skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Those spelling errors are pretty awful. I can't fix it any longer sadly, but thanks for catching them. I need to proof better online. I also appreciate the quibbles: it makes for better conversation.

As for the Magi, I think I just had that title wrong. I am not enough of a Jedi fan for that to be it (unconsciously maybe...). As you can see from the spelling, I made the list too quickly and without checking things. But I think I've always had that title wrong. Here's my real guess: when I first studied that poem, our entire focus was on the finale (when the magi return home "no longer at ease."). So I guess that's what stuck in my head.

I picked the Apology over the Republic because I prefer Plato in his Socratic phase to him in his Platonic phase. Also, the Apology is about 20 odd pages, while the Republic is many hundred.

I think The Waste Land is completely overrated, but love Eliot's other poetry.
Liver. If there's just one diet hack, this should be it: eat liver once or twice a month. It'll make up for the most atrocious junk food diets, and supplement nicely pretty much anything. If you're vegetatian the alternatives would be spinach and beans.
I haven't, and now that I'm all fired up about Ayn Rand, I suppose I'll listen to them this afternoon. Thank you!
I (a guy) read a lot more fiction (because I'm usually reading a few books at once, and the ficton ones can be read faster), but my girlfriend mostly reads mostly non-fiction,because somehow she finds it more pleasant (apart from terry pratchett, apparently)
"We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet," said Li.

TIAS?

(Google doesn't seem to know TIAS, it's "Try It And See"?)
My problem with SQL has always been the optimizer. Without heavy hinting some implementations (I'm looking at you Sybase) went off and did things in a very non-optimal way.

When programming in a declarative language, you really need to trust the action it takes make as much or more sense than a developer picking the step.
Why consume when you can recycle?
Yeah, that's pretty much what we thought at Synaptics. It seems not to have turned out that way :-).

(I was working at Synaptics when what-was-then-Elantech first sued Synaptics. I never had much to do with the lawsuit. I left Synaptics quite a while before the suit was settled.)
Global in-app purchases for iPhone
Hello everyone.

I'm a product manager who works for a small internet company that is developing an iPhone application for a social network. We monetize by offering limited and premium memberships to users (premium members get additional features not available to limited members). For billing on the web, we use a 3rd-party payment gateway that is nearing retirement, and will be replaced by an in-house solution.

The business wants a global launch for our iPhone app using iTunes + in-app purchasing as a payment gateway. The problem with going global using this payment method is that for our web service membership level, available features, and subscription costs are defined by country. For example, in the US premium/limited memberships are available at 5 pricing tiers; in France premium/limited memberships are available at 5 different pricing tiers from the US; and in Chile the service is available for free and all features are available to users.

Is it possible then to have the server-side, based on the user's country of registration, control the level of access, features, and payment options for users on the iPhone? I'd also note that since iTunes Connect does not allow variable pricing by currency and country, each "region" would need 5 in app purchase options.

I argued for a US-only launch for iPhone using iTunes in app purchase until an in-house payment gateway is available. But you know...
What ton's of money? Not supporting an ssh server hardly costs anything. Encrypting updates is essentially no engineering once you are digitally signing them for integrity.

I'd like to enhance the firmware of my airport express units, but the firmware encryption stops me. It annoys me, but it didn't cost apple anything to do it.
Even so, I think it's useful to try to remove some of the mystique around old classics. I'm not saying there isn't some great stuff there -- I'm sure there is -- but it's hard to disentangle greatness from snobbishness.
I agree there is a virtue to living within ones means. Having as small a 'footprint' as possible - carbon or otherwise.

I probably first entertained this idea after reading translations of Buddhist texts or things like Merton's "Saying of the Desert Fathers". But for much of my life this was a fuzzy idea like most liberal thoughts something to declaim with out really applying. In my mind it took the form of a clean aesthetic - clean, Zen-inspired, Danish modernist work and living spaces. (Which couldnt be farther from the current reality of a 1000sq' apartment with my wife and two boys.)

When I first became conscious of GNU/FSF and Open Source this became a bit more concrete. Before I was able to get Linux working on whatever hardware I could find, it was interesting to me because of its economical and simple design which lent itself to self-reliance and control.

I've tried in little ways to wean myself of a certain style of spending/ consumption. Less Starbucks, double edged safety razors instead of plastic, public transit and walking instead of car - but I am far from an example to anyone.

But the idea that "less is better than more" would almost seem anti-American up until the past few years. To me it always felt right. So many of our illnesses in the US are ones of over consumption - petroleum, hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, etc. It is hard for me to say if this is merely a aesthetic choice or also an ethical one. It seems to me that it is but I have a hard time formulating a convincing argument. I am not sure myself.

The impact of less and less consumption could hit the service industry and further reduce jobs. If we really lived within our means what would result?

On a tangent I saw a fun movie last night with James Cogburn and Rod Steiger - "Duck, You Sucker!" also called "Fist full of Dynamite" in Italian. Sergio Leone direction and Morricone score. Much of it corny and implausible but fun nevertheless. Steiger plays a semi-literate Mexican peasant who at one point blurts out "revolutions are started by those who read and the ones who dont read suffer through them..."
I guess I should make it a proper blog post if I wanted to give proper reasons. I was worried it was too long already, but maybe I'll do that.

As for your counter-suggestions and additions, that's part of what makes this game interesting: we will all make different lists. (By the way, I love nearly all of Dumas.)
But the Kindle is even better. It's so good, in fact, that I have one despite the DRM. (Not that my opinion matters, of course... just sayin'.)

"Do one thing and do it well."
Totally forgot about this. Arrington could have beaten Apple to the punch if only he had not been such a jackass.
If you keep a connection open it drains battery life because the chip can't power down.
Functional programming in object oriented languages
This isn't so surprising to me. The iPad runs iPhone OS and the 3.2 seed has been available to developers for some time.

"iPhone OS" is a bit of a misnomer, since it refers to the software running on iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_OS)
> George Orwell: Any and all of the essays, but especially "Shooting an elephant" and "A hanging"

YES. Those are fairly short essays, and pretty entertaining; look on Google or something and I'm sure you'll find them. They're remarkable for showing you how government oppression feels to the oppressors.
A social web 2.0 webapp where you can share your farming accomplishments, plus you have a leader board to compare yourself to others. Tie-in an iPhone/iPad app to easily update the webapp, and that also doubles as an alarm & reminder to water and care for your plants!
The future! Is here!

</parody>
Seriously, some hardware gizmo that automates care and data-logging. I can totally see that done with those new cheap programmable MCU/SoC boards, like Arduino.
Last line of the article: "For people who are excited about window farming but not so gung-ho about starting from scratch, Riley says her group will soon begin selling window farming kits".
Steve Blank - What we have learned
Has it? Everything I've read that is not just speculation has concluded that you'd have to constantly write a great deal of data to wear out an SSD, even with a swap partition (or file).

http://serverfault.com/questions/23720/should-you-disable-pa...
What is Web 2.0? (2005)
There are a range of applications, including highly useful ones, that simply needs multi-tasking. Anything that is time based (think calendars, alarm clocks, etc...) really need multi-tasking to work correctly. A host of location aware applications really need multi-tasking to work effectively.

I get Apples position. The iPhone is the spiritual successor to the PalmOS. It looks, feels, and works very similarly to it. Even early finger-based applications first made their appearance on the Palm (here's looking at you SnapperMail with your fat finger mode). The Palm had thousands of apps and solved a ton of problems without multi-tasking. So I get it... you can build a really useful device without it.

Yet there is so much more you can do with a well thought-out system like Android has. As Android gets more traction (and thus more developer interest) I think your going to see more and more separation between the quality of the apps available on the devices. There are simply going to be killer applications that force Apples hand to stay competitive.
It seems a bit premature, indeed. Disappointing journalism.
What good is a highly flexible bullet-proof material if it stops the bullet somewhere inside or on the other side of your body?
I doubt Apple is spending much money to stop jailbreakers. They just don't make it easy. In most cases these jailbreak methods are exploiting unrelated bugs to get root access on the phone. Stuff Apple has to fix. For example: The 2.x Safari jailbreak method. If you look at other closed platforms like gaming consoles you can see some serious anti-cracking efforts. The Xbox 360 for example has a very sophisticated security system. Microsoft scans devices for known exploits and even bans them from Xbox Live for life if found. Apple could make iTunes check the device for modifications. They could force the device to constantly report back to Apple and report a modified device. They could ban the device from accessing the App Store. All things considered Apple isn't going overboard to stop jailbreaking. I would guess it's just folded into the iPhone OS security team's normal day to day work.
Canada Approves Enviropig, Pig Inherit Genetic Modifications for Clean Manure
Given the past history of genetic modifications to plants and animals, I have a bad feeling about this.
The correct quote is by the late great Paul A. Samuelson and he said:"The stock market has forecast nine of the last five recessions"

The rest of your comment is right on the mark.
Given past history of genetic manipulation of plants and animals, I have a bad feeling about this.
As it is, thieves can simply remove the corporate email account from the device and then it will no longer communicate with the server.
Yeah, it's technically a "theoretically bulletproof t-shirt" until they get around to that testing bit.
After an hour, the strips were removed from the solution and baked in at oven at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius

Am I the only one that thinks this would not be out of place in a comic book describing a hero making his costume?
"My friend is Scottish, and therefore a jerk."
"I think his Scottishness is incidental to being a jerk. There are more relevant factors that contribute to his jerkness. He may be both Scottish and a jerk, but that doesn't imply causation."

This is not an example of No True Scotsman. Just an example of criticism that should be labelled differently.
By Eric Bland | Thu Apr 1, 2010 07:00 AM ET
Not to mention the media cartels.
77% after an hour.
As far as I'm concerned, Piotr Wozniak is the expert when it comes to hacking memory. Recalling important tidbits is inextricably linked to learning, and his methods seem to work best for remembering things.
Counterexample: if you know anything about cryptography -- anything at all -- then Dan Brown's earlier book Digital Fortress is downright painful.
We know from SDK snooping that Apple is working on third party multi-tasking so it's kind of a moot point. The only question is how they're going to do it. I think it's good to acknowledge that a mobile device with limited battery/resources has to multi-task differently than a traditional computer running an OS designed 20-30+ years ago.
It would at least make extracting the bullet easier by keeping the fragments contained in fabric. Dragging the fabric along with it would probably slow the bullet down a lot faster too - meaning shallower penetration.

Reminded me of the theory that Mongolian soldiers wore silk shirts because it made extracting barbed arrows easier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_armour
As robryan said above, it really depends on where you live. I am currently doing contract work in ND, so a car is needed (motorcycles are garaged 6 months of the year, no public transport, apt 40 miles from work (close as I could get)). Further, you need something in relatively good maintenance, because getting stranded could be very bad. Electric is also not an option (too long drive during day, renting, no garage / recharge area).

I don't think you can escape software these days. Down south, motorcycles might be a better buy. If you are in an urban area, there are companies that sell electric vehicles. They won't do highway speeds, but are rated for in town use.
You're betting on a wholesale restructuring of American phone pricing. As of today, phones are purchased with contract, and iPhones are being sold at the same price as Android phones.

Huh? I'm betting on nothing. I just quoted the retail prices of the devices as google found them for me. Whether you purchase them with contract or not doesn't make a difference other than pay now versus pay later.

Yes, apple may lower the iPhone prices to match up the cheaper android devices. There's just a tipping point where that won't make sense anymore. It won't be long before we see nexus-grade devices hit the street for half the price of a comparable iPhone, with equal build quality and feature-set. What then, will apple sell the latest iPhone for $199 without contract? Will they add some gimmick to justify the premium price (what could that be then?)?

Touchscreen phones are becoming a commodity and apple can't change that. This is not a "bet" or guess, it's just plain old market forces at work (many manufacturers competing for the android market versus, well, apple).

Note that this is a bit of a different story than the mp3 player market. The ipod arguably still is the best mp3 player you can buy and afaik apple still holds the clickwheel patent to ensure that doesn't change too soon.

In the smartphone market the difference is nowhere near as clear cut. Android already is pretty close and apple doesn't hold any patents to push it back (unless you think they can win the multitouch case). So, as said, in short order we'll see android phones that match the iPhone experience. In fact, I'm quite sure soon enough we'll see android apps that skin your android to look near indistinguishable to an iPhone. Unless iPhone OS makes great leaps before that this might become the ultimate humiliation. How will apple sell me their $499 brick when my $199 brick plus a $5 app makes it look like theirs, plus multitasking and stuff?

That's the crossroad where apple will have to decide between trying to compete on price against the likes of HTC - or letting the iPhone fade back into a niche.
No, none of this (so far as I can tell) has anything to do with the number of different words spoken in a day by either men or women. What it's about is simply the fact that some popular science authors and journalists are throwing about totally bogus claims about sex differences, and falsely claiming that they are supported by scientific research.
Tell HN: I just wrote a guide about browser automation with Ruby
Yeah, crappy science/tech journalism strikes again. With a little effort the writer and editor could have made the article and title just as engaging, without the misleading hype.

From my understanding the weave also plays a big role in bullet resistant fabrics. ...and yes, catching the bullet on "the other side", while not ideal can still save your life.
Hopefully this isn't in poor taste, I'm not trying to whore out my post. Just thought that some of you guys might be interested in this topic.

Please let me know what you think, I want to continue on with a few of these topics if people are interested in it.

Thanks!
Editorializing headlines still annoy.
Because if a user does this, than Apple doesn't have to support them, which significantly reduces the sorts of problems tech support has to deal with. It allows them to control the "standard user experience". As pointed out above, most people aren't going to jail break it.
patio11 nailed it right on the head. It is one of the factors, but it's one of MANY factors. The most useful part of Page Rank nowadays is for when you want to either a) sell your site or b) sell links on your site.
2011 Audi A8 with pictures and wallpapers
Audi has launched the next generation of the Audi A8 - the sportiest sedan of the luxury class sets new standards. Its elegantly styled body with the Audi ...
Spanish Cabin Crew Gets Naked To Protest Unpaid Wages
Digital Fortress is so awful, I couldn't even get through the first 10 pages.
What happened to privacy?
March 17 mention:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cotton-T-shirts-Could-Become-...

Xiaodong Li's CV (PDF format) mentions the paper (#147 in his list of publications):

http://www.me.sc.edu/fs/pdf/Chris_Li.pdf

Seems to fit in with the rest of his research, as well. It could be an April Fools Day prank, but there's enough out there to make me think it's not.
Existential Angst Factory (2008)
It's a bit early to tell since most people have had their iPads less than 24 hours at this point. I like the free WSJ & NYT apps so far but I'm definitely not ready to subscribe.
Some people like to put their heads in the sand and ignore things they don't like. Heck, that's why Fox News manages to maintain its entire audience share.
OTOH, it didn't cost Linksys anything to make the WRT54G hackable. And guess who sold massively more units.
That's why I consider it a luxury - to live in a place where I don't need one.
One Application (same code base), Five Screens (Including the iPad)
They could do that. They could also go out of business if they keep harming their customers like that.
For anyone interested in learning more about Michael Burry, I wrote a post using material from an old message board he used to run:

http://streetcapitalist.com/2010/03/24/learning-from-michael...

It is pretty amazing to see how far he has come since then, from a young doctor posting about investing on the internet to going head to head with Greenspan.
Watch the first video starting at about 1:10. From my understanding the material could have two properties -- being both soft and pliable, but also becoming hard as a board instantly upon impact as from a bullet.
About 4 years ago (when this article was written), a book called The Female Brain, by Louaan Brizendine, was published that caused a couple of media outlets to blindly parrot he book's numerous claims of female stereotypes having a scientific basis. The links title is a reference to the stereotype "Women talk more than men", which was 'scientificized' by Brizendine as 'Women talk 20k words to men's 7K'. Mark Lieberman showed that the claim had no basis in the literature, including the paper which Brizendine cited in her book.

More recently, the author has published a sequel The Male Brain, which does the same for males.

Mark Liebermann, the author of the linked article, has recently been featured in a different thread today on Hacker News refuting the claim "There is a scientific basis for why men don't listen (which is also a scientific fact)". http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1240307
You can't blame them for starting with higher prices. They really don't know how much people are willing to pay. It's easier to cut prices than raise them.
Agreed, I've been able to do this in every McDonalds in a half-dozen countries. My brother hated pickles and always got them removed, I don't know what McDonalds this guy goes to but he should really complain to head office about them for poor customer service because McDonald is much better with customers than this article is suggesting. I've had them substitute and switch almost everything at one point or another and in multiple different stores without a problem.

The only company I've known to be better is Wendy's who will do virtually anything you want to a burger.
About 24 hours after the launch, only 20% of the FP items mention the iPad: http://skitch.com/petercooper/n78ty/ipadreality

If you fancy matching a wager, I'll put down $50 to a charity of your choice that 10% or fewer of the front page items on July 4, 2010 have "iPad" in the title :-)
That is absolutely true - it's been done with B+Trees, for example, as CSS-Trees. This does make finds faster (because you eliminate the space in the cache that pointers would require), but you're still going to be doing a lot of nonsequential access when performing finds.
This has been mentioned in comments before but it hasn't been submitted before and is worthy of a read. The quote out of The 4HWW that excitement is what we should pursue, not happiness really hit home.

Some links I found relevant while going over older HN articles:

Comment by Fallentimes quoting Tom Preston-Werner: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=338357

Source of said comment: http://tom.preston-werner.com/2008/10/18/how-i-turned-down-3...

Comment by Keyist: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849855

Comment by jodrellblank: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1036228

Related article by Reg Braithwaite: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=589200
I think a better of thinking about this is that, sometimes, evolutionary processes falls into a local maxima or a local minima. There is a trick in the wording of, “The better adapted you are, the less adaptable you tend to be”, since “adaptation” was redefined in the second part of that statement. If you’re so well adapted to the current situation such that you fail to adapt to future, hypothetical, unknown situations, then what you’ve really done was to hyper-specialize and stop responding to change. This is not that one adapts too well so much as one got comfortable and stopped adapting.

In terms of practice, it means someone stops being mindful of the task on hand and starts performing his tasks mindlessly. The present moment is always surprising, this principle of adaptation is not.
I can think of a couple reasons not to like SQL.

First, it's ugly. It's from an era when it was popular to try to make programming languages look like English. Most people have since decided that trying to make code look like English text is a Bad Thing.

Second, it is very common to create SQL queries by splicing together strings in whatever language you're using for the rest of the application. That's a horrible way to write any kind of code. ORM is, I think as much an attempt to avoid that as an attempt to avoid SQL itself. CLSQL provides SQL semantics with Lisp syntax that can be used directly in Lisp programs. I'm not sure what other languages have similar tools, but that seems more like the Right Way to me.
I hereby retract my Star Wars slander. I think TWL is rather uneven; the Fire Sermon section seems to me very fine indeed. On reflection, though I'm not convinced TWL is better than Prufrock, so I retract that too. (The Four Quartets are better than either. But long.)
Really, amazing and sleek design.
Eccentric behaviour benefits society and helps us live longer