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perseiden

Bringing new drugs to markets is expensive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_drug_development

(These costs include the other 90% of drugs that have probably failed at some development stage)

Re:Voice interfaces beginning to find their way into business on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @08:09AM (#16051626)
might be pretty cool for lab technicians to do routine calculations and documentation, so they have their hands free.
Re:Introduction to R Programming on Thursday December 07, 2017 @08:31AM (#15869798)
not gonna argue that : D Been working with R for 3+ years now and totally second the "there are also many things that are just a tiny bit different from the standard cases, and are absurdly complex".

I can gradually move on to python at work now, which so far has been much more pleasant. It always surprises me what you can end up doing in R though, but really shouldn't if you want to go to production : )

Re:Introduction to R Programming on Thursday December 07, 2017 @06:05AM (#15869086)
if you run scripts non interactively, you could try commandArgs? That should contain the file path. For Rstudio maybe the rstudioapi package has a function like that...
Re:Bitcoin Bubble Makes Dot-Com Look Rational on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @07:05AM (#15796448)
I think that was the point he was trying to make. Without major support of such institutions / individuals, bitcoin won't catch on as a "real" currency.
Re:Using a logbook to improve your programming on Friday November 24, 2017 @12:55AM (#15769681)
Heh funny, I started writing a "labbook" like this ~6 months ago with markdown writer in atom for every day. I have a background as a Lab technician where I was used to keep a daily detailled labbook so I didn't have to develop that habit..

I like to structure my programming lab book in a similar way, for every task/ bug/ project I try to jot down a description, hypothesis, expected outcome and document my progress with code snippets / outputs / plots. I also keep a Todo list at the top to visualize my current workload. It really helps if you have to come back to a problem later on or just to get a good overview of your current task. I feel lik this also works nicely in conjuncture with GTD to increase my productivity.

Re:Why we should learn German on Friday July 28, 2017 @02:00AM (#14872292)
I'm german too and feel like being offended by jokes like that just proves the stereotype... I mean come on, german is truly not the "language of love".
hmm still won't work. I type in germany/ Cologne / Deutschland in Location and can't see the Pirate Summit one. If I type in Cologne, Germany I can see all entries ;)
Re:Ways a VC says no without saying no on Friday July 21, 2017 @03:56AM (#14818823)
the agreements we did have included that we don't disclose their names. I did not see the exact wording and don't know if they extend beyond the due diligence, so to be on the save side I'd rather zip it.

Plus I think a write-up of guide lines or red flags that one should watch out for during a DD or when talking to a VC might help more than just name calling. What worked the last time: Google their names and go past page 1 (Most seem to know how to alter their search results)

Re:Ways a VC says no without saying no on Friday July 21, 2017 @01:18AM (#14818236)
We have similar stories... A possible investor (a supplier for our product) went through a Due Diligence with us to learn more about our process etc. Couple of weeks later our founder got the no plus a note that they would not sell their product to us anymore, since they were planning on persuing service similar to ours within their own company.

A couple months later our founder has another possible investor and we go through a Due Diligence again. This time we were already wary from our first DD (plus the investor had a bit of a reputation of being a scammer in the past) and lo and behold their IT guy wants to have full access to our software packages / pipeline, source code and databases, so they "can assess the quality". (...) I didn't end up giving them any of our source code, which they were fine with after a while. This whole spiel went on for another month where they "focused" more on other processes. Eventually they went quiet and their CTO asked me privately if I wanted to jump ship to join them, because they need someone with my expertise...

Does this happen often or did we just have some bad luck? Also has anyone ever been asked to provide the source code to their product? (that seemed kind of outrageous to me)

Re:Ask HN: How friendly is Berlin for startups? on Tuesday June 13, 2017 @02:08AM (#14543116)
If you're not bound to any specific town you'll most likely find something within a month or two. If you're moving from outside of the EU though you and your employer might have to wait an additional 1 - 6 months for your work visa to go through, during which you're not allowed to earn money. The timeframe might be shorter in smaller towns than Berlin though ;)
Re:Ask HN: How friendly is Berlin for startups? on Tuesday June 13, 2017 @02:02AM (#14543086)
Speaking of bureaucracy, one thing that shouldn't be left out is that as a non-EU citizen you will also have to deal with the Ausländerbehörde for your visa. There you will have to deal with bureaucrats that refuse to speak anything besides german and the rather complicated process of acquiring a visa or specifically an Arbeitserlaubnis that allows you to earn money. My wife had to go through it as an employee and I've helped colleagues with visiting scientist visas. I've heard from others that a freelancer visa comes with a whole array of different requirements that can be hard to meet, but maybe someone else knows more about it. While visas here in general are doable and probably a lot less complicated than a US Greencard / Visa, it is something you should check out beforehand.
Re:State of Startups on Friday December 02, 2016 @06:05AM (#13087680)
Looks like there are only US based startupts. At least 39 % of the start ups were located in the Bay area, so that must distort the figure quite a bit I guess.