mburney

I get the feeling that dabble DB never truly solved the "excel being used as database" problem and that is why they didn't last.

I still think spreadsheets work really well for storing data (if you don't have time/money to imnplement a RDMS), plus now with google docs and dropbox there are enough ways to sync the data with other users.

Thanks for the suggestion, I changed the title

And of course Bach and Gould fans.

Could there be any better music than Bach to listen to while programming? I think not :)

This would be interesting especially for those of you that read Godel Escher Bach by Hofstadter

A few ways:

-Ask them when they are inputting in any kind of sign up form for your product (if you have one). Probably best to make it an optional field though

-Mine the data using facebook (if your clients are on your facebook list)

-Send out a survey with some incentive, and with some q's that would gain some knowledge about them plus their date of birth

I would choose "The Land of Lisp"

A lower chance of divorce does not entail a better family unit with a balance of gentleness and aggressiveness as suggested by the parent.

You made the normal looking guy sound like a douche? That may be the reason he got so many winks and responses. Often being an arrogant douche can be mistaken for confidence and attractiveness.

Have you tried meditation? I have had anxiety issues in the past and practicing meditation has worked wonders.

Yep. I went to a non-ivy league college but nonetheless I didn't know how to communicate with working class people either until I did a working class job following graduation.

I learned javascript and jquery at the same time, and it turned out to be a lot more efficient for my purposes rather than learning pure javascript first. So for newbies I think there is benefit in including the general language tutorial first

I haven't seen this ted talk yet but keep in mind that perceived sleep benefit is mostly subjective, so if a person feels like crap if he has no sleep, no amount of evidence to the contrary really matters.

America needs more holidays like this.

I would say go for it. To catch up socially, just go to a lot of parties and talk to people, but don't try too hard, its OK to be less talkative in your first few parties, but don't avoid interaction either.

In a frat some guys will like to bust your balls and you will have to come up with quick responses. Don't worry about responding eloquently, you will get better over time. But make sure you don't laugh it off, agree, or self-deprecate...bust their balls back. It is all in good fun. This is how your social skills will improve.

I think the reason for the reduced output is that they were never able to truly monetize the internet version of the paper, aside from publishing a few books. Ames does freelance journalism now, and Taibbi writes for Rolling Stone, so it seems like they decided to just make a living rather than try and revive what they did in the past.

Amazing (and awesome) to see that several HNers are Exile fans. I always viewed their paper as a kind of startup, except the goal being to piss off the establishment rather than make money.

At first glance I thought for sure that his critics are probably just jealous bitter old anti-youth types who think young people need to be kept in line.

But upon checking out his website, it is very hard to figure out what he actually does, and what his business is all about. He seems to be trying to sell himself and his achievements rather than a product, and while this can be a type of "lifestyle" business, people still need a reason for why they ought to listen to him.

It doesn't seem to be too typical outside of Fortune 500 companies. It's actually nice to see a 'hacker' entrepreneur spending his wealth.

This kind of "awkwardness" is felt as a result of being stuck in your head. It's only awkward if you're worried about making a mistake. But you can relax, you're allowed to make mistakes. No one except you really cares if you said something stupid or rude or pointless.

From another post by the author: "it is interesting to note that small amounts of alcohol (the occasional drink) is associated with reduced levels of markers of chronic inflamamtion like IL-6, CRP and leptin." Don't have any sources of the research, but it seems like he may post it soon.

I have tried a couple of those and they had too many features for me -- overcomplicated.

Not to mention that most startup founders in the western world come from affluent families, so quitting a great job to do a startup isn't particularly risky for them since they normally won't end up on the street if they fail. Bouncers and fighters on the other hand risk their lives.

This talk about startup founders having to be "tough" just seems like an ego boost to make the whole startup experience feel heroic and epic, which I think is OK because a little self-aggrandizing is probably good for motivation.

Yeah, the reason I was thinking of using mongo is because I have to write a simple posting app (i.e. allow for blog or twitter style posts with tags) so defining a relational schema seems like overkill to me. But I can't be sure.

To the parent: thanks for the edifying comment. I do have some experience with SQL and relational DBs, but was thinking of using noSQL for some projects. Your point to thoroughly learn the relational model is well taken.

Hilarious video...but it reminds me of the painful fact that I know very little about databases so choosing between SQL and noSQL for my web app just seems arbitrary for me. I wish there were some simpler explanations out there.

If you define free will as conscious deliberation of action, it is easier to make the claim that it exists

I'm surprised how few people realize this. I guess drug use is one of those topics that tend to shut off people's rational faculties and make them react with emotion and a holier-than-thou attitude

I'm very curious about this too. Is there a product out there that could generate a simple product site that uses one of the standard templates?

Programming languages is one of those topics which demonstrates the difference between online and offline discussions. In an online forum I don't mind reading a back and forth argument about languages especially if I can learn something from it. But in person I find it comes through as just completely pretentious, even if it is polite.

Sounds more like banal, run-of-the-mill inspirational speech (not that I have anything against that)

How is it not a poor ROI? My experience of "real world" dating has been: 1) Social or physical activities that I enjoy regardless of how many dates I get 2) Meeting/knowing/connecting with people within those activities 3) Flirting with some of those people, which naturally progresses to something more.

It beats wasting 5 hours surfing the web looking for dates.