skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
First LinkedIn, now Myspace! I hope Geocities has their eye on the ball where security is concerned!
Thanks for sharing this story. America's loss for sure. Wish our system didn't suck so bad.
As a spectator and not a competitor, I'd be far more concerned about the crime in Rio.

It's tough to know what's really going on with their crime (given our sensationalist media and my not living there)... but you couldn't pay me enough money to go to the 2016 Olympics.
The only thing wrong with this is that they knew ahead of time and changed their plans to cancel instead of cancelling/denying at the start.

It is people sharing their homes they should be able to deny anyone for any reason. It's not like their house is a public service that everyone needs.

I've used AirBnB several times. If you're there for any appreciable amount of time that isn't one night, these people will vet you and interview you beforehand and if they don't like you they will deny it. There is nothing wrong with that.

Who's to say this guy didn't have an iffy review that he doesn't know about?
Turbolinks 5: I Can't Believe It's Not Native
It is sad that these hacks are required, but as a fellow person of color who has to practice similar ones in other places, I appreciate them. (If I can suggest another one, it would be to have a picture of yourself in front of some building of obviously European architectural style such as an old library, etc. that looks "trustworthy". I have done this in the past.)

Related question, is there a way to report hosts to Airbnb for actions like this in any way? And have you tried doing that? I've never used the site, so I honestly have no idea.
Except the host could argue that they rejected the guest for some other trait than color ("looked untrustworthy", etc).

It'd be better to rely on statistics: if a host systematically rejects some "protected class", THEN you can accuse them of unjust discrimination.
The even shadier part of this is that VirnetX comes out of SAIC - shady US govt. contractor (with a healthy private military contractor arm...). The tech was probably funded out of taxpayer dollars, that they are using to (arguably already) unethically profit off of.
Magic Leap’s latest surprise: it’s working on robots
>The Fountain

Oh man. Feels strike inbound.
Do this, Twitter
Of the many sources to demonstrate that it was well known that the Earth was round, I like Dante the best: His Divine Comedy explicitly described the world as spherical, described how that meant different parts had day and night at different times, described how the stars would be different, etc.. It's not a very early source - there are many earlier ones -, but his level of detail shows that it was well understood what it meant and that the idea could be published in a work dealing with religion without controversy in the middle of Europe.
I am curious as to how links on HN work. I am certain i posted this very link two days ago. Does HN now allow multiple posts of the same link?
No people should not be forced to let anyone in their homes. This is unreasonable.

Edit: Something else important here. We do not know that the reason he was denied was because he was black. You have reviews of yourself that you cannot see. Who's to say this isn't some race baiting article and this guy is a creep.
i read this and sent my wife a link. she wanted to know why i was analyzing her crying. i told her i just wanted to run a neuralnet on her crying data.....

http://i.imgur.com/NE380tW.png
> Excludes tons of ex-convicts

Well yes, that's the whole point. Exclude the people who committed certain classes of crimes from being drivers. They can go get other jobs that don't have the same opportunistic crime risk. I'm not advocating for the idea that every single crime, no matter what, would exclude you, I'm just saying that certain classes of crimes, including violent crimes and sexual assault, definitely mean you shouldn't be an Uber driver.

> The number of crimes that would be prevented is tiny.

Statement not backed up by evidence.

> The social and economic cost is huge.

Neither is this. Certainly, doing background checks is a cost that Uber would have to pay, but it's a far cry from saying that this cost is "huge" or implying it's a burden on everybody. As for social cost, I don't even understand what you're claiming the social cost is. There's a huge social cost when people don't feel like it's safe for them to get into an Uber alone. There's very little social cost to saying that certain types of criminals cannot be Uber drivers.
Swisscoin как пройти обязательную верифика
It totally make sense for Airbnb to work on this and to end it. Racism should be stopped at all levels, and by everyone everywhere.

Using some simple logic, it would be quite easy to detect signs of racial bias during booking.
I looked at the data and am pretty sure that's not the case. It's possible that you're right and they were an outlier of cleverness, but the likelier explanation is the cognitive bias of seeing something you don't like on HN's front page and assuming that it must have been gamed to get there.

We take voting rings seriously and have put a lot of effort into preventing them from unduly influencing HN. If you think you see evidence of someone getting around this, it would be good to email hn@ycombinator.com.
these are good questions. I hope some DAO experts show up on this thread :)
Certainly not the UN either, though.
Okay, so what did you mean when you said, "Seems like it would have unacceptable performance limitations."
There are known genetic factors for crying easily.[1] My oldest son and I cry easily; my wife and youngest son don't. By "crying" here I mean tearing up in response to both positive and negative emotions, including emotions expressed by others. My oldest son and I are about normal when it comes to outright bawling or crying in response to physical injury.

Some public individuals cry easily: definitely John Boehner and possibly Elon Musk.

[1] http://blog.23andme.com/health-traits/too-many-teardrops/
>This is one of those things thats just so common sense

It really is, the public paid for the research, it rightfully belongs to the public.
> No people should not be forced to let anyone in their homes. This is unreasonable.

That cuts both ways. They're free to reject whoever they want and AirBnB should be free to reject them from listing their properties.
Ask HN: Refactoring a BASIC Blackjack Game from the 70s
Here is an old Black Jack game listing from waaay back in the 70s, According to 101 BASIC computer Games it originated from DEC - author unknown.

http://www.vintage-basic.net/bcg/blackjack.bas

Anyway, reasonably complex, supports up to seven players has insurance, splits and double downs.

If you ever wanted to get a taste of the weirdness of BASIC coding this is a good 322 line (commented) example:

In defense of the code:
- part is that there was no multi-line IF conditionals so you had to get creative
- micros being so memory limited usually had a 2 character limit on variable names
- there was a lot of twisted logic sometimes to get a game crammed into a small memory footprint

I'm gonna re-factor it into PHP, but thought it was a good example to discuss here: BASIC, refactoring such code, etc.

Source site with more BASIC game listings - http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

What do you think?
Airbnb should not be forced to accept anyone on their platform. That is unreasonable as well.

By the way, the above is a great idea which would also not cause anyone to violate the rules of the platform by creating fake profiles, etc. Plus, it has zero effect on people who are not racists.
Openly stated in the advertisement, or implemented through deception and outright lying?
I wonder how patents like this are even valid.

IMHO The patent laws should be amended to require entities to both "articulate a solution" and "add value" to make the patent valid.

For ARM (described in other posts as a NPE) their patent licenses are bundled with a low-power processor core design that provides a solution to licensees requirements. The core design adds value to the basic technology covered by the patent.

The VirnetX patents shouldn't be valid as they merely describe an element of a design, and not a particular means of implementation. This may fall under Sec. 112(f) "Means-plus-function" [0], but getting the patents invalidated is not easy.

The EFF have tried to bust "stupid patents" [1] somewhat successfully. Please donate to support this worthy cause.

[0] http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2181.html

[1] https://www.eff.org/about/staff/daniel-nazer
> “The challenge with fusion is finding a technical path that makes it economically attractive and that’s something we can do soon,“

This is the most important line in the entire article. As strong a proponent for fusion energy as I am, knowing a bit of energy economics makes me doubt that fusion will be a viable investment in the next 20 years.

The problem is that fossil fuels are abundant and cheap, the negative externalities caused by burning them for energy aren't included in their pricing. Until oil becomes absurdly expensive (I think $400 per barrel would do it) we wont see serious interest in fusion research again. Unfortunately, because of the lead time, it may be too late by then.
There are similar parallels with professional sport leagues in the US. Maybe the whole thing is a combination of government officials looking for prestige, and a couple of mediocre economists rattling off numbers to back it up?
I was saying the number of people who install a plugin that varies the user agent is tiny, and even then there are other ways to detect (just check out the lists of things, screen sizes etc.)

And the big picture is, regardless of these small imperfections, a digital fingerprint is over 95% accurate! So that's very valuable!
If we assume that these systems are in dire need of repair (which many of them are), and that they are unreliable (which they frequently are), then it can be a hard sell to ask riders to pay more. Pay more for what? Improvements years from now, when what I really need is reliable transportation to and from my job NOW?

Also, if we can continue with the assumptions about these systems, they're not in a position to sustain increased ridership or increased trips, which makes it very hard to capture that revenue in the way you propose.
> How is discriminating by age reasonable?

Well, for one thing, its not generally expressly prohibited by law.
[2] is less than 300KB? I appreciate warnings on terabytes.
If a company has excess cash, and few good projects (NPV>0), returning money to stockholders (dividends or stock repurchases) is GOOD.

If a company does not have excess cash, and/or has several good projects (NPV>0), returning money to stockholders (dividends or stock repurchases) is BAD.

Read more here: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/lectures/...
thank you for posting this.

i realized this earlier in the day, your comment only became visible to me in the last 10 mins pr so. i noticed replies ceased several hours ago and emailed HN support.

the link had been flagged by several users and was restored by dang a few minutes ago. i dont have infor but i assume it was the horrible title which i submitted after charring out on mobile 3 or 4 times, amd i didnt want to rewrite/lost the original post which has since been restrictured.

thanks again dang, and also i appreciate this write up as there wasn't much on HN about dealing with this. it ia clearly written up exatensively in the media but there is so much spam and incorrect info i looked here for better reaources and experiences like yours as there are technical, financial and privacy considerations and as any good security professional knows, missing even one thing can have huge consequences.
Nvidia  CUDA 8 Release Candidate Now Available
Big Publishers Attack Brave the Browser – Round 2
For biomedical research supported by the US NIH they require it to be posted to PubMed central (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/) within 6 months of publication. Since so many biomedical papers have at least some NIH funding the journals all went along with it.
I have no problem with the Olympics as long as we realize that it is a party, a festival, a celebration. I don't expect my parties to turn a profit. If people can agree to it while understanding the cost, fine; but I am tired of demagogues telling democracies that everything they propose will "bend the cost curve down" and result in lower taxes, higher revenues, and cheaper everything.
I wonder how patents like this are even valid.

IMHO The patent laws should be amended to require entities to both "articulate a solution" and "add value" to make the patent valid.

For ARM (as a NPE) their patent licenses are bundled with a low-power processor core design that provides a solution to licensees requirements. The core design adds value to the basic technology covered by the patent.

The VirnetX patents shouldn't be valid as they merely describe an element of a design, and not a particular means of implementation. This may fall under Sec. 112(f) "Means-plus-function" [0], but getting the patents invalidated is not easy.

The EFF have tried to bust "stupid patents" [1] somewhat successfully. Please donate to support this worthy cause.

[0] http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s2181.html

[1] https://www.eff.org/about/staff/daniel-nazer
Safe Space Movement – An Assault on Freedom
I'm torn between "I hate that the world requires this" and sheer awe at the approaches you've come up with and the experiments that must've been performed to get there.
Wouldn't countries just adjust their olympic spend such that it becomes profitable to host them rather than lose interest altogether?
This is ludicrous.

But you are accusing a bunch of scientist,s just because they're from the US and a Canada, is doing the same thing you're accusing them of (except you have no proof, and in fact it probably has more to do with social connections and organizations than anything.)

If anything, I would be more skeptical if any Brazillian scientists said "It's fine, Zika is not a problem, come to the Olympics." Because as you said, Billions. (And note, I'm not saying this is happening, just explaining an idea).
I have heard this about job security with contractors. I have seen the opposite.

It's been 11 years. During furlough stuff, most of our contracts were exempted due to high national importance. For the few people on contracts that had to stop, we found other work for them to do. It would be nuts to lose a good employee to a competitor because of a work stoppage.

The crummy people do get fired.
I share your skepticism, but this is what people are saying.
Weirdest save I've ever seen dude. Kudos. :)
> And what exactly should they do? Require students to bring two forms of ID to each test? Require students to sit in Faraday cages during exams? Isolation rooms?

The first article in this series talks about how the SAT is being gamed overseas [1]. The article makes a strong case that a unique copy of the SAT should be administered each time the test is given.

As it is right now, the College Board / ETS reuses the tests to some degree. This 3 minute video is a good summary of the situation [2]

The podcast How to Game the SAT is also enlightening [3]

There are people working on this problem. There is also an alternate test called ACT which has stricter requirements for testing in China.

Supposedly, the College Board, which creates and administers the SAT, is afraid that if it gives the SAT less often then it will give up market-share to the ACT test.

There could be a real opportunity here for some startup that can help either of these testing agencies securely administer tests overseas.

The SAT cancelled a test date in January due to concerns the test they were going to use had already been released on the internet. Then they gave a test in March and found its questions on the internet hours afterwards.

I imagine we'll see more updates from these reporters in the coming months / years. It's a tough problem.

[1] http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/college-s...

[2] http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/college-s...

[3] https://soundcloud.com/reuters/howtogamethesat
At the end of the day NOTHING in our world exists in a silo. Everything exists within a system. Changing one thing in a system will surely affect all the inter-dependant components. Sometimes the tradeoffs are worth it and sometimes they are not.

As someone here mentioned, even hunter-gatherers had a huge impact on the environment.
I've experienced that "great joy" too many times. For some people, the harm is a lot more than the good... you get used to the good quickly, but it takes a lot more time to get used to the harm.
Dunno how common this is but in my home state of Indiana the non-discrimination laws include specific exemptions for properties used as homes by the lessor. I imagine that would provide an out for people like Crissie if it ever came to a civil suit.
> When renting out part of your home, does protected status apply?

That depends on local law; in California, it doesn't if you have exactly 1 roomer in a single-family, owner-occupied home. (There are still restrictions on advertising preferences, except gender, and then only when there are shared living spaces.)
The issue, in principle at least, is that those who accrue the benefits of pollution don't bear its costs. Yes, it might be nice having a Tesla outside your Atherton villa, but that is a cold comfort to a thousand Bengali kids who drown in a flood.
Fuck them. Publication costs nothing. All they're selling is prestige, and the cost of that will be dramatically adjusted downwards if there is political will to do so.
There's no anger here, only frustration over a society that normalizes permanent childhood. Adult crying over trivialities - or worse, Bernays-style manipulation - is symptomatic of an inability to manage one's emotions. The defining characteristic of transition from childhood is cognitive mastery over emotional whim.
http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/2/1/10887868/worl...
Tictures Android App – ASCII and Unicode Emojis
1. The business interest loophole is the loophole allowing the expensing of amounts referred to as "Business Interest Expense" in IRS Publication 535.

See also Form 1120, line 18.

2. That is a silly motive. It does not hold up to elementary economic scrutiny. That tax is a minor driver compared to the business interest loophole, but is one part of why non-tech companies don't accumulate cash. The fact to be explained in op is why big tech companies hold cash and the various other big business industries in the USA do not.

3. Cash in the hands of principally American companies can be spent on business operations in America. Either a big company can invest it itself or it can distribute cash to stockholders who then invest it in other businesses.

Cash locked up overseas will eventually have to be penalized with double taxation so that it can be distributed to stockholders or it will be invested overseas. When it's spent overseas, it will be invested in workers and factories and supplies overseas.

US companies and workers could, in theory, bid for those overseas contracts. But overseas suppliers and workers will have big advantages. If the money came home, those jobs and supplier contracts would give advantages to American businesses and workers.
> No people should not be forced to let anyone in their homes.

This would be an issue, if people were forced to rent out their homes on AirBnB.
Absolutely. There are plenty of elected officials who want the prestige bestowed by hosting a big international event (e.g. Formula 1, World Cup, the Olympics), and I think many of them believe the idea that the potential tourism revenue justifies the expense. Many citizens fully believe the same thing.

It's only recently that more people are realizing that the numbers don't usually add up. Even then, lots of people are so passionate about sports that they simply don't care about how much public money is poured into a black hole to host these events (or build stadiums). And that's not even getting into the corruption.
Where Americans Are Moving Right Now
What sort of lamps do you have? Metal halide colour temperatures vary enormously --- from sunlight at about 6000K way down to about 3000K. That'll be way redder than real daylight, and may not have the right effect.
Why is this evidence of racism? It looks like it could equally be anti-male sexism, no?
Why not submit to a journal?
Please don't post comments like this to HN. It amounts to trolling. Intentionally or not, the effect is the same.

Religious flamewars and religious litigation are off topic here. They aren't new, they aren't interesting, and they reliably set a bunch of people off.
Ha! I was able to accidentally guess 3 weeks before the IPO https://twitter.com/MikeTweetFeed/status/725077010796539904
Define 'need'. I assume the average VC fund returns more than treasuries or nobody would do it.

They could even give the companies they invest in preferential treatment at Apple (instant iOS approvals, secret APIs, whatever) to give them a competitive edge.
What, like the London Olympics in 2012? Did that bring in £20+ billion? Funny - I didn't notice my taxes being reduced or anything; just a few weeks of roadworks and unpopular sports being shown on TV.
Because when they were held on Olympia for how many hundreds of years it didn't work and were considered unfair?

The United States has hosted eight olympics and there are about that many countries that never have. London has hosted it three times, Madrid ever has. And so on. The current method is already distinctly unfair. So I don't see how centralizing it into its own nation, like it once was, makes it worse than now.
I spent a few minutes on it and it looks like, if Zika did not exist, the Olympics would add 10% of extra total yearly tourism to Rio. Some complications:

* tourism to Rio this year is presumably lower than the baseline I'm using because it is presently the site of a Zika outbreak.

* the tourism into Rio for the Olympics is especially international, so it may be reasonable to be especially concerned about its effect on global transmission of the virus.

I think the people advocating for canceling the Olympics understand that it's only 10% extra tourism, but still think that small percentage of extra tourism is a bad outcome.
This is not strictly true. So many color printers have a yellow-dot identifier pattern now that you should just assume that anything you print with one can be forensically linked with the printer's serial number, unless you definitively know otherwise. Monochrome printers are much less likely to add a nearly-invisible identifier pattern to every page. Check your printed pages under a microscope with different colors of light.

Nevertheless, if you want to print something and wish to remain anonymous, it isn't a bad idea to assume that every document that a particular printer ever prints can be linked using the printer's serial number, even if you think that specific printer is safe. Never print anything on it that can be linked to your public identity. Don't connect it to the internet.

You may never know whether there's some sort of steganographic encoding mechanism that targets certain print geometries in ways that you can't detect. There probably isn't. But if you're a dissident or troublemaker, can you take even a tiny risk?
I can imagine it's harder for a black person, but "looking less threatening" helps white people, too. Some (white) people have profile pictures where I'm sure I wouldn't host them.

Edit: It'd be interesting to compare profile pictures used in the original story.
I believe the second one is his point. But sometimes for some events the first part is correct too, not in this case though.