skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
As I understand it, the Constitution was designed to provide several layers of indirection when selecting federal officials. In the original design before subsequent amendment, voters only directly elected their congress person and their state legislatures. US Senators were behind one layer of indirection, being selected by state legislatures who were selected by popular vote. The Presidency was behind two layers of indirection: selected by vote of electors, who were selected by state legislatures, who were selected by popular vote. Finally, the Justices of the Supreme Court sit behind multiple layers of indirection: nominated by a President who is selected by electors, and confirmed by Senators, with both electors and Senators selected by state legislatures, who in turn were selected by popular vote. The idea was that the greater individual role an office had in preserving the constitutional system, the more insulated they were from the direct influence of unruly voters, and the more institutional support was necessary to assume office.

I always thought this system was overly complex and did not adequately respect the views of the people, but now in the year of Trump, it increasingly seems like a wise idea lol.
It also gives you the advantage of putting yourself in a different mindset. For that, I usually use "3 AM me" as the comparison. Any API that is usable by fully-conscious daytime me, but is prone to errors by "3 AM me" is one that needs to be improved. If an API can be used by "3 AM me", along with all the stress and pressure that led to late-night coding, then it is sufficient.
> I would assume a typical taxi would drive more than 200 miles per working day;

Depends on how much time you spend on the freeway. For me, a typical 12-hour shift covered about 200 miles. Some days I didn't work the full 12 hours; other days I 'got lucky' and had to cover a lot of ground.

One of my better fares was a guy who'd pissed off his girlfriend by (probably) getting obnoxiously drunk at the Lakers/Suns game... It was 89 miles to get him home, then I had to drive 94 miles to get the cab back to the day driver:

https://goo.gl/maps/4xFsvJtHzLK2

That story was at the close of this kuro5hin.org (RIP) diary:

http://www.taxiwars.org/2012/04/22-degrees-of-intoxication.h...
I've always been a little bit worried about trying to get my "best work" in life done as soon as possible. I frequently read that most people (physicists, artists, entrepreneurs, etc.) did their greatest work when they were young, and I had always assumed that it is because your brain loses plasticity or something as you age. Being 26 years old, that often makes me feel like I only have a few good years left.

This article considers a different explanation for the trend — one that I hadn't considered. Namely, young people produce greater works because they have more time available. This study finds that the probability of producing something "great" is evenly distributed across all works that a person ever produces, so it seems that if you want to produce something great later in life, then the secret is to rearrange your priorities so that you have enough free time available to pursue whatever interests you.

That said, I will say that the Q factor makes me a little nervous — if you have an inherently low Q value, how do you improve that? (Maybe you can't — which would be unfortunate.)
I've seen Düsseldorf trams in Gdansk
I think a lot of the tidbits in here that aren't obvious to the casual observer is what separates the "good" clones from those with the same pieces but lacking the right "feel". I tried to follow along as much as possible (even reproducing the AI bugs) in my "hungry hank" homage.
Related blog post: http://aqibsaeed.github.io/2016-11-04-human-activity-recogni...
Using limits as expanders – How I got more creative with less options
FTA: "about as useful as a chocolate teapot"
I used to support instant runoff voting. In fact, I voted to change the UK voting method to instant runoff in the 2011 UK Referendum.

However, I've become less enamoured with it. People don't understand it. It's used in London for the mayoral election, and people just get confused - they'll tell me they are putting the same party as their first AND second choice.

In fact, judging from the mayoral election, it wouldn't change much - the two main parties still end up getting the lion share of the first round of voting, which implies that the vast majority of people are loyal to those parties (a bit like football teams) and aren't voting for them out of tactical necessity.

I'd still go for instant runoff in a heartbeat, but it's not the panacea I thought it was.
They could, when Dragon 2 is in use for supplying ISS. But Dragons do not carry the kinds of payloads lost in this case. The satellite is on top of the second stage and covered by fairings. There's no craft on top of second stage, so there is no launch escape system.
Isn't the appreciation of your assets related to the health of the economy?
But who goes swimming with their smartphone?
In the US, if there are mass layoffs at large company they need to give notice because of the WARN Act (100+ people) requires a 60 day notice. But many companies will just continue to pay those employees for 60 days but they aren't allowed on site (effectively fires, but still being paid)
I strongly disagree. Personally, I found text based communications really beneficial while getting through difficult bouts of loneliness in my life. Moments where loniness and anxiety fought over which could make me more miserable.

Would hanging out with someone in person have been a better cure for that loneliness? Sure, but I didn't have anyone and was too stressed out to make finding a group setting worthwhile.

I certainly have moments when I unrealistically dream that I'd never had the issues that I do. I say to myself 'you know all that bullshit stress you had? Instead of trying to cure it through technology you should have just gone out and done it that way.' In those moments I try to remember what it was really like, getting through hard times. I always accept that I wasn't in a position to do that yet.

There isn't one app that ever 'solved' loneliness, and some of those that tried didn't work for me. Facebook still makes me feel anxious and judged by others, for example. But I speak with friends for whom Facebook is a pleasure to use.

I'm glad there are a ton of engineers focusing their time on the trivial task of helping solve loneliness. They certainly made apps and programs and protocols that have helped me. And the more I talk to other people about it, the more people I find have been helped through technology.

Certain apps and strategies for fighting loneliness won't work for everyone, and acknowledging what doesn't work for you is great. But I'd never wish for a time when there weren't people out there trying.
We won't know until we see what happens at the point that the minerals are mined out, or demand for them drops off e.g. an economic downturn in China. They could be more-or-less OK like the UK was when coal became uneconomic to extract, or they could implode like Cuba when the Soviets stopped buying sugar.
When I first came across the term, I figured out what it meant based on the context and my interest in history: Cisalpine Gaul (Gallia Cisalpina, now in modern day Italy) was the part of Gaul on the same side of the Alps as classical Rome, while Transapline Gaul (Gallia Transalpina, in modern day France) was on the opposite side of the Alps.
Net Art Anthology: Restoration of Historical Works from 1980s to Now
I love that this article thinks the oracle has spoken, even though qualified designers disagree with Glaser.

From Design as Art by Bruno Munari:

> The designer of today re-establishes the long-lost contact
between art and the public, between living people and art as a living things. Instead of pictures for the drawing-room, electric gadgets for the kitchen. There should be no such thing as art divorced from life, with beautiful things to look at and hideous things to use.

Even Glaser's own office on 32nd street says "Art is Work" above the door! I thought he was a "Graphic design legend"?
[Nate Silver thinks the plan is doomed, I tend to agree with his points.](http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/why-a-plan-to-circumvent-...)
Combined Charging System, aka SAE Combo?

Not only are there more CCS stations in the US than Supercharger locations already, but CCS isn't just European. Every manufacturer of EVs in NA at least is already on board, save Tesla and Nissan. Renault just joined the consortium, so Nissan is likely to follow.

BMW, Volkswagen, GM, Daimler, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Maserati, Renault, Audi, Volvo, Porsche and Hyundai are all on board with CCS for charging, and demonstrations have already been done of charging rates exceeding Tesla's Superchargers.

As for Tesla's "offer" to share: that would have amounted to a Tesla tax on every EV sold. There was little chance their competitors would take them up on that. And now that the ratio of cars to chargers is about to explode while they already see lines at popular travel times, the window of opportunity to sell access to their charging network has closed.
Who unfollowed you on Instagram? Use these apps to check unfollowers
The Road to High Octane Fuels
Even the best product is USELESS without a great Marketing Plan
Negative Emotions Are Key to Well-Being
Oh no, not PNG screenshots, please!
Blockchain Startup DECENT Launches Web Prototype
A chemistry professor that I was acquainted with did this as one of his lecture demonstrations. Shakhashiri (and he's still doing it - http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/BZSPresentations/Presents.html Once Upon a Christmas Cheery, In the Lab of Shakhashiri is going on its 47th year!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tsgh_T59gE has what you are looking for (at 3:42 though you'll likely want to start a tad bit earlier).
It's hard to change it when the people who can actually change the law are the very ones who benefit from the status quo. In some states it could be done through an "initiated constitutional amendment" (meaning one that goes directly to popular vote, bypassing the legislature), but most states don't have that.
Learn this: https://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Techniques-Models-Computer-P...
> a pair of volume buttons

If any manufacturer would _really_ want to improve usability, they would give us back the volume knob.
At the point the electoral college becomes a factor all the primaries are already ran and there are only two candidates with a chance at the election. Perot came closer in the past, but there hasn't been any third party candidate since with a shot at the election. Having something like instant runoff would be nice to enable more third-party candidates to make a multi-election push at the presidency but just doing a single-turn popular vote simple majority would be a very big improvement on the current mess.
The article says:

"The device he came up with consisted of an antenna and a cylinder with a thin membrane that acted as a microphone. Soviet agents stationed across the street from Spaso House would turn the device “on” by focusing a radio signal on it, which then bounced back to their radio receiver. When the ambassador or anyone else in the study spoke, the sound waves caused the membrane to resonate and alter the signal that returned to the Soviets, allowing them to hear the conversation."

The wikipedia link in a sibling comment has even more information.
At the very least that doesn't seem true for inflation numbers

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States...

And haven't we been experiencing the Great Moderation for 30 years?
I was sure someone would say this. As a comparison: Romania is a relatively poor country, full of hotheaded invididuals ("Balkan" mentality). On top of that, we're apparently EU's #2 expat community in terms of total prison population. So both hotheads and also a lot of criminals (most likely thieves).

And yet we still allow our folks to walk unescorted for a few weeks inside the company premises.

After all, how many just-layed-off employees will want to steal or damage company property to top off their recent loss of job with criminal charges and a criminal record?

From the outside it feels like a bit of paranoia on the part of US companies.

I might be missing something, this is just my opinion as an outsider.
Well Bolivar himself believed in the concept of a president-for-life so the seeds were sowed early on.
GiveCampus is hiring full stack engineers and biz dev roles in DC and SF
Our mission is to ensure that schools have the resources they need to deliver the highest-quality education possible, and that education is affordable and accessible to everyone. When they're stuck using antiquated software that doesn't fit their needs, it just makes their jobs harder. We are working to build great software for schools. We treat them like true partners, so we can better understand their problems, and how we can help fix them.

You can read more about what we do, and how we do it, in The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/04/1...).

Who we are looking for:
- Ruby and Rails expert - Comfortable working on the front-end and back-end, but skews toward the back-end.
- Enjoys building new features, from idea to supporting it in production
- Passionate about education

We are also hiring for multiple roles in business development, from Business Development Associate, to Sales Executive, and Partner Success Lead. You can read more about them at https://www.givecampus.com/careers to see if any fit your particular skill set and interests.

We are a team of four, and are really excited to bring high tech to the education space.

Please email careers@givecampus.com with your resume, any past projects you're proud to show us, and a note about yourself to apply.

We are based in Washington, DC, and are looking for people here, in the SF Bay Area, or someone who wants to to move to DC.
Well, SpaceX does have a launch escape system, as did past US rockets and the current Soviet/Russian one (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_escape_system), it's the Shuttle that was anomalous in having no provisions for crew survival if something happened after the first few test flights.

Although look at the bottom of that link, operationally they've been a mixed blessing, saving one Soyuz crew, but another one wasn't safed after a scrubbed launch and killed a bunch of pad workers.

This stuff is hard, "rocket science" really does deserve its connotations of difficulty, and is inherently dangerous.
devils advocate but perhaps playing video games helps take uour mind off work and makes you more productive in the long run
Tesla's network already has hours-long lines at popular locations. They're going to be increasing the number of Tesla vehicles on the road by an order of magnitude very soon. The window of opportunity for selling access to their charging network has already closed.
Isn't agriculture well-developed in Venezuela ? Any historical reason for why this is ?
> Soviet agents stationed across the street from Spaso House would turn the device “on” by focusing a radio signal on it, which then bounced back to their radio receiver. When the ambassador or anyone else in the study spoke, the sound waves caused the membrane to resonate and alter the signal that returned to the Soviets, allowing them to hear the conversation.

It could contain more detail but sounds like it was altering a radio signal that was completely external to the device and therefore had no battery at all.
[1996] Math Against Tyranny: Math shows our archaic electoral system safeguards democracy.

http://discovermagazine.com/1996/nov/mathagainsttyran914
One difference is that the Bolt has a permanent magnet motor while the Tesla has an induction motor. A PM motor is more efficient than an induction motor since the stator doesn't have to do the work to create a magnetic field in the rotor, so theoretically you should be able to get more distance per unit of battery energy than an induction machine. On the other hand, I think induction motors are cheaper than PM motors.
This project is yet another example of a thing someone built to solve some problem, but .... that someone didn't bother to explain just what the problem is, or why this solution is preferred over the other possible solutions.

A readme that describes only how to install a project, or the commands to type, is not sufficient. Every readme should start with a description of what the thing does, and why doing it this way is better.
That's how I've always used my iPads, but Apple also intends people to use iPads like this (mostly the Pro models):

http://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/experience/

Word and Excel running on the 9.7" iPad with a keyboard is pretty much the opposite of what I'd ever buy an iPad for.
I think you are mistaking my choice of words for a lack of understanding, but I do understand. The author makes no recommendation _outside_ of Signal related products.
The standard's already set. BMW, Volkswagen, GM, Daimler, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Maserati, Renault, Audi, Volvo, Porsche and Hyundai are already onboard with the Combined Charging System. It's governed by several international standards, and a standards committee that includes all those companies. Several cars from those makers already have the port (including the Bolt), and hundreds of CCS chargers have already been built in the US. This discussion is moot.
> I'm so worried about sharing my passwords with ANY third party. Eventually they all get owned...

1) Many password managers are designed specifically to survive the website being owned. I use LastPass and I'm not sharing my passwords with them, I'm sharing my encrypted passwords with them. It's an important consideration!

2) You don't want to trust a third party so you use a Chrome extension that is made by a third party and has permission to access any website? You are trusting a third party.
generally speaking, if you are new to a company and a young grad, i would take more time to learn how the company works for a long period of time before introducing new ideas. perhaps theres a valid reason why they do certain things that may seem awkward to you.
First, does the CSIS even provide for criminal charges? Second, what is a "beyond reason" interpretation of "strictly necessary?"

Note that in the U.S. at least there is a "rule of lenity"--requiring ambiguous criminal statutes to be interpreted in favor of defendants. I assume there is something similar in Canadian law.
Ah I was thinking of the whole "primary" leading the an electoral college system.
Wow, this is the sort of detailed constructive feedback I love to get - thanks so much!

You make a good argument that I haven't really done a good job of selling my site and I have to agree with you. I hate the marketing side of things and for each day I spend marketing I feel like I need to code for a week to recoup my energy!!

If I do not get some motivation from others to go open source, I will take your advice and have another go at marketing. In the meantime I really hope I can find a good justification for going open source - or someone comes along who wants to work with me on the marketing side.

Thanks again for your feedback @codegeek - really appreciate it. I hadn't heard of hubspot before - the course looks great so I'll give it a go.
Doesn't that mean Apple has access to all your passwords, though?
Do you think Jobs had already planned to cannibalise the 7" iPad by focusing on 5.5" phones?
The single most important advice I could give you is : take whatever path/framework you want, but take it seriously.

Javascript has a long history of not being taken seriously. In early 2000, it was considered a malware language, that you should disable. Then rails started doing cool things with animations and ajax, and developers started getting into it, but only by swearing they did not want to waste their time on it. I think that's the reason why jQuery got so much success: its promise was that you could use cool js features without having to learn much about it. Personally, my big "oh wait, this language is cool" moment has been when I discovered mootools. It was not unlike what es5/6 is nowadays.

And then, there has been this whole "javascript fatigue" thing. My analysis on this is that the same phenomenon applies: backend developers know they need to learn js but still do not consider it a "real" language and are overwhelmed by the amount of things they have to learn.

By simply considering javascript is just as important as your backend language, and deserves as much efforts from you, it should not feel any more difficult. Oh, btw, css matters too :)
Could you elaborate a bit? I think curated lists like these are good resources for developers that are unfamiliar with certain aspects of Android.

Curious to hear your thoughts.
"Taxes on equivalent office space and the business it generates are a better source of revenue over time for cities than the fixed taxes from housing. This disincentivizes balanced planning."

I am not sure either of your conjectures are true...

First, "over time" the tax returns from residential and commercial property, even under the prop 13 regime, should even out - since eventually everyone dies or moves out ... eventually all of the residential property changes hands (and resets to current taxation levels).

Second, brand new residential property gets immediately taxed at the current tax rate. So in the very short term that doesn't seem to be (relatively) disincentivized.

I'm oversimplifying, but it would seem that only in the medium term does prop 13 affected residential housing (relatively) underperform commercial property - in terms of (relative) tax receipts.
Retrotechtacular: FAX as a Service in 1984
This is a quick investigation into the 'disaster' and that contrasts with how things normally get investigated, i.e. by big government with findings taking years to see the light of day and with big business and other special interests doing what they can to obfuscate truth and shift the blame onto 'the pilot' (as is usually the way in aviation, car crashes, train crashes and anything else that crashes).

Well done to SpaceX for getting to this explanation, I am so glad this has not been blamed on a sniper hired by their rivals!!!
Thank you. That does look promising. Read their blog and just downloaded the app.

One question - it expects me to login to casually browse. Do you know how they manage the login? They present a on screen login windows and I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to providing username/passwords to apps.

Also, if the Boreal app developers notice this thread - how about a feature where I can browse HN using the app without having to login unless of course when I want to vote/comment? :)
Maryland will audit all votes cast in general election
Yes, but getting the nomination is sort of an important part of the system. Which is pretty much what I was saying above.
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/company-tax/co...
far2l – A work-in-progress Linux port of FAR v2
The book spycatcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spycatcher is an engaging read that has many interesting bits about bugging capabilities. Its author, Peter Wright played a significant role in figuring out how the device worked.

Wright determined that the bugging device, dubbed The
Thing, was actually a tiny capacitive membrane (a
condenser microphone) that became active only when 330
MHz microwaves were beamed to it from a remote
transmitter. A remote receiver could then have been used
to decode the modulated microwave signal and permit
sounds picked up by the microphone to be overheard. The
device was eventually attributed to Soviet inventor,
Léon Theremin." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wright

Those who are more informed about these things than the layman don't like the book as much.