skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> So if I'm understanding correctly, JS sort sorts numbers by their string value? That's crazy.

It's JavaScript … it doesn't have to be sane; we'll use it anyway.

I think that Erlang had the most elegant solution: it defines a total order over all objects (number < atom < reference < fun < port < pid < tuple < list < bit string). Of course, Erlang's 'strings' are pretty inelegant (they're just lists of integers, which are printed as strings if they happen to incidentally be valid characters), so I guess there's some Law of Conservation of Bogosity at play here.
Translation: money got redistributed from net tax payers to net tax non-payers.
Who is eating this loss? Government? Individual tax payers?
Someone or some entity must be losing this $7.7 billion.
Potential future quote:

"In a development that surprised even us, after an influx of /b/ and Something Awful Goons, the AI decided to shut itself off."
Less loans means less people go to college and the price drops. If you think college is overrated and expensive, that might be a good thing.
You might want to give spacemacs a try. It really doesn't feel like emulation. For me, it's been the better of both worlds. Ultimately, you'd have to learn some emacs stuff for sure, but you should be able to get day-to-day productive almost immediately.
I think you are wildly overstating the value of a comments section. As a counter example, take Breitbart. Purely one sided posts with thousands of comments. And yet all those comments do nothing to change the one sided nature of Breitbart.
Mark Zuckerberg Joins Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking for a New Space Initiative
That is also explained in the article. They matched loan data with Social Security disability data.
IMO, the best way is by rating weighted by time. The top comments are the ones that have a lot of points or were posted very recently. That way, new comments have a chance to get upvoted. A lot of sites (e.g. Reddit, YouTube) do this.
Speaking with my working-in-the-same-company-but-at-quite-a-distance hat, it's been really great how the Spring team have solicited feedback from Pivotal Labs and Cloud Foundry engineers.

Both Labs and CF engineers are TDDers, so the expansions in test support and convenience is awesome.
It's a subset, and the Blub paradox applies.

For one thing, Org isn't a plugin; it's part of the Emacs distribution, rather than something you have to explicitly install. All you need to do to use all the functionality I described is install Emacs and start it up.

For another, Emacs doesn't actually have a plugin system, per se. Instead of the usual headache, where a program written in language A exposes a lossy subset of itself to plugins written in language B, Emacs just exposes all of the language in which it itself is written, and you can do what you like. The usual distinction between first-class application code and second-class plugin code doesn't exist. There's just Emacs Lisp code, any of which can freely interact with any other Emacs Lisp code running in the same process space, including effectively all of Emacs itself.

You can add new code by installing packages from a repository, which you can do in a single command if you know the name of the plugin you want. (If you don't, there's a searchable list.) Or you can do it by opening an Emacs Lisp buffer, writing some code, and evaluating it - again, with a single keystroke. If you like it and want to keep it around, save it to a file: boom, it's a "plugin". Add a line to your init file to load it, and it's a "plugin" you're using. Or you can just drop your new code into your init file directly, because your init file is - you guessed it - just Emacs Lisp code, that happens to be in a file Emacs will load and execute when it starts up.

As I said before, the Blub paradox applies: it's easy to recognize something less powerful than what you're familiar with as such, but something more powerful just looks weird. From the sound of it, Emacs looks very weird to you. It did to me, too, before I started using it. Now I won't willingly use anything else. Perhaps I'm just very weird, too.
I find the coincidence of complaining about a comment section on the internet in a comment section on the internet delicious.
I think both of the outcomes you suggest, rates up and number of loans down is likely. This would pretty much have a direct impact on the cost of tuition as well it seems, which you seem to have left out of the list.
Malcolm Gladwell got us wrong
Pay of the problem with DB Sachems is a few years ago accountants pushed though changes that overstate the liabilities.

In the uk you have to account for pension liabilities as if tomorrow 100% of your scheme members became liabilities which is only likely to happen if there is a zombie Apocalypse.

One has to ask who benefits from this dodgy change to acounting rules.
All this just creates an echo chamber. Reasonable discourse at the end of the day is limited discourse. The real spectrum of thought however includes abuse and profanity and perhaps aggressive tones.

IMO the best way to deal with this is to train an AI to recognize each of these elements and then make the author reformulate the comment until it's civil enough to be posted.

Give feedback like, the tone of this seems harsh, or it seems like you are using ad-hominem attacks, etc.
Last I checked, Obama is not running for re-election, and it'd be hard to spin this as a democratic party decision.

Also, he's enforcing a current law (loan forgiveness for total disability), not making a new one.
bankruptcy isn't exactly a get out of jail free card

I'm not an expert in this area, but I suspect if you're interested in qualifying for a mortgage in the future, bankruptcy is something you should think twice about

I'm not opposed to student debt having somewhat different standing from other types of debt in bankruptcy proceedings

but I think playing with the mechanics of what moving around the standing of student debt in bankruptcy proceedings would do, is probably a fruitful avenue to explore as a society

----------------

I'm not sure making it harder to take out 150-200K in student debt might not be a step in the right direction, even if that's politically hard
This feels like Amazon putting out a new Kindle for the sake of... putting out a new Kindle to keep the product line looking fresh.

If this somehow knocks down the price for the Paperwhite, I'm all for it... so I can get a Paperwhite. :P
Any input from lurking Kindle DX owners? Sounds like they are available around $200.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=kindle+dx
We're far more likely to get utopia (or dystopia) from robotics/automation than AI. I suspect either outcome is equally likely.
That's a funny way of saying "people who are disabled are no longer going to be shaken down to pay student loans they have no way of paying."
> I also mostly looked for recruiters as I feel rude sending it to big important people at those companies.

Don't waste your time with Bozo recruiters. You'll find Big Important People often very receptive if your direct approach is sincere and buttoned-up.
I built a similar app for Chicago's CTA trains, called CTA Tracker. There seem to be train tracker apps for most major cities, since they're easy to implement and legitimately useful.
Isn't that the same point that Kuipers talks about with:

> However, violent actions taken in the name of defense against terrorism are very likely to increase the likelihood and magnitude of future terrorist attacks. We need a combination of short-term vigilance and protection, and long-term efforts to reduce the problems that breed terrorism, both in non-violent ways.

Saying that negotiation with terrorists is a lost cause is true to an extent, but Kuipers doesn't advocate standing back and doing nothing at all. Acting overtly hawkish doesn't help anyone either.
> Somehow you have to pay for those who can't pay on their own: either interest rates go up, number of loans goes down--neither of which is particularly good outcomes.

This presumes that college prices exist in a vacuum and that if less money is available colleges won't lower prices. I mean, in the short run the market isn't very flexible, but in the long run it is.

Pretending that college education won't respond to market forces is just as foolish as pretending that anything else won't.
Yes, we were able to handle pasting from Word. We basically gathered a ton of examples of the HTML which Word generates and then developed mappings from that HTML to the actions we supported. TDD and unit testing made it fairly efficient.

Keep in mind that we purposefully did not support the full scope of HTML which Word would output. Authors couldn't make their headlines 50pt Comic Sans in red, for example.

I'd love to share the code, but unfortunately it's from an old employer and I no longer have access (or the right to share the code).
Apply HN: Let’s Fix Live Chat/Support
Problem:

1.) Conversations are on the operator’s time and not my own. If I don’t respond quickly enough they’ll exit the chat and I have to start over.

2.) I have to be on their website using their chat software. This ties me not only to whatever device I start with, but the specific browser session in many cases.

3.) I can typically only use text to communicate.

Example:

I’m talking to customer service about installing a new headlight on my car and I need to send them an image or a video of what I’m seeing so they can walk me through it. I have to take the conversation to email, which means the back and forth really slows down and it could be days before I have the answer I need.

Solution:

Live chat needs to be more flexible with integration between the various channels. The same conversation needs to fluidly move from a web-based chat to SMS/MMS to phone as necessary.

Support via SMS/MMS would allow text, images and video to be sent directly from a mobile phone. A chat could also be converted directly to a phone call.

This allows the conversation to be on my time and terms. I believe this is what other consumers want and if implemented and used properly I’m confident customer satisfaction would improve.

About Me:

I sold my last business (10 years, ecommerce) in January and am currently exploring ideas for my next. I do have another business operating currently (web-based translation services) which is profitable and has a staff so it doesn’t require my time. The point of mentioning all that is that I have the time, expertise and funds for living so I can start another business and give it my focus.

I’m applying to YC for the guidance and network, which I believe would both be important factors in me making this idea a success since it is a scale I’ve not worked at before. Previously I’ve had revenue in 7 figures, but I want to shoot for 8 or 9 with this next business.
Actually I would recommend Fedora 23 if ur on the Gnome bandwagon. It runs bleeding edge Gnome and is spectacular.
From other discussions elsewhere, in order to qualify for this designation, it seems as if you have to have a significant disability that permanently disables you. Eg. It's not enough just to lose an arm and a leg, you have to be disabled in such a way that (current) prosthetics cannot restore your ability to work.

Of course, those are the standards/rules/regulations, but knowing the vast corruption within the US .gov, what actually happens is probably a different story.
I think the former---from what I've heard neovim and vim are on very good relations, and here is the fruit of that.
I think it's more he's trying to get some stuff done before he leaves
For the psychology research he mentions, there is a paper, Rebecca Lawson, "The science of cycology: Failures to understand how everyday objects work", https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/~rlawson/PDF_Files/L-M&C-2006.pd...

> The participants were given a single sheet of paper, folded in half. The bicycle drawing task (see Figure 1) and the forced-choice task (see Figure 2) were on the top and bottom of the first side, respectively, and a questionnaire was on the other side. First, the participants were asked to rate their functional knowledge of bicycles on a scale from 1 (“I know little or nothing about how bicycles work”) to 7 (“I have a thorough knowledge of how bicycles work”). Next, they were asked to draw the pedals, chain, and extra frame onto a sketch of a bicycle (see Figure 1). Then, they were asked to select which of four alternative pictures was correct for the bicycle frame, pedals, and chain (see Figure 2).

> Over 40% of nonexperts made at least one error in both the drawing and the forced-choice tasks (see Table 1). In this and the subsequent experiments, error scores were almost as high on the forced-choice task as on the freehand drawing task, indicating that production problems were not the primary cause of people’s deficiencies.
Books are also difficult to read with one hand. I'm not sure if one hand is really important as a spec.
Young cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir shot dead
Sounds like this guy lives in Norway, which means the state will pay his wife's cost of living if she's disabled. Assuming they don't live an extravagant lifestyle, financially speaking.
Octopus leaves aquarium tank, crawls across floor, escapes down pipe to ocean
I think his argument is more that there are pieces of software out there used by huge numbers of people, and that this means improvements to them can benefit huge numbers of people. These improvements can be things like fixing bugs -- improvements that can be beneficial to users independent of those users' particular tastes.
I don't have a college degree (that doesn't mean I don't have lots of technical experience though, including some machine learning at amateur level) and I'm not from the 1st world, but I disagree with you on that matter. I don't see how education will help us reach a truly utopian future. It looks like the developed world has pretty much hit the ceiling of what's possible for society controlled by (educated) humans. While I find 1st world an overall nice place, it is in no way an utopia: the day-to-day experience for average person isn't that good neither long- nor short- term. If that's the best we can do with education, we should probably take another path instead of repeating the same mistakes done by the developed world

It looks like the main problem of modern world is complexity. The infrastructure (physical, social, IT) has become too complex for mere humans to control. Humans are slow, learn slowly, have limited attention spans, limited capability of understanding complex nonlinear systems (e.g. markets, social dynamics). IMHO the world is currently in the state of severe deficit of attention. There is too much problems on all levels, yet humanity as a whole has only so much attention to apply to these problems, so only the absolutely critical issues are solved (e.g. 2008 financial crisis or flint water scandal) while everything else is neglected until it becomes critical.

Machine Intelligence (both Machine Learning and more general AIs, e.g. agents based on unsupervised+reinforcement learning) could give intelligent attention to every big and tiny problem there is: in politics, society, infrastructure, healthcare, etc. on Instead of having to deal with a constant stream of crises AI systems could prevent them from occurring before the catastrophical event took place, just like with preventive medicine. That and automated manufacturing & distribution could give way to a really pleasant life experience.

Of course it sounds too easy to be true. Looks like the biggest obstacle to realizing this variant of utopian future is politics. Human primate is naturally hierarchical, and these instincts influence our society & way of life profoundly. Modern society looks like a pyramid with wealthy & powerful on the top, a docile (but shrinking) middle class in the middle and controlled poor at the base. The people on top and in the middle are quite well off, and they are afraid of losing power (even to machines, even if there will be a mathematical proof that everyone will be better off after we delegate decision making to AI agents).

It looks to me that from the perspective of the rich & powerful there really is no need in automation/AI: why do they need robots when they are used to hiring poor people to serve them? Why do they need automation when with the power of money they can order thousands of people to manufacture any product/experience for them? That's the status quo that will have to be disrupted to have AI/robot-based automated utopia for everyone, IMHO.
The government hates savings. There is no need for it anymore, as loans and the products on which the banks make money appear to be entirely divorced from the deposits on-hand at this point. The Fed just prints more money if the banks overextend. Thus, there is no need for banks to give a meaningful interest rate on savings, and the only reason to put your money on deposit at the bank is that things are intentionally made more difficult and expensive if you don't.

We need to recognize that we live under a regime in which bankers have the entire populous by the throat. To live a decent life by American standards, nearly everyone has to take out loans for every major purchase and ends up paying 2-3x the nominal cost in interest. Let the massive scale of this sink in for a moment and you'll get some concept of just how powerful, all-consuming, and critical the banks are in this country.

Savings is anathema to this loan-based society that's been concocted. If someone has substantial savings, they may not need a loan, and that's very bad for the powers that be (because they won't get 2-3x the cost of the item over some years). Keynesian economics has been taken to its logical conclusion of sub-zero interest rates and practically everyone is indentured to their lienholders and employers. "The Road to Serfdom" indeed.
I have a theory that a properly functioning "mercantile capitalist" system requires debt jubilees at regular intervals. Hammurabi was on to something with debt jubilees and writing the law in the common tongue instead of the priests tongue.
It seems like they want an 'agreement section', not a comment section
The article says that these people were identified by asking the Social Security department who in a list of people with outstanding college loans had already been diagnosed by a doctor with a permanent disability. They're basically taking out a huge pain in the ass of these peoples' lives in having to fight for this.
How much on-board storage do you think would be enough? I'm guessing Amazon has a pretty good idea of how much storage their best customers need.
> The image watermark makes it pretty clear it's a 3rd party seller.

Officially, watermarks and text on/in images is not allowed on Amazon, per their policy. (of course, enforcement varies). This means not seeing a watermark is not a good indication it's not a 3rd party seller. Better stated, absence of a watermark does not mean the item is sold by Amazon.

Nearly everything sold on Amazon these days is 3rd parties. I'd wager somewhere in the 95%+ range. Same with "Prime" items (these are just 3rd parties that use the FBA option).

> I do wish Amazon would vet the stuff they permit sale of on their site though.

This is simply not possible at this scale. Not to mention, there's no guarantee a product line that was vetted by Amazon doesn't somehow have it's firmware changed/modified/injected after the validation period.

Essentially, there's no way around these issues. They're not "Amazon" issues per-say, but rather product-line issues in general. Same thing could occur (and might already be occurring) from retail brick-and-mortar stores as well.
Check out the OpenIPCAM wiki[1]. It's not a standard, but it's a start.

[1]: http://wiki.openipcam.com/index.php/Main_Page
A few other tid-bits:

Business Case:

Potential customers are nearly endless since all businesses need customer service and even the smallest are now offering live chat. The market is extremely large as proven by the volume and size of current live chat companies. There are many ways to find an initial customer base; builtwith searching for businesses using the various live chat services and reaching out to them, YC’s network, acquiring a live chat service, partnering and integrating with platforms such as Shopify, etc.

Issues:

SMS/MMS has a cost per send. With volume this cost is very low, but still real. I believe this is a cost of doing business that is worthwhile to improve customer satisfaction.

There are others working in the same area. Intercom.io is kind of on this track. They have the platform to integrate the channels, but they don't have all the channels.

Test:

I took a couple of hours and built a quick SMS/MMS demo using the Twilio API and tested it with some friends - playing out customer service situations. It felt great being able to use the standard text interface I use all day long to get service. I was able to send images, video, pickup the conversation on my macbook (messages), etc. A small taste of the vision, but it was very nice indeed!
w/r/t the pedantic point, it seems you're a bit stuck in the prison of the literal here. Sure, the books couldn't sit on a real actual shelf, but do they really need to to be understood as books? I got that they were books before I read anything about it and it was a nice little moment. The current configuration allows for three separate moments of understanding: recognizing the symbol, seeing the letters, and then seeing the books. Ultimately, that seems to me like a more rewarding and memorable experience than the letters MITP + color + typeface (no disrespect, Mr. Spiekermann). MIT press's audience isn't stupid, so in my personal opinion hiding a little puzzle in the logo is a nice touch.

I mostly agree with you in your response to the second point. I don't personally find as much fault with the readability issues because the logo would pretty much always be seen in the context required to make it decipherable, but I can understand why one might take issue with that. Ultimately, its important to remember that the logo is neither the brand nor a stand alone work of art. It is only a part of a system.

I think ultimately the pitfall of the don't make me think school of design is that it is susceptible to joyless, by the numbers design but I understand its utility. Also, ironically, one could probably say the same thing about modernist design.

Your article brings up some interesting points and valid criticisms, but I just don't personally agree with all of your values when it comes to design.
My understanding is that there is a significant chunk of federal student loan debt still owned by banks, and the older debt (pre 2010) would be more likely to be in default due to permanent injury/disability.
New php7 logo cool enough to not be ashamed to stick it on laptop
What? This should work properly. If it doesn't, please file a detailed bug with info about your browser.
Buy a used Kindle DX perhaps? That was 9.7 inches, same as an iPad.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bartab-lite/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-unload-t...
Sorry, I know it's a top school (I lived in Houston) but wasn't sure if it was considered in the same group as UT Austin, MIT, Stanford, etc.
This is a hilarious response because any place that would fire an interviewer for a bad hire would be one of the worst possible places to work at. Hiring engineers is hard enough without the threat of your job being attached to their success. If you need to cover your ass so much that you can't hire anyone without a good degree that indicates there's more politics in play than actual engineering.
What is BuzzFeed, really?
Agreed. I ended doing what you describe and, while it works, I would have willingly paid for an off-the-shelf product if it was available
It feels like innovation on e-readers has stalled. Where is our color eink? Flexible screens?