skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It is definitely a benefit, but it's a far cry from guaranteed success. I have a trash folder full of 10 or so Apple pre-installed apps and I'm sure many others do as well. Apple P2P Pay will most likely be another one of those for me, which is why I see it as a catch-up play and one they will have to force on the market.
> What I am interested in, is whether this is detectable from background noise of people using Twitter more because it is in the news.

Probably not, or at least I'm sure there's some percentage of users who were oblivious to the fact they could "favorite" something. Now they know, and now they're using it (or were reminded?). That said, I'm sure there's also a non-trivial number of users who feel as I do.

I'm sure their UX folks entertained the idea of having both (liking via hearts + bookmarking via favorites) and decided it would be too disruptive to change at this point. I can't really blame them, but I do have to wonder: Are those use cases substantially different enough to warrant having both, or is the advantage of having a single "like" feature (fairly well understood, even across platforms--think Facebook) a more overriding concern with greater utility while maintaining simplicity?

It definitely sucks for people who were using favorites for what they were (or thought they were) intended only to have it changed up.
(First a note: "what new law is the judiciary supposed to pass" was meant to be "what new law is the legislature...".)

I'm not sure we disagree. You seem to be arguing that no one branch is the final arbiter of what is constitutional; that each is allowed its independent opinion. I agree with that. What I was arguing against in this thread is the proposition that the judiciary alone gets to decide what is constitutional and that it gets to do so regardless of what the constitution actually says.

You ended with "This is all by design. This is how it's meant to work," which is a claim that only makes sense if we have a system where the constitution actually means something and its meaning is binding. If the judiciary is free to redefine the constitution however they want, then we are not living under a government that has a design or a correct way to work.
So everyone registers in Luxembourg and stops paying tax? Is that really the intention of the EU, to abolish corporation tax?
I'll use Venmo until they pry it from my hands, it's one of the most life-transforming services I have ever used. I'll just repost my comment from the last Venmo thread here:

=========================================

Venmo was started by UPenn alums so it was popular among my friends long before it was a phenomenon (one of my good friends interned there and wrote the BlackBerry app).
I used to use it exclusively by SMS starting around 2011. It used to be smart enough where I could text in "Pay John $5 for food" and it would figure out which John I meant and do it. I loved that.
It's been amazing to watch Venmo grow to what it is now. If I could only keep three apps on my smartphone, I would choose Uber/Lyft, Venmo, and Google Maps. I can't navigate my life without all three of those.
In my last year of college my Venmo year in review showed that I had spent $17k on Venmo and received $18k. So not a huge net, just a constant movement of money in and out among my friends (rent, food, parties, etc). If I had to use cash we would have never been able to make the small things work, and if I had to use PayPal I would have accrued $100s to $1000s in fees.
So basically: thank you Venmo. You make my life measurably simpler.
Unpaid?
Java to JavaScript to Java (for Android). What?

Also they forgot the 'd' in 'world' at the bottom.
I don't get why it's ok in this context (if you agree with the inherent unethicality of nonfree software) to have compatibility and support for interoperability with nonfree software. It might not purposefully lead someone to a less free situation, but when you're speaking as absolutely as Stallman does, I don't see how you can condone actions that may prolong someone's lack of freedom. I'm genuinely confused by this - if there's anyone who could lay this out without dogma and hyperbole I'd be much obliged.
You raise an interesting question. For the most part, CMOS scaling has dominated for the past 25 years or so--which has meant that investments related to carrying a specific volume design forward (e.g. x86) has dominated. Lower-volume and lower-capitalized designs just weren't able to ride the same curve. But in a world where CMOS process scaling doesn't dominate, it raised the possibility that more specialized designs may play a larger role.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft’s approach doesn’t come without tradeoffs, however. The OS itself may be touch friendly, but the overwhelming majority of third-party Windows applications are not, and I sincerely believe that unless Microsoft does something to change this fact, it will have immense ramifications for the proliferation of production-focused touch-based Windows devices. In short, Microsoft has nailed the creation of a touch OS built for productivity, but those developing for the platform have yet to follow their lead, and it’s unclear what would need to happen to make that change.

On the other hand, Apple already has an immense library of touch-first apps to draw from, meaning that all they have to do now is get the OS component right — something that’s entirely feasible since it’s under their direct control. Even if Apple decided to make future iPad Pro models run a touch-friendly OS X variant, they’d still be at an advantage here since iOS and OS X apps are extremely similar and easily ported back and forth.
Interested to hear why you think it's unimpressive. It just works, and it adds a fun, social element to payments without being creepy or annoying about it.

The key to the product is the strength of the network. They got all the major banks and CC providers to sign onto the platform, which was unprecedented. So from that standpoint, it's a fantastic product.
I think the 'death of x86' issue is that currently, CPUs are 'fast enough' for most people; for that matter, they're faster than a lot of people need. Apple's iPad processors are fast enough for what most non-professionals need to do, and looking at these benchmarks I'm wondering how many e.g. students, even when they do need a laptop, even need one with as much power as the iPad Air line has right now.

Putting it another way: if Dell started offering ARM desktops with half the performance of the iPad Pro and the size and price of an AppleTV, AND they could run typical Office apps, would businesses (which were not bound by legacy software) start buying those instead?

I think the sense, in 2011, that ARM was the Intel-killing super robot from the future wasn't about ARM's ability to scale up, but about Intel's ability to scale down. Intel has held the performance crown for quite a while, but there's always seemed to be a minimum level of requirement involved; to buy a modern Intel system is to buy a system with a certain minimum power draw, weight, functionality, etc. ARM is appealing in the sense that it can start very small (see: RPi) and scale upwards from there (see: iPad Pro). Intel, is more than capable of reaching the high end, but the sentiment was always that they couldn't reach the low end, whether that was strictly true or not.

It's not a question of will x86 die; it won't, really. It's a question of does Intel bring something to the table with x86 that is necessary for the mass market? What's dying isn't Intel or x86, it's the assumption that we're stuck with Intel and x86 for doing any real work.

Edit: I sure hope I don't sound like an idiot in this post because I've been a big fan of your writing and insights so I'm hoping I'm not showing off how dumb I am.
I want to give my children their allowance? Or transfer money back and forth with my partner?
That was an amazing time to be on Twitter. I'm excited for the next one specifically for this reason. So. Many. Jokes.
I just set up a Jekyll site on S3 and used formkeep.com for form endpoints. Worked great (but costs $7/month).
His job is to make true claims. Your job is to require that he do so.
UK law to allow secret backdoor orders for software, prison for disclosing them
Onsen UI 2 Beta: future-proof, framework agnostic, Material Design
Ask HN: Firebase in production?
Hi,

what do you think about using Firebase in production for any type of web application? How well it scales? Or maybe you find it rather just a tool for prototyping MPVs because it is not platform for serious projects?

Best,
Wiktor
You're aware that water, oxygen, and vitamin C are all chemicals.

All chemicals pose different risks in different amounts. And this is what we are trying to determine with e-cigarettes. Does second hand e-smoking cause significant harm to by-standers?
I was doing some research for a small demo. As a proof of concept, implementing a small ConvNet using WebGL shaders. But in the course of my search I stumbled on this very broad and interesting patent granted to Microsoft Corp.

Processing machine learning techniques using a graphics processing unit

http://www.google.com/patents/US7548892

Pretty amazing when you consider they wrote the application a decade ago! There is no arguing we are experiencing a golden age and an embarrassment of riches provided by ML toolkits and GPU cloud capabilities. But further inspection of patents in the space brought up this gem, in which Emotient is attempting to patent the crowdsourcing of training data...

Collection of machine learning training data for expression recognition

https://www.google.com/patents/US20150186712
Professionals, as in release AAA games.

Those are mistakes on your point of view, not mine.

Of course there are production and development costs, like in any other business, however the industry doesn't get crazy about FOSS and stuff like that.

My point of view steams from having had the opportunity to get a glimpse how the AAA game development industry works.

Have you ever been there, instead of trying to advocate for everyone cares about costs and free mantra?!

Just go attend a GDC, ask around how many devs care about your point of view.

Based on my experience attending them, I bet the answer will be very few.
Announcement – Open Definition 2.1 – Open Knowledge Blog
Did you read it? A large section of the review was complaining about bugs and software shortcomings. That's not being a very good "fanboy".
But sweatshops are often where our cheap clothes and electronics actually come from right now despite everyone's agreement that they're bad.

Also, I'm not sure what would make you think that I do not understand that these laws already exist. I mentioned a state attorney general precisely because an attorney general enforces/ignores existing laws.

But, sure, you make an excellent point about the very real lawsuits which have already been filed.

Reading the rest of your response, your assessment seems to be that maybe Uber can survive. That's what I think too.
Okay. I see what you meant now. For the most part, domains would be non-transferable, hence directly linked to an entity's identity. In other words, buying a domain would be acquiring a licence to use said domain.

100x sounds a bit harsh. I think that would hurt small businesses (LLCs). Perhaps something more reasonable, like 20x would be sufficient.
> It's a trade of industries: we are going to favor our pharmaceutical manufacturers, certain content producers receive favorable status — while giving up other industries."

Isn't this just describing the comparative advantage theory of international trade?
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10525052 (243 points, 3 days ago, 59 comments)
Any time we walk outside with a cold, use your car, drive on less than 8 hours of sleep, or choose not to get a flu vaccine we put other people's health at risk. We accept a certain level of risk to function as a society. If the acceptable threshold of risk was less than "possible threat to another person of any magnitude" we would be a very different society. It seems to me that we use a different rule to decide when to ban activities which is "good evidence of substantial amount of harm(drinking and driving, or second hand smoke)". I would argue that in order to ban e-cigarettes we need to wait for evidence that e-cigarettes are likely to cause significant harm to bystanders.
These are fun. Wish the ones they had there were explained - sometimes they're quite funny, as with the monks complaining in the margins of the texts they were illuminating or copying:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/che...

Sometimes this stuff is lost because of fading ink or palimpsest-style erasure - there are multiple efforts on to retrieve such hidden and deteriorating items, which can sometimes yield very important things like lost manuscripts or fragments. I wrote about it a while back, though there's much, much more to know than what I could fit here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/multispectral-imaging...
This reads like a real-life SPECTRE organization. Huge, brazen, with tentacles in many countries.

I'm astonished. I (seriously) thought stuff like this happens in novels and in movies, not in real life.
If you're talking about people not nearly as smart as they think they are, ESR is up near the top.
That article was very misleading[1] and I wonder why[2] people keep citing it…

[1] here's a deconstruction of the data in the article: http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/158143/twitter-heat-map-sho...

[2] here's one explanation why: http://readwrite.com/2013/01/29/why-do-americans-hate-androi...
That is the kind of tasteless shit architecture that only LA could produce.
Two reasons:

1. If nobody uses your free software because it doesn't interoperate with what other people use, then you're really not accomplishing much by making your software free.

2. If you want to empower users, you can't very well tell them that they aren't allowed to use certain kinds of software just because you don't want them to. That would be quite hypocritical.
How often do you see people use a Surface in general? I see people using them as OneNote scratch pads regularly: in business meetings, at conferences, and for diagramming.

> So while Windows 10 supports touch interaction, it's honestly not that great at it, and so far as I can tell nobody really uses it outside of content consumption.

That's fine, that is what tablet mode is often for.

You have the kickstand/keyboard/touchpad for actual productivity. You have the tablet for consumption, and you have the tablet + pen for productivity when the activity allows it (e.g. drawing, hand-written notes, etc).

I haven't used a Surface Pro 4, but the Surface Pro 3 had issues: It was too heavy, and the touchpad on the keyboard cover was frankly terrible (and per this article nobody wants to sit there with their outstretched arm touching the screen). We'll see if the SP4 solves any of the above.

> The SP4 is also not nearly as good as a family device. It's much harder to use and is far more susceptible to user error.

Absolutely. Which is why it was never targeted at that demographic. It is a professional device, just like the iPad Pro.
Whatsapp is secure by default

Source, please?
So you are saying the marketing resulted in no revenue?
This is off-topic but I would just like to thank you for your contributions to Ultima 7. It is by far my favorite game.
Maybe they know sources like these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record#/m...

and are still trying to fit a regression line showing any kind of global warming...
Did the FBI Pay a University to Attack Tor Users?
I'm using Jekyll for my portfolio, and it is working out quite well. Unfortunately, I can't get paging to work on multiple collections at once. So it would be great for a site that's ONLY a blog or ONLY a portfolio, but I recently added a blog and it seems to be holding me back.

Portfolio: http://www.thejeremywhite.com/

Source: https://github.com/iheart2code/iheart2code.github.io
> Gruber is clearly exaggerating a bit

Yes, even if the Apple ARM cpus are ready to displace Intel at the low end, no one besides Apple is going to be using them. So the issue is moot for the greater PC industry really.
Conference centers can be blanketed in microcells...

Except the conference centers would charge the carriers millions to install any equipment, so the signal usually has to punch through windowless buildings from the outside.
Hugo has an option built-in to watch the directory and rebuild pages automatically. It can also reload the browser automatically using the optional LiveReload plugin: http://gohugo.io/overview/usage/
They likely operate with permission from the cell service carriers, which would make a big difference legally.
Ask HN: Where can I find info on low-latency audio programming?
As a cognitive neuroscience grad student, I have a sudden need for low-latency audio stimulation. In short I have two needs:

1. I need to reduce jitter between programmatic audio playback and actual response in the headset. This is the biggest priority.

2. I need to reduce latency between the aforementioned systems.

3. I need to accurately track the time at which audio playback occurred.

Where can I learn more about this stuff? What basic vocabulary do I need to make relevant google queries?
I really like my Asus Chromebook Flip, but I suspect that by the time you're done enhancing the design you're getting into the laptop/high-end tablet price range. And I don't understand the market for the Pixel.

I do think there's going to be a re-convergence between tablets and laptops even given the track record of convertibles but it's going to require a lot of thought and engineering and testing around specific use cases. (And I also understand why Apple might not be incented to drive things too hard in this direction.)
If memory serves me right, they bought a public company for not very much (I think a carpeting company) that was failing, and folded ROO into it.
> the estimated 40-80% contribution that genes make to people's intelligence, conscientiousness, and work ethic is much more likely to be at play, here.

I don't think you really need to get into genetics to explain anything here. Some people get lucky, their children inherit their wealth and maybe squander it after a few generations, or maybe they don't. Neither the parents nor the children need to be particularly smart; they just need to get lucky.

Using money as a measure of intelligence is very risky. On the one hand, sure, everyone wants to be filthy rich (presumably) so there's a lot of competition. On the other hand, there are large swaths of the whole world population that will find it impossible to be the next Zuckerberg or the next Bill Gates- say, a daughter of a Bangladeshi weaver is probably not going to travel to Silicon Valley and fund the next unicorn startup, sell it for billions and bequeath some of them to her children.

That's not because of a difference in intelligence with someone who will follow that path. It's because we can't fit 7 billion people in Silicon Valley, and a few tens of thousands of jobs in tech.

I guess you can argue that the people who are already in Silicon Valley have some sort of genetic advantage but unfortunately that way lies a whole bunch of very gnarly racial bias that is going to be extremely fiddly to untangle. Therefore, see above: using money as a measure of intelligence is very risky.
Fair, my thought process always seems to conclude that having multiple apps is a downside, but that argument really doesn't hold up well once I consciously think about that fact.
I don't know if outdated "RISC vs. CISC" thinking is what motivated Gruber's statement, but I think there are much more convincing ways to justify it.

If I could change Gruber's statement, I would say that "The future belongs to custom-designed SoCs"

The advantages that Apple derives from the A-series SoCs is not due to any inherent advantage of ARM vs. x86, but because Apple has full control over the design and manufacturing.

- Apple can design an SoC for a specific product given the manufacturing process available at the time: see last year's one-off 3-core A8X, because adding a 3rd core was a better tradeoff than increasing clocks. This year, the A9X is back to 2 cores but much higher clocked than the A9.

- Apple gains a competitive advantage by building processors only for themselves, and can catch the rest of the industry off guard (see: ARMv8 A7). They also get to follow their own principles (two fast, wide cores) rather than being forced into everyone else's marketing hype (8 heterogeneous, slower cores)

- If Apple wants a stronger GPU they can just license it from PowerVR, rather than having to lobby Intel and hope the resulting silicon is better (or worse, having to add an external GPU)

- Apple can even hedge its bets w.r.t fab processes: see the dual-sourced TSMC/Samsung A9

ARM is a threat to x86 because anyone can design/buy an ARM core, design an SoC around it, and manufacture it anywhere they want. Intel/AMD can't come close to that flexibility, and on platforms where Win32/Intel binary compatibility is irrelevant, x86 will decline/stay irrelevant.
Save Yourself from a Broken Down Motorboat
The problem with that quote is that no entrepreneur now can say anything less. Any company founder at this point has likely taken over a million dollars in venture capital--are they not to be called self-made if their company does well? Nobody is ever "self made" if you take that argument.
Thx. We will correct the typo on the page asap. And yes we put Java on top of Titanium Javascript API. So if you are targeting Android only not necessary the best choice. This is more for people that are targeting multiple platforms from one source using the Java language.
I wonder if Tom Herman (Kaleil's partner at GovWorks and partner at KIT) is going to get wrapped up in this too. I hope not since Tom came across as a nice enough guy in the film. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomherman
Only if you jammed US government communications or satellite communications: https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/jammer-enforcement (scroll down to criminal enforcement section). The FCC doesn't even have authority to prosecute criminally.

But you know don't let that get in the way of your narrative.
The problem with this claim is that it only looks at a narrow range of technical merits. For example:

ARM is capable in the data centre but there's nothing that comes close to Intel's Xeons without having to build a cluster of independent machines. Sometimes it's nice to throw two 18 core processors into a motherboard along with 512 GB of RAM to do your data processing.

ARM is more than capable of running most desktop tasks that offices, call centres, etc. use; can you imagine an entire office of thousands of awful Dell boxes replaced with tiny AppleTV-sized, A9X-powered workstations? I sure can. But I can also imagine them being unable to run the apps the call centre uses, or run Quicken, or whatever the next app is that the corporation next decides it needs from some consultant.

The reason that ARM is being so successful lately is that it's being used to create new markets, and not to usurp old ones. There's no legacy holding it back, and there's no performance crown to compete against. There was no Intel smartphone processor to match for performance, and there was no existing smartphone software that had to run on our new devices unmodified. ARM is a great technology and Apple is using it to the fullest extent of its capability, but one of the biggest reasons it's succeeding is because there are no pre-existing demands holding it back.