skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A few things have happened in the last few years that make me believe that the meaning of the best is a lot more influenced by our own biases than we will ever be ready to admit. This is a huge issue with hiring:

1. The study about blind interviews in orchestras mentioned in the article. Think about it, most people in symphonic orchestras have a university education, and often with more years of education than your average engineer, they learned all about critical thinking etc... They are artists, whom are usually considered more open minded (ok debatable). But, they as a group, were able to acknowledge that they have strong biases to the point of trying (and eventually adopting) blind interviews. This, tells me that these people have a strong sense of the fact that they are aware that they biased, and able to admit it, and aware that it might influence their interview process, yet, the experiment showed that they were not able to see passed gender! This has seriously made me rethink about my beliefs about being conscious of my own biases.

2. I have worked for company A, which hired only the best (besides me I guess ;-) ) pretty much as described in the article, I have recommended people I had worked with previously and whom I knew were amazing, but they didn't get hired. I was seriously surprised, but you know the "it's better not to hire one of the best than err and make one bad hire". Ok.

3. I then worked for company B. I recommended somebody who was hired at company A. That person was not a friend, but somebody who passed all interviews with flying colours at company A. I worked with that person and they are extremely smart. Everybody at company A was amazed how smart that person was, even after seeing them fly though all the oh-so-though interviews. Working for close to a year with that person, and everybody was still positive about how smart and good that person was, so they aren't just good at interviewing. That person was turned down at company B.

PS: Yeah, maybe I just need to stop recommending people, I now realise I'm the common thread in people not getting hired in my story!
Why Creative People Are Rarely Seen as Leaders
Timothy Gowers is bent on proving academic journals can cost nothing
Memory Management in Rust and Swift
Two Cryptographers Win Turing Prize in the Midst of Apple’s Fight with FBI
I used to attend a meetup that was specifically about discussing 'big' things. This would include philosophical questions, but also things like 'discipline', 'motivation', or 'work / life balance'.

We had only two real rules. One: listen to each other and exchange viewpoints respectfully, so no (or only minimal) discussion centered around arguing or convincing the other of your viewpoint especially when the topics are sensitive (religion, for example). And two: keep things somewhat personal, and avoid purely abstract philosophical talk.

In regards to the second (often contested) rule: the personal exchange makes the conversation relevant, promotes friendship and group bonding. On top of that it makes the meetup accessible to shy people or people who are not too into abstract debates (and who, interestingly, often occupied the crucial roles of creating group cohesion and continuity!). It also avoids getting into arguments because a supposed abstract viewpoint turns out to be more personal than the parties involved thought. Those kinds of arguments happened surprisingly often when we broke the rule. Furthermore, the abstract / philosophical debates would inevitably happen after the meetup with the people who enjoyed that kind of thing, and the personal conversation greatly enriched even the abstract stuff that would come later.

I can highly recommend anyone who likes 'deep conversations' to join such a meetup or even organize one. Everyone involved in my meetup expressed how much they enjoyed, even needed this meetup in a sea of superficial social meetups and bar talk (which is also nice, just not enough for many of us).

If you happen to live in The Netherlands, hit me up!
There is a good made-for-TV movie starring a young Tom Hanks, called "Mazes and Monsters" (1982) that was probably made because of the hype:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084314/

Looks like you can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awTKqydci_c
Other things I love about IntelliJ (in my case, Android Studio):

Code generation. Getting a bunch of getters and setters from a right click is nice sometimes. But more importantly is being able to go to a class definition, do an Alt + Enter, and create a test file for that class in the correct tests directory.

Auto-completion is very powerful. If you're trying to call a method on your AbstractBeanFactoryImpl, you don't need to start by "Abstrac", if there are other results with that preface. You can just try "abfi" and it will probably get the right result. Super useful when you have multiple variables that start with the same sequence of letters.

All the space-saving it does. Have a one line getter or setter? It will display those as one line (with highlights to let you understand they're actually three lines, brackets included). Even some common things like creating a Runnable in Android and overriding it's Run method. Replaces three lines with a straightforward: "Runnable myRunnable = () => {". Feels like you're programming in a less verbose language.
You may well need the extra calories :/... I wonder if our bodies have evolved with sleep deprevation most likely being due to kids, leading to this connection.
It should be different because, hopefully, you're adding something that you didn't have before. In the worst case, you could be adding a negative.
IRC Cloud can host private IRC servers for companies. IRC Cloud also has hooks into third-party services like GitHub and Dropbox.
We've merged the comments from three different threads, and the title of this one no longer has "Epic" in it. Though I think someone else was complaining about "Tim Sweeney".
Does the term WBS mean anything to you? Back when I worked on federally funded stuff, it was used to document every part of a project deliverable, down to the very last flat washer. While the software parts were more loosely specified than that I can tell you that the content of any public facing documents was scrutinized and edited by top level people before being posted.
Ehem... As far as I remember, IntelliJ is also programmed in Java, so about that Java issue with Retina...
I always wonder if they actually are a pain to work with.

I've worked from outside the hull speed of several teams and gotten into places where being diplomatic about the sheer propensity to failure was a lot of what I ended up doing. And, frankly, I've just dropped the mic and walked off more than once, once I'd established that the team ultimately just didn't want to perform or had some horrifying external constraint that made the death march inevitable.

Say it with me: "I am powerless over the fact that I suck." At least you can work on the self loathing and make progress.

But seriously - get your ego out of it and life gets better. Let your ego free only when you are alone. You can't fix 'em all.
By that logic, we should sleep instead of eating breakfast.
Hacking Your SodaStream with a Paintball Canister Can Save You Piles of Money
India Challenges U.S. Temporary Visa Scheme at WTO
There's no problem just as long as things stay that way. Microsoft's PC gaming innovations of the last decade is nothing but half-assed attempts of trying to lock users into their own store front and milk them like they do on their Xbox platform. People are afraid that they'll eventually succeed, this is partially why their main competitors like Steam and GoG have made strides towards supporting Linux, as the day may come where Microsoft will more aggressively try to block out their competitors from their platform.
It seems that there's the way to work it around: the order the files are packed matters!

https://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/2009-08/msg00293.html

> tar -xvzf test.tar.gz
> mydir/myexe.exe
> mydir/myexe
>
> ls myddir
> myexe

"if a file foo.exe exists, and an
application calls stat("foo"), it will get told that, yes, "foo" exists."

But:

"if the order of the files in
the tar archive is reversed, both files are unpacked. Or, unpack
mydir/myexe.exe explicitely afterwards. The reason that this works is
that Cygwin does not check for a file "foo", if the name of the file is
explicitely given as "foo.exe"."

Anybody tried?

Also, it's relatively (as in since some years) recent change: "Cygwin always handled the .exe suffix transparently in terms of stat(2)
calls, but Cygwin 1.7 also handles them transparently in terms of
open(2) and any other call."
Ha, well, thanks HN to make me aware of that project that was already discussed months ago but went under my radar.

-- a i3 user
If this were the case companies like google Facebook etc. would be full of self taught programmer. In reality most of people there go to stanford, Harvard etc. aka the top schools. Just look at their executive bios or look through linkedin.
If we didn't sort people, we would get better results. Of course we are all different. But the madness of status makes us all crazy.
I had recently started to write a short guide about writing webapps in Go,

https://github.com/thewhitetulip/web-dev-golang-anti-textboo...
"Misuse of company resources" like "reading/commenting on hacker news from work." The ability to find something "everyone does" in order to get rid of people you don't like, for whatever reason.
Indeed, there's simply no way that people who grew up in backwater regions like China, or India, could be competent at building software.
''I don't really understand the problem here.''

I agree.
They could easily disable it for anyone who doesn't have a copy of Visual Studio and a developer account on the Windows Store, though - and I think they've taken action against use of similar features by non-developers on mobile before now.
On the consumer (not "for Business") side of things, I think some of it is the long running experiment to make Skype a platform and merge said platform deeper into the broader ecosystem of apps. With Windows 10 I think we're finally starting to see some of that shake out and some of that improve.

It's very interesting seeing the seamless merger of Skype into the Messaging, People, and Phone apps in Windows 10. Having finally figured out the new Windows 10 Skype Video app I realized that I could uninstall the classic desktop app and the Windows 8 version of Skype mobile that is (weirdly) still in the Windows Store on mobile as if it is still a useful app (and in which case it is not), unlike its short-lived tablet/desktop counterpart.

You can still see some of the uneven edges: the reason I had to figure out the Skype Video app was that it is the only one that currently supports accepting or making Skype contact requests, before you can link them in People. (I presume that sort of functionality should eventually merge in the People app more directly?) Also, there's still that slight friction between traditional Skype accounts and using Microsoft accounts for Skype that I'm unsure if there will ever be a clean fix.

I think that the "Skype Video" should be named something like Videophone to better align with brand-less Messaging, Phone app names, but that's a marketing quibble.

I do like the way that SMS messaging and Skype messaging interleave in the Messaging app now. It's nice having only one app for that. I wish it supported merging in Facebook's Messenger as well, but I realize that won't happen for many, many reasons.

As for Skype for Business, I think it's been solid since its Lync-branded days. I'm curious if they can get the sort of "platform leverage" we are seeing on the consumer side of things, but it doesn't necessarily need it. If they make it more Slack-like, that could be interesting.
I once did a code review for $3,500 and it took about 8-12 hours. After I was done, they asked me to fix the few bugs I found. I told them I was super busy (which I was) and they offered me $10,000 to do the work ASAP. Since it would only take me 8 or so hours to fix the bugs I could hardly pass it up. For two days of work I walked away with $13,500 dollars, of course there is also tax on that, so I netted like $9,000.

Depending how hard I/you try to find consulting work, you can totally make 20k, of course it depends on the month. The best part, is that you can write off business expenses on your taxes. So, you pay significantly less (if any) tax on that 20k.
"As for deterring wage theft, there's got to be some good strategies. Maybe both sides enter hours worked. If values match, the payment is processed. If not, the disagreement is escalated somehow."

In a union shop, that's what happens. The worker files a grievance and it's settled or arbitrated. This happens all the time; it's no big deal.

In Germany, there are workers councils to which such problems can be brought.

In the US, the worker gets fired for raising the issue, and can then sue for damages, maybe getting paid years later.
I agree, especially with regards to medical situations.

If I didn't have health insurance and had a major medical problem -- first thing I'd do would be to arrange a plane ticket to a medical tourist country. Extended diagnostics + care + treatment (especially without managed insurance prices) in thr US is ridiculously expensive.

And honestly? I'd be willing to go from 98 percentile to 9X percentile care to trim that.
it could cost more than 8bn to build one, and would take time too. Slack is right there, already built.
Great idea, but expect some resistance. The worst abusers are fighting even a minor increase $2K in the visa fees. http://in.reuters.com/article/india-united-states-visa-idINK...
Is there interest in the startup or tech world in hiring teachers?
I have been teaching family and consumer science for 3 three years (6-12). I have an educator’s license, a grad-level subject area certification, and a master’s in Community and Organizational Leadership.

Previous to teaching, I spent five years as a graphic/web designer. The switch came when design jobs in my area dried up and a teaching opportunity presented itself. Thoughts on how these skills can be transferred to a career that has incentives, opportunities for advancement, less repetition, more variety, and smart people would be appreciated. Thank you!
I'd much rather not have a laptop (for work).

Study after study have shown that screen real estate and system performance improve our work output, let us use more of our working memory for task-critical state, etc.

If you need portability, then sure, laptops are necessary trade-off so that you can get any work done at all. However, that's all they are: a trade-off.

It's a shame if we're only optimizing for use cases that are ultimately regressive.
The ArsTechnica piece says the judge ruled the patent invalid. I assume that overrides the USPTO?

"eDekka's patent, which had been used to sue a wide array of online retailers, described nothing more than "the abstract idea of storing and labeling information," Gilstrap found. Those were "routine tasks that could be performed by a human" and didn't meet the standard for getting a patent. Gilstrap ruled the patent invalid."
I don't wish to discredit your sources, I'm not even claiming the site is wrong, just that it simply does not convince me. And it's got nothing to do with the design.

As for this article being a "promotion" for single-parent households is, in my opinion, an overstatement. It's not even specifically about mothers, it just mentions them in passing.
This work is very important.

Some might dismiss it because it is no surprise that these implementations would have serious sidechannel vulnerabilities, and --indeed-- in Bitcoin Core we stopped using OpenSSL for signing two years ago for this reason. But, as cryptographers ourselves, our choices aren't all that representative of application authors in general.

I've found it to be difficult to get parties to stop using obviously vulnerable crypto code-- even businesses making "high security" hardware wallets. Everyone has many other priorities, and without a demonstration the attacks are "too theoretical" to spend time on, or to justify a software slowdown, for many people.
IRC Cloud's web client uses WebSockets.
> If they are not qualified for the job or they are not a cultural fit later, just fire them.

This is the entire problem with the inability to hire the "best"; It's dangerous to try and fail with lawsuits, unemployment, etc. I personally prefer to work for companies that don't hold on to poor employees and have quit companies that do the opposite. If you want to "hire the best" you have to "fire the worst". I accept the risk that comes with this of course (and many others may not).
The problem is many people in our industry, for example but finance as well and other careers, equate
"work hard" to "work more hours, sleep less".
> Yes, the font and web design is straight out of 1999.

The objection wasn't to the site layout. It was "this site is clearly pushing an agenda, and I don't trust them to fairly represent their sources". Which I think is fair: someone who writes that "fatherless children" list is not arguing coherently and in good faith.
Why is 2016 smashing heat records?
Sure, that's their marketing. I don't think it would be unfair if the terms were reasonable, right now they're not. But if there were a minimum cap and we were talking 3 months of funding instead of one month then this would totally be a viable option. Maybe not a first choice option, but at least a reasonable backup plan.
I believe the auction should include equity rather than a special pool.
This is why the human race is pretty much doomed.

"Lead paint is poisonous. Your child shouldn't be allowed to consume it."

"No, actually, you're wrong. Have a downvote."

Eventually all civil discourse will look like this. We're already starting to see it in Presidential debates.
this just seems like ad hom.
Never saw this card. Looks quite useful!
Unless this is for an entry-level position at one of the big contractors, I've never heard of a salary this low in the defense world. The defense world is the only place you'll make a six figure salary writing mediocre Java.
I don't see what you're getting at. Like, is there a conspiracy against the tech industry? I really doubt it. I think tech jobs are very desirable and the gender imbalance very pronounced so it's a natural focal point.
Your first paragraph really nails the current recruiter experience and why it's so aggravating and why I don't bother 99.5% of the time to respond anymore (assuming I'm working). The rest of your post is also gold, and I wish I could inject it into the brains of just about every person who's interviewed me in the past ten years.
Easily manage WIP branches in git
Well, that's not entirely true. A decade ago Microsoft was a big player in PC gaming. Microsoft game studios made some big sellers like age of empires, mechwarrior, freelancer, etc, but was dismantled after their xbox initiative took off.
Too bad Tensorflow Cuda only works with the top of the line NVIDIA cards that cost over 1k.
I flatly reject the notion that, with as massive a power differential as the employer-employee relationship structurally entails, it qualifies as an "exercise" of some "natural right of association".

With the way we've chosen to run our world, such that there are orders of magnitude fewer people offering jobs than there are needing them, one side of that dynamic has tremendous power to dictate terms to the other. That is not remotely an equitable relationship, and to suggest that participating in it is some sort of "exercise" of a "natural right", that is freely entered into, is fatuously specious.
Yeap, but that was also a point against using abort or exit functions in production code.
Yet a household with a biological parent and a step-parent is considered a "nuclear family" just as well.
This article is probably one of the reasons why C++ gets the reputation it has. Please do not program like this. Aside from the fact that this is C++98, which lacks tons of features now widely accepted and useful in C++, the code in this article has no consistency, uses most bad practices I know, and is most certainly not geared towards competitive programming.

All this information is readily found in any online docs about C++. Please read those.
Note that this was patched and is no longer feasible.
Zapier (YC S12) Is Hiring a Remote Application Reliability Engineer
Small anecdote about Skype specifically as an instant messenger.

When eBay acquired Skype there was little willing adoption of it for IMs at eBay corporate. AIM (through whatever client) was the de facto standard. Management didn't like this but also didn't have the courage to say, "Skype is what you're using now."

So there was an embarrassingly transparent mandate from "IT" that AIM was disallowed due to a vague (but critical) "security" concern. That somehow persisted across versions and years.

This was sort of my experience of working at eBay and my impression of its management in a nutshell.

Skype may be good for voice/video, I don't know. It's a terrible instant messenger. The only one I ever used where I had to worry about it swallowing messages and couldn't just assume the recipient got them.
People who want to feel insulted always find ways to feel insulted.

If you choose to read my comment that way then you are choosing to hear the message that you want to hear, which is a reflection of you and your personal issues.

My comment in no way suggested that overseas developers are incompetent - in fact whether or not a developer is competent has little to do with where they live - although economic opportunity is part of the equation. Great programmers create themselves by hard work and that has nothing to do with location.
This is like the argument that Doctors Without Borders facilitates violence. Utterly ridiculous.

Good on CloudFlare.
This is a hypothetical scenario where parenting roles are equal, meaning lots of men are taking off months, and lots of women are taking off months plus a couple weeks. People take off a couple weeks all the time; it's called vacation. I can't see any meaningful pay difference making sense.
Phew, if that was a thing. That would be huge.
They should just ditch all of their efforts to try to make Skype or Lync working and either start it over or acquire a company that can do voice/video calls and text chat reliably like WeChat for example. Skype is such a tragic product that I can hardly believe that anybody would using it in a corporate environment if it wasn't MS who were pushing for it. One interesting question that comes up in my mind: is group voice calling a really hard problem to solve? At this stage I am much more likely to use a simple phone conference than Skype because it works just so much better. Curious what others think.
Hangouts works far better for me than Skype. It just works. With skype, I struggle to even create video conversation. I remember one fateful day when I tried 4 different devices with skype installed, and had a complete failure to get any of them to work.
tl;dr you want this SIGGRAPH color science vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw

Forget color names. (e.g. taupe, beige, tan, sand). Color is a Science (RGB / HSV / CMYK / etc...) and those names mean nothing but arbitrary regions and are fundamentally useless except to business trying to sell their paints. Also they make me crazy, I hate them so much.

If you have some time research the compositing discipline of visual effects for movies.

Compositors are the people that layer together images from the lighters. Ummm... they make everything look real? Haha, I haven't had to explain compositing in laymen terms in a while. Sorry, here's a couple videos...

Here's a simple breakdown and explanation about the craft of compositing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WpIzi8sc4

Here's the technical theory about color:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw

I apologize, I haven't watched this video myself, but it looks like the right stuff.