skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There has been a JIT that can be enabled for testing for a long time now. There being a talk about it doesn't really mean anything re it finally being enabled by default.
I've been using Beanstalk to handle the export queue for Mockingbird for the past few months now. It was super easy to setup and has been very stable. I'm a huge fan of these easy to setup/lightweight tools - people who design software for programmers should have the same attention to user experience that people designing software for non-technical users have. When queuing jobs isn't the hard part of my technical problem, I don't want to spend a lot of time configuring things I don't care about or learning about stuff I don't really need - Beanstalk was great for this.
I don't think you have much to worry about, the N1 is hardly going to become obsolete the moment a better Android phone comes out. My droid wasn't obsoleted by the N1 and likely won't be obsoleted by an N2 either; afaik there aren't any apps that require an N1 or even run poorly on the Droid.
There was a streaming music app not too long ago that accidentally wiped people's SD cards entirely if the update was installed. Definitely glad I waited a few days and checked the comments before updating.
You should write movie scripts.
Using something like http://github.com/mbleigh/twitter-auth is actually easier than setting up a twitter app to use basic auth, imo.
Oh thank you, it was so slow, but its now zippy as can be!
To reply to your edit, which is strange... I can see the "reply" link to myself.

I guess we have different opinions on libraries. I come primarily from Ruby, where testing is heavily emphasized. I don't mind adding stuff to my app because I'm constantly testing it against things breaking. In addition, most libraries come with their own tests, so I can verify for myself that libraries work.

The whole reason I use libraries is that they're a black box. I shouldn't have to worry if the library is broken or not, because they should be working. Maybe I've only used high quality libraries, but I can't remember the last time I came across a library bug.

Anyway, I don't have any stats to back things up, but users do care. "Login via Twitter" is so much nicer than "put in your twitter name and password." I'd be very hesitant to do the second, but not the first.
Except for that other iPhone prototype guy who lost an iPhone and either committed suicide after "intense interrogation", or was killed:
http://gizmodo.com/5319275/report-iphone-leak-interrogations...
http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/07/im-really-thinking-maybe-i-...

So, yeah, losing an iPhone prototype is really, like, boring.
I feel like I JUST finished updating my privacy settings, only to have to do it again. I don't even use Facebook that much, and it's annoying to have to think about/waste time figuring out about my privacy settings when I don't really care to - especially now that these settings are encroaching on the rest of my Internet experience.

Getting rid of my Facebook account is feeling like the simpler solution, but I'm not even sure that solves the problem anymore.
NASA X-37B launched for orbital test
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindsight_bias

For a more fun example: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3Adndn
HUGE difference for me, thanks!

Actually, everything seems faster, not just /threads
http://www.theatlantic.com/james-fallows/ -- the author's current blog.

He ended up as a program designer for Microsoft for a while, so perhaps that BASIC experience on a tax program didn't go to waste.
I don't think many people would consider simple 'tagging' (i.e. just scribbling your name) as art, and it's hardly comparable to Banksy's work.
Can anyone elaborate on how JIT is new to 2.2 and how that compares to how <=2.1 handles it? I haven't touched Java in ages, but I thought JIT was a fundamental part of how Java works, so I'm a bit confused.
Bruce Eckel is writing an open-source Python book
I don't follow Android phones that closely, but the HTC Incredible[1] and HTC Evo[2] both look very nice, I'm not sure of the details but it looks like the Incredible is Verizon and the Evo is Sprint...?

[1] http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/19/droid-incredible-review/

[2] http://www.geekogle.com/2010/htc-evo-the-soon-to-be-released...
This is what people you know like on the Internet right now
Had I had this book when I was ten or eleven I think I would have been the happiest ten-or-eleven-year-old in the entire world. Like many technical things, programming is typically either self-taught or taught horribly; this seems like a completely reasonable attempt to do it right.

Especially since every kid these days knows how to look stuff up online, but almost no adults know how to teach them how to program from scratch.
Frankly I don't blame insurance companies for looking at as much info about you as they can. The only way they can improve business is by more accurately predicting incidents, which is done by examining more metrics and making better models.

Nobody has a problem with this when it comes to auto insurance; you have a lot of tickets, you get high rates. You have too many tickets, they won't insure you. Why is it so different to give higher rates or refuse coverage to someone who treats their body like crap, when their body is what's being insured?
I've been using this for several months. It's great.
In the 40's? By the time they would have had an opportunity to apply this to making a search engine, its unlikely that they would be in a position to drop everything they were doing and create a startup, assuming they would even remember the research they did so long ago and realize the insane value of making a search engine like that.
Jesus cropcircle?
So I haven't read it, but if it works, why is he sharing it?

I had a prof in grad school (http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/management/faculty_staff/a...) who worked out an arbitrage system for horse racing. Other than publishing a few obscure papers, he kept it to himself. Because it wouldn't actually work if he shared it to a mass market.

Just asking, before I go and read the page in depth.
Hilarious "Darwin Fish" Shirts
I stumbled upon this little shop today, and ended up spending over $50 on shirts and stickers for my brother and two cousins, all of whom are biologists and/or geneticists. The simplicity of the design really intrigued me, and I think it'll definitely serve my family well at their jobs! Anyway, I thought you guys might at least appreciate it if you don't buy anything.
While this article does a fantastic job expounding on reasons the Newton failed, it seems to implicitly assert that people are "prepared" for the iPad, and that there is a space in their minds for such a device now. I would challenge this assertion. My own preferences notwithstanding, the only people I've heard even contemplate getting an iPad are people with 2+ MacBooks. In other words: "yes, but."

Perhaps all this article really meant to say is that the cult of Mac is eminently more powerful today than 20 years ago - in which case yes, I agree entirely.
Why not implement OAuth yourself? It is pretty straightforward. There aren't really any edge cases to handle.
How to Install Android on an iPhone 2G
Was thinking more for Mobile / Desktop apps, but I see that xAuth support is fully out which should streamline things

http://twitter.com/twitterapi/status/9702051031
been using this, cept with mail2prowl instead. haven't had a texting plan since.
This is not a career-ending mistake. He should be just fine.
The lack of support for the Home and End keys drove me nuts.

Try iTerm - http://iterm.sourceforge.net/
That's why I cry foul every time they tell the story. I doubt that's what actually happened and they just feel bad.
A Brief History of Disingenuous Design Practices
MIT uses "How to think..." for their intro to compsci course. They speak highly of it.
I would if I had to, but I don't like re-inventing the wheel. Especially if the wheel is pretty straightforward... I'd rather let someone else do the work.
Android does not have a JVM. While Android applications are written in Java, and initially compiled to Java bytecode, that bytecode is then translated into Davlik bytecode, and saved to a compact .dex executable, and run in the Davlik virtual machine. The Davlik virtual machine is quite different from the JVM. It is optimized for small devices. It is register-based rather than stack-based. It does not (currently) include a JIT compiler.
"practically every joke out there makes fun of someone/something."

Those are the types of jokes Americans like. I prefer surreal/absurdist humor. http://www.laughlab.co.uk/
Thank you for posting this. In light of the recent stuff that Facebook has done, I'm deleting my account. I'm glad I'm not alone in seeking the information on how to do that exactly.
And I am about to do a similar thing for clozure.
Thanks, just saw it in another thread, and it's now stuck in my Dock.
I think the cultural differences are important here: not only the fact that the Foxconn employee had fewer options (whereas Gray Powell can be easily employed tomorrow at a competitor), but also that US companies are far less forgiving of errors by a vendor, especially a foreign vendor. I've heard people hurl abuse at Indian call center employees that they wouldn't dream of saying to a colleague in Palo Alto.
I come from the end of the universe furthest from Ruby.

If I had access to a library, I'd use it. Now I have to go find one, port it, debug it, test it, review it, and deploy it.

Or drop the feature.

And if I have to go through the whole process here, I'm going to look at competing communications platforms, too.

And as many folks have found, forcing an update or a port means some applications will be ported off your platform, too.

This change within Twitter will derail at least some of those environments.
Tell HN: Browsers on the desktop should work more like iPhone OS 4.0
I have a hundred or more tabs open on typical days. Before, I'd be force to restart my browser and reduce the number of tabs. But now that FireFox is more stable, I can go on indefinitely without closing any of my tabs -- at the cost of creeping memory consumption and longer UI response latency.

I want my browser to close old (more than 24 hours old) tabs that are taking up CPU and memory.

I don't ever want to have to close tabs again, unless I explicitly want them removed from my 'tab space'.
Gee, it's almost as if some people are motivated by things besides money...
i7 920, 6BG DDR3, Dell 24" monitor running Windows 7 64 bit host with Ubuntu VM and Win 2003 server VM (both via VMWare). Ubuntu in the VM is faster than Ubuntu on bare metal Core 2 Duo E6550@2.33Ghz w/2gb ddr2. Only downside (totally non-critical to me) is VMWare won't support the advanced graphics stuff for Linux.
Ask HN: What is something you would recommend learning in a day?
I want to pick up a new skill in a day or two. Whether it be a new programming language, API, or something completely unrelated to technology, I'm open to ideas. What do you suggest?
I never would have dreamed that I'd ever see someone on Hacker News type out English's second person personal pronoun as "u".
Sounds like something a simple Firefox plugin could take care of...
He could merely be alluding to the fact that a lot more people know C++ than Erlang and therefore will be able to contribute to MongoDB's development.
Will it allow private pads?
Yeah. Although how this is supposed to be an improvement over cupcake is anyone's guess.
Yikes I remember that story now. Strange that Gizmodo is breaking that story too...

I'll grant Chinese factories are more interesting than the Cupertino labs.

The most boring explanation here would be that the worker stole the phone, got caught, and chose to take his own life instead of suffer the other unpleasant consequences.

My posed principle would indicate there was no inappropriate investigation or murder, Gizmodo is again sexing up the story.

But its just a thought experiment, tragic and dramatic things do happen.
I'm developing an objective-j app right now and they have compile targets that compile directly to minified javascript. It will work without compiling but for a production I wouldn't recommend it for bandwidth reasons alone. Technically they are right the javascript is still interpreted in the client and you don't need any browser plugins to run it. It's not strictly objective-j source code your are running in a production build so there aren't too interpreter passes.

The Debug build targets don't compile to javascript though so there are two interpreter passes in that case. That is fairly speedy and I don't notice an insane startup difference.
I have also deleted one of my facebook account which I could earlier just deactivate but never delete.
Or he is motivated by money, but his system doesn't work, so publishing snake oil in a book, is the source of income.
I find it superior but I've also known people who tried it and preferred Terminal.app. Hope it's useful.
I try to do my programming in either Common Lisp or Clojure, with a REPL connected to a SLIME instance in Emacs. I can use these tools on any host OS, but prefer the Mac. It's such an amazing combination of tools that everything else feels like... well, I imagine that trying to type with two amputated arms must feel similar.

Yes, this includes fancy IDEs; I have used Eclipse extensively and hate it. No, I don't like vi, although I certainly respect it.
Interesting! I always thought the table metaphor really appealed to a "pencil and paper" mentality, which would be all about computing "more and more pieces of the table" until it was full.
Yes, but people have to start somewhere.
Cool and creepy all at once :-)
It's only poor if you don't consider intellectual property "real" property.

If you do, it's reasonable.
http://www.withfit.com/
Blippy User's Debit Card Numbers Still Appearing In Google
Looks like the NYT has some work to do.

But the site itself is inevitable and cool at the same time.
Then what you want is not realistic. The internet is inherently public. Private spaces on it are a fiction.
Eric Ries and Steve Blank discuss minimum viable product
The Register.co.uk hacked using simple XSS and Session Hijacking
Here's hoping for a software fix for the N1's crappy multi-touch: http://androidandme.com/2010/03/news/is-multitouch-broken-on...
I think ruang was referring to Kleinberger, who applied the idea directly to web pages, as opposed to scientific journals or economies. He did it only short while before Page and Brin, and they even cited him. As to why he didn't make a search engine, I'm guessing it's because CMU is in Pittsburgh.
Here's how I do it by running my own Google App Engine app with incoming email service and Prowl:

http://noah.heroku.com/past/2010/3/7/google_voice_iphone_not...

http://github.com/nzoschke/gae-message-utils
This was my suspicion. I added the disclaimer, just because I can't actually say its true without reading what's on the web page(in depth).
LOSAK: A prototype Lisp OS
I just rent a cheap $20 month VM on the cloud. Every now and then I need another one to test stuff, so I'll just rent another one for that duration, which get's pro-rated. Screen does the rest. Having scripts to bootstrap VM's is crucial to make this setup viable imho. I do wish cheaper dedicated servers were available with the same easy management cloud VMs provide.
I do web dev, and my setup probably isn't nearly as crazy as most of you guys but here we go.

Hardware: 15" MacBook Pro, w/ 19" external LCD and external Apple keyboard if I'm at home.

Software: MacVim, MAMP setup w/ BIND for local dev (using this configuration: http://postpostmodern.com/instructional/a-smarter-mamp/), git for vc, Parallels for IE testing, Firefox w/ Firebug and WebDev extensions for debugging js and editing css, and I prefer iTerm over Terminal.app (sadly just for 256 color support, I'm sad I know).

Web apps: http://www.getcloudapp.com/ for sharing, http://www.freshbooks for time tracking/billing

Supervision: 8-month-old boxer-lab with an attitude.
I want mouse too! My phone should/could be a little VNC/KVM type device for many computers
I hear what you're saying, but I don't know that being more iPhone OS 4 is really what you want.

What is it about OS 4's panes that you like?
I think you would just get to the point where you have days and days of tabs open?

What do you gain by having all these tabs open (particularly as you are requesting that they be closed for you if you haven't used them in 24 hours.

You could be on to something really clever here, but I think you need to look deeper into the 5 whys?

http://www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=it...
Wow, I had no idea! Thanks for the summary. :)
This should really be as simple as a single button. It wouldn't even significantly reduce their membership since the average person doesn't care. It would however improve their image.
If that was true, he'd have the entire book on the website, instead of excerpts.
If your database has Mass. residents, you need a security plan per Massachusetts
I spent some time the last couple days learning two songs on a penny whistle. Great fun.
Awesome analysis -- agree with most of it.
Hugo, where do you come up with the capital? Ive seen this model attempted in other parts of Latin America and even in Miami. However, the problem is always that the people wanting to start these great programs, are not the ones with the capital.

I believe this will only work if the managing partners are the ones with the capital (like PG) and not only well-intentioned entrepreneurs managing other people's money.

I want this to happen in Mexico as well, the talent is fantastic (our highly talented entrepreneurial dev team is in mexico) but we need Angels that have done it before; created and sold a tech startups.

Do you have any candidates?
FWIW, the concept of getting people programming ASAP in order to learn has been sort of poo-pooed by findings in the ACM:

http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/45725-how-we-teach-intro...

I'm on the fence. I see the music-style logic to picking things up and working on the practical stuff right away, but, hey, studies are studies.
One day you may really regret this
I do like the idea of encrypting user names across the wire, but "to maintain a Written Information Security Plan (WISP) and file it with the state of Massachusetts" goes way too far, imho. I am not a lawyer nor a database geek, so perhaps your take will differ...

UPDATE: "Massachusetts does not require that written information security programs be filed at this time, just that they exist," according to a second article, http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/government/show... . That is alot better.
I found this book at the local public library back in 2008.

Skiena writes about how he became a profitable jai alai bettor with some historical data. It's an interesting book if you don't know much about gambling or modeling.
How to delete your HN account:

1. You can't.
2. ???
3. HN is evil!
Can this really be implemented? No system in that size can invalidate any information in every CDN center instantly (or even in bounded time). The fact is, once your information is online, it will never go.
Yup, seems like a really clever way to give developers a familiar language with a huge library without having to make a deal with Sun (err Oracle) for a JVM license
If you are interested in Lisp OS, you should look at Movitz too: http://common-lisp.net/project/movitz/
RTB (Request to build): Crowd sourced explainer
A website that lets people submit simpler explanations to complex concepts / objects. They can submit breakdowns, metaphors, what does it do's, diagrams, and videos. Everbody votes up or down the best simplifications.

Applicable to complex scientific/academic stuff down to explaining web tech like Node.js or beanstalk or processes like map/reduce.

Let us know if any of you fine hackers will take this idea and run with it.
Stephen Hawking: Aliens Exist, but Talking to them is too Dangerous
4) Implementing Turing-complete type level languages

:-)
Not always true. I've seen a number of apps leave cruft on the filesystem when dragged into the Trash.
I'd be happy with an "Update All" button.
At the time of writing, the market in question--jai alai--was so small that one could not bet it professionally. The action and the number of sites where it was played dried up.
I too wonder why Facebook makes it so difficult for users to permanently delete their accounts? It should be a straight forward and simple process, yet Facebook doesn't even make this option easily locatable through their service. They should at least openly explain to their users why the deletion process is in its current form (user experience, security, spam reasons, etc). However, making the deletion process so isolated and obscure, without an official explanation, only makes me more skeptical of Facebook's agenda.
Doesn't the simple English Wikipedia to an extent solve this problem?

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
When people start stealing car radios to pay their cellphone/internet bill or buy the newest smart phone we'll know there is real problem.

In the immortal words of Bob Saget: "Marijuana is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for marijuana?"
True, but currently I have fifteen apps that say they have updates, and I am by no means a heavy app user. To update them (which requires FOUR clicks per app) is a waste of my time, to be quite honest. Yes, I am incurring a slight risk (depending on whether the apps I d/l are trusted), but I for one would be more than happy to automate this part of my life.

For the cautious users, perhaps there could be a "wait x days after release before update" option.
Hey this is pretty impressive - for a web browser. It gets a little bogged down when you have 3 molecule windows open, but I'm only using firefox.

What is the point of the periodic table window? Does this have a function?

Something like this would make a very nice interface to the protein data bank..

I'm a frequent pyMOL user and there are many things missing. Can you save to pdf or PNG?
I keep the Facebook group

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703

"How to permanently delete your facebook account" in my Facebook profile.

I found this through a very easy Google search.
With lazy HR people using Google, it is a huge problem. I wish him well, and hope he has good people around him.
"Having just spent about $20,000 that I can't afford" -- that's your problem right there!
A question I'd considered for an "Ask HN":

Conference call quality sucks, even when everyone is on a a supposedly high-quality landline. I find that I spend so many cycles decrypting voices that I can't concentrate on the discussion at hand.

Given all the nice $100-ish USB microphones and such out there, is there an opportunity to build a conference call system which makes it tolerable to listen to the person speaking?
Queen Elizabeth II w/every US President Since Truman
Maybe to prevent deletion on impulse?
Again? Wasn't the last "Here comes another bubble" in late 2007? And it was actually a couple months after the market top?

The S&P 500 is a good 300 points lower than it was then. Either this is ridiculously premature or bubbles are becoming depressingly more feeble.
I don't think the guy was killed by Steve force-choking him, or whatever. If he was killed, it was Foxconn's doing. They would have been terrified of losing future business from Apple, so they might have wanted to set an unequivocal example for other employees who might have been thinking about mishandling Apple's IP.

Personally it seems a bit over the top to accuse Foxconn or Apple of killing anyone.
High quality product. Good market fit. Smartly promoted. I am not arguing with any of that.

If they had made the same product four years earlier or four years later, I strongly doubt it would have been a success. Too early, the market won't "get" it. Too late, some other product would have owned the space.