skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Excited about getting a free Rift because we backed them for the first development kit on Kickstarter. :)
I'm always amazed by what kind of software is so tied down to an operating system like that. Windows has incredible backwards compatibility so I struggle to see what exactly is so hard to move.

This strikes me more as management and economic policy issues within the organization of why waste money for something they might not appreciate or see the necessity of.
I always have to preface these opinions with "I used to work in the industry" (I was a developer for a site that got acquired by one of the 2 outfits mentioned), so take this with a grain of salt:

This guy was destined to be a sucker. It's not that DFS turned him into a sucker, it's that he has a gambling problem - he says this in the beginning of the article! Why do we need to read further, it's pretty clear from that statement alone he's not going to do well in the long run just knowing the psychology of a gambler like that.

And to be frank, he isn't very smart with his money either. He's doing a lot of things that are increasing his risks and destroying his bank account which could be fixed with some simple statistics and discipline (which, for someone with a gambling problem, would be almost impossible).

The way to not lose money like the author is employ many of the same tactics you would with investing:

* Put in only what you can afford/feel comfortable losing

* Stick with the Kelly criterion[1] and never bet more than 10-20% a day

* Diversify - instead of 1 $20 H2H game like the author, play 10 $1 H2H games and 10 $1 50-50s. Now instead of flipping a coin once to make $40 all or nothing, you get to flip a coin 20 times, and each win gets you $2, which can mitigate some of your losses.

Now to be fair, that last example is a bit inaccurate - because each coin flip is not an independent flip like in a true coin flip, because if you use the same lineup, and that lineup performs poorly, it's like having a weighted coin severely against your favor, but at least with H2H matchups, you know that some people can bomb worse than you, whereas in 50-50s, since you only have to do better than half, in a large sample size, you likely won't win any of your 50-50s since the median score is roughly the same across all of them.

My point is two-fold:

1. DFS doesn't turn people into suckers, they already were suckers/gamblers and didn't do their homework and practice discipline, which brings me to my next point...

2. DFS is a game of skill - for an exaggerated example, it takes a basic level of competence to choose Tom Brady over his backup, Jimmy Garoppolo. You can be almost certain he will play, as he's pretty much played every game in his career except for an injury nearly a decade ago. But DFS is also gambling. We know it is, but saying it's legal gambling won't bring on new customers. It takes a lot of work to say "100% Legal" all over your site and still not have people sign up.

The US is a funny country. We don't legalize online poker but we legalize in-person poker in casinos all across the country. We legalize DFS but not online poker. Where is the logic in this?

For the HN crowd, if you want to try it and you like sports stick with the above advice: don't play if you have a proclivity for compulsive or irresponsible gambling. Don't put a lot in (and only put in funny money, nothing you would otherwise use for say, your mortgage), and exercise a bit of statistics and probability theory so you mitigate some of the risk. If you do that, you won't become a sucker.

[1] Kelly criterion - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion
They're more likely to use mainframe database systems with the verification done in apps that interface with it or do batch runs on it. The mainframes and databases themselves cover the integrity and availability portions. So, it's a ledger in practice but not directly stored as one.

Matter of fact, storing it as one is incredibly wasteful. Banking systems have shown it's not necessary. Just need the transactions, timing, sources, and verification of them.
I think Jaron knows what many engineers who have worked on AI know: That the external promise of AI is far more inflated than the capability of the actual technology. It's simply that when the current technology gets just complicated enough for the above-average person to no longer understand, everyone starts assigning magical properties and expectations to it. This results in short term over-valuations, which inevitably lead to disappointment [1].

Jaron has observed this several times and rightly seems to be tired of repeating the same naive cycle.

As I'm just now entering my second cycle and watching tech repeat itself again -- I'm beginning to understand his weariness.

[1] https://hbr.org/2015/12/the-overvaluation-trap
ROM 1.0 Released – great ActiveRecord alternative for Ruby/Rails
In the UK it's basically the cost of an Xbox One and PS4 together. I wonder if PC gamers would prefer one of those consoles for the exclusives.
Whenever I think about leafblowers, the only thing that comes to my mind is this scenario: two sweaty, pudgy suburban warriors, facing off across from each other, either side of the property line, leaf blowers drawn and straining, battling to push a single leaf off their lawn and onto the other.
Microsoft Releases Eclipse Plugin: Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE) 14.0.2
I don't get it. is there some law enacted that you have to upgrade to the newest phone every time it comes out? apple can do whatever they damn well please, just like samsung, lg, sony can. IF you don't like the fact that they're removing it, dont upgrade your phone, or switch to a different phone company. Owner of a Note 4. when the note 5 and edge plus came out but no longer had sd card expandable slots, I simply did not upgrade. and will not.
> whats going to happen when 5 cars see only one spot, and they all try and go for that same spot?

What happens when 5 human drivers see only one spot, and they all try and go for that same spot?
wasn't this Google's strategy with glass?
USB 3 can carry alternative signals though. Just sell an adapter and get rid of it. Also, has apple ever really cared about pissing people off?
Yeah it is.

I was going to preorder one but that's £100-£150 too much for me to justify spending on it for now to be honest.

Perhaps after the first reviews and supported games start to arrive I'll reconsider.
Waiting for the follow up post on how he's ditching kanban for X next.
You don't run a totalitarian regime in the interests of your people.

Its profitable to be a kingpin in the NK chain of command. Its what the dick waving of nuclear arms is - look, we have a bomb, give us more free shit.

And it isn't even the threat of war. Its a threat of jumping the shark so they have to be conquered, leaving the region with 25 million destitute refugees to somehow deal with. Just for comparison, the EU is having huge trouble dealing with 11 million Syrian refugees and only 4 million have fled the country.
I don't know if the current users of iPhone will take this as a number of them are music producers (or enthusiasts) and their current very expensive hardware won't be compatible with the new iPhones.
Exploring €1.3 trillion in public contracts with graph visualization
Bravo!

I've been making the chilling effects argument for several years:

http://www.dbms2.com/2013/07/08/privacy-data-use-chilling-ef...

http://www.dbms2.com/2013/07/29/very-chilling-effects/

http://www.dbms2.com/2015/06/14/chilling-effects-revisited/

This article makes it with reasonable, appropriate breadth.
A good, noise cancelling headset has been one of my best investments - and I'm not talking about one of the nice looking $50 models from Best Buy. I'm talking about something in the $200-300 price point - high end gaming headsets are particularly nice for a number of reasons, but anything will do.

It seems like a lot of money, but if it triples your productivity while in the office (and I'd recommend measuring it with something like RescueTime - if the headset doesn't help your productivity significantly, you can always return it), it's worth it.
An adapter would surely be available in short order...right? :)
> It doesn't reflect well on Mozilla either that they hired someone who seems to be so out of his depth on core matters to Mozilla's business.

Andreas wasn't hired as an executive, and you could have easily confirmed this [1] before posting this comment. He started as a developer in 2008 on the JS engine. As he was basically responsible for TraceMonkey, Andreas is a large part of the reason why SpiderMonkey is one of if not the fastest JS engines around.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Gal
How to Increase LinkedIn Engagement by 386%
I also unfollowed nearly everyone for similar reasons. The unintended side-effect is that it's much less interesting now and as a result I spend less time on Facebook. Success!
I was particularly unaware of the context. Thank you.
The Kickstarter was in 2012. They've been putting out developer kits for years and years. There's no sensible way they could just go for another few years without releasing something.
>Wealth is the promise (perhaps false) of satisfaction

I think, perhaps, you are speaking of the kind of wealth accumulated by middle class families. I'm speaking of the billions accumulated by Jeff Bezos, which allows him to purchase the Washington Post (etc). You might call this "satisfaction", but at this scale it's raw power - the ability to command resources and bend them to your purpose.

>Democracy is another form of power. It is influenced by money, but not totally.

Democracy is quite strongly influenced by money. I'm sure you've seen this study: http://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/fil... which purports to demonstrate that American democracy responds exactly to the interests of economic elites and not to popular will. Popular will is much weaker than the influence of money. There is an entire (unelected) arm of government that is devoted to lobbying and writing legislation on behalf of monied interests; half of Congress leaves and joins this arm when their term is up.

I'm not saying these things are inevitable, that monetary wealth cannot be constrained by democratic power, etc., just that this is not how things currently stand.
I, Rodent
"However, 4front held people for _ransom_ on a free operating system. that's way different. that's Bitkeeper-made-git-happen levels of different."

What do you mean by that specifically? You're fine with people charging for drivers but they apparently did something specific that was worse.
It is almost insane that we still use TI-84's when we have all the power of smart phones in our pockets. I would love to see an app that can function as the calculator but also notify the teacher if it is backgrounded (to prevent illicit notes/internet access).
So the problem with this gambling site, which defends itself as being a game of skill, is that some players are far more skilled than others and so win regularly. I see.
> 2. The more profit, the stronger the incentive for entrepreneurs to enter the market and/or innovate.

3. The more entrepreneurs in the market, the tighter the margins will become, due to competition. The price for the service will fall as a result, and the companies will become more efficient.
I am uncertain as to why you hold the actions of private individuals in such contempt, but give the government a free pass when it is just as prone to abuse, lack of accountability and poor service. Why is one a devil and the other an angel?
The State of UX in 2016 – User Experience Design (UX)
With bluetooth headphones/speakers becoming more prevalent this makes sense.
What do we get in return though? Less battery life because now bluetooth must be on? Thinner and easier to bend? If they gave me a microsd slot it would be worth it...
I'd say it's to avoid a monopoly.
I agree, however you can reduce fraud load by rate limiting IPs for a start. I'm not sure if shop.oculus.com uses the same infrastructure as www.oculus.com (I'm assuming not). But if it did, caching www would help as well.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10851147
An ad blocker that blocks social media sharing buttons will hide the link buttons at the bottom of that page.
Ethereum: Bitcoin and Everything Else
> $599 may seem like a perilously steep price to debut at

really? seems fine to me. this is cheaper than most high end tv / monitors.

tech early adopters and taste makers have six figure incomes, many are just straight up rich.
Doesn't this rumour get trotted out every year?
This would seriously make me consider switching to Android after being iPhone only since the 3G.

The fact that both of my ports (3mm, lightning) on my 6 started flaking out about the time the warranty expired helps, too.
Seems like these tools are still evolving, wondering how long it will take for these to really be adopted in enterprise orgs (thus fueling more growth).
I don't think so. If there were, studio-level gear wouldn't be using it (yes, they also use 1/4in jacks, but they are effectively equivalent in quality). It's highly unlikely that apple will produce something that produces better sound at that latency. I bet what they'll do is switch to a digital connector that also carries some meta-data about the audio.
Google Glass never shipped to consumers, only to developers...

They did charge a relative high amount for the dev' kits and made wishy washy claims that they could produce the consumer version for less.
thats hilarious.
My reaction was probably one that is a lot more relevant to the Hacker News community: between that and the incessant news about shootings (either by the Police on African American, or by toddlers), the alarming ratio of car accidents that cannot be prevented by driving safely (namely, the amount or rear-ending at red-lights that the Google Car is victim of), there is no way I’d like to work in the US. Seeing how bigoted so many jurors appear to be, how indefensible are some of the lawyers… that makes it all too likely that you go from commuting to a great job to a hell hole with no recourse. Any private option (say, for health-related issues) is too likely to be tied to employment, and getting fired after the incident and left in the cold sounds also too likely.

Investors should really start considering the consequence those events have on their companies’ ability to attract talent.
Yes, but have you ever stopped with your eBrake? first, it doesn't usually effect all 4 wheels, and second, it isn't antilock. If, traveling 60mph your master cylinder or brake lines fail, the E Brake might not do the job. I know the E Brake in my Toyota Tundra wouldn't stop me if I were going 60mph.

Again, my point was not to say that this was likely to happen, but merely that we should ensure that there is framework for dealing with these kind of scenarios where a car needs to choose. According to the document I shared earlier, 95% of accidents are driver error somehow. Self-driving cars are sure to improve those statistics, but for public acceptance we need to answer the other 5% of accidents too.

EDIT: as Saberworks below points out, there is no Emergency Brake in the Tundra, or in fact almost any modern car. I was loosely equating the parking brake with an emergency brake because in many cars there is no "emergency brake", so the parking brake is your only other choice.
I won't be happy until the iPhone has negative dimensions
Two years is a lifetime in tech. This isn't a mainline consumer product even though they may market it as such. A few hardcore gamers and VR enthusiasts will buy this, slightly more will get to experience this through a friend who has purchased it. It will churn away and people who can't quite justify shelling out the cash will still be excited by the experience. By the time v2 comes around, the price point will be much more acceptable. I would expect that by v3 it will be mainstream.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw yearly iterations of the Rift for the first few versions. Ultimately I think this tech has to be paired with a console rather than a PC for widespread adoption.
The allies had hardly won. Much of Asia was still under Japanese rule. The Japanese still controlled Singapore, Hong Kong, massive swaths of China and South East Asia, Korea, Taiwan, etc. The idea that the US could have simply "walked away" at that point is ludicrous.
I didn't feel anything like that when I used DK2 to play Elite: Dangerous and mess about with the Rift demos.
That's a big part of why restrictions on governmental collection and retention of data will never suffice. (The other big part is terrorism fears. Whether or not you or I agree with the plan -- as a practical political matter, a lot of surveillance will be done to try to identify in-country baddies.)

http://www.dbms2.com/2010/07/04/fair-data-use/
A Matter of Principle: Surfacing the core truths in every design
If you hire surgeons to cook meals, then by all means let them use kitchen knives.
Woboq Source Code Browser Based on LLVM
Yup, TI's dealt with Android apps which emulate their calculators before, the rule of thumb is: You cannot provide the OS ROM, but you can offer the emulator if it requires their OS ROM to run. Theoretically, yes, so people have to get it from their own calculator.

The open secret though, is that TI offers the ROMs for their OS on their website for free download...
last minute accommodations, car rentals, plane tickets, restaurant reservations, location scouting, ballroom rentals, all these things can be outsourced.

companies are already paying amex, travel agencies, and junior associates for this kind of thing. not to mention actual assistants that make 75k+
Just fwiw, I remember it got leaked in 2004, that was 12 years ago...
I feel that same way. But then again I'm in the Marine Corps. My last 20 years seems to have been for nothing considering what it going on over in Iraq right now.
Shit, we only just got all phone manufacturers working with the same standard.

Remember those tiny little jacks 2.5mm (used most recently in my memory for xbox 360). I hated that, you're locked in to one set of headphones and when they break (which they do, because they're made of garbage and greed) then you have lost a function of your device.

Obviously Apple will have a plethora of other headphones to choose from, or to order more. But, for me now it's just..

I mean.. we were there! not with chargers (although that's much better for non-iPhones).. but we were there!

if they don't follow standards then I'm certainly not upgrading to the 7, and I say that as a user since the 4s who has always liked the offering from Apple.
I'd say you're getting a lot more at a much cheaper price with Occulus Rift than you did with Glass. I think the point is charge more if that's what it takes to create a good experience. Google charged a lot more and the experience was awful. I used it for 1 week and to me Glass seemed like something that was a year or two from being ready for release. The extra expense didn't get you a killer experience.
Bearing in mind how loosely IQ and income are correlated IRL, and the opportunity cost of brain training vs devoting the equivalent time to job-specific learning, I'd say it's far from clear a 0.2 SD boost in adult IQ should lead to any change in income at all.

If it was 1 SD, the difference in ability would be rather more difficult not to notice.
Wampaku has worked out very well for my team.
Can the blockchain make Uber, Spotify and Airbnb obsolete?
The Trouble with the TPP, Day 3: Copyright Term Extension
What's the big problem? They can already move thread's around... just move all the top level threads to the other page and there, it's merged.
So, if the market shows that UI is what causes Amazon dearly, and that the market prefers a magic like messaging interface, how long will it take for Amazon to offer a magic like service at a price point that is affordable to everyone. Compare that with the time and effort required for Magic to become a retailer with Amazon's efficiency. I'll bet on the former.
much like "perfect is the enemy of good", one might even say "better is the enemy of 'good enough'"
Cut away branches that suck energy but don't bear fruit.
Automated monitoring of computer time can be very revealing. I use RescueTime[1] as a check of my productivity, and have found it helpful for ensuring I remain on-track.

1. https://www.rescuetime.com
It adds impetus to appear busy and/or find something to report. I think it was said higher in this discussion: recurring meetings are a form of "social engineering"; and I'll follow that with an assertion that they have more affect on the structure of the team (and individuals therein) than they do on the effort the team is nominally working to achieve.

If you want to build software systems, you should engage in software engineering, not social engineering. Social engineering only supports the manager hierarchy which is probably at that point misaligned with value production.

If I were a deep cynic (instead of just a natural contrarian), I could say they expose the manager as someone who cannot command respect unless they are intimidating subordinates into the social risk of showing themselves impotent to achieve on a day to day basis.

If a manager doesn't know what his team is up to before the meeting, he's not doing a good job. Perhaps because he doesn't already command the respect of the team?

Can "drum-beat" scheduling help in crunch times? Probably. If you are always in a crunch time, the scale of your efforts probably are probably going to shrink, and/or you may lack time to make longer range plans and are effectively navigating without a map.
Definitely not so. AWS is the most profitable part of AMZN. They are printing money on the markup on egress.
And they won't when ditching the 3.5mm audio jack?!

By the time iphone7 is released, every other major phone will have already adopted USB type c. Maybe people will be happier that they can borrow a friend's android's cable since it is usable. USB type c ports will be absolutely everywhere soon anyway.

I don't think Apple is afraid of pissing people off. E.g., they made the macbook air have just one port usb type c port... (I must say I rather like that they are willing to do this, these are the decisions that really establish usb type c port! I just wish they'll do it with iphone7 too)
Apples and oranges. Oculus is a different experience, not a different gaming platform. If PS4 or XBone could offer an Oculus-like experience then your point would absolutely make sense, but they cannot.

The closest comparable console is the Virtual Boy from 1995.
the industry seems obsessed with thinness, am I the only one thinking that we have passed the point of diminishing returns a while ago ?

IMO recent high-end smartphones, even large ones (iPhone 6S plus, Nexus 6P) are already thin enough.
And how can we guarantee that people behind magic+ don't get any conflict of interest ?

Let say, for example, that i need a cab to move me from airport to the hotel with a bike to make the thing more complicated for a lambda traveler.
How can I know in advance how much I will have to pay ? that the deal is decent ? that the guy will actually come ?

I understand that they target rich people but I imagine one does not simply want to pay 200% more than usually a helicopter ride...