skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> You can't condense all that knowledge in a blog post, one must read the books, though painful that may seem.

No, that's a silly approach. If your, say, launching a web app advice like this [sic] is useful. You dont need or want a deep understanding, you just need the pointers to analyse stuff right.

(as it stands I never mind Zed's tone and when I first read this article it provided some useful info to me in a simple format :)

Also r.e. your first post - from what I recall Zed can be considered some sort of an expert on this stuff.
smanek wrote: "I don't care what your mean or standard deviation are.", which if taken seriously, means exactly that 1/1000th request can take an hour to finish and he doesn't care. Anything over 10s in real-life means a time-out in connection, or user refreshing, or going to the next page, or...

Going to 99.95% not-failing connections doesn't help you much IMHO. It means that you've gone from every 16'th person having a problem to every 32'th person. It's not acceptable at all.
or Twitmail. Maybe not.
To learn statistics, yes, of course. To get psyched up about learning statistics? That's what this article did for him.

Sometimes it's just fun to read someone go nuts about something like statistics, and it may give you motivation to go learn more about it so that you can understand the whole thing.
TDD as if you meant it
Chef2video's Top "Thoughtful Food Blogs" for 2009
The devs had no problems. Operations absolutely loved the change. We heard fears just before the change from people with the most direct client contact (sales and client support engineers/consultants) who where mostly worried about Office document compatibility. We had them try without the crutch and heard very few complaints after a week or so of cutting their teeth. Our main pain point was getting off Exchange. We tested a few different replacements with varying levels of success (blackberry issues, mostly) but once GMail came out of beta we just went with that. Our second biggest issue was display drivers and some lingering confusion about small day-to-day things...but overall our one desktop support guy is very happy with us. All in all I expected the transition to be a lot more painful than it was...even our non-technical staff is pretty technical so we might have it easier than most.
I did not know these existed. The enjoyment I get from spending time reading HN (even the new links) is you learn something new, be it a new algorithm, software package, business story, or a dang cool snowball.

Thank you for not self-filtering and posting this.
How about beans (like kidney beans)? Or are they too starchy?
They do work. Thras looks like he was on a form of Protein Sparing Modified Fast. They work really well. I've done the same thing. The tough part about these diets is transitioning out of the diet, but if you follow the "maintenance" modes that most of these diets advocate, you'll be absolutely fine. The promoters of these diets do not advocate these as long term solutions. For people that are > 30% body fat, the longest recommended time to stay on this diet is about 12 weeks before moving to maintenance. For someone whose body fat percentage is less than 30 but greater than 20, the longest recommended time to stay on the diet is 2 to 6 weeks before, again, moving to maintenance. After two weeks on maintenance but not yet reaching the target weight, the person may choose to proceed with the diet or opt for a more moderate one.

Checkout http://bodyrecomposition.com which promotes a form of Protein Sparing Modified Fast that the author has dubbed "Rapid Fat Loss". He is not an advocate of protein shakes on this diet but rather obtaining macronutrients from actual food, because protein shakes are metabolized so quickly that the body feels hungry soon afterward.
It's not as if they are a unique thing; just odd here in the UK..

This article is basically saying: "the weather conditions here in the UK are crazy at the moment".

A link to deeper information about these occurrences would have been more interesting / hackerish IMO.
Customer service is more than an algorithm.
Paul Krugram: One health care reform, indivisible
It is a homophonic pun.

The associated Wikipedia article is pretty fascinating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pun
"Plus Win7 feels open source compared to my buddy's Mac"

Your feelers are funny. The amount of open source and open standards utilization in Mac OS X is ridiculously higher than Windows. And if you think there are a lot of Linux tools that run on Windows, you should see how many run on Mac.
What I mean is that most people who use twitter don't care at all whether the messages are on their own server or on a server owned by some company.
Good point. Futher the price of rolling your own is probably higher than just the dollars you spend.
Same thing if you pick Denver, and pan NW slightly to see Boulder. Denver and Boulder are complete inverses.
That's very simple to say after the fact.
Well, you can create groups. eg. best friends, family, colleagues etc. Then when you check the updates,just click on the specific group, you will see updates only from that group of people you care about.
I think the mainstream desktop battle is long over and no longer relevant. Apple and Microsoft have defined exactly what a traditional personal computer is supposed to be. Desktop Linux can only hope to replicate the experience which puts it in a perpetual state of catch up. That's OK though -- traditional PCs are old news. They'll be extinct for the mainstream in 5-10 years anyway. Linux and OSS software is positioned to be the dominant player in the next generation of devices: mobile handsets, set top boxes and a variety of other new platforms we haven't considered yet. That being said I don't think the desktop Linux projects should just pack it up and stop because there is a small highly devoted audience for Linux on the desktop today and there will always be a sizable market for traditional PC workstations. As time goes on and the mainstream moves to mobiles & set tops for the bulk of their computing the remaining market for PCs will slant heavily towards hackers, developers, power users where Linux is a fantastic choice. So I guess after the first "decade of Linux" in the mainstream we should be cautiously optimistic. The huge usage numbers aren't there (on the desktop) but there's no doubt the existence of Linux and other OSS projects have completely changed how we use technology as a whole in the last decade. That's not a bad start.
Scheme from Scratch - Bootstrap v0.5 - The Empty List
I've switched back and forth between Windows and Linux. Right now I'm favoring Windows.

The main problem with Linux from a developer standpoint is that you have to be doing strictly Linux-oriented development to have a good experience - which, commercially, mainly means server stuff. As soon as you want to target end-user anything, then you have to think cross-platform, and when you try for cross-platform you start running into basic platform compatibility problems and you start wanting to use the proprietary tools and APIs of the target platform because they "just work" on that platform and the universal whatever you're trying to use doesn't.

Linux also tends to have trouble with even slightly non-mainstream hardware configurations(multiple sound cards, multiple monitors, etc.) because of driver/architecture design that doesn't really account for those situations. It's very all-or-nothing. When it gets things right the hardware works great, but when it doesn't there is usually no real recourse.

That said, I still want to use Linux if I can find a good reason to. It is pretty awesome having 10GB+ worth of software sitting in repositories for convenient download. Just paging through listings in Synaptic is food for thought by itself.
I think you're overstating the case: I wouldn't call the Turing Award or the Fields Medal nonsense, for example. The "test of time" awards for enduring research are also pretty valid, I think (e.g. http://www.sigmod.org/sigmodinfo/awards/#time ) Just because an award might be subject to politics doesn't mean it can't nevertheless be a meaningful recognition of high-calibre work. Obviously, awards aren't the only or the most reliable way to identify good work, but many awards can't fairly be dismissed as "nonsense", either.

(But in the case of the Crunchies, I think they are widely understood to be a meaningless PR stunt.)
"what does it say about the startup community if we reward that kind of unethical behavior as a CEO?"

That start ups are about money first. And what they did was technically legal. Unethical moves like this happen in broad day light and in headlines all the time.

Generalizing, the vast majority of the American (other countries, too) population honestly doesn't raise enough of a stink.

Is it because we are uneducated, don't understand the impact, or merely don't care because things won't change for us tomorrow? We do not grasp the gradual net effect of many 'tomorrows' as the cause because it is too far removed from the action.
Anecdotes are great, and they're fun to read. Just keep a slight lean towards actual data, please.
The Google Desktop Sidebar has a little picture slideshow that shows random pictures from any where on your machine, or from folders you select. You can disallow certain folders, too, if you have images you'd rather not have showing up on your Desktop. I like it for the same reasons; it brings up images and entire vacations I hadn't thought of in a long time.

I'm sure other people have made random images screensavers, haven't they? It doesn't seem like a new idea.
Sorry if I made it sound worse than it is. Android does fade out the music it just doesn't do so well handling multiple things at once. I feel like certain apps (phone of course) should always work more or less perfectly no matter what else the device is doing. The lack of a good multi-tasking UI just aggravates the situation because I'll often have 3 or 4 background apps running that I had no clue about until I notice a performance drag. I'm not going to run a task manager every few minutes to make sure my device can operate properly. That's just unacceptable.
Ruby ninja, guitar-player extraordinaire, self-taught Statistics expert... wow!!! Zed's propaganda machine rivals that of Kim Yong-il.

Get this: you need deep understanding of the fundamentals, otherwise you're not doing Statistics, you're doing Voodoo Magic. If you learned some Statistics from Zed's post, then you must know even less than he does. But then, one of the many symptoms of ignorance is the false belief that one knows. Do you even realize how many years one needs to become an expert on any field, especially a tough field like Statistics?
Slow and steady works. Rapid and fast works also. Different tactics are needed for the different strategies. Your hunch that carbohydrates are important is indeed correct. The protein sparing modified fast that I was on, as outlined over at http://bodyrecomposition.com suggests strategic re-feeds incorporating starchy carbs once you get do more reasonable body fat percentages (e.g., under 30% for males). Lyle McDonald, the author of the site, is one of my favourite experts in physiology because he takes a hacker-like approach by researching studies, skeptically reviewing them, and then testing strategies that he thinks will work. If you peruse his forums you'll find all sorts of people, from athletes and bodybuilders to morbidly obese who have successfully adopted strategies that he has advocated (not necessarily devised).

In fact, Lyle starts off his book on Rapid Fat Loss (his PSMF) by specifically stating that if you can go the slow and steady route, then do so. It's certainly healthier and carries fewer risks. But some people can't or won't, for whatever reason, go slow and steady at losing weight. For them, it's much better to have lost the weight rapidly than carry it around having never lost it. For people like this, he suggests his form of PSMF.
And he brings up that point, and solidly refutes it.

Since you're short on time-- the human body processes a calorie of fructose differently than glucose-- it's actually more like ethanol (Maker's Mark in his case).
This might be the best viz I've seen on the NYT. Visualizing movies like Tyler Perry, Milk, etc. in Chicago correlates almost perfectly with socio-economic boundaries.
Anyone remember CDNow? They rewarded referral purchases with $5 gift certificates. But they awarded the gift certificates before the referral purchase cleared. At the time, you could also trivially acquire a "valid" unique Mastercard number using $0-balance "Web Certificates". Long story short, you could write a script that would generate an unbounded credit for yourself at CDNow. People raped them with it.

Problems like this were really common in the late '90s. They persist today, but are more subtle. We always test for $-1.00 input flaws, and they aren't frequent.

The people who are actively exploiting these can give you any number of rationalizations for how legal their actions are, but at the end of the day what's protecting them is that they're staying below the noise floor for civil and criminal attention. It's still just fraud.
I've used Linux as my main desktop OS for 12 years and I'm 100% happy with it. I feel horribly restricted when I try to use Windows for anything other than web browsing.
Not well written, like Atlas Shrugged.
I set up my mother's laptop with Ubuntu and she is perfectly happy with it. It stopped the constant cycle of viruses/spyware I was having to fix, and everything works just the same as far as she's concerned.
I'm beginning to see the opposite. I find myself zooming in most web pages, because otherwise I can't read comfortably. I had to zoom thrice the page with the article in order to read it (I have a 1920x1200 24" monitor).
No it will not compete with Window 7 in market share, but that is because of the distribution channel. Linux has always been more succesfull than OS X, except the us (http://www.osnews.com/story/21035/Ballmer_Linux_Bigger_Compe...).

Would you recommend it? Yes, especially if you never used a computer or you need cheap software.

By the way, are you from germany?
Thanks grellas for another insightful post; It's not the first time I've enjoyed reading your opinion a legal aspect of technology.

In this case, I think it's interesting to note that the French may have gotten this idea into their heads too late; Google (to take the most prominent example) carries far more economic clout now than it would have in 1997, or the early steamboat companies would have had in the 1800s. Consider the implications of Google deciding not to pay the tax, preferring to ignore all queries from French IP addresses; While this would leave a huge space for aspiring French search companies, that can't be the effect Sarkozy is hoping for, can it?
Olavk said most of what I wanted to, but he did it better. I want to further emphasize a couple of things though:

the more normalized your database model is, the harder it is to change that to reflect your new business needs.

Like Olavk said,this is not my experience. It is easier to start with a normalized database and adjust. Now when adjust I sometimes have permitted exceptions to the normal form to minimize the number of code changes, but I always prefer to start normalized even if he does not stay that way.

we're fine with inconsistent data,

In the databases I have worked with, this is absolutely never acceptable. I know in some areas it may be, but not where you really care about being right. Every application I have been a DBA for has wanted all of its data to be correct, and if it is inconsistent you know that some of it is wrong. As a DBA I certainly could not guarantee that the data was correct, but I could normally guarantee that it was consistent and that helps.
There's a tiredness and "brain fade" associated with these sort of diets. I'm not so sure it's the carb cutting so much as it is the extreme calorie restriction. I used a protein sparing modified fast (which Atkins is a form of) that advocated supplementing sodium and potassium along with essential fatty acids using fish oil (it was a low fat and low carb diet). I've tried Atkins before and experienced the tiredness/brain fade. The PSMF I was on though caused me none of these symptoms. In fact, I felt precisely the opposite. During the diet, I experienced a form of mild euphoria.
The problem is... say you don't want to buy something made in China. The alternative is to do without, as everything is made in China.

(I would love to buy a laptop that's not made in China. Link me to one.)
Ah, interesting. This one always had this URL, the other did get changed though.
iSuppli: Google's Nexus One Costs $175 to Manufacture
Not to mention that only in textbooks can one find perfect risk-free arbitrage opportunities. Unfortunately, the real-world offers only quasi-arbitrage opportunities. Fortunately, contrary to what some academics believe, such opportunities do exist.
When I was little I called dogs bears.

She'll call it a Kindle when she grows up, don't worry.
The title of this article contradicts itself and doesn't match the content of the article, which contains an awful lot of "if's" to sustain the words "risk free".

I almost stopped reading after inferring that he believes being the CEO of a startup that your interviewer has never heard of, and for which "traction" probably can't be defined in less than 10 minutes of conversation, is a credential that will improve your chances at another company.

Selling a company is an accomplishment. Usually. (Sometimes that "sale" is a marketing fiction, but, whatever). Most entrepreneurs --- in fact, most of the entrepreneuers that get traction --- don't manage to sell their companies.
Obviously, since there are are files that no algorithm can compress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolmogorov_complexity

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/ns.html
Maybe the "Chinafication" of NK started in 2009: last year the country had its first pizzeria opened, and there was a beer ad on TV! :-)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/16/north-korea-pizz...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8132199.stm
Startups are about money first, but they aren't about money above all else.

[Edit] I said something harsh and kind of dumb here before, and have removed it. I'm sorry.
My first summer job earned me $6/hour, programming Access databases. I didn't get too much work done because I was a newb, but it was a fun learning experience.

It wasn't until college that I had menial jobs like washing dishes and cooking at restaurants.
No no. I just eat a lot of meat, eggs, and cheese. I average 2-3 pounds of rib-eye per day, 6-9 eggs, and 3-6 ounces of cheese.

Googling for calorie information...good god, that's 2900-4500 calories a day. And I'm only 5'10". No modified fast for me. Lost 65 pounds in the last year. Not an amazing result. On the other hand, an amazing result -- on a 3000-4000 calorie diet.
Answer the Freaking Question
Zed, is that you?
World population will level off
I wouldn't imagine Microsoft would charge for this themselves.

But software that reminds you of things for senimental life-lookback type stuff definitely has its niche.

Imagine if your computer reminded you that you created ${my_first_game}_core.h on a specific date?
Don't see it.
Check out when he starts talking about planing. You have to watch the entire video to realize it.
You know, it might go the other way. What happens when your kids get on/off switches? (The answer to this has, of course, been explored in decades of fiction.)
They're going to learn the hard way that there is no such thing as a "Beta" version for a hardware product, atleast not in the US.
Hacker News readers need to stop submitting linkbait titles, or I will kill them all.
Maybe the future of all desktop OSes is to run in a VM. I run Windows in a VM to sandbox it and ease rolling back if the system gets unstable or crufty. I run Linux natively, but like to check out new distros or test upgrades in a VM. It's incredibly easy to install a modern OS in a VM, especially because of the stable virtualized environment. I won't start a flame war about what makes the best host OS, but it certainly doesn't need to be a full-fledged desktop OS. It would be great to keep my own personal desktop VM on an encrypted thumbdrive and walk up to any machine, plug it in, and run it.
Please flag this shit.
OK, I must admit that one made me laugh. I assume it's a rhetorical question, so I won't even answer...
It's worth taking this entire article with a pinch of salt. I'm sure the anecdotal observations are correct but the analysis of their implications is far from certain.
I agree. The last time I dabbled with statistics was at university and whilst I could see it was useful, it was boring as anything. I couldn't see any really application in my day to day job - after all, besides understanding the difference between mean and medium, what else would I need?

But Zed's article, juvenile as it was in tone, had undeniable passion about statistics. And it was enough to keep me reading through the whole article and pay attention to the examples. As it is, I will be doing further reading on statistics and so Zed's article has been incredibly useful to me.

"Maybe it's just me, but Statistics is a beautiful field, and such intellectual beauty should be all the "psyching up" one needed."

It's just you. Nine out of ten people think statistics are nothing more than boring numbers made up on the spot.
Gotta ruin everyone's fun?

However correct you are! Maybe EMOTIONAL_DELAY?

(oh the implications!)
Quoi? That is the verbatim title of the post.
Google Street View Meets Video - Amazing
"Deluge of complaints" implies some major technical problem. But in fact, the problem is a bunch of people that can't figure out where the charging cable plugs in.

Look at Apple's forums for the iPhone. Same problem, I'm sure.
I was thinking recently that the largest single obstacle to growth for social networking sites is probably the generation gap. I don't think many new-timers will be comfortable using a social site their parents use - and therein lies an opportunity.
Worth reading and learning from ... although, since our ears are analog, since human hearing is not science-complete, and since 'good reproduction' is very often a question of taste (whatever "warm" means ???), the statement "Only four parameters are needed to define everything that matters for audio reproduction" is overly broad and a bit of pseudoscience itself. "No human can hear much past 20 KHz" is not a scientific statement.

That said, if some salespeople were strung up with their monster cable, I'd probably be unable to hear their screams.
People's brains stop working when they are given the opportunity to buy last-generation Apple hardware. That is not the case with anything else, though.
Kevin Hoeffer the Google Scam King of the Internet
The same is true of most people who use email, but email still wouldn't have become as widespread as it is today if it weren't interoperable with other email servers.
Google Nexus One costs $174 in materials
Your also assuming that he / we measure per element not per page, which is just silly. Also, stating a minimum accepted value is not the same as ignoring the rest. It just places minimum reasonable performance that a context.
P = "Programmers Need To Learn Statistics"

Q = "Zed Will Kill All Programmers"

If P || Q must hold, go with P!
while this is definitely a marketing angle for them, not everyone would still need a car to drive to interviews, and not everyone could necessarily still afford a car if they lost their job.
The scene you are referring to is pretty blunt alright, but you're twisting it.

The train enters the tunnel at hands of the 'baddies' (the irresponsible incompetents). And the passengers are not 'people critical of aspects of capitalism' (Though we are led to believe that they weren't entirely innocent)

This is different to the 'people critical of aspects of capitalism are sent by train into a tunnel and killed.'
How do you go from a cost of $174 to an unsubsidized price of $529?

How much does manufacturing cost?