skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think making it personal like that would cause a great many more problems than it would solve. For articles, I upvote them as a means to "save" them. I think that's a more objective means to measure value: I vote on articles to serve my own needs (because I value them), not to express an opinion or agreement/disagreement. I have no idea what could be done to the system of voting on individual comments which would more closely align to that rubric.

I would rather not know if some individual is routinely downvoting me. There is no way to determine if such a pattern arises out of personal dislike/spitefulness or just coincidence that they see the world very differently from me and therefore just happen to strongly disagree with many things I say. But the ability to check for/notice such patterns would likely begin negatively impacting discussions here as it would promote "feuds" which likely would not remain confined to voting patterns. I've seen a few comments that suggest that there are running battles here between specific individuals, but you get that everywhere and it seems less toxic and less obvious here than what I have witnessed elsewhere.

For that matter, it also might not be a good thing to know one person routinely upvotes someone in particular.
"One source noted that the reason VMware was interested in nabbing Zimbra is that its execs want to expand “up the stack” from the Silicon Valley software company’s position in virtualization."

Too many clueless MBA types in VMWare?
"factoid" - one of our best tactics for avoiding non-constructive grumpiness has been to teach the chatbot descriptive but firm responses to some of the most common mistakes.

In a lot of cases, as I note elsethread, I think it's often that they've been locked into tunnel vision over the "solution" they're currently attempting - they have a serious case of XY problem but their self-made blinkers prevent them seeing that.

A much shorter version of this drama gets played out on technical channels when one of us goes "hmm, why isn't this working?", somebody else goes "wtf are you doing that for?" and the first one goes ".... oh, FFS, because I'm an idiot". But it takes practice to be that in tune with your inner idiot.
Ask HN: Spam fighting with bogus lead gen nowdays?
Hey folks,

A couple of years ago, there was an innovative company, that basically took all these spam mails, and for every one of them sent to every recipient, it filled out their lead-gen forms with malicious (but still validating) data. To date, this is the state-of-the-art in fighting spam effectively (to my knowledge), since it impacts their revenue stream instead of an ever-escalating technological arms-race. Unfortunately, they went bust, when the black-hats started DDOSing them out. (My datasource at that time was, unfortunately, slashdot; please correct for any biases / false data).

Has there been any development on this front? Anyone tried replicating their model?

(I understand if it doesn't seems a lucrative idea to this bunch; I'm just saying, there are a couple of well defined sources in my spambox, I would be willing to part with good money to see them eliminated. )
I'm somewhat disquieted by these admissions, and I think that eventually there are going to be some social networking privacy scandals. Ultimately the solution is probably a peer-to-peer equivalent to facebook.
Inside The Genius, But Asocial Elevator's Brain
I wouldn't do it, because living in the bay area, it's not too difficult to find people that have gone through the fundraising process and ask them for advice.

That being said there are a lot of desperate people out there that are willing to pay for this kind of information. You'll probably get the same kind of people who are willing to pay lots of money to pitch to investors.
But you don't see much of WM there. There is one software layer above WM, HTC Sense.
Eventually, only Trolls with a fair-case will fight

Don't a lot of trolls actually have valid patents that read on whatever it is you do?

If this worked, why wouldn't Microsoft just "self-insure" and never, ever settle a patent claim?
A real name has to go, but there is no requirement to remove a nickname or an account.
While not the same thing a few years back I was driving east on the M40 into London, and someone had painted, in big letters 'Why do I do this everyday?' on a fence. It was in a location where the traffic was often banked back. I wondered how many people sat in their cars, read that sign, and threw in their job when they got to work. Probably none, but a bet a lot of people wished they could.
Lenovo Skylight to be the First ARM Based Netbook
Beyond The 'Washington Consensus:' Economic Webs And Growth
I really like the idea of teaching asm first for adults. I really didn't understand what I was doing in C until I'd learned assembly.

I think it would be interesting to have a college curriculum that started out in asm the first year, and eventually ended in a symbolic/lambda language like lisp.
Original discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=589555
I worked with John Ousterhout at Scriptics/Ajuba and Electric Cloud. What sort of war story would you like to hear?
He's a spammer, testing the waters...
Barbara Mori Wallpapers and Photos
I wonder if VMWare will change licensing schemes. Yahoo's model was by going through "value added resellers" and "hosting service partners".
Thanks, won't repeat next time.
About Facebook privacy
See boredguy8's comment near the top for a list of five datasets:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=271066

I'd check the Internet Archive for the files & Google for the filenames.
I know I would. Can we talk? http://beepl.com
For anyone reading the article, the bit about the met office already predicting a warm winter by averaging the highest temperatures was a joke. Someone posted it as a sarcastic comment on a blog (posing as someone from the Met Office) because the Met Office had gotten the winter forecast so wrong. Unfortunately, people didn't have their sarcasm detectors set to the right tolerance, and the joke spread to other blogs, where it started getting reported as fact. As far as I know the original author keeps chasing it around, trying to say it was only a joke, but by now it has taken on a life of it's own.

I imagine the author of this piece is going to find out sooner or later, and have to issue a retraction.

The perils of the internet, I guess. But like so many other urban legends, they really spread well when there is a believable grain of truth in it. The Met Office should see this is a notice of exceedinly low public opinion about itself, and act accordingly.
Sorry to those who are curious, but I'm not going to state my reason - it's not all that personal but is still well with in the realm of "my own business". Surely it's not a prerequisite for deleting an account.

If I knew that there wasn't a standard way to delete accounts I probably wouldn't have signed up in the first place. It might help keep the number of temporary accounts, so there's a chance that it's a feature.

The current plan is to wait a while longer, then I'll send PG an email.

A point that I find interesting is that if I didn't care about the community at all I could probably exit the site very rapidly by way of a submission script - not my style, but does make me wonder if it's been tried before. I'm sure it's quicker than an exchange of emails :) And it remains an option if nothing else will do the trick.
Find out what you hate about their service, and make sure it is improved in yours. 37Signals' book had something about this, its the chapter on "Have an Enemey, pick a fight" - http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php
Send me an email.
"The big difference between Web piracy and house burglary, he says, is that the penalties for piracy are tiny and rarely enforced"

The big difference is copying vs theft.

Also, the penalties for copyright infringement are anything but tiny. "Downloading mom fined $80000 per song", etc.
When you start playing on the same standards, what is the difference between you and them?
I was very much inspired with what Rusy K. had put together, and I feel it was a good choice now that I went with nitrogen. Haskell has turbinado, too :)
Cyclers: Transportation Network Among the Stars?
Sweet!! I got started on his DOS assembly book an eon ago. I'm buying this today.
Zed Shaw, I'd Like Thomas Ptacek To Apologize Please
Just post two ironically abusive comments and before long you're banned with no appeal or explanation, worked for me.

(or that's what I think happened - they even let you post for 2 weeks without telling you no-one can read it!)
+1 on the congrats to Bob and the team at Mochi. His contributions to Python and Erlang development have always been interesting to check out.
For example, this guy right now is single-handedly rewriting, essentially, the entire site.

Well, at least we know the end of facebook is coming then ;)
Do you do biotech?
From what I know about the startup culture in the UK, I think it could work well there.
as well as facebook chat
I don't understand why ... his goes to 11
I was happy to see you in my list, silentbicyle :-)
Record labels seek DMCA-style UK takedowns
Ask HN: Any recommendations on places to vet ideas?
I'm of the opinion that putting ideas out there for feedback and critique from others is useful. While this may not work for everyone/everything are there any good resources for doing so today?

I liked the ideas.yc.com idea:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=620
Diary of a Paranoid MySQL Upgrade - 250GB database to 5.x
Zed Shaw, Company Killer?
Google to mobile industry: 'F*** you very much'
I think the huge challenge is in the final sentence:

"The result is a problem a bit like trying to stop a mob of looters. When the majority of people feel entitled to someone’s property, who’s going to stand in their way?"

How many politicians will dare stand up to protect a small number of creative minds once 7+ billion consumers have grown accustomed to accessing info/media for "free" (in time and simplicity)?

Right now I think they mostly stand up for large corporate 'rights' - not individual creators/artists.

[Am I too cynical in suspecting that the congressional voices that support copy protection receive substantial campaign contributions from publishing industry giants (as opposed to the 'creative minds' whose intellectual property builds their empires)?]

::edited for clarification::
I'd be happy to help, but my real experience has been in software and hardware and although I think I could help I must admit to not being an expert in that area.
Single founder here (on xp-dev.com)

It can be really, really, tough at times (I remember being on the verge of pulling my hair out a few months ago), and it can get a little lonely, but I decided to go solo as I really didn't find anyone that could had the same level of ambition and resonated well with my personality. though that can change in the future. thinking about a couple of new ideas that I will be looking for co-founders.
Pre approved auto loans
Sweden burns bunnies for fuel
In 2008, Physics Nobel laureate David Gross gave a talk at Technion [1] and mentioned that this belief that Jews are smarter is dangerous, as it may give Israelis the impression that its accomplishments are God-given, and not due to hard work.

Personally, I found this article somewhat weak. I think [2]-[4] are more informative.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNmZqH01nX0

[2] http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/how-did-isr...

[3] http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2008/sb20080...

[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7654780.stm
Then instead of "delete" we will have to use "sed" or "grep -v" to remove the login... ;-)
Again? Another 25? ;-)
"The problem in each case is not that you stole from a specific person but that you undermined the artificial scarcities that allow the economy to function."
ARTIFICIAL scarcities... They are necessary evil of free market (is it free when there is monopoly?), but you must be sure to have monopoly first, or someone will race down with price. My 2c, anyway
Electronics That Obey Body Gestures
Cracks Show in Google's Nexus One Strategy
The End of Yahoo Shopping? Company Substantially Outsourcing To PriceGrabber
Software Patents: Should the Burden of Proof Be on the Accuser?
Learning PHP 5.3 by writing your own ORM
Border Travel in an underpants bomber world
because a license might cost $1m, but going to court to fight it might cost $100m or more. It's a no-brainer whatever size you look at it. The win-lose equation here is about risk management: it's too risky for Microsoft, with an 'endless budget', to go against a troll.

In this instance, Microsoft's attorneys risk alienation too by playing the chicken game, and they don't want to do that.

How it could work is to find a judge who thinks patent cases like this are ambulance chasers, and then ensure that all the suits against you are relocated into her court. If you have a friendly judge then it becomes much easier to play chicken.
This is the place. Post your ideas to HN and hopefully you will get thoughts from many smart people.
How To Set Up Database Replication In MySQL On Ubuntu 9.10
Arctic tern's pole-to-pole journey mapped
Scheme. The amount of high quality, and mostly free Scheme literature out there is overwhelming.
Cosmic Quandaries with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson
Clojure doesn't have a steep learning curve per se, it's just that what is "clojure" changes on a monthly basis. The language is not standardized and it's undergoing massive changes in short time.

It's very promising, but I would wait for it.

I recommended Scheme to you above, even though I use Common Lisp myself.
It's not just you. Apparently the author only expected residents of the area to read it.
Why is the NYT writing about this now? There really isn't any new information here that hasn't been rehashed hundreds of times over. In effect it all comes down to a question of what has value to people.

To take music for an example, a digital copy of a song has very little value when compared to something like a live performance which commands a much higher price. An artist bemoaning the economics of the digital world is like Dell commiserating about the decline in the average selling price of laptops because of the introduction of net books. If an artist, or anyone, is interested in making more money they should concentrate on making things people are willing to pay more for instead of complaining that people aren't willing to pay for what they want to produce.
The Wheel of Need, the Landscape of Potential Technology
That was the post I was looking for. They're 404 now, but thanks for looking.
Yeah, they're 404. Thanks for looking!
I think people don't feel so bad about stealing from the RIAA, because the artists only would get a tiny fraction of the paid sum anyway...

And stealing from thieves isn't so bad, is it?
Fermat’s Last Breath
I've worked with someone offering a similar service in the UK. We didn't continue the engagement as the business was at the wrong stage of development for his involvement, but if we were in the right stage then I think his help would have been very valuable.

Maybe it'll be worth talking to him - http://www.tecmentor.co.uk/ .
Alex Gaynor - Dive into Python 3 Review
The use case I want something like this for is so that I can browse the internet and write emails from bed or from the sofa. A wireless keyboard would make it much less useful in these contexts.
A good rant about a very real problem, e.g. the reason I switched to Brother and have switched my parents to them as well, but it should be noted that HP stopped being a "moral" company a long time ago. They've been selling computers and printers with insane bloatware drivers for many years now (at least back to 2004).

One might also note a business model where ink cost $8,000/gallon or as some headline noted, more than human blood. (OK, that's perhaps an acceptable trade off, but it burns first time buyers nonetheless. About the only good thing here is that HP has the ink jets integrated into their cartridges, so refills are not terribly dangerous.)

And then we could get into the post H&P period where the company's treatment of their employees has been quite nasty. Or the general decline of the quality we used to get from the HP name (I'm still using my HP 28S calculator from the late '80s). Etc. etc. etc. etc.
Things You Probably Didn’t Know About PHP
California signage is the worst I've ever seen, at least in northern California where I've been for the past 3 years. Sometimes you don't know there's a highway until you're already passing the exit for it; the signs are often on the exit, mounted too low to see from very far away, and with the arrow angled downward as if to make sure you can't misunderstand which exit it's talking about. If you don't know exactly where the highway is, and you're as directionally challenged as I am, simply finding the right highway can be extremely stressful.

I don't get distressed easily, and certainly not historically by the simple act of driving, but driving in California is extremely stressful for me. There are at least a few thousand locations in California where some guerilla public service would be a great help. I just get angry every time I drive here, because I'm always lost, always having to turn around because I missed my exit or turn, and even when I'm in the right place I can't tell because the signs suck so much.
Ask HN: What should I do next ?
I write a blog that is heavily followed by the best specialists in the world in a specific area that is bound to find many applications in different products (established or totally new). I have created a community around that blog that is pretty unique and I am actually pretty happy to have "grown" that community through this blog (I heard several stories of people getting together and making things happen thanks to the blog, the blog is mentioned in acknowledgements in reviews and other exploratory publications).

Right now, I am a little burnt out by the amount of work I put in it. So much so that I don't know how I can diversify this experiment so that it provides some type of revenue where all parties involved are willing to pitch in. I really don't want to go into the specifics because it would identify the blog right away, I think to a certain extent this is the only blog I know that has provided this service to a community of like minded researchers.So here is my question to you, HN readers and shakers, what should I do next ?.

[Update: by the way, I did not mention that, but there is actually a lot of good will toward the blog. People are happy it exists ]
Cheating at codegolf with System V IPC
If you haven't yet read Better Off by Eric Brende, I highly recommend it. The author, studying at MIT but disillusioned with the relentless push of new technology, decides to live among a community (which he delicately calls "Minimites") that has eschewed modern conveniences.

It turns out they're not really opposed to technology or innovation, but rather focus their energies and efforts on ever-more convenient human-powered machines, coupled with an aggressively minimalist approach to their 'needs'.

In one telling passage, the author is helping the men gather food to feed their horses over the winter, which turns out to be the primary use of the horses themselves (rather like needing to take a distant job so you can afford your car, which you need to get to your distant job).

When Brende points this out, one of the men laughs and decides on the spot to get rid of his horse. The Minimites are many things, but afraid of change is not one of them.
Chief of Airbus Warn To Cancel Production
They kept his suggestion. After 8 years, they added his "patch" to the new sign.
That's nonsense. Spam deliberately attempts to defraud (at worst) and irritates (at best) millions of people. Fighting back is attempting to prevent this, by wasting the time of people that spam. That's the difference, and the two acts aren't ethically similar.
Design Issues for Foreign Function Interfaces
I'd Like Thomas Ptacek To Apologize Please
But is there any company offering that? Tracking that via a mailing list is much harder...
I am a Muslim. I created a new account, as some will hold that against me.

This is just picking on someone who is too weak, uneducated and inarticulate to be able to defend themselves.

Fuck freedom of speech, it's not what this is about. You don't have, and never had, the right to slander someone in order to pick a fight. If I went to a bar, found the biggest and dumbest asshole in there and called his mother a filthy whore, guess how much sympathy I would get in court. Yet this is exactly what the newspaper did, in order to demonstrate how "choked by fear" we all should be.

The fact that the guy has to fear for his life is ridiculous, but what does that prove? That large part of Muslim populations are insecure and hypersensitive? They are also predominantly impoverished, uneducated and downtrodden, not to mention constantly in the crosshairs, perhaps things are connected? Treating individuals like this with a bit of sensitivity would be the civilized thing to do, rather than prodding them for a cheap thrill, or childishly insisting on the injustice of their uncouthness.

I am so sick of the hysteria, grandstanding and hypocrisy in this debate.
Mary Kay Andrews: The Fixer Upper Game Download Free
After her boss in a high-powered Washington public relations firm is caught in a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. Out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father's offer to help refurbish Birdsong, the old family place he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia. All it will take, he tells her, is a little paint and some TLC! Enjoy Mary Kay Andrews: The Fixer Upper, a fast-paced Hidden Object game!
>or just coincidence that they see the world very differently from me and therefore just happen to strongly disagree with many things I say

But they are not supposed to down vote for strongly disagreeing. Down vote means "this person is not contributing to the discussion". Down vote is supposed to discourage the person from doing what ever they did again. So what message does the current environment send? Think like everyone else or you're not welcome here? Seems like exactly the opposite of what a start up oriented site would want.
So, I'm kind of torn here. We're watching Google ascend to a position where they can bend numerous markets to their whim, but they aren't really cheating the consumers at all. If anything, they've been great to us. Beyond that, as a college kid with an interest in distributed systems/networks, I should probably be angling to try to work there someday. But still, I'm scared, because it's hard to trust a company that big to do no evil.

Am I just being paranoid? (Not a rhetorical question)
I really think email spam is a problem already solved (at least for most end users). I use gmail, yahoo and hotmail (for different accounts) and I rarely get any spam.

Now, I know the anti-spam tools are working very hard to stay updated, but using the spammers tactic is too much. Why change if the current research/defense tools are working?
A lot of people are making good comments about there being room for more than one competitor in a marketplace. I totally agree with that but I would add that this is true if the service stands alone.

If your product depends on network effects, it is no longer true. Services like Facebook and twitter are more valuable when all of your friends are using it too. These tend to be winner-takes-all.

I suggest that you stick to your strategy until you hear a customer mention a competitor by name, or otherwise have proof that you are losing customers to your competitor.
Foursquare Now Seeing A Check-In Each Second
i did mail pg with a similar request (different account), and he essentially responded that he could not be bothered to implement deletion or do it manually.
Griffin Tattoo Designs and Meaning