jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Can virus spread through rats or dogs?
So, we know that the virus which causes covid-19 can infect:

- humans

- mink

- cats

- it originally came from bats, via something else (perhaps pangolin)

- hamsters

- guinea pigs

So, given that we have seen this many species, it seems plausible that it can infect other mammalian species we don't know about. Perhaps even common urban ones, such as raccoons, coyotes, possums, hedgehogs, etc. Fortunately the experiments done on lab rats thus far suggest that it cannot infect rats, and although it can infect dogs it does not seem to do a good job of being transmitted from dogs so that would not be an effective vector.

However...

Given that we have a new variant which seems to be more infectious, it seems plausible to wonder if it is better not at passing between humans, but rather better at passing from human to rat to human, or else from human to dog to dog to human. The new variant may be an adaptation to widespread lockdowns, by using other animal vectors better in order to get from house to house.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't know of any data source to discredit (or confirm) it. So, being as HN has a lot of smart people in different industries, I'm throwing the question out there to see if anyone else knows any data on how the new covid-19 variant seen in the UK (and elsewhere) behaves in other species? The data may not exist, but if there is anyone who knows of a public source related to it, I would love to know about it. Especially, you know, if it disproves this idea.

Btw, I'm not looking for a "there's no evidence of that" kind of response, I'm looking for a source for evidence, either for or against.
Gnu 30th anniversary Hackathon - what is Stallman's big announcement?
"""You're Invited: GNU 30th anniversary celebration and hackathon
Featuring Richard Stallman
When: Saturday and Sunday, September 28 - 29, from 10am until midnight.
<snip>
And of course, you'll want to be in the room when Richard Stallman makes a highly anticipated announcement about the future direction of GNU."""

Does anyone have any ideas about the "highly anticipated announcement"? I would guess its fifty / fifty it will be deeply impressive vs faintly disappointing. But I want to know now :-)
How to fix iOS 4 performance on the iPhone 3G? Disable Spotlight
http://www.neowin.net/news/sluggish-ios-4-performance-on-the-3g-we-have-the-fix
Anyone try this and see a performance increase?
Ask HN: A Social Programmer Test?
Once upon a time, we avoided programmers that used dated zip files to manage software releases, or wrote cvs wrapper scripts to help a team understand version control, or mandated the text editor to avoid white space merge issues, or used word & excel to manage requirements, or could not write software without customers.

Today, the red flag for me is "social". I'm sure you've met the developers I'm talking about. Their happy saying "social cloud infrastructure", but JSON and REST is for their lower back. Communities without meetings and entry fees don't exist. Revenue comes from PR, not a killer product.

How do I find great social programmers?!
Apple's xCode Sucks: Well, it used to
http://devcodehack.com/xcode-sucks-and-heres-why/
I am a huge fan of iOS and the line of iProducts, but I hate development on them. It takes too long, requires too much effort (call me lazy!) and in comparison to other platforms like Android, Blackberry, Windows, etc, it's a lot more complicated. What are your thoughts? What do you think about using libraries like PhoneGap or Appcelerator? I find it to be increasingly difficultdifficult to use these libraries in an iOS app.
Go Paperless
http://prolifictimes.com/2013/02/26/digitize-your-mail/
one of the Newest startups to hit SF !
How to get API access to Expedia
I just started a new passion project, and I am trying to get access to Expedia’s API to build out a new travel booking site for pet focused travelers.

I have filled out Expedia’s API access form, but I have not heard back from anyone in over 2 months. I called their office number in San Fran and no one was helpful, even after bouncing around from person to person on the phone. I was hoping someone could help point me in the right direction or maybe had a better idea of which direction I could take.

Thanks in advance.
Broadband Tax in the Works.
http://www.extremetech.com/internet/135081-broadband-tax-may-be-in-the-works-to-expand-high-speed-internet-access
Federal Communications Commission officials are considering a proposed tax to be levied to all broadband internet connections nationwide. The tax would work the same as the Universal Service Fund, a government-imposed fee that appears on all phone bills to ensure ubiquitous access to telephone service.
Forget the Silicon Valley, go crunch data in Lisbon
http://www.zendagui.net
Cable cars: check
Golden Gate bridge: check
Sloping Street: check
Startup Scene: check
A svbtle like blogging platform
http://simvla.com/#
an open source alternative to svbtle. built in rails.
Is Obama’s Blackberry Secure?
http://tracksuitceo.com/2009/01/13/obamas-new-blackberry/
Because of security threats Obama’s Blackberry may be in peril. He told CNBC, “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.” Though it looks like he may not have to . . .
IIA ARG - Launched 24/4/2011
http://www.iiaarg.com
Few of you probably remember this from a while back (http://labs.blue74.com/) when it created a bit of a buzz here, they're doing a special offer at the moment.
K-Nearest Neighbour Classifier
http://glowingpython.blogspot.it/2012/04/k-nearest-neighbour-classifier.html
This post shows how to perform a KNN classification in Python.
Building a learning engine to understand what tweets are relevant.
http://saranyan.com/post/7946363708/consuming-content-the-right-way
Basically, using AI techniques to classify what tweets are relevant to me. Building this in rails.
Latest Firefox Beta Offers Powerful New Tools for Web Developers 
http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/08/latest-firefox-beta-offers-powerful-new-tools-for-web-developers/
Latest Firefox Beta Offers Powerful New Tools for Web Developers
Fundraising Marketing: Hacks to Help Raise Your Round
http://marketergraham.com/fundraising-marketing/
I've talked to a lot of people looking to raise a round recently, I've put together a list of marketing hacks to help. Here you go!
Startup Success: 5 Questions to Help You Decide on a Location
https://medium.com/business-startup-development-and-more/76599f1e2a11
Is Silicon Valley your only option?
11 useful CSS snippets to save your time
http://www.red-team-design.com/useful-css-snippets-to-save-your-time
Writing CSS can be a pain and can give you headaches. The truth is that CSS ain’t rocket science and you should just have in mind some CSS pieces of code (snippets) you can use everytime.
Show HN: Hobson is an open-source automation platform
Hobson is an open-source automation hub and aggregator for the Internet of Things (IoT). It integrates smart devices from many manufacturers and makes them available via an intuitive web-based console and simple REST API.

Hobson's goals are:

- ease of use for both end-users and developers - no cloud service requirement - high modularity - comprehensive documention - small footprint for resource-limited devices

http://hobson-automation.com

Be sure to check out the newly published developer video.

Thanks for looking!
When I went to see Shreya Ghoshal
http://yashness.com/blog/when-i-went-to-see-shreya-ghoshal/
FAN Story
Genuinely looking for suggestions on what to do with my site
http://touch.frugalytics.com/
Spent quite a bit of time building http://touch.frugalytics.com/ (its a comparison shopping site built for mobile). Due to competing priorities, I don't have much time to continue development. I had a lot of innovative ideas but don't think I'll be able to execute on them any time soon. The site brings in some modest income but not enough to support even a single full time developer.

Looking for your thoughts on what you would do with the site if you were in my shoes.

Cheers.
Real World 2.0: ready for open source hardware, sensors?
http://www.faircompanies.com/news/view/real-world-20-ready-for-open-source-hardware-sensors
The current economic crisis won't just produce major changes in the world's economic institutions. Programmers, tinkerers and DIY aficionados aren't just waiting for change, but reinventing what it means to participate.
Show HN: Worml - Crazy simple transfers between Macs
http://worml.me
This is not another cloud sharing app, in fact it doesn't use cloud services at all; files go straight from one computer to the other. When the transfer ends, the file or website automatically opens up in the other end.

It's a perfect tool for immediate sharing and collaboration.

Direct App store link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/worml/id463103644?ls=1&mt=12
Show HN: gosnowflake - Go implementation of Twitter's Snowflake
https://github.com/erans/gosnowflake
A go implementation of Twitter's Snowflake ID generation service.
Anahita Social Engine on Joomla and Nooku Framework
http://blog.anahitapolis.com/2009/06/anahita-social-engine-with-joomla-from-nooku-tv/
Software architect Rastin Mehr, of RMDstudio.com, talks to Pete Russell about Anahita (a social engine framework for Joomla). At its core Anahita is powered by Nooku Framework.
One time Post, create instant blog posts
http://onetimepost.com/
for one time things, no account required :D
Comparing AES, ECC, RSA, key lengths, strength, CPU requirements
http://www.nsa.gov/business/programs/elliptic_curve.shtml
RSA keys are simply weak, even if number of bits sounds great.
Looking for a CTO type co-founder for NYC web starup 
Hi all.

My post is not really a question but more of a person search or perhaps a public announcement.

I am developing a startup, currently in the brainstorming stage and I am in need of a partner who is a web development master, or at least master in training. My idea is to build a web portal/networking site for people in the entertainment industry (actors, writers, makeup artists, directors, agents, editors, set designers, photographer, models, etc). There is currently no website that let’s entertainment professionals network and connect in an environment designed for that purpose. Of course the entertainment profession is desperately in need of such a site because of the project based nature of that industry and the need to always meet new people. The initial target user will be persons in the industry followed by anyone who has an interest in the industry, which, if current TV trends are an indication, is everyone!

This is a high risk high reward venture. As someone who has worked on Wall Street for the past seven years I laugh in the face of risk. I am joking of course, but I do want to make this site work. I have some web startup experience but that was 10 years ago while I was still in college.

I am looking for a friendly, positive, and web savvy person who wants to build the next big thing and be a partner in the business. PHP experience would be great. Living in the NYC area is a huge plus. Everything else is icing on the cake. If you are interested please email me at tradingtime212@gmail.com and tell me a little about yourself. All emails will be kept confidential.

Thank you for reading.
My xcode 4.x
http://laurentdesegur.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/my-xcode-4-2-review/
Here is an attempt at trying to enumerate the things I experienced using XCode 4 while developing an iOS application.
How'd they do that?
http://www.20thingsilearned.com/home

Window location changes, but the page seems to not reload. Is this a new technique with HTML5 or javascript?
Show HN: MicroObservables - a tiny js observables library
https://github.com/jajeffries/MicroObservables/
I knocked this up last week and keep finding uses for it. It's inspired by riot.js, but I didn't want the view engine or router, so I wrote this instead.
Beyond GTD: Everything in One Place
http://lightarrow.com/lifetopix/the-12-lifetopix
End App-Hopping with LifeTopix! Too many overly sim­ple, one-trick-pony apps just do lists, todos, tasks, notes or shop­ping, leav­ing you to con­stantly hop between them with totally dis­con­nected data and no reuse. Now you can cap­ture, track, con­nect, know and act upon all the infor­ma­tion in your life — EVERYTHING — and get things done your own way, from one place. Life­Topix™ is a com­plete life orga­ni­za­tion app designed from the ground up to rede­fine pro­duc­tiv­ity very dif­fer­ently from the same old daily plan­ners, per­sonal orga­niz­ers, to-do lists and cal­en­dars, with nat­ural con­nec­tions and reuse across top­ics and data.
Ask HN: State of foursquare?
What do you think is the state of foursquare? Is it going up or down? Do you know any resent good blogs posts about the state of the company?

Is it just that the attention of the media has died since the "facebook places" release? Or people's interest starts to be gone?

I'm asking this to have ideas and to learn how they did and should have behaved since the "Facebook Places" was released.
Google Glass, beyond the hype: a true innovation of Human–computer interaction
http://codeinchaos.com/post/45119693182/google-glass-human-computer-interaction
I've been suffering from Repeated motion injury due to the over use of touch devices ... when Google glass was announced, I didn't see a cool new gadget, I saw a new and important step in the evolution of human-computer interaction.
Engineering
http://engineeringdegrees101.com/
Get a very useful Online Engineering Degree Programs at engineeringdegrees101.com! Our website is dedicated to Engineering and has all the latest information you need to make informed decisions about your future.
IM: An Opportunity Or A Threat 
http://internetrack.blogspot.com/2008/07/im-opportunity-or-threat.html
"Nearly three quarters (72%) of UK businesses have banned the use of public instant messaging (IM) software, such as MSN, AIM and Yahoo!, because of security fears."
Making The Final Journey Home
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/04/making-the-final-journey-home.html
"Only professionals are allowed to do it, he was told, and there are all kinds of regulations."
16-Step Guide To Evaluating Online Product Ideas
http://www.shopify.com/blog/13640265-the-16-step-guide-to-evaluating-the-viability-of-any-product-idea
Using Coconut Oil as an example from a previous post we evaluated it against 16 key points to consider.
What is Yahoo Mash?
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/what-is-yahoo-mash/
Yahoo recently leaked its new social networking site
The soccer ball that helps kids in underdeveloped areas finish homework
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2013/11/21/the-soccer-ball-that-helps-kids-in-underdeveloped-areas-finish-homework/?tid=hpModule_1728cf4a-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&hpid=z11
More on the organization behind this - http://www.unchartedplay.com/
Save electricity by "hoarding" it
http://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2006/10/10/save-electricity-by-hoarding-it/
One company decided to create a device that cuts your electricity bill by 10-15%. How do they do it?
Coolie Valley, the Silicon Valley of India?
http://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2006/11/08/coolie-valley/
IT professionals in India have yet to diversify and progress from being "code monkeys" to "independent IT managers & small-business owners", written by an Indian.
Do developers use code examples effectively? (fun survey)
http://www.dzone.com/links/do_developers_leverage_the_full_potential_of_code.html
Developers use code examples in surprising ways.

We are conducting an online web survey as part of a research, held in Tel Aviv University, to investigate this further. Participating is easy, the survey is short and fun - just click the link (http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/research/ohad.barzilay/exampleSurvey.html).

We believe that you may gain new insights regarding the way you work just from filling this survey. We will publish the results here, so everyone could benefit from this accumulative community knowledge.

Feel free to share this survey with your friends and colleagues, or better, post it to your social/professional profile!

Thank you,
Ohad Barzilay
Ask HN: Demand for editing as a service
Would you ever consider using Editing-as-a-Service? Think an online pool of university trained writers/editors who would take on small editing jobs.

Price schedule would vary by the following factors: [1]length measured by word count, [2] urgency/deadline and [3] level of editing assistance required from simple proofing and grammar check(cheap) to full consultative rewrite (expensive)
Is "Startup" a word?
https://www.change.org/petitions/google-add-the-word-startup-to-chrome-s-default-dictionary
Most spell check dictionaries find the word "startup" as a misspelled word. Does that mean I'm wasting my life??
Help me write this wrong by signing the petition:

https://www.change.org/petitions/google-add-the-word-startup-to-chrome-s-default-dictionary
How to cope with fear mongering over privacy
http://www.stormdriver.com/blog/how-to-cope-with-fear-mongering-over-privacy/
Fear mongering over privacy won't end any time soon. Using the techniques described in this post will help you hold on to your sanity.
Show HN: AI Writer for Content Marketing
https://writableai.com/
Content marketing is so hard so I built this AI writing tool to help people write faster. You can use it to write articles to do SEO. You can use it to generate 1000 words for free after you sign up. Please try it and tell me what can be improved!

https://writableai.com

I am not sure what features to build next. That’s why your opinions matter!
VC Fundraising Manual: VCs Have Flashback Syndrome
http://getventure.typepad.com/markpeterdavis/2008/01/vcs-have-flashb.html
In my post, Why You Might Not Get The Meeting, I listed three high-level reasons why you might get rejected by a VC. Another less common cause is the fact that VCs get flashbacks.

Experienced VCs have invested in lots of companies and inevitably some of those companies have failed. When a VC sees a new company that is similar to a previous investment that failed VCs tend to shy away. I'm not certain that this behavior is entirely rational or objective as some investments fail simply because they were too early to market, they had the wrong management or because they were just unlucky. Nonetheless a VC's scar tissue does impact their investment decision making and can therefore affect your fundraising prospects.

The good news is that few VCs have made exactly the same types of investments. As a result, you are not likely to encounter more than one rejection from a flashback.

Read more at: www.markpeterdavis.com
Show HN: GhostLabel – B2B Marketplace for Food and Beverage Manufacturing
https://www.ghostlabel.io/
For aspiring food and beverage entrepreneurs, finding a reputable food or beverage manufacturer is critical in bringing a new product to market and scaling up. But doing so is challenging, time-consuming and often risky. Without a central marketplace for finding food or beverage manufacturers, people are compelled to rely on brokers–who often take a hefty cut–and word-of-mouth. And manufacturers rarely have digital project management systems in place to streamline project production.

GhostLabel provides a managed marketplace where anyone can get their custom food or beverage products made on-demand. We not only connect clients with reputable manufacturers, but provide project management tools to keep production on track, specify product details, get samples, and make payments.

We are happy to hear any feedback and answer questions!
Mint.com sent out multiple emails last night.
https://getsatisfaction.com/mint/searches?query=Multiple+emails+from+mint+last+night
Extremely worried when a secure banking-like web app starts doing crazy stuff like sending out blank emails all night to everyone. 25 cents to everyone who warned me not to trust them.
7 ideas after 7 days with iOS7
http://glio.co.za/2013/07/15/7-ideas-after-7-days-with-ios7/
The experiment started last week tuesday (09/07/13) and today marks the end of 7 days of running iOS7 (beta 3) on my iPad. I thought of waiting for another update but here is 7 reasons why I will be running iOS6 for now.
How to speed up Firefox on Ubuntu 10.04 (or Windows and OS X)
http://galigio.org/2010/09/20/how-to-speed-up-firefox-on-ubuntu-10-04-or-windows-and-os-x/
n the past three months Firefox was updated more than we were used in the past also because it had some speed problems expecially on Ubuntu 10.04.
A Building in Motion: First Design of its kind
http://www.dynamicarchitecture.net/building.html
The Dynamic Tower offers infinite design possibilities, as each floor rotates independently at different speeds, resulting in a unique and ever evolving shape that introduces a fourth dimension to architecture, Time.
Only open if you think you can take it
http://laurajul.dk/2013/04/07/faces-of-islam/
This can be a little hard to stomach but very meaningful. Please proceed with care.
Nocture - OS X app for nighttime hackers
http://docs.blacktree.com/nocturne/nocturne
Another easy way to invert colors on a mac:

Hold: Ctl + Option + Command and press 8
HTML5 media and data URIs
http://www.iandevlin.com/blog/2012/09/html5/html5-media-and-data-uri
How to provide data URIs as the source for HTML5 audio and video.
Short price lesson for Startups
http://startupblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/pricing-relativity-2/
What the price is, is not nearly as important as where the price is.
Eyebrowse | track and share your web trails
http://eyebrowse.csail.mit.edu/
A group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab has launched a new project, eyebrowse, which allows you to record, visualize and share your web browsing history in real-time.

Eyebrowse is a Firefox plug-in that records visits to websites that you choose to track on an individual basis. Your data is presented on your eyebrowse profile in the form of interesting and insightful visualizations, allowing you to gain personal and social insights and catch a glimpse of what Google knows about you.

Currently, most web browsing data is collected by search engine companies (Google, Microsoft, Alexa…), which is hardly available for public domain research. Eyebrowse seeks to fill this gap by providing a public repository of web trails. By making this data available, we hope to support the creation of open public services that analyze and report major trends on the web, services that support personalization of the web through collaborative filtering and other crowd-sourcing techniques, and other as-yet unimagined services that require a mass of data about the world's interaction with the web.

Check out some real live profiles and our page stats graphs, which are accessible from any page via the plug-in.

Eyebrowse is an open source project hosted on Google Code implemented using Django, Javascript and HTML5. It is actively seeking users for feedback and beta testing.

happy surfing!
eyebrowse team
http://eyebrowse.csail.mit.edu/
Australian attorney is granted a patent for the wheel (2001)
http://www.hl7.org.au/docs/Australian%20Patent%202001100012.pdf
Figure 1 is a particular howler.
No, no iPhone for you - Why my parents rock.
http://corybishop.me/startupstuff/?p=433
Offline world > Online World.
Ask HN: Meet up in Manila, Philippines
Hi,

I am coming to the Philippines for three weeks on Wednesday and I was wondering if there are any hackers who would like to meet in Manila?

This Saturday 19h for a dinner?
Yahoo abandons industry-leading privacy policy
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2011/04/yahoo_abandons_indus.html
Yahoo, which had the best privacy policy of any major search engine just dropped a bombshell. They're going evil.
Hacked emails show what Microsoft charges the FBI for user data
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104388679763490357266
If you've ever wondered how much your data is worth