skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's not obvious, because inclusion on the Essential Medicines list means due to the TRIPS agreement, manufacturers can ignore patent restrictions on it entirely. The ACA makes it possible for insurance to refuse to cover Turing's drug; this gambit isn't going to work. Turing is going to get absolutely destroyed by secondary manufacturers and imports here.
Govt of India's new genius draft for intercepting communication messages
I don't know anything about the technology in this space, but I sat in on a conversation recently where a bunch of people that work at diagnostic start-ups expressed skepticism about the claims that Theranos makes.

There are two possibilities: 1) these start-up people just don't understand what Theranos is doing, and they can only judge Theranos from their own perspective, which isn't up to the task; 2) Theranos is overhyped, and these scientists know something investors don't know.
It's terribly annoying. It also hijacks my ability to move forward/backward in the browser by swiping my trackpad.
I don't get why we always cite Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram as an example of companies that have shown the way. While, those companies are great in their work and business, they didn't really start with an aim of providing value but as just-another-side-project. Why do we ignore the thousands of online businesses that might not be raking in billions but are successful by every measure? A reason why I look forward to products like Bare-metrics, and AeroFS.

The problem I see with seeing these companies as an example is that most people think around the ideas that they feel good about. It is disappointing that so many people are just driving towards building another photo sharing app or a low margin business.
Contributor to OAuth Writes Replacement
How do candy crush and game of war drive twitter's revenue? You mean app install ads? App install ads aren't limited to businesses with bad economics.
Fair enough; but if you're a hacker looking for exploits, what do you search for first?
They also have basically zero user-acquisition costs, on both the user and advertiser side. CAC (customer acquisition cost) is usually the largest variable cost for most businesses. Things like server costs, electricity, etc. are tiny in comparison. Cut CAC and your margins skyrocket.

Indeed, the reason why Google & Facebook are profitable is because they're a very effective way of cutting CAC for other businesses. Their revenue is another businesses's marketing spending, and yet they're still better than the alternatives for driving customer conversions.
didn't say they would. Simply that parent expressed dissatisfaction about only being able to invest in equities and you asking i.e. what in the world is the alternative? Asset allocation is key to control returns and volatility. Consider:

http://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/permanent-portfolio/
and
http://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/total-stock-market/
would you complain about the state simply setting up a plant to manufacture and distribute a generic version of the drug, thereby driving the predatory company out of business? that seems like it would be an ideal solution that doesn't involve forcibly taking anything away from anyone.
That was an inclusive "and". I think that by "slow and methodical", the author was going for the tank approach rather than just slow like a slug, which doesn't do much good.
iPhone 5. Not the greatest, but still, it's redonk.
Swift 2 Apps in the App Store
Consider this hierarchy: Natural/Artificial(whatever these terms mean) -> Genetic Modification(General field) -> Plant Transformation(Specific method) -> Using Agrobacterium tumefaciens(Specific technique) -> The application in practice.

Even if one proves that something applies to a step/layer, one cannot generalize downwards (towards the general); only upwards (towards the specific).

That's why I find the anti-GMO craze weird: Genetic modification in itself isn't harmful, and also happens in nature all the time (as if this makes a difference). It's specific outcomes of certain modifications, or side-effects of specific applied techniques (as noted in the article you linked to).

So, whether a genetic modification is performed by "chance" (as in by nature), or deliberately (as in by humans) is irrelevant in and of itself.

Weakness or risk is inherent not in the performing agent (or lack thereof), but in the the technique or its application – which is clear from the article.
Apple wants to be the luxury brand intersected with technology. Who else does that as well as they do?

Honestly, in terms of car manufacturers, I think there are a lot who do luxury better than Apple. Agreed their technology intersection isn't so great, but I'd rather own a BMW outfitted with Apple software than an Apple car.
Birthday Freebies 2015
> completely superficial perspective

I was being very literal. And I wasn't referring to the author in particular.
First ,even if individual car ownership would be dead , Apple can still sell premium car subscriptions offering some social status.

Second, Apple could lead the half-automated cars market(using Siri, see my comment down) and use it as a base of cars that would build Apple some self-driving brand, could be upgraded to full self driving gradually, or could be used to collect data to train full self driving.
Optimize for Conversions or Beauty?
(re)Posting this because I'm interested in the statistics bit of counting things that are difficult to count.

> At least 122,683 Syrians have died violently since the civil war flared up four years ago, according to the Violations Documentation Center in Syria. Or perhaps the violent death toll is closer to 330,000, as reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. While initially reluctant to issue figures, the United Nations recently took a safe line and stated that 250,000 Syrians had died in the armed conflict. Such statistical irregularity is alarmingly common when it comes to counting the dead.

A while ago I posted this, which is similar, but has a detailed look at a single incident: http://www.irinnews.org/report/101008/nigerian-lives-matter-...
In today's environment, it's better to be one of the "hot" companies with presumably poor unit economics.

Otherwise, your competition will out-market and out-sell you every month simply by spending more money.
Catch-22 was mentioned in a blurb on the cover of the first paperback edition. TFW is more subtle than Catch-22, but then again, everything is. Catch-22 pushes the envelope about as hard as a satire could and still be good.
You know, the same can be said for Tesla, which has a massive headstart in disrupting the car market. The main difference, is that Apple has much MUCH deeper pockets to draw from.
I have a hard time believing that Apple would manufacture an electric car, especially one, according to the article, that had an initial design resembling a minivan.

It's well known that Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson are "car guys"[1], so perhaps it will be a vehicle similar to the Cube[2] - meaning it will have a very low production run - while the underlying technologies, such the batteries, are sold to other manufacturers.

1: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/shape-things-co...
2: http://www.macworld.com/article/1153341/cube_10thanniversary...
> Games like Candy Crush Saga and Game of War spend absurd amounts of money in acquisition.

Yes, because they know on average every person that starts using the app makes them $1.50. So they spend a lot of money acquiring users at $1 each. That's not a failure of unit economics.
Why Breakthroughs and Epiphanies don’t work anymore
You're right in that some instruments don't really add value. They're a bet.

Credit default swaps for mortgages didn't even exist really until some smart speculators noticed that the bond market for mortgages was unstable (and full of deceit) and only needed a bit of default to create a cascading waterfall of default which nearly took down the entire financial system.

Honestly, CDR's were a good idea but it made no sense for the same banks to sell them that were also baking the mortgages. It would be like selling insurance on your own car. If you crash you are out a car and have to pay someone else! It would have made sense for banks to hedge their mortgages by buying CDR's from other investors. But then, that would have affected their bottom lines and they just plain got greedy.

HFT is debatable as many claim it creates liquidity. I'm not sure I buy that but I also wouldn't confuse HFT with financial instruments.

For instance, packaging mortgages into rated bonds of various risk tranches in the 1970's was a brilliant innovation which enable more people to qualify for loans as their risk was distributed and sliced up among many parties. Of course, that system broke down after being abused - but the initial concept still survives and is remarkable.

Other instruments like derivatives allow for affordable hedges, the ability to buy and sell at a future price you want or collect premium on that offer. They aren't just for speculators.
Ask HN: Coworking space in Mtn View Downtown: castro street
I am thinking of starting a small coworking space in mtn view downtown. (5 minute walk to caltrain)

Quick questions I have :

- The space is 500 Sq Ft. I am thinking of limiting the max membership at 20 ppl. What is the ideal rate ?

- Facilities will be : coffee station, water and high speed internet (in downtown, you can get most of the things).

- Which company can provide an excellent internet service (authenticated to paying members). Who can set it up completely?

- What license I need?

This is my first foray in business, (full time employee otherwise). What advice can you give?

Thanks
How to Use WhatsApp Online Messenger from PC?
> I sure feel sorry for someone with no friends, romantic partners, or human engagement on anything outside their work.

That would actually describe most of my life, including the parts where I wasn't being paid to work. However, the reason I didn't have those things is because, outside of work, all I think about is work. I don't want friends who don't want to talk about work, because it is the most important thing in my life. I don't want a romantic partner who doesn't want to work with me because my work is the top priority. I don't want human engagement outside of work because it is time I could put into my work.

The bottom line is this: the best way for me to make the world a better, more enjoyable place for both myself and for others is for me to be successful at my work. Anything that detracts from that becomes stressful and frustrating to deal with, and ultimately feels pointless.
Is C++ Dead?
The first sentence saying "this giant fruit" and the first image lead me to believe that it's big enough to fill a room. That was pretty confusing for a minute.
First they talked about valuations being too high. Then they talked about valuations not really meaning anything. Then they talked about companies staying private too long. Then they talked about burn rates.

The first 3 are essentially the same thing and the 4th is related.
Is she backed by a wealthy family?
It's debatable whether that kind of monomania is really necessary. Steve Jobs still found time to have a family. Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife just had their first kid. pg and Jessica have what, two kids now?

Anyway, studies show a lack of interpersonal relationships will actually shorten your lifespan, so OP's comment is hardly misplaced. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa...
An Open Letter to Anyone Moving to San Francisco for a Tech Job
Wow, this project (Fermat's Library) looks so awesome. It's similar to an idea I've had for a while, but my pedagogic skills are feeble. I started translating some collected works of the famous, old French mathematicians, but ended up with just a few fragments due to other interests and my weak French skills.
The whole point of this discussion is that the car detects it's being tested, then specifically alters the engine's behavior to pass the test. So, no, they won't fail the test without the fix.
Serious question, for the occasional lawyer: how likely is it that, based on this behaviour, that Shkreli be accused of murder, with a US judge finding grounds to that?

If that is the case, Switzerland would have to extradite him — and I doubt any accusation of economic misbehaviour would have a similar impact.
The FCC Might Ban Specific Operating Systems
A new version has been released this year. unison works remarkably well, it's understandable there is not much to add.
Kept waiting for him to drop the phrases "network effect" and "economies of scale" but it never happened. AKA burn to acquire users until you're so big that you can throw your weight around to reduce costs ala Amazon. The holy grail of software startups.

Given this post, I think it makes sense that YC is pivoting to include more hardware startups in its portfolio. Software is so saturated that people are starting to regard the majority of it as free. The people who do pay for services like Twitter & Facebook are the advertisers and business owners who have probably observed questionable ROI on average for the past few years.

I don't expect a bottle of coke to be free, and I don't expect a condom [1] to be free. So the "unit economics" make more sense in hardware (tangible/consumable product) land. Network effects are still important, but shipping a product and collecting revenue from each sale even if you still have negative margins lengthens your ability to stay in business, giving you valuable time during which you might hit critical user mass or achieve economies of scale.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/09/y-combinators-l-condoms-pro...
Spending a lot on user acquisition does not mean your unit economics are bad. And your assertion about Facebook and Twitter is wrong.
Although not poor, it seems her parents aren't really rich: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes
What is the advantage of using this service over hitting Google's RESTful Spreadsheet API directly?

https://developers.google.com/google-apps/spreadsheets
Besides getting the scheme right, the biggest problem is the implementation. There are lots of little things to consider; I can't list them because honestly i've only briefly studied the many gotcha's of previous holes in other implementations. Can you build your own suspension bridge? Sure. Would I drive over it? Nope.

That being said, if you wanted to build your own _for fun_, do it! You will learn a lot in the process. Just don't expect your project to be over any time soon.
There is no generic approved in the US, at least. You can search ANDAs here: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda/index....

There is a little more user-friendly info here: http://www.drugs.com/availability/generic-daraprim.html
Rational people are always going to act in their own best self-interest.

Well then, we should fix the system by eliminating all people who are less then 100% perfectly rational.

You go first.
Mailchimp and Constant Contact are comparable. Delivra is awful, but more lax on the legitimacy of your email addresses. I've never handled a list higher than 25k though. You'll likely pay more for something in the millions.
It's easier.
Discussion from a couple of days ago (different source): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10237793
Volkswagen emissions scandal could snare other companies, whistleblower claims
I use macbooks as my work machines for some time, and Mac OS X ecosystem seems to be open enough to allow productive work and most other uses without too much trouble. So they did pretty well there.

However, the mobile (and adjacent, such as Apple TV, etc.) story is pretty bad, I completely avoid it. I had an iPad which was a gift so I used it for a while, but as soon as I got Android tablet and smartphone I switched and never looked back. As for content services, I'd never go near Apple ones, I've tried to use iTunes, no more, thankyouverymuch.

BTW, last time I looked Apple TV 2 on ebay costs double of Apple TV 3. Because jailbreak.
This is a clear violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act (USC 15), and should be prosecuted as such.
Buyers don't have to just go on price. They can take past behaviour into account. They could justify this in the name of ensuring continuing supply at a reasonable price.

So, even if this company does always price their product at less than the new generics they've probably lost the trust of the buyers.
"I don't see any real difference between "scripts used to control installation" and "scripts involved in installation", "installation scripts", "scripts used to install" etc, unless the specific wording has been used to create a huge loophole. But as you say, there is not much case law so I don't think this is so.
"

So, then we have a problem. Courts assume that drafters who write lists mean something by each member of the list. So they are going to read a definition the differs between controls and installs when they see:
" plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable"
IE they will read a definition that means controlling compilation and installation are different things.

As for the rest, you want to read a very broad definition of script into it. This is going to go very badly for you.

Scripts are not the same as their data files or external requirements :)
The script is the script. The combined script + datafiles+whatever is clearly a combined work.
It's not even, in general, colloquially referred to as a script, it's usually referred to as a package or a distribution or any of a hundred other things.

"What exactly would you say that "scripts used to control ... installation" includes?
"

Literally any files that are scripts that are used in the installation.
Data files they use, unless covered otherwise, would not be covered.

"And then "st-flash write foo.bin `cat BASE-ADDR.txt`" ? I would think BASE-ADDR.txt is still considered part of the "scripts" in the legal sense?
"

Most lawyers take a pretty strict definition of script.
The script part is the script.
Again, anything else would not need to be shipped unless otherwise covered by some other part of the requirement. In most cases, it happens to be.

For example, it's likely BASE-ADDR.txt is part of the executable's source, or generated by the build system, or whatever else.

Now, pragmatically, in order to try to keep everyone happy, some companies will ship all the non-proprietary utilities/data files necessary to run the script (though not necessarily as source), but that is a nicety, not required by GPLv2.

Your argument starts to also extend very broadly, what if my script requires a special fuse plugin for my company's magic distributed file system that i store all this stuff on, and becomes worthless without it. Do you believe i have to give you the plugin?
The source to the plugin?
etc
> The Air Force is not developing the F-35 to fight insurgents, they're deploying it to fight a well equipped, conventional force that will have multiple layers of sophisticated weapons.

Essentially the F35 is the blu-ray of fighter planes.
Netflix Culture: Freedom and Responsibility
This was probably the most notorious misuse of scrypt.

Memory usage of scrypt was tuned to take 128KB, which made Litecoin mining ~10 times faster on GPUs than on CPUs.
Healthcare.gov still sucks, personal experience buying insurance
This make 5 times in the last 6 hours that this (admittedly interesting) article has been posted....

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20playing%20the%20long&sor...
Doesn't taste like pulled pork to me. To me the flavor is bubblegum pineapple. Which is fantastic!
Ranch 99 will have Jackfruit on occasion. Wear latex gloves while cutting. The "latex like substance" is in the white pith of the fruit. There is a lot of the stuff and it's really, really sticky.
New Surveillance Self-Defense Playlist for Academic Researchers
Uber is profitable in many of its mature markets. This is while charging less than half what you would pay a legacy taxi service, while paying drivers more than they would make at the same.

This is the direct byproduct of strong network effects on both the supply/demand side, paired with operational excellence on their part.

Self driving cars would bring the marginal cost down even further, but they have built a stunningly good business with or without a quantum leap in automation.

The same probably isn't true for many other Uber-for-X companies, particularly those with underwater unit economics.
I didn't downvote but I do disagree with you. It's a blunt opinion, but one supported by reference to the article and to the cited litigation, from someone with meaningful perspective as a professional investor - in the same way I'd be OK with a professional crypto researcher saying 'Product X is blatantly insecure, and Software Company Y is dishonest when it claims otherwise,' or any number of other contexts.

I'm with you on thinking one should be diplomatic most of the time absent full possession of the facts, but I don't think one should hedge one's personal experience as long as its appropriately qualified. In this case I saw an unusually blunt opinion, but one formed with additional information that I don't have access to. I don't take the opinion at face value, but it expands the scope of the discussion with additional data rather than being purely a reaction to the NYT article, not least because the author of the opinion is signaling a willingness to risk reputational damage by making such blunt statements.
The innovation game
Also, let me add that I don't think the author is being superficial. I'm sure he has read it far more times than myself or others. But I don't agree with him.

Maybe my strong feeling for what the book is about (or is not about) is affected by me completely ignoring Heinlein himself. I'm not taking into consideration any of his other work or his history. I'm just looking at the book as is.
Why your company will fail the next compliance audit
Sam from GoT is a solid 7.3!
Holmes is a vegan because avoiding animal products allows her to function on less sleep.

Just gonna drop that one in there? I'd love to see evidence of this. (As a happy non-vegan, I kind of hope it's not true.)
There are different types of value you can derive from these stories. There is the practical: crops that defend themselves from predators. Then there is entertainment value.

Arguing that practical value to be found in species past and present is akin to stating that all information can be found by in the digits of pi. Sure enough there are valuable things to find, but only amongst uninteresting things. Unless there is a mechanism to roughly draw out the interesting, such as evolution.

On the other hand, entertainment doesn't have a need to be fixated on anything particular. Details on the Dodo are lost, so you turn to the wasps. If the wasps are gone you turn to the snakes.

As for other types of value, I may miss something. Or our beliefs may fundamentally differ such that we cannot argue in terms of each others.
Stanford did a "View From The Top" with her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLTAFbKbC8w
Those two certainly apply IMO, they both have The Next Zynga written all over them. Any investment where you have to spend the money buying every ad on TV has a red-flag that the valuation isn't nearly what people claim it is.

Actually, Zynga itself is another one (though it's a public company). I don't see any evidence Zynga will ever be a profitable company, and it has no valuable assets, so I think it's fair value is pretty close to $0.
They had enough for her to pay to attend university, which is certainly more than most. (Obviously, I'm referring to university of the price tag similar to Stanford.)
Apple's App Store Infected with XcodeGhost Malware in China