skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It is usually pretty easy for a trade secret owner to show that it is protecting its property by taking reasonable and prudent steps to assure that the information is kept confidential (e.g., by making everybody who deals with it sign NDAs, etc.). Accordingly, most proprietary developments of tech companies do fall within the protectable trade secret category unless the company explicitly makes the information public (e.g., by open sourcing it).

I don't think there is any particular need to worry about stumbling upon trade secret information and incurring the risk of criminal prosecution. Anyone in such a position who has honest intentions can have a pretty good sense of what to do (report it, turn it in, etc.) and, if unsure, at least of what not to do (sell it for $$$, rip off serial numbers, photograph details and publish them on the web).

Remember, each of the criminal statutes requires that someone act in relation to trade secrets "with intent to" do something wrong (convert them to his own use, harm the owner, etc.), and prosecutors must prove this "intent" element (what the lawyers call mens rea or "evil intent") beyond a reasonable doubt. Most of us will be quite safe, then, even if we do happen to stumble upon lost property at a bar.
As of now you cannot. But the feature is coming pretty soon.
"To what? A public-by-default?"

Yes.

I share some of those things you mentioned, and I think our society would be better off if it were more acceptable to do so. However, those are absurd examples to bring up in this discussion. Few shared those things on Facebook even when it was friends-only. In the context of things people typically share on Facebook, public-by-default is perfectly appropriate.

Even if people did share those things privately on Facebook, we're talking about defaults. Out of all the things people share on Facebook, a small fraction of posts actually need to be private in the eyes of their authors. The default settings should reflect that, and people should restrict privacy when they need to.

"...recognize that the decision to share that information belongs to the individual, not anybody else."

No one has suggested otherwise.
Getting Lean: A Startup’s Key Learnings from Web 2.0 Expo
"... When it comes to bias, it seems that the desire to believe in a meritocracy is so powerful that until a person has experienced sufficient career-harming bias themselves they simply do not believe it exists ..."

Applicable to Startup founders.
Ask HN: A Good Reference to MS Office Automation, Please
Hello! I know that the web is littered with questions on this matter, but I still haven't been able to apply the answers I can find to my situation. I hence kindly beseech HNers to share your wisdom on this rather outdated issue.

I realize there is VBA, but I always disliked having the program/macro living inside the (say) Excel file, with the resulting bloat, security warnings, etc. I'm thinking along the lines of a VBScript that works on a set of Excel files while leaving them macro-free. Now, I've been able to "paint the first column blue" for all files in a directory following this approach, but I need to do more complex operations (charts, pivot tables, etc.), which could greatly benefit from the additional tools found in VBA.

For this specific example knowing how to remove all macros from all files after processing would be enough, but all suggestions are welcome. Any good references? (+) Any advice on how to best approach external batch processing of Excel files and its Office cousins?

Thanks!

(+) Even if the reference is, "Ask in this other website: _____."
Wow. I saw this a few days ago on another site and thought it was a joke. Did they just hire the GlaDOS voice actress and shift her down an octave?
Of course the real trick is for Facebook to automagically know the answer to your secret question rather than having you pre-populate it like you do for banks. That wouldn't be creepy at all!
Based on their fairly extensive explanation, this actually seems like an accident to me, so I don't see the need for scare quotes. Do you not agree? I would like to better understand the alternative point of view.
More difficult but still far from impossible... All China needs is a Chinese CA to issue them a certificate for Google and then they can do a nice MITM without the user seeing even a single warning.
It's hard for me to believe that Bran Lam would feel invincible enough to write that response to Jobs, who is well known for going ballistic to end all ballistic when he gets wound up, without Denton’s hand directly at his back . . .

What's missing is how much of this unfolding debacle (including the letter) was approved directly by Nick Denton?
Why startups should train their people
Armies of educated children
I was just thinking about this last night, because I've noticed that when I spend all day involved in an intellectual task (could be writing code; yesterday it happened to be writing my thesis), I'm less entertaining to my girlfriend when we talk on the phone. When I was thinking about it last night, I guessed that the reason was because I hadn't done anything during the day worth sharing. Whereas if I do something interesting then I'm more likely to have an experience worth sharing with her.

This seems to make more sense to me. For instance, when I made a discovery and when I got accepted to a conference, I had something exciting to tell her. Even though I may be engaged in intellectual activity all day, I might have no problem switching gears to telling her good news and talking about travel plans for the conference.

But perhaps that's different than the dating scenario in the article because of my comfort level with my girlfriend. Socializing with more-or-less strangers is a completely different state of mind, as shiny said, than talking to someone close to you.

I think there could be merit to both ideas. I'll take note of it tonight, since I'm going to be going to a beer tasting in a couple hours after I've been engaged in my thesis all day.
Morality and Oil – What?
There's a huge difference between a commercial creditor in line to collect debts from you for payment of services and your obligation as a citizen to pay taxes.

AT&T in fact does not know where you are (or, at least, has no inherent right to). AT&T in fact cannot force you to pay. AT&T's recourse for nonpayment is to report you to credit agencies so that businesses working in concert with them can stop extending you credit.

It is in fact a crime to evade taxes. The government has significantly more recourse than AT&T does. Whatever a commercial says or doesn't say, whatever you may think about it, if you owe taxes, you're going to end up paying them. If you've never been in tax trouble before, know that the states are much meaner than the IRS --- pay them first.
Same in Illinois. Presumably the same in most states. Pay state taxes first. States aren't reasonable like the IRS is.
The Crims - FaLaDo177
Well, you can't really use .frameworks on the iPhone in the same way you can on Mac OS X. Only static linking for non-Apple frameworks is permitted.
gravity + obfuscation for the masses, hence the growing movement to do away with legalese:

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/usingPL/legal/index.cfm
Super linearly is a new term to me, but it doesn't grow linearly. However, it does grow, and Google is huge. The cost, in terms of labor, focus bandwidth, and money, is large at their scale.
Based on the response here in HN, it's highly likely that a good number of HN readers have this itch to scratch too.

Can I have a show of hands for Windows users wanting this? :)
Ask HN: Who is your preferred web host?
Very short and simple question, but one that I'm sure has a lot of discussion behind it.

Who is your preferred web host and domain registrar. Also, why?
Can't blame them, even a year or two ago Ruby and RoR were much inferior to today. And wait till RoR3 hits the shelves full steam. Granted I hope ActiveRecord3 will include everything by default like DataMapper does but whatever...

Ruby is still in infancy stages, Python is quite old. Hell Python was the inspiration for Ruby.

I mean look at what is happening in the Javascript space. If Ruby and JRuby implementations get really f-ing fast, we will get some major backings. The problem is that instead of improving Ruby, Twitter decided to ditch it. Maybe they really didn't have the people Google has when it comes to language builders. Since google app engine runs python it is in direct google interest to make it fast. Once it starts running ruby, vuala! So don't worry, they'll get to it.
I can totally relate to that - well not the smoking bit. but yeah - a nice scotch and you can turn it off. Otherwise I find I will say "ok, I am finishing this.." go off and start talking to family/friends, and suddenly pause, stare into the distance, and then run to the nearest device of mine to try/make a note of some problem whose solution just popped apparently completely formed into my head.

but hey, we love this, lets not kid ourselves. Its great - so many people really hate their jobs, this is a wonderful business.
Triumph Motorcycle Replica Watches, Fake Triumph Motorcycle Watches
IPad: No product will improve your production if you're not already producing.
MVC2 Cascading Dropdown Lists with JSON
Does Google allow third party tags to fill unused inventory via Doubleclick? Or perhaps do they allow SWF as the trafficked creative? If so, either could be a vector for the code to slip through.
My point is that Government should follow the same unwritten rules of decency and good taste in their marketing communications. Just because they know where you live and can put you in jail doesn't make it cool to run TV ads telling you so.
Now we feel safe knowing only Google's watching and analyzing everything we do!
You can argue about the definition of "the product" all you want, but you're not explaining what your point is. You're making it seem like they're charging people to see ads. I'm fairly certain they'll make more money from the paywall fee than the ads for a given user.

You don't have to take my word for their impact. http://www.pulitzer.org/

RE: Iraq War — I never said they were perfect.
Starred Review Mentioned in Panasonic Site as Press Release
There certainly are some people that are put off by automated voice systems. Its hard to say if that will have a large negative impact on Patrick as he's an extra step upstream from the annoyed person.

An idea to counter this would be soothing and pleasant voice templates that may disarm those easily set off by automated voice systems.
So basically all Adobe is doing is irritating people who are already users of Flash and giving them a reason to disable it.
The only thing I know about electric blankets is that elderly people seem to burn to death from them or get severe burns on their body from them on a regular basis. It happened to my granny, too (just the burns, thankfully).

Overall, they just seem like a silly idea to me. Or maybe it is just an idea from another era, when people thought that electricity would solve every problem and being exposed to x-rays could make you mutate into superman.
I know you may not agree current Apple is NeXT, but:

- Apple makes beautiful computers

- ... that run a descendant of NeXTSTEP

- ... with development tools that are direct descendants of the NeXT tools (down to the use of Objective-C)

Apple is a well funded NeXT. Jobs turned the post-Jobs Apple into NeXT 2.0

And that's a high compliment both to him and to Apple. Nobody would like to be 90's Apple.
50 Years of Real-Life Ray Guns
I don't think it's reasonable to expect much good taste from Pennsylvania.
And don't forget to buy a TV license.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw
2 passages to note:

> Youth are actually much more concerned about exposure than adults these days. Why? Probably because they get it. And it’s why they’re using fake names ....

Well, I'm glad they're concerned. However, there's getting it, and then there's getting it.

I'm definitely on the adult end of things (I'm 44). I tended to use made-up names in net discussions until relatively recently. But I consistently found myself tempted to make comments that I would not want my real identity to be associated with. So, when I got my HN account in early '09, I used an abbreviation of my real name, as a reminder to myself that I shouldn't say anything I would not want to be associated with (and also that there is a good chance that even "anonymous" comments could be traced to the real me someday).

And that seems to me (in my arrogance?) to be a rather deeper level of "getting it" than that attained by many of the above-mentioned youth using fake names.

> Over and over again, I find that people’s mental model of who can see what doesn’t match up with reality.

Definitely. And this is not a new phenomenon at all. I remember reading the Usenet group misc.kids back in the 90s, and being shocked at all the personal details of children's lives that some parents were posting, often under apparently real names. The newsgroup was being treated as a neighborhood mothers gossip group, not as something that the whole world could see, and that would be archived forever.

EDIT. And a third passage:

> The battle that is underway is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It’s a battle over choice and informed consent.

An excellent point, and one that needs to be made more often. Despite what the article says, the statement "young people don't care about privacy" might indeed be true, in general. However, even if it is, that does not mean it is okay to make privacy-related decisions for them. And it certainly does not mean it is okay to invade their privacy by means of trickery and deceit.
> They do know where you are.

Actually, they didn't.

> They do know how much you owe.

You'd think so, but they sent me a threatening letter (actually they sent it to my parents' address) saying that I better pay up, but according to their computer system I owed $0.00 in taxes, $0.00 in interest, and about $12 in penalties. You get amnesty on the penalties, so...
You realize each new account takes up a US-based telephone number, right? There's no number porting yet.

This time around, Google can't just open up 10 million new accounts. I mean, they could, but it would cause chaos.
It seems that the two approaches would work well together.
Ask HN: What do you use to buy a house/condo?
1. What's your preferred method for finding a new house, condo, or apartment? MLS, Kijiji/Craigslist, Grapevine, other?

2. What are your top three and bottom three considerations when looking for a purchase or rental? (cost, neighbourhood, schools, proximity to transit, restaurants, etc)
T-Mobile pays out more in commission for the latter than the former.
The cost of TLS is linear in every way I can think of. The TLS handshake is basically constant overhead--in space and time--and O(n)--in space and time--transform of the actual data.
For web hosts, I've used:

+ 1and1.com - Cheap, but not terribly responsive.

+ GoDaddy - I don't like their constant upsell techniques and have clients who've been confused enough to accidentally purchase all sorts of unnecessary extras.

+ ThinkHost - I dig their green angle.

+ DreamHost - This is who I've finally settled upon, because they allow an unlimited number of domains, subdomains, and databases to their most basic account. They're affordable, I've found them responsive and upfront when there are outages, their system is pretty easy to use. And when dealing with clients, I can easily map a client's DreamHost account to mine, so I can access their account without seeing their private billing info.

For domain registrars, I've used:

+ Network Solutions - Way back in the day, I used to use them. Then they went through their shady period and I haven't gone back.

+ GoDaddy - Same reasons as above; I dislike their upsell techniques.

+ NameCheap - This is who I use now. No frills a fairly cheap. They aren't the cheapest, and don't offer discounts for purchasing multiple years, but I like their straight-forward services.

DreamHost also offers domain registrar services, though I haven't used them because I already have my accounts set up on NameCheap.
To Lose Weight, it is Important to Eat Good Food
How will this affect web traffic analytics? Will encrypted searches still be abled to be logged as referrers? For SEO/PPC/Analytics/Etc purposes
> I'm fairly certain they'll make more money from the paywall fee than the ads for a given user.

And I'm betting the paywall will never go up. Eight months is a long time. But this is all hypothetical. I suppose we could take it to longbets.com, for kicks :)

> You don't have to take my word for their impact. http://www.pulitzer.org/

I'm really not trying to pick a fight, but you do realize that's another argument from authority, right?
Deficit Landmines Dead Ahead--via www.likelicorice.com
I give them kudos for admitting their mistake and listing the steps they're going to take to rectify this issue.
And how could any serious business person not want to CYA enough to be in touch with his own lawyer before trying to pull this publicity stunt?
I think tarsnap's is far better: http://www.tarsnap.com/legal.html

That one just adds excessive text by trying to be funny.
Maybe...also the fact that I have 400 "friends" says something. You can't possibly know that many people well enough to trust them. And the fact that they accepted my friend requests means they didn't care about keeping their information secret in a first place. Maybe it's different for an average user (120 connections apparently), although that still seems too high to share sensitive information.
Ask HN: My product idea: Easy Bookkeeping, Simple Accounting
Hi. Do you think there is still a market for another online bookkeeping/accounting SaaS app? My idea for the app is to be a bare basics accounting system for freelancers, micro-isvs, and small businesses. I'm a one-man startup registered as a sole proprietorship. I am required to submit annually my financial statements (Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement) along with my tax return. What I need is a simple and basic app that can generate the three basic financial statements (if PDF or Excel format). From what I've read, these are the most important financial statements to any business. So my idea is an online app that does simple and easy bookkeeping and can generate the three financial statements. No invoicing, no proposals, no accessing my bank account, and so on. I looked at Xero and Less Accounting, they're not simple and basic enough for my needs. So I'm thinking of scratching my own itch. I was just wondering if others have this itch too. Would you be willing to pay for a service like this? For example, would you pay $5 per month for this SaaS app? What monthly price would you be willing to pay for?Thanks!
Out of curiosity, which did you write first?
An interesting book on this topic is 'Shop-class as Soulcraft.'

There may be some virtuoso programmers that can write astounding software without any prior experience. However, there are aspects that take most people years to learn, due to the time it takes to release a project and see it's failings. This is different from learning physics, philosophy, or the academic aspects of law and medicine which can be learned in a classroom setting. However, the practical aspects of law and medicine cannot be learned without years of experience in the field.

So yes, to be able to start practicing software the required body of knowledge is much smaller than medicine or law -- however this is somewhat artificial. There is monopoly control over licensing for doctors and lawyers. If there were monopoly control over licensing for programmers, they might have to spend years in the classroom before practicing as well. I believe that apprentices could start practicing medicine and law much earlier in their careers and learn the facts they need along the way. This would be a lot more affordable for students, but it would lower the wages of lawyers and doctors, so it's probably not going to happen.
"It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe, thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth," the author of UFOs - They Are Still Flying told Bild.

Hrm, the author of a book on UFOs seems to think aliens are messing with us? Unbelievable!
4 FAQs bankruptcy you should know before filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13
Project management is one example. There are tons of free and paid options for both.

Also, as a paid product, you don't need to focus on winning out over free competitors, but instead making enough money for yourself. As long as your product is economically successful, it doesn't matter if a free product has more users or whatever you define as winning criteria.
There is always room for 'more' in any field, if you can differentiate yourself somehow.
Google plans to stop selling handsets (Nexus Ones)
Ubuntu 9.04 Karmic Koala

- Firefox 3.5.9: Buttons don't work.

- Crome 5.0.375.29 beta: Page becomes unresponsive and crashes.
why not couchdb?
I linked to the Pulitzer site to give you lists of articles that you might find valuable, not as proof of their value.
Just read this book myself. For a while after reading it I was hell-bent on becoming a motorcycle mechanic. However, I've come to realize there are a lot of aspects of programming that are similar to the work the author says is involved in being a Mechanic.
I'm not sure it's deliberately disingenuous (though it's certainly disingenuous). I think this is a side effect of putting a bunch of REALLY smart hackers in charge of the UX at Facebook. It's lost it's simplicity in favor of power. People keep asking for power/control, and Facebook adds it. Rinse/repeat and we have more knobs and levers than most users can really grok without a pretty big investment in time.
To be fair, JSON is much, much simpler to parse than SQL.
Easily Researchable Term Paper Ideas 
Term paper ideas are very difficult to generate but students must have to do think. It’s very useful to students to select correct idea to their term paper. Tips in this post are very useful in guiding the students with correct researchable term paper ideas.
They're spending taxpayer money to get the word out that they're incentivizing paying back taxes right now. The idea is to make money from running the ads, alongside the incentives, by reducing enforcement costs.
I admit I had only read the abstract when I posted my comment. I had a bit of a look at the paper later.
The constant factors are high relative to simply serving HTML, especially on a site that tracks non-encrypted performance down to the millisecond.
It seems to me that their FAQ tries to get around the question of what happens if a project isn't completed. Specifically, it says the project manager is "expected" to cancel funding. Otherwise, it might lead to "damage to your reputation" or even "legal action on behalf of your backers."

However, I bet that "canceling funding" may not even be possible. Most founders will transfer the money from Amazon to their bank account. Even then, a project's viability may not even be obvious for another year so I doubt chargebacks could occur.
And here we run right off the cliff, with the tendentious message board argument that Gizmodo had any reasonable expectation that the phone might not have been Apple's after Steve Jobs called them to get the phone back. Due respect, but give me a break, Brian.
On the other hand, an electric blanket plus a cold house is guaranteed to make you not want to get up in the morning. You may lose enough productivity to cancel out the money you save on heating.
Me. Downloading it now for my Mac, but would love it for work. Edit: Or signing up for the release.