skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
When talking to technology industry journalists, I'm not surprised that bribery starts to seem like a halfway good idea. Because most of it is bribery, of an indirect sort.

In this industry, people are allowed to fly journalists to exotic locations, throw them massively expensive parties, comp them entry to conferences, entertain them, take them out to fabulous restaurants, give them enormous amounts of their valuable time, allow them sneak previews, team t-shirts and other tchotchkes, etc. etc. etc. And that's the stuff that's on the books.

If you look at it as a simple ROI calculation, bribing a journalist seems like a good deal, and not tremendously different from all the other stuff you would have had to do anyway.

I'm not sure that it's simple ethics that makes us all recoil from bribery. Because we're obviously okay with all the other indirect, soft bribery.

I think, at a deeper level, people realize that once journalists offer direct quid pro quos, then there will be no end to their demands. So giving in to one will hurt all of one's colleagues (and oneself) in the future.
From the guidelines:

What to Submit

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
Fully Utilizing Your X-Core CPU
CSS3 loading spinners without images
What information about 'character distributions within strings' would be useful?

the idea of Levenshtein Distance as constituting a metric space is something i've never thought of. I implemented a simple "Did You Mean?" using L.D. in Ruby/C but didn't build this type of structure and now that i've read this it seems obvious.

edit: clarification
I'm sorry, but Mr. West is such an insufferable ass that I can't bring myself to read this.
Google's Radio Patent Blitz
Gimp to the rescue!

http://hrishimittal.com/kanye_west_on_creativity.jpg
How To Build A Basic Content Hub
Cloud Computing Trends and Opportunities
Personally I find the reaction to this article a lot more interesting than the article itself. Are my hackercomrades weak for this kind of manipulation or not? So in a way this is interesting article to have here, but I would not wish more.
I'll buy it for my kids. They would get much better mileage out of it than I will.
Not enough for me, I'm afraid. I suppose someone could run it through OCR and put it into a normal paragraph form, but I'm not convinced it's worth the bother.
I'm not sure it's possible for factory farms to change, especially when raising animals. If you talk to someone who raises animals in a sustainable way (if you don't personally know a farmer, read Joel Salatin), they will tell you there is absolutely an upper limit to what can be produced sustainably. I purchase all of the meat my family eats from a local farmer (who only sells directly to consumers) and he said while he could easily double the number of customers, he wouldn't be able to maintain the same practices (this includes everything to what the animals eat--grass only in the case of ruminants--to where the animals actually lived--all are pastured in the style popularized by Salatin).

I could be old-fashioned and myopic, though. Maybe someone can figure out a way to have the best of both worlds.

Regarding cost, I no longer worry about the amount of money my family spends on groceries. Yes, we spend $5/pound for beef, and $2.50/pound for chicken, but this is stuff we are putting in our bodies--it's what keeps us alive. I feel that price shouldn't be the driving factor in what we eat.
though some may just not like the guy (for whatever reason), you can't deny the level of creativity that this dude possesses. his concert was the first i ever attended back in 05 in Dallas & every single hip-hop concert i've attended since (about 15 thus far) has paled in comparison (in terms of just sheer originality)
I'd say Ion is the father of modern tiling WMs.
Designing a Choke-free Hot Dog
How To Market Your Mobile Application
My 7 Principles of Shipping
Strain on HTC From Apple Suit Is Likely to Be Long-Term
NVIDIA's Optimus technology shows its graphics switching adroitness on video
Centralized versus Distributed Web
We're so good at medical studies that most of them are wrong
Let's say you plan to keep 2 bytes/16 bits of metadata for each string in the corpus. You can use these 16 bits to store five 3-bit counters for the number of characters in a string whose ascii values are 0, 1, ... 4 mod 5. Each counter can go up to 7 (0x111), at which point further increments are no-ops (so a string with 7 characters that have an ascii value of 0 mod 5 will have the same value in the first counter as a string with 20 characters that have an ascii value of 0 mod 5).

When you want to see if the Levenshtein distance between two strings is less than some threshold (say 2), you first compare the two sets of 5 counters. The difference in values for corresponding counters can help you determine a lower bound on the Levenshtein distance. For example, if the first string has six characters that are 1 mod 5, and the second string has 2 characters that are 1 mod 5, then your edit distance will be at least 2, so if you were only looking for strings that are within a distance of 1, you no longer need to bother computing Levenshtein for your two strings. Comparing counters is just a few bit operations, so it's super fast.
I think the article is fascinating.

It shows you how big operations can go wrong, if safeguards are not put in place. The numbers here are mind numbing, this is collossal murder.

There has been a series of programmes on industrial modern farming on the bbc recently in the UK. Which focussed on the best parts of technological innovation in farming. Whereas this article exposes all that's wrong with factory farming.

As an Englishman I find it hard to comprehend the scale of things in the states. It horrifies me. The London circular felt huge to me, until I witnessed a freeway. Now it appears small and the cars look like toys.

We had the BSE outbreak in the UK, which has led to a change in consumer opinion. BSE was reportedly a result of canibalism. Recyling your outputs to inputs is a nice idea, but it's risky practice.

There's no mention of the quality of life these pigs are living. My uncle used to run a small factory pig farm in the UK and that was horrendous enough. That put me off of pork. Later working at an egg farm ensured that, I no longer ate eggs or chicken. There is something incredibly powerful about seeing things first hand. Animals deserve a better life than that, they surely deserve to see daylight.

The computer industry, has it's own issues with energy usage and pollution. The silicon valleys are known for poisoning rivers. There are parallels here. Consumeres need to be aware, to put pressure on industry. We can be ethical consumers, we can vote with our wallets. We can speak out, against injustices and barbaric practices.

Hacker news is full of talk about start ups and web entrapaneurs. Money is not the be all and end all. There is a social and environmental dimension to every business.

If the article does not shock you, or fill you with bile, then alas I feel there is something inherently wrong with you.

I do not delight in discovering injustices, whether it's Ethiopian farmers getting ripped off for the price of coffee or animals suffering. And I have a compulsion to put these injustices right, if I can. Though sometimes our impulses can blind our moral judgement.

I read a book that was published over a decade ago, that reported that every one of North America's great lakes had been overly polluted. A lot of the world's seas have been overfished, there are many dead zones, look on Google Earth.

You'd hope that with the advancement of science and the freedom of knowledge we could become a better race of people. This really saddens me. I believe the hacker spirit, is one that aims for solutions (possibly perfection), and I hope that that same spirit is well concidered and respectful.
I would set up my mind: I am going to make it, dont know how, when, but my life goal will be to make it, until I do everything else its second
thanks Max for really valuable comment - I will read you article and consider using some of your excellent tips
A fanless EPIA 500 with OpenBSD on a CF card.
the mere headline makes me giggle a bit. oh, the irony.
I think Safire would probably have suggested that you used "died" rather than "passed on". No?
You would do well by asking Jon over at Slideshare.com. Their dev offices are in Delhi.
What single discovery has given you the greatest boost in productivity?
Annoying / Hit on.
Robustness, the forgotten code quality
haha:

Viewed 126526 times
Favorited 4 times

hmmm, pretty high attrition rate there!
It reminded me of a cross between Kings of Leon and Talking Heads, thankyou for bringing this absurdity to my attention!
Wow… Really amazing comment patio. Thank you for it. You are right about chains. But like for now just building websites is a thing I know best. On each website I build I learn more and next website I am building is getting more traffic and better SEO in shorter times. I will be trying to make money on being an affiliate and maybe sell my own stuff sooner or later. But like for now I make really little on my websites this way. Not enough to make a living from it. When I sell website I get quite big flow of the money that is ok. If I will learn enough I will be keeping the best websites for myself. But I just starting my business and still need money for a living. If you follow my blog I will be telling about it (flipping to affiliate earnings) more in my future reports. Thanks again for a great comment.
Collection of Free Tools to Create a Mobile Version of Your Site
Surprised to see this on hacker news. Alot of Kanye is unbearable, and this is not one of his best works. But his best songs I believe are pure art.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion...

This page is a lovely example of why I don't contribute to wikipedia anymore.

All the arguments are along the lines of, we should delete/keep this, because (WP:A, WP:B, WP:NO, WP:YES, meatpuppets, sockpuppets, random wikipedia lingo, inuslt to people who do not know wikiepda lingo)

I agree shared vocabulary helps communication, but on wikipedia it has become an active tool to discourage new editors. Sad as at one point I believed wikipedia to be the best thing to happen to Internet.
…and in a twist of fate, it turns out the problem was caused by the same bit of silicon as the Zune issue: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digital-foundry-vs-apocaly...
The power of not being all things to all people
I liked the last paragraph of that:

"For me the hardest thing is to 'just' agree and that is what sparks creativity, the feeling that something can be better, the feeling that something's missing, the feeling that something's needed."

I like the idea that creativity isn't just about creating something in a void -- it's about having a strong viewpoint and the taste to know how things should be.
By doing it with a Touch, he has a much better chance of getting chicks in a bar.
I love how they had to dial in to an old BBS. Valve never ceases to amaze me with their creativity.
I think the same counts for the browser (which was firefox), the IM app ("pidgeon"? Pidgin, probably), the windows emulator (wine?) and so on and so forth.
My feeling on the guy, is that, while he is a pretentious and sometimes insufferable ass, he's also complex and interesting and hard to write off. He says and does a lot of things that are very foolish, but I respect him as an artist because he also dares to do a lot of things other people would be scared to try.
All jokes aside, I didn't realize that there was actually a hot dog choking problem. I can't say I wouldn't give a "choke free" hot dog a try though. Eating a coil of meat could be fun.
Paul's thoughts are in the right direction. To extend his writing (to apply to this situation), if a company starts fighting over IP, it's a sign they've lost the battle for users or fear that they will and are attempting to preemptively kill the competition.
Nobody, even Kanye himself, would disagree the guy is a bit of a dick sometimes, but it's nice to see someone that wears his (he)art on his sleeve and strives for the best.

He's the Steve Jobs of Hip Hop.
Before digital technology, you just got 4 pickers in the living room. If you wanted to record, you had them huddled around a mic. Sound balance? You just told the louder ones to move away.
Http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=academicsuperstore
"Forced through sanctions" sounds pretty harsh when all the government would have to do to seriously change factory farming practices is reduce the subsidies on their inputs.
> The silicon valleys are known for poisoning rivers.

Which rivers did "the silicon valleys" poison?
Yes. This is what Skype does.
I'm on the plane listening to the college dropout. It brings back so many memories. When we made it I had all 6 parents, 4 grandparents and my mom and dad. Now I have my dad and my grandfather.

Music is so nostalgic. Every song I listen to brings me back to when I first played them for my mom, when I first played from for Dame, when I first played them Jay, when I first played them for Kweli, when I first played them for my niggas back in Chi, when the album first came out, when I first called Ebro from Hot 97 and begged him to play through the wire, when DJ Pharris blew me up in the Chi.

We used to be the niggas rocking polo shirts, Louie back packs, paper denim jeans, and exclusive Adidas from Sporty LA. We were the underdogs. I never feel like I'm not the underdog. I never felt completely comfortable. I'm tormented by the need to create. With the loss of McQueen I feel like we lost one of those faces of modern creativity's Mount Rushmore.

There were times that the only thing that kept me on this earth was the need and responsibility to create. Maybe McQueen felt his job was done because his last collection was the greatest of the decade. We are all so hurt. I know we're selfish because he brought us so much joy and inspiration.

I know how it feels when the night demons come. We can't let them control our hands and feet. Sometimes when it hurts so bad we have to just lay in the bed. Just lay in bed and don't move please, I know how it feels. I wish McQueen could have just been still. Don't let the psychiatrists give you their drugs because it slows down your wings. Society and public opinion can beat the wings off of angels. When god sees they can't take it anymore he brings them back home.

During this new album process sometimes I turn the music up and drink and cry. When something sounds so amazing and ground breaking I'm reminded of why I live. I drink the pain of now 2 generations and breathe our melodies and messages. The music keeps us alive.

I was blessed with the opportunity to bring my and others dreams to life. It's like performing magic or something. It's surreal. We bring the unrealistic to reality. “Go hard, go hard, go hard” echoes in my dreams. When I wake up and brush my teeth and look in the mirror it's like I see Michael and my mom and Malcolm. Who's that African in the background mom? Oh he created the original layouts for the pyramids but was written out the history books and his MTV award was given to “aliens”.

There's no such thing as fact anymore, only opinion. The closest thing we have to fact is “common opinion”. Everything is an opinion. The way you dress is an expression of your opinion. Your religious beliefs are your opinion. The music you turn up loud is your opinion. For most people it's easier to just agree. For me the hardest thing is to 'just' agree and that is what sparks creativity, the feeling that something can be better, the feeling that something's missing. The feeling that something's needed.
Right, that's how real working things get done, and how failures get flushed out: by people risking their own time and capital. The key word there is "own."
Excellent Terry, nice and simple and free, have bookmarked this for use very soon.
Wikipedia should disable "non-notable" article deletion for a year and see what happens. The rampant deletionist problem really hurts editor morale. People spend hours working on articles only to have them deleted, often for arbitrary reasons. For a site that lives and dies by its ability to attract new volunteers, they sure do their best to scare people off.
Without using a conjugation of "to be," the phrase manages to do everything E-prime sets out to avoid by banning that verb. I think this is the most egregious specific failure I've noticed so far from E-prime.
I quite enjoyed that and I'm not afraid to admit it.
Yea, I got the same impression. While there is definitely truth to this article - anyone that's lived near any size of pig farm can tell you there is - this is hardly an objective look at modern farming, more of a modern version of Upton Sinclair's 1906 classic,'The Jungle.'
> Are my hackercomrades weak for this kind of manipulation...?

Did you intend that to be self-referential or is it just a happy accident? :-)
For this purpose, one can do a search in an area away from where they are working.
The article starts with some naive and clearly exaggerated statements about what might happen before finally getting to the real point, which is:

> The case will take years to resolve, but that's no bad thing for Apple: manufacturers are going to be hesitant to create Android handsets...

If Apple thought they could get a clean victory they would go after Google.
The pro-deletion side come across as dicks, but I think they're right.

Does every piece of software ever written need a Wikipedia page? If you don't like where they're drawing the line, where would you draw it?
It's what they don't deny that still worries me. I was hoping that the family being consumed by the lagoon was a non truth. I read it as tragic comedy (shame on me)
What's wrong with every software ever written having a Wikipedia page if someone cares enough to make one?
Imagine an engineer who normally comes to work in jeans and a t-shirt. One day the boss says "I want you to present your product tomorrow. Here's the address." So the engineer cobbles together a demo, dresses up in his kakhis and a polo shirt, and shows up to present... at a nationally-televised, black-tie event. That's analagous to the situation in which climate scientists now find themselves.

For the most part, climate scientists are doing normal science, and thinking in terms of presenting their work to other scientists. But their work has become the centerpiece for huge global initiatives with large economic, environmental, and political impacts. This means their results, methods, and even personalities are being subject to an unusual degree of criticism (some valid, some not.)

Given the situation, it's absolutely vital for climate scientists to be as forthcoming as possible -- engaging critics, admitting mistakes, and opening up data (as in the article's subtitle.) It's absolutely vital for climate scientists to do a better job of explaining than they've done thus far, and to be very clear about what's known to what level of certainty based on what evidence.

(IMO, it's also absolutely vital for scientists, rather than politically polarized figures like Al Gore, to do the explaining.)
Awesome!I've always fancied myself as a bit of a beatboxer... anyone know if it's available on the android?
What would be the drawback?
For me it's the power of systematic refactoring. A friend of mine back at H.P. used to joke: "Programming is simple. Start with the null program, and debug it until it does what you want." But seriously, I've gotten a lot of mileage from the technique of refactoring a body of code through a long series of individually simple steps, each of which either preserves behavior exactly or alters it in a predictable way.
Hmm. Why don't they let someone come film a random(typical) hog farm to document the conditions?
First, I could ask the reverse question asking why you assume the 5th position is favored.

Does questioning someone's assumption necessarily imply that one is making the converse assumption?

Does it really matter?

I think that's an open question. Note that your definition of randomness is a bit off. The linked article shows that one can predict the occupant of the 5th position greater than 1/5th of the time.
You've missed his point. Why are you taking that risk? The motive or impulse for the "crazy" thing and the "normal" thing may be the same. That doesn't change the rules of physics that affect the moon but it does change how you look at the people doing "normal" things for (potentially) "crazy" reasons. And he's clearly saying that religion, exercise and entrepreneurship are normal.
Have a look at the other articles linked in the comments - perhaps they will present the same information in a more balanced way for you. The subject under discussion is very serious, even if this particular write-up of it does not suit your tastes.

As an aside, did it occur to you that your post is written in the same style, of one trying to raise emotions rather than discuss something seriously?
WebOS is actually a very good target for hosting on Android. The philosophy is also compatible with ChromeOS.
But that makes no sense: you must have played with other people if you played regularly. Did you not fit in with those?
You are forgetting the huge subsidies that further hide the real cost of meat from the consumer.

Raising animals is such an inefficiant way to farm food, people seldom question this. Unless you can't use the land for anything else. There simply isn't enough land to go around.
Apple patent case 'could affect all android phones'
My take-away was slightly different: I think his goals changed along the way. These days, he is very interested in furthering Fog Creek. But when I started reading his essays (before even "Joel on Software", when he was using Dave Winer's software to manage his blog), I think his goals were less clear and a lot of the essays were just ideas that he needed to express.

As with many similar bloggers, I think his early years were incredible, but the good ideas gradually became scarcer -- compare his last five years of essays with his first five years. I suspect that is because in his early years he could mine the many ideas he'd had prior to blogging. So it may not be a bad thing from him to let that lie fallow for a while. He can always un-retire if so moved.

Anyhow, I wish him well and hope he finds joy in following his current interests.
Personally I think the more obscure something is the more reason to have it on Wikipedia. If I want to find out about Photoshop there are plenty of places I can go to, many of them more authoritative. If I want to find out about some obscure image editor that was briefly popular on the Amiga and then disappeared, then Wikipedia is the perfect place to start looking, since it's not like they still have (or ever had) a homepage.
If that is the case then i'm going to get my Nexus One sooner than I had planned (stupid exchange rate)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm
It wastes 4K of storage that might otherwise be devoted to something more "notable", like a plot summary for last night's episode of Lost.
hi - i don't know much about the guy, except that he's a rap artist. what's the new art form?
Factory farming is terrible. I would recommend that anyone interested in this find some local farmers and talk to them about how the raise their animals.

I can get local grass-fed beef for $4.50/lb that is from very happy cows. Expensive as hell but pretty much an ideal food.

Federal regulations play a role in this too. Anybody other than a factory farmer is at an immense disadvantage when it comes to meeting the often arbitrary and pointless regulations.

Check out "Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front" by Joe Salatin if you're interested.
Serious question: why use this instead of an animated GIF?
The article has been translated to 10 languages and many other articles have a reference to It.