jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
Show HN: Faster R-CNN object detector implemented in PyTorch and TensorFlow 2
https://github.com/trzy/FasterRCNN
Fresh and (I think) clean implementations of Faster R-CNN in PyTorch and TensorFlow 2/Keras.

I wanted to learn about object detectors and decided to understand and implement a foundational model in the field, Faster R-CNN (elements of which are still used in modern models to this day), using the paper alone. That proved to be more difficult than expected and I had to relent and take a peak at existing implementations to fill in some important gaps. I've documented my struggles and learnings in the README for others to benefit from.

I also wanted to solidify my understanding of TensorFlow/Keras and learn PyTorch, so I made sure to implement the model in both. Faster R-CNN is fairly challenging in that it doesn't quite map to Keras tutorial examples. For example, losses are not computed simply as a function of model output and input but rather, some of the training data is actually computed on-the-fly within the model during training and the losses have to explicitly be constructed as part of the graph.

Personally, I found the "official" TensorFlow reference implementation (https://github.com/tensorflow/models/blob/master/research/ob...) to be very difficult to follow and I hope this proves to be useful to learners like myself.
Amazon is the Next Generation's Wal-mart
http://seekingalpha.com/article/146233-amazon-is-wal-mart-the-next-generation?source=feed
Friendland also contends that “Amazon’s aggressive investment in search, site content, customer service, digital distribution and third party platform have resulted in a sustainable competitive advantage.”
Ask HN: How is Clubhouse allowed to be on the App Store?
I just tried downloading Clubhouse on my iPad, and I noticed I cannot do anything with it, since I do not have an invite.
Isn't this breaking ToS of the App Store?

Wasn't Hey by Basecamp rejected from the App Store for the very same reason? Since the app has basically no function if you don't have an invite, and you cannot register for it inside the app?

Would love to hear someone explain to me how is that possible.
Announcing PoolParty, An Open Source tool for managing EC2 clusters
http://blog.citrusbyte.com/2008/6/5/announcing-pool-party
PoolParty is an open source tool that automates deployment, monitoring, and load balancing of EC2 instances.
Ask HN: What makes a great Web app home page?
Designing the home page has proven to be a challenge in the past week. There is so much information to include that I'm not sure what to do. Obviously, I'll have links to the site's Facebook and Twitter page, a brief explanation of what the Web app is and a brief explanation of what the Web app does. I'll also possibly have a newsfeed that spits back the recent activity on the site, ala Facebook's real-time newsfeed.

What should I be thinking about when designing my Web app's home page?
Where did all of Madoff's money go?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_bi_ge/madoff_money
This question has been bugging me for weeks. I hope this is not a repost.
Secure Persistent Login With Very Little SSL
http://getitdownonpaper.com/?p=15
A proposal for a secure login system using SSL only at initial login, but maintaining robust authentication and defending against man in the middle and replay attacks.
Three Steps to Kickass Customer Service - the best investment a company can make
http://spreadsong.com/three_steps_to_kickass_customer_service_and_why_its_the_best_investment_your_company_can_make_
Another good tip is to actually respond to your customers, especially when they are trying to give you more money.

Currently waiting for Libyan Spider to respond to my third ticket trying to get access to my account so I can renew two domain names I have with them. Not pleased.
Run government IT like an Internet start ups?
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/6884
The UK government allows people to create e-petitions which will be debated in parliament if enough signatures are collected. I created one which I think can save billions if government IT projects will be scrutinized by a panel of internet start up pros.
Tips for becoming a Digital Nomad?
I have always been interested in traveling and have had the itch since returning from my last trip (4 weeks in Vietnam / Thailand). I've just run into a crossroad in my life where I have the opportunity to pack up my bag and hit the road for an extended period of time. There are many places in the world I'd love to see and spend some time exploring and I've made the decision to save up for another few months and hit the road.

I've been doing web development for a few years now and plan on bringing a laptop along with me and continuing to do a few (10-20) hours of freelance work each week, depending on where I am, to help finance my travels.

Has anybody done anything like this before? I'm fairly accustomed to working remotely as over half my work I do from home, the other half being in an office. I've never attempted to work around the world though and I'd love to hear any tips, tricks, warnings, or stories of other HN members doing similar things.
Ask HN: What are specific tangible benefits of learning Haskell?
I've worked in C/C++ for many years and recently started trying to learn Haskell. As many new people learning Haskell, I am running into issues with not just the quality of learning material but the general attitude of members of the Haskell community. For example, when asking for an explanation of a particular topic recently, I received a barrage of insults about how annoying it is for people to be asking such questions, short unhelpful answers without explanation, a near constant refrain of "ask this question on IRC" because apparently people cannot be bothered to answer questions outside of there, answers which do not actually answer the question raised, various forms of pats on the head and patronizing "You go ahead and think that, Timmy. You'll soon see how wrong you are" styled answers, etc., etc., etc. Some members of the community have been nice but the more abrasive members have left a sour taste in my mouth. Is anyone ready, willing, and able to provide clear and concise explanations of specific tangible benefits of learning Haskell? I've spent almost 6 months trying to learning the language and I really don't feel like wasting another 6 months if it's not worth the effort in the end. If making objectively verifiable arguments, like "functions are more concise", please provide proof of claim.
Show HN: In-depth photographic look at all the golf courses I play
https://www.golfscout.net
I'm an avid golfer; it's my main hobby. I decided to start taking pictures of all the courses I play. While there's a lot of golf websites out there, none of them really try to document the courses in depth and look at each hole, along with the course facilities like the practice areas. I live in Chicago and am starting with the courses in this area (of which there are dozens of public courses to play).

While I play golf, I take photos with my phone of every (relevant) aspect of the golf course I can think of. Then they're processed and organized on the website.

Obviously I'm starting this journey on my own, and in that sense it's not scalable. I won't be able to visit all the courses in the US, let alone the world. I hope to find others that would like to contribute to the effort.

At some point I'd like to add course news and histories to the site. Many golf courses in the US are over 100 years old and have rich histories. And of course many older courses exist in Europe.

I also have started adding descriptions/commentary for each hole on courses. For example, see:

https://www.golfscout.net/golf-hole/wilmette-golf-club-wilme...

And maybe went a little overboard on this one:

https://www.golfscout.net/golf-hole/billy-caldwell-golf-cour...

Anyway, it's a fun project and could go in a lot of directions. PS: I'm always looking to expand my golfing circle. If you're in Chicago and want to play sometime, hit me up -- contact details are on the website.
Ask HN: Review my startup - Social gaming framework for Android, iPhone
We are building a social gaming framework for smartphone developers (Android and iOS, but also Flash and more), which solves many common problems of developing multiplayer games: networking, matchmaking, user authentication and attribute storage, security and scalability. The social services include cross-platform friendships and feeds, presence status and invitations as well as support for external services such as Facebook (authentication and the Graph API), Twitter, etc.

The server infrastructure is hosted at Amazon EC2 which greatly simplifies the dynamic scaling of the network. Gameserver instances are created via a web-interface and provide detailled statistics about the games, the players and the connections (including a real-time display of active users). Our plan is to charge based on the used resources, trying to make a very good offer for indie devs in particular.

Recently we've started private beta phase with the Android implementation, and will soon support more platforms. The first developers have deployed games on the Android market using the framework; everything works great and we are as excited as the devs are! It feels like a great moment to tell the HN community about the project - and to ask for feedback in particular.

Thanks!

http://www.flockengine.com
The Future of Email: From SMTP to XMPP
http://www.anarchogeek.com/articles/2008/6/20/the-future-of-email-from-smtp-to-xmpp
Email is dead! Long live email!

Email has long been the killer app of the internet. It has taken us to a world were everybody has an address and anybody can send an email to anybody else. Email works incredibly well.
Show HN: GitHub Commit Visualiser
https://github-vis.ably.dev/
I built a tool which you can use to visualise your git commits at an org or repository level. It shows just how much work an engineering team, or even an individual does, that often goes unseen by non-dev teams.

You can read about the build here: https://ably.com/blog/visualize-your-commits-in-realtime-wit...

Repo is here: https://github.com/ably-labs/github-commit-visualizer

You can deploy your own to netlify (or provider of your choice) and start visualising your own project's commits in realtime.
Ask HN: How many of you upvote before reading?
Just curious, do many of you upvote HN links before actually opening and reading them? If yes, is it based on the author, domain or just the headline? Do you sometimes feel sorry you upvoted after readingthe link?
Noisebridge SF might shutdown
From Shannon Lee via Noisebridge-announce:

Hi All,

We have a problem.

Actually, I think we have several problems, but we have one major manifestation of our problem: We are broke. We are not going to be able to pay February's rent at the current rate of input/output. We're currently taking in about $2500/month in dues & donations, and we're spending about $5000 in rent and utilities and whatnot. This is a dramatic drop-off from this summer, when we were doing a little better than breaking even.

So, no joke, Noisebridge may close its doors in February, unless we can solve our problem. This is way past the time for "let's have a party and charge money!" -- the thing we need is for people who don't want Noisebridge to close to reach into their wallets and shell out some cash. Some of you will have noticed the new donation box with a sign that says "It costs $165 per day to keep us open" -- this is true, $165 per day is our burn rate; this means we need roughly two full members, or four "starving hacker" members, to pay for every day we're open; this works out to 60 "full" members or 120 "starving hacker" members, or some combination thereof.

Ways to donate are spelled out on the wiki here:

https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Donate_or_Pay_Dues

They come down to: we take cash, checks, paypal and straight up bank-transfer.

If you are not sure about having a committed relationship with Noisebridge (I know, commitment is scary) consider sponsoring a day:

https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/SponsorADay

For those of you who are confused about the membership process -- being a member of Noisebridge costs $80 per month. If you're a regular user of the space, you should become a member. Membership can be either formal (in which case you have a voice in political processes) or informal (wherein you simply donate money to the space, but don't participate in decision making); if you are only interested in supporting the space, simply start donating $80 per month; if you want to be a formal member, ask a member for details, or attend a Tuesday meeting.

Please support us or we will be gone, and soon.

Thanks for your time,

--S
Quickly check the CSS Media Queries that work with your device
http://cssmediaqueries.com/
CSS media queries are a very powerful tool to create optimized web pages. But which CSS Media query should I use to target my device? This simple page helps to find the right media query.
Ask HN: Review my startup - UsrJoy
Hi! I would really appreciate any feedback on the webapp I just released. I started with it a while back. I was using a well known solution for feedback then, but one day realized it's not really focused on feedback, but providing a community/forum area behind my service. That is a valid focus and I know companies that want exactly that, but what I wanted really was the app optimised on getting me the feedback from my users.

http://www.usrjoy.com

Any feedback, especially critical is more than welcome! I am interested in feedback on app itself and also on the frontend/message that I (try to) make.

The service is in public Beta now. It has a number of beta users for few months already, so it's tested in the wild to some degree. But we are actively improving it and making it more robust each day.
So much for academic freedom at UCLA
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/21/so-much-for-academic-freedom-at-ucla/
A more detailed source, which I should have posted to begin with. My mistake. Unfortunately I can't edit the URL, so here it is.

http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2010/08/ucla_researcher_james_enstrom_not_reappointed_to_position
Performance and UX Considerations For Successful PhoneGap Apps
http://www.tricedesigns.com/2013/03/11/performance-ux-considerations-for-successful-phonegap-apps/
Performance & UX Considerations For Successful PhoneGap Apps (many tips also apply to mobile web pages/apps)
Processing.js gets True Type Font Support for Canvas
http://processingjs.org/blog/
Well Processing.js has officially traveled once around the sun. And to celebrate it's birthday, True Type Font support has been added to the library!

Processing.js was written by John Resig, inventor of jQuery, ported from the Java application by Casey Reas and Ben Fry of MIT. Processing.js is an API for creating rich, interactive visual applications on the web, using very streamlined syntax.

The new update to Processing.js allows developers to convert True Type Fonts to render on the HTML5 Canvas. If you are looking for a way to render dynamic web fonts in your web document/app, Processing.js is a library you may want to check out sooner rather than later.
Airbnb launches AirbnbTV
http://tv.airbnb.com
Check it out at tv.airbnb.com
Next 12 YCombinator-inspired accelerators by application deadline
http://launch.is/blog/2010/12/17/incubatorsaccelerators-by-deadline.html
My researchers completed our list of ycombinator/techstars incubators last week, and after contacting them all we've (only) been able to get the next 12 application dates.

Many reported they will have application dates in the new year or over the holiday.
Artificial-intelligence research revives its old ambitions
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/center-for-brains-minds-and-machines-0909.html
In my opinion, hard AI could be just around the corner. Wonder what kinds of startups would rise up to leverage such a technology that is so natively different.
Ask HN: Are you still an information addict?
About a month ago quite a few of you identified yourselves as information addicts. Do you feel as if you've been doing better? What strategies have you adopted to curb your information addiction?

Previous thread:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1293262
Hollywood Moguls Stopping Obama Donations 
http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/exclusive-hollywood-moguls-stopping-obama-donations-because-of-administrations-piracy-stand/
ve learned that Hollywood studio chiefs individually and as a group are drawing a line in the sand on the piracy issue with the Obama re-election campaign and refusing to give any more donations. The blowup came after President Obama on Saturday dashed moguls’ hopes that he would remain on the sidelines in the dispute over the U.S. House Of Representatives’ Stop Online Piracy Act and the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act.
Simple git workflow with hack and ship
http://object.io/site/2010/12/hack-and-ship/
Branches are virtually free with git, it makes a lot of sense to create short-lived feature-branches for each new thing you start working on. This does mean a bit of shuffling back and forth to integrate changes from others in your local work, but this “pull changes and rebase my work” workflow can be greatly eased by these small scripts.
Getting Funded: Step 2, The First Meeting
http://blog.thansys.com/2011/07/08/getting-funded-step-2-the-first-meeting/
Part 3 of the series
Ask HN: HN web stack?
I'm curious about the HN web stack. I know they use arc as the icing but I have no idea what is underneath.

server: Apache(mod_scheme) or plt(racket) web server are my two guesses
db: MySQL, PostgreSQL - I read somewhere that they use MySQL
Warn HN: Elance clients are stealing code from GitHub
I've hosted source code for a couple of my side project iOS apps on Github (that are like 90% done), and it looks like somebody is claiming them as their own on Elance and bidding for developers to complete them.

My code:

https://github.com/sapanbhuta/Cents

https://github.com/sapanbhuta/Clean

Contracts on Elance:

https://www.elance.com/j/ios-app-bug-fixes/67713491/

https://www.elance.com/j/ios-app-update-needed/67714378/

I'm all for open-source and code sharing for the sake of learning, but something about this just seems disgustingly wrong.
Learn how to run Hadoop, Spark, Marathon and Chronos on Mesos
http://mesosphere.io/learn/
These interactive tutorials make it super easy to install Hadoop, Spark, Marathon, Chronos and other frameworks on Mesos.
Show HN: Search engine for finding the best of anything
https://www.bestlist.com/
Bestlist is a search engine that is focused solely on helping users discover the best of anything.

All of our results are non-biased, non-paid, and are dynamically generated via our search algorithm. It’s not perfect, but we’re working extremely hard and are determined to make it ubiquitous in the lives of the everyday internet user.

Other Features

Voting
If you’re feeling strongly about a search results, you can up or downvote the listing to voice your opinion. When you vote, you’ll be asked to state why you voted. This gives other users better insights into the listing.

Collections
With collections you can easily save and keep track of all of your favorite listings. Collections can be public or made private, and they’re easily edited, reordered, and shared.

Submissions
If you find that we’re missing a result for a particular query, you can easily submit it as a suggestion. We’ll review it, and publish it if it makes the cut.

Current Limitations
•It’s currently English only.
•We don’t handle searches that start with “Best way..” or “Best settings ..” or “Best route..” very well.
•Also, searches for professionals (doctors, etc,) and recipes have issues.

I’m sure there are a lot more we’re missing.

I'd love for you to try and it and let us know what you think.

Thank you,
Tyler
Show HN: dpScreenOCR – a program to recognize text on the screen
https://danpla.github.io/dpscreenocr/
In a nutshell, dpScreenOCR can recognize text from the selected screen area, and then can copy it to the clipboard, add it to history, or pass it as an argument to an executable.
Show HN: BoldContacts – Mobile App for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, MS, MD
https://github.com/SixArm/BoldContacts
I'm the developer of this small mobile app, and I'm seeking constructive feedback and people to try it. I'm writing the app because my folks have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Startups are Hard
http://robertsaric.com/startups-are-hard/
A nice blog post by Robert Saric about startups.

"It has been nearly 4 years since we started the journey as independent operators of a business. Meaning that we started from nothing, and our only sources of income came from the value we generated for clients. We ventured into the business world as 3 software entrepreneurs, who had experience working with companies and building things, and now we’re a team of 8."...
Beautiful visualisations of everyday statistics
http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7
compelling in a way that's hard to describe
Modeled on man: Breathable skin for buildings
http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/10777/modeled-on-man-breathable-skin-for-buildings/
Biologist turned architect, Doris Kim Sung, is working on another energy efficient and passive method of ventilating buildings, taking inspiration from the human body in search of a more sustainable design. She is advocating the fairly simple yet ingenious idea of a breathable skin, like that of the porous human skin, to encase buildings.
Ask HN: Review my site, CureCRM.com
http://curecrm.com
Please candidly review CureCRM.com.
Show HN: A new way to write and publish research
https://dystr.com
Over the last two years, we’ve seen just how quickly science can move when it’s conducted out in the open, and the focus is on content rather than the publishing process.

We’ve built a new way for researchers and scientists to communicate and share their findings with the world - rethought from first principles, with a lot more coming soon.

Free to use, and available now for anyone with a university email address. We’re whitelisting organizations that conduct and publish research on a rolling basis.

Please forward feedback and thoughts to nallana@dystr.com or comment here!
Ask HN: What do you love about your office?
I'm looking at starting an office for my startup in South Africa. Since I haven't seen how its done in the US does anyone have any suggestions of things that work well?

Productivity systems / white-boards / game consoles / nap couches (and dark rooms) / ...
Show HN: A mastermind-like version of Wordle
https://playhurdle.vercel.app/
Wordle reminded me of Mastermind, a game I played as kid, so just for fun I made a version of the game that plays a lot more like Mastermind. I think this version is way more challenging :)
Littlecosm Twitter game alpha release
http://www.littlecosm.com/
Been watching this idea for a little while, now yongfook just opened up some alpha space.