skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ah. Well, keep in mind that we're splitting the documents up in an arbitrary way WRT the data, so every cluster/partition has a complete copy of the index for the documents that happen to be bucketed there. And no cluster owns a single "document class/cluster".

So, if you want to search for, say "microsoft windows", the aggregator just sends something like "PHRASE('microsoft', 'windows')", each query node finds the document vector/set for microsoft and the document vector for windows and does an intersection of the doc ids, then the node has to do scan that set, grab the document position array from each document and filters out any documents where windows doesn't occur at microsoft-Positions + 1.

All of the conjunctions, disjunctions, wildcard expansions, near operations, and phrase operations, etc are executed on the query node. All of the complex sort evaluation also happen on the query node. The aggregator only merges result sets and and performs any necessary global sorting.
I recently found out I have this problem. I went to Pizza Hut for the first time and was pretty embarrassed.
We learn something new every day... even if it's just a silly slang term ;P
I find it alot more comfortable. I can also type a bit faster. After years of QWERTY, I measured my speed right before I switched and I could hit 78 wpm. Now, after about 2 years of Dvorak I can hit 90 wpm.
Judge: Wikileaks gets its domain name back
Xbox 360 console scrubbed clean
Ah, of course. I misunderstood your previous comment. The system is partitioned by document, not by token - that makes a lot more sense. Oh well, I guess that isn't quite as hard of a problem as I thought :) Thanks for the follow up.
I've done it quite a bit. I don't recommend it generally though. If you're already going to have a machine at home on 24/7 and you have a fast connection and an IP that doesn't change then it's a great way to get started. Just realize that the cost of your electricity will probably not be so much less than a cheap dedicated server (and probably more than a cheap VPS).

If you want to gain some sysadmin knowledge it's probably the single best way to start learning. It's just like having a machine in the shittiest datacenter possible, that just happens to be very conveniently located.
Stanford conducted a class where the students built Facebook apps to see what worked. The conclusion? The more inane the app, the more users would install it. Touch me, hug me, throw a dodgeball at me, fuck me...
Without getting down into the details of any one such case - my inclination would always be to go with the solution that could run on "less powerful hardware". That sort of efficiency has a way of proving to be just that - efficient.

Efficient always trumps cool - unless you come from the developer generation where efficient is the only cool.
That's cool that you're a committer, I think scala/lift are very promising, and look forward to using them in the future.

If everything is working well, maven can be a huge productivity boost. I'm sure the decision to use maven was to make the learning curve smaller. But I get an uneasy feeling when maven is being used for every aspect of the project, including creating it, compiling it, running it, updating the libraries, deploying it, importing to eclipse, etc...

The best way to use maven is to set up a stable local repository, and be _careful_ when you update them. Archtypes can be upgraded server-side on the fly, and this can cause problems if you're not careful about versioning.

By default, however, people won't set up local copies of maven repositories. And despite the best intentions of liftweb.org, and ibiblio.org, neither organization has a vested interest in your project, and they suffer from downtime frequently. liftweb was down for over a day at one point. You couldn't create a blank project template, or update the dependencies. It's a risky dependency.
when i used two monitors (my expensive graphics card died T_T) i kept absolute positioning, which is one of the things i like about tablets. you don't need to know where the cursor is, you just move the pen where you want the cursor to be and it's there, so it's more direct than a mouse. it also feels more 'connective' in general. when using scrollbars for example it feels like you're "grabbing" them rather than just interacting with them. or at least it does to me

with the wacom software you can map multiple monitors to different sections of the tablet, so i mapped a large portion of the tablet to my work monitor and a smaller portion to the second. something like:

_______________
| |
| |
| | <-- monitor 1
| |
|_______________|______
| | <-- monitor 2
|______|

actually i don't remember if i used the wacom software to map or if it was something in the desktop settings. in any case it's possible. and of course, relative positioning works fine as well

i'm sure everyone is intimately familiar with the wrist pain from mice usage. it doesn't happen with pens because your wrists aren't contorted like they are with mice. pens are more flexible since the only thing that matters is where the point is, not where the whole unit is. the hand/arm/wrist posture when using a pen is more natural than the posture you have to assume when using a mouse (notice you have to actually twist your arm thingie to use a mouse)
What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?
I use F# at work. Guess what? My code is basically C#, with a thin F# layer. Ocaml doesn't give you the luxury of the .NET framework, which can be seen as a blessing in disguise, because your code tends to be much more functional. The libraries make a huge part of the flow in a 'real' program. To some extent, it's good that scala tries to wrap the conventional standard libraries, to make the flow seem more scala-like.
This is a matter of culture, not race. Is culturism bad these days?
yep. when i used mice i only used a particular microsoft model

if you do decide to try the unshifted symbol layout, be careful with desires to modify it. for example, in standard layouts the ( and ) keys are together, so when typing a function call it's sort of a habit to hit shift and quickly tap them:

fncall()

it's nice and quick to type, so when looking at the programmer dvorak layout you might be tempted to rearrange them just a little bit so that you can keep doing that. the issue is that the goal of dvorak is comfort over a statistical amount of typing, and by making a modification like that you may be sacrificing overall comfort for a tiny burst potential

i mention this because i've seen people make changes like that. the layout is very well-designed. caps lock for example shifts the numbers so it's easier to type long numbers, and it also locks the - into a _, which is desirable when typing constants (MY_CONSTANT)

i actually don't use the layout file on that page because it seems to be designed for (human) languages with many characters, so it has some dead keys and was making some keys such as ` hard to type. i just redid the layout with MS Keyboard Layout Creator http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8BE...
The Next Tinyurl
Who is to say what people need? You? What 48% of people think? Or what the majority of elected representatives in states I don't live in think?
"Every single element in a relation (aka table) has to be
exactly the same type- no superclasses, no variant types."

Hibernate offers several ways to deal with subclassing. It is also not just dumping objects in the database, like the person in the discussion does, it is mapping the objects to database tables.

True, there may be things databases are not good at (recursion), but overall, in my experience the mapping from objects to database works really well and feels quite natural.
I fail to see a difference between Microsoft and Apple (except for design skills). It's not like Microsoft bought each and every company that created a software product for windows. And there are software companies that Apple bought, killing their windows branch in the process (ie Logic, which is now Apple only).
"Movies and TV shows have Finnish subtitles instead of dubbing. One college student says she became a fast reader as a child because she was hooked on the 1990s show 'Beverly Hills, 90210.'"

Interesting. I remember when I began using IRC at the age of 10. The rate that I read at increased considerably within several months. It's unfortunate that many kids today watch TV without subtitles and SMS each other unintelligibly. If they're on the internet, they're probably looking at pictures of cats on Digg.

How the hell are kids supposed to learn how to read these days?
It was locked, and maybe the thread was mostly deleted, but here's one example:

http://wannabebigforums.com/showthread.php?t=81552&highl...
I switched from a Microsoft Ergo to a Logitech DiNovo Edge. The wrist feel isnt as comfortable, of course, but the keys are orgasmic.
Google Invests In DNA Sequencing Project
I'm a pretty big fan of Lenovo Thinkpads (don't think they sell their good line in stores). Most Mac users I know who've owned both agree that Lenovo kicks ass in terms of hardware. You probably won't like the design aesthetic as much though, but in terms of PCs, they're the top dogs right now.

The T series is probably the closest competitor to the MBP.
The answer is simple:

http://www.roflcat.com/images/cats/270915355_c8b9ae48e6.jpg

Edumacation

Learn me a book
The Point of Tipping -- Lose the Tip Jars
It was fantastic for finding rare music. Lots of music that I can't find nowadays anywhere - paid or otherwise.

And I loved being able to control my home client from work through a web interface.
People are often too quick to cry racism

You mean like without offering any evidence for their claims?

I thought the article was superb, well reasoned on its key point of cost inflation in the industry, and thoroughly devoid of sordid prejudice.

Your reference to Indian entrepreneurship is a little ironic since the author (whose name is a Sanskrit word) has herself founded and sold two companies [1], and appears to have a particular interest in... Indian entrepreneurs [2].

[1] http://seekingalpha.com/author/sramana-mitra
[2] http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/02/22/mitra-zoho-india...
Dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=126194
waffles.fm?

email me for an invite
That would be difficult. As bad as Indian infrastructure may be, most African countries are far worse.
It has to happen eventually as long as African wages stay low.
Ability for precise modeling is the most important thing that separates programmers from non-programmers. Dealing with complexity is probably the runner-up, but domain experts should be just as good or better in handling this one.

Programming may someday escape the need for precision. The "compilers" of the day may be able to offer meaningful defaults and fitting. This sounds like full-blown AI, but it doesn't need to be, just as Google looks like it but is not. In fact the way to do it may be some kind of statistical approach relying on tones of code already written.
I'm busted. Okay, I missed that, and I have to retract what I said. I went off half-cocked.

I do have evidence for my view (although, obviously not applicable to Ms. Mitra). I'm half Indian and half Caucasian. Many of my relatives are in the outsourcing biz and I work for the American giants that are their customers. So I see both sides. I tend to think most Americans in this industry underestimate their Indian counterparts, and underestimate how fast things can change.

But, Ms. Mitra's pessimism is obviously borne from experience. Though her other articles show Indians doing more innovative things, perhaps she sees those as the exception.
$100k/year is "big bucks"?
Cfix, a unit testing framework for C/C++ on Win32
Adobe AIR security
Edsger Dĳkstra, The Humble Programmer [pdf]
Beautiful software
Business users get frustrated trying to consciously comprehend all the ways their businesses work that they only thought about at a subconscious level until they were asked to piece together an abstract model.

> Very few problems are worth training a developer on the details of my business.

But that's just what you'd be doing anyway, substituting a dumb prompt (the machine) for a smart, interactive prompt (the developer.) There's a certain amount of domain knowledge that has to be extracted from the mind and modeled before any program will function correctly, and all a developer really is (beyond a simple expert system for picking algorithms) is a translator that knows the "good questions" to ask to refine the model in your mind.

I'm reminded of an exercise I once did in elementary school: we would each draw some odd shape on a piece of paper, then pick another person and, just by blind dictation, try to instruct them in drawing a perfect replica of what was on your page. There was a distinct division between the people who thought others would carry the same assumptions in their mental model as they do, and those that knew that for any true communication to occur, portable standards had to be adopted (in this case in inches and degrees rotation, basically turning the penman into a logo turtle.)

Programming is all the Computer Science hard-problem-y stuff for sure, but it's, more importantly I think, figuring out just what problems we're trying to solve. The former may one day be done by AI, but the latter (unless schools start teaching logic, rhetoric, philosophy, psychology, and perhaps something like linguistics from an early age) will always be the realm of those who have the innate understanding of the differences between different individuals' mental models.
I don´t see why software can be art and solve a problem at the same time.

I hate when people sees software only as a tool. Yes, of course it is a tool. But, what is not it? Of course, you can see software as a tool to sell cars. But for me a car is only a tool to go from one place to another! Please, stop being obvious! Everything is a tool, but some tools are beautiful while other not. Antoni Gaudi´s Casa Batlló was built for people to live in, like a lot of buildings. But the Casa Batlló is beatiful, it has an ethereal artistic background that most buildings lack. A report is nothing more than a bunch of text, just like a novel or a poem. But it lacks something that makes a novel or a poem art.

Most pieces of software are ugly and not artistic at all, of course. But it does not mean that a certain piece of software could not be art, and beautiful, and clever.

And what about demos? They are not tools, but they are beautiful. Usually beatiful in two dimensions: the code and the images and music produced. They are not art?
Well, is this any surprise?

Not really. Merely a consequence of the Hecksher-Ohlin international trade model. Under relatively free trade (free of tariffs, etc) of software, real wages paid to software engineers should equalize across countries.
The real answer is: introversion. I have a few Finnish friends, and not only are they all introverts, but all their Finnish acquaintances seem to be, too. Finnish social customs reflect this. It would be interesting to figure out why. Finland does have a somewhat strange history.

This article strikes me as politically correct cargo-cultism. The features of Finnish schools that it talks about wouldn't work in just any society.
Too old to start web programming career?
hi folks,
i'd really appreciate anyones feedback/advice to help me out of a career choice dilemma. last year after a brief(ish) spell of unemployment i started a masters in e-business to boost my career prospects. i am now 33 and about to graduate soon. thing is, i really started to get into the programming side of things - learning php, mysql, javascript etc, and starting to teach myself python and unix programming. Now, i can't see myself going back to a business oriented career having tasted such delights. should i leave the web dev/programing to the bright young things or can i find a niche for myself somewhere? getting experience is more important than the salary. all comments/opinions/exhortations to wake up and smell the coffee will be very gratefully received. thanks in advance.
Half of Americans now get their news online, up from 40% a year ago
Why don't you combine the two?

IMO the people who do the best are those that have more than one area of expertise. In other words: no business wants to buy software. They don't care about it at all. What they want is something that will help their business, and someone who knows both the software and the business is better able to connect the two.

BTW, ditch the PHP and Mysql and look at some other stuff like Ruby on Rails, Django, Postgresql, and, yes, Javascript. Some PHP won't hurt, but I don't think it's the "state of the art", although you can certainly still get things done with it.
DanceJam launches. Am I alone in being hyped about this?
Apple iMac 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
Hm, i'm almost impressed.
Researchers create world’s fastest internet connection
I think we have enough instant gratification elements to capture attention spans, but its the money aspect that bothers me. It goes against all our bootstrapping principles, but at the same time, I understand that distribution is key. Torn...
Where does everyone here get their news? Is it just the usual techie sites (digg, techmeme, reddit etc). Or do you guys you mainstream media sites? Anyone on NewsVine?
"Microsoft may have first approached the company months ago and floated an offer of sub $20 million, which was apparently rejected"

Wow, they are aiming for more than 20 mil, if they get it, well, we should all start creating products for MS ... to buy... I personally think, only MS can have use of this program, I doubt xobni will ever have any serious clients in the enterprise, they product is ... not that usefull in my opinion! And it target totally the wrong paradigm, more power in an non web client, this is useless, the correct place for this functionality is an enterprise portal! not outlook
If you could fix Firefox or IE what would you do?
I don't entirely get it, I don't think. Sure, it's useful for videos in Youtube, but how's it beat permalinks?
I have been using the Dvorak keyboard since around 1995 ... here is a short guide I right on the switch on an old mac using a dot-matrix printer! :)

On editors, most on Windows and Mac are fine because the keyboard mappings are switched at the OS level. So, I don't think it's a problem. Sometimes key-binds in apps are not matched but not often.

I do not use a dvorak-in-hardware keyboard. I just don't look at the keys.

Best wishes,

- Mike
Taking the pain out of office software
"certain skill to translate a business problem into something a computer can understand"

Absolutely! And that skill includes analysis, not just development. Almost all the best analysis I've ever done has been WITH the skill of competent users, not in spite of them.

"A minority of non-programmers have the aptitude"

A minority of programmers have the aptitude, too.

"That's what makes programming hard"

Uh, try hot tarring a roof or digging ditches in 100 degree heat. THAT'S hard.

"It's just hard, period."

Hard is in the eye of the beholder. I don't think programming is much harder than most other things. It's easy doing it right. It's hard doing it wrong.
Qantas Airways: a perfect storm for IT failure?
So How is Wordpress Going to Make Money, Matt?
Strange-But-True Details of Boston’s Innovation Leaders
The Google backlash at HIMSS
Facebook Launches Band Pages
Scientist Gives Riveting Account of Her Own Stroke
The Gomboc: The Self-Righting Object
"i can't see myself going back to a business oriented career having tasted such delights"

You've already answered your own question. Continue tasting.
Make them both compliant.
Your tax dollars at work.
Freedom of Religion vs Freedom of Thought
Jackie Gleason tipped the doorman at the Plaza $100.

"Thank you, sir," he said, "That's the second best tip I ever got."

"Which was the best?"

"You, sir, last year."
The new ‘economy of free’: the hidden costs of information infrastructure
Go for it - I started as a developer at 30 (that was when the Apple II was the latest thing and well before the IBM PC) and I continue to enjoy the excitement and satisfaction that is to be found as a developer who always has something to learn. Got a few good years left in me yet as well.
one thing i hear a lot is the "brain drain" of smart people from India moving to the US (GB too? not sure.) if opportunities within India present themselves then maybe they will begin staying and start their own companies
Elevator pitches via podcast (older, but wanted to see thoughts from YCers)
For a lot of people, yes. Even for day-job programmers, the money is better than most professions.

"When I point out that it took me two days to get two offers that pay more than my job at Mother Jones, that I could make $9,600 a month -- $115,200 a year -- and the average starting salary for someone with humanities masters' like ours is $39,808, she sighs, "I really don't know if I could stand banging some disgusting creep for money. But there are really some pretty compelling reasons to try."
That reminds me of when I worked as a consultant with a company that did a lot of military contracts. I had to start on a project right away but couldn't work with sensitive data until my security clearance came through. So I did what any programmer would do, I made up a bunch of data to test the code. The software would produce reports which had to have to have the word SECRET clearly visible on the first page. The funny part was, I wound up producing several boxes full of bogus reports which had to be treated as secret. So they had to be stored and destroyed according to military specs.
My +10 vote of the day.
Go for it! It's all about passion; if you are passionate about what you do you have something 95% of other folk are missing. And work won't seem like work, it's more like fun. I'm in a similar position; age 38 and with a 15 stint in the finance industry behind me. I've always loved programming, but never thought of myself as an 'enthusiastic amateur'. Now I'm about to take the plunge and couldn't be happier.
sorry, that should be ".. never thought of myself as more than an enthusiastic amateur .."
It's harder to compete on technical merit, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

I'll quote Drucker again here: "Concentrate on what you're good at." At 33, you've probably got a decent amount of experience in the business world, plus some additional formal education. Work on finding and solving problems that aren't apparent to the young turks just out of college, because they don't have the work experience. I'm 26 and I've had 2 salaried jobs, both in the computer field. There are whole industries that I've never worked in - those are probably ripe for a web solution, because you don't have swarms of college kids picking over every opportunity.

Don't expect to compete in the web2.0/social networking sphere. The kids that are 2 years out of college still have friends in that demographic, they grew up with the technology, and so they know more about both the technology and the market. Look for markets that all the young technophiles know nothing about.
Hi guys,
thanks for all the replies. the fact that they are so positive has really given me a much needed boost of confidence. Thanks for the practical suggestions as well. Once again, thank you!
Self righting objects have been commonly found in Children's toy cupboards for several generations - cost a lot less as well.