skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I haven't seen any evidence that Big Name universities are going to lose their prestige any time soon (a point which is actually not addressed much in the article). When I tell people what Top-Ranked college I went to, the immediate response 4 times out of 5 is something like, "wow, you must be really smart!"

However, I think if the average "intelligence" (however you want to define that) is higher than the population at large, it's more that the lower ~30-50% of the intelligence spectrum is severely underrepresented, and the upper 1% is maybe twice as common as you'd expect. There's still plenty of people with normal talents.

All of which is to say that the prestige of my undergraduate education far outweighs what it might actually be worth. While there might be a significant cultural shift, I frankly think that the cultural bias is too ingrained to change radically any time soon. What I think is likely to happen is that self-designed courses of study are more likely to become perfectly acceptable alternatives, rather than something stigmatized as weird.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ass%20clown

Given the urban dictionary definitions, your "lifestyle" usage is far less common and probably not the intended meaning of the phrase in this article.
What's the PC term .... GLBT-clown?
I'm curious... do you have a hard time distinguishing the color magenta/fuchsia from other colors? Or does it stand out pretty well?
I'm using Nexenta (Debian/Ubuntu-based userland on OpenSolaris kernel) for my home NAS, primarily because of ZFS. Works well enough, but of course it's not a production server.
The gay clown was actually John Wayne Gacy, not Jeffrey Dahmer.
What?

Everyone has an asshole, but only ~%10 of us are queer.
Your Current Account Balance is: 0.00 IDR (Real Credits)

Your Current Playable Balance is: 0.00 IDR
DTrace and ZFS are both available on FreeBSD.

Call me a BSD bigot (even though I use Linux/OS X at work) but I really fail to see any rational reason to use Solaris at this point.

We have a Solaris database + filestore at work, mostly for Z-raid, but now that FreeBSD has ZFS, when it gets EOL'd (with a vicious grin on my face) it's going to be a BSD box that replaces it.
Perhaps someone will leak their budget document.. if only there was a suitable place to leak it to.
The ethics of social games and how mass culture killed the auteur
How do they do IT?
Joel on Software boards are closing. Closest thing I'm aware of now is StackOverflow but opinionative discourse is usually frowned upon there.
I do. Now following you on Twitter (wasn't before for some reason)... DM me if interested.
No, keeping money for themselves is a massive conflict of interest. If they were doing that I don't think I could really trust what they had to say any more.
The only way to get a piece of paper with B.S. and your name on it is to go to a big name accredited university.

But having the piece of paper is starting to matter less [1]. Most people want a degree so they can get a better job, but who would you rather hire as a developer: someone who spent 4 years getting decent grades and a CS degree, or someone who spent 4 years contributing to open source projects and teaching themselves to hack? Of course some employers would choose the former, but a smart one would at least strongly consider the latter.

What does this mean for families? Many will undoubtedly continue supporting the institutions, but others may question the merit of spending years saving for and paying off debt from college when there are alternatives available. It's easy to imagine cheaper ways to work with mentors and spend time at the library, after all. :)

[1] Trends would suggest that the paper actually matters more now than ever, due to degree inflation, but I think this will prove itself to be a bubble.
> If instead it takes on its own propaganda effort do discredit a private nonprofit, something stinks.

I'm not sure if that makes sense. As I read (and I note others have agreed with me on this interpretation) they are saying:

- lets find some of those leaks and publicly expose them

- and in doing so people will be more concerned about going to wikileaks potentially "destroying" them as a conduit for release.

I'm not sure I see the problem there.... if it talked about assassinating them then I'd be pretty concerned to be honest :)
What ridiculous ramblings. You presuppose that the only problem in the world is intolerance. Well what if my "true self" is touching kids in the naughty place, would you tolerate that?

Everyone is intolerant of others, the question is just who is drawing the line.
I've seen a couple references to Quora recently and I guessed it was just a StackOverflow/MetaFilter hybrid and as much as that might be a decent description I have to say I'm still impressed. Even little things like the clean design, friendly tone in their About page and their "challenges" (http://www.quora.com/challenges) all give me a great impression.
Of course, there's a personal psychology to it, that I enjoy crushing bastards, I like a good challenge, so do a lot of the other people involved in WikiLeaks. We like the challenge.

It's comments like this that regularly put me off Wikileaks. If you do the job they do then I believe very strongly you should be driven by a desire for truth (not a desire to crush anyone) and also be objective. I don't always 100% see that in their actions.
100 Incredible Web Tools to Indulge Your Creativity
The internet, which does not necessarily always conjure up thoughts of cutting-edge art and artistic tools, actually provides a vast number of excellent tools and resources.
And I learned on an Apple ][ with program loading taking a minute. Basic is fun. You can make the machine do what you want.
I don't even agree with the above post but since when do coherently argued points like this get down-modded so much?
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Awesome post and I kinda see where he is coming from. Don't be a dick to others and be true to yourself and the world will be a much better place. Solid advice but unfortunately there are always powerful interests at work that have a stake in shaping your views and opinions. The church, the government, corporations, etc. Each of these things has a stake in an ideology that creates the conditions for their well being at the expense of the well being of others and people are extremely bad at untangling all those influences and getting to the bottom of who they really are. I even suspect some people are really uncomfortable with not being influenced and told what to do since they think chaos is sure to ensue. Every time I tell people I'm an atheist they act like they are seeing me for the first time and their immediate next question is "How do you make moral decisions without religion?". I have yet to find an answer to this question.
"`darcs` isn't good for all purposes"

I dont understand. What Darcs isn't for that Git is for? And for what usage specifically Darcs is better? I like Darcs, mind you. I like it better than Git. However, I don't have enough experience with either to really make an informed choice, let alone a choice depending on intended usage.
Which is just one more way that the US school system is an insane caricature of real life.
Yet another link that's broken on the iPhone due to a botched mobile site implementation. When will they learn?
The internet isn't media, it is the domain in which modern citizens conduct business, exchange ideas and interact with one another. Censoring the internet isn't like censoring books - it's like policing social clubs, mobile phones, political organisations and retail stores.
None of this has anything to do with Wikileaks. They are exposing things that are obvious cases of corruption. How are we helping the largely imaginary terrorists if we expose a CIA murder cover up?
nah, it just means you are acting like an ass and acting like a clown, like a dumb-ass, only making more of a fool of yourself.
I don't think I ever said it was the only problem in the world. I simply stated that it's a problem. And a big one. Grumpy oldgregg is grumpy. Relax, friend.
No, you can have things you want to hide and that's fine. Unless you're a powerful government trying to hide your own illegal (or should-be-illegal) activities.
Moscow Blast: Video
umm... I wouldn't tolerate that because you touching kids is imposing your needs and desires onto someone that is not qualified to consent to that kind of imposition and I don't think this is what the author of the post is saying.
>"But my plea to you all is to stick up for what you believe in - despite knowing that you will undoubtedly encounter hardships as a result. Yeah, it's hard. But believe me, it's worth it."

Why is it worth it? Because you say so? A person who holds a minority belief may risk personal and professional alienation if he expresses that belief without restraint. How do you know that self-expression is worth it for him?

Isn't this post an example of the pathology it describes? "Being true to yourself" is something you're supposed to believe in post-1960s American culture. The author offers nothing but emotion-based arguments for a popular ideal.
A ratio for 'freemium' as a whole isn't really all that informative and you shouldn't make any decision based on it. I think you can expect completely different results depending on your specific case. 30% & 0.03% are both possible in different circumstances.

Also, since the definition of 'user' is pretty loose, you can't really use these numbers to make any assumptions about the cost of serving them. If a free user stops using a service, he doesn't cancel his subscription. A paid user does. Freemium users are also hard to distinguish from trial users since the two are often amalgamated.
Because they are 12 yrs old? 14? 16? 18? Who gets to draw the "qualified to consent" line?
Ridiculous straw man retort. If tolerance, in the form the author argues for ("recognition and respect (of) differences in opinions or beliefs" from an impartial viewpoint), was more widely adopted we would be able to have reasonable debates on issues like censorship and individual liberties without people like you appealing to people's emotional biases with pathetic fear-inducing examples.
I wouldn't be so sure — after all, Winer 'invented' the "river of news" UI

Instead of having an inbox of his enemies' obituaries with an unread count, he sees a continuous stream of corpses float by.
or Seth Godins' 'you can get my book free as an email.'
Their parents I would think or until they are able to provide and sustain themselves on their own. Anyway, this is a really weird kind of argument you've gotten yourself into. It completely misses the intent of the post.
Really? I meet so many atheists on the internet and in California that I have the urge to take up a religion just to spite them.
Fortunately when people can look at issues rationally not emotionally we can debate under what conditions (age, development, maturity etc.) a person is able to give their consent.
After you've already tried all the other channels? Then you're no longer an anonymous whistle blower.
It's not a straw man, see the very frequent example below. The problem is the definition of "impartial viewpoint."
Sitting by the river means watching the time go by. Conveniently, the river also sometimes carries corpses. The proverb combines the two properties of the river to efficiently deliver its message.
without fail: lose karma when saying anything bad about Apple.
Cuba Holidays: A memorable experience
Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean. It is an archipelago of islands that could be found in the northern Caribbean Sea where Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean meets.
Using exports - imports to measure the "profit" of a country is deeply, deeply flawed. The US can consume more than it produces because other countries invest the dollars they earn from trade in American assets. High demand for American assets is not a bad thing.
Puerto Rico Vacations: Into the Island of Enchantment
Puerto Rico Vacations is a great option for those who are planning to enjoy their vacation at the Caribbean Sea in the United States.
I agree that the word 'worth' was poor choice. That's opinion.

My only argument was that it seems beneficial for an individual, even if only in the long run, to exercise open and honest self-expression. Emotion-based? Sure. But that doesn't negate any validity, does it?
Making Flash games with FlashPunk - Alarms
Click on 'full site', go back to HN and try again.
Once everybody in the world is considering issues rationally the first guy that starts debating emotionally is going to have a hell of a big influence. Half the population has an IQ below 100.
A society in which people are not willing to trust each other and express their opinion is in a very real sense broken. No politician on capitol hill is willing to express their real opinion and look at where that has lead us. Special interests dominate every aspect of law making and every deal happens behind closed doors. This is truly a sad state of affairs and it is so mostly because nobody is willing to say what is really on their mind. All we get now are ideological shouting matches because just like muscles atrophy when not used so does the mental faculty of thinking for yourself.
Hmm, trying to send invites from within Quora gives that error right now too, so something might be down/broken?
Ask HN: Please review my weekend project: a dating website for dogs
"How do you make moral decisions without religion?"

- By using your own brain and common sense? How about: "Would you go around killing people if there was no Bible to tell you it's bad mm'kay?"
I honestly don't care if people are religious or not because in my experience it makes absolutely no difference to how the person acts. In my time I've know many intolerant and unkind religious assholes and I've also known many that have been religious and kind and caring. So if you're gonna take up religion you should do it for yourself and not to spite me.
Apple Needs to Fix SMS Stealing Flaw of iPhone
>Emotion-based? Sure. But that doesn't negate any validity, does it?

For me - yes. I try not to believe things on the basis of emotion alone.
Think of Apple as the catalyst. They may not be supplying the reagents to this reaction - That would be the Consumers, Publishers, and HTML 5 Technology providers (Browser Vendors - which I guess includes Apple's Safari) and Standards Bodies like W3C - but, it's Apple's refusal to put Flash on the insanely hyped, and potentially (probably?) popular iPad that shook up everyone (and I mean everyone - there is not a _single_ major content publisher that isn't reviewing their iPad strategy right now).

"Single Handily" is hyperbole, but it isn't incorrect to say that Apple _greatly_ accelerated the adoption of the open standards that are going to supplement Flash.
Agreed. Religion doesn't give you a sense of morals.
I've tried that answer but the people that ask me that question do not link intelligence, common sense, decency and morality. To them intelligence has nothing to do with it. They think in the absence of fear nobody does the right thing willingly.
This is ridiculous. Once the children are off school property they no longer have a teacher/child relationship. The teacher is a citizen at that point and should have the same recourse as a citizen (e.g. alert the police if a fight is going to take place off school property). Suspending children for something they do on social networks on their own time? These teachers should lose their teaching licenses.
Ask HN: My App's Pricing plans. 
Hey HN, I'm launching an SaaS app soon(description is below) and would like your opinion on the way we should go in terms of pricing.

Quick description of app:
Questionify manages your site's FAQ page by letting your customers ask questions(no login required). Questions are placed into categories(which of course you can manage) and are displayed according to the view count. Customers can subscribe to questions(there's a "I had that question too!" button which encourages this).

Do you think we should do Freemium? How do you think pricing plans would be ok, based on number of users/questions?

Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
This has to be in direct response to George Hotz (geohot)'s PS3 exploits.

http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/
I didn't quite mean it that way. In line with the author's thoughts, popular beliefs that everyone is "supposed" to hold annoy me. I grew up in a very religious area and became an atheist. In my current environment atheism is the default position and religious people are given strange looks, so I sympathize with the religious people.
"iPhone only has a tiny marketshare" - iPhone dominates mobile web content at north of 40%. If you have mobile content, you have no choice but to support the iPhone. When the iPad is released, content providers have no choice but to support the iPad.

I'm sure Flash does more than video, but I've been running (on Windows XP/Firefox) FlashBlock for the last four months, and I've never seen anything but Video and SlideShows when I've clicked on the "F". I'm guessing there is an entire game ecology that I've never tripped across, but, well, the iPhone OS isn't particularly lacking in that area... :-)
It is, but if both remain silent they get a smaller penalty than if both rat on each other.
Latest News and Song List.
Prestigious universities were never about quality of education: if you're smart enough to get in, you're smart enough to teach yourself anything.

Rather, they are about the peers you go to school with. You learn and grow from the type of people you surround yourself with, and at elite universities you surround yourself with extraordinarily smart people.
Fluther (http://www.fluther.com)
I find the whole trend of online studying quite disturbing. From what I've seen, it defines studying as sitting in awe and trying to soak up the knowledge flowing from professors, and strives to replace it with possibly more efficient channels and call it the next best thing. All the while completely ignoring the second, in my opinion equally important, part of studying - peer to peer socialization.

For me, the people I got to know during studies, and cemented the relationship during various activities not directly related to my field of studies, have proved to be of more value than the lectures attended. Aside from few basic courses that lay the groundwork, my CS studies have been repeated exercise in rapidly getting to know a field enough not to appear incompetent and pass the tests. Granted, this has helped me to the point where I can quickly find solid ground to stand on when thrown in a new technological field, but still, in the last year of my studies, I am working with technologies that have been at best mentioned in couple slides in somewhat related lectures, following methodology that has had been only passingly referenced. The field moves so fast, that by the time someone has developed a good course material on something, it's already yesterdays news. Technologies come and go, but the dude you that woke you the next day after a wild party because a test would be starting in half hour, he will last. And you can't replace that experience with Facebook or Second Life.
I'm kind of torn on this, because a lot of the social gaming space is at the leading (and bleeding) edge of metrics use in our industry, and that is something that excites me (and gives me furitive visions of applying my skills in a fashion which would scale ridiculously well).

On the other hand, I'm sincerely worried that taking the craftiest engineers/marketers available and iterating directly on people's psychological levers risks creating an industry based on exploitation. I'm playing a particular Facebook game at the moment -- market research, I swear! -- and there are some game mechanics which I can only describe as darkly brilliant. I'm not going to dumb down "evil" by describing pay-for-roulette-disguised-as-treasure-chests as evil, but half of my brain is saying "That is Magic cards without the paper -- profitable, but not odious" and the other half is saying "You'd be afraid of running queries telling you who are buying those for fear of what you'd find out about 90% of sales."
I'm getting a 404 on that link. Here's Google's Cache: http://209.85.135.132/search?q=cache:U4sLRJe_pBUJ:www.salon....
One thing I wish OS X had natively is something like SizeUp [1]. It's incredibly useful, and I rarely use the corner to resize windows. Windows are often finicky to resize, and it's much easier for me to just hit a quick key combination to resize them. When I want something that isn't built in, SizeUp generally gets me close to where I want to be, and it's just a matter of moving a window straight along the x or y axis.

[1]: http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/
On freemium: I'd really follow the advice of "It is a numbers game, so bust out your Excel spreadsheet" (from http://gigaom.com/2010/03/26/case-studies-in-freemium-pandor...).

I would really try to understand how much a freemium user cost in your case, and how many (and which) premium users you would need to cover the free ones.
It sound crazy, but it actually has promise. I don't know about dogs finding "love" so much, but breeders might find it useful in that sense.
If people said what was really on their mind, wouldn't we have more ideological shouting matches?
Building for multiple mobile platforms with one codebase
> On Fri, 2009-08-21 at 09:58 -0700, geoffrey.levand at am.sony.com wrote:
>> Please be assured that SCE is committed to continue
>> the support for previously sold models that have the
>> "Install Other OS" feature and that this feature will
>> not be disabled in future firmware releases.

Source: http://www.haxnetwork.net/2010/03/otheros-will-not-be-remove...

I guess this proves that you can't really trust the promises of some companies. We have to keep in mind that a company is driven by profit, and it will always have the highest priority. I have no problems with that in general, but removing features from a product that people have already paid for is not acceptable.
I think it's also about the quality of academic staff. At the best universities the teaching is usually a secondary activity; the lecturers are leaders in their field of research and can set a curriculum that a self learner would have difficulty in coming up with. But the actual learning is indeed often driven by the students.
But if everyone in the world considered issues rationally, then everyone would be smarter, no?
The state of 4G: it's all about congestion, not speed
I just found out about this two days ago (another post on here). I don't have a cycle quite like you describe -- I'm generally always in nocturnal mode, except when I make the mistake to try staying up all night (despite telling myself never to do it again no matter what), after which I may end up in a "day" day mode where I get up at 7-8 am like normal people. Except when I do that my brain still doesn't turn on until the afternoon.

This thing has been plaguing me all my life, made high school and college a total nightmare except where I could finagle afternoon classes. I mean, personally I love staying up late doing stuff, but it's a pain to try aligning that with other people's schedules.
I can't see anything without creating an account. Perhaps expose some data to logged out users so they can get a better idea what the service is about.

Also, you don't have any traditional method to contact you (just facebook and twitter). An email address would be nice.