jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
Is there a reliable link to the number of people on ventilators? I've only been able to find time series data for number of deaths. Which is helpful, but way too much of a lagging indiactor.
People say you need to let scientists do useless exploration in order to promote innovation. I think that is true to a degree, but definitely should not be the spirit of any policy where innovation is the goal.

Many of the scientific innovations that pushed the 20th century forward were in fact purposefully done. The Von Neumann architecture was not invented to have fun, it was invented to aim artillery and design nukes.

Similarly, much of the tech infrastructure in Silicon Valley descends directly from radio engineers coming out of WWII theater.

Bardeen, Brittain, and Shockley didn't invent the solid state transistor because it would be interesting, they invented it because it would allow miniaturization of vacuum tube computers.

The laser was invented for telecommunications purposes. There is now an entire field of "quantum electronics" describing the theory behind them.

Even going back further, the invention of the steam engine preceded the development of thermodynamics, which initially sought to describe the limitations of these engines. IF "science leads technology", then one would expect steam engines to be rationally designed from the results of thermodynamics. The opposite is true.

I think there are enough examples of scientific fields emerging from technological innovation that "uselessness" should not be considered correlated with innovation.
Depends.

* Is welding the doors shut going to get people killed?

* Is dogmatic adherence to the letter of the Bill of Rights during a state of emergency going to get people killed?
China's relaxed posture is stricter than America's quarantines in NYC, Washington, and California.
They have to name every possible thing they can potentially receive. Mac addresses are available as part of networking details if you're using their desktop software. Zoom is enterprise video conferencing that only recently gained attention for average consumers.
Those are the trees I was talking about. Actually, 1) is subsumed by “what the reader wants to do,” and 2) is unknowable and you’ll write a hard-to-use doc covering all the cases (kinda like the original submission).

In my experience, all software has a purpose. For example, an API is for writing an app that gets and processes info from the server. That’s the big picture. The audience is someone writing that app. If they can’t write apps, it’s not the job of your doc to teach them. Aim the doc at the competent app-writer, give them useful info, and don’t add any fluff. In fact, if you provide a good API doc, it will teach beginners through good form and good examples.
If you look at how sausages are made I think it won't be long until that happens: "We used to kill animals, grind their bodies into a paste and then stuff that paste back into their own bowels."

Sounds pretty gnarly when you put it that way.
Interestingly, “computer” was the term applied to office workers whose responsibility was doing calculations. Which is why the first machines were called “automatic computers”. (Fast forward to today, “computing” is perceived now mostly as “using a computer”, such as web browsing or reading email.)
I really feel for your question because I have felt in similar ways recently. The pandemic has made life really dull and my days literally just consist of work, eat and sleep. Everyone on our team feels the same way and even though nobody really is asked to work long or hard everyone still feels on the verge of a burnout and a mental crisis, because we all feel stuck in a surreal world of four walls and isolation.

Anyways, those feelings aside, I can recommend to do some contract work. Contract work allows you to switch work frequently and take some longer breaks in-between whilst charing good rates whilst you work in order to afford the breaks.

Additionally contract work allows you to change up the projects you work more easily. In your case I'd recommend to look for a contract role where you help with the maintenance of some old boring tech project. These projects don't normally attract career hungry over-achievers which means you'll likely end up on a small team (because old boring tech projects don't attract lots of business investment) and a team of fairly mellow and chilled co-workers, more like the 10am-4pm type of guys and girls.

Also as a contractor you can work more flexible. I for instance have reduced my work days to only 4 days a week which has been a really nice change this year.
The comment you replied to seems to be about what Stallman said. ("You might feel the line between innocent mistake and maliciousness has not been crossed. Other people do disagree.") It certainly was about names and pronouns. Not a variation on a tired transphobic straw man meme.[1]

[1] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-sexually-identify-as-an-att...
Thanks. I actually teared up a bit towards the end. A good reminder of some perspective when you're knee deep in a project.
those who ignores technology will be disrupted, those who focuses on technology mainly will fail, only those who combines the two perfectly will win.
I did verify this claim: http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-01-02/hardcov...

Love him or hate him, his hustling and marketing skills bring results (for him atleast)
Seriously, 50bn SecondMarket cap company looking to save $2.8 million in taxes?

$2 million here, $3 million there, sooner or later it adds up to real money. A $50 billion company doesn't stay a $50 billion company by blowing $2.8 million on nothing.

Sadly, that's a lesson the California gov never learned. If they had, they might not be wasting similar amounts of money on pensions for criminals.

http://www.newsoxy.com/world/disgraced-sheriff-pension-13760...
This looks really cool, but there seems to be a problem with character sets. All of the text within the program consists of '◻', even on the welcome screen and within the editor. This occurs on 10.6.4. Hopefully I haven't missed something obvious. EDIT: I managed to run a program, and the text in the dialog windows looks fine.
'3. Only a few people have written production level codes and you rarely get to hear from them.'

Well thats just not true...
That's not any simpler. You still need all kinds of clearances to run cables underground, and it's a lot more work tearing up streets.
You seemed to be quite confident in your use of the phrase "any native language," so I immediately suggested a counterexample. As the Justin Rye website, already linked above, points out, Esperanto is NASTILY hard to learn for the native speakers of many languages. I by no means accept the statement that Esperanto is easy to learn to a given degree of proficiency unless someone shows me a well conducted study to that effect published outside of Esperantist advocacy publications. (I know for certain that the United States Army investigated using Esperanto as a language for the "aggressor" force in war games, but that practice appears to have been abandoned. Other countries at other times would have had sufficient interest in investigating an easy-to-learn interlanguage that I have to conclude, on the basis of "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," that Esperanto is not especially easy to learn for actual real-world use with persons who have other native language backgrounds.)
I've been eating once a day for the past 3.5 years and I'd read about the supposed immune system benefits. I've not had a cold/flu since then and I used to get 3-4 a year, so I'm sticking with it and I've become used to it anyway.
>their current clientele seems to be motivated enough

Their current clientele is a small population of wealthy trend-setters and early adopters. It's unlikely Tesla will ever sell 500,000 units per year over the internet, without a retail location.

But changing arbitrary laws is small issue.
What do you do?

I post on the internet to avoid having to actually do things, just like you are now.

How can I take the plunge into a non calculated, risky maneuver of experience to gain wisdom over knowledge.

Not by asking an internet community to suggest things you can read about and plan to one day do.

Why do you need an exciting life oh wait you answered that, because you're afraid nobody will love you if you're boring. Now you're trying to live a life you don't particularly desire but feel socially pressured into living so you're avoiding doing so by asking instead of doing.

Let's face it, if this was a real desire for excitement instead of a desire to seem exciting, you wouldn't be asking us "how do I live an exciting life", you'd be asking yourself "how do I want to feel? Excited? OK, what can I do that looks exciting and enjoyable? Hot air ballooning? Where can I get a flight around here? How much is it? How long until I can afford that? When can I book it? This is going to be so cool! I can't wait!"

</armchair psychoanalysis>
This is entertaining. I have never been able to figure out why there was so much faux wood on seemingly everything made in the '70's. Why did everyone feel compelled to use it?
Yes, just found out that python_select is Mac-only.

There's something called virtualenv available on easy_install. I'm going to try it now and I'll get back.
Your argument is that orbital assembly didn't exist in the Apollo era, when Orbital Assembly WAS the runner up to the SaturnV single launch option [Source Original Posters Article].

This means logically some times its more cost efficient, or simpler to put 27 tons in orbit in one launch, then assembly 6 5 ton launches.
Whatever you think about Trump, he has First Amendment rights under the U.S. constitution. If violating the law, he should be punished, but it is not up to private companies to revoke constitutional rights.

Trump still has the right to speak publicly. No one should wish that he be silenced by private companies.

Trump should just tell his supporters to go to his own web site and communicate with them that way. There's no reason he has to use Twitter. He can use email. It might even be more effective for him.
It's their platform. I probably couldn't get an editorial in the NYT, either, should I throw a fit about that too?
They hardly need to make a court case at this point.
TechnoFog, an account which literally only tweets lawsuits just got banned too.

#WalkAway is a movement of ex liberals who have left the democrat party. Founded by a gay dude, majority blacks, hispanics, gay etc. Had over half a million users who shared their testimonials on why they left the democrat party. Facebook banned the group today along with the founder and all the members.... all 500K of them
Rewind a little more and just about anything is what fascism looks like “at the beginning”.
Don't forget that you can make great contacts during your c.s. degree. Also, the first year is usually they easiest one so maybe you will learn more things in the next years. Finally, reputation is really important and even thought you might seem to "lose 4 years" of your life, you will gain maturity and hopefully become more professional. Maybe, you could alter a little bit your schedule to add some management classes, marketing, communication, etc. Stuffs that might not excite you but that will strongly makes you a better employee or founder.
With so much development focused now on single-cpu mobile devices, perhaps the free lunch has a few courses to go yet.
If we assume that the person is a real recruiter, then I would say it probably won't be a real problem.

For the most part, the recruiting game can be fragile. The recruiter has to carefully cultivate the hiring managers they work with and mis-representing a resume or drowning the hiring manager in a storm of unqualified junk resumes will lead to a short career in the business.

You resume might be presented without your knowledge and with your name deleted to jump on an opportunity. The old "I've got a guy, let me see if he's still available". Of course they don't want to sell the manager on a guy they don't have because if the manager becomes enamored with that resume it might mean he'll be less interested in seeing the other guys the recruiter does have.

If we assume this guy is something other than a real recruiter, all bets are off.
Very good point. I don't remember when I learned this, but I did learn to never say "this is easy" unless it truly was both easy and quick and I use "this is straight forward" instead. It's very good at getting across the idea of it being low risk without implying it'll be quick.
Set up your own blog planet software and add RSS feeds for things you're interested in. You don't need to ask people if they like it. Just do it yourself. If people like it they will ready it. After a while you will know from your visitor count if people like your idea.
I expected you to move the goalposts. "Would he post a praise-filled entry lauding their innovation, heralding this great new functionality? Maybe I'm just being a jerk, but I think he would viciously attack it." He has complimented innovation, and in all those cases he did not "viciously attack it".

I'm disappointed that many of the comments on this thread have to do with the version of John Gruber in your head, and are attacking his character instead of his real arguments, as opposed to the arguments he makes in your imagination.
I feel like I'm missing something... Yesterday we were talking about the protections on Posterous and I posted an invitation to try to post to a Posterous I had set up (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1439376). I got a bunch of emails from Posterous as a result of people trying to fake post to the account that I'd set up.

What's different between the way they did it and the way you did it? I'm assuming they also simply changed their email address in their mail client to try to send to my account.
I use wicd; it sucks less than NetworkManager all around and has interfaces other than an tray applet. It was trivial to swap out on Debian,
> I just feel like an incapable two year old with a messy desk trying to work in a floating WM like OS X/Windows now.

http://irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

It's not a tiling WM, but augments the standard OS X window management keyboard shortcuts with grid stuff, and doesn't have any odd side effects with GUI apps.

Personally I think OS X and its app population comfortably swing the overall usability balance vs desktop Linux so I won't follow your footsteps :-)
Interesting post, thanks.

I find 512-bit RSA keys interesting because they seem to be in occasional use but are within the realms of amateur factoring.

From my limited experiences of smaller keys (high 400-bit range) I'm actually slightly surprised you didn't get there in 70 days on an 8-way machine. How many relations did you find?
I think Go's unique selling point is: it's the anti-LISP, the programming language that isn't particularly programmable and you don't miss it, because the built-ins are sufficient. As a result, code in Go tends to be far more about solving the problem than is the norm; in most languages, you'd first be solving the language or replacing the stdlib. Concurrency is an example, yes, but so are the HTTP and the TLS libraries.
Not to be at all rude or confrontational, but I think there's a lot of folks in the open-source communities that have no idea how drastically their numbers are DWARFED by the number of devs working in enterprise computing. And those enterprise devs often have no use at all for "poking around", for better or worse: their priorities are other, entirely.

Different strokes for different folks, but there's a lot more folks stroking the corporate way.
> Why should Comcast care whether Netflix pays their ISP or not? Either way, someone's trying to give them data for free

The data was paid for by Comcast's customers. I pay Comcast for the service of transport of packets from my network to the internet, and from the internet to my network. That's the whole point of an ISP.
> a good programmer should be able to learn to use the best tool for the job...

So you think JavaScript is the best tool for the job? I don't think so.
You've got me dead to rights on that one, of course, so I have no problems taking it back. I'm not going to change the above comment where I misspoke because I did write that, and I did think it was correct at the time.

I think it is telling, however, that Comcast's logo isn't anywhere on the bottom of the page with all their partner logos. And I think it is also telling that it's only Comcast and not all the consumer ISPs.
I've used two UX-line netbooks and they have had excellent Linux support. Of course, YMMV when it comes to touchscreens and hidpi as those are heavily DE/config-dependent.
Being a PhD student, that touches a sensitive nerve. They say a dissertation is never finished, its abandoned!
As it turns out, humans are really bad at answering questions about what they need. Often if they knew they needed it, we would be competing to provide the best solution for it.

I think today's problem is that people figured out the needs and figured out how to satisfy them while making a profit. What's left are the needs that are hard to fulfill or the ones that we weren't aware of before.
ah, the great San Francisco tunnel vision strikes again...
I'm not sure why this is downvoted. It runs really slow on firefox...
In his speech he specifically says it isn't different than other media establishments. He goes on to point out that other media establishments can't get away with what happens on social media. He certainly speaks from experience on that as someone who has routinely fought against the standards and practices of the MPAA and various television networks. So why does social media get away without those same restrictions?
This. So much. I would really hope that folks could accept that different languages have different objectives, and that this is good. The problem I've seen is that there's always a feature creep by folks that like more expressiveness; "This is a solved problem and not an issue at all! You must make it a part of the language!". So there's some kind of inherent pursuit of conformity given enough adoption.
I wonder how long it will be before someone stuffs a crypto module into the same package as a PDM microphone to provide a digitally signed audio stream.
I'm glad to see Google is dropping their closed-source, "share a copy of everything you print with Google" service. Instead, they are doubling down on supporting open source printing standards and projects like CUPS. That's a win.
Ditto "man" and "he" being used when the sex of the person in question isn't known, or as a poetic stand-in for "human"—the usual complaint about that is that it implies maleness is "normal" at the expense of women but it could just as easily be seen as erasing what's distinctive about maleness, at its expense and in favor of women, who get their own dedicated words that aren't multi-purposed and also used to refer to men in some cases. Just a matter of perspective who's harmed by it (if you take anyone as being harmed).
My partner has ditched crosstraining into data science and ML because of how ridiculously 'ductape and string' the entire sub-indistry is. Tooling that is pre-2000 quality if it even exists, people with math skills yet only the most rudimentary ability in best practice around data storage and maintenance, coding, domain knowledge and understanding of how much bias they're introducing into results. Her view is its just a free for all of people who have little to no need to justify their output because everyone is waiting and hoping for the magic to happen.
In my experience companies just aren't willing to invest, and get turned off when they realize just how long the timelines on bringing DL to production are.

It certainly works, but magic it ain't. You need an experienced practitioner and lots of patience.
Which proves the futility of these OKR metrics.

Once the metric becomes the objective, it loses any usefulness, indeed it becomes the opposite
I don't see a feature where you can create tests for responses which is a very important feature for me that exists in Postman
Yes, all 7 of them are very happy with it.
What's wrong with showdown? Legitimate question - I just haven't heard of any complaints about it before.
Having used Maemo/N900 for several months, I've never experienced a problem with click lag. It's easily as responsive if not more than iPhones and Android-based phones I've used.

It's difficult to assert that an interface in its entirety is unrefined or unfinished having only used it for a few minutes. I very rarely found myself confused or frustrated by the interface after using it for a day. Every devices has its flaws, every user his/her preferences and expectations. I bought it because I wanted a fully open Linux OS running in my pocket. Not to be snarky (ok, maybe a little), but if I wanted a Fisher Price toy, I'd buy an Apple product. The two devices decisively appeal to different crowds.
You get what you give. I tried for a long time being nice and gentle online and I've found that there's a class of hackers who act like bullies anyway. They'll slander you, try to ruin your job prospects, lie about your personal life, everything you can imagine. Seen it first hand done to myself and to others and it's stupid.

It's ridiculous, but it seems the best way to keep this in check is to be kind to the gentle people, and totally destroy the haters.

Also, it's pretty fun tearing into these guys because they're usually pretty bad at their rants. :-)
I had been writing a little code in php (after dropping out of a backwater community college) when the big 2005-6 ajax web 2.0 wave struck. Digg was huge then and from there I found a site called Valleywag. They had some stuff about Paul Graham,snarky stuff I would read with a lot less interest today at 23 than I would then at 19, I stumbled in to Startup News by way of their link. I was curious; who was this Paul Graham guy? Turns out he was funding young entrepreneurs... I read all of his essays, and while I still haven't taken up writing in Lisp, I've been a fan ever since.
Response to "Some Tips to Improve the Civility on Hacker News" ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1400867
You'll lose more than half the time. If you try a more complicated betting structure than "Bet you $5", you'll have to explain it to them, which will make them suspicious.
Considering your love life with a technical and analytical bent in no way suggests a lack of feelings (psychopathology), and it will definitely improve your odds of being successful. It's a bit creepy to intimidate others into suboptimal life strategies by stigmatizing their attempts at self-improvement.
> 6. Is it easy to find a job as a computer programmer?

> If you're good it's always easy to find programming jobs. Even when the economy is bad there is a shortage of good programmers.

I would add, well, in case you find it hard to find a decent job, you can always start your own startup, (if you will apply to YCombinator, you are going to find it even more fun).
Where is this technology coming from anyway? I thought most countries had trade embargos of some sort with north korea
There's software that can mount an S3 bucket as a drive. It's going to be slow and you won't be sure how much all the access will end up costing.
It is x86 only, arm is not supported. But would be a very nice addition :)
That's not it. That is, choosing whether conversations are encrypted by default or not has very little to do with whether the client application has polished UI.
No, it's not that simple at all. The Signal desktop app is bad in ways that have nothing to do with Electron at all.

Most importantly, it's bad at protecting my privacy. You can't show any message to anyone on your screen or have someone look over your shoulder unless you want them to see who you recently communicated with in what order as well as the start of the most recent messages.