New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 357 posts.
Hacking is Important
Back in the early 90s, Borland International was the place to be an engineer. Coming off the purchase of Ashton-Tate, Borland was the third largest software com
I'm not a "curator"
Curator’s Code is an attempt to codify and standardize “via” links and attribution from link blogs and aggregators with two new symbols:
Rabbit holes: Why being smart hurts your productivity
##The geek’s Achille’s Heel I recently decided practice my algorithms skills everyday by working through Skiena’s Algorithm Design Manual and doing some Interview Street problems. To make it somewhat more interesting I decided to do all the exercises and problems in Haskell.
It's not a talent shortage, it's a hiring problem
I just started a new job at Microsoft and the hiring process has been on my mind a lot lately. I read articles on the Internet and hear people talking about how hard it is to find good development ...
Learning from competition
I experimented with custom fonts in Instapaper last year, but my efforts fizzled out. Before iOS 5, rendering custom fonts in a UIWebView on iOS was extremely buggy and slow. And nearly all of my licensing inquiries to font foundries went unanswered, so I couldn’t legally ship any of the fonts I wanted even if I could…
New Reddit CEO reporting for duty
Get the latest product news, company announcements, and user insights from the official Reddit blog.
What if doing your best -- at what you're best at -- isn't enough?
There’s a pitcher who’s in Mets Major League camp that’s staying at my hotel. It doesn’t seem appropriate to say his name and it doesn’t much matter for the sake of th…
I’m an Engineer, Not a Compiler
The less sexy (but very important!) side of the data sciences, every Tuesday morning. Click to read Counting Stuff, by Randy Au, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.
Give it five minutes
A few years ago I used to be a hothead. Whenever anyone said anything, I’d think of a way to disagree. I’d push back hard if something didn’t fit my world-view. It’s like I had to be first with an opinion – as if being first meant something. But what it really meant…
Right versus pragmatic
At a previous job, the shared men’s bathroom for the floor was laid out like this:
Github is my resume
I remember the first time I heard that statement - a couple years back Eric Florenzano said it to me on Twitter when I posted my resume pub...
Agile: 5 years later and you're still doing it wrong
Which values of the Agile Manifesto do you find foolish? If you're going to tar and feather it(Agile), maybe you should start at the source.
How To Get Experience Working With Large Datasets
There are data sources out there, but which data source you choose depends on which technology you wish to get experience working with. The experience should be of the technologies you are using, rather than what the data is. Certain datasets pair better with certain technologies. Simulating the data can be another…
Don't fall in love with your technology
It's not about technology for its own sake. It's about being able to implement your ideas.
A myth called the Indian programmer
They are the poster boys of matrimonial classifieds. They are paid handsomely, perceived to be intelligent and travel abroad frequently. Single-handedly, they brought purpose to the otherwise sleep…
The Management Team - Guest Post From Joel Spolsky
Today's guest blogger needs no introduction. Joel Spolsky one of the best bloggers out there. He also runs one of our portfolio companies, Stack. And his approach to management is unorthodox at times but amazingly effective. I asked him to tell us a little about how he does it. I think you'll enjoy this post, […]