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Stories from May 15, 2009
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1.The First Digg Developer Dispels the Myths Surrounding Digg & Startups in General (mixergy.com)
127 points by NewWorldOrder on May 15, 2009 | 37 comments
2.The Security Implications Of Google Native Client (matasano.com)
110 points by ilitirit on May 15, 2009 | 23 comments

I was 31 when I started Delicious as a company. That probably rounds down to 25 though.
4.Ask HN: After SICP, what next?
78 points by plinkplonk on May 15, 2009 | 35 comments
5.A year with Python (thegreenplace.net)
72 points by boundlessdreamz on May 15, 2009
6.Profit per employee for some large tech companies (pingdom.com)
71 points by DocSavage on May 15, 2009 | 37 comments
7.Wolfram Alpha API (Google Cache) (74.125.95.132)
61 points by byrneseyeview on May 15, 2009 | 20 comments
8.The radioactive boy scout: the teenager who attempted to build a breeder reactor (harpers.org)
60 points by TriinT on May 15, 2009 | 18 comments

Just for myself: most of the smarta$$ remarks waste my time. I'm looking for interesting information, and they don't provide any.
10.Why I don't use CouchDB. (woobling.org)
61 points by jrockway on May 15, 2009 | 29 comments
11.Today My US Investor Visa Application Was Denied
60 points by jerryji on May 15, 2009 | 67 comments

My blood pressure went way up when I found out how brutally he is being raped by the alimony system. He'd be better off in a technical field where skills matter more than reputation; he could change his identity.

Assets earned during the marriage are earned by the couple and should be equitably split, but child support should be no more than 1/2 the minimum cost of raising a child (of course, if the father's not a prick, he'll contribute much more; but the govt. should not require him to) and alimony should not exist.

13.The dumbing-down of programming (1998) (salon.com)
55 points by io on May 15, 2009 | 33 comments
14.The Curse of a New Building (steveblank.com)
51 points by coglethorpe on May 15, 2009 | 26 comments
15.Poorly Made in China: Why So Many Chinese Products are Born to be Bad (economist.com)
49 points by dpapathanasiou on May 15, 2009 | 17 comments

If you can figure out a way to make me be in my twenties, you can have all my digg shares. ;-)

The injustice is when the court strips the father of custody and then forces him to pay child support. Child support should only be required if the father voluntarily renounces custody. Otherwise, custody should be split equally and no child support should be owed by either party.

Also, everyone would be better off if these contingencies were all written into contract before marriage/child birth. It would save everyone a lot pain. Unfortunately, the judicial system has gradually replaced our great tradition of contract law with arbitrary rule by judges, much to the loss of everyone.


It's odd. People understand instinctively that the best way for computer programs to communicate with each other is for each of the them to be strict in what they emit, and liberal in what they accept. The odd thing is that people themselves are not willing to be strict in how they speak, and liberal in how they listen. You'd think that would also be obvious. Instead, we're taught to express ourselves.

--Larry Wall

To wit, try not to be offensive and at the same time try not to be offended.

19.Why We Procrastinate and How to Stop (newsweek.com)
43 points by vlad on May 15, 2009 | 34 comments

Not sexist, but you're wrong.

Child support should represent the minimum acceptable contribution of the non-custodial parent (father, in the vast majority of cases) to the child's welfare. Should he contribute a lot more, in cash, gifts, and college support? Absolutely. I would. However, the government shouldn't require him to do so, and the spending should be at his discretion. Right now, that freedom is completely taken away. The custodial parent should not be getting a huge check and the freedom to spend the money however she wants. If I end up having a kid with a wife who divorces me to live it up with an illiterate biker, those CS payments damn better be going to the kid's college, not her beau's lottery-ticket budget.

It's a bizarre inconsistency. Parents can stay married and financially neglect their children. They can make $300k combined per year and still refuse to pay for their kids' college. Yet, if they divorce, the one parent who rarely sees the kids (usually father) is forced not to pay up merely to the minimum level of decency, but far beyond that if he's "rich" like the article's author.


Owen said: It’s a bit of a myth that it’s all young coders. There actually lots of people in their late 30s and their 40s. I’ve been a programmer for 25 years and I’ve actually worked hard to keep up with new technology.

That's quite encouraging. Sometimes I think one could be forgiven for getting the impression that if you're over 25 and you haven't made it in start-up land, then you may as well quit.

22.Ten beautiful computers (boingboing.net)
39 points by pmjordan on May 15, 2009 | 13 comments

Kudos to this dude for providing all of the details, almost all of which are embarrassing to him. That probably wasn't easy.

He also names names on companies that "helped" him.


I'm wondering why you're surprised, or if I'm reading the wrong material. The first link on Google is to a site that says only 3000 investment visas are set aside each year, to investors of $500,000-$1,000,000 and(/or) employers that will be create 10 full time jobs in the US.
25.AMD may have to stop making x86 CPUs tomorrow (geek.com)
34 points by azharcs on May 15, 2009 | 9 comments

My friend and mentor did his startup (truveo.com) when he was 40, with a wife and two kids to support. His company was acquired by AOL for about $50 million. So yes, the myth that you have to be in your 20s to succeed in this game is exactly that.

As I believe I said in the interview, the second developer we hired at digg was older than me (I was 45 at the time we hired him).
28.EuroDjangoCon Presentations (pbworks.com)
33 points by samueladam on May 15, 2009 | 4 comments

> Yet another smug boomer with an overinflated sense of entitlement...

...who, to be fair, made a very public "mea culpa" about his failures in personal judgment when faced with the possibility of buying a house he couldn't really afford.

I don't necessarily think this article was all that appropriate for HN, but I did think it was a compelling piece, because of the insight it offered into how even otherwise-rational people could make bad decisions about credit.


... He's trying to sell a book which makes it quite a bit easier.

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