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Any good email reminder startups?
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jmonegro: Backpack (http://www.backpackit.com)
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What is your favorite Javascript UI framework out there ?
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eterps: MooTools
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GeoAPI or SimpleGeo?
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mattgalligan: We (SimpleGeo) have some large customers right now, however, can't really say who they are due to privacy policy.I can, however, describe some of the technology that we use.We've built the platform using a multi-homed, multi-master database solution we call GiselleDB. It's based on Facebook's Cassandra, but we've forked it since then. Basically we're able to handle lots of read volume, lots of write volume, as well as push the data to all of our data centers. We're currently housed in three datacenters and will expand to more later. Essentially this means we can handle plenty of volume and it's always redundant (with API failover if a datacenter goes down).I'd encourage you to get ahold of me (matt [at] simplegeo [dot] com) or our developer relations guy (andrew [at] simplegeo [dot] com) if we can answer some further questions for you.
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What do you think of our demo website?
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wicknicks: Looks nice. If I try and shorten the URL "http://wrp.me/, it actually enlarges it to "http://wrp.me/999Ea.
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A tool to analyse the orders of growth
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jheriko: This is a non-trivial problem, generally complexity analysis is done on paper, based on some idealised version of an algorithm. In practice implementation issues will make it difficult to extrapolate asymptotic behaviour for small n.For instance an algorithm with O(log n) multiplications and O(n^2) additions will be dominated by the multiplications for small n, and may mislead an analysis tool into believing the asymptotic time complexity of the algorithm to be O(log n), rather than O(n^2), since the additions will dominate for very large n, simply because at some point a n^2 > m log n, where m is the run time of addition and a is the run-time of addition.This becomes even more difficult if addition and multiplication have non-constant run-time as well (e.g. multi-precision ints).
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What skills can a someone develop to become a great hacker?
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pasbesoin: Become a hacker:1) Don't accept the status quo, when you see/imagine a better way.Become a good hacker:2) Exercise discretion and consideration. Assume you might (will) break stuff -- important stuff -- and design with adequate defenses in mind and demonstrated.Next step?3) Recognize where and how much risk is present. Don't over-engineer where the cost/benefit leaves it unwarranted or where it is outright counter-productive.You're going to make mistakes at each step. It's a learning process.
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Why is HTML so complicated?
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jheriko: I've often found myself just wanting to access a framebuffer as an array or pointer or whatever like in the "good ol' days", but the truth is that unless you are writing low level libraries, or bleeding edge special effects you shouldn't need to do this. Its not a nice way to work 99% of the time, when what you really want is to draw a whole polygon, or image or whatever.Unfortunately the web is yet to catch up with hardware accelerated graphics, so we don't have shaders etc. yet. Stuff like WebGL are looking to solve this problem though, and soon you will have a similar level of low-level access to a framebuffer.
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Anybody else quitting Facebook over privacy concerns?
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ben1040: I put my account in the delete queue a few days ago. I shouldn't have to keep an eye on HN and Valley blogs to find out that they've tweaked privacy settings again and more of my information is "public."Getting out is a whole lot easier than I thought. I had as friends on Facebook a lot of former high school and university classmates, as well as coworkers from prior jobs. Part of me was worried I'd lose touch with them, but then it dawned on me that the extent of our interactions was mashing "like" buttons on each other's posts -- for example, if one of them were in town, I probably wouldn't bother to catch up with them for a beer.The people I actually care about, well, I can email, call them, or even tap them on the shoulder and say "Hey." Having to do that also makes me think twice about what I'm sending, and to only share with people the things that actually matter. Facebook's "news feed" makes it way too easy to share things that probably should be left unsaid.And man, my productivity has skyrocketed since I don't feel compelled every hour to check my Facebook feed. The last couple days I've gotten lots more work done thanks to cutting out this huge distraction.
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What is your favorite Javascript UI framework out there ?
|
dahjelle: I've been using Dojo for a while. It has widgets with nearly the breadth of something like ExtJS, but is completely open-source. The documentation isn't all that great—thought it is improving—but the community is responsive and the code is well-written enough that it isn't difficult to figure out what the docs should say.I don't know that I'd recommend it over jQuery if you don't need the widgets, but I don't have a lot of jQuery experience. The widgets were a big factor for us.
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Your Dev Environment
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vyrotek: I dont think my setup is quite what you were asking about. But, I'm running Windows 7 with a Windows 2008 VM. The VM hosts a handful of services that I don't want always running or starting up with my computer. Things like SQL Server 2008 and IIS7. But, I do run Visual Studio locally. It all runs very fast on a QuadCore with 8GB of ram.
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Your Dev Environment
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steveklabnik: I develop on an Arch Linux box, two 22" monitors, XMonad, vim, and an IBM Model M.But then I got a MacBook Pro, and I've actually been doing all development on it for the last few weeks. Textmate is the only non-vim editor I'd ever use.
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Your Dev Environment
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rewind: I've been a .Net developer for years, but because I can't develop for the iPhone on a Windows box, I switched my primary dev machine to a MacBook Pro running my Windows stuff through a VM. The Windows part is 90% of the what I do, but being able to run the iPhone stuff directly against the Windows back-end made this a no-brainer. It's also really nice to have a VM that mirrors my production environment right on my MacBook so I can do more of that sort of testing on the same box.I'd prefer running OSX in a VM on a Windows box (the Windows stuff is definitely faster that way), but since I can't do that (easily), this is an acceptable trade-off.I wasn't happy about how much I had to spend for the MacBook Pro setup though. You're definitely not getting the same performance bang for your buck. It's the price you have to pay though. Oh well.
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Your Dev Environment
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swoodtke: I use VM's on a MacBook Pro circa 2006 and they worked fine - a little slow on harddrive intensive operations (e.g. startup, building large applications) but useable.Then I got an SSD harddrive. It's like I'm using a new (much faster) machine. The VM's seem like they're native.SSD HD's are still pretty expensive but worth every penny IMO (and way cheaper than a new MBP).
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Startup ideas around 4G
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eande: the main advantage on 4G is in the bandwidth so I would put some thoughts in the video streaming area
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Your Dev Environment
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thumper: I run on a Macbook (not Pro!) with 4GB RAM. For a while, I was doing some IE plugin development and went with separate VMs for IE6, 7, and 8 (used the MSFT distributed VirtualPC ones, actually). That got me used to the idea of switching back and forth being VMs, and now I have separate Ubuntu VMs for each project I work on -- switching back and forth as emails and phone calls come in. Working this way really helps me compartmentalize my projects, especially not worrying with how I muck up the OS installation as I need some crazy tool or other for a particular task. It's also divorced me from excessive customization of my rig, so that I don't mind upgrading when a new Ubuntu is shiny enough to make me go "ooh".
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Your Dev Environment
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lallysingh: Emacs, Solaris. I'll have to jump back to Linux, and I won''t be happy without dtrace/zfs. That's a desktop machine. I've got a Macbook Pro 17" that I can use for multi-platform testing, with a VM in there if I need it. My work at home isn't web-based, so I don't have to worry about windows compat.
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Your Dev Environment
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mmphosis: MacBook 2Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
http://www.virtualbox.org/
I've found a use for Spaces. I put each fullscreen virtual machine in it's own space.
Space 1 - Mac OS X (native)
Space 2 - Windows (virtual machine)
Space 3 - Ubuntu (virtual machine)
I keep networking turned off in Windows. Files are shared locally by VirtualBox between Windows and Mac OS X.
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Your Dev Environment
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jheriko: I've developed on a VM in the past (VMWare), the experience was great - convenient to test on multiple platforms without rebooting etc. but it was difficult once I needed to do non-trivial graphics stuff with OpenGL - the performance difference was quite extreme. Hopefully this is something that will improve with future versions...
|
Your Dev Environment
|
aaronblohowiak: the more complex the deployment environment is, the more likely i am to be running a VM (so dev can match deploy.) when i run ubuntu like this, it is AwesomeWM + gvim. when things are simple, it is osx + macvim
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Your Dev Environment
|
johnbender: My friend Mitchell Hashimoto and I built a tool for using disposable vms for development.http://vagrantup.comFeedback is always welcome!
|
GeoAPI or SimpleGeo?
|
ramar: We are happy customers of GeoAPI at http://mopho.toWe didn't look too hard at SimpleGeo but I can say without hesitation that GeoAPI has been fast, stable, cost-effective and easy to use. In the rare cases where we experienced issues they were quick to respond and resolve them immediately. I also know for a fact that they are servicing some very large customers as well (larger than us for sure :).GeoAPI gives you access to a pretty rich dataset for the United States off-the-shelf, which was very important for us.
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What is your favorite Javascript UI framework out there ?
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colonel_j: None. They all make too many assumptions about my user interface design and are too hard to restyle. Often it's like having aqua widgets in a win32 app.
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Your Dev Environment
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ahlatimer: I have one of the 27" iMacs with a 26.5" external display. I use parallels whenever I need to test sites in IE, and it's very, very useable. I also do a little bit of actual development (IronPython+Silverlight) in the VM as well, and it's the same story. If I keep the VM fullscreen, I really can't tell I'm not working natively. There are the occasional slowdowns (HDD performance, mostly), but I'd imagine switching to a SSD would practically eliminate it for me.
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Your Dev Environment
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heresy: I run Windows 7 as my host OS, and use Sunacle's VirtualBox to run my VMs, as it supports 64-bit guests.I have a MacBook Pro if I need to do OS X stuff, but it doesn't have the grunt to serve as my main dev environment any more, sadly.And since upgrading my desktop to a Core i7 960 with 12GB of RAM and SSD + 10K RPM drive combos...VMs are sufficiently fast that if I fullscreen them on one of my monitors it feels like a KVM connection and not a VM.I have VMs for every flavour of Windows our software supports (Windows XP, Windows XP SPx, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003/2008).And with snapshots I can quickly jump to a particular state if I need to reproduce something specific (e.g. before installing our VC++ runtime friends, after, etc).We're actually considering shipping VMs as a deployment package to some of our larger customers.
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Your Dev Environment
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alexgartrell: It's been posted here before, but http://usesthis.com/ for what other folks use.For my part, I have two monitors, I use the first for web browsing, chat,etc and the other for whatever I'm working on (visual studio for chromium, virtual box for Linux kernel stuff, PuTTY for working remotely). Not a bad workflow.And working on kernel stuff would SUCK without virtual machines.
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Your Dev Environment
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kgutteridge: Macbook pro 13" 2.53GHz 4gig ram Aftermarket 500gb 7200 rpm disc and a 24" Samsung 1920x1080 monitorUse parallels to run VM Win XP and UbuntuWould maybe consider upgrading to the new 15" mac and the higher res screen but think I will hold off and wait for the next iteration of MacsSoftware wise xcode, textmate, eclipse
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Your Dev Environment
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beamso: 15" MBP with 2.53GHz CPU, 6GB of RAM and 7200RPM HD. Have external monitors at home and at work. I'm using either IntelliJ IDEA 9 or Eclipse for an IDE, depending if I'm doing Android stuff (Eclipse) or everything else (IDEA).I don't use VMs on this machine but at work there is a server full of VirtualBox VMs for testing deployed apps in a production-like environment.
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Your Dev Environment
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iamelgringo: Before I was using Win 7 as my base OS, I was working with an XP box, and coding on Ubuntu in a Vmware VM. It was the best way that I could get Ubuntu to actually recognize my 3 monitor setup seamlessly. I could actually rotate my main 24" monitor and code in portrait style, and Vmware would recognize the change and adjust Ubuntu accordingly.I might actually go back to that setup. I've been wading through some gnarly unicode issues recently, and I suspect that the Python REPL + Windows 7 Powershell prompt were leading me in the wrong direction a couple of times. I really need a OS that's working in unicode, dammit.I would happily run OSX in a VM, but Apple doesn't let me. :(
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What skills can a someone develop to become a great hacker?
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JoshCole: I don't think I'm a great hacker so I'll pass on answering the question myself and point you to some other resources.- http://norvig.com/21-days.html
- http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
- http://paulgraham.com/gh.html (More Than Money)
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Your Dev Environment
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calibraxis: I virtually always dev on a VM, for a number of years now:* Parallels and VMWare on Mac (best to have at least 2 GB), running Debian, Ubuntu and WinXP* Qemu+KVM on Ubuntu running Ubuntu* VirtualBox on Debian running Debian* SSH into Xen VM running DebianThe exceptions? Sysadmin tasks on my host machines.
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Your Dev Environment
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jharrison: i7 920, 6BG DDR3, Dell 24" monitor running Windows 7 64 bit host with Ubuntu VM and Win 2003 server VM (both via VMWare). Ubuntu in the VM is faster than Ubuntu on bare metal Core 2 Duo [email protected] w/2gb ddr2. Only downside (totally non-critical to me) is VMWare won't support the advanced graphics stuff for Linux.
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Your Dev Environment
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gcv: I try to do my programming in either Common Lisp or Clojure, with a REPL connected to a SLIME instance in Emacs. I can use these tools on any host OS, but prefer the Mac. It's such an amazing combination of tools that everything else feels like... well, I imagine that trying to type with two amputated arms must feel similar.Yes, this includes fancy IDEs; I have used Eclipse extensively and hate it. No, I don't like vi, although I certainly respect it.
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Any other crossfit lovers? We need a better app
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kvh: http://www.withfit.com/
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Your Dev Environment
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daakus: I just rent a cheap $20 month VM on the cloud. Every now and then I need another one to test stuff, so I'll just rent another one for that duration, which get's pro-rated. Screen does the rest. Having scripts to bootstrap VM's is crucial to make this setup viable imho. I do wish cheaper dedicated servers were available with the same easy management cloud VMs provide.
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Your Dev Environment
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pssdbt: I do web dev, and my setup probably isn't nearly as crazy as most of you guys but here we go.Hardware: 15" MacBook Pro, w/ 19" external LCD and external Apple keyboard if I'm at home.Software: MacVim, MAMP setup w/ BIND for local dev (using this configuration: http://postpostmodern.com/instructional/a-smarter-mamp/), git for vc, Parallels for IE testing, Firefox w/ Firebug and WebDev extensions for debugging js and editing css, and I prefer iTerm over Terminal.app (sadly just for 256 color support, I'm sad I know).Web apps: http://www.getcloudapp.com/ for sharing, http://www.freshbooks for time tracking/billingSupervision: 8-month-old boxer-lab with an attitude.
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What is something you would recommend learning in a day?
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maxtilford: I spent some time the last couple days learning two songs on a penny whistle. Great fun.
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Feedback for seed fund in Mexico - AspireLabs.net
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andreshb: Hugo, where do you come up with the capital? Ive seen this model attempted in other parts of Latin America and even in Miami. However, the problem is always that the people wanting to start these great programs, are not the ones with the capital.I believe this will only work if the managing partners are the ones with the capital (like PG) and not only well-intentioned entrepreneurs managing other people's money.I want this to happen in Mexico as well, the talent is fantastic (our highly talented entrepreneurial dev team is in mexico) but we need Angels that have done it before; created and sold a tech startups.Do you have any candidates?
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Your Dev Environment
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iuguy: I run Win7 on my main laptop and use that for a fair amount of development with PyDev. I use dedicated separate VMs for PHP (LAMP), certain specific Django projects and several scratch/playground VMs running Xubuntu or Arch. We use a VPS for certain dev and testing functions.Our penetration testing VMWare Images run XP and Xubuntu respectively but are due for a refresh.
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Startup ideas around 4G
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Magneus: I'm skeptical anything too extreme will take off right away, particularly since battery life is such a big problem for 3G-enabled devices at the moment. I haven't read up on 4G, so I'm not familiar with the power requirements, but I can't imagine it'll be much better. I'm taking a "wait and see" stance.
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What is something you would recommend learning in a day?
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Magneus: Try ballroom dance. You may be able to find a social dance or a group lesson. It's a good skill to have, and usually good fun, too.
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SEC Regs on Solicitation & Raising Seed Funding
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davidmurphy: Here's clickable link: http://www.abanet.org/genpractice/newsletter/lawtrends/0807/...
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SEC Regs on Solicitation & Raising Seed Funding
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davidmurphy: This ABA article would seem to suggest that most angel groups, and popular sites like VentureHacks' AngelList, are a bit questionable! Or am I missing something?
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Rate my micro-app (testing Open Graph)
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rpbertp13: Change the url's to create new Like items. Use underscores to separate words.Cooked it up with Sinatra in 23 lines and one template :)
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Rate my micro-app (testing Open Graph)
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yawniek: adding a link to a likable would be nice. just a word is a bit boring.
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What is ridddlr.com?
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zyb09: I'd guess some guys custom HN Mod, so he can easily see what he has read and what not. Maybe it has more features for him when he's logged in, like saving etc. Also it's pink.
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What is ridddlr.com?
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ElbertF: Oh that. That's just Fred.
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What is ridddlr.com?
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faramarz: "Sorry. It appears that hacker news is blocking our server's IP. ridddlr news is down until further notice.
Thank you for your patience."Ha!
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What is ridddlr.com?
|
reitzensteinm: It would be funny if they made a few more subtle changes, like a search/replace HN for riddlr. Then the top story would be "Ask Riddlr: What is Riddlr?"Or even do it both ways. "Ask Riddlr: What is HN?". It would be like some weird parallel universe.
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What is something you would recommend learning in a day?
|
julius_geezer: How to cook something: how to make an omelette or how to bake bread.Or how to fix something: a leaky faucet or toilet.
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Your Dev Environment
|
waivej: I've been using Parallels on a Macbook for a year or so. Though I have been thinking of switching to a Windows machine. The guest OS is Win2003 server which runs great. Though I get spinning beach ball problems and need to reboot the host OS fairly often which disrupts my productivity. I may try a Mac desktop next...Maybe it's a dodgy laptop.I've just been on a Mac for a year and enjoying the change of pace but frustrated by the number of problems I've had. It seems comparable to XP on my Thinkpad...but bad compared to my 2003 Server desktop.
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What is ridddlr.com?
|
albertzeyer: Maybe its for having it indexed by search engines. (I think HN disallows indexing of their site.)
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What can I do with $1-2k (Australia)
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froo: Honestly? If you haven't got a sound idea on how to invest it, I would say leave it in the bank and accrue interest until you've got a decent idea on what to do with it, otherwise you run a high risk of essentially blowing it.If you're still adamant about blowing your cash, might as well spend it on something tangible like towards a new macbook pro or something.
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Who can create custom-branded decals for Netbooks?
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rlpb: UK based: http://www.diginate.com/
|
Please help review my startup's messaging
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calvarez: You have paying customers - great! Ask them why they're paying for your service. Ask them to describe the value they're getting. Then (minimally) clean up those words and use them on your website. No one can market your product better than the people who are using/loving it.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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jamesbressi: Ahhhh, I bet you were using an iPad or iPhone or some other touch screen device, yes?This is an issue: HN up/down votes + touch screen devices.Yes, some will say be more careful, but I say up/down voting on sites in general are due for an interface/interaction redesign in light of ever increasing touch devices.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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thedjpetersen: You could always find a friend to rectify your mistake.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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jonknee: It would be nice if you could change your vote like you can on Reddit. The arrows are quite close to each other and I've done the same thing several times. It's especially tricky on a touchscreen device.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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isleyaardvark: One way would be to put the downvote arrow on the right-hand side of the meta info: ...xx minutes ago | link [down-arrow]If it's a good comment it'll probably get more than one upvote, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Stuff happens.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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nfnaaron: Find another comment or submission from the same person and upvote it, if you feel bad about reducing the guy's karma.Apologize in response to the comment, if you feel bad about taking the shine off the comment.Move on.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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mixmax: I normally reply with a comment where I state that I meant to upvote and accidentally downvoted.Psychology takes care of the rest - within minutes someone else will have upvoted the comment based on my comment. This mechanism could probably be used for malicious purposes if you cared enough about karma and not enough about basic decency.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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chaosmachine: Whenever one of my comments gets zeroed, I always assume someone missclicked. May or may not be true, but it makes me feel better ;p
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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robfitz: Every comment gets some accidental down votes, so I think just accept your slip as part of it's accurate overall score.
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Review local used textbook startup
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ABrandt: Clickable: http://matchio.com
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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adrianwaj: What's the comment link? I'll fix it for you.
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What is your favorite Javascript UI framework out there ?
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smallhands: Dojo the lastest version
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What is your favorite Javascript UI framework out there ?
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coffee_dregs: For information rich applications (ie. B2B-ish), definitely ExtJS. Pretty steep learning curve since, unlike jQuery UI, you sorta have to take all of nothing. We use ExtJS everywhere where using data/information is more important than look-n-feel. Put together CoffeeScript (http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/) with ExtJS and you'll be in RIA dev heaven. Fast and very productive.For applications where look-n-feel, customization, etc is more important (ie. B2C-ish or consumer internet), HTML/CSS/jQuery is the way to go.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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igorgue: A workaround would be to wait for another person that sees the same good as you did when commented.
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What is something you would recommend learning in a day?
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kingnothing: I thought this would have had more discussion going on, what with everyone here constantly picking up new topics. Anyone else?
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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daveungerer: What now? Now you learn not to attach so much value to the little number next to your own comments, even when it's a 0.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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rradu: I suppose the opposite happens as well: upvote when downvote is intended. In the long run it levels out.
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Review local used textbook startup
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cryptnoob: 1) "Welcome to Matchio! Get started by viewing our intro video!" --- THIS Gives me a video that is too big for the window it's in. (Firefox 3.5.9, 1024 x 768 monitor, browser is maximized)2) "OR WATCH A 60 SECOND VIDEO TOUR" --- DOESN'T do anything, even though it looks like a play link3) Why must I have a .edu account if I refuse to use Facebook? Are non students not invited?4) The slidedown and slideup at top and bottom of screen are cool, but I get confused by the up/down arrows. On the bottom, they are reversed, and on the top, down arrow seems like "minimize" to me.5) On http://bradley.matchio.com/tos.html , I'm getting some weird characters in place of the apostrophes. "Click your "I’m buying" or "I’m selling"6) I love the graphics. I wish my sites looked half this good.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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Timothee: Move on. For many reasons:- The karma points don't mean anything.- if the comment was in fact good, it will be corrected by other viewers- the comment can not have been so good that you should spend a bad afternoon thinking about it- in just a few hours, nobody will ever see that comment again, because new articles and comments will continue to come in.No, really, no need to feel bad: this is just a comment, this is just a pretty meaningless karma point.
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Are you an information addict?
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rhl: I am an information addict.I am making things worse by compulsively reading blog posts on low information diet: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/category/low-informatio...
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Are you an information addict?
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iuguy: I'm a massive information addict. The problem is that there are always things that need to be done.I'm going to google information addiction now, see you in a week.
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Are you an information addict?
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raheemm: I am embracing it. I am trying to create a life that will allow me to gather information all day long and get paid to do it.
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Review local used textbook startup
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adelevie: Great idea, I want it at Penn State.You should get data that links textbooks to courses. Then all you do is enter your current schedule. When you pick the next semester's classes, students get matched up.
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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obneq: someone might accidentally upvote a comment, dont worry.
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Who has summer internships?
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Magneus: Someone put together a Google Docs spreadsheet for this:http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASrV38bNy1TlZHhqNjlmel8xMj...
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I accidentally downvoted a good comment. What now?
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jlgosse: I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I can't tell how to downvote a comment on HN.Any insight into this?
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Are you an information addict?
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wgren: I am trying to use the Pomodoro technique - focus hard for 25 minutes, then relax for 5. This of course requires closing down mail, Twitter etc apps while a Pomodor is running.Unfortunately I still have problems, it is far too easy to open up a browser window and start looking at Hacker News, Digg, Engadget etc. I am thinking about making my own Pomodoro script which puts all my favourite timewasting sites in /etc/hosts where I can't reach them.
|
Are you an information addict?
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mgw: I am an information addict as well.I get annoyed, when I've already browsed through the HN frontpage and nothing new turns up upon refresh. At those times I wonder if the amount of really interesting, insightful and fresh(!) material produced on the web is still quite limited or if we aren't doing a good enough job of surfacing it according to everyones individual taste.
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Are you an information addict?
|
CaptainMorgan: Definitely an info addict here, in your terms... I like to think I let that information come to me through email, one of the only mediums I check and if not, I let my natural curiousity drive me. However, rather than an addict, which might be acceptable, I prefer to call it a case of being a human sponge. I consider the stimulation of my brain to be a great exercise and therefore of great importance, having learned it from a late family member through anecdotal evidence of them having lived a very long and intelligent life. Of course, even too much of a good thing can be bad, so a healthy balance should be encouraged.I can't help but point to this:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2070387_keep-aging-brain-active.htmlScroll down to where it says "Exercise the Brain". While I believe the 1st notation is obvious - exercise both body and brain of which I do to deal with it, not everyone has the energy to keep a regular physical regiment. However, I practically endorse #2: Keep your brain active every day. Play trivia games, do crossword puzzles, word games or read daily. and #3: Start something new to challenge your brain. Take up a brand new hobby, learn a new language or write a book. Get on the computer and research something that interests you, like genealogy or your family history.To answer your question, sitting here and being an info addict are quite possibly two different things. It's all about prioritization and balance - in that case maybe a better question might be: could one instead be a HN addict?
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Best way to teach yourself how to program?
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Magneus: Use the academic resources that are available on the web.MIT's OpenCourseWare has tons of content on there. I haven't used it for anything except SICP, but you should be able to find some relevant material: http://ocw.mit.edu/Google recently opened up Google Code University. They seem to have a lot of tutorials on there. http://code.google.com/eduAlso, I found this professor's lectures pretty amusing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE7l6Adoiiw&feature=PlayL...There's tons more out there. Good luck!
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Are you an information addict?
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cheald: I absolutely am an information addict. I've known that about myself for a whole, and I've tended to embrace it. Information addiction is a facet of a love of learning; to love information simply for the sake of information is somewhat useless, but to love it for the sake of learning, growing, and enriching oneself is a noble goal, I think.
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Are you an information addict?
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rhl: I am an information addict, and this is what HN makes me do:
http://www.benjamincoe.com/tetris/:-)
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Are you an information addict?
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petercooper: I believe there are different types of information addiction. Checking email and IM too frequently is hardly likely to benefit you, but reading Wikipedia and articles related to your profession, for example, can give you a serious edge.Be addicted to information "assets" and drop the ephemeral stuff.
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Are you an information addict?
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kunley: I like long periods of being offline.Still, looking for information is a common way of procrastinating. So for me spending too much time on HN is an indication that I'm pushing away something to do which actually bores me.The best way to deal with it is to finish that boring thing and switch into doing something exciting and get "into the phase" with new task.Sport helps also.I like and admire community here, you are talented and insightful people, still I've had the best experience here when I just was absorbing information after long periods of being offline and the time I spent here was planned. Also, it was best when I hang around here at the end of the day, not by the morning coffee.Reading news/email/whatever by the morning coffee, while tempting, is actually harmful for my focus needed to perform things after the coffee. Sad but true.
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Are you an information addict?
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maxklein: Information is mostly just noise. The actual useful stuff comes rarely, so I try as much as possible to minimize the external information I get that is not important - for example, the news. The news are mostly totally unimportant and irrelevant. If you read the news twice a week, that's more than fine.I also believe in using tools that pre/filter the info I get so I don|t have to wade through junk to read the info that could be useful to me.Information gathering can be a big time waste with no direct benefit. But it\s addictive, and hence dangerous.
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Are you an information addict?
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DanielBMarkham: Yes. I find myself consuming more and more material that contains information that is more and more trivial.Today's haul: found out the name and life story of the guy who played "Hoss" on Bonanza. Read an essay on tax policies in a state several hundred miles from my own. Went through an extended interview (linked from here) about life in North Korea. Researched various types of pulse oximeters. And that's just in the last couple of hours.At one point in my life I would have thought "I have a voracious appetite for new knowledge. This is a good thing" But lately I'm seeing this in not-as-flattering terms. I'm more or less picking up little shiny things simply because they glitter. There's no depth or follow-through. There's no long-range goal of acquiring knowledge in any one area. It's all just stimulus-response.
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Page Load Time Feature
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byoung2: You can do this with jQuery, e.g.:
http://www.appelsiini.net/projects/lazyload/enabled_fadein.h...Download here:
http://www.appelsiini.net/projects/lazyload
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Are you an information addict?
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enki: developing recommendation systems.
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Are you an information addict?
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j_baker: I am an information addict as long as there isn't anything more interesting that demands my time. If there's something that I need to work on, it had better be thrilling.
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Good books to learn more about computer architecture?
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paulbaumgart: http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1272228099/ref=sr_gnr_aps?search...
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Are you an information addict?
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Estragon: Yes. In my case, it's an avoidance strategy. Avoiding things I am scared of, but actually enjoy when I get into them. I'm learning a better way to relate to that fear.
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What is something you would recommend learning in a day?
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iamgabeaudick: Learn to surf. Or snowboard. You won't master either, of course. But standings up on your first wave or learning to link turns on the snow is exhilarating, and the first step towards getting better.
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Are you an information addict?
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jeromec: I'm mostly an information addict when I'm coding in long stretches. What works for me is taking breaks from focusing on logic, just any sort of different mental direction. That's where HN comes in really handy, and as a matter of fact it's how I came to be on this thread.
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Page Load Time Feature
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somagrand: Their site is also painfully slow to begin with. Thank god they are doing something like this.
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What is something you would recommend learning in a day?
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brianto2010: Origami! It's always fun and there are a ton of resources/guides/tutorials online. Most projects are usually short and practically all are doable in a day. Plus, many projects are cool to show off. Some are even useful! Here's a favorite of mine (simple, takes a couple minutes):http://www.ehow.com/how_4563591_origami-bookmark.htmlHowever, don't go overboard with the paper :-)
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Are you an information addict?
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olalonde: I guess so: I just read all the comments in this thread :/
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Review local used textbook startup
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shafqat: Good idea. But how do you make money?
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