skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm not sure why people come out with these moral axioms whenever piracy comes up.

It's not a moral axiom; it's an expression of preference. More seriously, any argument for or against it relies on so much shared understanding that it's not clear that there's much use arguing about it at a length of two or three sentences. One sentence is enough to express the conclusion, but a rigorous argument that covered all the major approaches would require a fairly hefty book.

Because printing, pressing & such are (were) possible to regulate with laws. Humming is not.

That's one approach, but how will you defend your right to hum whatever you want when all of your actions are recorded all the time? Our current technological progress appears to be headed that way, making automatic enforcement of any arbitrary rules possible. In that situation, the question of what the rules should be is more than a question of what sort of rules can be enforced.
I wonder if anyone here could comment on using subversion with mod_dav_svn. One downside is that you lose the ability to comment on changes, but the upside is that your users just see it as a regular web folder.

Thoughts?
I want what you say to be true, but what happens when governments simply say that encryption is illegal (e.g. "It's the only way to fight the terrorists!", "To support encryption is to support child porn!")? If any ISP would drop your connection immediately if it saw anything it even thought was encryption what would you do?

Personally I think the only solution will be peer-to-peer devices [1], but we couldn't do that with software only as the phone companies have already shown they couldn't be trusted for something like this [2].

[1] If you're familiar with the "one laptop per child" project then you can see what I mean. Every device will peer up with any devices it can see, so your network is simply all your peers plus all their peers (recursive). This can be attacked too, but it lacks the single point of failure that our current ISP oriented networks have.

[2] http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/wsj-nokia-and-sieme...
What's A Startup? First Principles.
That looks better like that.

I can't get it to work though, because of the swing stuff.

I tried running it under jython but that gives me a syntax error, and in regular python the I get an import error. ('No module named javax').

I can't verify if it is correct without being able to run it, but you can try that F pentomino and then use 'hashlife' or 'golly' to verify that it works properly.

The F pentomino is complex enough in its output that I think that if it does that it will work on arbitrary patterns.

As for deletions, since this is only a simulation it is an optimization, in an actual fabric you would not be deleting cells.

The trick to deletions I think is that you can only delete a cell if the neighbours around it are not going to be disconnected by the deletion.

Now you have a problem though, which needs supervision or abtration. This is because if two cells delete themselves at the same time that could cause two populations to become disconnected.

That's exactly the kind of issue I tried to resolve by scheduling the instructions so carefully.

So, I'm curious if it really works for more complex structures.

All you'd need to do is change the default set and let it run for 1116 generations , then it should be stable.

Oh, and I think %3 should be %4, %3 is somewhere between 1 and 2 bits and you really need two bits.
What happens to tech if Microsoft dies
There was this whole thing with that here in NY with the MTA. They were claiming that their time tables are copyrighted, but after it went in/out of courts it was determined that only the complied versions are and then they opened up their data files for developers. The time a train arrives and departs does not fall under copyright. I'm not sure how things are in the UK but I'd expect them to be fairly similar.
Well it's lossless, so you can transcode it without worry. I'm not sure if you can encode it without Quicktime, but decoder support is widely implemented.

Apple originally developed ALAC for their AirTunes WiFi remote-speaker system. It supports low-latency streaming, and seeking works a lot better than with FLAC in every player I've used. FLAC's pointlessly-special container format suffers from the same screwy metadata problems as the other ogg formats: Apple wanted it in a standard mov/mp4 container.
Sorry to derail, but it's going to bug me all day if I don't ask.

What do you use a lead-shot-filled hammer for?
Apple: Fully ARMed?
Yeah, only 30 mins. And just pray that you wouldn't need backup, that you did not set up. Or that nobody breaks in through hole that you did not patch in php, web server and whatever else you had to install.

Self-hosted solutions requires maintenance even if you don't anticipate it. It's not "just PHP". It feels like a zero cost (you have got the spare capacity server after all), but only until you hit a problem.
I had a go using Website Payments Pro for a side project, didn't have much luck. It's not the easiest process, and if you get something wrong during sign-up, you'll be very lucky if you manage to get it fixed.

They limited my account, I never got a human reply to my questions, and I ended up canceling it - which fortunately restored my account. Next time I think I'm going with a bank.
It's a recoil free hammer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_blow_hammer
Some lawyer friends have advised me of the same here in Ireland*

I'd be happy to have someone with some authority in Dublin Bus even notice it though!

* we're not in the UK ;)
This isn't directly applicable to the OP, but since a lot of readers are in the US, I thought I'd go into a bit more detail.

In the United States, compilations of data are protected by the Copyright statute. Specifically, any "collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship".

The underlying data is not protectable, but the structure and method of assembly, once the data are incorporated is. In Feist vs. Rural Telephone (499 U.S. 340 (1991)), the Supreme Court looked at what level of originality is required for a compilation to be protectable. The Court held that a white pages phone directory that is just a listing of numbers in a geographical area is not sufficiently original to be protected. Basically, that kind of listing is just a recitation of existing facts in a logical order.

An important quote from that case sets out the factors for courts to consider in deciding what degree of originality is sufficient:

"The compilation author typically chooses which facts to include, in what order to place them, and how to arrange the collected data so that they may be used effectively by readers. These choices as to selection and arrangement, so long as they are made independently by the compiler and entail a minimal degree of creativity, are sufficiently original that Congress may protect such compilations through the copyright laws. "

As is often the case in the law, it doesn't give you a black and white answer, but instead gives a series of guidelines to follow.
Corporate campaign contributions: legal strategy
Dirac stands a good chance of being added in the near future.

It seems it would be a weekend task to add a mozilla extension that replaces <video> with embedded Microsoft Windows Media Player <object> tags, and the necessary scripting hokum.
Google's Chrome OS: Tomorrow's Desktop Today?
Cannot up vote this enough. Why do we have "general interest" stories coming on HN and on the first page ?
Averages don't reflect skew. Standard deviation does. Where is it in the numbers you cited? Nowhere. Neither we have any data from the article.

So I call BS on you both. :-)
Similar or not, a lot of very highly-paid lawyers would love to argue over this for weeks.

My general argument is this whole situation is not as clear-cut and black-and-white as the developer in question asserts, however ‘moral’ or justified his objection to second developer’s seemingly less defensible actions in copying his work.

There seems little ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ here, just very subtle shades of grey and legal interpretation of who owns which rights to various elements of data, code, design and structure.
A Flurry of iTablet rumors; tracking service detects unknown device
Under this definition, what happens when Theora gets enough acceptance that one of the major patent holders investigates and determines that it incorporates something they've patented - do we suddenly start calling it proprietary or do we describe it the same way we would describe H.264: "open [or closed] source implementation of a standard algorithm which has patent restrictions in some countries"
I agree on the spare time facet, but I feel my life is improved beyond professionally by such research. I pick up economic, psychological, and scientific knowledge that I don't think many get exposed to for an extended period of time. As an aside, the educational portion really is the way things should be in society - you prove yourself for a job rather than buying a degree.

Edit: CS is lucrative at the high levels and the average of 60k can be plenty to transition to being an entrepreneur.
China claims to have '1st pop singer in Sanskrit'
Implementing an IT scorecard
1. Since hackers are upvoting this article and leaving meaningful comments, yes, this article really is 'of interest to hackers'.

2. I believe that anything that's wrong with the educational system should be 'of interest to hackers'.

3. Oh, and probably this sort of meta-commentary isn't 'of interest to hackers' at all.
Last Remaining Tickets For MoMo Tonight (Philadelphia)
Who can forecast more than 1 year out with any degree of certainty?
Testing Expert Users
My assumption is that it wouldn't complete the report generation. Not a big deal. Just seems like a standard warning to me.
Facebook might be a way to circumvent Dunbar's number. Knowledge is stored on computers, rather than in your brain, and you can decide to retrieve it if needed.
Ask HN: Review  my site -- socialreader.net
I imagine it's not that high. If I were in PG's shoes, I would be more reluctant to fund single founder groups too for the simple reason that startup ideas go through countless iterations and it's very hard to mold an idea if you have no one to bounce ideas off of. Sure, you could get the opinions of family and friends, but they'll tell you anything because they don't have a stake in the idea.
Perceptions are our reality, emotions define our culture
I thought a lot on this application.

Can you please guide me on

1)Is this idea worth trying and to focus on?
Iam relying on

a) friendfeed API to fetch diverse content like delicious, facebook,Google Reader
b) twitter API for twitter

2) Its sole aim is to provide interesting content for a topic (users can rely on this if he needs to keep track on a topic ),

3)What parts of the application requires an improvement?

Thanks
Obviously this is totally wrong, for reasons others have pointed out on HN. But it contains an interesting germ of truth: Consumer psychology around pricing gets complicated.

A couple years ago, my local bagel store raised its prices. When they did, they put a notice next to the counter saying, “To our valued customers: Recent increases in the price of wheat have forced us to raise prices. We hate to do this, but it’s the only way we can continue to pay our rent. This will be our first price increase in almost eight years. We hope you understand our situation.”

According to Econ 101, this sign was a waste of time. Customers will look at the new prices and decide whether or not to buy bagels at those prices. In fact, according to Econ 101, the bagel store might just as well have put up a notice saying, “Dear customers: We are raising our prices because we’d like to increase our profits, and we suspect that many of you are not very price-sensitive.”

Of course, no one conducted an experiment to see what effect the sign had on business, but I’m prepared to bet it helped minimize the drop in business from the price hike.

Econ 101 has no concept of “fair share,” but consumers do, and they’re willing to take losses to prevent someone else getting more than what they perceive to be his fair share. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game) This isn’t right or wrong—it just is.

If you’re selling physical goods, you should sell them at whatever price enables you to maximize your profits, just as Econ 101 suggests. But you should also suggest, in the way you talk about your product, that the cost is determined largely by the cost of your inputs.

If you’re selling intellectual property, well, it’s a bit more complicated because everyone knows the inputs don’t bear on the marginal cost of each item. But it might be helpful to let everyone know that you’re not getting rich. Let your customers know you’re trying to support a family as an independent software developer, or that you still work a day job to allow you to make music. Don’t let people think you’re ripping them off.

Of course, when your product is easily available for free on the black market, as is the case with piracy, none of this makes much difference. Consumers prefer to pay the lowest possible price. Econ 101.
Comp vest
Shop Eagle Sports for watersports equipment performance. See best quality barefoot wetsuits; order your own comp vest wetsuit here
Look at the source of that html. Looks like someone ran a for loop for all the img. It'd be cool to use some ajax and make this update automatically when the number changes.
Yep, then parents can hide their children from evil and subversive things, like "oral sex."
Business Checklist for Selling a SaaS Application
Got an Ugly WooRank? So does Google, Ebay, and Facebook.
The only danger in relying on friendfeed is that it was bought.

Otherwise I'm curious of what algorithms or measures you used to score shares?

I am working with another developer on a semantic/social processin application. We use external trending sites for search a well as Twitter search API with JavaScript. I think value comes from helping to make new connections, or raising interesting content from friends that may have been missed.

Check VictusMedia.com if you're curious (next patch is adding some groovy features once bug smashing phase is cleared).
Yes, but only articles that have a valid point. I enjoy coming to HN because the linked articles have intellectual value, even if I happen to disagree with them. This one doesn't.
... except they get a lot of money from Google, not so much from Adobe, and Mozilla is nothing like a traditional corporation- they would have very public issues dictating policy like that.
Ask the Attorney: What issues do I need to consider when forming a start-up?
The best part is the justification arguments from each side.
I've had no problems with paypal, selling mostly in the UK; I charge £12.50 & get £11.87 from them. Overseas customers see whatever the paypal converted cost is in their currency.
But if you're taking recurring payments (say monthly) then definitely look into setting up direct debits - zero or tiny transaction costs. The downside of this is that you'll have to get signed paper mandates until your bank sponsors you to automate this.
Pentagon Wants 3-D Surveillance
Advice on CMS for a primary school
Hi, we are looking for a CMS platform for our school web site.
It needs to be easy and flexible enough for teachers to create their pages/post news and content.

Any one got suggestions? We have looked in to Durpal etc but they all look quite complicated
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the data are skewed. A programmer in the bottom 25 percentile probably has a negative effect on your business. There's no way programmer pay should be a normal distribution because bad programmers have such horrible effects.

But that's besides the point. I provided a cited document with reasonable numbers for discussion. The original article provides no data and does nothing to back up the claims made. The stronger obligation here is on the author. I don't have to disprove what he said, he has to prove himself right. What you should be calling BS on is the article. I still can't believe this thing isn't dead yet.
the article by patio11 (startup seo) was really good and was well written. Not everything can be dismissed outright :)
12 features for the Apple 'iSlate'
Do nothing? This isn't worth it.

Spend your time/money making an application that isn't so easily duplicated. You said it yourself that you weren't planning to make a mint on this. No point in dealing with the hassle of lawyers, paying the lawyers etc.

If you only had one competitor, it would be possible, but being that you have five competitors, and some of them are free, I'd have to say that the market is saturated and its time to get out anyway.
Eben Moglen [1] predicts major patent reform is coming. I thought this video a great perspective on historical patent law in the US and the absurdity of software patents. It's lengthy but well worth the viewing.

[1] http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1009
There's no guarantee that people voting stuff up are anything more than registered users of this site. That doesn't necessarily even meet whatever nebulous definition of 'hacker' one might use.

Lots of things are 'of interest to hackers'. Most of us would be more than capable of flooding the 'new' page with various links about politics, economics, or other things that interest us. But if you want that, perhaps another site (reddit, for instance) would be better.

If you are going to use the "it's ok if people vote for it" metric, then my own comment is ok too. Also, I can't flag articles, as PG removed that ability from me in a fit of divine wrath for having mentioned that I flag pretty much everything I consider off topic (I would have preferred he simply ask me to politely desist, as I would have happily complied, but such are the vagaries of deities).
The search for aliens should start on Earth not outer space, says scientist
Having dropped small things on occasion, I am not entirely sure anymore it is the right thing to do. Chances are, it will keep gnawing at you - maybe it is better to just fight for one's rights? It could also be good practice in case something bigger comes up eventually. Then you would already have established contacts with lawyers and what not.

On the other hand, lawyers are costly and in the end might not be able to help. They are prone to suggesting the most expensive course of action, because they get a share of the worth of the case. At least in Germany.
I think the metric used by pg for judging flagging availability for users is the percentage of stories you flag that are actually killed. It's bad to have a really low percentage of that. HN does seem to be collecting more and more secret rules...

If you email pg and ask nicely, he'd probably let you flag again, he's a benevolent deity compared to most of the ones that are regularly worshiped.
It may be more fun to share this information with his lecturer. I am sure the School would take a dim view of this.

Computing
Dr Stephen Blott

Work Area: Head of School
Pretty Wild Narcissistic Numbers
Ask HN: Why does learning lisp make you a better C-programmer?
from Eric Raymonds essay, How to become a hacker:

LISP is worth learning for a different reason — the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot.

However, I want concrete examples (methodologies)
How To Build Up A Strong Steady Online Business (with 3 stories)
That is a really interesting analogy, I would have never thought of it in that regard.
Flagged. Too little content.
Didn't know that it costs money. Guess I would pass, then.
Grelling–Nelson paradox
It's probably best to spend my time doing more productive things than flagging junk here in any case, so I haven't bothered. This article pushed me into irk-overload though.
I agree with you that demand isn't dependent on costs always - and I don't think the author is either.

He's saying that demand is still high, as is supply. But because the marginal cost of each unit is so low (on the postulation of infinite copies), that piracy is how the price is "fixed" economically speaking.

This isn't a pro-piracy position, but if you see it as each copy of the game had to be physically manufactured piracy would drop to zero - otherwise it'd be called theft.
Tether for BlackBerry Changes the Name of The Game
The smartphone market is not what it used to be. Manufacturers and mobile software companies are facing a lot more competition then they used to.
The F-pentomino works, but it is VERY slow because gliders fly away and this increases the number of cells a lot O(generation) space and O(generation^2) time.

> Oh, and I think %3 should be %4, %3 is somewhere between 1 and 2 bits and you really need two bits.

Hmm. Two cells that are next to each other can never be more than 1 generation apart, right? For example if we have cells AB then if A is in generation 10 then B can be in generation 9, 10 or 11. This happens when we call update on A:

- if B is in generation 9 we do nothing

- if B is in generation 10 we use its current value

- if B is in generation 11 we use its previous value

So really you only need to remember 2 generations (current and previous). So that would be gen%2 instead of gen%3 or gen%4...what am I missing?
Interesting article. Mahalo won't be the last site to exploit these methods. There are a number of issues here:
1. My boss said something interesting the other day: As Google has already conquered search and is diversifying its business into different areas, it is not paying as much diligence into its search algorithm to weed out those sites that exploit it. Google makes money from AdSense, so why would it be in a big hurry to take down sites that exploit dodgy SEO practices.
2. As for scraping content without any backlinks, the media industry seems to have very little protection when it comes to copyright. Existing copyright law is woefully unable to get to grips with digital copying and display. If the content had been music, or films, the RIAA would have clamped down so fast, Jason's head would be spinning. But we are talking about digital publishing industry, where content has very little protection at all.
3. Even if we decide that taking the first paragraph is fair use, not back linking or citing your source is still a copyright issue (not to mention bad Internet etiquette).
Did you publish something similar to this about a year ago or so? I had a really strong deja vu when reading this...
Ok, here is one:

Lisp makes you think in terms of higher level memory structures than just other than bytes and pointers to structs.

The 'lists' and all the operations that you can perform on them will initially feel terribly inefficient (filter??!), but this will literally free you from having to think about how stuff is laid out in memory.

The upshot of that is that you will see more clearly what the real solution is to your problem.

As for functional programming, that in and of itself is a great way to get an alternative look at your programming.

For a fantastic example of that look at the 'hashlife' code, it's written in C but it could only have been done by someone with a profound insight in to the benefits of functional programming.

The reverse is also true, learning C as a lisp programmer will make you a better lisp programmer.

In fact I doubt that there is any language that does not have to contribute some unique bit to the world of programming, and that will enrich you if you learn it to some level of proficiency.
Profiling and debugging a UNIX daemon
Fixing bad interpreter error in scripts
James Patterson Inc: A look at the author who outsells King & Grisham