jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
There is a brilliant "new" engine in the works that will make travel to Mars possible in days instead of months.

It's called VASMIR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_Specific_Impulse_Magne...

It's not really "new" since it was conceptualized in 1977 but recent technological advances have made it a real prototype (2005) and it will be tested on the space-station in 2013.

The guy who designed it, Franklin Chang-Diaz, is incredible as well as his lifestory - literally made his farfetched startrek-inspired dream to become an astronaut come true by sheer willpower and he went to MIT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Chang-Diaz
Maybe some thinking about individual digit positions could shed some light. Let's call the last digit d_0, the next to last d_1, and so on.

d_0 follows a simple pattern: 1, 2, 4, 8, 6, 2, ..., and so never has a zero. It ends up in this pattern [2, 4, 8, 6], and throws two carries over to d_1.

d_1 goes 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 3, 6, 2, 5, 1, 2, 4, 9, 8, 6, 2, 4. It ends up repeating [8, 6, 2, 4], and throwing two carries to d_1.

In general, d_n starts off with a sequence of 0, until it gets the first carry from d_{n-1}, then tries to fall into 1, 2, 4, 8, 6, 2, ..., but the carries from the previous column perturb that. However, the carries come in on a pattern, and so the result will be that d_n ends up in a cycle.

I haven't looked past the first couple of columns, but I'd not be surprised if there is a predictable pattern in these cycles and their phases that would allow someone to work out a considerable amount about the occurrences of any specific digits in powers of two.

EDIT: I missed a carry when doing d_1. d_1 goes 0,0,0,0,1,3,6,2,5,1,2,4,9,9,8,6,3,7,4,8,7,5,0,0 and repeats [1,3,6,2,5,1,2,4,9,9,8,6,3,7,4,8,7,5,0,0]. It throws 10 carries into d_2.
Second attempt.

2^n has approximately n log 2 digits. Assuming that they are distributed randomly, the probability that none of these digits are 0 is (9/10)^(n log 2).

For n = 50,000, this is already unbelievably tiny. For n = 50,001, it is even tinier. And so on.

In fact, summing all of these tiny probabilities from n = 50,000 to n = infinity is about the same as integrating (9/10)^(x log 2) from x = 50,000 to x = infinity, which is, again, only slightly above zero.

So, statistically at least, there is an excellent chance that every power of 2 above 50,000 has at least one zero.
Would that bridge not require you to hold a telegram account? If not, then that's some true federation there, and they have my respect and praise (as an XMPPer).
My hope is that Apple realizes they created the apparent scarce demand by not having the mini format for so long. They need to keep the format over several years so the demand can materialize as people finally upgrade their old 5S and SE devices now that there's a viable iPhone for them. But those same people are clearly patient and are not in a collective rush to go out and buy new phones, it will take several years of availability and their old devices succumbing to age or physical damage.
Sorry, but that is not even close to true, see my other comment describing what doesn't work:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26276871

Vivaldi is OK, but it's proprietary AFAIK?
like knife carrying

Growing up in a mixed semi-rural area, it was kind of weird and maybe a little dangerous not to have a pocket knife. Are there places where carrying a pocket knife without using it is automatically illegal?
> Do you have a lot of experience with multiple EU countries?

Yes.

> The only anglophone EU country is Ireland.

Technically, though I would still tend to think of the UK here too given the recent-ness of its membership.
Where are you getting monopoly from? Large game franchises that have launched (or become popular) in the last decade or so all started from small, independent studios, or even just a couple people modding an existing game. DotA and PUGB are big, started as mods, and have spawned (or at least popularized) entire new genres. Valve has a history of buying popular mods and turning them into franchises (TF, CS, Portal), and they pay exceptionally-well. Minecraft exploded from a one-man endeavor to a gaming behemoth.

Successful games tend to get purchased by larger companies, but there are a lot of large game companies. Valve, Epic, EA, Nintendo, Sony, Rockstar, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bioware, etc. And that's not even getting into mobile/Facebook games, which are easy to speak derisively about, but are still major players in the game space.

Game companies are about the most-diverse and least-monopolistic of all media we consume.
I contemplated writing a book on the implications of a CME a few years ago, did some research but didn't have the time.

An example of a critical thing that relies on satellite infrastructure are most gas pump payment processing and operations as I understood it.

Regarding transformers there have been various US government level efforts to have back up Replacement transformers ready to go in storage in the last 20 years, the situation has not improved at all and like much single point of failure infrastructure an over reliance on China.

I find it astounding the Pentagon can spend trillions on 'defence' but we can't scrape together the pocket lint to have
back up offline infrastructure for the power grid ready to go with staffing and processes in place.

Having said this there is a lot of alarmist information arguably primarily driven by page views floating around.

The Sun Kings by Stuart Clark is a terrific read on the historical context of all this, highly recommend

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691141268/th...
Okay, so what I didn't realize when I read this last night was that the blogpost is meant to be the first in a semi-satirical series of blog posts.

I definitely took the author too seriously.
Omicron looks exactly the same as the English o (it's not visually distinguishable in most typefaces) so it doesn't matter much, but upsilon is an "ee" sound usually, not an "oo" like in "actually" and "executable", so it wouldnt' work exactly. It would read "actially execeetable".

EDIT: For completeness, the full transliteration (or as close to it) would be "άξουαλι πόρταμπολ εξεκιούταμπολ". The extra "o" in "portabol" and "execiutabol" is actually a schwa, I think, so it can be omitted.
> On a related note, the disinterested interest thing is why I've never met a talented professional. By that, I mean the classic suit-and-tie professionals. Lawyers, doctors, accountants,...

I think your comment is directionally correct if you look at the bulk of practitioners, but I wonder if you’ve looked in the right places for the exceptions.

As one example, some of the best legal thinkers I have met were in law schools. That said, I’ve also met some “practicing” lawyers who had that passion — at retirement age, they are often the sages that people make pilgrimages to see (my friend’s father was one of these for estate law).

There are also professionals who pursue their compulsory continuing education aggressively. For doctors, this is actually a litmus test I use when I am looking for a new one (usu. due to moving). I had a dentist who, after establishing his practice, went back to school to get his MD so that he could work on the more interesting problems of oral surgery. He then joined the Army reserves as a doctor/dentist to help the Army with some of the unique medical problems they have (iirc, it was mostly oral surgery).

> ... bankers

You may be right here.

That said, if you expand “banker” to “financier” or something like that, you can probably find some. Buffet and Munger come to mind. John Mauldin as a writer on economics/finance also comes to mind as a lesser-known personality. There seems to be a potentially long list.

> I don't think of retired accountants doing taxes for fun.

Although rare, they exist. I have a retired family member who is one of them.
Planet Money is a fantastic podcast that covers a huge variety of interesting topics, and only takes about 20 minutes. I highly recommend it as one of the most informative fun podcasts I've ever heard.

But here goes...

Fries don't stay delicious very long. You get a couple minutes then they're blech. They don't work great out of drive-throughs, where you might take them home before eating, and now we have food delivery services where fries might sit 40 minutes before being eaten! Double blech.

This company made a coating for fries that makes them stay fresh for drive through service. That is old news. If you've had fries from fast food you've probably had these coated fries. People like them and don't know they're coated.

But that just covers a couple minutes... Could that company make a coating that keeps fries good for 40 minutes?

Awesome lady scientist says yes! Other people say no. Awesome lady scientist says, let's do it anyway!

They succeed. NPR Journalist does the Pepsi challenge on them - the fries are good. They're in the process of selling them to companies now.
You're still taking the stance of "us against them" in a context where "they" have much greater resources than "us". I think that's already a "failure mode" and we have to integrate society and government somehow (or fall into some techno-dystopia.)
No, cul means ass.

No, cul de sac means dead end (as in a road that ends)
Perhaps of some relevance: http://www.fusedgrid.ca/fusedgrid.php
Thx. We are looking forward to your feedback.
I call it marketing, but it would be nice if there were a way to add an address to the filter with a single click.
True but the idea is worthless philosophy is usually brought up in regards to keeping your ideas secret
Not sure why inventing the electronic equivalent of crack cocaine is a good reason to become POTY.. Assange is no doubt more important and would have been the best choice.
Edit: This issue has been resolved.

StackOverflow doesn't seem to work? I tried my username, as well as the only number I could find with my account. What should I put in this box?
The implication with this startup is that hiring for culture fit is better than hiring for aptitude fit, which is interestingly counterintuitive.
In Quebec I pay 0.0938 CAD.
I was talking about Germany.
From a socialist (especially labor theory of value) perspective, you're buying and selling people's future labor. Socialists tend to think that the workers should get all of their labor. Obviously "root of all evil" is somewhat hyperbolic, but based on even passing knowledge of socialism, it is easy to see why a socialist might consider it to be an evil game.

Per your previous sentences though, a common refrain on /r/WSB is "Sir, this is a casino".
If you read the most influential or celebrated papers in science, I doubt you will see that they are written in an opaque or unclear way relative to average science papers.

My point is scientists are absolutely rewarded for writing clearly and succinctly. But it is a difficult art because of the balance of precision and simplicity in describing complex phenomena.
Honestly is most likely just about spreading investment. They know that, or most, of these investments will fail, but those who survive will make up for the loses.
How are you justifying that term? I see nothing (geographically, politically, culturally, economically, historically, religiously, diplomatically, etc.) that could justify it even in the slightest.
Sort of like the argument that you should have had a more solid door, then the robbers would've stolen your neighbour's stuff and not yours.

No, you shouldn't blame the victim, we should be working against the sexist dynamics in society.
> The main reason I'm engaging with you is that I'm honestly curious why you feel a strong need to react against this article in the first place. Isn't it a good thing that we're trying to understand the difficulties and plight of the poor in our society? Isn't that generally a benefit? Shouldn't we do more of that? You even seem to agree that a big part of the problem is structural and societal, rather than personal.

That can of settles it. You are definitly right on this. I think i reacted emotionally because I felt i lived a lot of thing people are complaining about and I'm tired about hearing complain and want them to move their ass.
In Portugal it's called "bucha".
It seems that evolution had not merely selected the best code for the task, it had also advocated those programs which took advantage of the electromagnetic quirks of that specific microchip environment. The five separate logic cells were clearly crucial to the chip's operation, but they were interacting with the main circuitry through some unorthodox method-- most likely via the subtle magnetic fields that are created when electrons flow through circuitry, an effect known as magnetic flux. There was also evidence that the circuit was not relying solely on the transistors' absolute ON and OFF positions like a typical chip; it was capitalizing upon analogue shades of gray along with the digital black and white.

http://www.damninteresting.com/on-the-origin-of-circuits/
(I'm the author of the article).

> Don't use monogdb unless you know what your doing

That can just as well be applied to anything, not just mongodb. Whenever you start using something, you're going to make mistakes.

> and have the hardware to do it right.

AFAIK, running it on two instances (master + slave, and then stop/cycle the slave for backups) should be just fine. So you don't need to have "web scale" hardware for mongodb.

MongoDB is an interesting database and can fit nicely into some use cases - by which I mean data organisation, not just scale. So I don't think it should be avoided by people running simple things with not-humongous data-sets. We just have to look out for a few things we might not have expected. That's why I didn't call them "bugs" or "problems" - just "gotchas".
Zed, you really should jslint your javascript code. Not trying to be overly critical, but it's really a mess- not even sure where to begin- well, I would start by not defining everything in the global namespace. Take a look at "Javascript, the Good Parts" for info on javascript's quirks and best practices or Pro Javascript Design Patterns.

On the more positive side, congrats on releasing yet another useful project. This is definitely an interesting concept.
If you're talking about the 1400x900 screen, I agree, the viewing sweet spot is nearly nonexistent. I actually swapped out the top shell of my X200s and so I could put in an AFFS panel.

(Running Mint 17.1, which broke the display popup for brightness, but curiously not for audio.)
I think it really depends how big their company is. You can mostly do whatever you want when you are operating a small business. However, when you run a big company that company exerts a big influence on other people's lives and needs to be regulated.
Sure... but only if the driving factor for you is the experience you'll get out of it.

Taking a pay cut on the idea that a high valuation of your stock options will make up for it is both naive and silly.
From my memory of what Palm devices were like then and seeing what's happened since, IMHO Apple dodged a bullet there. Palm was an overvalued, overhyped company with a product line that was already hitting technical limits due to design ties to a too-slow processor and too-small screen, and one that's spent all the time since fighting to stay up-to-date and relevant.

OT - a bit of checking a while back revealed that the larger current Smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S are roughly the same footprint as an old Psion Revo. I never had a Revo but did have a 5Mx and could touch-type on it fast enough to take notes. How I would love to have a phone with a keyboard that good, not the silly little things we get stuck with now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Revo
Missing the Sphero. Limited sensors I do admit, (though the motion sensors are damn good!) but its a ball you can program through macros or code. I really like it.
Primary: Survival.

Secondary: Vast opulence.

Tertiary: Interplanetary travel.

I hope you have a great year as well!
I think this is a valid point that no one wants to hear. I've argued from the beginning that closing our eyes and ears to the problem isn't an effective solution. Banning them from Reddit simply whisked them away to an even stronger self-reinforcing bubble.

It's a powerful bubble, too. I checked in on thedonald.win at Thanksgiving, and they had a meme aimed directly at me: "So glad you could come take some time off during your busy day to come make fun of us. You must be a real piece of work" or something along those lines. I burst out laughing.

But the other side of it is valid too: People say that there's no point in debating with folks who are "True Believers," since it merely gives them credibility and legitimacy. It's valid; I just don't personally buy that. The way to change someone's mind is to try to see things from their point of view, and really walk in their shoes, i.e. allow yourself the possibility of you changing your mind. At that point, it seems like both people are in the right mental space to be willing to change.

Tough problem all around. I'm not sure there's any effective solutions, so maybe both sides banning each other and enjoying their respective bubbles is the best we can hope for, given human nature. I just try to take a positive view.

The country will likely settle down in a few months, so this too shall pass. It raises question marks about the next cycle, but at least it's four years away.
Interesting choice to convert to SVG. WMF are smaller files and the specification has been released in 2017. LibreOffice supports importing/exporting and numerous other libraries also support the format.
prbly they're not using it to 'improve', but to e.g. worsen? That statement would be legally true. lol.
The idea of left and right comes from having a 2 party system. Politics is not a line. There are n dimensions, where n is the number of issues you care about that have a non-muddled for-against aspect (if the issue is too muddled, it is probably 2 separate issues in this model)
You are deliberately commenting in bad faith. You could easily click on the link I posted between those words that shows exactly which states have a paper trail, and that, importantly, shows that all of the contested swing states in the 2020 election have a paper trail.
Yup. Remember during the rise of Hitler, he was able to consolidate power because the CENTRIST government at the time agreed to work with Hitler to achieve short-term political objectives.
Some people don't want Biden as president. That's their opinion and they have every right to protest. Regardless of what their opinion is though, everyone should agree that this particular behavior is unacceptable. Unfortunately, we could not come to an agreement on that just this summer, and this is the natural end result of a country where large swaths of the population are unwilling to call out political violence when 'their side' are the ones committing it.

At this point, even Trump telling people to stop (which, to his credit, he has) will not help, in the same way that democrats telling Antifa to stop will not help (I mean Biden has asked them to stop for months now, and they're still launching fireworks at the courthouse in Portland to the point the mayor is now begging for federal help).

Political violence has been normalized by the media (both social and not) to the point where, even popular politicians who disagree with the mob will become its victims.

The scary part is that some people perpetuated all this polarization and rage for money.
Your last paragraph is good advice in many cases but it's saying to not move fast and break things. Twitter rose to prominence on an infamous fail whale. Reddit also was constantly broken. Facebook broke privacy and democracy ;-)
I was trying something but found it difficult to pull through. If this can help someone. Had some specs in place https://github.com/covid19-india/supplychain/wiki/Software-R...
It's been theoretically possible for a while, but hard to do, as well as being considered antisocial. It's quite a new regression on Mac as well.
If I read the first question correctly it asks if choosing a 'for' over a 'while' would be a reason to pick one programmer over another and I don't think that should be the case, it's a stylistic thing but one that is probably not very important.

I agree with you on the naming issue, but the funny thing is that that sort of information is exactly what was removed in order to make the analysis possible.
Your Spanish teaching thing is really cool. Can you do one for French? There are some countries in Africa where you can probably take advantage of similar wage differences.
> I don't think 'style' should be the deciding factor in something like this unless the difference in style translates in to 'readable' versus 'unreadable'

Not a deciding factor, but there's a lot of subtle info in a whole code sample.

When asking someone for some OO code, I sometimes see OK-but-a-bit-naive code, which includes variable names like "theObject".

That suggests to me that the most important characteristic of this entity in the coder's head is that it is an object - i.e. that they're not very familiar with OO code.

Basically, information like the choice of variables names provides a window on the mental model the coder has of the problem. And that's useful.
Yes, probably. But it also seems to depend on the level of your language. I.e. if your language's built-ins are close to the problem, the solutions will probably be much shorter and thus have a higher chance of being similar.
I'd advise you to read Fortune's Formula, by William Poundstone first. It's entertaining, an easy read, and you'll pick up loads of information that will be useful going forward.

After that:

If you want to invest on fundamentals go for both of Graham&Dodd (aka the bible) and Seth Klarman's margin of safety (http://www.my10000dollars.com/MS.pdf).

For technical/quant trading both Trading+Exchanges and Volatility Trading are good books to read. Then look up some of the articles on wilmott.com and papers about things like Universal Portfolios or Neural Networks for trading on places like CiteSeer. Poking around Interactive Brokers' documentation isn't a bad idea either.

Hope this helps!
That's one of the best places to be at in Amsterdam. Enjoy your stay in this beautiful country :).
First time I upvote all sides of an argument.

Thank you HN for such great people and quality posts :)
A systems programming language that expose pointers will not be able to shed NULL. But a higher-level language can and a "pure" OOP language should - because null make objects unable to respond to messages. Something that claims to belong to the type system and cannot respond to messages just don't fit in there.
>DRM drives people to pirate websites instead of that, with the associated risks of dodgy downloads and being tracked.

Even forgetting that the DRM is totally broken so Joe can still about as easily do the same thing by just downloading some software, it still doesn't seem like the effort is worth the candle. It isn't Joe's friends who have to go to the pirate website, it's just Joe, who can still distribute it to his friends thereafter. Or for that matter, Joe's buddy who is more savvy than Joe and so gets the movie from the pirates and checks it for viruses and gives it to fifteen Joes who each give it to fifteen work buddies.

The fact is that if people want to pirate stuff, they can. Thinking you can stop that is just a fantasy. It's more important that you not make people think you're a jerk by suing and jailing everyone and imposing DRM on them, so that they're more interested in giving you money, than it is to maybe make it ever so slightly more inconvenient for pirates. I me honestly -- the DRM creates more inconvenience for the people who are paying you than it does for the pirates. Weigh one against the other and you don't get a net increase in sales.