skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think the title is wrong. Should read: Don't go if you're planning to get a job as a professor and would mind wasting ten years of your life waiting.

On the other hand, if you actually enjoy what you're studying and have any reasonable amount of skill in something else (as many humanities majors who read HN probably do), then graduate school can be fantastic. You want to use computers to solve problems, but unless you're a low-level systems programmer or a CS researcher, you'll need some specific thing to make websites or computer programs about. School is great for that.

Last year I finished my MA in classical Chinese literature. The problems of OCR'ing, transcribing, and translating Chinese are enormously interesting. Even simply trying to present digitized versions of ancient Chinese texts is difficult (no one told Confucius that only so many characters would be in the Unicode standard). I got a lot of attention (and should have productized it) by making free information available in a more convenient way with a simple Rails app. There's a huge gap in the field for a young grad student who wanted to digitize information, present it attractively, and sell it back to libraries or individual researchers. And these gaps exist in most traditional humanities fields.

Aside: I went to UW, which has the most rigorous Chinese lit. program outside of China. Obviously don't go to graduate school in the Humanities at a school that is only theory--you're probably smart and coherent enough to make your way through it without really learning anything--go somewhere that has a difficult program where you learn linguistics, philology, or serious history. I also got all of tuition, a nice stipend, and optional health insurance by doing some PHP programming for a lab at the school--don't go into serious debt for a masters in the humanities.
I think you're spot on when you talk about a tradeoff between performance and productivity. But what I would take issue with (just a tiny bit) is that your test scenario doesn't really show the extent of lost productivity.

Your test case is ideally suited to what key/value stores are good at. Once you need joins the whole picture is going to look very differently. Thankfully you do acknowledge that in your post.

There is another issue as well. You can get good performance from key/value stores only if you know upfront what kinds of queries you're going to need. For ad hoc queries you need a query optimizer that takes statistics into account in order to make use of indexes in the best possible way. RDBMS have very sophisticated query optimizers.

One other difficulty arises when you try to make this architecture work in a multi-process scenario. Berkeley DB does support that in principle, but it's very difficult to make transactions, shared caches and recovery work reliably with processes that are started by apache modules.
FYI your citation is a link to an ad for SPARC.
I totally agree. The issue, though, is this—

What's it mean? What are everybody's goals?

You still need a strong leader (whether formal or not) to actually ask these questions, maintain the right level of depth, and stay off irrelevant tangents.
The problem here is how musicians ( I myself am one ) tend to listen to tracks after mastering.

The 'loudness wars' tend to lead to listener fatigue because of the lack of dynamic range over the course of many songs. Most musicians don't listen to masters this way. They listen to the same track repeatedly to see if it is what they want before moving on to the next mastered track.

The number of musicians I know who listen to an entire mastered album all the way through multiple times before it goes to press is 0. 1, maybe 2 times at most for the entire album.

For individual songs, that big loudness boost sounds REALLY good. Its the over an entire album that is sounds bad. And especially with the return of a singles culture via iTunes et al, can you blame the many musicians who maximize for the single song experience rather than the album experience?
Public resources are what I put on my blogs or web sites or what I mark to be public. As has been heavily discussed in this thread, Facebook has changed policies to make certain information public no matter what users choose in their privacy settings.

"how can you have a 'favorable reaction' to spam"

The intent is for people to lower their guard when they read email that's directly addressed to their name and seems to display knowledge of them.

"Abuse would make it reprehensible."

I think its abuse is being promoted, here. I mean, really, reread the blog post.
Predictions on Getting Web Traffic in 2010
Lines 349 to 387 made me laugh. A little bit of recursion can hide a lot of deeply nested looping :)
I came to Hacker News late and so I have only known it as an aggregator site with a better than average community participation. Certainly more valuable than Reddit and Digg. But I can see how it's not really hacker news or startup news any longer and you have to wonder at what point it's not even going to be technology news.
I think the main problem with geekery is that it appears strangely elitist to outsiders.

The best way to offset this effect and still be yourself is to remember Dale Carnegie's point that, more than anything else, other people want to feel important. Your over-analyzing tendencies will make them feel slightly inferior IMO. So, just balance the geekness by helping the other person feel important during the course of the interaction.
Is An Inside Round Good or Bad?
The tips about not being overbearing (correcting people, giving them unwanted advice) are well taken, but in many circles - especially the ones you actually want to be in - your natural geekiness will be highly valued.

I swear that, at least in parts of SF and NY (not trying to push geographic stereotypes, these are just the places I have personal experience), geekiness is even cool. If you work too hard hiding it, you will have trouble finding these places.
Ask HN: What's a math major to do?
When I originally chose to study math I wasn't thinking about what I would do after college. I chose it because I love doing hard, well-defined problems, and because I saw that it was the best way to distinguish myself.

Now that graduation is finally approaching at the end of this semester I do feel like I've distinguished myself as a student (having done research, won awards, and maintained a 4.0 GPA at a top 20 college), but I feel utterly unprepared for life after school. I am passionate about programming, but most of my time in college has been spent on math, and I'm not sure if I'm qualified to work with experienced programmers.

When I told my contact in the college career center that I'm interested in programming, he advised that I apply to the IT division at Macy's. Is this the only sort of work a math major with some programming experience is qualified to do? For me, an ideal job would be working somewhere like Wolfram Research, where (I imagine) I would be working with smart people on difficult problems related to math and programming. Are there other opportunities that I am overlooking? Do I need to lower my expectations?
this is the author here ... yes, i know this article sounds half-retarded, but let me try to provide some context: i'm not saying that you should always be a phony and hide your true self --- these so-called 'tips' are only for when you have to attend some boring but mandatory social occasion and don't want to stand out in any way.

obviously it's stupid to try to purposely get yourself invited to posh parties and then follow these 'tips' and remain stone-silent.

Edit: and then there's the issue of whether you actually want to stand out or to blend in ... i have friends in both categories: some are willing to be more quiet and blend into the background in these occasions, while others are ultra-proud to display their geekiness and don't give a crap what other people think. i suspect many people here fall in the latter category, and thus are gonna think my article is utter trash :)
Retailers hoping for a bright new year | My Complaint
Hitachi develops brain-powered remote control
That's like saying there can't be any prime numbers, because there are so many ways you can factor 2010.
totally agreed (see my comment one level above) ... these 'tips' are only for when you're stuck in a social situation where geekiness is NOT cool! if you're hanging out at start-up parties or YC meet-ups and follow these tips, then everyone else will think you're a tool ;)
I think this is fantastic advice. I've met some amazing people while traveling, just because I made some offhand, nerdy comment.

Just a few days ago, on New Year's Eve, I got a free night at my hostel for fixing their Wifi, plus a contact for when I'm in Australia, after I spouted off on some philosophical differences between FOSS and closed-source software.
There are generally plenty of positions for PHDs in technical fields, and I have known of many employers that will pay the tuition for at least the masters in a technical field if you don't already have one (mine is, for instance.)

Humanities tend to have fewer direct applications in business though. History at least is seen as some value in certain types of analysis and historians are often used as consultants in some fields. On the other hand, perhaps I just run in the wrong circles, but I cannot think of any direct use for a PHD in say English Literature other than teaching.
What's your opt-out policy for people you "discover" information about?
The problem in humanities is that the market is saturated, also, the majority of undergraduate classes are taught by graduate students (they're cheap!), further reducing the number of potential hiring positions.

So you have to actually be exceptional and have published something interesting to even have a good chance at making it as a professor.

You could do other things as well, write books or work for various foundations (teach high school!), but you can do those things without a Phd in medieval English literature.

You also are spending 8+ years not getting paid or putting yourself into debt, and that you still might end up working at Arby's (or what have you).

He left out that the pay for a starting professor sucks.
(Considering that you just spent 8 years of your life getting the degree).

Computer science is a bit of a different ballgame in that it is applicable (well, vaguely) to software development. So you might be able to get a job that is orthogonally relevant to whatever it was that you passionately studied in graduate school.

The sad truth, however, is that the majority of software development does not come anywhere close to requiring a Phd. And you still come out up to your eyeballs in debt or flat broke.
The good thing about it is that it looks pretty good on a resume. (Although weighing 8 years writing software against 8 years in grad school, I might go with the guy who has work experience... is kind of a toss up).

The google/ibm/microsoft research positions are few and far between, in any event.
A weapon against the vi-emacs war
Ignore Everybody but Take a Shower
"Upper bound" has a very specific meaning.
Good thoughts. Too many pies, not enough fingers is what gets a lot of us in trouble.

Consider open sourcing it on github, and if anyone asks for anything just reply with "patches welcome" You'll probably never get anything from it, but who knows?
Hmm...looks like my first internship must have replaced me with a machine.
Do you plan to take this onward to the iTunes App Store?
Largely agreed. My wife is pursuing her masters in history. Her plan is to start teaching at the high school level after graduating, but she is pursuing it for the love of the subject. If she cannot get a job directly in history she is ready for the possibility of working in some other field.
Those who don't care what other people think only attract antagonism. Those who are liked (and, consequently, invited again to such social events) are those who make other people feel good, and the best way of making other people feel good is to make them feel important. This works for office politics, and it works for dates, as well.

Personally, I think your article is quite good. Maybe some on HN think it's crap, but this forum is populated by people who (wrongly) think they're too smart to have to play petty politics...
Will Uploaded Minds in Machines be Alive?
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Do-Not-Click-Button.aspx
It's not a tax. :)

I agree that companies price these cards expecting to be able to reclaim a certain percentage of the value of these cards. However, they are selling the entire value to the consumer.

So if (and it's a big 'if') the unused minutes are unclaimed property, then gov't escheatment isn't a tax, it's reclaiming lost property on behalf of the consumer. The consumer paid for the entire value of the card, not the value of the card minus a bonus for the issuing company.

Anything left over on a card should be treated as pure bonus to the companies, not a standard revenue source that needs to be recouped. If they do raise rates to recoup lost revenues, then it is the companies performing a cash-grab, not the gov't. This is why companies like gift cards and pre-paid minutes cards... they've been able to extract out the unused value from the cards for years, and it's all "extra" money that they didn't have to earn.
In think any situation where, from an acquiring company's perspective, the decision becomes one of "build versus buy" fits the description of a pure technology play.
Doh! i watched those matches back-to-back last week (they replay lots of good tennis here in Argentina), which is why i got confused...
Culture is part of it. How many people there had worked for Intel in the past and how many leave AMD to go to Intel in the future? I'd expect that's part of it too.
Those expiration dates are quickly becoming illegal. I don't know how it applies to pre-paid minutes, but for gift cards, most states have eliminated expiration dates.
Sounds like a cool idea. I do know there are several platforms currently out there that may be similar or give you ideas:

http://www.channeladvisor.com
http://www.vendio.com
http://www.auctiva.com
http://www.auctionsound.com

Good luck and hope this helps.
90+ Useful Jquery Tips,Tricks And Techniques
Are They Students? Or ‘Customers’?
While "20% of the activity is responsible for 80% of the problem," I doubt if "dialing the wrong number," "opening the wrong document" and "making spelling mistakes" are the kind of problems you should be spending lots of attention on.

Introspection and self-improvement can both be powerful tools, but it is best used against much larger problems, many of which will not become apparent by keeping track of writing down every little stupid mistake.
"In general these tips sounded like a guide to lowering your social self esteem and how to not meet and get to know people. If that's your thing - stay home in the first place."

sorry i didn't make it clear enough in the original article, but these 'tips' are for occasions where you're forced to be there in the first place (e.g., dragged there by significant other, family members, work colleagues, etc.), not for when you're voluntarily trying to go out and meet new friends (or prospective dates). maybe i should add in a bigger disclaimer up-front (i think i said it in the "Summary" box, though)
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The sad truth, however, is that the majority of software development does not come anywhere close to requiring a Phd.

The vast majority of current software development is guis for databases and can be done with relatively little training, not even requiring a BS in CS much less a PHD. But there is more advanced development where the more theoretical backing is at least useful.

(Although weighing 8 years writing software against 8 years in grad school, I might go with the guy who has work experience... is kind of a toss up).

I largely agree, but it depends on what kind of software the programmer was writing. Doing major kernel hacking for a Linux distro is highly impressive for instance, doing maintenance patches for yet another database front end is not.

Also remember that the two is not an either or proposition.

It requires a somewhat flexible day job and it may take longer, but you can work on a graduate degree while holding down a day job. I work a help desk part time for most of my undergrad degree and work as a DBA/Sr. Programmer while working on my masters right now for instance. On the flip side, you can go to class at day and contribute to open source or do contracting at night.
Ah a fellow Lincolnshire dweller!

And yes I agree: it is an awful flag (
DownloadHelper - Media download Firefox extension
I think a feature that is catastrophically insecure when deployed at Slicehost is pretty much D.O.A. anywhere, and that Patrick explained it nicely.

I'm sorry for being glib, but something about this Django request rubbed me the wrong way. I get the impression (probably unjustified) that tomorrow the dev team is going to say, "well, that timing problem was the only thing anyone found, so we're good to go". In fact, if they're serious about peer review, the fact that it took 15 seconds to find a critical vulnerability would be a good reason to hold it back for many weeks and to ensure that several competent people signed off on it.

I'm conflicted though, because every other mainstream framework has this functionality, and it's not that complicated to build. I wish they'd stop advertising goofy security "features" like "salts" and key rotation, though.
Loose coupling is overrated.
Third Nokia lawsuit accuses Apple of multiple patent violations
I'm sorry but there is no excuse for not being able to write down the equation for finding the area of a circle. Even if you completely suck in geometry and can't remember a damn thing pi*r^2 should roll of the tongue without a second thought.

I'm almost a decade out of university and it only took me a second to spool up my basic math part of the brain. (Scientific notation took me a second to remember what it meant) But a freshman with only a 3 month break between schools should get 100% on this exam.
Nobody is going to have their identity stolen because of this feature, but it would be nice if they stopped implementing any more crypto. Arguing against signed cookies is tilting at windmills, but that doesn't mean marketing crypto features is a smart move.
Adding to what Simon said, dependencies in Python are an absolute mess, with no truly reliable mechanism other than saying "here's a list of what you'll need, go install it all manually". So every additional dependency is a major burden in terms of packaging, documentation, learning curve for newbies, etc. and we try to avoid inflicting that unless it's absolutely necessary.

(though personally I think I'd prefer to outsource crypto to, you know, people who actually know how to do it)
there is a HUGE difference in time commitment and 'psychological toll' between a 2-3 year master's and a 5-8 year Ph.D. in the humanities. getting an MA is a great launching pad for new ideas and careers like teaching high school, etc., but i doubt people will still be so excited during their 7th year of Ph.D. with little job prospects in sight
Big Numbers and Air Travel
Heh; an illustration that the real art here is in cryptographic protocols, not crypto black boxes like AES (well, as long as your "random" numbers are random enough, which turns out to be an issue in the VPS world).

I was lucky enough to learn this in 1979 while in a group trying to puzzle out how to make an authentication system based on public keys (I've read they didn't get it right until the mid-80s).

Final note: these protocols are fragile. If e.g. Microsoft implements Kerberos but changes one little thing without explanation, let alone a serious and public security review, don't trust it!!!

- Harold, a proud member if the Do It Right Society.
Hi pgbovine. Thanks for your post and thanks for your visit here to the discussion. I sure wish more authors would engage us like you are doing now.

I do not think your article is utter trash, I just disagree with much of it. I was one of the first to pounce on it with my other post in this thread, which I have since editted to show you the respect you deserve even though I still fundamentally disagree with your premise.

A few additional thoughts:

No one is "just a geek". We are all very complex beings with lots of other ways to describe us. Following a list of "rules for geeks" drops us to an unnecessary lowest common denominator.

Sometimes, the only difference between "surviving this social function" and "learning something in the next hour that may change my life" is mindset. A postive mindset is often best achieved by ignoring many of your rules.

Nothing is mandatory. No one really has to do anything they don't want or go anywhere they don't want (with a few obvious exceptions). It's a stupid waste of everyone's time to go somewhere you don't want and then, to make matters worse, not be yourself.

No one should mask themselves or adopt alternate personas. You only get one life so that's the one you should live.

I suppose one of the reasons I feel as strongly as I do is because I was once an isolated geek who adhered to many of your rules. Once I stopped doing that and just allowed myself to be myself, social situations didn't seem that much different from engineering problems and now I'm equally comfortable with either. I have a feeling I'm not the only one.
Windows Mobile Users Hit By "2016" Date Bug
It's not actually public access to "Data sets" - these folks are intercepting over the air live transponder data from each aircraft and then plotting the resulting information.

There are two primary forms of these types of transponders, one basic which just transmits the aircraft altitude and unique identifier, and the other advanced which transmits location, altitude, heading, intent (lading, taking off, descending etc).

In the United States, most aircraft only use the basic version, so actual plotting all aircraft using these interception techniques is much more difficult. However, any international aircraft that fly in the US, or aircraft that are international capable, can be tracked.

There are out of the box commercially available receivers and software that you can use to get started... but again be warned that until US adoption becomes more widespread you'll only be able to track International flights.

For example: http://www.airnavsystems.com/RadarBox/index.html
Are any Humanities Ph.Ds under the impression that they can actually do anything with their degree (besides teach)?

A Ph.D in CS is not, as I understand it, a prerequisite for success in a technological field, but PG was able to make use of it to start Viaweb. Could a Humanities Ph.D do anything like that?
ProcessOne, a year in review - ProcessOne
first sentence of the article: Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development.

So It's at least a prototype
Older HN thread for this article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=639647
I do apps for a living for people. If you'd like to talk, an email address that reaches me is in my profile. (I really wish HN had private messages...)

On that note: You should think about sticking up a email address in your profile kapauldo
OW MY BRAIN. No, don't truncate SHA256 to SHA1 sizes. No, don't use MD5 to make your URLs shorter. No, DO NOT clear all of a user's signed cookies when an HMAC fails --- these aren't passwords, they're crypto secrets.
Broken hearts really do hurt…
Increase Revenue with Friendly Credit Card Errors
Looks like a lot of hardware patents in there. Personally, I think Apple is going to be having a tough time, but IANAL so let's see what happens.