skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I try to remember that I am in fact rich compared to the rest of the world, no matter how good or bad things may get from day to day.

I am, for example, very happy that I can get a drink of clean, safe water whenever I want.

I am very happy that I don't live in the middle of war.

I am very happy that nobody cares whether I vote or not, and that if I choose (or don't choose) to vote, no one will try to intimidate me with violence or death.

Life is good.
Well, at least the idea that we all have to physically travel to a certain location is. It may be needed for certain jobs and may not be for everyone, but I think working from home could work from both the employer and the employee if it's implemented correctly. It also could reduce traffic and greenhouse gasses tremendously.

It's completely possible for IT jobs to be shipped overseas, yet the thought of a developer working remotely one day a week is still too much for most management to handle.
Contact me. I had another idea for a similar goal but vastly different implementation. Maybe we can create a hybrid or tear down each other's ideas?
This commentary is interesting (and non-alarmist): http://balkin.blogspot.com/2010/04/whats-next-for-network-ne...
The cult of Apple
@tptacek and others on this thread, what books do you suggest to learn modern C programing?
I am an experienced programmer, but all of my experience has been with JVM languages. I would like to be able to read and debug C/C++ programs - so which books provide a good start on idioms, libraries and tools?
Speech Recognition in the News
char * (*(** foo[][8])())[]

declare foo as array of array 8 of pointer to pointer to function returning pointer to array of pointer to char

Which do you prefer reading?
The copy of Stroustrop's book I have has all of the program text in a proportional, italic font. It was murder on the eyes.
Interesting point. I do sometimes think of rich people in some sort of un-reality.

Reality is what you see in front of you. Thanks for pointing that out.
Computer Education
yep, it was, but it's sort of sad that most laymen use the derogatory term 'knock-off', since that implies some form of piracy
It was written in a different era where publishers weren't inflating page counts for sales.
There are no problems more easily dealt with given less money.

One of the things money is critical for is misery avoidance. People talk about how "money can't buy happiness." Well, it can sure buy you not being stuck in living hell if you need top flight medical care or an excellent criminal lawyer.
Apple's own applications have been using APIs and have had capabilities unavailable to third parties since day one. The only difference with iBooks is that the app is distributed through the store, but that is completely orthogonal to the issue of private APIs. I cannot make myself get outraged about this.
An Introduction To Vagrant
Yes, that's certainly fair and sensible. The problem is that lit is one of those things that you had to take every year where I went, so the only respite from it was a year of journalism.
That was my first programming book, and I learned not only C from it, but programming in general.
It's been translated into many languages, I read it in Hungarian. Check out the various covers: http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/
This is a nice first step to common sense changes to Digg. Features often seem like great ideas during brainstorming sessions, but don't rise to expectations when they are actually implemented.
Yes, antitrust measures are applicable only to monopolies. Shocking, I know.
First, I freely admit this is probably not even a meaningful comparison, I'm just gloating.

I'm a student (CS major) at a mediocre school in a tourist city. I live within walking distance of the bar I work at, and school is a 20 min bike ride away.

last week I turned in a file compressing application I wrote in MASM assembly language.

right now I'm high on mushrooms.
And what do the middle class do with their wealth? Move into the faux community of a suburb.
Indeed, in order to make $1341 a month without working you'll need to invest about $321,000 at 5% interest. If you want to keep it inflation-adjusted then you probably wouldn't want to take more than 2% of the principal each year, so you'd need more like $700K in the bank.
_C Interfaces and Implementations_ by David Hanson.

I'm using it as the textbook for a weekend C class I'm about to run for a bunch of Ruby/Java programmers, because CII basically gives you back all the data structures you have in Ruby that C "takes away" from you.

It'll also teach you a style of C development (ADT-centric, modular, heavy on function pointers) that holds up pretty well and is relatively modern.
The person who started this thread added a message:

'I have received email from official representatives of RSA confirming that RSA did indeed create the "RSA Security 1024 V3" root certificate that is currently included in NSS (Netscape/Mozilla) and also in Apple's root cert store.'

So sounds like there hasn't been some rogue root cert out there for the last 9 years. Good to see that root certs are rogue until proven valid, though.
Why would you write code like this?
I actually use my local rdoc all the time.

I followed this guide http://alkesh.vaghmaria.com/2009/07/offline-gem-server/ to have a local rdoc server running through passenger (so I don't have to run gem server manually).

This is great for working offline, and it also means that the docs are always usign sdoc, which is a great template which allows for good searching. >90% of projects have crap rdoc templates.

I do agree that building ri is a waste of time, though.
I think it's also worth considering that American cities are themselves broken.

Americans driving everywhere (and increasingly driving further everywhere) is a problem larger than just an analysis of where we live and work. I'd love to see a study like this that also factors in how long we're spending to get to stores, restaurants, schools, entertainment, etc.

It's quite likely that the Bus Buddies from the article aren't only burning 15-20 hours a week commuting to work, but more like 25-30 hours a week commuting in general. To the store, to a ball game, to a kid's recital, to a park, to a bike trail, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd97us27eSg
The reason for this advice is that the employer and the employee often have a number in mind when they enter the room. If the employee starts with a number below what the employer had in mind, the employer accepts it. If it is too high, the employer will suggest something lower, and the employee at least can’t go higher, and will likely end up lower than the number he gave.

So you could say a better advice is to say your number first, but make it 150% of your actual number.

On a related topic, a lot of tech guys I know undersell themselves. I have two employees and I asked both of them to go first, for the first one, I gave him more than he asked for :)
Not surprising, they seem pretty committed to being the Google of Russia. Look at their maps, for instance - it's 90% identical to Google maps (Even in quality! Pretty impressive).

Or wait, does that make them the Bing/Live of Russia? Hmm...
Open source biotechnology - and the challenges to making it happen
I traded a stressful 50min car commute across a jam packed bridge for a 15min walk. I'm making slightly less money, but my quality of life has gone up dramatically. My wife likes it too.
5 Surefire Tips To Weight Loss Success
Indeed, broken by design. It's not just a myth that GM/Ford/Oil Companies killed streetcars and public transportation. They really did do their best to create the suburbs/commute/'MUST drive everywhere' layout to benefit their businesses. Unfortunately, it worked.
Confirm your Buzz settings
I'd love to see the same thing happen to Hootsuite's Ow.ly URL shortening service, which frames content in a similar way to the Diggbar.
The gcc error messages remind me of rms standing behind you yelling, "error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before '*' token (you idiot)!"

gcc error outputs are remnants of a bygone era where your brain contained the source of the compiler and the entire language specification. You are supposed to feel bad when you fail to please the parser (you wrote the entire compiler suite and implemented the language spec yourself after all, didn't you?).

Clang error messages softly whisper sweet nothings of suggestions and encouragement. You effortlessly resolve your typos and misconceptions. Before you know it, you're back into Productive Working Land having circumnavigated ancient realms of error messages from the past 20 years.
If you install your gems without rdoc on, you can just use open_gem (http://github.com/adamsanderson/open_gem) to build the rdocs on the fly with `gem read <gemname>`
tptacek, I LOLled at your last comment :-)

But I think you're being unfairly selective in your quoting of the original article. _Immediately_ after the part you excerpted, it continues: "(Er, assuming you have the patience to go on to accumulate a decade of experience leading to wisdom, taste, good judgement and technical intuition.)"
No doubt people with a 3 hour commute suffered with the higher prices and had second thoughts.

Really, considering how wasteful these commutes are in terms of pollution, time and energy expenditure for little gain, it wouldn't be so bad if energy prices rose again and discouraged this behavior.
The nebulousness of it is definitely a dissuading factor. Particularly, I didn't like how they given an example of buying flowers, but don't describe how payment authorization will work.
The point is not that, but that as soon as you make slightly nontrivial declarations it is not readable in one pass.
I think it just means they don't have the same definition of advanced software as people like us do. I use what I consider to be a cutting-edge Linux OS, but because I use software that's been around forever, like BASH and VIM, I've had several people make comments about my "retro" system.
I think you underestimate the ability of some people to pass classes without learning anything. I met an engineering student who had somehow passed a tough, high-quality technical writing class and yet could not write a coherent sentence, let alone a useful paragraph. I suspect that he cheated his ass off in most of his classes.
Did you actually watch the video? They're stepping through covers individually ~3 times (not watching it again) and getting only a few frames of transition each time.

Caching the next and previous covers that are currently off-screen isn't just easy, it's highly likely that it'll be a frequent operation, and should be optimized. If they had scrolled a few dozen in either direction a bit of lag would be expected, but not when iterating.

To make matters worse, this is in an advertisement, and can be expected to perform worse IRL because everyone optimizes for their ads.
Angel Boot Camp: an AngelConf-inspired event in Boston
There's the whole "Unknown or expired link" when you wait long enough before clicking "Next" (x?fnid=foo). I understand the cause behind it, but I prefer links that work.
No matter how many times this is posted, I can't upvote it enough.
Yes, it should be similar to disabling cookies or javascript. Or tinkering with other options. A default for the "normals" but power to people who know what they are doing.
I wouldn't be so critical. We all believe the lie, in different ways, that ONCE I get funding/get famous/go public then I'll be happy. Of course it's always elusive.

People often self-destruct when their dreams come true and they suddenly realize they have spent years chasing a lie. People in the startup world are particularly susceptible -- I know I sure am.

When faced with an existential crisis some people cope by doing lines off a hooker's ass-- other people just give their money away. Neither solution deals with the underlying problem, but it's probably better than the alternative.
Right. Money, like most things cannot keep you happy. You might be happy temporarily, but the happiness fades and then you focus on your next object of desire. I think that's the empty feeling this guy kept feeling - he was buying more and more possessions but nothing really fulfilled him.
Maybe I'm dense, but I still don't understand. I'm guessing denormalization means going from relational data to non-relational data. When you're working with a document store, data never has to be normalized, and as a consequence, it never has to be denormalized either.

Take, for instance, getting a user with the first name 'Martha'. In a document store, it might look like:

store.get({first='Martha'})

Whereas in Django's ORM, it might look like:

User.objects.filter(first='Martha')

And for reference, the SQL might look like:

query("SELECT * FROM User JOIN Preferences ON User.Id=Preferences.UserId WHERE First=%s", 'Martha')

The first two are obviously simpler than the third. But how is the Django ORM inherently superior to the document store's? When your atomic unit is a document, there's no longer a need for Django models.
The question was already answered, but how how wonderful would it be if it was connected to something like the [1]emote epoc. I really really hope that things like that will be the future of physical interfaces.

[1]http://www.emotiv.com/
This doesn't change the premise of your argument, but Stanza found a workaround to let it change the brightness.

I think what they do is let users change the font and background color.
How about the misleading advertisement 3rd down next?
New thought exercise: add the hours you spend commuting to your "work" hours and calculate your new rate per hour. If your commute is significantly more stressful than your job (metropolitan traffic jams), bill yourself time and a half or more to account for the impact to your health.
Craig Barrett: Carly Fiorina positioned HP for success
i go to digg, click on some link, see a new page. so what is this diggbar? (hey, don't look at me strange, i use reddit..)
For some unhappy broke people (although certainly not all) they unhappy and broke for the same reason, either because they are not making sufficient contributions to society and the economy or they are not being compensated/recognized appropriately for the contributions that they are making.

Speaking for myself, part of the reward of a successful career is the joy of seeing my work and talents used and enjoyed by others.
I'm one of those extreme commuters too. I work from home two days a week so, I try to look at it like I spend 4-out-of-7 days at home. It helps only a little.

My previous job was 100% telecommuting. That lasted almost five years.

It's better than not working (did that too).
I don't really know how to feel about it. On the one hand, it's an invasion of privacy; on the other hand, you can't really outlaw data collection in a public space, can you?

Anyway, tales like A Scanner Darkly seem oddly prophetic and relevant: http://ahprojects.com/c/itp/thesis
It feels so hilariously appropriate that you were hiring a sales person, and they did a spectacular job of, as they say, "selling themselves."
I've always thought of regular iPhone developers as 3rd class citizens of the platform. First class is reserved by Apple, who get to do anything they wish. Second class is large/well-known/well-connected companies which get exempted from some of the limitations and finally Joe Developer with every limitation and app-approval thrown at him.

I know this doesn't bother 95% of iphone developers, but it really does irk me.
Make really crappy movies and befriend criminals? Maybe Hollywood should just quit while they're ahead.
I might find his asceticism more admirable if he hadn't apparently sent out a press release about it.
An extremist response, but if it makes him happy, I'd say it's probably the right choice for him. In that case, congratulations on finding and doing what makes you happy; more people need to pay attention to that part of the message.
Talking Carl duel
Yet-Another-Genome Syndrome
But if everything you need to know about C is in K&R, how do you implement a balanced tree?

Read a good algorithms text to learn about balanced trees. Once you understand what one is, you ought to have learned enough about C from K&R to be able to implement one in C.
Effects of College Counseling on High-Achieving, Low-Income Students
I don't think it translates a will to be unfair, but rather, a side-effect that once an API is public, you have to support it publicly (and that's a lot, lot of work and money on the long run).

If the API is only "public internally", that means a lot less friction if they need to improve it.
Ntera Prints a Display on Almost Any Surface
Being a C wizard doesn't mean you know how to implement a balanced tree. It means that if you understand a concept, like a red-black tree for example, then you can efficiently implement it in C.
Thanks! I personally haven't opened an hdd in 15 years, so I couldn't speak to newer drives. (and now I feel old :) )
Repa: Automagic parallel arrays for Haskell - with benchmarks
I'm not a believer in assigning small tasks to people you have no previous relationship with. It can very easily take more time to explain what you want, verify that you actually got what you wanted and deal with the risk of getting something you didn't want than just doing it yourself.
10 Business Lessons You Can Learn From Baseball
It really drives me crazy when I'm discussing products with a salesperson and they consistently "correct" me every time I mention the rounded-up price. It goes like this:

Sales: So it looks like the $299 point-and-shoot might match the features you're looking for, moreso than this $399 video camera.

Me: OK. I'm really leaning towards the $300 one.

Sales: $299.

Me: Yeah, sure. Because I don't know if I'm really going to get my money's worth, paying an extra hundred for the $400 one.

Sales: $399.

Me: (uppercuts salesperson into the stratosphere)
Have the national trends changed since a half-decade ago when the submitted article was published?

I work from home, except that I have contact hours for teaching about a twenty-minute drive from here. We live near a city bike and hiking trail, and walk to much of our shopping and to the public library where I do much of my research.
You can tell it not to. There is a setting to turn it off. I could give you details but I don't know how to turn Ow.ly's framebar back on!
Not super rich. In the U.S he would be in the top 1%.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/02/01/rich-o-meter-20/tab/a...

So that means there around ~750,000 households at that level or more
edit: Screwed the calculation. Assuming 300M and 4 people per household. Thanks hugh3
Mixing Music and Sculpture
Stop Wasting Money On Patents
Considering she's currently in a high-profile Senate race, it's hard for me to take positive or negative assessments of her time at HP at face value; I tend to assume they're all written with a political goal in mind.

This article is positioned as just a tech guy straightening out politically-motivated mischaracterization of Fiorina's time at HP, but it's perhaps not coincidental that Barrett is an active Republican and generous donor to Republican political campaigns.
Against intellectual property
The whole situation seems similar to physical books in stores. Anyone can walk in, pick one up, read, and never pay a cent. But publishers don't complain about that.

Because most people won't try to read whole books this way. It's inconvenient by being time-consuming. Google Books is also inconveinient (for different reasons). There are exceptions, but they exist for both cases. The fact that GB limits how much content they show also pushes readers to buy the books.
Stable high energy prices would do a great job of discouraging this behaviour, as they've done in Europe. Unfortunately, in North America we're stuck with "an energy policy that encourages consumption" and leads to energy price volatility (with the accompanying economic volatility), coupled with governments that are terrified to do anything that looks like raising people's gas prices.
I wonder whether the 'out of date' refers only to the interface conventions etc., or goes right down to the kernel. It does strike me that with NK's dreadful economy, it probably needs to be able to run on oldish hardware. Even if they can circumvent sanctions to get the latest and greatest components for Kim Jong-Il's personal workstation, or their defense department, most of the country is probably saddled with Pentium IIIs or similar.
So, this isn't exactly breaking news. There was a review posted of it (albeit in Russian) over a month ago. While in Russian, it does have lots of screenshots (http://ashen-rus.livejournal.com/4300.html). I'm not so familiar with KDE to recognize which apps everything are in Korean, but it looks like a pretty standard KDE Linux installation with Firefox, office programs, etc.

Since that blogger got a hold of it, I'm sure it's available outside of North Korea, but I wouldn't want it on my machine. It's noted that it's not completely stable and I'm guessing it doesn't measure up to Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, or any of the well-polished Linux distributions that we're used to.

It's an interesting idea - that an authoritarian regime would use a freely modifiable OS to create something it probably wants very closed. The question is whether they have the ability to make all their people use it (or if that's their goal at all).
K&R is overrated, just like many "cult" books are. I read C: ARM by Harbison and Steele and after trying to read K&R I stopped because I wasn't getting anything new out of it.

Edit: Further proof of this is the blind downvoting typical of critiques of "cult" books. K&R just happened to be there at the right time and it was the first programming book for many people. Their nostalgia makes them think that it is a very good book, when in fact is a simple book that describes a simple language. Nothing bad about that, but nothing spectacular either.
Ask HN: Language, thinking, and intelligence
Dear intelligent community of HN. I have been contemplating a lot recently regarding language, thinking/thoughts, and intelligence.

I am not the world's most articulate person. Some of the main reason being 1) I mostly produce in visual elements. 2) having lived in new york for the past 8 years, people I have came into contact with rarely spoke English, thus I rarely get the chance to have in depth thoughtful conversation with anyone.

Is it possible to be smart without being verbally articulate? In order to have deeper levels of creativity and thoughts, do I need to force myself to be a lot more articulate verbally?

I really love reading the submissions and comments here on HN, however I am finding it a bit difficult to comprehend half of what I am reading, and it's not just the technical jargon, it's more because the structural construct of the sentence, the thought is beyond me???

I would really love to hear HN's thought on this subject matter, and would love to see some useful links on this subject matter! ( see, I am not even articulate enough to phrase the problem correctly)
On the other hand, he's greatly limiting his freedom while providing the means for others to increase their freedom:

All the money will go into his microcredit charity, which offers small loans and advice to self-employed people in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

He sounds like a guy who has figured out what he wants, after a lifetime of saving for an indeterminate future need.
Also, it's US-only...

And perhaps they wanted to allow Kindle etc on the store without raising the controversy of why they don't block them since they duplicate built-in functionality.
I personally find Steele's C: A Reference Manual far more useful in day to day hacking.

But, that's one of four Steele-authored language specs I look at frequently (Common LISP, Scheme, and Fortress), so I might just have carefully tuned my search methods to his writing style.
> I wonder how he got so rich by being so misguided.

Better lucky than good.
Concur!
Bump’s Data Exchange API Goes Cross-Platform, Launches For Android And iPad