skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is entirely about a very bright little girl and not at all about My Little Pony.

If you have the right mind, you'll see the math in whatever you're focused on - radios, Legos, or dolls.
Ah, "Protecting" as it would be a shame if anything were to break around here.
Hu?

You make it seem like she grew up in a 3rd world country sorting garbage for a living, and found a pony which changed her life.

What's unlikely about her life? And why's she a diamond in the rough?

She probably when to school like everyone else, and the pony had nothing to do with it. It was just a prop.
This makes me sad, because Serious Business has a SICK logo, and I fear it will now go away :)
My Big Fat Geek Wedding
Why would it be suprising that there isn't a standard text file representation of something that is hardly ever represented that way?
14 Votes Cast… Total, for $1M Bond Issue
The Japanese also had a reputation as 'skillful mimics' in the US during the 1950s and 60s. It wasn't long before they could outdo their mentor.
You know, some of us actually like the Pre. It's highly pocketable, and WebOS is a genuine pleasure to use. I've been using the Pre heavily for a few months now, and I definitely prefer it to the iPhone, Droid, or Nexus One.

What makes you think that Palm is somehow being fradulent? That's a rather extraordinary claim.
If the brain is malleable to change itself to a depth perception compromised state due to exposure, isn't it malleable to change itself back when the exposure is removed?

Or it might just be malleable to figure the whole thing out after a little while and make it a non-issue.

As for me, I have very poor depth perception anyway thanks to having lousy vision in one eye, but the effect in the movies works quite well for me. Perhaps (diabolical laugh) the score will finally be evened up!
Suddenly, a pair of big, burly guys barge into your house and demand that you let them check your computer to make sure that it's "genuine" and not running pirated software.

This wouldn't bother me at all. I would then say, "Come back with a warrant," and expect to never see them again. If they secure the warrant and come back, then they are legally-entitled to inspect the machine, which is fine.

Too bad they don't know the password for my full-disk encryption, though. (My Win7 install is a VirtualBox image that runs inside my Linux install.)

But anyway, I love strict enforcement of software piracy rules. If people become unable to pirate commercial software, they will use and improve Free Software -- ending the problem of proprietary software forever.
"minimalism" is the current trendy fashion accessory these days. Sort of like being "eco". The more and more you talk about how minimal you are, the cooler you are.

Of course it's all just bloggers trying to get views. A guide to minimalism would be simply "Minimalism is what is necessary.".
I'm sick of all this talk of "scalable incomes" that refuse to confront the inherent survivor bias problem. The problem with scalable incomes is that they scale down as well as up. Say you found a system that has a 1% chance of making you $100,000 a year and a 99% chance of making $5 a year. For the average person, that's a pretty shitty deal since it's only got an expected value of $1000 a year.

But sell the system to 1000 people and you can find 10 who enthusiastically talk about the wonders of scalable income and ponder wisely about the various choices they made that got them to where they are today and how everyone should join them in the wonderful scalable utopia.

It's all bullshit, without accounting for the hidden failures, it's impossible to determine how much pure luck played a role.
Ex-Goldman programmer indicted for trade secrets theft
That sounds like people perhaps a bit more experience that what I had in mind. There's a sweet spot when you are in your late 20s, early 30s.

Respectable experience (around 10 years), no family to support and the burning desire to do something with your life and your skills.

They trade a little short term income for a potential jackpot and a fun job that pushes their limits.

That's the kind of people I was thinking about. Grand pa and the kids may join later if they want to.
It's rather like an infinite loop, no?
It is a case study. It doesn't mean it's the same for every website out there. That's in the article. Of course the website is more appealing for Twitter users. It says that in the article as well.

To answer your question. uberVU gets more traffic from Google than from Twitter.
Computers are not fast enough yet to calculate them in real time.
Trees (plants in general) already do photosynthesis really well

As I understand it, that's not exactly true; photosynthetic compounds are very efficient at harvesting light, but the chemical conversion to energy-carrying compunds is rather inefficient, I believe on the order of 1%. That said, those compounds are probably more valuable per joule than electricity since there is no storage problem, so it's hard to compare the two.

The reason we can't simply genetically engineer an organism that converts sunlight into electricity (or fuels) is that at the moment, neither the photon harvesting process nor the chemical conversion process are well enough understood to try to replicate.
It's funny, I was thinking about game theory applied to economics earlier, as a result of Dani's essay. So, anyway: I have a certain fondness for game theory as an overarching description of some aspects of economics.

But it doesn't describe the whole picture.

Game theory is great for example if you're trying to understand (or even predict) what'll happen when all parties involved are acting merely in the interests of their profits, and none of them are being especially innovative -- "cheating" in terms of game theory. What will industry Z do when faced with regulatory oversight? Let's ask game theory.

At smaller and smaller scales, game theory breaks down due to the greater and greater influences of other aspects of psychology, sociology, and sciences. For example, a business may not act totally rationally in terms of its profits because one or more individuals is more concerned with the business's image.
Except it seems to be missing all the features that make Objective-C "Objective-C" in my mind. How do you implement method missing/message forwarding in Java? Oh, that's right, your code doesn't even compile.
Short answer - They should be listed on the service providers list if you are using them in that capacity and you want to be fully compliant as well.

Longer answer (disclaimer: I'm a former PCI QSA). You can, of course, do whatever you want to with the credit card data at the risk of not being PCI compliant. Small startups are rarely at risk for a breach, but I'd personally prefer not to be in a position to deal with that liability. As it relates specifically to those companies, they need to apply to be on that list. I know that Recurly is currently working on it and Chargify is still in private beta, so I'm assuming it's something they're working on. That said, I have confidence that some of these companies will "do it right" and obtain PCI compliance/validated service provider status by the time it becomes a legitimate concern.

I've talked to both Recurly and Chargify directly. Recurly is apparently PCI Level 2 compliant and working on the external audit to reach level 1. Chargify is outsourcing storage ( http://chargify.com/blog/adding-payment-gateways-while-maint... ) which addresses a lot of concerns, but I'm not sure if they've gone through the necessary compliance process otherwise. As for CheddarGettar, the only mention of PCI compliance I can find on their site is this - http://support.cheddargetter.com/discussions/questions/39-pc... - which doesn't really indicate an understanding of what is actually required to be compliant. I can't comment on Spreedly as I didn't look at their solution, but I do know one of the devs previously worked at a large PCI shop.

So a service provider like these guys can technically be PCI compliant, but not be on the service provider list if they haven't applied to be. If you use them, though, they best be on the list by the time you reach the point that the PCI assessor (they don't like to be called auditors. ;)) is knocking on your door. This isn't likely to be for a while for most startups, though.

In some of the early data I've seen in a survey I'm doing (shameless plug: http://www.untitledstartup.com/2010/02/payment-security-surv... ), most companies are implementing their own system directly to paypal or similar, but have not actually gone through the process necessary to become PCI Level 4 certified. Most feel that the benefit of keeping the payment flow on their site is more important than the relatively small risk of being compromised. Can't say I agree, but I'm more paranoid than most.
Maybe Daniel’s possibly paid-for-posts of meaningless companies like ipodrip and divvyshot aren’t the issue here.

Has that been disclosed? divvyshot, at least, seems like it would merit coverage--after all, they've covered it before:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...
The Real Founding Fathers
Why Apple treats Books and Music differently
Too be fair, message forwarding is a pain in the ass in ObjC as well.
I didn't read philk's comment as a criticism. I think it was a sidebar comment triggered by the OP's almost offhand reference to "life of mind"

I don't see where philk "connected" his own comment with any of the arguments made in the OP. It's just something he added.
We posted our experiences of three of these here - http://www.untitledstartup.com/2010/02/accepting-payments-on...

We ultimately chose to go with recurly, but are going to look at chargify again once they stabilize a little bit. Recurly is not on the list, but in the process of doing so (I just emailed them ~10 minutes ago specifically about being a validated service provider).
Are these two, sshadmand and imosquera, sock puppet accounts?
Son-of-a-bitch, it worked. My first step down the customer development path…
Thanks for digging that up! If I understand this, it's not just that there is simple depth of field in the 2D/photography sense where the background of a primary subject is blurry. They are literally forcing your eyes to look at the primary subject using 3D tricks as well. This certainly would explain why I had such a strong sensation that I was being forced to focus on specific things... because I literally was being forced to.
I found their documentation absolutely horrendous. Try googling for "recurring paypal" and you get a page that links to a (stated) 682K PDF published in 2006 that in actuality is only 2 pages and includes a link to yet another 300 page PDF.
I'm no expert on the best way to get readers, but I felt the article was extremely well written. It honestly felt like it belonged in a publication.
> It happens to anything new going mainstream really: predictions of doom.

So obviously, caution should be thrown to the wind because anyone that speaks negatively of something that is 'going mainstream' doesn't know what they are talking about! If something is 'going mainstream' by virtue of the fact that it is 'going mainstream' it will always and in every case be perfectly safe!

I mean space travel is 'going mainstream' (at least 'space tourism' among the ridiculously rich), so there are no issues whatsoever with it. It is 100% safe, right?

Toyota brake systems are 'mainstream'... oh, nevermind.

Please don't use 'mainstream' as some sort of proof that something is safe or that a critic is wrong by virtue of the fact that the technology is 'mainstream' (or soon to be).

> The article doesn't talk at all about evidence of this - the closest it gets is to the lack of evidence that it is "safe".

See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1118849
It kind of looks that way. It makes me wonder if the article is worth anything. People need to realize that HN readers are slightly smarter than the average internet surfer.
Some nice demos of how it works:

http://www.opentransact.org/usecases.html#simple
Are we going to end up with vast structural unemployment?

I'm playing devil's advocate a little perhaps, but would it really be a terrible thing if that happened? In the 60s and 70s it was predicted that technology would increase leisure time. Perhaps that will happen after all, through higher rates of unemployment. Would it be so bad if robots and computers did most of the work required to keep people alive, and people only did work if they really wanted to?
The use of a URL in OpenID confused a hell of a lot of non-technical people. If WebFinger turns into "OpenID, but with an e-mail identifier," that might not be a bad thing.
Glad Y-combinator think about graphic designer. it reminds my post a few years ago http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50375
Sounds like she was close to rediscovering the Mandelbrot set.
This is awesome work, congrats. Have you been in contact with some banks about it already?
Understood. But by the time the guests are in, it has probably rested for 5 minutes already. Any more than that, and the steak will have cooled off too much. Hey, that's the way it works for me.
Goes to show that just because you model something after another, it doesn't mean they'll look or feel similar. The underlying design of Java might have been influenced by Objective C, but the use of the two languages feel very different.
The FBI Wants Access to Your Web Browsing Records
Yehuda Katz on Bundler and RubyGem issues - RubyConf 2009 - [video]
> agree, and will add that kids are expensive, especially if you want good education.

These factors aren't linked if you're willing to put in the effort.

When growing up we lived in one of the worst parts of the state regarding school districts. Parents began to teach us how to read, write, and do basic arithmetic before we ever were sent to public schools. I think I entered first grade reading and writing at an 8th grade level and knowing long division. Took until about 8 years old for me to grasp basic algebra. They held back after that point, otherwise we would've had a mind-numbing experience until at least high school. However the school board was made aware that these first graders could be head of the 6th grade class, so we were allowed to freedom to learn other things (and sit in a few other classes once a week - mostly English, math and history).

Oh, right. College. That was our responsibility. They would help with loan payments a bit, but they certainly couldn't afford to even put us through a state school. We were expected to get scholarships. If we didn't, well, it was that much more we'd have to borrow.

Honestly, I can't blame them. We were certainly a lower-class family. They couldn't afford to move near a nice school district, private schools, or help with private colleges, so they decided to get us WAY ahead of the curve (even though I have memories of crying because at 3 years old I was having obvious difficulties with multiplication. ultimately we were incentivized with spare change). Even then, the nice school districts aren't all that great. What my folks did will still allow any child to get far ahead of any child in the best private schools in your area.

In the end we ended up with extremely large scholarships (that I didn't bother with because I'd still have to take out the equivalent of a home mortgage) and teenage years with an enormous amount of free time. Cost to my parents who only had a high school degree (mom) and a GED (dad)? Some of their free time every night.
> forests are renewable by definition, being made up of plants capable of reproduction

Ever heard of soil erosion/degradation? Check out what happened to Easter Island. It takes thousands of years to turn a desert into a jungle, so in practical terms forests are non-renewable.

> pure water is not a non-renewable resource.

Again, on a practical timeline clean fossil water is unreplenishable: where do you think it comes from? And what do you think happens to a lake near an abandoned gold mine?

Several of your points have nothing to do with the topic, i.e. having enough resources to sustain the ever growing population: what difference does it make either oil is biological in origin or not?
I wonder what the cost of storage will be for all the ISPs in the country?
Here's his TopCoder profile: http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=MemberProfile&cr=10574...

More complete results here: http://cm.baylor.edu/ICPCWiki/Wiki.jsp;jsessionid=DDAD0FF793...
Veoh soon to file for bankruptcy
Music Blogging Throwdown: Evading DMCA Takedowns
This sounds like unit testing. It sounds good when you hear about it, and you think you probably should be doing it, but you figure you're okay even without it.

And then you actually try it and then BAM! you realize its value and the difference it makes.
Good point.

Note to self: If you want to make a name for yourself in your 20s, write several blog posts that lack substance, but use large, dramatic headlines and non-web-safe typefaces. Be sure to call yourself a "superhero" while calling others "incompetent" and suggesting that they should be fired. This will expedite the process. End Note.
It's good with niche questions that only a human could help with. I've had luck with social questions ("where's the yscraper located?") and tech questions ("why's my jscript [code here] breaking in IE6?"). It's like stackoverflow, but "real-time" and not limited to coding questions only.
Evolution of a Ruby Programmer
insider dealing
Geodynamic Apps for Crowd-sourcing Issues
Wow, this is dangerous, given how dumb these people are, a less nice blog could be stealing passwords.
Do "Startup in 3 Days" events like StartupBus create unrealstic expectations?
Slumburbia
#1 enough.

My roof has finite surface area. If the efficiency is too low, even zero cost isn't competitive.

That's true even of commercial facilities. Various enviro groups are already trying to kill solar farms.

Somewhere in here, wire and other infrastructure (such as the frame) costs matter too.
Use a purifying/tree-shaking tool then. I am sure STs have them.
Insights for startup employees
I'm not a libertarian, to say the least, but I think that this writer has a point. I don't know where the saying originates that "a democracy only survives until its citizens realize that they can vote themselves money" -- I believe it was a British historian writing about Athens in the 1750s -- but it's intensely relevant here. Greece, or any country, can only support a large public sector (apparently not overpaid so much as overpopulated) on the back of a large productive sector -- not necessarily a private sector (just ask the People's Liberation Army and its subsidiaries), but something or other that's generating wealth.

I'd also emphasize _delerium's passing comment about a state needing to worry about its future ability to get loans. The combination of the Industrial Revolution and pogrom-proof banking have made this less likely, but as late as the 18th century there was always the possibility of a country running out of money; Philip II's bankruptcy is a particularly famous one. If that (or extreme inflation) starts happening again, it will make everyone's lives harder.
That's just the thing. The US didn't ask the EU, they just secretly subpoenaed the records from SWIFT, which had a mirror server in the US with all the records (incl. transactions inside the EU). Breaking several countries privacy laws in the process.

SWIFT has changed their infrastructure to no longer mirror to the US, So the US pressured the European Council to create an interim agreement allowing the US to access EU banking data. This agreement was made one day before the Lisbon Treaty went into effect, which gives the European Parliament increased powers. So while the EP can't cancel the interim agreement, they've now voted against the continuation of the deal.

The resolution & Some background: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//...
Council overrules Parliament: http://www.euractiv.com/en/justice/council-overrules-parliam... Recommended search term: "swift tftp"
Meet the people who pay for the internet.
"Current solar cells have approximately 20 percent efficiency."

Not the vast majority of commercial ones (closer to 10-15% range, afaik - the ones that get around 20% (for non-concentrating) are in the lab or on satellites), and certainly not the cheaper thin film (GICS) kind with which this will compete.
Ah, nice. The idea of building "startups" really really needs more gimmicks.

Seriously, what are they intending to build? More websites? More social media, social news, social networking?

How about something that actually adds value to society instead?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthetic_efficiency
...which is the way I (for one) would really like to see more "blogging" go, and is a large part of why I'm so vehemently against cutting up the rare essay like this one for the sake of the video game generation.
Nice article, but they completely missed #1. The most important thing is water. Aside from being more important than food, shut off your water and try living a day or two in your house. And I wouldn't want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere in my car without water.
Ruby On Rails Developer Neededfor 2 week Sprint (Tysons)
From a strict interpretation of the law, these blogs are violating copyright. They are distributing copyrighted material without permission. So, really Google in this case are doing the right thing.

However, I consider music blogs like these to be a bit of a grey area. As a music lover I find them to be an incredible resource for discovering new music. Indeed, I wouldn't have spent as much money on music if not for all the fantastic stuff I'd been introduced to by downloading single mp3s from blogs.

So on one had, yes it's a violation of copyrights, but on the other; what are the benefits? Is there some way for labels and artists to take advantage?
These types of efforts always look like a blast. But I've also always seen one fatal flaw - when people go straight from brainstorming ideas into execution, they often miss the due diligence step to see what is already out there.

The concept that a startup can be conceived, coded and launched quickly is well established. I don't see what success/failure at this effort will really prove.

Nevertheless, sounds like fun for those who are involved.
Here's some useful overview stats from Department of Education, but we need a breakdown of science and non-science. My gut wonders if these might not be borrowed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Edit: here's the link: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables_1.asp

Oh, and here's some more granular data on the science enrollment side of things: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf08306/

anybody know how some open source datasets to start pulling the information apart?
The list includes water purification tablets, and a canteen.

Probably a portable stove for boiling water and light cooking would be ideal to include too.
Mmm... Computer Science... 39 pages of things that have no bearing whatsoever on what I do every day while building a startup.

Does anybody here really care about any of this stuff? I program computers for a living, and I couldn't even muster the energy to page-down through that mess of tables and graphs.
Agree. I think this is why I abandoned the Google Reader. First, I started culling all the frequently updated, seldom read feeds because they were inflating my unread count, then I stopped checking in. I went back to visiting the sites to see if anything new showed up.

Not sure how they would solve this, but I think you may be on to something. Emails are a burden. If you want to sell me something recreational, it can't trigger such an association.
> That I agree with, but it's a more general issue about the temptation to make future promises you can't pay for, and is also true in the private sector.

There's an important difference. If IBM can't pay the pensions that it promised, IBM pensioners take the hit. If San Jose can't pay the pensions that it promised, I take the hit via taxes.