skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You can't summarize that paper. The responses to the various objections are vital; they are part of the central argument, not tangential to it. The positive argument is also much richer than you portray it, and therefore much more convincing.

Save your summaries for techcrunch. They are not for refereed writing on subject X (i.e. 'existential risk') by the foremost authority on subject X. If you're not reading the whole thing (perhaps 2 or 3 times), you may as well not read it.
i've had every iphone, the google adp1 (g1), mytouch 3g, nexus one, nokia e71, blackberry curve, blackberry bold, blah blah blah. i hate all of them. i use whichever one i hate the least, until a new one comes out. i try it, find things that bother me, sell it, and repeat.

my only advice is to try the phones yourself (preferably without having to buy them) and see how you like each one. go to a store, find a friend with one, whatever. but try them yourself without having someone standing there trying to "sell" it to you (literally or just trying to get you to get what they have).

these modern smartphones are so complex and powerful that asking for someone's opinion is like asking "what kind of car should i buy?" there are things you may like about a particular phone that others hate. there are things that will matter more to you than to others. you may require some functionality that someone else doesn't, and vice versa.
Here is one possible (plausible) answer to Fermi, I think:

Some various assumptions:

Space travel is limited by the speed of light and the faster you are going, the more energy it takes to go a little bit faster. Relatively is more or less correct and absolute that way. No Star Trek "hyperdrive" is possible.

Nope, you can't extract energy from a quantum vaccuum or any other such tricks.

Nope, you can't actually scoop up all that much fuel in inter-stellar space. Most viable solar systems don't have all that much practically accessible fuel for inter-stellar voyages. Transmutation of matter into arbitrary elements is possible, but not practical at scale.

You can't, therefore, have (material) trade routes between any but perhaps the closest stars. Even then, the total mass of material you are trading in a unit of time is doomed to be disappointingly low - there is hardly any point to bothering.

With assumptions along those lines, "colonization" per se would not exactly be possible -- if by "colonization" we mean building any kind of empire.

At the very best, a species could accomplish a kind of "panspermia" -- sending out "seeds" to whatever stars are in reach, but once a seed is launched, its subsequent evolution is pretty much on its own. In a few cases, if one lucky civilization is close by a second, resource-rich solar system, maybe you get get a little bit of mining going. But such opportunities would be cosmologically rare and even more rarely economically viable.

Worse, sending out seeds to a near-ish solar system and letting them do what they will would be dangerous to the life back in the solar system of origin. Right now, it doesn't appear that their is a hostile, alien intelligence anywhere in the galactic neighborhood. If we did a good job of launching "seeds", we'd increase the odds considerably.

In short, there will never be a point at which it makes any kind of economic or existential sense for us to begin a colonization project - and the situation doesn't look like it would be all that different for other imaginable forms of life.

So why not signal? Well, we already do a bit. Perhaps in a few years we'll have found some not too far off (but far enough!) solar systems that look like they might host life -- and we'll point some lasers at them and start sending "pings" to see if anyone is home. If other solar systems are already doing that, it would be very hard to detect from here on Earth.

In other words, one answer to Fermi, but not quite the "Great Filter" that Bostrom posits, is simply that galactic colonization is a practical impossibility and, to the extent there is intelligent signaling that spans solar systems, it's a lot more directional and harder to detect than anything you could easily find with a few radio telescopes.
How America Can Rise Again
Once again, it seems someone has successfully trolled the lifestyle writers at the NYT with something so fringe that it could possibly be simply made-up. If this was on the front page of Reddit, we'd be calling the people trolls and saying that was fake.
All I can say is that whatever the medical school admissions system (in the US) is trying to do, the result is producing premeds, and that is a side effect that is very hard to swallow :) The worst part is that, once those premeds get to med school, they just become "pre-residents", which may even be worse...

I was talking to an MD/PhD friend of mine recently and we were talking about medical students and why medical school seemed to be so different from grad school. One of the conclusions we came up with was that in med school the professors and attending docs have no investment in the students, unlike profs who rely on students to do their research. This lack of dependence seems to lead to an incredible amount of politics and what is essentially ass kissing (with the goal of getting recommendation letters), something I never really saw from students when I was in (physics) grad school. Research students rely on performance.

I'd say you can probably extend your comment about merit based admissions to science and engineering (and probably other types of grad school). In physics you generally don't even interview. They just look at your scores, grades, publications, letters, etc., then make an offer. After that they will invite you for a visit. They don't care about things like extra curricular activities or where you grew up. They would like more minorities/women, though.
I use my slice for this stuff. On a mac, just add the localhost:<someport> to the 'network preferences > SOCKS proxies' and then do:

ssh -D <someport> user@slicehost.com
I don't think anything should be more interesting than anything else. Different things appeal to different people. As I get older, I find myself becoming more interested in things that are more in the realm of engineering than strictly theoretical science. Doesn't mean theory is good or bad, and I do like some theory topics.
I often search this way first, and if I don't find a suitable result, leverage my assumptions about how searching works. I don't know what Google is doing behind the scenes, so my assumptions may be wrong. I like to give Google the benefit of the doubt though, because I know there is an eventual goal of supporting this type of querying.
Does T-Mobile provide good service where you live, work, drive, and play? If not, don't get a Nexus One. (assuming you're in the US.)

Android vs. iPhone is a religious debate, and it's unlikely you'll receive enlightenment from flames. Android 2.X (N1, Droid) is a big improvement over Android 1.X (everything else).
Then shouldn't cable subscribers be able to get more channels without any advertising?
I read Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" 4 months ago, which had me curious enough to experiment.
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Calories-Bad-Controversial-Scienc...

The book is a meta study of the research done on the so-called metabolic disorders (obesity, diabetes, heart disease). The research doesn't talk about evolution and cavemen, but rather health markers, hormones, and metabolic processes.

I've been eating a less -ahem- tribal version of this for 4 months, and the results have been pretty remarkable (if entirely anecdotal).

I have lost a large amount of weight, my skin and hair are much improved, my digestive functions have normalized after a lifetime of trouble, and I'm no longer tired all the time.

I haven't been sick since I started, but 4 months isn't exactly long enough to suggest anything in that respect.

What I do differently from the tribal version in the article is
1) I don't exercise (yeah, I know, evil, but I just don't feel like it yet)
2) I eat tomatoes and cheese and cream
3) I don't fast; I eat whenever I'm hungry. Interestingly, I'm only hungry about twice a day now, rather than 5 or 6 times a day which was the norm for me before I started this experiment
4) I'm super relaxed (pragmatic?) about the whole thing. I haven't seen the light or anything like that, I've simply had some really good results with very little effort.

There is a blog at http://www.marksdailyapple.com which has plenty of interesting articles, as well, but the Gary Taubes book is the closest thing I've found to proven health benefits.
It's not even so much that as it is that lots of companies have issues taking advantage of the latest hardware. Look at how under used the Cell is.
Search engine and Django 
Hi,

I need to integrate search engine into Django application. Is anybody willing to share experience with any of them into Django application?

Thanks,

Tomas
Yeah, I thought this was what the rumors were saying.
http://www.computer-nach-wunsch.de/
The bank I have been working for the last 12 months was also blocking 443 traffic (except to few "safe" ssl sites). Tunnelling on 443 was impossible.
I didn't search this way for years, but now I often do, especially when I know less about the area I'm searching in.

Sometimes I don't even know enough to know what keyword to use, and full questions seem more likely to give Google something to work with in that case.
The N1 is going to be crappy, just like the original iPhone was crappy. If you want to support the Droid movement, buy the Nexus. If you are willing to wait a while for your phone not to suck, buy the Nexus. If you are blown away by speech to text, buy the Nexus.

If you want the best current smartphone (and AT&T works in your area), buy an iPhone.
Stanford Magazine Article on Don Knuth: Love at First Byte (2006)
Happy Birthday Don Knuth!!
Said beaver dam is filtering a river bearing thousands of chemicals and substances foreign to it before man; is constructed of trees which flourish in the area because of man - where it isn't using outright man-made ingredients like plastics; and supports a pond with alien invaders or just smaller species (because of the excess heat caused by the lack of forest). And this isn't even trying very hard for examples of how even 'natural' features are unnatural and modified for our convenience. Radionuclides are a signature of man's presence that will never go away.

> 3. Don't get too attached to current favorite theories-Dark Matter-Dark Energy-etc(massive fudge factor) because they are always subject to reinterpretation when new data is uncovered.

And what does dark energy and other fudge factors relating to the overall structure of the universe have to do with narrow models of stellar evolution and the inevitable supernovae of any stars over the Chandrasekhar limit? Either admit it's baseless speculation (and not even bad humor), or provide an example of a star blowing when our equations say it shouldn't.
What's the reasoning behind that? Do they want to intercept all communications, and encryption would get in the way of that?
No, I guess they figured out that people were tunnelling over 443 and decided to take action.
The Motorola Droid is pretty awesome. If you want to support the Android movement, that's just as good. Also, if you like pull-out keyboards with real buttons, then that's pretty nice.
This article borders on tabloidesque shock-value, but the "Paleo diet" concept, at least, has a reasonably logical basis. But I would recommend this instead of googling "Paleo" immediately:

http://www.performancemenu.com/articles/proteinDebate.pdf

The link is down at the moment, but the above is a 4-paper written debate between T. Colin Campbell (The China Study) and Loren Cordain(Paleo Diet). They each advocate widely different approaches to diet, but agree on a few things, most notably that dairy's nutritional benefits are suspect.
it's pretty common for vpn providers like witopia or acevpn to provide access via tcp 443 to get through these same firewalls and it's a whole lot simpler, not to mention more cost effective.
How to be a good boss in bad times (May 2009)
I'm not surprised.

I sometimes type in full questions because I know that Google prefers to find the full phrase I give it, which means that I'm more likely to come up with a page answering that exact question rather than one with that phrase. Given that I type reasonably quickly, there isn't much overhead in the extra typing.
I believe that in Norway in addition to stiff fines, you will lose your drivers license if you are caught driving 25 km/h above the speed limit, whether you are rich or not.
How to solve the 36 Cube puzzle
The Protein Debate (4-paper collection)
Try wife and husband
...
"how can i get my wife to shut up"
I wonder if Chrome OS would still fit the requirement of "runs my software". Yes, you can navigate to any web app you want, but there is no control of the hardware.
I thought this was just a cute flippant answer until I went back and re-read both lists.

The pairing isn't perfect, but it is surprisingly good.
Car radio
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Pneumatic tube network at Stanford
I tried a Google search for clojure commons, and your post here was the third result. Maybe you meant clojure contrib?

I wrote a small Compojure application about a week ago. It's only an afternoon's worth of work, plus some cleaning up later, so should also be easy for a newcomer to digest.

The source code is here: http://github.com/ericlavigne/island-wari

You can try out the application here: http://ericlavigne.net:8054
number_format returns a string - I would expect it to return null rather than 0 for bad input
There are many useful definitions of wisdom and intelligence. Another way of looking at it was if you where able to write a book that would be transported back in time to some historical figure what would be the most powerful things to add to change the course of history? 30 years ago detailed instructions on how to manufacture a modern computer would have dramatically changed things, but 2000 years ago that would be useless. However, a basic primmer on math and collage freshman level science could have dramatically changed history.

IMO, wisdom is the ability to take the core aspects of what humanity has learned and put them into practice. Eat right, exercise, get enough sleep, treat others well etc, those ideas evolve slowly over time. So, what separates them is how quickly the information becomes outdated, 60 years ago knowing how to make a high quality vacuum tube on the cheap would have been useful today it's almost worthless. Knowing how to use a light switch on the other hand seems far more basic. Or for a more complex example how to get a date has changed little in the last 60 years even as how we network with other people has.
I've been using it since mid-December and really like it. It's sleek, it's fun, and it has some nifty features. I love the voice recognition, I love that they fixed the Webkit bug that prevented me from browsing HN while logged in, and I like that "unlock screen" is now a slide-right gesture instead of a button, which virtually eliminates pocket-calls and embarassing MP3 plays.

Battery life could probably be better - it seems to be about on par with the G1, maybe a little better. I get about 4-5 hours of heavy game playing or navigation/GPS use, 2-3ish days on standby.
In Denmark there's a three-strike system to prevent that.
I sign in to HN with my google account...
How can I get my parents works too.
What kind of numbers you want?
GINI (inequality index)?: ok
http://mapscroll.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-us-becoming-third-w...
That the poors are doing here worse than anywhere else in developed world: obvious from the GINI.

How do I account number of people willing to immigrate:
1. It is way,way easier to move to USA, than anywhere else in developed world.
2. Proximity of Latin American/Carribean countries, which are verrry bad. And you do not need an expensive ticket from Haiti for example. Just find whatever floating and have a free ride.

Now how you account for that:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/the-real-high-tech-...
?
While I would love to get the "cutting edge". Droid keeps coming up as the most comfortable alternative.

Or waiting a few months for the next release of N1.
The search engine won't solve them for you, but it likely gives non-specific advice that is better than what most of your friends will manage.
How much of the universe have you searched so far?

I think that's the point of the xkcd strip.
It looks like a great first draft of a short story. Keep up the writing. I mean this in no way to be insulting of the quality of writing, I think the flow is just a bit rough.
Thanks for the input

I am not from US and we have excellent GSM coverage here.

The Droid's keyboard sounds like the big winner. Especially with all the stuff about no multi-touch on N1.
No, according to Gruber it was Tony Fadell: http://daringfireball.net/2008/11/executive_scuttlebutt
I've had my Nexus One for four days now.

The hardware itself is outstanding. The screen is gorgeous, I like the haptic feedback, and there are lots of nice touches like the trackball that lights up.

The software has a few great points too. The voice recognition is incredible. I like having the choice to run background apps.

This is also my first Android phone. After hearing early complaints about the OS, I thought I'd put it off until it's fully baked. The fact 2.1 was touted as a great OS update gave me the feeling it's time to try it out.

Well, I can say there are a lot of annoyances that are piling up.

Scrolling, especially flick scrolling, is inferior to iPhone 1.0. It's jerky and fickle.

The onscreen keyboard feel less accurate. I don't mean the predictive typing, I mean the prediction of what keys I'm trying to hit.

Navigating text fields is bad. When the voice recognition gets one word wrong, it's a pain to go back and fix it.

No multitouch. This is a pain in maps or zooming in on a web page. I know there are patent concerns, but as an end user, I don't care.

In general, I feel like the OS is half done. Someone cranked out a feature and performed zero refinement. I have to load a submenu to stop loading a web page? I would sacrifice wizz-bang features like voice recognition to fix all these little annoyances.

I'm going to give the phone a few more days. If I still haven't adjusted, I'm selling it.
They [the people typing these questions] aren't. They are asking a search engine to connect them to people who have been in similar situations and might have advice.
Ah, sorry my bad. It was Alaskan not Atlantic.
China Tries a New Tack to Go Solar
Especially when the "summary" is incorrect.
The Case for Endless Oil
Sorry, just checked the refrigerator and it is Alaskan not Atlantic.
Ask HN: How important is university ranking to CS PhD graduate opportunities?
If you were hiring for a post-doc or commercial research position, would you consider a candidate with a PhD from a lower ranked program/university if they were otherwise a strong candidate?

In other words, would a Stanford (1st) or MIT (1st) grad be selected over a Northeastern (61st) or George Mason (65th) grad based on university affiliation alone? Could a George Mason grad get a post-doc position at Stanford?

I'm trying to justify attending a lower ranked, local university that has accepted my application instead of applying and moving to a better ranked school. I'd like to obtain a faculty position, but doing applied research in a commercial environment is fine too.

I'm a longtime HN user (posting anonymously) and realize this may be out of band for HN, apologies if so.
We need people to have the patience to look at a ten-page essay and not go, "Noooooooo...words...."

EDIT: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, here - not everything worthwhile comes packaged in a ten-sentence blog post.
We need to make a distinction here. Are you saying the N1's hardware will be crappy, software will be crappy, or the interaction between the two?

The Android software has been in the wild for more than a year now and it's pretty well developed, so it's not accurate to compare that to the original iPhone software. The N1 hardware appears to be top-notch so I think the word crappy applies even less to that than the software. So then I guess you are saying the N1 will suck for awhile until they work out problems with the interaction between the hardware and software. That's a fair criticism I guess, although I think unfounded.

I can tell you that this phone does not suck. My girlfriend works at Google so I've played with this phone since the beginning of December. It is most definitely the best smartphone on the market right now. I'd say if T-mobile has a decent presence in your area you'd be a fool to go with an iPhone over an N1.
I'll admit, it's a tad sexist, but it's still good for a laugh.
It's not a 'nice John Lennon song', it is really effectively the only way we will ever be able to make forward movements rather than two steps forward one step back.

It's entirely for selfish reasons that I would like such a world to come about because it is the only future that I can envision where enough people will be pulling in the same direction to start solving the problems that we have.

We are currently wasting roughly 60% of the worlds mental capacity, we can not afford to continue to live in such a wasteful way much longer.

Pieces of paper to hold people out of places that they wish to go to ought to be a thing of the past.

I've lived in poverty and I've been too rich for my comfort and pretty much all the stages in between, there is no way that 4 million illegal immigrants would converge on any place in the world because they would be bringing their homes with them, literally.

What will happen is that just like with water vessels connected by a tube there will be a period of 'sloshing', overcompensating back and forth until some kind of equilibrium weighted by local conditions is arrived at.

That probably won't be a pleasant thing for many of us, but the sooner we get it over with the better.

The only people scared of that are those that are afraid to compete, and with the headstart that we've got competition should be the least of our worries.

The alternatives are very much worse.

As long as you are thinking in terms of 'our own people' you are completely missing my point, there is but one people.
Ignoring personal taste, she is wildly successful/famous and makes oodles of money from products just having her name on it.
Ask HN: Where to go to find good Django devs?
Wondering if anyone knows any django shops or sites to goto where I can find good django devs for hire.

My cofounder and I already have a working prototype in place for our django based web app but there's only 2 of us and it's more like a 3 person job...

I've usually checked elance/guru in the past but the django community seems to have grown tremendously since then.

Any pointers would be much appreciated. Thanks
And if it works with wi-fi at 2.6GHz, why would it not work with the more broadly available and higher-powered 3G cell signals at 2.1GHz?
Are you asking if you need mobile internet?

Would be interested in answers to that, too. I haven't joined the fun yet, but I wonder if there really is anything life changing about it (yet)?