minus1

Have you found evidence contrary to this? Or are you taking issue with the parent's use of the term "higher IQ" rather than "higher perceived intelligence" or something similar? I'm asking out of genuine interest because the statement seems plausible to me (a layman) based on anecdotal evidence.

You have some alternatives, but no silver bullets:

* Establish rank before the tournament (in which case you're just moving the problem)

* Eliminate rank and seed teams randomly (which makes it much less likely to see the best teams medal)

* Use random seeding and a double-elimination structure (as a fan, I dislike double-elimination, but I'm not sure what the consensus is on this)

* Try to mitigate the problem by playing matches consecutively (you'll need lots of courts), hiding the actual seeding until the single-elimination round (people will assume you're corrupt), or other creative methods (you probably won't catch all the edge cases, so throw in a rule that says "you must try your hardest")

Fortunately, we live in the age of A/B testing. Rather than listening to any of the speculation in this thread, the thoughtful businessperson can actually quantify just how good or bad a design is at achieving its goal.

Don't do work for individuals or very small companies. People are much more reasonable when your fee isn't coming out of their pocket.

These things are over the line (and illegal):

  Using images without permission

  Using code without permission

  Referencing images and code from another site without permission

  Designing a site from scratch to roughly copy another site's design

I am actually working on a simplified AVR USB board for just this purpose, I'll post it to HN when I'm done.

Imagining a real-life scenario of dozens or hundreds of documents mixed together in a shredder bin makes my head hurt.

So, I wouldn't worry too much about your shredded docs just yet.

I was surprised to find that this method doesn't scale well when the puzzle reaches a certain size.

It's not unusual, in the U.S., for urban centers to have a high minority concentration, but I believe this is much higher than most major cities.

It's possible I never would have become a coder if a teacher hadn't given me a brief intro to Basic when I was 11 years old. I took it from there, and was self-taught until college.

With my own son, I introduced him to Scratch, helped him through a few lessons, and then watched as it became his favorite thing to do. I really can't say enough about Scratch as an introduction to programming. It gives kids a simple environment where they see quick results while learning the basics. Just as important, there is a social aspect in that they can easily share their programs with their friends. There does, however, seem to be a need to bridge the gap between Scratch and traditional languages.

        * Google Chrome: version 4.249.4+
        * Mozilla Firefox: version: 3.5+
        * Apple Safari: version 3.1+
        * Opera: version 10.5+
        * Microsoft Internet Explorer: version 6+

        The Google Font API is not currently 
        supported on iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Android

I will admit that at first I really disliked this idea. There is something distasteful about profiting from death. After giving it some thought, and looking over some of the memorials, I really think you have something. Of course the key will be to treat people fairly and with respect and kindness. I have seen the poor implementations currently used by funeral homes. Even those seem to be a true source of comfort for the family. Good luck, I hope you're successful.

One thing I noticed was that it's very difficult for me to scan the headlines quickly. I think the reason is that right now the focal point is the time, with the red and black, while the headline and description blend together a bit. I think you could change this without hurting the aesthetic. (Also, as others mentioned, a brief description would be great)

Good luck!

I was surprised to find there is no mention of this in the HN comment guidelines. Maybe it could be added?

Apologies for continuing with the meta.

I know the feeling. I've struggled with this. Here's the conclusion I've come to: you don't need to be a great programmer to make great products.

Maybe my assumption that this is a widely held belief was wrong.

It seems to work for Google. I'm just curious what it is about their implementation or culture that makes this the case.

This TED talk summarizes the book: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html