skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It really depends where you are. I've been a Zipcar member for around 5 years now. I always have that experience in New York, so I have to plan a week in advance. However, when I visit San Francisco I can usually find a car on the same block as me, even at the beginning or in the middle of the weekend.
I was nodding my head throughout most of this article until I got to this:

"the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology. These people will kill themselves to attack hotels, weddings, buses, subways, cinemas, and trains. They consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, women, homosexuals, and dissident Muslims (to give only the main instances) to be divinely mandated slaughter victims."

This kind of insane toeing of the official line of good vs. evil is exactly the counter-productive foolishness that allows the security services to carry on with their ridiculous "responses" to these events.

Putting our heads into the sand about the actions WE have taken and supported in the past 100 years that have motivated these attacks does no one more disservice than ourselves. Just a few weeks back there was an extremely revealing article with statistics on the number of Muslim civilians directly killed by American forces in the past 30 years and vice versa.

Even when these attackers ARE explicitly motivated by religion, it is on the basis of worldwide injustices of our government that that religious motivation is invoked. It is never a question of killing because that is all Americans are good for, as is often implied in pieces like this.
hrm, obvious ED209 influence on the robots there.
Seo florida
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Interesting. I'm based in Chicago.

That said, I literally just drove the San Fran to Tahoe drive after visiting VC firms in the bay area 2 weeks ago. We did it in a National rented vehicle (granted it was carrying 7 people..) and our gas bill was only $90. And that was in a Toyota Sequoia, so I've got to assume a compact car would be something like $40-$50 (feel free to correct me). If you rented the car for $30/day (normal rental, not a Sequoia), then it would be way cheaper.

Rental $30*4 + $40 = $160
Zipcar $75*4 = $300

I'm not trying to argue unnecessarily, I just see Zipcar as smart for trips < 2 days only. I think that's the customer they are targeting, too. Also, its great to know that as gas prices go up, Zipcar becomes a better option.
What? It's not excess, it's future obligations. They're still projected to go broke in 40 years or whatever, they have obligations to people who've been paying into the system. Taxpayers.

Social Security, Medicare, and Federal discretionary spending are 3 entirely different things and you should think of them as different entities instead of one big thing called "government". They each maintain separate balance sheets. Social Security's being smart with their money.. the federal discretionary budget over the last 8 years or so, not so much. Hopefully we'll get back to that soon.
"massive chunk of our income to the Federal government"

So does every other resident of every other state, you act like this is some problem unique to CA. Not to mention that if the sate did raise it's income tax that would help it's residents pay a lower amount of federal tax because don't you normally subtract your state tax liability from your earnings to determine your federal taxable income? Sounds like you need to write your legislature and beg for an income tax increase.
Peter Norvig is director of research at google,
he coauthored ai a modern approach, and was previously head of computers/robots at nasa. They have robotics talent already at google
When I lived in San Francisco, I used to use ZipCar when I needed to pick someone up at the airport late at night, even though I had my own car. The $8 was worth it to me to be able to park 300ft from my apartment.
godDLL indeed, thank you
Or, as John Maynard Keynes famously said, "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." Stop trying to predict, let the price tell you what to do and follow the trend.
Improving Data Compression Fidelity Without Sacrificing Speed
I have an '08 Mercedes SL55, and a scangauge. The scanner cost $170. The codes are read through the standard obd2 port.

It wouldn't be surprising if the dealerships have fancier diagnostics available via $40k machines, but they're in no way crippled from standard service.
I used to be a happy Zipcar member. I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 that year on reservations and whatnot. Then I unfortunately backed up into a tree. I paid the $500 fine. Then they closed my account. Back to my bike.
> I don't think that ordinary people are the problem.

I didn't say that they were. I said that they were the ones adversely affected by campaign finance restrictions.

The rubes think that that's an accident and that it could be fixed. The cynics think that that was the goal and know that it won't. The realists know that it was inevitable.

> The problem is that special interests find that money is better spent through lobbying.

That's because "we" keep voting for folks who set up programs "to do good". That always fails because regulatory capture always happens.

Either we're insane or we want to be fleeced.

The only way to stop being fleeced is to insist that govt stop doing things.
I liked Quarantine. The only Egan novel I thought a complete waste of time was Teranesia. But I'd recommend one of the three I listed first to see if he's for you.
Chinese Co Refuses To Pay Goldman Sachs $80 Million In Derivative Losses
So much of American exceptionalism has come from its
ability to attract and integrate the world's most
talented migrants. Its dynamic labour market has been
integral to its success. It has allowed migrant to
thrive and even become a source of job growth for
natives.
On ZipCar I can get a Subaru Impreza for $66/day. For a three day Tahoe trip, that's a great deal. Renting a 4wd drive vehicle from a rental agency is way more than $30 a day.
Enterprise is actually moving into the hourly space, with a separate brand called WeCar. Works exactly like Zipcar (reserve online, pay for gas with a fleet card, hourly rentals, every car is a hybrid). A coworker of mine uses it and loves it.

I don't think Zipcar will kill Enterprise, though, because they really seem to compete for different groups of customers. Enterprise's bread and butter is replacement vehicles for people who are having their current cars repaired (probably for a couple days or a week), and they pretty much seem to have a lock on that market. Nearly every time I've needed a loaner from a garage or body shop, they've sent me to Enterprise.
Natural Log: handwritten mathematics recognition system from MIT
Singularity Proponent Ray Kurzweil Reinvents the Book, Again
I think your right if you assume that the argument is a self contained object. But a lot of times an argument draws on someone's experiences. In these cases, it can be useful to know who the person is.

For example, I remember reading earlier comments about the negative impact of working all night long on a start up. If I had said this, people would (rightly) ignore me. But if someone who has a startup had said this, it should carry more weight.
Who believes in the strong version of efficient market hypothesis anyways? One of the most interesting paradoxes of efficient markets is that to have efficient market, you must have people in the market who doesn't believe in efficient markets. There are a lot of them (the entire field of arbitrage is based on the hypothesis that market is not efficient)
> Do you think people should receive necessary medical treatment based on ability to pay?

Do you think that someone who has paid (via taxes) for other people's medical care should be denied govt-funded medical care?

That's the reality of govt systems.

Which reminds me, what's "necessary"? Seriously. Does it include pacemakers for 95 year olds? How about yearly mamograms for 40 year-old women?

There will be govt "death panels" in the US, just like there are in every other "national health system". That's why the bill has 2k pages.
I'm really impressed with it overall. Great sound in particular - love the the level up sound. After a few falls, I sure wished those edges had railings.

I'm a sucker for statistics and I'd like to see some more on my gameplay: total damage dealt, item usage, favorite weapon, and -- of course -- my very own (in)effectiveness ratio: total rooms lost to death / total rooms captured.

How about a confirmation when clicking main menu? I didn't realize that would forfeit all my progress on that mission.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/osx-netbook-compati...
http://www.vdare.com/sanchez/091227_tunnel_rat.htm

The APEX rampage against “Tunnel Rat” began when an anonymous Indian poster who claims to work for APEX posted a copy of an APEX employment agreement that he asserted imposed penalties of up to $35,000 for quitting. He wrote:

“If you join a company (including any level between you and APEX) then pay $35,000 or face a law suit, $9,000 for legal, training and guest services when you quit. $35,000 if you quit in between a contract…etc. The legalities of the agreement are convoluted, abstract and can/will be used against you if you displease APEX Technology Group Inc. So once you sign that document you are at the mercy of the employer and much worse than a bonded laborer in India."
He didn't quite say that smoking doesn't damage your lungs, he said that quitting doesn't improve your lifespan. For example he wrote that other forms of cancer apparently are more common among quitters. Of course there are lots of plausible explanations for that, among them that ceasing use of a stimulant causes increased obesity which from what I understand increases risk of many cancers.

Actually I read that really quickly. I hope I'm not completely wrong about what he said.
Dressing for Success, Again
Posted early with a few comments. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1020981
Man, the first one ate up a lot of my productive time. Now a new one? That's not fair.

Great work-- looks good so far.
The first version was awesome. I'm looking forward to playing this one. How many people work with you, do you make these yourself?

Also, I would love to know how many people buy the game, though I understand if you wouldn't want to disclose. Not that I would be able to duplicate this level of polish anyways.
Stimulants tend to act as appetite suppressors. Reducing likelihood of being overweight would seem to increase lifespan, all else being equal.
Ask HN: What do you think of my first 2010 project?
Will it work for voice? Definitely.

Will it work for data, kinda.

The nexus is on the 3G band that T-Mo uses (as does most of the rest of the world I believe) but not the one AT&T uses, so you'll be stuck on Edge (which sucks) if you want to use it on AT&T.

PS. This isn't a software issue as the commenter above says, well it is, but it isn't software anybody is going to be changing anytime soon. (radio firmware)
no x86 front-end!
Midway - Crazy bear commercials -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7CsuKvo72Y
I think it should be stressed that these ideas are necessarily flexible based on the quality of the thing being disagreed with. Basically, Paul's assumed that the post being argued against is ideal, and against that has built his hierarchy. In real life, an effective argument, in fact sometimes the only possible argument, against a poorly formed thesis is a poor response.

For example, the conclusion that, "a DH2 or lower response is always unconvincing" is not true in the following case: Suppose someone posited that there is a blue species of monkey living in the basement below the U.S. Senate and the only reason he gave for us to believe him is that he is a trustworthy U.S. Senator. In disagreeing with him, if we bring an ad hominem attack against his trustworthiness it is entirely acceptable and relevant because his trustworthiness is the only proof he's brought in the first place.
Actually,

I think you are talking about

http://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1161v4 - It's referenced by Alexander Cockburn in his most recent nation article.

It's arxiv with no journal listed as publishing it. You do correctly quote the abstract but the language of this abstract is pretty overwrought - it doesn't read like something that would be published in a serious journal whether it's correct or not. Part of the problem with the language might be a poor translation.

Climatology is a complex thing and I'm actually sympathetic to exploring skepticism about global warming. The problem is that the skeptics seem to often be their own worst enemies.
Very nice. Great effort!

If you don't mind me asking I'm curious about the business side of this. I don't expect you to put any real numbers out here but can you make a living of this or is it something you do in your spare time? I would be great if you could elaborate on this a bit. Thanks!
Sounds like you go to one of the two very good MBA programs in the chicago area. Have you gone to one of the chicago hn get-togethers?
> California is, I believe, one of many states that sends more to the federal gov't in taxes than its citizens receive in federal benefits.

CA elects congress critters that push the programs that do that spending, so CA can't complain that the money goes elsewhere.
This could be a neat way to bootstrap a MAME/MESS competitor project.
this post is pretty lop-sided and in some aspects makes no sense to me.

>> Enterprise: Despite the nice Japanese cars advertised on the website, most real-world cars stocked are cheap, lifeless Chevy Random Numbers

Does it really matter what make the rental is ? As long as it meets your space and other requirements, i dont give a shit if its japanese or korean or american.

>> Enterprise: You can only pick up and return cars during limited business hours, and they’re closed on Sundays.It’s therefore impossible to rent a car for only Saturday and Sunday, and if you’re arriving home from a trip later in the evening than the branch’s closing time (usually around 6 PM), you need to book the rental to include the entire following day.

That is so not true. Yes, their office is closed on sundays, so you cant pickup a rental. but you can drop off the rental (they have drop off box for keys).

>> Enterprise: Cars are kept in front of a sketchy office in a bad part of town.
Probably true for his city - but cant be generalized.

besides all these, the author never bothers to make any mention of the fact that Enterprise folks will come pick you up for your rental. at times, that is so much convenient.
I enjoyed playing/beating the first one. But to be critical for a moment, I do feel like 10 bucks is a little steep for a flash game. Even though the fact that it's flash vs directx vs anything else shouldn't matter.. it does.

On top of that, Torchlight launched at just 20 and quickly fell to 10 and even 5 dollars overs the holiday Steam sale.
Technology Predictions Are Mostly Bunk
Another exercise in missing the point. I'm getting so tired of reading comparisons between tablets / netbooks and e-reader devices. Yes, I'm well aware that my Kindle is black and white, doesn't have a touch screen, doesn't handle video, has an incredibly slow refresh rate, etc, etc. And guess what? I don't give a fuck. I got my Kindle for exactly one thing: reading the written word. And for that purpose, it's incredibly well suited. Reading a computer screen for hours is not enjoyable for me, but I get lost reading my Kindle.
This. Is. Awesome. Great job! Are you going to sell better weapons or something for real money? Future content?
> They are not one way. Not in the slightest.

Hence the references to "imperfect" a few messages back. Pedantry of the kind you're exposing is dangerous (even life threatening) in real life.
> Plus, because of California's high cost of living, a worker in California is paid more to do the same work as in another state

You forget - that worker gets to live in CA. That worker thinks that the cost-of-living premium is worth it because if she didn't, she'd be living somewhere else.

If the benefits that you get from living in CA are less than the costs that you pay, you should leave. Seriously.

What? You like it here and are just trying to reduce the costs? That's not nearly as noble a crusade....
Zynga and the End of the Beginning
Firefox 3.7 alpha builds: Hiding the menubar till I press the alt key.
The True Odds of Airborne Terror Chart - Odds of Airborne Attacks
And yet bizarrely it's almost impossible to convince US employers, an especially the INS that overseas universities are legitimate.

In one statement to the INS I had to explain that: No - King's college Cambridge was not a community college.
The "pharma shill" gambit
Edison's 163 Questions
I think this sounds interesting, but with this system, it becomes more critical for the crows to know the rules.

However, a lot of that might be solved by using words instead of arrows. E.g. a "Agree", "Disagree" and "Detracts From Conversation" button.
I think a big difference too has been the creation of ghettos (HLM communities) in the 60s that concentrated all the poors in one area...
Of course, at the end of the Trente Glorieuses in 1974, when unemployment started to rise in France those communities concentrated low skills laborers that were the first to lose their jobs... So France ended having ghettoes full of people who were poor, mostly immigrants with no real opportunity for work, how could this work?

In smaller cities like Rennes, where they had a rule to limit such buildings to a maximum of 25% of the population of an area, immigrants have been more successful and better integrated (but of course, there might be other factors in play like the overall lower percentage of immigrants)
If you want to get particular, I'll abide.

How do we know that it took five years for these gang collaborations to happen? Maybe it took 5 years for it to progress to them high-fiving and hugging in public.

My original point was that it may have helped the criminals become comfortable with the idea. Of course it didn't instantly end decades long feuds after an afternoon of watching season 3 of The Wire.
btw there is a knockoff floating around:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Badim/red-storm

btw if you want a really addicting game to "clone", do something like this: http://www.addictinggames.com/skystorm.html

i don't think there are any otherquality plane games, that are played from that perspective...it's always side or top view always moving...which gets boring.
You could just tie the guilty party's hand down and throw a bag over his head for a few years... Cruel and unusual? Maybe, but less so than forced separation :)
Hey awesome, I saw some people from your group speak at a conference a while ago and I was really intrigued by this idea. Especially the idea of making superatom analogues of Alali-Halide crystals. i.e. taking closed shell Al cluster cations and anions and packing them into an ionic crystal. What's the inside word on efforts to actually fabricate these things? Are they still just theoretical? Could you make them with a ion cluster beam and doing deposition after mass filtering it?
If you're able to get such feedback, then the communication is not yet unidirectional.
The Condom, The Hot Sauce, & The Crazy
Truths That Women Have About Men
I think highly of both companies, although my use of each has varied dramatically depending on my circumstances.

When I owned a car, and lived in the suburbs, Enterprise was great because I already had insurance coverage. When I needed to rent from them because my car was being repaired, they would come and pick me, which was great. In every location I've been too, the staff has been very friendly and helpful--it was no surprise to read that management practices at Enterprise had informed work on Net Promotor Scores.

Now that I live in a city, and do not own a car, ZipCar is fantastic. The annual insurance fee is less than a day's insurance cost at a traditional car rental company. I can get chores done in just a couple of hours, so renting by the hour is incredibly attractive, especially given the abundance available in my neighborhood. I would likely pass by over 20 different Zipcars on the 10 minute walk to the nearest Enterprise outlet. Zipcar employees are also incredibly friendly and proactively helpful on the phone.

Sometimes when companies have different policies and products, it's because they are targeting different segments of the market, not because one is better than the other.
Ask HN: What the heck is a Community Operating System?
New Toy Story 3 Clip from Walt Disney Films released
I think the diploma mills, for the most part, make the world a better place,and the Secret Service has no business doing anything about it* . The primary obstacle to getting a an undergrad. degree is paying for it.

Most white collar jobs require a degree because everybody gets a degree, and anybody who doesn't go to college must be too stupid to to get one. Most people who want a shot at a middle classs life start out with $20 -30k in debt from college tuition alone. I don't think it's right that anybody who wants to do science or white collar work is expected to just give piles and piles of money to universities.

* I don't think they have any business with credit cards either. SS pursuing credit card fraud is a huge subsidy to the CC industry. Credit cards take 2-6% of every transaction and we all pay for catching people gaming the system.

* * Somebody's bound to post that the fake degrees lead to hiring people where safety's involved: Unless you know of something specific, don't say anything. I strongly suspect 99+% of the time when people bought a fake diploma were for white collar jobs where it wasn't necessary anyway.
Google Chromes feature, whereby you can drag a tab into its own window, and then drag it back (or to another). I use this every day, and it hurts that I can't do it in other apps.
Has anyone found a video of this talk yet?
"Claiming Enterprise locations are in bad parts of town may be true where you live."

I think it's a near-universal occurrence. Traditional car rentals are based on warehousing cars at airports and on low-cost land elsewhere. Car sharing is based on cars parked within walking distance.

Zipcar isn't really structured for trip rentals. It's for regular but infrequent secondary transportation. The membership, application, and cost make sense for that use case.
Torrent: http://rnmshot.dvrdns.org/

HTTP: http://85.214.20.203/26C3/GSM/
Review my iPhone app: eyes-free dialing with SketchDial
Hi HN, I wrote an iPhone app that would let me dial a phone number without looking down at the screen. The original intent was for making it safer to dial a phone number while driving, but the trend seems to be towards outlawing any cell phone use at all while driving. Can you think of any other situations in which it may be useful?
link: www.sketchdial.com
It works out better for a two day trip, since that's a much higher gas/day ratio. Also, as someone else mentioned, there is a huge benefit to having a 4wd vehicle in this case, and the premium for that at traditional rental car companies is significant.

I mostly agree re: the 2 day statement.
I'm surprised that Chris Anderson appears here. Besides him noticing that the Pareto principle also applies to the web most of the talks I've seen and his books have been largely content free. Especially his latest book "Free" (no pun intended).

Also, a few things I would recommend that were not on here:

Steve Blank - Four Steps to the Epiphany
Venture Hacks (the blog)
Mark Suster (http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/)
Siebel’s Stealth Carbon Startup C3 Lands $26M And Condoleezza Rice On Board
The post he links to, http://aralbalkan.com/2508, is pretty good too.
Thanks for expressing your point of view. However, this isn't slashdot- you don't have to approach from a negative point of view, ask rhetorical questions, and answer them with swear words. If you just keep the sentences after the italicized swearing you would have a positive and more information dense comment.