skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That other mises article also couldn't help ending with:

> "In other words, government involvement accounts for the internet's continuing problems, while the market should get the credit for its glories."

It is a, rather juvenile seeming, monomania -- that is quite off-putting.

Government, or some cooperative superstructure, has a place, as does some kind of market. Although it seems to me that the internet and its goodness exemplifies cooperation more than market, and I expect many others would agree.
Remember: There are not PDF vulnerabilities. There are Acrobat vulnerabilities. Just don't install it. Use a safer program to view PDF files.
Really for most programmers it is a list of 10 books I want to have on my bookshelf so I look important when someone comes over. A list of ten programing books programmers wish they read.

Much more useful is the list of "... ten books that I really enjoyed, and that I'd recommend to anyone who's a computer programmer, regardless of their preferred language and platform."

http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/ten-great-books
True, but I don't believe that Congress is allowed to negotiate foreign treaties. So I would assume that the onus for anything that the US government proposes at these discussions falls on his administration, making it all his responsibility.
One of the articles on this, which I can't cite because I didn't save the link, said parents had complained to the school IT department that the webcam indicator would light at strange times. According to the article, the school dismissed the complaints as not an issue. This was all before the current situation emerged.
What I find annoying that at work I can see people wasting time on facebook, gchat, etc... while a nap is frowned upon.
Trade policies are crafted by the Executive branch, and Ron Kirk, the US Trade Representative, is a member of President Obama's Cabinet.
bob345 made me look twice, very defensive and an account less than 2 hours old
http://norml.org/ med marijuana has made great strides, actually
I flagged this article because I think the headline "MySQL-Monty about the importance of open in mobile & why Apple can not win" is over-editorializing. I think it's fair to personally draw that conclusion from the article, but that isn't the article's headline, nor is it what the author is really saying. The author is talking about the importance of open vs. closed platforms, and iPhone is both. Apple went out of their way to make what at the time was the very best mobile browser available.

To me, the post is a marketing ploy for the author's latest investment. if I was going to editorialize the headline, I might write "Why MySQL Monty is investing in the cross-platform and open source company MoSync."
Linux Wall Wart Works Wonderfully
Don't delete comments. Just edit them and note that you were wrong, or reply to the comment that corrected you.
Poll: Who else is a power napper, how long on average, and when on average?

Time = 20-40 minutes, sometimes as little as 10 or as long as an hour. Sometimes skip a day. To cure east-to-west jet lag same day I run on excitement from arrival until out of gas a few hours later, then 2-hour deep sleep, then have someone force me to get up, then feel fine and stay up until midnight or 1:00AM, then wake up at the next morning rested and synced.

When = when I feel it, which is usually around 3:00PM +/- an hour.

After nap = totally refreshed, as if it was a full night sleep.

Full night sleep = around 6-7 hours usually, sometimes as few as three (rarely), sometimes as many as nine (rarely). The short nights or long nights work fine.

The main thing is just awareness and going with the flow (for me, anyway). You guys?
I thought about that; the issue is not that one must have a college course to get started on programming, or that a course in secondary or primary school is the only pre-college exposure people could have. It's that of all students in college, a very small percentage of them have any exposure to programming. And I think we can safely assume that the percentage would be an order of magnitude lower among students that never make it to college (which still describes a majority of people---attending college for even a day puts you in a minority).

By contrast, even the most NCLB-starved schools tend to have some art and music programs, even if they're cut way back, and virtually everyone has some (perhaps inadequate) PE classes and access to pickup games of basketball or stickball or whatever. There's really no imminent chance of the number of people who have done "some" programming coming within two orders of magnitude of the number of people who have done "some" art or played "some" sports.
No thanks, I don't need any more "open" products from Monty the same way MySQL was so open he cried wolf for months when Oracle purchased Sun.

Speaking of open-source, MoSync seems to support: Android (1.5, not 2.0), Moblin 2, Java ME, S60 and Windows Mobile. Out of these 3 are probably 100% open-source (Android, S60, Moblin) while the rest of the bunch have nowhere near the iPhone level of "lock-in". Where is the need for MoSync exactly ?

Not saying I might not use their SDK, I was thinking about http://phonegap.com/ not long ago (which is also open-source), but I don't see why is he bragging about "open" so much, there is nothing revolutionary to talk about.
Until the videos come online. Most of the presentations slides can be found here:
http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/schedule/
Millions of Unemployed Face Years without Jobs
'Forever Peace'?
Its not hard to spoof an i.p. address, heck posting from one of the easy to use myspace proxy websites will give you the effect of a USA i.p. address.
I've noticed you haven't usually written much about your personal life. But I'm curious, I'll be moving to Tokushima this August, do you live anywhere near there?
Types and Programming Languages was one of the books used for my (undergrad) programming languages course. This article made me feel much less guilty about not actually understanding most of the small amount that we did end up actually reading.
Am I the only one who found GEB to be a light read? There are many books on computer science, math, and philosophy which I have to think hard and spend a great deal of time to absorb, but GEB was most definitely not one of them. I know Steve Yegge is probably smarter than me, and it baffles me to hear him describe how it is too rich and dense for him to finish. I found it fairly playful and easy to get through, and hard to put down until I was done.
> _Please change the title to "My recommendations for Ruby on Rails hosting services that have affiliate programs."_

This seems a bit uncalled for. When did it become not OK to have referral ids in one's articles? There is nothing shady about this. The page clearly discloses the presence of affiliate links.

> _It's amazing how almost all the links are affiliate links._

3 hosting companies out of 9 have my referral id.

> _I had to look twice, since some of them do redirects so that it's not obvious from the final url that you've followed an affiliate link._

I use a plugin which prettifies links and provide statistics for each link (much better than Wordpress Stats does).

> _I use http://www.railsplayground.com_

I didn't have a chance to try them out.
RightSide Capital Announces New Seed Fund
I am surprised this thread didn't grow larger.. Or perhaps I shouldn't be..

As someone who only came to the valley recently, I agree with the majority of observations in the article. I wrote a short article with my comments here: http://dvitanov.posterous.com/innovation-and-the-interdiscip...
No, that's an excellent example. I forgot about it despite seeing it all over here just a few days ago ;-)
Could you elaborate on why you think it's bad?
"3 hosting companies out of 9 have my referral id."

But the point is, you didn't disclose the role of commercial sponsorship in your "recommendations" until you were called on it.

Because this article smells like an advertorial and it is not clear whether you are representing our interests or your own, I think this raises two questions:

(1) Why should we take seriously any recommendations from this blog if there is such explicit commercial deference?

(2) How many older posts need to be revisited for commercial sanitization that we have not called to your attention?
Except it isn't, by a long stretch. If it was required, we'd probably have to hire all of China to handle the trial workload.
To be fair, the author is the James Clark who wrote expat and designed Relax-NG (a decidedly non-sucky XML schema tool).
Why do you believe they do anything more complex than a file transfer?
Also useful is 'line of sight' algorithm so the character can 'see'. Basically, you cast out rays of light (in 8 directions or 360 if you want to be really accurate), and when the light beam hits a solid object (a wall, for instance), you stop casting the ray.

All the non-solid objects encountered (eg, grass, tiles) are noted as 'visible'.

What you get is that the character (NPC or human) can see through windows and open spaces, but not through walls. Re-scan every time they move.
It looks like Peter was right on the money, in terms of the guy being a sham. Very interesting examination here:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=31024&page=1

FWIW, I never downvoted you - I actually upvoted you when I saw you dropped to 0.
"There's some vague evidence of difference, but we don't know one way or the other."

Which is the most common answer to medical articles with provocative question-titles like this.
5.0.307.9 beta on Ubuntu 9.10 works fine... if you can see this.
I have to wonder whether these people are really prepared, trained and equipped for the self-incubation, not to mention hatching and beyond.
Something fishy with Google library project
For some reason, though, they seem to mainly do the same thing under both parties' administrations, which makes me suspect that trade policies are really crafted by a set of career bureaucrats who stay there under all kinds of administrations, aiding a revolving door of people with largely the same political viewpoints. As far as I can tell, ACTA negotiations have been exactly the same under Bush and Obama, such that if you were looking at U.S. politics through them you would barely know there was more than one political party in the US.
Swarm of Micro-Helicopters Could Create a Giant 3-D Display
This study is about type 2 diabetes. The question here is on the effects of exercise as compared to mind-enhancing drugs.
Assuming they're continuing to fight insurgents (i.e. not fighting another superpower) I think the technological distance between the US and its enemies is a lot more than 5 years. Care to make a LongBet?
No, you're not the only one. I, and at least three people I know, all found it to be an entertaining and fairly straight-forward read. Certainly not unfinishable.

I'd be interested to know what it is that people find makes them stop.
and it baffles me to hear him describe how it is too rich and dense for him to finish

I'm not saying that this is your case, but usually when this happens it is because the other person is looking at things that you are not.

Reminds me of a time when I heard Robert Sapolsky saying that he did not handle his own stress in a good way. I'm pretty sure he handles it better than me and most people, but he has the knowledge that he is just scratching the surface.

Looks also like that quote from Socrates 'I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.'
The price ($500 / month for just to show a file transfer !! ) .Why does an ISP like Comcast would buy/use if it is just a simple file transfer? They would rather build an in-house tool.
> there are countless stories of people who have had their domain taken down for “questionable reasons” by GoDaddy

There's no comment section on the original post, but can the author or anyone else provide links to specific and credible stories. Or at least elaborate on what “questionable reasons”, e.g. DMCA?
I got it working, you need macports installed:

1) sudo port install py26-pygtksourceview
2) python2.6 dreampie

Step 1 takes a LONG time ( about 2-3hrs on my MBP )
What did he mean by "voice"? I'm assuming he means having a unique voice and personality. Like Mailchimp and the monkey. Am I right?
Why we don't trust Devil Mountain Software (Exo Performance backstory)
That's actually the best argument for the continued illegality of any enhancing drugs. Drugs _have_ side effects, and creating a situation in which people are compelled to take them ensures that at least some will suffer the consequences.
I've had a think (and reread the install instructions which did suggest that in retrospect) I have a feeling I installed pyGTK (or at least tried too) in the past.

Im pretty sure I installed it from source (or whatever the main way for Windows is).

I'll have a look. If it's a bug not caused by my mistake (probably is) I'll let you know.
It may have been that I just read it at the wrong time in my life, but I found parts of it really tedious. I can imagine it would've been more enlightening if I'd read it earlier in my life, as opposed to trying to read it after I already had a CS degree and was in grad school studying AI...
Would you agree that the following is most likely true? p(long_term_safety|overdose_non_lethal) > p(long_term_safety|overdose_lethal)

That is, if an acute overdose of modafinil is not lethal, then it is more likely that the drug is safe for long term use. An equivalent acute overdose of caffeine would cause ventricular fibrillation and death. Yet few people are concerned about caffeine's long-term safety.

Also, notice the side effects of modafinil overdose: nausea, nervousness, and insomnia. Side effects of caffeine overdose include hallucinations, psychosis, and rapid muscle breakdown leading to kidney failure.

Although modafinil's mechanism of action isn't well-understood, evidence points to it having a neuroprotective effect. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2654794/ . So if anything, it's probably beneficial in the long-term.
It's a reasonable point.

Though in a way it does sound like a solution looking for a problem.
The NYT’s blogs are set to be paywalled
The Power of Massive Twitter Accounts - Or Lack Thereof
Unknown hacker hijacks the website of Falkland Islands' newspaper
http://nodaddy.com
The positive spin for HN folk: if you are an entrepreneur, get cracking ! This is both opportunity for you, as well as a Good Thing to do for the economy (yes yes, I know, unlikely to hire a long term unemployed person for a new internet startup, but it still doesn't hurt !).
...really? It seems stunningly obvious to me that exercise and a good diet is good for overall health and mental health. I think the burden of proof is on you here. Or are you just positing that exercise+diet has no impact on productivity, not health?
Does it matter who you get news from?
Didn't do anything for me. My roommate said it improved his ability to do mental math, but the improvement wasn't worth continuing to take it.
is there some reason ipython doesn't work for you for this purpose?
There's far more to a libertarian than just free markets. They're all for (peaceful) voluntarism of any kind.
He's playing the game at a whole other level. With his intelligence and connections in SV, I don't think calling it luck does it justice.

I'm still waiting for him to start a hedge fund so that non-connected SV-outsiders can get in on his action.
It seems we have at least ~20 years of a serious transition problem, even if in the long run it's a symptom of positive technological progress: there's a large cohort of blue-collar workers in their 40s and 50s caught out by the rapid decline in US blue-collar jobs. Some will find other skills, or go back to school to acquire skills (and valuable pieces of paper), but can that absorb millions of middle-aged people who have been blue-collar workers all their lives and now find that to be a dead end?
I only see this getting worse in the future. There just isn't enough work to go around anymore. How many white collar/service jobs don't involve any actual work? I just hope our economic system can adjust so we don't have a perpetual, growing underclass.
This would be the same Obama who appointed half the RIAA's legal staff to the Justice Department?
I found such recommendations about as consistent and clear as food recommendations.

Everything cited as being good is also at some time cited as bad.

Here's "daytime naps linked to strokes (in older people)" as the counter argument:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=44272&sectionid=351...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7257270.stm

I like body hacks as much as anyone, but ultimately I think that people should just do what works for them.
Don't reuse your passwords. You've heard it repeated over and over again. I do believe that is the solution.

Now, of course, I do reuse. But other than the above I just don't see a solution to this particular problem. Filtering both the username and password in the logs? It wouldn't make -me- feel any safer when I log onto that Xbox hacker forum. I worry about the administrator of the site having access to my passwords. Not any possible hackers that might wander by.

PS. There are tools out there that will fill in username and password depending on URL. Of course, that gives another attack vector...
Migrating infrastructure comes at the expense of developing new functionality. Your business partners and customers aren't going to wait around while you fix the plumbing.
These pilots are fighting wars from Las Vegas. The enemy may take action to remove them from the fight, and collaterally damage any local civilians who get in their way. The war would seem much less abstract then.
As with anything your read on the net, you can choose to trust what you read or not. And you can further research it elsewhere. A critical mind is a good thing.

I like to think that most people here, and definitely my habitual readers, know me and trust me thanks to a solid reputation that I've built over the past few years.

If a prominent Django developer where to post a hosting article about Django, I wouldn't question his integrity just because some referral links were used. If I didn't trust what I read, I would simply not buy.

Back to your accusation of not disclosing my commercial sponsorship, I'll remind you of the disclosure posted from the get go:

"Disclosure: Some of the links above have my referral id. Pretty much any hosting site out there offers affiliate programs these days. Here I only report the Rails hosting sites I consider the best for you, regardless of the small commission I may get. By buying through these links, you get to support this site, and ensure its continued operation. At zero cost to you. Isn’t that nice of you? I feel a bit of love already. :)"

I think this makes where I coming from fairly clear. For example, I believe Slicehost gives you less than $10 for each person who buys from them through your referral. Do you have any idea how many hosting companies pay referral fees that are 5 to 10 times more than that? Yet, I wouldn't even dream of including them if I didn't know (directly or indirectly) that they were reliable.

To write this article, I first created a list of shared, vps and cloud providers I trusted. And only then did I check if I had an affiliate link to them (or if one was readily available). And it turns out that 3 out of 9 do.

The few spare bucks I may make, will help with the hosting fees (currently $85 a month) and the great investment of time I put towards blogging. Again, this is not shady.

You are of course free to choose not to trust what I write, or what I've written in the past.

To everyone else: I think we have beaten this horse to death already. I've made my position clear. If you don't concur, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
I forget where I first heard about it, but the idea of something better and safer than caffeine intrigued me. I take modafinil in the following circumstances:

1. If I feel particularly tired in the morning.

2. If I need to get a lot of stuff done in a short amount of time.

3. If I need to study or perform my best for others. (Mostly job interviews or important meetings.)

On average, I end up taking it about twice a week. For me it's basically caffeine++. It helps me think faster and stay focused.
Africa is not going to have drone soldiers though. The only way I see the African dictators falling is armies of killer robots.
Though you might not directly hire a long-term unemployed person, you could indirectly, by causing growth in suppliers.
I recently made 6 figures in one hour when people paid for my content.

People pay for trusted, consistent online content that will help them achieve specific solutions. And Andrew's interviews are a prime example.

There are lots of people doing this. They just don't show up on many Web 2.0 sites.
I believe this is an illusion. It always seems like technology is eliminating jobs, but it has always tended to create as many as it kills, which is why after hundreds of years of new labor-saving inventions, the number of jobs is still close to the number of people who want them.
You know, I keep reading this stuff on self-hosting, and it gave me an idea that has nothing to do with this original post. I think you'll like the idea, though.

Imagine an AI kind of program that:

- determines the cheapest, most capable hosting provider
- determines the top 20 trending niches and randomly picks one
- determines the best available domain name for that trending niche
- uses a credit card and sets itself up with hosting
- finds trending content and through synonymizers writes short summaries about it and links to it
- signs up for and uses multiple ad networks until it can find the most lucrative top three for the content it serves and rotates these three
- every week, broadcasts a link about itself to other social bookmarking and social networking sites
- automatically uses whitehat SEO techniques to try and increase its page rank
- within three months, reproduces itself to build yet another site like that
- after 12 months, sells that copy on flippa.com automatically

The only thing it needs is a credit card and someone to respond to captchas or click the Submit on a form it suggests.

Each new owner merely sits back and collects the profit. It's a self-aware affiliate marketing system.

Pretty funny, eh? However, it also would be pretty interesting to watch.
I think the issue is this.

I see the problems with current politics; I personally think I could do a lot to fix it. I've even been close to stepping up and trying to actually do something the last few months.

Problem is I can see that fire slipping away already. I can see how much effort it would take just to give it a shot where on the other hand I know I can live comfortably, start and provide for a family within my current career.

Why step up when no one else will.

This is the problem: Im sure there are thousands of individuals of my generation with the drive, passion and (crucially) common sense to fix the mess in the future generation of politics. But they all lose interest or faith in the system.

So we end up with the second raters in charge (while the smart ones go off and do cool stuff)
Is there any average-skill, reliable way that people can make an income during a down turn like this?

I'm thinking outside of the internet-set like istockphoto / writing articles / etc.

Tangible, GDP positive tasks.

Farming?
As long as you're not an asshole, you can call yourself Shamu T. Whale for all I care. The more anonymous you feel online, the less you think about the ramifications of your actions. I'm not saying this is necessarily the case for you, but it's true for a lot of people (and the internet is full of examples of this).
The FDA has the power to prosecute for unproven claims.

Regulating woo could give it more credibility.