skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
In this case, there appears to have been no good-hearted attempt -- the project was funded almost 3 years ago, and the fulfillment of creating was to be handled by the US Playing Card Company. This means that the only real work required was to get a batch printed, then mail them out. This was either malice or just plain stupidity on the part of the creator.

People are starting to get their cards now, but I think that has more to do with this lawsuit and the media coverage Nash has gotten for this.

But I wholeheartedly agree that if a backer makes a good faith attempt to fulfill promises, then not shipping is not a punishable offense.
Ignoring whether this particular judgement is fair, the (US) legal system isn't really focused on restitution. Most of the punishments it metes out are purely a deterrent; after all, if someone is sent to jail for ten years, its not like the victim is given an extra ten years of life.
I misread your design the first time I read it, but I think the misinterpretation might be an interesting alternative.

Instead of screaming a few seconds after being plugged in, perhaps it should silently charge whenever plugged in, and then scream only when unplugged. The only way to silence it is to plug it in again, or smash it to little bits.

If you are having fun with anthropomorphic social engineering, you might even have the scream be a loud but plaintive "Help me! My batteries are dying! Plug me in, plug me in, find the nearest air gapped computer and plug me in!".
I tried.

Apparently I'm not allowed to look at more than 4 pages without using their app. So I gave up.

I've never been a fan of Scribd but MAN that's hostle.
Actually, the CP/M version was called COMPAS Pascal, but it was very nearly the same code.
And I was thinking of the AGPL3, which would affect usage.
"I played around with the app some more, trying my worst to make that loop run at least once (which was, admittedly, hard, because I had no clue what it was for). Two hours later, I gave up and removed the loop."

That seems very risky, and I'd never have allowed that change to pass a code review. Just because you couldn't figure out how to make the loop execute doesn't mean that there aren't any paths through the code that would cause it to execute. The only safe way to remove it would be to prove that it can't ever execute -- e.g., the loop only executes if the variable foo is true (the condition is "foo && ..."), but foo is initialized to false and isn't modified anywhere else in the code.
Anyone know what is the state of support for Linksys WRT1900ac?
We don't actually have an AWS product released yet. This article was part of our becoming more familiar with all the different aspects of AWS (like a lot of other developers we're long time users of S3 and EC2 and PAAS services built on top of parts of AWS).
The backers got their money back. And the defendant lost a lot more money than just the restitution. The penalty was harsh, but I don't see why it was unjust.

Do you think the plaintiffs should get more money than they deserved?
Doing What We Can
Ask HN: What Can You Do with a BA in English?
My Brother recently returned from teaching English in Japan for the last 5 years. He's in his mid 20's and eager to attempt starting a Career in tech.

Outside of suggesting that he "Learn Python", I'm really not sure where to direct him. I'm not sure what type of entry job he could look for with a startup or major corp.

So - What can you do when all you've got is a kickass GPA from a good school and 5 years of international work experience?
In the case of PEDs, there's no grey line. The WADA rules and lists are very comprehensive, and include numerous catch-all clauses. You can determine what you are forbidden to use, under which circumstances.
tl;dr; it's really up to you, either way are a good way to go with some trade-off. pick what suits you best.

If you're just looking for a diploma, I'd recommend you to drop it off. If you want to learn, pick a great university and embrace it. The solid base that you'll get will be worth it, but you'll spend much time and will be very tough.

However, nowadays you can embrace coursera and learn on demand while studying the current market. That's what I chose for myself as I wanted to work over 'study'. I kept doing specialization over specialization and I like it. I also admire who went to good universities. Bad ones you should drop off. Unless you're a Stanford engineer, your 'diploma' today is your portifolio (github projects per say) and your network.
The important bits:

> 4.15 Defendants represented on the Asylum Playing Cards Campaign website that delivery of the rewards to all backers (e.g. the Asylum playing cards themselves, as well as the various add-on rewards) would take place in December 2012.

> 4.16 Defendants have not posted an update to the Asylum Playing Cards Campaign website since July 13, 2013.

...

> V. FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION - MISREPRESENTATIONS AND THE FAILURE TO DELIVER REWARDS

...

> 5.2 In the context of operating the Asylum Playing Cards Kickstarter campaign, Defendants engaged in the following acts or practices constituting unfair or deceptive acts in trade or commerce:

> a. Misrepresenting either directly or indirectly that Backers who paid for Rewards through the Kickstarter Campaign would receive those Rewards in approximately December 2012;

> b. Failing to deliver the promised Rewards to Backers after the Backers paid money to Defendants via the Kickstarter Campaign.

...

> VI. SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION - FAILURE TO REFUND

...

> 6.2 In the context of operating the Asylum Playing Cards Kickstarter campaign, Defendants engaged in the following acts or practices constituting unfair or deceptive acts in trade or commerce:

> a. Failing to provide refunds to Backers who requested one after they did not receive their Reward in a timely fashion from Defendants' Kickstarter Campaign;

> b. Failing to offer refunds to any other Backer, whether a refund was requested or not, after Defendants were unable to deliver the Rewards to any backer within a reasonable timeframe.
I did a quick search for Grace Hopper and there doesn't seem to be anything in the pdf.
Anselm Urban – Web – Design – Developmemt
An “Enormous Opportunity”: A Short, Awful 9/11 Quiz
Out of curiosity, why didn't you use Immutable.js for your Store? You thought about it and chose a different path, or you just didn't consider it at all?
Asylum Playing Cards were a long running scam.
Good to see that the Attorney General's office finally went after them.
kickstarter is neither "investment" not "pre-sales".

It's patronage [0], as explained on a KS blog post the day before the site went live [1]. This means backers are funding a good-faith effort by the team to deliver the described result. They don't have any recourse if the team's good-faith effort fails (meaning, genuine attempts are protected from litigation), but they do have recourse if that effort is not made.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/defining-patronage
I probably spent 5 minutes trying to disable shuffling in iTunes the other day. The icon appeared in several different contexts where clicking on it did nothing.

It's just incredible -- stunningly, unbelievably incredible -- that Apple allows this turkey of a Windows application to ship with their name attached.
> unlike universities, they actually make products people can use

Universities also produce lots of things that people actually use directly in the form of Free or Open Source Software. BSD, GNU, Mach, etc. Many of the architects of the Internet were working at universities too. It's not fair to dismiss them as you did.

And some companies publish plenty of research. Microsoft is very impressive. Google good but less. Apple not so much.
That seems fair. If you promise something and fail to deliver, i.e. treat Kickstarter as a store, then you should be liable.
What language is the most marketable? (NYC)
Hi, question is in the title! Don't know of this is relevant: I will have a bachelor's degree in Information Systems.

Thanks!
The law says (in the interpretation of the judge, based on the facts available) that backers are entitled to refunds. Since the company refused to provide those refunds willingly, and had to be forced to do so by the legal system, it doesn't seem unreasonable for them to bear the associated costs.

Plus, it's a deterrent. If losing a lawsuit meant you only had to pay for the damages you were originally found to owe, then everyone would challenge every claim even if they had a near-0% chance of winning, and the court system would be totally overwhelmed.
I attribute my success as a CS undergrad to this, and to not having Internet connection at home.

A fresh mind and not having the whole world a click away makes wonders. My home kind of promoted long sleeping hours, no late computing and always refused to give me access to Internet.

I studied with books and did programming assignments offline. Virtually everyone else was online already at the time (mid 00s). Even my 80 year old neighbour.

I missed one discrete math deadline that got changed because I did not check my email. The prof. couldn't believe my excuse, no Internet at home.

I ranked top 1 of my country. Now I'm happily surfing the web, and being a lot less productive.
> If I fund a company and it fails, then I don't have any right to sue them for lost "revenue". Right?

That really depends on how you fund the company, and what the company "fails" at.

If you fund a company by providing debt (rather than equity) financing, and they fail to pay what the promised, yes, you can sue them.

> What is the difference in the case of Kickstarter. They are a crowdfunding platform are they not?

The difference between Kickstarter and debt financing is that, with a Kickstarter, the offered exchange for money now is a specified "backer reward" later, instead of a specified amount of money later.
It's unfortunate that our legal system is set up in such a way that you would need $24k in legal fees to settle a case like this.
I, ah...um...wow.

I think the grizzly is a symbol of the decline of the Canadian mineral extraction industry and the hardships that represented for many communities.

Must be time for a sequel - It Came From the Tar Sands!
Well is there a reason to finish college aside from a solid base? I mean doesn't starting early would give me head start?

And aside from that, do you think that if i decide to drop school i should stick to freelancing or find a steady job?
Even so, this would count as a minor life improvement for most people, at best.
As an emacs beginner, I've landed on his site numerous times, often finding it helpful. The fact that he might or might not have trolled some mailing list is of no concern to me.

If you have a better alternative resource, please present it. If you can find technical faults in this resource, you should provide them so the author can correct it and other might learn of them as well.

Otherwise, stop trying to justify ad hominem with meaningless retorts.
>The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.

Source:
http://www.chesterton.org/taking-a-fence-down/
On a naive reading it breaches the Computer Misuse Act in the UK and the CFAA in the USA both of which have terms guarding against unauthorised access. You need more wrangling to read it in to a normal interpretation of the CFAA however.

IANAL.
teraflop gave a great answer why this is so: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10206606
Hopefully this will drive more funding to privately funded research by non-academic groups. I've struggled with such issue in the past.
Nit-pick: 21-bit wide character set.
I am guessing that these are petty crooks trying to cash in on the market for Windows keys. They need something that looks valid, so their victim will pay. The owner of the Windows key will not be harmed apart from the harassment by phone, and the buyer who got stiffed has little chance for redress, except to get the scammer's current alias banned.
Take a look back as Swiss design from the 50s, for example. Lots of use of minimalism, bold colour, simple typography (Helvetica, even!). It's remarkably similar in some senses; one of the reasons it became popular was because of the perception that design had become fussy and overburdened by ornamental detail.

Those people were designing tangible objects, not computer programs.

At some point it's going to occur to someone that software is a different kind of thing that requires different kinds of controls. But it hasn't happened yet. We're still debating which archaic school of design we should be slavishly adhering to.
Deprecating the RC4 cipher
The criminal justice systems in the US are, obviously, not focused on compensation. But the civil justice systems are much more focused on compensation.

Using an example drawn from the former to say that the "(US) legal system" is not focused on restitution in response to a discussion about the latter is not particularly useful.
If you fund a company by buying debt, you can certainly sue them if they don't pay what was promised. If they're already bankrupt I wouldn't expect more than pennies on the dollar, but the option is there.

If you fund a company by buying equity, you have no recourse except possibly a share of whatever remains when the company is liquidated, after debtholders are paid. In exchange, you have an unlimited upside if the company does well.

Kickstarter commitments are much closer to debt than to equity.
Which were invented by government and university labs.
> Thing is, unlike the "get driven to work" analogy, programmers/etc are in the same problem domain as the required services.

But programmers should be focusing on delivering their startup's unique technology or service, not building and maintaining commodity infrastructure.
The BrainFuck interpreter doesn't seem to work properly. For example, I tried

++++++++++[->+++++++<].

Which multiplies 10x7 and should print "F" (ascii 70). Nothing appears to print.

I have a K interpreter[1] that could be adapted fairly easy to a system like this. Other good candidates include JSForth[2] and NGN APL[3].

[1] https://github.com/JohnEarnest/ok

[2] http://home.diphi.com/users/jeffr/forth/jsforth.html

[3] https://github.com/ngn/apl
How do you deal with the fact that in most variable-width fonts, the characters []{}():;'!.*,|`ijl are often too small/narrow to really notice? I've looked into programming with variable-width fonts, but I kept finding that monospace fonts are much easier on the eyes. It's hard to even look at typical C code in a variable-width font.
DISCLAIMER: I don't think it's ok to promise and not deliver, and don't know all the merits of the case, but have so far read sections of the suit detailing facts of the case and causes for action. I'm sure there is more to it.

Section 4 outlines the facts of the case with item 4.2 stating that backers "paid for" rewards. Sections 5 and 6 are all accusations based on the "paid for" premise and the basis for the action.

This is where I have a problem with this - kickstarter is not a store. If I order from Amazon, I'm expecting that they will deliver. It's a sales transaction. If on the other hand I'm willing to help someone take a shot at doing something new, and, if successful, get some sort of reward back, that's not a store sales transaction.

The premise of kickstarter has a lot more in common with angel or seed investing than with buying stuff.

In reading through the facts section, I don't see any argument being made that the campaign was started in bad faith and the project creator is not being prosecuted for fraud. The basis of the case is essentially consumer paid for a good and that good never showed up and no refund was issued.

But again, kickstarter is not a store...
Hmm, nothing says "we care about your security" more than a website that won't display any information without flash and javascript enabled /s.
Runs great now!
> Do you think the plaintiffs should get more money than they deserved?

I'll be charitable and assume you meant more money than they invested. What plaintiffs deserve is debatable, presupposing it is begging the question.
Why Facebook’s $2B Bet on Oculus Rift Might Connect Everyone on Earth
Thank you for the thoughtful write-up. Lots of actionable items here, I'm a huge fan of #4. I'm working on an app for retros, signalshq.com, and already see 2 or 3 points from this that I can build into the app.
>So, the 31 Washington people actually harmed get $20 each; lawyers get $23,000, the state gets $31,000.

>Someone please tell me how this is justice.

i was thinking that way too until i got sued, and successfully fought it using the law and its interpretation established in some other case before by lawyers with similar scale and structure of payout (without the state part). Like journalists, lawyers have their part in maintaining the system allowing to keep actors responsible for their actions.

$23K is just a cost for an employer of less than 1 month of 1 programmer resulting in 3-5K of LOC. And if you ever dealt with court proceedings you would know how much time it consumes, and 100-200 pages of legal docs would probably be on the scale of producing of 3-5K of LOC.
Just as state lotteries are a tax on people who can't do math, crowdfunding sites are a tax on people who don't understand business loans or venture investing.
I'd suggest finding glass instead of plastic if you can deal with the weight in order to avoid having a distorted reflection. It should also be cheaper -- it looks like they're charging $33 per square foot for 3/16" plastic.
Docker-Based MEAN.JS with Mongo Replica Set Automation on Any Cloud
It's not 100% related but I had great fun building a very minimal Tetris clone in 6502 assembly, for the C=64, a couple of years ago (the code is "kinda" commented):

https://github.com/cjauvin/tetris-464
If the OP hasn't done research into potential/current competitors then the OP shouldn't be taking it further than a prototype anyway.

It definitely sucks to prototype something that already exists, but it's probably a good lesson too.
And, in fact, the Kickstarter ToS acknowledges this obligation. Lengthy quote:

When a project is successfully funded, the creator must complete the project and fulfill each reward. Once a creator has done so, they’ve satisfied their obligation to their backers.

Throughout the process, creators owe their backers a high standard of effort, honest communication, and a dedication to bringing the project to life. At the same time, backers must understand that when they back a project, they’re helping to create something new — not ordering something that already exists. There may be changes or delays, and there’s a chance something could happen that prevents the creator from being able to finish the project as promised.

If a creator is unable to complete their project and fulfill rewards, they’ve failed to live up to the basic obligations of this agreement. To right this, they must make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to the best possible conclusion for backers. A creator in this position has only remedied the situation and met their obligations to backers if:

they post an update that explains what work has been done, how funds were used, and what prevents them from finishing the project as planned;
they work diligently and in good faith to bring the project to the best possible conclusion in a timeframe that’s communicated to backers;
they’re able to demonstrate that they’ve used funds appropriately and made every reasonable effort to complete the project as promised;
they’ve been honest, and have made no material misrepresentations in their communication to backers; and
they offer to return any remaining funds to backers who have not received their reward (in proportion to the amounts pledged), or else explain how those funds will be used to complete the project in some alternate form.
The creator is solely responsible for fulfilling the promises made in their project. If they’re unable to satisfy the terms of this agreement, they may be subject to legal action by backers.
Yes, that would be easier. I used google to find
"xxxxxx".

Edit: Removed the spoiler. There is a SQLite statement showing the table outline which works just fine. Hint: pragma
So, just immediately publish my research next time instead? Got it.
no QR code generator?
Because the cost of moving the data to the computer is too high. Locality is king. My private car is parked, unused, near potential customers right now.
> The fact that he might or might not have trolled some mailing list is of no concern to me.

It's not meaningless to me.

> If you can find technical faults in this resource, you should provide them so the author can correct it and other might learn of them as well.

We had extensive discussions with him for years. Literally thousands of posts can be found on comp.lang.lisp.

The only Lisp he learned was some imperative crappy style, while lecturing everyone how dumb they are.
I'm guessing the judge here decided that people repeating "Kickstarter is not a store" doesn't actually matter when somebody obviously uses Kickstarter as a store, in the same way that the police are unlikely to care you're actually driving a motorized couch if they pull you over for speeding.
Here's the cause of action text if anyone is interested (the complaint PDF seems to have disappeared):

V. FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION - MISREPRESENTATIONS AND THE FAILURE
TO DELIVER REWARDS

5.1 Plaintiff realleges Paragraphs 2.1 through 4.17 and incorporates them herein as
if set forth in full.

5.2 In the context of operating the Asylum Playing Cards Kickstarter campaign,
Defendants engaged in the following acts or practices constituting unfair or deceptive acts in
trade or commerce:

a. Misrepresenting either directly or indirectly that Backers who paid for

Rewards through the Kickstarter Campaign would receive those Rewards In approximately
December 2012;

b. Failing to deliver the promised Rewards to Backers after the Backers
paid money to Defendants via the Kickstarter Campaign.

5.3 Defendants' practice of representing that Backers who paid for Rewards in
Defendants' Kickstarter campaign and then failing to subsequently deliver those Rewards after
Backers paid money to Defendants affects the public interest and has the capacity to deceive a
substantial number of consumers and is an unfair or deceptive act or practice in trade or
commerce and unfair method of competition in violation of RCW 19.86.020.

VI. SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION - FAILURE TO REFUND
6.1 Plaintiff realleges Paragraphs 2.1 through 4,17 and incorporates them herein as
if set forth in full.

6.2 In the context of operating the Asylum Playing Cards Kickstarter campaign,
Defendants engaged in the following acts or practices constituting unfair or deceptive acts in
trade or commerce:

a. Failing to provide refunds to Backers who requested one after they did
not receive their Reward in a timely fashion from Defendants' Kickstarter Campaign;

b. Failing to offer refunds to any other Backer, whether a refund was
requested or not, after Defendants were unable to deliver the Rewards to any backer within a
reasonable timeframe.

6.3 Defendants' practice of failing to provide refunds to Backers of its Kickstarter
Campaign after the apparent failure of said Campaign affects the public interest and has the
capacity to deceive a substantial number of consumers and is an unfair or deceptive act or practice
in trade or commerce and unfair method of competition in violation of RCW 19.86.020.
Who were the "consumers" and what did they "buy"?