skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Google has a face-blurring algorithm. Amusingly, it catches things like faces on billboards and horses!

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/05/14/google-blurs-horse-...
Just to be clear, the entire history of humankind is evidence against your theory. You are guessing that something will happen that has never happened before.

That's not as bad as it sounds. Every event has to happen for a first time. But you should realize that you are making a very extreme claim based on nothing more than speculation.
"I strongly believe that religion and respect for religion breeds ignorance and mental decrepitude."

If only everyone in the world understood that. Loved the post. Have been considering to move to Northern Europe temporarily myself.
FWIW, gold also has value in certain cancer treatments, glass making, satellite protection, dentistry, microscopy, and certain photographic films.

Not to detract from your point though - it just has wider uses than merely electronics :-)
"Your gold is only worth what people will give you in return for it. If society collapses, who is going to trade you gold for food? You'd better hope enough people buy your propaganda about gold's value because it's going to be your only hope; the market for gold jewelry is going to be pretty small and effectively saturated."

Well, there's also expectation of future gold jewelry markets. Assuming we live like Mad Max until the end of time, sure, who needs gold. But if we expect things to improve later, with luxuries becoming a reality again, people holding lots of gold have it made.
I can think of more than a few TED talks that just wouldn't have translated without the oral and verbal clues. The joy in Erin Mckean's voice when saying synecdochically or erinanceous would be completely lost in text.
except that you aren't limited to falsifying a single premise with each question. remember guess who? the first thing you learned was to eliminate as much of the search space as possible with each step.
French judge issues arrest warrant for Floyd Landis in hacking incident
Pie in the sky idea: if politicians had spines they could pass laws that required damages given in cases of robotic accidents to be no higher than damages given in accidents caused by humans, which is an obvious and sensible solution to the problem.
p.s. C&C original was my intro to RTS and led to a 3 year serious addiction to starcraft.... glad those days are behind me... but secretly miss them somehow too.
Nice app. But there's a little issue: it messes my history; i.e. when I press back button I can't go back to the previous page anymore.
Do you run anything else on that server? (i.e. git, blog?)
There is an even more common fallacy that is even harder, probably impossible to kill: trade create unemployment.

I find the argument very convincing that trade, from the perspective of one partner is exactly like technology. Found a way to produce grapes in a building cheaply; Found a way produce grapes in a shoe factory.
As for Slashdot, I always sort of wondered whether or not the appeal to those advertisers was less clickthrough and more name recognition.

That has been cited by some advertisers, for sure - especially those who are recently funded or have larger branding budgets.

Take New Relic, for example. They're sponsoring The Ruby Show for I'd guess (and I don't know for sure, but basing on rates of similar podcasts) at least $300-$500 per show? There's no way they're getting that much business from people listening to the show checking them out at that very moment. In terms of brand awareness, though, $5-8k a year is nothing if almost every Ruby developer has at least heard of you..
Maybe the front guy forgot to spit in his diving mask.
or if some idiot out there finally figures out how to monetize torrent...
even an included movie ad or something... or a modified game that shows a boot screen with an advert would be completely acceptable to me.
Interesting point. Automation will only continue as long as we can save significant amounts of labor by automating. So we can expect to see more automation in the construction of automobiles and lawn mowers, but in all likelihood the fabrication of microchips is about as automatic as it will ever get.
The "argument" is about jobs. You may want to talk about something else, but that is not what the article is about. It is an answer to the claim that automation created unemployment, not that automation is better.
Agreed. I would recommend friends pursuing an MBA go for a masters degree or PhD in behavioral economics instead. In addition, I'd like to see more analytics oriented around the individual's own delta - how many times did they switch from "complicated" to a relationship in a 5 year period? How many friends did they add? How many people did they block? A more realistic measure of personal happiness might be obtained by more robust analysis of how a person's self reporting changes over time, rather than a static snapshot of how they report at a simple point compared with how many other people report that same thing in stasis.
best idea ever.
and the inevitable downfall of the service altogether.
How to Build a Unique Blog
Ultimately, innovation is what allows an economy to grow quickly and create new jobs as old ones obsolesce and disappear. Typically, one salutary side effect of recessions is that they eventually spur booms in innovation. Some laid-off employees become entrepreneurs, working on ideas that have been ignored by corporate bureaucracies, while sclerotic firms in declining industries fail, making way for nimbler enterprises. But according to the economist Edmund Phelps, the innovative potential of the U.S. economy looks limited today.

He had me until the end, where Edmund Phelps declares innovation in America is "limited". HAH. Watch our smoke, Ed!
To be fair, The Black Swan doesn't talk about a black swan being rare. The point is that until black swans were discovered in Australia, everyone in the (civilized) world were completely convinced that swans could only be white. Black swans weren't rare, they were inconceivable because it was so far outside expectations that no one considered even the remote possibility of non-white swans.

The Black Swan doesn't talk about rare events, it talks about the danger of not considering that which is so highly improbable as to seem ridiculous, such as the possibility of non-white swans.

In other words, the frequency of black swans wasn't 1 in 1 million swans pre-discovery of Australia, it was zero.

I'm sure you know all of this but if you haven't read the book I do think it is worth your time.
I'm not railing against profit in itself, I just find that sabotaging a good solution that would profit many people (but not you in the short term) is illogical.
I guess, you are going to the previous page, but, previous page seems to be the same page. http://i.imgur.com/HcWI9.png
I think he's trying to say that "being there feels magical". Like walking around, looking at all of the drunk, white, upper middle class people who were ridiculously elated after the election was called for Obama. Mass hysteria?
OpenLaszlo -- A platform to rapidly build and deploy rich Internet applications
We (politicians and non politicians) are not rational creatures. An airplane bomb scares us more then a .5% increase in road deaths, a shooting more then an infection, etc. I am not immune to this. Getting squashed by a robot truck scares me.
They could feed everyone but why would they? The rest of the people have nothing to offer in return.

You're implying that, in this (dis)utopian future, luxury goods don't exist?

Once you have those three things, you have an entire economy. Heck, arguably clothes are a luxury good, so all you need are food and luxury goods.
Handheld Scanner Can Copy Car Keys Just By Peeking At The Lock
Samsung Confirms Chrome Based Netbook
I think it may be more interesting in many ways to consider not only the amount of work that machines might create or destroy but the nature of that work. John Ruskin had some very interesting things to say about this in the early industrial era:
http://forsclavigera.blogspot.com/2008/02/ruskin-work-and-na...
I wonder if human nature might help make robot trucks safer on the road, by the magic of risk compensation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation). A robot truck will most certainly be marked distinctively so the human drivers know there's a computer at the wheel. Human drivers will perceive this robot truck as dangerous (at least I would, and I doubt I'm alone in that prejudice) and thus drive a little safer in its vicinity to compensate. Possibly, driving a robot truck down a street would even reduce the human-on-human accident rate.

And the robot truck companies would be insane not to protect themselves. They would be wise to take a page out of the commercial aircraft industry's playbook, and instrument the hell out of each vehicle. Continuous engine telemetry and redundant camera views of the immediate vicinity recorded on a 30-minute loop, frozen after a crash and a core dump of the "driver" appended to the record for crash reconstruction. It'll be a tough sell emotionally, that the robot truck was following the speed limit and stop lights, but we'll get there.
Do that and let me know what kind of return you make from advertising on SO. Until then, everyone is "keen" until they have to open up their wallet.
A good article, but not a new theory.

Two schools of thought regarding optimal competitive strategy:

(1) "Traditional" economic input/output model: first-mover is a definite advantage, especially if being "first to market" allows a company to put up barriers to entry (or to influence any of the other "five forces") in the traditional economic model. Example would be patenting new technology.

(2) "Hypercompetitive" model: becoming more apparent in the digital age, and especially pertainent to web-only companies. Rather than "reacting" to moves of competitors, firms in a hypercompetitive market must predict and prepare for competitive moves from their rivals.
Lean Usability Testing: Current Best Practices and Resources
worth it for your kid?
Fast breeder reactor
I think the same thing happened with dawn of war 2 the game got such horrible reviews from fans of the old series (which I liked) so I never purchased it.
2012 infographic
Refreshing user interface yes.

But did we forget all the lessons of the "readwriteweb facebook login debacle" of last week?

This UI seems substantially less user friendly than iPhone or Android for your average end user.

Who is now, incidentally, trained on the "iphone clone" UI if they've had a smartphone in this generation.
Naturally statues get the same treatment. It seems though that his private parts don't need the privacy :)

http://bit.ly/csIXot
Additional support for incorporating (at least with simple Delaware based LLC) early; if you build something and can pick up a partner they are far more likely to 'take' any IP generated as a result of products built during the partnership if you are a single, lone wolf contractor. If you get an EIN (employer identification number) and put that on your W9s you can negotiate from a company position for shared IP (as we have - 2 patent applications and the legal work is being paid by our partner...we'd never have been able to close that as two people working together to build a large corporation something).
Users and machines embroiled in literacy misunderstandings on blogs
I must say, that's surprisingly clean and not in-your-face. A nice change for Microsoft. I've seen very similar styles of interfaces (concepts) for a few years, but they're certainly the first big-player to back it with a product. We can hope it won't be that slow-scrolling (largely seen in other videos). People get annoyed with shiny things that slow them down.

One thing that's bugged me about the touch line of iProducts is the amount of wasted space around the icons (though I understand the reasoning behind it, and it would encourage an entire icon remake if changed).
The difference between gold and fiat currencies is that gold cannot be devalued through inflation. We don't have a machine that can manufacture gold, but central banks can 'manufacture' as much new fiat currency as they like.

I imagine that's why Scott's friends are buying gold. Not because they think the end of the world is nigh, but because they think the dollar is going to have to be devalued to sidestep the crushing debts that have been run up.
How did that happen...?
i posted a question because im stuck and i want my answer nownownow
Simpler in what way? Demoscene code is seldom simple to read or write, and usually doesn't take advantage of hardware acceleration. When I think demoscene, I think of getting crazy effects through esoteric bit manipulations. When you're already shipping OpenGL and your whole UI is composited with that, the easiest option is probably just texture mapping on to a low-resolution mesh.
I don't think you should hide the answers, but you should definitely hide the ranking (votes) for about a day (or half a day) or so. During this stage the answers would be randomly sorted. After a day you get to see the votes for each answer...
He's probably pulling from the brain-drain problem we've been having since schools started to go down the creek. Arguably, our environment is also hostile to newcomers many times, due to patently absurd patent laws and higher business taxes than many places (not all, mind you, just many).
depends on your perspective. as a googler, i skim all answers and get the info i need. as an asker, i want the fastest close-enough answer possible so i can figure it out and move on.

incenting 'cleanup' (the original intent of community wiki) would be great, but i doubt it would increase their traffic/revenue very much.
is it assumed they know each other's identities or not? (you know like the gatekeeper puzzle: "what would he say if I asked him [question]...")
I often check Google first, not find anything helpful in the first few pages, then remember to try StackOverflow, and have a much higher success rate.

Actually, the best technique I've found is Google with "site:stackoverflow.com", as Google does a much better job searching StackOverflow than the built in search engine.
Currently just running the Node.js server.
Reading the article, it would seem that the VC money will go towards launching StackOverflow clones in as many different verticals as possible. Thus the comparison with Starbucks, which had proven success in several markets before going big.

StackOverflow has launched what, 5 QA sites in total now? All of which seem to be thriving pretty well. It seems they're expecting similar success with QA sites for Sailing, Pregnancy Advice, Cat Owners, Subaru Mechanics, etc.
An Open Casket For EventVue
I think they will, simply because they need to look like something. It wouldn't really help you navigate your OS if everything was represented by glowing rectangles†, would it?

† http://www.theonion.com/content/news/report_90_of_waking_hou...
Yeah, it looks awesome but it shouldn't treat each message as a new page.
Seems like a nice position to be in, actually.

Either you get a successful site in that vertical, or somebody else pays you $50k/year for the right to have it instead.
All the wrong reasons for Stack Overflow's VC chase
To clarify, while BHL finds himself on the right in some public debates, he isn't of the right. His most frequent criticisms are of the left—he's somewhat like the Christopher Hitchens of France: a disaffected man of the left, criticizing the relativist left for failing to uphold its ostensible values.
I really like Android. I never had an iPhone, though, just an iPod I rarely used. I just could never get into it. Yes, the animations and scrollings are probably smoother - that's actually what I hate about Apple stuff. I don't care about fancy animations, I want to get things done. The smooth animations of Apple things just make me feel cheap, like a marketing whore. Not to say that Android isn't pretty, but I am guessing iPhone fans would have trouble adapting.

The Nexus is the first real mobile internet device I own - might be part of the excitement. But I am actually surprised how well everything works. I was expecting Android to remain in perpetual beta state, but it seems very usable to me.

I know I should be more excited about iPhone development, because of the huge money making opportunities. But I just can't. iPod and MacBook have been sitting on my desk for a year and I could not really get started. Getting a Nexus just made click and I feel enthusiastic about coding once again. Ever since I got it last week, I spent every spare minute on coding for it. Unfortunately I hate Java, but for the time being I try to see how far I can get with HTML+Javascript, otherwise, maybe some of the JVM languages can be made to run.
The idea is to diversify into lower-risk assets than the U.S. dollar or other currencies, even if those investments will cost more in the long run. It doesn't matter what gold costs right now if the USD experiences further free-fall, which is not out of the question.

This is generally the same reason there are buyers of sovereign debt (i.e. Treasury Notes) at a negative interest rate.

If the Eurozone collapses, as is more possible every day now, then that's a case in point for diversifying away from Euros. Some other choices in this Great Recession are USD, U.S. Treasury Notes, Japanese Yen, Swiss Francs, etc, none particularly attractive right now. The Chinese Yuan isn't a viable choice because it is pegged to the dollar.

[Edit:] The point is to deal with the current high risk of currency free-fall, not your normal everyday investment ebb and flow.
Appreciate the cynicism, but at the right price I (and doubtless many others) would do it for sure. An advertiser's idea of the "right price", though, is bound to differ from theirs ;-) Given that developers have a low CTR.. the CPM would have to be "very low."
corny I know, but was this not posted by the site's admin for fun? I just got tired of everyone going on and on about BUZZ and privacy.
Great service... Although I'm not sure that enabling guest chatting on the home page is a great idea, professionally speaking, for the following reason, which appeared 5 seconds after I loaded the page:

# Guest126627853584
05:59 PM • cock

edit: also, in Firefox 3.5.8 Mac, the tab title seems to flicker every time the client polls the server. Not sure if this is a fixable bug or just an artifact of all those HTTP requests.
I can't do without "diff", specifically "diff -r". I use it to compare both source code and reference output directories.
I can accept that with the stipulations that it is a very suitable material for currency, not necessarily the most suitable one; and that this is only true at certain early or unsophisticated stages of civilisation.

However, even then the unspoken and often ignored requirement is that there is something of real value that the currency can represent. This also ignores fluctuations in the perceived value of gold, which belies its valuation not being tied to its function as currency. Arguing that e.g. mining for gold is a service whose end product is currency, "consumed" by others is circular (but in reality that does not matter.)

I suppose it can simply be said that gold is considered to have value by common agreement; but that agreement is not irrevocable unlike some believe.
For a quick overview / intro, this is excellent. Fast, to the point, and clean. I wish I had this when I started.

Of course, with only 9 effective steps of a single demonstration, it's rather lacking in completeness. But that's not its point, and I love all the links in this thread. Loads of good stuff :)
Broadcast media and print are doing a fine enough job on their own with sensationalism and scaremongering.
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The article pretty obviously is written under the assumption that more jobs is better. I am challenging that assumption. I am not suggesting that the article does not show how more jobs are created.

The fact remains unchanged that a bunch of people got the crap end of the automation stick. It is not unreasonable to think that maybe there was a better way to got about the automation that was both good for the people being displaced, and created a bunch of jobs? My previous questions were sort of aimed here, but when I wrote them I had not yet coherently formed this most recent question.
If your goal is to get equity of any significant amount, you should discuss this up front - that's not to say ask for it right away, but talk about the path for that job and whether if things go well in X months or years you will get 1% or whatever it is you want. You could also ask how much runway they have.
Food grows right out of the ground. Water falls from the sky. One person is not going to own all the land in the world, nor all the water. Even if someone did, he wouldn't be able to police it all to prevent other people from living on it and growing their own food.
Was I the only one left wondering why this ever made it onto Hacker News? If you want personal essays read the New Yorker.
I'd take DHH's opinion more seriously if he had any actual experience with VC or startups. 37 Signals is not a startup -- they crow about that fact themselves. 37 Signals is a small business.

David's points all presume that he fully understands what Joel is planning; he clearly cannot, since Joel hasn't laid out a detailed business plan.
Reading the original post, I thought pretty much the same thing. The whole idea of getting VC money is to jumpstart the next phase of a company/product's life. Facebook was a college kid's side project that looked promising but VC money made it top 3 site on the web. YouTube would have been impossible for 3 typical 20-somethings to afford out of their personal/family savings. They needed VC funding because they were burning through $1m/month in cash. What exactly is it about Stack Overflow that Joel can't pay for himself with his own funds? What kind of hiring does he want to do to make it any bigger?

Joel listed all these vague reasons that sort of sound good without actually saying concrete steps / changes that would come out of VC funding. I would definitely like to hear what it is that he, despite being one of the most popular tech bloggers with a boatload of notoriety and savings, can't do with Stack Overflow that somehow VC money can.
I haven't quite had the location-by-metadata gem, but I do get people tracking me down at public events or finding out my business number and calling to harass me with some insane ramblings, or emailing me based on some very confused interpretation of what one of my sites does.
I remember Slackware Linux back in the mid-late 90s that involved creating loads and loads of 3 1/2 floppies for installation. It was not an easy process back then, at all. But, it was young then, and I learned a whole lot more having to build everything myself, before the package managers.