skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"Furthermore, I'd like to +1 the idea of sanctioning
individuals who feel the need to contribute
disruptive/harmful comments to this thread."

I'm all in favor for squelching users that are intentionally disruptive/harmful, but the users at whom that comment was directed did not do anything worth being sanctioned. Honestly, the NodeJS community has completely jumped the shark.

This reminds me of this SMBC cartoon about the difference between "offended" and "offensive".

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2164

Some of the examples don't even make sense:
- mount is not an exclusively sexual term. For example, "a jockey mounts a horse"
- the origin of the finger protocol comes from the idea of "snitching" on someone and has absolutely nothing to do with sex.
- the touch command updates mtime (or creates a file if it doesn't exist) and its origin is from "touching something last"

The most ironic thing in all this is that the causes are being championed by people who are very clearly neurotypical and completely ignorant to the cognitive diversity that has pretty much always existed in the field of computing that includes individuals who either don't feel offense or are oblivious to what might offend. Honestly, the NodeJS is becoming a less safe space for people on the aspie/autistic end of spectrum, lest they be attacked by a mob of people who wants to sanction them for word choices that they are insensitive to (i.e. completely unaware).

https://medium.com/@maradydd/when-nerds-collide-31895b01e68c
Pffft! Yeah right!

Like you've ever met a developer who would risk the extreme likelihood of platform incompatibilities across a disparate menagerie of hardware platforms and mobile devices, instead of simply base64ing some images and JSONing them into a restful webservice, where they gain explicit control of the computation environment, and get to conveniently crawl the entire dataset in a high availabilty data center.

As if you've ever met anyone who would trade that, in favor of re-developing the same features 20 times for 20 different compiles, and risk the inability to deploy those builds to unreliable nodes, across throttled mobile contract pay-as-you-go bandwidth, to achieve a goal that doesn't align with the company's bottom line. As if you've ever seen any company anywhere do that... for privacy.
It's amazingly difficult to find the right metric when you are still at the MVP level.

However, once the system has proven itself, it's only a matter of optimization.

I think it's one (amongst many) reason why so many startups fail at the MVP stage. Looking for metrics at that stage is just speculation; optimizing for them is a complete waste of time. The focus of the MVP is to build a proven system without getting lost (minimal waste of time/effort/resources).
Why not have a third group of people that never had facebook and compare their outlook too? Comparing against only people that use facebook regularly doesn't provide an adequate control group.
Christine Lagarde gives me the creeps. Back when MH17 was still fresh I was trying to discern for myself what transpired, anyway didn't find out much just ended up reading some pretty out there shit. Here's a note I made on it at the time "So, I was reading a bit about the MH17 incident and stumbled upon this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/From-CIA-assassination-cock-ne…
Basically an article outlining some of the wild theories being circulated on the internet in regard to the incident...but then I got to the part about Christine Lagarde Managing Director, IMF and I figured I might as well check out this speech and see what exactly these "cryptic uses of the number 7" were that these people seemed to believe were present in her speech.
So that brought me to this video, an unedited, unabridged, video of her speech, given on January 15, 2014(this date becomes important): https://youtu.be/LJ3oZN_dzZI
-just so there is no question as to when this speech was delivered here is a link to the IMF site with a transcript of the speech "As prepared for delivery": http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2014/011514.htm

WTF is she saying?

All the conspiracy theory stuff aside, there are several references to the G7 in this video. The G7 was officially still the G8 at the time of this speech.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G8- "(Russia)-was excluded from the forum by the other members on March 24, 2014"
and the Crimea incident didn't begin until February 23, 2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimea_crisis#Timeline"
> Personally, I find that Facebook has become my address book

Before disappearing into outer space (leaving Facebook) I found that Facebook had become my address book.

I think that is Facebook's greatest use: a self-updating address book. Instead of all my friends having to update their address books when I make a change, I should update my contact info and the changes should automatically be available to them. It's a great idea. Now, we just have to make it happen outside of a closed system.
Given that it's from the same user that started the discussion, I'm almost certain that it's not a joke. I look at this and I think "Infantilize all the things!"
It's also really quite simple to live without meat, friends, using a cellphone, a soft mattress and so on. That doesn't mean you're not missing out, though.
> but you'd still need to get places

Or places could come to you. Nearly all labour is likely to become replaced by robotics eventually. The human body could be seen as being there only to transport the mind; but when the mind gets its information and stimulation virtually, and when the mind's physical will is fulfilled by robots, there is no longer a need for the body to relocate.
That was an impossibly fast downvote lol
Comparing 7 Python Data Visualization Tools
The original reference (statement by the Tor Project) has been extensively discussed:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10550043
Prince was referring to income from the net, not fame.
How to Copy DVD with the Best Free DVD Copy Software
Well said, unfortunately it doesn't provide the satisfaction of saying you don't use it.
> Given your stated understanding, you still accuse them of cheating in spirit.

Indeed I do. I wouldn't mean that as a criticism of the author, though, lest I'd have not done the same.
M-x customize!

Here's a great website: https://www.masteringemacs.org

You're right though, a basic "bootstrap your .emacs" tutorial would be very helpful.
>What kind of job can you get that actually is ethical? I don't know of any. To me, it seems like you just have to pick which vertical scam you want to give your labor to, and choosing between them based on which affords you a better/more comfortable life isn't unreasonable.

>If there actually was a credible alternative, that would be one thing. But what is it? Start-ups? Yeah right. Non-profits. Please. Government? Medicine? Law? Commerce? Entertainment? Education? Research? Who considers any of these ethical?

Maybe they are not ethical, but what, exactly, is unethical about them? Unless you work for a company that exists to game the system and/or exploit people/resources you are adding value to the world and making it a more efficient and better place for other humans.
I was more talking about kernels and userland binaries - if I couldn't disable UEFI SecureBoot or load my own keys I wouldn't use it.

But yes, if you want to completely trust your hardware you're probably going to be using an old Thinkpad X200 with coreboot - shame about that Intel Microcode though, eh?
It does work great! We've gotten this far without them. But it makes me nervous.

I'd like to have a few smoke tests to guard against things like:

* accidental deletion of pages

* accidental removal of header/footer/important elements

* proper 508 compliance

* valid HTML/JS/CSS (and probably lint all those things too)

Also the facility locator is a fair-sized hunk of JS I wrote that needs tests.

edit: also, in the future there will surely be more dynamic parts to the site, so getting a framework in place for tests will both save work and raise the expectation of quality
Network of ‘Scouts’ Spreads Money Through Silicon Valley
Does anyone know if you're still allowed to contribute to ReactOS/Mono/WINE after reading this?
I recommend looking into a licensed therapist whose practice is evidence based. I found one who uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and it has honestly changed my life.
Why drone delivery for ecommerce doesn't work
I mean, how much better are we really, sitting on HN?
> If there actually was a credible alternative, that would be one thing. But what is it? Start-ups? Yeah right. Non-profits. Please. Government? Medicine? Law? Commerce? Entertainment? Education? Research? Who considers any of these ethical?

You're not making an argument. You're just dismissing perfectly valid (and widely-held) viewpoints as though they're foregone conclusions.

I have friends in education and research that harm no one, make very little money, and make the world a better place. It's easy to argue that their jobs are ethical. They create more value than they accept. Many scientists are in this category.
Re-read the second paragraph.
Why do you need to own devices? I'm perfectly happy with Apple being my phone's sysadmin, the way my company's IT department is the sysadmin of my workstation (or, more relevantly, the way Google is the sysadmin for ChromeOS devices.)

Modern devices are basically converging toward being enhanced VT100 terminals connected to some multitenant mainframe somewhere (a.k.a. a "cloud.") Whether that's Apple's cloud, Google's cloud, Microsoft's cloud, Canonical's cloud, etc. You could get the same effect (if a little slower) by just having the device be a dumb framebuffer connected to a VM running in said cloud.
I have no idea. But the developers (of f.lux) seem to claim elsewhere that the existing solutions aren't 'solutions' at all; don't do it properly.

I can't speak for the truth of that though. I've used the aptly named "Blue Light Filter" which seems to work fine. CyanogenMod OS bundles something which seems okay too.
Would this new career involve some kind of real scientific credit?
Now? Ideally we give the right to hand out rights, via voting. Originally? Whoever could take control by force, dolled out rights as they saw fit.
You are deluded. Modern internet developers don't do this sort of thing. Not what you've described. Not as you've described it.

It's never about deploying features that can't be explicitly controlled by the mothership. Furthermore, the graphics processing you're envisioning will consume battery power and might be kiboshed by the end-user's OS arbitrarily. That alone (lack of OS control) gives developers a plausible way to rationalize the orwellian.

You want things to work in a way that will never ever happen.
Dropbox (YC S07) Is Hiring Presales Solution Architects in Sydney Australia
Hi HN'ers,

We're hiring Presales Solution Architects to join the growing Dropbox team here in Sydney Australia.

Here is a chance to be part of a fun, fast moving household brand in a very exciting space. With 400+ million users and 150,000+ business customers and growing you get to spend time with a lot of interesting people and business situations, helping our customers improve productivity, collaboration and innovation through the Dropbox solution!

As a Solutions Architect (or Sales Engineer if you're familiar with that term) for our Strategic and Core sales teams, you’ll play a huge role in helping companies understand the value of Dropbox Business and Dropbox Enterprise. It’ll be your mission to demystify technology, optimize the sales process, and bash down any technical barriers that keep our customers from evaluating and adopting Dropbox.

Requirements:
- Role is based in sunny Sydney Australia
- Strong presales or consulting experience
- Outstnading communication and presentation skills
- Good development skills (Python, Java, C#, Powershell etc.)
- SaaS product experience
- Australian work authorization is a plus

For a full description of the role:
https://www.dropbox.com/jobs/listing/100296

Wanna know about Dropbox Australia and our APAC HQ in Sydney:
https://www.dropbox.com/jobs/sydney

Want to get a glipse of the vibe and culture at Dropbox:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZuxQcp84o0

YOU CAN APPLY HERE (make a strong pitch!):
--
https://www.dropbox.com/jobs/apply/100296

Feel free to ask questions below or find me via social media :-)

Cheers,
Daniel
I think years later people are going to look back and say we had it pretty good with Windows/Linux/*BSD and x86.

I can take a bunch of OSes and run them on standard x86 hardware and peripherals more or less, build my own OS if I want to and run my own apps with the compilers, linkers and frameworks of my choice. Skip forward a few years and there's a good chance that will all be gone.

x86 is also a less than ideal proposition with Intel the only game in town - sure they are Open Source friendly for now but still it would've been a better world where the likes of AMD and VIA were flourishing in x86 land.
For me, it was the extreme stupidity -- anti-vaccination activism, anti-science/pro-pseudo-science, serial sharing of hoaxes, intolerance and blithe support for indefensible political positions in general.
Inviting the wrath of Apple's legal team is definitely not a winning strategy ...
> When hundreds of millions of people keep buying things you believe are awful, perhaps it's time to ask how broadly shared your views are.

It's irrelevant how many people believe in something if they're wrong. A billion people believe the Earth is 60,000 years old and was created in a week by an all-powerful bearded deity. That doesn't make it true and doesn't mean we should throw our hands up and reinforce those beliefs instead of improving education and displacing them.
I have a social question here. I assume that I will not get an answer to this but I think it is still worth asking.

If you were developing this feature, that is in my opinion a very interesting problem from technical point of view, then what were your thoughts about the possible social and moral implications of such feature?

For example, to give you an idea, did you think that this may outrage people? Or they may at least find it intrusive?

If you had any such thoughts, then how did you mitigate them?

Also is there some kind of program in Facebook that addresses these kind of problems?

I could not throw a rock at you. I am just interested about your personal experience.
My guess is that it might have a negative effect on rendering energy consumption.

In OS X you can use CoreImage to filter a view, but that has always been excluded from iOS.

The platform perception management kicks in, they can't let all the cool kids install a filter on top of all the rendering then complain that iPad and iPhone battery life sucks.

In my own Sudoku program I automatically manage the screen white point by sensing the backlight level (I'm not allowed to use the ambient light sensor, so I watch something that watches it.) but I have to do it by changing all of my colors everywhere I draw. It's not a big deal and works beautifully, until you finish a puzzle and the pure iOS alert comes up in full white and burns a hole straight through your drowsy dark adapted retinas. Then you have to go to sleep because you have a huge afterimage floating around in the center of your vision.
The Silk Road Bitcoins: Final Auction
>but that just means something else will instead

Well if this article is to be believed that would not have happened here.

I think the process of environmental review is essential, and I think that too often NIMBYs throw wrenches in projects and make them worse, but that these forces must be balanced. This is a time when they are becoming more balanced.
Twilight and Lux both contain naive implementations using a semitransparent overlay. The result of this that blacks and dark colors end up being brightened instead of left alone, as a proper color-temperature change would do. This looks bad on all screens, but especially so on AMOLED displays that support a true black.

Cf.lumen[1] is, I believe, the only Android app that can actually change the color temperature of the screen like f.lux can, but it requires root as well as installation of a special "driver" in order to do so. My guess would be that the "complicated install process" referenced by the f.lux devs is probably similar.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.l...
Calacanis’ Two Laws of Angel Investing
Twilight doesn't properly dim the whole screen, it leave the menu bar undimmed and is good but not great.
I'm not sure I understand. Can you give an example of an organization that doesn't "game the system and/or exploit people/resources" under whatever operational definition you're using? That might help me better understand what you mean.

I don't disagree that organizations, over time, have improved life and added value. Financial organizations have done this as much as most other genres of organization in the past few hundred years. But I'm not sure that the moral accounting works out in the black for any marginal employee in any modern mode of employment.
What is political correctness but censorship?
I rather like the changes made by spacemacs https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
Probably usually novice founders who think they too can pull off the launch -> go viral -> fundraise -> scale -> monetise/exit trick that rarely works but has worked for some of the biggest successes (eg YouTube).

I fell for it.

These days, most of the companies doing well enough to offer you a job are too smart for that.

But I still hear of "well credentialed" founders who succeeded that way in the 90s or 2000s, trying to do it again and failing miserably - burning 8-figure sums of money in the process because to VC's they're "proven" - eg Color.
Researchers Say There May Be Undiscovered Tomb at Great Pyramid of Giza
Some of those people think nothing of hiring physical security costing five or even six figures every year. They didn't also consider hiring someone to spend an hour a month administering their personal devices? I notice that I am confused...
Except that it's opt-in.
yeah same, came across it sometime earlier this year I think - quite useful.
That's not how science works, friend.
>not for forcing people to live in smaller homes.

Could you point to the part of the article that gave you this impression? You picked up on something I can't find in the either the content or the tone. That is, I can't find any part of the article that suggests people should be "forced to live in smaller homes" or even shaming people for choosing larger homes.
That's what I was thinking; wouldn't Firefox be basically in userspace, and therefore not be much faster using an Intel compiler?
Light is light except when you have multiple sources of light, some white and some blue, due to backlight leakage that happens to varying degrees in every LCD screen.

Do you know how much white light would negate the blue light in your brain, negating the effects? I don't.
Free Lecture Series on How to Start a Startup
>why shouldn't they have them?

It's not only about the energy the house uses once built, but also about the energy and materials used to build it, the energy and materials used to fill it with stuff, the encouragement a larger space has on consumption, the using up of valuable space selfishly so other people can't use it, etc. etc. etc.

>having energy prices take into account whatever externality Vox is specifically concerned about

You can't fix everything with money. At some point, people are going to have to use vastly less resources, and simply making it more expensive is not the solution.
I don't agree that "microsoft already does this" - so don't take what I'm about to say to mean that. I mean only to show a piece of technology that more directly relates to the comments others have made.

That being said, Microsoft has developed a piece of technology called PhotoDNA[0], which is designed with the specific purpose of identifying child pornography. This is actively used on OneDrive and Bing, among other services - including Facebook. It's safe to say that OneDrive does not just delete the content if child pornography is detected - it reports to the authorities. Now, it's hard to argue that they don't have a right to do that, as long as the person is voluntarily using their services. That's where I draw a distinction here: Facebook could elect to turn on PhotoDNA on photos uploaded to their new service, and not properly educate their customers that stuff is being uploaded automatically. This does, essentially, constitute a passive surveillance system. Mind you, if it is used to establish that child pornography is found, you will have a hard time convincing most people that it is overstepping what Facebook should do. That's my concern - that this will be pushed as a "for the children" thing, and then extended to "to cut down on crime" later, once everyone stops caring about its existence.

That said, that's my concern. It's not necessarily what I think will happen. I have no reason as of yet to believe that it's the next step. I do not, however, want Facebook automatically uploading (or even scanning) my photos.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhotoDNA
Gene Amdahl, Pioneer of Mainframe Computing, Dies at 92
I don't know the specifics of your friends' jobs, and with more data about them I am completely open to being wrong about it.

Most people in financial jobs also harm no one, and though they accept higher wages, they also create far more value, and there could be endless arguments over whether or not there is trickle-down value, whether managing pension plans adds value, etc.

But what concerns me more is that most employees in any organization exist solely for the short term gain of their bosses (somewhere up the food chain). A fourth-grade teacher exists more to make a principal look good for advancement to superintendent than for endowing society with the value of educated children. The fourth grade teacher has to put up with arbitrary state standards, political fighting between staff, inappropriate parental involvement, turning the other way on some issues they feel strongly they should not turn the other way on. It's a political shitstorm like anything else, where a few people on top of something (no matter how small scale that something may seem by comparison to a huge bank) are applying pressure to make the teacher's job more about subservience and fealty than about efficacious results.

I think that problems get worse and worse as you go up the academic and research food chain. You might be able to make an argument that being a pre-school teacher in a small rural town, or the pastor of a small community's church (modulo one's beliefs about whether promoting religious faith can ever be morally or ethically good), are actually "ethical" jobs, but I'm not totally sold that you can, and I don't believe much beyond this can even enter the discussion.

It's not so much about whether you overtly participate in something wrong. It's about whether the aggregation of all the tiny little microscopic job duties you do to comply with bureaucratic hierarchy ends up summing up to unfair gains mediated towards someone who doesn't economically deserve them, or that the gains end up being wasted.
http://www.polygon.com/2015/11/5/9675740/apple-gaming-androi...
Trust me, I am not missing out.
This is why I much prefer using Android devices. Apple and their grandiose pretense think they know what's best for us, I prefer a bit more control. It's so sad because they do make the best hardware!
What Silicon Valley Needs to Learn from Military Veterans
Loading Animations #4: iMessage’s Typing Indicator