skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
For a person who did a Post Doc with Stephen Hawking, it's difficult to believe he is absolutely lacking in ethics and morals.

I can guarantee you that the selection process for Physics PhDs has nothing to do with ethics, morals, emotional stability, social skills, or anything else relating to character.
But that's not irrational. They have too many legs, and they bite!
I didn't imply this in particular is water inefficient, just that it's probably inefficient in some way.

I suppose this system really amounts to scrap food recycling. You're feeding the fish various waste organic material that was already grown on a real farm.

The real question is probably: why not just feed it to pigs or goats, the traditional solution? Older folks tell me it was common for there to be residential garbage pickup, separate from trash. The garbage would be taken to farms.
How To Be A Billionaire
It's not obvious that redistribution is against copyright, e.g. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine

It seems to me (from First Sale Doctrine) that copyright protects against increasing the number of copies, not passing copies around.

Prior to easy copying, these would have been the same thing (copying a book being difficult), but it's worth thinking about the distinction for digital media.
Hypnosis techniques
5 Euros would fetch you a mid-range bottle of wine in Vienna.
Maybe it's not a technical question, but a logical question.

It's a direct to product link labeled as a company link?
"Does admitting that mean I'm no longer qualified for HN"

This should have come under Don't Ask Don't Tell....
if you use Gnome - Gtk# is better choose than qt with it's strange looking controls (under gnome). Also I don't think it will be ever possible to make such a good autocomplete/intellisense with any qt/c++ tool (lack of reflection not to mention LINQ, lambda expressions or even simple properties). Monodevelop = good modern language + gui designer. At the moment it simply rules.
Interesting. My reaction tends to vary.

I do seem to fall into either Dr. No or My Bad
Why would any website which gets few million hits a month not have a redundant system is beyond me. If you consider the amount of money they make the cost of a redundant setup is really nothing.
I'm not sure I follow you. Speed improvements to Python 3 will kill the language?
The schema looks good. I'm a web developer and would like to help, what do you need?
I don't think PyPy has a chance at becoming the standard the way things are going now.

Their funding has ended, and I don't think they will manage to pony up another million+ in funding after 5 years. PyPy isn't compatible with C modules, and can be up to 5x as slow as Cpython (according to their own benchmarks). Making unladen-swallow the python standard will probably cause a brain-drain and make others hesitant to support PyPy.
Some government workers have great authority to impose things on people, but I don't know if I'd agree that it's typical.
Of course this happens just hours after we launch a new video and are getting lots of traffic from hackaday.com (which is apparently WP hosted)...

http://www.nerdkits.com/videos/digital_calipers_dro/

So looking at our server logs now, we're largely seeing hits to that page from Google Reader (I guess it cached their RSS feed?).
It's a shame that you can't send your suicide/murder note out to friends for feedback. He really could have used a little editing.
When you consider the amount of money their losing right now...
From the PEP:
"Unladen Swallow has focused on improving the performance of single-threaded, pure-Python code. We have not made an effort to remove CPython's global interpreter lock (GIL); we feel this is separate from our work, and due to its sensitivity, is best done in a mainline development branch. We considered making GIL-removal a part of Unladen Swallow, but were concerned by the possibility of introducing subtle bugs when porting our work from CPython 2.6 to 3.x."
This is going to sound rude, but how about you do what the people paying you tell you to do? Thats why they give you money, to provide them value which you will not be doing while trying to circumvent their procedures and rules.

Maybe they evaluated GIT and decided their business case suited SVN more?

You wouldnt code your stuff in PHP if they are an ASP.NET shop because you like PHP more would you? By all means try to educate them to use what you feel is a better tool, but until then suck it up and do what everyone else is doing.
"This PEP proposes to integrate Unladen Swallow into CPython's development tree in a separate py3k-jit branch, targeted for eventual merger with the main py3k branch. While Unladen Swallow is by no means finished or perfect, we feel that Unladen Swallow has reached sufficient maturity to warrant incorporation into CPython's roadmap. We have sought to create a stable platform that the wider CPython development team can build upon, a platform that will yield increasing performance for years to come."

It's not going right in.
Ah, that's the point of aquaponics. While the plants are watered more than typical planting, the water is conserved and enriched naturally in the fish tank.
Tell HN: Twilio is Hiring a Developer Evangelist
> The real value comes from the implementation, which is only loosely connected to the patent; just as the relationship of any software to its initial specification.

Suppose that I came up with a method for solving traveling salesman in O(N2). Do you really believe that the value of a package that uses that method comes mostly from things other than the method?

Subject to what happens in In Re Bilski, you can patent the application of an algorithm to a specific problem, subject to novelty and obviousness. And no, the fact that an algorithm is obviously useful for a given problem does not trigger the obviousness bar. ("bar" = obstacle to getting a patent.)
The big mass of PHP spaghetti has finally become self-aware -- and it killed itself. And people say artificial intelligence isn't...
Ah, you're absolutely right - that should say squash, not melons.
You've answered your own question. The law doesn't say government agents who engage in child pornography should be punished more severely than regular citizens. In the case of holding up a post office at gunpoint, it's not applying the law differently because the law is different.

FWIW, my understanding is that messing with the post in general is a federal crime. It has nothing to do with the government employee being more 'important' than the common man; that's just an unintended side effect.
It's not really critical to anyone for some blog to have perfect uptime. TechCrunch's advertisers don't pay on a CPM basis except possibly a few of the traditional banner slots.
Interesting rhetorical device, but I think a lot of people would have a hard time fitting themselves tidily into one of those categories. I'm probably more of a 3, although it can vary depending on what state of mind I'm in!
This seems like it would be an all too entirely unpleasant experience. :( The thing is, the way I see it, for me, the friends whose opinions I really trust and value are the same friends who are going to straight-up tell me to my face if I have some flaw that needs addressing, whether I want to hear it or not, because they have my best interests at heart. As for everyone else's opinions, or the nit-picky little things that we all tend to overlook in each other, anyway, then I just don't see those as needing to be brought to the surface, because it serves no good.
"If they abuse the public trust, the potential for damage is much higher, and the punishment should be correspondingly more severe."

I don't disagree, but that's not what the law says. Get it into a law, and then reality will match up with your belief.
I regard this as a chance to learn something about the technical details of HTML, so my answer whould not be regarded as definitive. Or even correct.

However ...

It depends on the variant of HTML, but surely "<p>" is not a, what's the technical term, container? In the variants of HTML that use <p> you don't then have to have a </p> because it's not of the open/close variety.
http://emily%20a.willyougotoformalwithme.com/jud
That... or maybe he'll just move it over to tumblr.
Apparently.

(Nice article. Thanks for the link.)
Can I just say: you guys are doing a great job already!

I mean, I'm can't help considering creating a startup just to use your API.
still down at 2:57pm PST
There's a lot of people here who seem to think .NET bytecode (or Java for that matter) is run by the VM. How 90's of you guys. It's compiled on first run, so technically there's no difference with (iPhone) Objective-C apps. The GC may factor in, though.
Spoke too soon!
What's stopping a person from creating a profile for someone (maybe someone who's "unpopular")??

Seems like it could devolve into juicycampus.com for... everyone.
At first I thought this was going to be a huge reason for people to migrate over to Python 3... Now I'm worried that it'll actually be another reason not to (due to size increase and only moderate speed increase), but I sure hope I'm wrong!
that was a very good article and i'd encourage people to read past the hockey bit.

thanks. i don't normally get much from these "managementy" posts, but that really made me think. hmm. although maybe it's just because it connects with other issues today.
Student Loans: The new indentured servitude?
Ask HN: What do you use to manage your affiliate programs?
I quietly rolled out a small affiliate program to a few of my power users on SnailPad (www.snailpad.com) and, for now, I'm tracking payouts on a spreadsheet and planning to manually send out payment via Paypal. Anyone tips on how to manage this stuff over the longer term?

FWIW, I'm paying out 20% of the referral's first monthly payment and then 5% of their on going payments. I gave myself a 45 day window to make sure I don't shoot myself in the foot when it comes to cash flow... so I have about a month left before my first payments need to start getting paid out. I'm really hoping that I either find a better solution or I build something in house to avoid having to manually deal with this stuff day-to-day.
"There is no counterbalancing force. "

There is a company offering an interesting service to fight patent trolls:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2010/tc201...
Extra great for me, since I was sipping a $2 Startbucks coffee while reading it...
Ooh! Give it a twitter @somethinorother listener and an auto-refresh tag so she can just leave it up and you can twitter a new message in anytime. Dammit, now I'm inspired too. Just when I thought I might get free time...
This reminds me of the old Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin is selling "a swift kick in the butt" for $1.00. Business is slow and Calvin says, "I don't understand it, everybody I know needs what I'm selling!"
That's a dangerous place for an investor (angel investors are incredibly brave) because one of the tenents of the old rigid VC model is that follow-on investors will usually try to squeeze out the early investors.

I've heard this in several places before? Can someone explain how this is done? How can early investors be diluted without also diluting the founders?
Awesome! I'll get the website up soon and post a link. We can modify it over the web with html/css/js/sql with the web platform I'm going to use. keep checking http://www.shellcompanyfinder.com Should be up ... hopefully soon.
So, was this related to the changes reported in today's front-page New York Times story, "U.S. Cracks Down on ‘Contractors’ as a Tax Dodge," or is the timing just a coincidence?

"Federal and state officials, many facing record budget deficits, are starting to aggressively pursue companies that try to pass off regular employees as independent contractors. President Obama’s 2010 budget assumes that the federal crackdown will yield at least $7 billion over 10 years."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/business/18workers.html?em
My prediction that the current savings slowly erode over time as cost of living rises in China. Hopefully, this will allow automation to come into play in production facilities.
Good call - http://bit.ly/9BYtb9
It is my understanding that the arbiter is useful for the replica pair coordination, but that is not directly related to durability (i.e. the guarantee that once the user has been notified of success, the transaction will persist, and not be undone.)
Are you talking about the "phone" link on http://bu.mp to the Android App? If so, that link only works on Android phones (it is a link to the Market Place application).

If not, what isn't working? So we can go fix it... :)
From my limited knowledge, one of two ways:

1) The founders also get squeezed out

2) The founders have some sort of preferred shares.
I'll have to start paying more attention to what I'm doing when I'm surprised.

I think that for surprises that don't affect me on a personal/emotional level I probably identify closest with the Distiller. But for surprises that do, I really have absolutely no clue. While I'd like to think that I behave just as intelligently when a surprise affects me directly, I know that that's not true.
Who was the attack intended to strike terror in?
Investments in innovation are very risky, but the payoffs match the risk. Basically as an investor you need to understand this and to decide how much risk you're willing to take. If you invest in a proven technology and a proven team you're more likely to make a smaller profit, but investments in new technology and often unproved teams can provide obscene paybacks but carry considerably more risk. Google comes to mind as an example.
Disturbing Misinterpretations: No One Knows What the F*** They're Doing
Oh noes! Who will tell us when GMail and Twitter go down now?
TELL HN: Wordpress.com is down (and millions of blogs together)
It seems that Wordpress.com is down + all the blogs they host.

Link: http://wpvibe.com/wordpress-com-goes-down-techcrunch-com-goes-with-it-247/
The author contrasts "VCs want Innovation" with "VCs want a product and a standard business model". They then claim that these statements contradict.

For example, Gridspy is making an innovative product, which is proven and already has several customers. However our business model is totally standard. 1) Sell units for profit. 2) Residual monthly fees for profit.

You can make innovative products and companies with boring old business models. VCs are right to be cautious around "We have a great idea but no possible way to monetise it."

Then again, I agree with pg that you don't need to have a business plan to have a great product. Companies such as twitter can turn into the most exciting startups.
A big number would not be a goal; people we would enjoy working with is the goal. So many project posted on other sites want code designed to run on $5/month shared hosting and offer to pay $100 for several hours, if not days of work.

What I have in mind would be low-volume, but high S/N ratio.
"Block element"? Yes it is. The "</p>" is optional, not banned.
Chirpie for iPhone launched on App Store
Terrorism is a strategy not a sin, just because you happen to agree with what they are saying does not mean they are not terrorist's. Also you don't need actually kill people to induce fear, setting fire to an empty building can also count.
love to try this. codes?
I was under the impression that people used Wordpress VIP hosting so that they wouldn't have to worry about using a redundant system (meaning that Wordpress VIP should take care of it).
Google Gift Means More Servers for Wikipedia
Isn't that why they're giving the WordPress folks all that money?
USA consists a few oligarchs and a lot and lot of brainwashed sheep. Resembles feudal society. Masters and their slaves. How sad to see you guys becoming pathetic parodies of the values you used to represent.
They may be objecting to use of target, which isn't allowed in html 4 strict as far as I remember. But if they're expecting TV presenters to hand-write html, that's a bit picky.
If you often use multiple computers for accessing various password-protected things (maybe as a system admin or just the occasional need of accessing something on another computer), then you could use a password manager that runs off of the flash drive and Dropbox portable to keep it synced with new passwords and password changes.

I have Keepass and Dropbox on my flash drive just in case I ever need to access something when using someone else's computer, without having to worry about keeping my password database up to date. Much easier than downloading Keepass on a computer that isn't mine--rude at best, not possible due to permissions at worst--and then downloading the database from the web access and cleaning up when I'm done.

It's helped me once or twice; not often, but the relatively small files on a multi-gig drive is worth it.
Duplicate: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1135411
What exactly does #2 mean? Whenever new shares are issued, the founders get some more shares free?
of course, maybe you should hire Mr. Goebbels to help? Would be adequate for your point in history.
So you're saying that, in Germany, if a nine-year-old walks home from the playground and decides to pick up a stick and scratch up the paint on my car, and I'm somehow able to find out and prove that this kid did it, I can't hold either the kid or their parents responsible, and have to pay out of my own pocket to get it repaired? That's... retarded.
I'd argue that terrorism is largely a term to describe an opponent whose tactics go beyond what its adversary's population regards as appropriate... and so the term is mostly intended to marginalize an opponent and paint him and his cause as morally bankrupt.

The term can be used to describe asymmetrical warfare techniques whose objective is more to motivate fear in the target population than to achieve a classic military objective, but if you think about it, the neighbor kid being sent home from the front lines in a body bag also has that effect, albeit a bit more indirectly.

I think by definition an asymmetrical conflict that doesn't result in the weaker side quitting outright must include some sort of different moral standard about things like civilian life, soldier sacrifice, etc.
It's a remarkable study in the power of marketing: people hear "unladen swallow, llvm" and they think "fast"; but the reality is not that simple.
How to: Write Better Statuses on Facebook
French Government Looking to Set Up The Great Firewall Of France?
Code Metrics: Lines of Code (LoC)
Biology By the Numbers
I disagree with your first statement. I would say that many people do it. A few are also good at execution. I think these few are the ones ,for example, who start successful startups. I think many people, when they hear something from someone, judge. "That's cool." or "That's dumb"

As for the market, I am trying to discover if there even is a market for what I am good at. I don't care if it is limited, I am just wondering if the fact that someone can have original ideas that are important may well go the way of the dodo. Is inventiveness becoming a commodity? If you look back hundreds of years ago, a lot of major discoveries were arrived at independently in a fairly close time frame. That was with fewer people in the world, and even fewer of them educated (comparing to modern times). Nowadays I am pretty sure that every idea I may have is being thought up by 500 other people at the same time. Will there be any value in me trying to refine myself as an idea maker? To make better ideas? Or will something like YC eventually be a place for a team to apply with their skills then pick an interesting idea from the twittersphere and execute it to phenomenal success?

By the way, I am not shy of execution (I have been self employed most of my life) and I have seen plans through to fulfillment. I just feel that when I am managing the details, making every point of an idea go through, I am not doing what I am best at. You are completely right about having more ideas than we can implement. I just don't like this status quo, and I'm trying to find a way to change it.
I am sorry, but I completely didn't understand your last sentence. I should make a story about who?
You hit on an important characteristic of asymmetrical conflict, which is the propaganda aspect of a particular campaign (contrary to the traditional military objective of capturing territory, causing large scale surrender, etc.)

I think the guy is nuts, and i think the best description is that he chose a really screwed up way of committing suicide.
I really like OS X's solution — files stored in appropriate places in the file system which can be either human-readable or a format which is easily converted to human-readable, and there's built-in support for inheritance (user-host inherits from user inherits from system inherits from defaults).
DevCentral Weekly Roundup Episode 123 - VE
SEO is the Trick to the Web Marketing
The use of these services allows the companies to increase their sales and improve their business identity. It is also good for the market in order to improve the competition.
OK, thanks. In what variants? And is it regarded as "Good Style" (whatever that might mean)
sweet, now we can have botnets and trojans on our phones!
Taiwan laptop maker warns of China labor shortages
We were under that impression as well.
Submitter here -- I didn't make the site.
SCALE 8x: Eric Hammond on Deploying Linux on EC2
Did he not hear about Bernie Madoff?
Meanwhile, local television in Austin, the Texas capital, said Stack's house was fully engulfed in flames this morning just before the crash into the IRS building, and that Stack's wife and 12-year-old daughter had been pulled out distraught but unscathed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/18/austin-plane-sui...
Maybe you are a rambling narcissist?
I don't think you read the article. The conclusion is that ideas are cheap. The dude was the ideas man.

When a company is seen as a bullshitting enterprise how is it sycophantic?
In XHTML, the </p> is required. In HTML, some people prefer to close all tags for cleanliness; others prefer to leave the <p> open. It's really a personal preference. Personally, I like the more minimal approach of leaving the closing tag out (one less thing to try to match up). Others like it to look like XML (everything closed).

As far as the original post's question -- that HTML snippet is perfectly fine.
Hilarious - Toyota Caption Modified
GOOD magazine's refresh everything project
Cut Your JavaScript Load Time 90% with Deferred Evaluation
Ask YC: Javascript and server-side programming, which is harder for you?
I work as a django/python programmer by day, although I do my fair share of front-end work (mostly template building/cleaning and ajax/javascript/jquery.)

Although I've been programming for over half my life, I find that of all the things I do on a regular basis, it's doing DOM manipulation post-ajax call that forces me to do the most mental-judo.

Does anyone else find js work more difficult, relatively speaking, than typical server-side work?

(And yes, I use jquery.)
yeah, that's what I thought too.
I take your point, however, the whole point of this type of narrow work breakdown is to be able to train someone unskilled to do a small, single task well. In other words, this may be a skill, but you wouldn't consider the worker skilled.