skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That's not the kind of "work" I'm referring to. Actually, I'm mystified at how you can even call any of that work. The physical and cognitive load of reaching any site, anywhere, is already small, and vanishingly so when it's a site you use frequently. A new browser window or tab is something you probably do dozens of times a day. Think about it: the site is intended to be used daily--anybody that actually 'buys in' is going to have that bookmarked, shortcut-ed, homepage-ed, or at least in their autocomplete. And logging into Facebook? A typical Facebook user is never not logged in. Where is the work coming in?

I'm sorry to expend so many words on that, but it really does seem strange to me that someone in this day and on this site would regard going to a website as a lot of work.

But to my original point: I'm talking about the work of actually making the thing. The parent post specifically refers to "WriteRoom/OmmWriter plus a scoring script" as the alternative. Where does that script come from? Who maintains it? Whose computer does it run on? Who is responsible for ensuring that it continues to work?

The answer to all of those is either "you, yourself" or "someone else". There are occasions why "you, yourself" are the best person for the job, but quite often there is no particular need to waste your attention on a problem that already has an adequate solution for. Sometimes (just as with cooking) you may even get more satisfying results that way.

In this case, the author is selling you on a specific habit with a tool specifically tailored for the problem of incorporating and maintaining it. If you are interested in that problem at all, the attention-conserving approach would be to try that tool first, before reimplementing your own partial solution.
The Sawdust Shop (http://sawdustshop.com/), near Fry's Sunnyvale, has one of these.
I never said that this application shouldn't exist; I just don't see the point in making it a web application

And that's exactly what I was responding to. A web application is somebody else's problem, from start to finish. In this case, everything but the writing. Any other solution has its own constraints and so on that become your problem, which quite often isn't worth the expenditure of attention.

What I'm really saying is that this application seems like the perfect candidate for http://mozillalabs.com/prism/

http://fluidapp.com/ + 30 seconds.
This is entirely not worth your time.
That's good to know. I haven't tried Ubuntu yet.
That's very cheap, I buy Jamieson brand chocolate chewable vitamin D tablets and they cost around $30.

I too live in Canada, work inside in a windowless area even in the summer, shift work, get up when it's dark, work in the dark and go home when it's dark, when I am home I am in the dark.

Last year CBC news mentioned how vitamin D studies showed a massive benefit, so much so I think it was one of those "stop the study now!" studies because it was so good they had to get the news out.

I have noticed a massive difference in my health, I have not been sick since increasing my intake of vitamin D, which is amazing. Anecdotal? Sure but I know my body and any crazy vitamin or powder or even healthy diet I try to maintain, nothing has had such a dramatic impact on me as vitamin D has.

I only take 1,000 IU per day since there doesn't seem to be any agreement on what is right, it certainly would depend on body mass and other factors. I'm not a believer that one is good so 20 is better, I like to know what the right amount is.
You got that backwards. For most development, you want a fast compiler but you don't care so much about the runtime speed, so long as its correct. Also, the more optimizing the compiler, the higher the probability that you'll hit bugs, affecting correctness.
Songsmith, Surface.
> All I have to say is that if it wasn't for the miracle of Christianity, we'd be on %@#&ing Mars by now.

Amusing comment.

Some time ago while looking at some painting in Florence depicting Ascension of Jesus I had following idea:

Time travel is actually physically possible only very hard to come up with.
Christ was rouge time traveler who wanted to pose as god (like in 'Behold The Man') and got himself into a mess. Angels were rescue team that were to revive him and bring him back, but unfortunately the myth that our unfortunate traveler had started screwed up development of human thought so much that development of our science was delayed and took completely different path, far away from any ideas that might lead us to time travel before earth will be totally forgotten (Asimov's foundation like) or destroyed by future generations.

Since Jesus and angels that took him will land somewhere in the future there actually might be second coming. Sort of. i hope we will be able to compare notes on development on human thought then.
"'The results of the current study suggest that we may actually treat people more harshly when their problem is described in disease terms,' Mehta wrote. 'We say we are being kind, but our actions suggest otherwise.' The problem, it appears, is that the biomedical narrative about an illness like schizophrenia carries with it the subtle assumption that a brain made ill through biomedical or genetic abnormalities is more thoroughly broken and permanently abnormal than one made ill though life events. 'Viewing those with mental disorders as diseased sets them apart and may lead to our perceiving them as physically distinct. Biochemical aberrations make them almost a different species.'"
What Zed is saying when he notes that meta-statistics are normal is that, thanks to the central limit theorem, the average and standard deviation of data sets collected from the same underlying probability distribution (with convergent average and standard deviation) will tend to be normally distributed (in the limit approaching infinite sample size), even if the underlying system behavior is far from a normal distribution. In practice you work with finite sample sizes, so an underlying distribution sufficiently far from normal will result in a non-normal distribution of meta-statistics--but in most applications, these sort of pathological distributions are largely irrelevant.

Take our example of looking at response time for loading a web page. There is some finite point (say, 10 sec) beyond which we no longer care how much longer it takes. So instead of considering the distribution of response times t, we consider the distribution of min(t, 10 sec). This distribution only has support over a finite interval, so its meta-statistics normalize rapidly as you increase the number of trials.

Using this will under-report the actual standard deviation in the response time (which might, as you say, not even converge), since we've eliminated extremely low probability events with very high response time, but as a practical matter this is largely irrelevant--if these events are high enough probability for us to care we'll notice them anyway. The point of this exercise is not to perfectly ascertain the underlying distribution of t, it is to develop useful predictions for system behavior in practice.
One thing I've never understood about iSuppli is when they price "the Synaptics touchscreen at $17.50"… who's price is that? It's not like Google is going to pay the same price as me going to RadioShack. When Apple cornered the memory market, did they realize that Apple had way better prices then other manufacturers? Do they account for any of this at all?

They seem to throw down per-component prices all the time without showing how they derive them.
The CIA absolutely cares about the three pages of fiction you write every day, and there is certainly a way they could take that and use it to make the world worse.

I like this service. I don't like writing in journals, regardless of the brand name, and I think I might give this a try. I guess you're allowed not to like it, but it bothers me that you're so obnoxious about your dislike. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to open every Hacker News article I have a disagreement with and loudly state my opposition, because excuse my French but, FUCK THAT.
Follow-up from sfgate's resident physician-blogger at [1], more focused on what individuals can/should do and perceptions rather than research. Takeaways: skin tone affects vitD uptake, milk is insufficient, and lab tests report results against the average rather than against the recomended so a result of "normal" isn't enough. Also, fun fact: vitamin D has a huge impact on broken bones in the elderly... because it makes you not fall over in the first place!

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gurley/detail?entry_id=5...
Aboutrivaldo - Thanks
What does this say about TechStars that we have not seen repeated here a dozen times a month for years?
"Rand worshipped a man who kidnapped, raped, and dismembered a 12-year-old girl"

Never heard that one before. Any references?

(Fwiw, I personally think taking Ayn Rand seriously is a phase teenagers go through and (should) grow out of. I can't imagine anyone taking her seriously. Kind of like taking "Twilight" seriously imo)
Thanks for the summary, but I think you just smudged the data... For example: Mackerel from the Gulf of Mexico (study done in 2000) does have high level of mercury, but Mackerel from the N Atlantic and Pacific studies did not. We shouldn't be jumping to simplistic conclusion like 'Do not eat Mackerel' . As always, it's more complex than that, and it pays to look at the source.
This happens with 'regular' handicapped people too, as soon as there is anything at all visibly/perceivably wrong with your body people will also automatically assume that you are somehow mentally damaged and/or different from 'us' the 'normals'.

I've seen this up close with a friend who is paralyzed from the waist down and gets treated like a child on plenty of occasions. He's whip smart and runs a successful electronics business and he can get really steamed up about this (rightly so).
Yeah, it's like a really poor attempt to write an Onion article.
Relax dude.
http://michaelprescott.net/hickman.htm is a fairly detailed article about it. One of Hickman's crimes:

At the rendezvous, Mr. Parker handed over the money to a young man who was waiting for him in a parked car. When Mr. Parker paid the ransom, he could see his daughter, Marion, sitting in the passenger seat next to the suspect. As soon as the money was exchanged, the suspect drove off with the victim still in the car. At the end of the street, Marion's corpse was dumped onto the pavement. She was dead. Her legs had been chopped off and her eyes had been wired open to appear as if she was still alive. Her internal organs had been cut out and pieces of her body were later found strewn all over the Los Angeles area.

Ayn Rand, writing about formulating one of her early protagonists:

The outside of Hickman, but not the inside. Much deeper and much more. A Hickman with a purpose. And without the degeneracy. It is more exact to say that the model is not Hickman, but what Hickman suggested to me.

Other people have no right, no hold, no interest or influence on him. And this is not affected or chosen -- it's inborn, absolute, it can't be changed, he has 'no organ' to be otherwise. In this respect, he has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel 'other people.

In other words, a sociopath.
I think the parent poster and the repliers are just a bit too paranoid. Looking at his site, it's obvious he's only using FB for authentication. Also, FB will always explicitly ask you before allowing his app to post anything public on your profile.
There is an equation here:

Votes = Humour / Popularity

So Steve Jobs is really popular, so you have to be really funny to get voted up for mocking Steve. But Arrington is crazy unpopular, so anything vaguely denigrating will do.
There's an awful lot of waffle in there about free will and choosing to do things and what if other things happened instead. As usual, I have someone else's brilliant content to link to and recommend:

"""We've previously discussed how probability is in the mind. If you are uncertain about whether a classical coin has landed heads or tails, that is a fact about your state of mind, not a property of the coin. The coin itself is either heads or tails. But people forget this, and think that coin.probability == 0.5, which is the Mind Projection Fallacy: treating properties of the mind as if they were properties of the external world.

So I doubt it will come as any surprise to my longer-abiding readers, if I say that possibility is also in the mind.

What concrete state of the world - which quarks in which positions - corresponds to "There are three apples on the table, and there could be four apples on the table"? Having trouble answering that? Next, say how that world-state is different from "There are three apples on the table, and there couldn't be four apples on the table." And then it's even more trouble, if you try to describe could-ness in a world in which there are no agents, just apples and tables. This is a Clue that could-ness and possibility are in your map, not directly in the territory."""

- http://lesswrong.com/lw/rb/possibility_and_couldness/

Also, from the original submitted article,

"""Even if the outcome is partly fixed by our free decisions, the fact that God infallibly foreknows - and has always foreknown - whether we will fail or succeed, is really frustrating."""

"""I often wish for a similar promise. If God said to me, one day in this life you will produce great work that touches a lot of people, then I would be very happy with that."""

Aren't these two sections contradictory? She doesn't want God to know for sure if she will succeed or fail, yet she does want God to promise that she will succeed?

"""I often wish for a similar promise. If God said to me, one day in this life you will produce great work that touches a lot of people""" - and after all that, what if the 'great work' turned out to be medical?

And what if the whole point turns out to be that God sent her to exist on earth to spend a lifetime as a makeup artist who ultimately isn't successful at being a makeup artist but does learn an awful lot about other stuff from trying? Her simple summary of "So maybe what I really want to know is that God doesn't infallibly believe I will definitely fail as an artist" leaves out that 'failing as an artist' is not the only outcome of a life of trying to be an artist.
Especially for C. It just takes too long to compile.
That's a pretty sharp observation.
In the first conversation, the person he's talking to is justifiably defensive. Usually when you ask when someone is going to be free without telling them why, it's because you're trying to coerce them into doing something they don't want to do.

The question asked was about a 3rd person named Joe, not the person being asked the question.
John Wooden on true success
How I learned to stop worrying and love static metaprogramming
This isn't a new talk by any means. But, I rediscovered it today in my bookmarks and felt it warranted a go on HN. What he said was inspiring in a way I haven't found elsewhere. It's amazing how sharp he is in his later years--Wooden was 91 when he gave this talk.
OCaml. See:

One-Day Compilers or How I learned to stop worrying and love metaprogramming

http://www.venge.net/graydon/talks/mkc/html/mgp00001.html
The guy's voice does have a soporific quality, and I also found myself nodding off (because I am jetlagged). But this is perhaps not the most constructive thing to comment about.
Those people who didn't want to do it in the first place are not going to be exactly jumping out of there seats to pitch in and firm whatever was created up and finish it out. Wish that were the case but I believe people want to see the hero fail. Eventually the hero gets tired of never ending uphill climb and leaves.
A lot of my info about Vit D comes from Dr. Davis at the Heart Scan blog:

http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/

Check the archives, you'll find a lot of interesting stuff.

He actually does blood tests on his patients and measures if the vitamin D is actually absorbed (which is what made his recommend gelcaps to everybody instead of dry tablets). I think he himself takes 6,000 or 8,000 UI / day.

I've also set a Google Alert for "Vitamin D".
Google's Eric Schmidt on why bankers deserve little sympathy and Obama does
In the Indian context, this article makes much more sense!

Note for instance the opening, "Recently I met with parents of the founder of one of our portfolio companies." :) How many times would PG have met with the parents of a YC founder?

Money during bootstrap phase would be from parents ->
A middle-class kid fresh out of college, could be easily supported by his parents for 3-5 years, staying at home, with no additional expenses. Given many parents support grad school, supporting their kids while they're working on a startup would not be a stretch (if they agree with this article or see the fire in their kids).

If the startup goes anywhere but dead, (in a year or so) the founders would have got a reasonable amount of independent mgmt experience, ability to startup and deliver, and exposure to industry far greater than their peers.

Now in India there is a severe lack of middle management capable of independent decision making, project level leadership, and delivery. There is also a shortage of folks who can think at a product and market level, as opposed to a customer/service level. A guy coming out of a startup (even failed) who can demonstrate these skills would be quite better than his peers who may have far more experience in sw development.

If the startup fails within a few months or years, worst case, an MBA may be in store, although it would certainly not be as exciting :)

Many of the guys who are doing this would probably be of upper-class, or upper-middle class, whose families would certainly encourage such risk taking.
Mbah Gendeng
When it comes to "do not eat" it is easier to remember "do not eat mackarel" when getting to the store than "do not eat Mackarel from 2009 from Golf of Mexico". Health-wise if we don't eat some kind of Mackerel we'll be OK. In other words as far as mercury levels and safety, my "shopping" list still works. However, if you are a Mackarel fisherman you might not like my shopping list...
Astaga.com LifeStyle On The Net
If Apple would have made these improvements long before Google's Nexus One, it would have seemed more sincere. Doing it now just makes it seem like bowing to competitive pressures and not because they actually care about developers.
Thanks for digging that up, it's rare to get such deep insights in to the mind of a writer.
Bamboo Bicycles
One thing I don't understand in all of these discussions about there having been life on Mars in the past: wouldn't it still be there today?

Even given that the planet's climate has changed entirely over time, as long as life had begun at some point and had a non-negligible amount of time to evolve it would have expanded into every available niche. There's life here on Earth in environments far less hospitable than those on Mars, isn't there?
interesting, although for it to work out, you have to assume that in every case, the hero is merely acting as a crutch. and for that, you must assume that there will never be emergencies.

so there doesn't seem to be much but a generalization. maybe it's true, but i'd agree and say that this sounds more like a manager's point of view (or rationalizations of an employee who doesn't want to look bad relative to a hero, although i'm not making that assumption).
Dynadock | Toshiba
11 Tips to Maximize Freelance Productivity and Profit
You could make the list much simpler still, but you'd be missing out on some good fish: "Avoid predators at all cost".
For describing a language, I'd use English if you want to reach an international audience.

I don't think a language can claim to be faster than C. But a specific interpreter/compiler can claim to be faster than a specific C compiler.
Clojure is largely written in Clojure, with some Java at the core. There's also a .NET port, which I assume replaces the Java with C#.
"typically encouraged to be in 'long hand' ... "

Probably because your brain works differently when you write that when than when you type, a difference that matters.
At my last startup, our counsel was also the corporate secretary. It worked out well and let us get all board-related legal work done for a set fee.
Scheme is often used in prototype interpreters. I just wrote a very simple language grammar in Haskell, so I guess really "anything" can be an answer.

If you're asking about compilers , then it tends to be C (although LLVM is coming along nicely).
German Spiegel on Google Goggles' Face Recognition and More
Well, the article is about studying a meteorite for ancient fossils. If sufficient evidence is found, we will be pretty sure there was life, but it's not enough evidence that there still is life in a place like Mars, it does raise the possibility.

The thing about Earth is that there's water almost everywhere, which can provide a suitable protective environment, even if it's mostly frzen. Not the same with Mars. Also, Mars has just been so cold and dry for so long that it might be too long for life to last through.

Finding evidence of past life would be less expensive and still serve the purpose of showing that life is not unique to Earth. Trying to find those isolated ecological niches that may still hold life would be very challenging and expensive. Also, if we already know life existed on Mars before, the ideological breakthrough would have been made. Finding current life on Mars would still be interesting, but only scientifically, not in the social and ideological way that extraterrestrial life's existence at any time does.
Armin Ronacher: DVCS Ponies
Well, just to be clear, GHC compiles to an intermediate stylized C form (hc files), which are then compiled with a C compiler.
Taking apart your answering machine won't tell you anything
Treat Your Customers Like Children (or your Children like Customers)
Is there a complete plain-text version of this? The white text on black is killing my eyes, plus it takes forever to move from screen to screen to read it.

I'd like to read it, it looks interesting, but the format just isn't for me.
Is PyPy speedy nowadays?
Cannondale's electronic suspension system, hands-on
If you've ever laughed at improv being performed, it is nothing like the rush of performing improv, especially when it's not done well.

One of the more clever and disturbing ways to gain 'power' over an individual is to play the student in the master-student role. E.g. by having them teach you something - which is doing you a favor, you can gain their favor.

Ben Franklin: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=145544

For example, if someone is trying to sell you something you can have him/her be the expert and they may give you a better deal.
There is a simple solution: Don’t let politicians increase jail time.

Here is how that works in many European countries:
1) Politicians call in experts (i.e. judges, police, academics, etc.)
2) They draw up a proposal
3) The proposal gets adopted
4) If anybody questions jail times politicians just say that the experts did it and that politicians are certainly not competent enough for determining efficient jail times (I’m paraphrasing here)

Not so democratic? Sure! Does it work? Just look at the incarceration rates!
Hadoop and Parallel Dataflow Programming
I didn't know that gay marriage was now HN material..
Facebook's Zuckerberg Says Customs about Privacy are Evolving
Got it. So, in order,

1. Customer Development
2. Product Discovery
3. ???
4. Profit!

Right?
That was already quite interesting to read out of context, but I'd definitely look forward to something you've written about it for an audience more like this one.

(So did I just raise your status?)