wrong with the noprocrast setting? Just set it to keep you away for at least 5 hours at a time. It can't be overridden anymore, which is sweet. |
How do you reach women 18-25? | Jem: Technically literate or not? If yes, I can give you some links to some areas where you could address these sorts of people directly and get some ideas from the horse's mouth, so to speak. |
Where should I move to maximize my career potential? | anamax: While SV is a reasonable answer, why isn't Japan on your list? |
How do you reach women 18-25? | gstar: That's a very broad demographic - Can you slice finer? The responses you have already are spot on, but they apply to a lot of other demographics too.If your app has a very broad market there's no point going after every 18-25/female because you can't afford to advertise to the whole demographic without some rea... |
What do you use to order airline tickets online? | sheatsb: Farecast - http://farecast.live.comIt's prediction method is pretty accurate on timing when you should hold off/when you should buy tickets, and how ticket prices are distributed throughout the year. It also compares to the other budget travel sites (Hotwire, etc.). |
How do you reach women 18-25? | srn: The general class of women 18-25 or tech savvy 18-25? And of what interest group? You give far too few details for anyone to be able to help you. |
Are modified Y Combinator applications reviewed again? | pg: Effectively. There are very few applications already rated by two of us, and none by three. |
How do you know what you want? | ajju: I think you have already honed in on the basics: "You have to actually do it". If it seems like there are too many things to try and they all look appealing, you just need to understand yourself better and self observation will help you there.You are wrong to suggest that we grow to like anything life forces us t... |
Why is Ryanair monetizing airplane lavatories? | shard: Switching from free to pay will never garner good will, and when I run across it in stores (Borders Bookstore I am looking at you) I always find it a cheap tactic and makes the place feel low class. Ryanair should try other ways to monetize. Have they put advertising in the bathrooms yet? I've been seeing tha... |
Why is Ryanair monetizing airplane lavatories? | gills: Perhaps there is a correlation between Ryanair's cheapskate customers and people who clog airplane toilets, and they are being crushed under the repair costs.Hey, you asked for open-ended speculation, that's what you'll get :) |
Why is Ryanair monetizing airplane lavatories? | Fenn: It's a publicity stunt. You'll often see press releases from the low cost carriers with stories such as this (or "Fat people to be charged extra") - RyanAir are particularly famous for it.They've got so much mileage out of this particular one, I'd be surprised if they don't roll it back out again in 18 months. |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | drcode: First, put all items into an array, computing a number k for each item, where k=(sum of all weights above it).Then, just generate a random number 0<x<(sum of all weights).Finally, do a binary search on the array O(log(n)) comparing x to k....As for the "updating" step, you didn't define that very well or state ... |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | Autre: A priority queue [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priority_queue] seems to be the way to go with this. |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | mjtokelly: Here's a sampling algorithm that will work, as long as the maximum weight isn't too much greater than the average weight:1) Determine the maximum weight mw. (This is O(N) the first time, O(K) subsequent times.)2) Repeat until an index i is accepted: a) Generate a random pair (i, x), where i is a uniform in... |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | utnick: What does the << operator mean?and how are these K items found? Do they have the same weight as the sampled item? |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | loicfevrier: Red-black trees are far too complex for this simple task :
just use any binary balanced tree so that the maximum height is O(log n). (red-black trees will work but take any one you want, red-black tree are slow)
On each node you store two numbers :
- sum of the weights at the left
- sum of the weights at... |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | eru: Interesting. Could you tell us what you problem you are solving? |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | jonnyba: if the number of different weights is finite and small, you could create a bucket for each different weight.for example if the possible weights are .25, .5, and .75, put all items into one of those buckets (array backed). The bucket then gets a weight of (individual weight)*(bucket size). First randomly choo... |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | a-priori: Of the top of my head, here's how I would go about this.First, preprocess your data:1) Normalize the weights
2) Sort the items in descending order by weight
3) Calculate, for each item, the sum of the weights of all prior items
4) Enter the items into a binary search tree. The key into this tree is the sum yo... |
Fast sampling and update of weighted items? (data structure like red-black trees?) | hotpockets: As long as the weights are distributed randomly in the array, you can just perform the algorithm on a random subsection of the array. The subsection needs to have the same distribution of weights as the whole section. I think thats the only requirement you need.Ideally, you could pick smaller fraction of ... |
Why is Ryanair monetizing airplane lavatories? | sharpn: I agree with Fenn, it's definitely c. They have form for leaking such headline-grabbing 'information', including one about introducing business class with rude 'extras'. |
Co-founder can't move to BA. Apply as single founder? | spoiledtechie: Apply! Tell them whats going on when your up for your interview. If they can't do that you will understand and you will need to get another co-founder or YC might understand. |
Co-founder can't move to BA. Apply as single founder? | sarvesh: You can still apply with him working from Mexico City. http://ycombinator.com/faq.html |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | Oxryly: Reduce sugar & other carbs during lunch (replace with protein & fiber as much as possible.)Instead of caffeine you could try Yerba Mate tea... more brain energy, less jitters. |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | adeleinr: You dont! You take a nap. |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | khafra: Eat protein and increase your dopamine production, which is a "happy and alert" neurotransmitter (http://frank.mtsu.edu/~studskl/food.html). Going heavy on the carbohydrates spikes your serotonin, and if they're simple carbohydrates your insulin vs. blood sugar will suck the energy right out of your brain in a... |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | Tangurena: Eat, get back to the desk (check email or some low intensity stuff), then about 30 min later, go for a walk. Get out of the building and into sunlight for a minimum of 15-20 minutes. Hot, cold, doesn't matter. Get out and walk. |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | pg: As other posters have said, avoid starch and sugar.Walking quite far to lunch is good. Then you have to walk the same distance after lunch. |
Why is Ryanair monetizing airplane lavatories? | arran: After airing the idea of paying to use the toilet they've apparently received loads of suggestions for other charges, so they've started a competition for people to suggest the next discrepancy charges, the winner gets €1000.http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/news.php?yr=09&month=mar&...Check out the cartoon at the ... |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | mgj: Eat less. I've also heard it's good for your health to eat less if you can.One of the common themes I hear from people who come to the US from overseas is that food portions are quite large here. |
state of the art in source code visualization | amichail: Check out some of my research on this topic. |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | radu_floricica: Somewhat off-topic: I realized recently it's more important when and how you get your caffeine then how much. There's a reason 5 o'clock tea is famous. For me morning caffeine is wasted or worse, and the best time is around 3-5 in the afternoon, or a couple of hours after lunch. Metabolisms differ, of c... |
Any easy way to automate mouse clicks in Linux (Gnome)? | tocomment: I'm curious to see what happens on that page when I get to 0, but I want to be a smart hacker about it ... |
Can this be an answer to the auto industry? | russell: I like the simplicity. If you have a life changing event, you turn the car back in. If the event is that bad, they'll probably get it back anyway. Sounds like a pretty cheap incentive to me. |
How do you stave off food comatose after lunch? | icey: On the topic of protein rich lunches; what do people usually do?I like to take a lunch to the office since the need to eat seems to come up at varying times of the day. |
Can this be an answer to the auto industry? | buugs: Sounds like there must be major restrictions on this plan to prevent someone from taking a car back before the date without having to pay some sort of fee. To be honest a cars price goes down so quick it is probably in the interest to the consumer to take it back after a year, which means the lawyers must have ... |
Can this be an answer to the auto industry? | noodle: this was posted earlier, and i feel like, no, its not.is it a good idea? will it help? yes. but it won't solve anything. just a temporary fix, like a gas tax holiday or something. the fundamental problem is still there -- people can't really afford new cars right now. |
A good way to learn the Twitter API? | rscott: Not sure how good your feedback is going to be here, it doesn't look like that comes out until April 2009. Kind of confusing considering it says Buy Now though... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | mcav: I graduate in May and plan to move to full-time. I'll be able to work on my startup because my parents have [thankfully] agreed to help me out while I try to bring it into the black. Since I've been working on it a lot during college, I hope to start making a profit not too long after graduation. I'm currently li... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | nostrademons: The easiest way is just to move back in with parents. Most middle-class families can afford to do this; I think the stats from my graduating class (05, top private college) were that 50% of students were moving back home.I took a slightly different path: I moved back in with the 'rents, but I also took a... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | cperciva: In my case it's a combination of (a) graduating with money in the bank due to generous scholarships, and (b) having low expenses due to living in my parents' basement.YCers, of course, are given a theoretical 3 months of living expenses and then usually get other investment at the end of the YC program -- so ... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | peterlai: WebNotes’ first founder worked part-time on WebNotes for about a year after graduating before raising enough investor money to go full time. After going full-time, he gave everyone else an ultimatum to jump ship as well, and now, we’re a five person team.So, in short, I’m lucky. The startup has been able to f... |
A good way to learn the Twitter API? | khangtoh: The best way in my opinion to learn Twitter API is to get involved by reading the API wiki ( http://apiwiki.twitter.com/ ), join the google group for Twitter API. |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | tokenadult: I see a common theme here in the first few submitted replies. What does an ambitious young person do if the parents area) dead and gone,b) sick and dying,c) impoverished,ord) stingy?(I ask as a parent of would-be start-up founders, trying my best not to fit into those categories, but never knowing for sure ... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | andrewfchen: I'd have to agree that in my case, I'm pursuing a full-time start up after having worked for a few years, saving up a bit of cash that will hold me over for the next few years. Along the way, gaining some experience from the corporate sector to bring to the start-up. |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | nolanbrown23: Everyone's how is going to be different and probably not applicable to your situation but here is what you can do...just make it fucking happen. This small piece of advice may not seem that helpful but what I'm trying to say is you're nuking it. You're over thinking. Jump in head first and see what happen... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | trapper: I started my first company by getting supported by my partner, working all day & night :). I had a deadline of 6 months to release which I met. We lived like students (still in a student flat), and by no means had any disposable income. It was exciting and daring, and paid off.My advice, find a brainy girl/boy... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | wheels: I've had two phases of my life where I went without income. The first was getting established as an open source developer, the second was starting a startup (both, interestingly, feel like they have a lot in common).After college I worked full time for one year. I kept living with college roomies and saved up... |
A good way to learn the Twitter API? | siong1987: there is many wrappers for Twitter APIs for differenet languages. I am sure that you can find a wrapper for your favorite language.Save your money. |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | charlesju: My mommy loves me and is letting me bum it? |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | timothychung: Am I the only person who would ask my parents to pay for my living and allow me to startup?I am planning to live on the provision from my parents to startup after June. That is when my current job finishes. :-)Well, of course, I have got my ideas and plans ready before starting. :-) |
The best HTML editors for windows? | thristian: When I have to write HTML, I use Vim and Firebug.I believe the primary advantages of GUI tools like Dreamweaver are supposed to be ease-of-use and visual feedback, along with workflow tools like automatic site uploading. Since I already know HTML, I don't need the WYSIWYG part (if I did, I'd use Nvu or Kompo... |
A good way to learn the Twitter API? | justin: I just wrote integrations with the Twitter API, Facebook Connect, and Myspace's REST API. Twitter was by far the easiest, and is dead simple. Save your money and just read the API doc, and then use one of the many libraries someone else already wrote. |
The best HTML editors for windows? | albertsun: Just a simple text editor is best. My favorite for Windows is Notepad++ |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | jlees: YC isn't the only program that allows Bright Young People(TM) to get off the ground. For example, I'm on the EPIS programme in Scotland (http://www.epis.org.uk - shameless plug) which is effectively a year-long YC, giving you a £10k loan to get started, free office space and a ton of mentoring. (The reason I'm i... |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | lv_: Uh, I moved to the 3rd World. Forex swaps help for bread and butter income! |
The best HTML editors for windows? | nreece: Notepad2 |
The best HTML editors for windows? | bdfh42: In my opinion, the best editor for everything on Windows is 'e' a TextMate clone ( http://www.e-texteditor.com/ ). The cost is trivial and you get a chance to try it out to make sure it suits you.This editor is extensible using Ruby or Python and supports the full range of TextMate bundles so you can get up and... |
A good way to learn the Twitter API? | hopeless: I played around with the Twitter API yesterday for the first time and running HTTP REST requests via curl (install it with Cygwin on windows) was invaluable to tracking down some problems and figuring out the expected results |
The best HTML editors for windows? | ScottWhigham: I'm a .NET guy and I've tried both Dreamweaver and the Visual Studio shell and I prefer Visual Studio. It can get in my way sometimes but, since I'm likely in it anyway writing C#, it keeps me from having to use two IDEs. |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | buggy_code: Talk to your parents.It's amazing what the response to"I just recently graduated. Instead of going to Europe to get drunk for a year, I'd like to go home for a year and write software for my startup."can be. |
You're a recent grad that's working full time on your startup. How? | eghanvat: I live in India, Pune. So the expense are really low as compared to US or Europe.
Plus, I really cut down on expenses and still manage to have decent lifestyle. I have a cook coming in to cook food and a maid to clean the house.I worked for a year and saved enough ($3000). This amount of money will go long w... |
What to do after selling startup? | mantas: I'm just launching own startup this spring, so I cant say for sure...But if I succeed, I'll probably keep doing what I do now - code, blog and do startup once again. |
What to do after selling startup? | reitzensteinm: "wasting"? |
What to do after selling startup? | charlesju: Being a VC/Angel seems pretty fun, but knowing myself, I'll probably get itchy and want to jump back into the game at the first opportunity I see. |
What to do after selling startup? | dbul: Apparently starting a startup for startups is becoming a more and more popular post-sale activity. |
What to do after selling startup? | unalone: I haven't sold my start-up, nor has it publicly launched, nor do I want to sell it if the opportunity arises, but I'd imagine you go on to your next big idea.The people who do startups like the freedom of working on their own thing. That doesn't extend to just startups. Design video games, or direct a movie, o... |
What to do after selling startup? | JungleDave: Often, go to work for the company that acquired your startup for a period of several months to several years. Few deals are structured so that the founders can just walk away after selling.
Beyond that, the most common path it to start another startup. It's addictive! |
What to do after selling startup? | fb: I'll probably waste some time contributing to open source projects and then invest into hookers :)
Really, if your only reason to do a startup is to do something else after that - why bother?
If you like contributing to open source projects - contribute now! You like drugs and hookers? What stops you now? |
What to do after selling startup? | Hexstream: Start another programming project that interests me, but without monetization considerations in mind this time. |
What to do after selling startup? | vaksel: a) Trip around the world to go race on every famous race track. Pretty much covers a lot of Europe + Asia.b) Setup a "Hey everyone, I got some money, and want to be an angel investor...send me your ideas." page. Invest into a couple of promising startups.c) Start thinking of something new to do. And then do ano... |
The best HTML editors for windows? | lhorie: There is no "best" editor. It depends on your preferences and workflow.All editors will let you type HTML (obviously), but some have more bells and whistles - Dreamweaver has autocompletion turned on by default, and a WYSIWYG mode, which helps when drawing image maps, for example (the downside is that editors w... |
What to do after selling startup? | patio11: I have no particular intentions of exit-via-selling. Rather, I'm more of a mind to "hack capitalism": fit a job around what I want to do in life (find a nice young lady, spend more time with my family, feel the grass under my feet once in a while) rather than fitting life around mostly inflexible work obligat... |
What to do after selling startup? | wheels: "Don't start a company unless it's an obsession. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession." |
What to do after selling startup? | petercooper: I got out of programming as a necessity and in to doing things for the love of it. Teaching, evangelizing, helping people out, mostly. For me, programming was/is a means to an end, not something I enjoyed doing.. but helping other people to learn and enjoy programming is something I enjoy. (As an aside, I ... |
What to do after selling startup? | flooha: Really depends on what it sells for, but I have a much riskier and expensive startup which I would fund from the sale of the first one. |
What to do after selling startup? | YuriNiyazov: proving that P != NP |
What to do after selling startup? | feedus: Start again. |
What to do after selling startup? | birdman: Play golf. I thought that was the whole point of starting and then selling your own company. Plus, country clubs offer socialization opportunities. Even if the people are a bit snooty. |
What to do after selling startup? | coglethorpe: Prove the Riemann hypothesis. |
What to do after selling startup? | ivankirigin: Start my next one. I have ideas that scale - more grand and higher risk.I'd also work less when "not at work", and focus on my family. |
What to do after selling startup? | daremon: Certainly read this: http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/ |
Do you know this business angel? | aristus: A quick check round the interweb shows that he is involved in many projects. I could not find a list of companies that he has actually invested in, nor the name of the hedge fund he used to work for. Many pages talking about many great things that are just around the corner. Improbably broad claims of expertis... |
What to do after selling startup? | philjackson: I'd stay at home and watch mind rotting daytime TV in my pants. Lots of fatty, unhealthy food and perhaps a sprinkling of masturbation. Bit like the weekends really. |
What to do after selling startup? | yan: Related: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=398597 |
What to do after selling startup? | matthewking: I don't like the way that life is controlled by money, id much rather live life freely, and that's what I intend to achieve in part, by either selling my startup or just making it so automated that I can earn a living without working 40 hours a week.Then id probably go and see the world and all of its wond... |
What to do after selling startup? | dmillar: I'd buy my parents house from them, and let them finally retire. I'd travel a bit, then setup a small office and start working on my list of ideas. |
What to do after selling startup? | grinich: You can start a small seed funding VC group, and name it after a cool trick in mathematics which defines recursion. |
What to do after selling startup? | gregparadee: 1) I would start all over again. If I was successful once I feel I could be successful again.
2) I have an idea for a non profit I want to start and knowing that I could financially support myself and have money to start this I would get it rolling
3)Invest. I may not have the next big thing but I'm sure o... |
What to do after selling startup? | mian2zi3: I traveled for a couple of years, then went back to get a PhD in mathematics. |
What to do after selling startup? | markup: If the amount of money were adeguate, I'd probably try and help other startup founders. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.