jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object
http://florianreischl.blogspot.com/2011/08/object-reference-not-set-to-instance-of.html
We all know, and "love", this meaningful message from somewhere inside of a system. Luckily I can say, in my last projects I became able to almost eliminate those failures - without a 100% unit test code coverage. (Those outside there who say, 100% code coverage by unit tests is a must must, please don't flame me. I'm a big fan of well tested software, but I guess I'm not yet ready for 100% coverage ;-).)

My solution for this "old enemy" was much easier than some might think..
Fifty Shades Generator
http://www.fiftyshadesgenerator.com/
The Fifty Shades Generator is "a breakthrough in erotic fiction" !
How the Kindle DX will revolutionize reading
http://techcombo.com/how-the-kindle-dx-will-revolutionize-reading
Many analysts suggest that the Kindle DX is just a “larger” version of the Kindle 2. For those who do not know about the Kindle DX, let me enlighten you on the features that are involved . In order to allow you to recognize the fresh features, they will be listed below the normal attributes:

• 9.7-inch E-Ink 1200 x 824 screen including 16 shades of grey.
• One third of an inch thick, now 10.4″ x 7.2″ x 0.38″.
• 4GB Storage allowing for 3500 books, which previously was 1500.
• More battery life.
• Navigation buttons located on the right hand side.
• EVDO to allow 60-second book transfers.

• Native PDF support using the built-in reader
• Automatic landscape/portrait text rotation
• Line length adjustments in order to conclude how wide the text on-screen is....
Mixbook recruiter spams DHH for Sr. Rails role
https://twitter.com/#!/dhh/status/175658131429400576
This guy wins! I'm sure everyone on HN gets these clueless recruiter emails, but DHH always puts these idiots on blast. That's the only way it'll stop them from doing it.
Ssl fail on apple.com
https://apple.com
https://www.apple.com does not work either.
Ask HN:B-1 or B2 visa?
When doing a program like YC, is it better to have a B1 or B2 visa? I'm on an H1B visa now but just quit my job. I'll have to get another visa to work on my stuff and raise money and if accepted, this is the same visa that I'll have while I'm in the program for 3 months. It's really easy to transfer to a B2 visa but technically youre not supposed to conduct any business on this visa. With a B1, it might raise some red flags -- why do you want to start a company here? what kind of company? etc.

Has anyone on an H1B in the US ever been accepted to YC or another program like it with a partner that's a US citizen and if so, what did you do about your visa?
Wordpress.com humor ref
http://i.imgur.com/CrH4L.png
saw this long time ago.

do you have one too?
Satnav for the blind: Guiding your every step
http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/10918/satnav-for-the-blind-guiding-your-every-step/
Control stations for the smart home, Siri-style web navigation and computer vision tech were just some of the bright ideas on display at the Digital Inclusion Innovation Contest last week in London.

We were particularly intrigued by the satnav for the blind.

“The way it works is you have a smartphone and it matches the images it sees with the Google Street View image and from this we can work out their location and orientation and produce some instructions to guide them to the door.”

http://bit.ly/151e5ij
Author of OpenSSL vulnerability also wrote the spec
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/bd6941cfaa31ee8a3f8661cb98227a5cbcc0f9f3
Link to the TLS/DTLS heartbeat spec: https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-seggelmann-tls-dtls-heartbeat-01
Google Experimental - add simple "vi" style keyboard commands to your search
http://www.google.com/experimental/
I can't believe this is hidden away, there doesn't seem to be a reason this would not benefit all users.

J,K,O,<Enter>,/,<Esc> are all that is needed to use the google without a mouse at all.

There is also 'Accessible View', which I thought would be the better way to go, really wanting to gain 'n' and 'p' to move across pages. Unfortunately, this mode is a bit much for me. However, for someone using a screen reader, I can see how this mode would be a huge step in the right direction.

Make sure to confirm your search preferences, I found my 'SafeSearch Filtering' had reverted back to filleted behavior.
How NASA will defend Earth from a deadly asteroid (video)
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/21/nasa-blow-up-an-asteroid-video/
If Earth is ever in danger from an asteroid, would we be able to stop it?
User Experience Design Collection
http://www.uxidea.tumblr.com
Meaningful thoughts and flubdub about user experience design and interactions. No cat content, promise
Here's what I believe is missing among the tools supporting 'API economy'
http://www.zazler.com/?p=115
Something to read on a weekend... prove me wrong, I dare u! :)
HTML5 Geolocation API
http://www.dharne.com/blog/2010/05/24/html5-and-the-geolocation-feature/
The HTML5 geolocation API is set to change the way we experience the web whether by way of a desktop, laptop, iPad or mobile phones.
Supporting Your Family: So Easy a Caveman Could Do it
http://tracksuitceo.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/supporting-your-family-so-easy-a-caveman-could-do-it/
You've heard the expression "bringing home the bacon", usually used when referring to a man making money for his family. This phrase goes back to the Hunter/Gatherers (or as I'll show you it should be phrased, the Gatherer/Hunters). Women would gather the food and materials that everyone needed and the men would go and hunt Woolly Mammoth and everyone worked an average of 2 hours each day. Now we can have an even better existence and we can do this by supporting our wives.
Ask HN: Tool for scheduling a live work focus session with a random person?
I'm not sure a post like this is legal, but I'm really looking for a tool I came across here that lets you schedule a live webcam session with a random person and make sure each other are working on something. Does anyone happen to know the name of it?
Packaged HTML5 Apps: Are we emulating failure?
http://groovecoder.com/2013/01/07/packaged-html5-apps-are-we-emulating-failure/
From the article:

"tl;dr - URLs delivered a better experience than native desktop apps; they can do the same for mobile apps."
Python Speed/Performance Tips
http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSpeed/PerformanceTips
http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSpeed/PerformanceTips#head...

There are a few basic suggestions, it is a document anyone new to Python should read.

What have you done to improve performance? Personally I tend to use a unit test so I can setup a situation with a bunch of test data, and it will show me how long each option takes when I am trying to improve an algorithm.
Tax Statistics in Wolfram Alpha
http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2010/04/16/historical-ustax-statistics-in-wolframalpha/
Now that all of our U.S. users have filed their taxes (we hope), they can explore IRS data about individual income taxes, broken down by adjusted gross income (AGI), from 1996 to 2007 [...]
How the MIT Energy Club is Taking Over the World
http://bostinno.com/2012/03/13/how-the-mit-energy-club-is-taking-over-the-world-one-beer-at-a-time/
A history of the world's premier student energy organization.
Show HN: Paragrai – add paragraphs to badly formatted web novel translations
https://github.com/badly-drawn-wizards/paragrai
A pet project I worked on for a couple of days. It uses gpt2 to add paragraphs to text. I made it to solve the very niche problem of badly formatted web novel translations that kept occurring on a website I frequent.
How to Turn Complaints into Loyal Customers
http://amazingserviceguy.com/1622/customer-service-training/how-to-handle-customer-complaints-tip-1/
Studies have shown customer's whose complaints are handled well are more likely to be more loyal than any other customers. Learn how to turn complaints into loyal customers here.
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Announcement Next Week Will Be 'Something Awesome'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-announcement-something-awesome_n_888018.html
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Facebook, the world's biggest social networking website, is set to launch a new feature next week, possibly in the mobile or tablet arena, its CEO said.

Chief Executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a visit to Facebook's Seattle office on Wednesday that the company planned to "launch something awesome" next week.

He said the project had been developed at the 40-person Seattle office, Facebook's only major engineering center outside of its Palo Alto, California headquarters.

There has been speculation in technology blogs in recent weeks about various mobile products in development at Facebook, including the release of a long-awaited Facebook app for Apple Inc's iPad and a specialized app for photo-sharing on the iPhone.

Facebook's Seattle office has made a mark on the company's mobile efforts, playing a central role in the development of Facebook's unified mobile site, unveiled in March.

A Facebook spokesman declined to provide further details about Zuckerberg's comments.

Facebook, the world's largest Internet social network with more than 500 million users, is increasingly challenging established online companies like Google Inc and Yahoo Inc for consumers' time online and for advertising dollars. According to the company, people that use Facebook on mobile devices are twice as active on the service than users on PCs.
How Algorithmically Created Content will Transform Publishing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danwoods/2012/08/13/how-algorithmically-created-content-will-transform-publishing/
This article explains how an algorithm will search for free or copyright free content based on a search seed and then combine the content into a book.

This is not publishing but delegating the search, find and discovery process to a more efficient machine.

If a client’s search terms were “seeded” with their online reading habits via Scoopinion or similar then the “algorithmic publishing process” would be tailored to your reading habits.

You could do this yourself via a search engine, and I frequently do to learn a new topic like. When I search and discover I read and refine and change my search. I see the process as iterative, rather than singular.

In effect you are paying for a search via this "algorithmic publishing"; not for the writing.
PeepOpen: An editor-independent fast file opener.
http://peepcode.com/products/peepopen/
For those who haven't paid and are wondering: think of this as TextMate's Command-T only it works everywhere (emacs! vim! etc!)

See http://blog.peepcode.com/tutorials/2010/file-navigation-in-text-editors for the thinking that led to this.
Julian Assange (Wikileaks) to speak at HOPE Conference in NYC in 2 weeks?
http://thenexthope.org/2010/06/speaker-under-threat-by-u-s-authorities/
"Assange is scheduled to give The Next HOPE Saturday keynote on July 17 in New York City. To make things even more interesting, Lamo ["hacker" the April drone video was leaked to] has also been planning on appearing at the conference and may now wind up facing a hacker community who views his actions with, to put it mildly, disappointment."
Google Mashup Editor vs Yahoo Pipes
http://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2007/07/06/google-mashup-editor-vs-yahoo-pipes/
The article explores the differences between Google Mashup Editor and Yahoo Pipes, two data mashup services. And the winner is ...
Diego Rivera’s Vaccine Mural in Detroit in the 1930s
https://historyofvaccines.blog/2021/07/12/diego-riveras-vaccine-mural-in-detroit-in-the-1930s/
https://historyofvaccines.blog/2021/07/12/diego-riveras-vaccine-mural-in-detroit-in-the-1930s/
MSFT vs. GOOG vs. YHOO vs. AAPL vs. AMZN over 2 years
http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chdet=1233003600000&chddm=207524&cmpto=NASDAQ:AMZN;NASDAQ:AAPL;NASDAQ:GOOG;NASDAQ:YHOO&cmptzos=-18000;-18000;-18000;-18000&q=NASDAQ:MSFT&ntsp=0
I ran this graph dated back to the last time I was looking for a job, just to compare how well each company has done since then. I never would have predicted this.
Google working on mobile payment technology: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/28/us-google-mobilepayment-idUSTRE72R0F520110328
Google is joining Citigroup and Mastercard to set up a mobile payment system that will turn Android phones into a kind of electronic wallet, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Reddit CAPTCHA failing?
Tried registering an account or submitting feedback to http://reddit.com/ but I don't pass the human test.

Am I truly human?
Ask HN: Do you see a tech business “diaspora” increasing? How would it happen?
With the increasing connectivity of people across their country with the internet being near-ubiquitous, and all over the world, we can foresee more traditional in-house work replaced with remote jobs, and the rapid spread of business ideas (both in tech and elsewhere). Does this seem to indicate a geographic homogenization of the tech industry?

Can an industry that just had a few exclusive higher quality networks by location opening up to witness equal opportunities of growth everywhere?

It would mean a different way of thinking what it means to have business collectives.

Today: "X place is set to become the next tech hub"

Tomorrow: No thinking about tech hubs, everywhere just is.

This can mean that the network effect is no longer dependent on location. Do you think that will follow.
This is awesome
http://www.google.com
I work 95 hours/week and I invented http://www.google.com
Lo and Behold: The 40th anniversary of the internet
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/lo_and_behold_the_internet/
On the 40th anniversary of the first internet connection, a look back on how a flash of insight and a 20-minute meeting got it all started.
KVS Erlang Data Framework for N2O
https://github.com/synrc/kvs
Provides High-Level Access to Acl, Users, Groups, Subscriptions, Feeds, Comments, Meetings, Accounts, Payments, Products, Purchases, etc.
30 Under 30: The Coolest Young Entrepreneurs in America
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/103284/30-under-30
YCombinator-funded startup at #4.
The leased life - Why own anything?
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/01/24/the_leased_life?mode=PF
Interesting article about Rentalic.com (and other similar services) which makes it easier to lend and borrow common, but infrequently used.

Like so many other websites, it connects mutual beneficiaries - in this case, people who own things they don’t use much with people who want to use things without owning them. Members can post either belongings they have to offer or goods they are hoping to find. Items recently listed include a body fat scale ($5 a week), a bread maker ($1.75 a day), and a cupcake transporter ($3 a week). The site was launched last October with limited membership, and opened to the public earlier this month.

There have been many times where I've wanted to borrow/rent a high performance DSLR camera (for sporting events, special outings, etc.) but wouldn't feel right just bugging my friend for theirs. I can't afford the $1000+ price tag either, so that's not an option. I can understand that the DSLR example may not be the best example, because it's very expensive and fragile, but there are many other items available on their site which make perfect sense to borrow/rent for a fee (bikes, golf clubs, wheelbarrows, etc.)
Buttercoin Uses Bitcoin To Attack The $500B-A-Year Remittances Economy
http://blog.ycombinator.com/buttercoin-yc-s13-uses-bitcoin-to-attack-the-$500b-a-year-remittances-economy
Buttercoin plans to open in India within the next three months and then to operate in six countries in nine months’ time. Their model is to open a local Bitcoin exchange in each country. When they enter a market, they pair with local money transfer businesses to have legal compliance in the country.
The Programming Strategy
http://nickmudge.info/?post=80
When things are tough, write some more software.
Why Low-Tech CEOs Should Be Fired Immediately
http://blogs.dovetailsoftware.com/blogs/main/archive/2007/10/10/is-simple-it-possible.aspx
This article sites the Business Week survey that shows that 73% of technically savvy CEOs (self-professed 'total geeks') reported double-digit annual growth in their companies. Guess who the CEO should be replaced with?...
Cyveillance sends bad DMCA to public repos on Github for QUALCOMM
https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2014-07-02-Qualcomm.md
more context on slashdot

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/07/04/1455200/qualcomm-takes-down-100-github-repositories-with-dmca-notice
More truth about Twitter
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/more-truth-about-twitter/
this came out out a while ago but has since been expanded on. it's great for two reasons:

1. information is important (though the correct information is most important)

2. displaying information in unique ways can really help tell the story, make information relevant and more memorable.
How order management startup Lettuce got its start as fictional dog toy company
http://tnw.co/19EhclN
Fun story about we started Lettuce by creating a solution to our own order fulfillment problem...from dog toys to the cloud. www.lettuceapps.com
Show HN : A WebRTC based Voice CRM solution.
http://www.voz.io
Hey All ,<p>2 Years back when I had the idea of developing a Voice CRM solution , the only option for me was to use a flash widget and as I dont want to use Flash , i was waiting for 2 years to get WebRTC default on the browsers .<p>After such waiting time , We are launching our in-house developed voice crm solution www.voz.io.<p>Please leave us your feedback .<p>Thanks
Voz.io Team .
Germany gets Internet Censorship
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86441/german-mandatory-dns-blacklist-blasted-by-critics-protests-emerge/
We know officially have a secret DNS blacklist.

:(
Ask HN: Best way to get beta app signups?
We're building a consumer mobile app and are in private beta right now. We have the ability to send someone a build via email. Any good suggestions to amass user emails?

If you're interested in trying it out (req: i phone/pad/pod touch w/ios8): email team@getnowapp.co and we'll reply with a build.

Thanks!
Show HN: Run Python code on GitHub.dev with zero-setup
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=tym-inc.pyodide
We made this extension that lets you run any python code on the web by using Pyodide. You can try it by installing this VSCode extension on GitHub.dev / VSCode.dev. Since it is using pyodide to run python code, there are some limitations which we have listed in the extension’s README page.

We made this scrappy extension quickly as a POC for Stanford’s Code in Place program. Let us know if this is interesting and what features should we add next!
Ask HN:  I want to build a Lisp-based VM?  Is it possible? Thoughts?
I work full time, have a family, etc. BUT, I have a deep passion for programming, computer science, and especially Lisp. I've been programming off and on with Lisp for many years. However, I wouldn't consider myself an expert at all. What do you all think? Would a Lisp based VM be too slow? Perhaps it would repeat the JVM's path where it started out extremely slow, and progress until it's just slightly slow =). Ideas welcome! Talk amongst yourselves!
Create RSS from ANY web page
http://www.feedity.com/
Feedity is an RSS generator for web pages without a web syndication format. A true web service (Web 3.0 / SaaS)
Show HN: Ycommentator - HN front page with Slashdot-like inline comments
http://news.ycommentator.com
The comments on HN are often at least as good (if not better!) than the links. I built this app to have a way to quickly read through all the top comments on front page stories. I hope some of you find it useful too.
Looking for Liberty? Avoid adjectives.
http://socialscienceplusplus.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-all-in-name-kingdom-of-norway-vs.html
From "A Plan for Spam": "As a rule of thumb, the more qualifiers there are before the name of a country, the more corrupt the rulers. A country called The Socialist People's Democratic Republic of X is probably the last place in the world you'd want to live."
Give Your Spirit Clojure
http://clojurescriptkoans.com/
Cute way to learn ClojureScript.
Show HN: Speed of all of your processes across entire stack in one dashboard
https://checkpoints-app-36545.web.app
I built Checkpoints App out of my experience of not being able to quickly and easily measure the speed of processes across my tech stack in my startup.

All startups optimize for speed in all of their operations: deploying code, responding to API requests, loading the UI, and in background processes such as sending emails to users or processing data in an ETL pipeline. But the tools available to measure the performance of all these operations are separate and time-costly to integrate, in the first place.

Checkpoints App allows you to measure the speed of processes across your entire stack with minimal overhead and collects that data into a single dashboard. Integrating it into your tech stack is as easy as dropping a `print()` statement in your code, while you're writing it.

It comes with client-side Python, JS and Bash scripts. You drop checkpoint statements anywhere in the code, defining a process name and checkpoint name, for example: `./checkpoints.sh process1 checkpoint1` where process1 is your process name and checkpoint1 is your checkpoint name.

Once you've dropped checkpoints in your code. It will automatically create the process pipelines in your dashboard along with the speed metrics i.e, how long does it take, on average, to go from checkpoint1 to checkpoint2 . Then you can start optimizing for speed.

Another major problem I saw was that most lightweight tools out there let you measure performance in a single part of your stack, for example, you need to use Lighthouse in the front-end UI and CloudWatch for your backend API endpoints. With Checkpoints App, however, you can create tailored processes across your tech stack. For example, you can add the first checkpoint in your backend and the second checkpoint in your front end.

I'd love to hear your feedback. If you'd like to try this out, signup at the landing page and I'll send you the access.
Introducing RCapture - Method Hooks in Ruby
http://cheind.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/introducing-rcapture/
RCapture is a Ruby library that allows placing hooks on methods using a convenient interface. This article introduces RCapture and its features.
Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2012
http://www.edn.com/article/520299-Hot_technologies_Looking_ahead_to_2012.php
Engineers - the creators of technology - never rest. Here, the editors at EDN pay homage to those creators with a look at some of the hot trends and technologies in 2011 - and a look ahead to 2012 - that engineers have helped create and advance.
Ask HN: What to do about a wrongly shut down GMail account?
A friend has just had his GMail account closed down earlier today, and can't log in. He wasn't doing anything wrong or spamming/scamming anyone, just using GMail, Calendar, etc. like anyone else does. There doesn't appear to be any appeals process, and he has a lot of important data in there that he's lost access to -- is there anything that can be done?