skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
And I don't really buy the argument that Python is simple and clean.

Yes, but consider the competition. Python is a significant margin above average, but this says as much about the sorry state of computer languages in general as it says about Python.

Heck, English is considered an "easy to learn" language among human languages, and it's a mess!

Really the problem is with human beings.
Information on Sourcing and Manufacturing in China
Cool, that's really neat, thanks for digging that up!
Rupert Murdoch reveals iPad newspaper app sales figures
Best pics don't interfere with the purpose of the page.

http://i.imgur.com/uobal.jpg
> well, with Python that doesn't happen. At least, not at all frequently.

That's a bold statement. It happened to me just last week.

The difference from Perl is that common tasks are standardized ... stuff like OOP is built-in, so you don't have to chose or stay in touch with several frameworks for doing OOP, and you could care less about integration issues between modules that use different OOP systems.

It also has a clean syntax, which makes (good code, written by good developers) readable ... but that's not what bugs me about Perl ... after all, why should you read text in some language (natural or not) if you haven't bothered to learn it?

That's about it. Otherwise I'm beginning to hate Python's limitations.
Mark Twain: A river runs through him
+1 for the Rails guides reference, they're quickly becoming the de-facto rails reference and are being maintained well.

re: Stack for production environments, these days almost everyone uses passenger+apache/nginx which uses ruby enterprise
Now that every browser includes a search bar next to the address input, why go to Google's home page at all? I very rarely do so.
It is funny that Windows is a proprietary platform and nobody (government) ever allowed them this kind of control/restriction.

Now Apple/Twitter/Facebook is going crazy and nobody does nothing...
Judging by the pictures linked above, I think they went too big with it. It's more of a coffee table book than a textbook.
I'm stuck on 18 :(
"rich-get-richer"

An alternative way to think about it is that it adds more stability to the system, for better or for worse.
The sticking point with text books IS the printing. My wife (PhD and professor) would love to move to digital text books. In the digital realm there are actually entire text books that aren't widely available in print. They are also MUCH cheaper for the students.

http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/ is one example. There are others I can't remember right now.

This device seems to knock down a LOT of barriers. The two screens allow for the space needed to show all of the content a professor might
Believe it or not, THE biggest thing slowing adoption of electronic text books is the ability to take notes want to expose at once. The students can take notes on the pages (this is a huge deal for adoption believe it or not). It enables open and cheaper options...

I like it a lot. I think they have a winner if they've executed well.
If you care about REST (and arguably you should) then URLs are not an implementation detail. Especially if you are creating an API that others may eventually use to get at your data, URLs are everything. I'll say it again: the application is the URLs. Because ultimately the application is its resources and simple manipulations of them, which the URLs are representing.
This seems to be the same issue as horsepower: If the engine has horsepower doesn't that mean it can only go as fast as horses do?

Of course not, that's the intuitive "apples and oranges" type mistake, the two numbers aren't really correlated like that. It's like leaving your foot on the gas at the same level will keep it accelerating until it hits the most it can do with that much gas.
You mean the band used is different? T-Mobile is, apparently, using WCDMA and AT&T seems to advertise WCDMA/HSPA. Are there other differences in addition to this?
It definitely looks like the mouseover content is manually inputted, but since Microsoft acquired Powerset (http://www.powerset.com) last year, they could also pull some information about topics from it.
Yep stuck on 16 - I can find my way to blind alley's show room - but then what?
Google top 1000 sites: Interesting stats about them
Why can't we practice on the piano in Etude?
What you need to know before catting to /dev/audio
> I can't see a need to permit the recording or some guy who sells tickets for a municipal railway, or sweeps the streets and is paid by the local authority (although I don't particularly see the need to ban it, either).

How about when he's letting his friends ride for free or engaged in some other misbehavior?

You want privacy - do it on your time. As long as it's my money paying you, the default is that I get to observe and record, just like any other employer. This is especially true for folks engaged in law enforcement.

The only possible exception is undercover, but if you're made.... No exception for plainclothes - if you've identified yourself as a cop, you're fair game.
Here's another techtalk, again by Shinzen Young: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XCWP4pODbs The technique is called Vipassana meditation, according to his website.

I've been doing zazen for a little less than a month. Zazen is a little different from vipassana(with wich i have even less experience than with zazen, as i said, less than a month). I chose zazen mainly because it sounds so simple: sit with your spine straight up(in the lottos position if possible, im not there yet, im too inflexible) breathe normally and count your breaths for 10 minutes every day, no magic Indian mysticism involved, which is what threw me off Buddhism the first time i encountered it.
Oh please, stop the ass kissing already. A simple 'Thank you' would suffice.
The reason the keyboard in the current UI is there is so you can see most of the keys and play the piece on a real instrument.

If I made it playable, people would just complain it's too small.

A new "practice mode" is coming in an upcoming update that gives you a big enough keyboard and lets you practice one hand of the piece.
This hypothesis makes a lot of sense. One should be able to test it on a Nehalem architecture: benchmark the program running on two cores, once choosing them to be different physical cores versus the same physical core. Your theory predicts the latter option to be much faster, and faster than the single core mode, because the two virtual cores will share the same caches.
Official fact sheets for Canada's coming copyright reform
Is there anyway to tap to reposition the cursor and play? Loops? A/B?
> syntax modification

Hmm, have I missed something? What features are you talking about?
I remember all these same arguments circa 1989-1994 about internet access. You could pay hourly or per data. Needless to say... we all know how that ended up. And we all know how it's going to end up in the near future with telecoms. The same pricing scheme as high speed internet. You'll pay for reliability and minimum performance guarantees. Those that don't care about reliability or performance will have cheaper unlimited access. In the meanwhile they are going to milk the old system for every cent of profit that they can.

Similar behavior was seen when telecoms had to give up on long distance phone charges. And again with text messages. This is just more of the same. And I will tell you why customers won't put up with it - it's very hard for an average person to know how much data they are consuming. They don't want to know either, it's just another thing to worry about.
The Amazing Disappearing Angel Round—and why it’s worth preserving
“Hadoop: An industry perspective” webinar from Cloudera co-founder Amr Awadallah
Yet another step in turning the browser into an operating system -- customizable backgrounds.
I'd love to see this. Python just has better libraries in the most important areas: numerical computation, machine learning, etc., than any other platform. It's main downside is that you can only get at them from one language.

Can't wait to see a lisp on the Python platform.
Of course it doesn't fall. Try to count the number of IE toolbars for Windows, then try to count for Mac. Try to count the number of antivirus programs for Windows, then for Mac. Try to count how many shell extensions are installed with different programs. How many file handlers etc. On every Windows computer the attack surface is unbelievably bigger, unless you're very untypical user.

But even more important reason for increased "Windows platform insecurity" is the economy -- evildoers can control much more computers (and make more money) if they invest the time to make Windows trojans.

On the other side, I believe that if we just look at the Apple software for Mac delivered by default and the Microsoft software delivered with the OS, Apple is more vulnerable -- Microsoft really does much more security work on the core (in invested man hours per lines of code of the core) and delivers less functionality than Apple by default -- even a mail client is not an official part of Windows 7, that's good trick to have more secure default OS package.

Still if you use Windows you're much more likely to fall victim, and it will remain so for a quite while.
People should embrace comments. They're free content that drive traffic.
Or just take the median.
You can check by looking at the average comment scores on http://news.ycombinator.com/leaders (the second column). They haven't changed much as far as I can tell.
Not all of these things are 100% true, but those that aren't are true enough to make Python less painful to use than a lot of the alternatives.

Python is not multiple coding styles - not entirely true, but probably true enough.

Python is not monkey-patched - again not entirely true, but maybe true enough.

Python is not overly concise - mostly true, though I've seen abuses of array slicing and passing/storing/calling functions.

Python is not overly verbose - pretty much at the mercy of whoever is writing code, but again, seems to be true enough.

Python seems to be pretty good or good enough in a lot of ways, and deserves credit for this. The far-sighted view will recognize it as a local maxima, however.

(A "perfect" language is like a perfect predator. A tireless, scentless, invisible, silent, indestructible, ultra-fast killing machine would probably wreck its environment. Considered in the context of evolutionary change, it's practically impossible for such a thing to come about.)
First Round Capital (my employer)
Floodgate
Techstars

Best way to find out the value of each is to talk to people who have worked directly with each.
Oh.... Wow. That's awesome. Thank you!
Sorry to nitpick, but the sound in the video is off! It's driving me crazy!

This almost makes me want to get an iPad... almost.
Interested in people's opinions and experiences with this. As a blogger, I naturally fear opinion and comments in response to my blog entries, but they are good for debate and ultimately in creating content on sites for free....
I don't think Mindstorms would allow him to write a printer driver to control the motors.
Hey, I removed the jokes, a full explanation of let with examples and fst, etc. and a shortcut to go back. Can't change the colour yet on this machine as it's done with sprites and I need the right editor. Let me know if you try it further!
I've been holding off because of the reviews complaining about lag. Do those apply to the iPad version as well?
Fortunately google is not quite as dumb as other companies in forcing every aspect of its business to pay the "strategy tax" of supporting every other product of the business regardless of whether it makes sense or not.
[Rate my App] Our Android Application Release Today
I would love this - it would be an essential feature for practicing difficult sections.
Usually the 'real work' required to process the message would drown this overhead in the noise. The moment the message requires you to establish an outgoing connection, open a file, hit the database or something similar it is going to completely blow this throughput.

Also, it seems that the overhead here is poor use of shared memory or threading semantics, something we cannot debug without the source (and the required time)
It always feels good to get something out the door. Look forward to hearing questions and feedback.

Thanks,
Chris
Ahh, ok I understand the roster issue better now, thanks. You're right, Plurk is what I was referring to.
If I was looking for a job and found a job ad with no contact information, I would see it possibly as spam/scam/non-serious recruiting activity unless I have had heard of the company (in that case I would be looking at their career section anyways).
It doesn't really feel like the kindle has the level of formatting required to really do a textbook.
Yeah, ffmpeg screwed that up. The h264 and flash versions play correctly.

I wish Firefox would just fall back to the flash version rather than going "Oh, it's not Ogg. I guess I'll just give up."
That seems like a good idea.
Open-source application for Desktop Applications development
Area 51 (the new Stack Exchange Network site proposal tool)
Tech Founders NYC Inaugural Meeting
Hey all,

We are putting on a pitch event by hackers and for hackers. We filter out a few entrepreneurs each time to come pitch our group. This is our first attempt at an event like this and as such will be a learning experience. I am interested in hearing from other developers what types of things/questions/pitch points they think would provide the most value.

Overall goal is to get great engineers and great entrepreneurs together to keep up the NYC startup momentum.

http://techfounders.heroku.com
Should, and can Python be faster without sacrificing the speed of the programmer (including extension authors)? Yes, it can and will be, but never at the cost of productivity.

That this is a trade-off at all is a woefully outdated idea.
The situation described at the end of the article actually happened last year. A shipment of generic drugs going from India to Brazil got confiscated in Amsterdam although they are perfectly legal in both countries.

The point of the matter is that legislation is tied to jurisdiction and some multinationals would like to be free from this restriction. We seem to have reached the point in which people believe IP to be a natural and universal right.

If rich countries push this hard enough, we might see less commerce going through their ports.
Clickable link: http://techfounders.heroku.com
Why basecamp isn't my home. 
I've been using 37 signal's basecamp during the last few years, and I've become quite frustrated with their product; I'll explain why:

1. Basecamp cannot handle email: emails are action items with follow ups and assignments, not timestamped events that can simply be recorded.

2. Projects are constantly changing: I will add several documents to any given project, and update them constantly, basecamp does not reflect that dynamic nature, there is no versioning.

3. Bad 3rd party application support: I would like to integrate my basecamp account into Gmail - then I could update project documents from my email.

4. No (decent) desktop integration: One of the biggest inconveniences of basecamp, is that I have to stay logged into a web application the whole. That's fine if you have Internet (and mostly I do) but on the occasion that I do not - train, plane, automobile; I'd like to be able to know I have a desktop client that could store the data and then push updates to the cloud when I am. And crucially access any documents that I may not have saved to my hard drive.

What myself and others are looking for is a true bridge between tasks and email. If email continues to be the main form of communication in the workplace, then it needs to work more closely with task and project management software.

I want a solution to my over filled inbox and my ongoing daily issues with projects and tasks, all in one; because, if email is critical to my work day, then making sure I have a consolidated list of tasks and projects where I can easily see what's going on is what I need!

Any one have any words of wisdom, or comments?
It's been a non-issue for almost a decade!
Engines for Massively Scaleable Startups
I just peeked at my iPhone cellular data usage. 650 Megs.

And I wouldn't perceive myself as using it that much. I mainly surf the web, and play games on it.

Maybe someone can put up a poll for iPhone/iPad users.
If I want to look at one of my own pretty pictures, or some other picture I've chosen myself, I'll just make it my desktop background.

One reason is that the customised background makes users feel more accustomed to the concept of a "cloud desktop".
HHS and Institute of Medicine Promote Community Health Data Initiative
I like to think of my self-control as a muscle. Yes, it gets worn out and needs a lazy Sunday every once in a while as the study shows, but at the same time the more I exercise it, the stronger it gets.
Hold on, that begs the question -- how do we know who deserves? that is the problem.

The whole thing has a circular dependency: if ranking acts as a filter, then higher rank means more readers, and that in turn means more upvotes and so a higher ranking. It is probably not so much the top being undeserving, but that deserving stuff gets missed.

This seems to be a fundamental weakness in all similar 'ranking' systems, but I am not sure of the full character and implications...

(There is certainly a substantial component of being an automated system of 'social-proof'. And the filtering can never be entirely effective: if you show everyone only the good stuff, the filtering would not get done at all.)
That is great! But the point is that this a prediction into the future and is not a fact. A fact is something that you can prove, and you can not prove the future. If you can, come talk to me we can start a business :)
5 Simple Rules for a Better Blog Design
Understanding the Clojure `trampoline'
IIRC, that's why there is a Nexus One for T-Mobile and a Nexus One for AT&T. You can use either to connect to GSM/Edge, but you need the carrier-specific model to connect to 3G. I believe it's a band issue, but I haven't read a whole lot on the topic.
Ahhh crap, my iPad isn't scheduled for delivery until June 15th.

Damn you accursed AT&T.
Ah, wasn't aware of that.
I think my colleagues would start to look even more funnily at me than the already do if I started doing this. Especially since we work in an open office environment. If I had an office I would definitely consider.

For now I think I will try and heed troutwine's advice: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1379082
"... I'll just make it my desktop background."

Interesting. This is actually what first came to my mind: Google is copying the desktop? Not Bing. As many of you said, Bing isn't the first web page to put a pretty background picture (some of the first web pages were the first web pages with pretty background pictures, were they not?). And, as we concluded, the concept is different - choosing, instead of getting a random pic.

So, now you can change the "desktop background" of your google homepage - "the Internet", as often called by many people where I come from. Add some shortcuts to the picture with pretty custom icons (links), support for a clock, a calendar (widgets), a tray or a bar with quick launch and various options...

If only a browser existed that loaded automatically when you start your computer, without the need for all that "windows loading stuff"... :)
Does anyone have a transcript? It's a compelling title, but I'd rather not wait for the man in the jester hat to finish speaking before I get access to his point.
In order to develop my own opinion, I've been running a little experiment for the past week in which I switched the search box to Bing.

Basically, I have found very little difference in Google and Bing's search. They are both equally functional and fast. If anything, I've found that I have no reason to switch back to Google - Bing's daily rethemeing adds a little spark to my day.

I encourage everyone to try this for a week. You'll be amazed at how undifferentiated the two major search players truly are at search. These little user delighters are going to be a huge component in the battle for search revenue in the near future.
Sad to say it, but given enough programmer ambition, eventually any language is going to annoy you this way!
San Francisco is getting a smarter parking meter system
I think there are dozens of languages that would be considered lispy before python would.
Ha! I chuckled because I assumed he was making good-natured meta-humor about the rising levels of PG appreciation going on...

I guess what I like about HN is the high expectations it allows us to keep.
Why doesn't apple make its electronics under fair trade conditions?
OTOH C is a more difficult language to use, so it takes a certain level of care to write in it. Does that mean that any working C program is readable and maintainable as long as you crossed that threshold and now know how to read and write C?
From a sci-fi perspective, William Gibson writes some good stuff. Spook Country has some interesting ideas around geo-location, wireless connectivity and augmented reality.

Actually, any of the cyberpunk authors might potentially be of interest to you.

Outside of that, there's Ray Kurzweil... and J. Storrs Hall has written a couple of good books on nanotech and AI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Storrs_Hall
Just one market route to drive more users to their homepage. Definitely an optional preference.
For a developer targetting a new feature in a new release of the Android OS, it's a huge problem. If I want to make a program targetting a new feature in the iPhone OS, I can do that confident that 99% of all iPhones will be upgraded to $(CURRENT_OS_VERSION)+1 within a couple of months of the upgrade being available. It's simple. Everyone is on 3.1.3 - I don't have to worry about missing a big chunk of the market and reworking my code to accomodate old OS versions.

So do I recode my FFTs in Java and say goodbye to anyone running pre-2.2 until the carriers/handset makers get around to upgrading everyone in a couple of years time, or do I keep my code in it's little C++ NDK ghetto, safe from testing and rapid enhancements that Java would bring?

It's so frustrating that Google has fixed this problem NOW, but between carrier indifference and custom-'enhancement' inertia at handset makers, it's going to take forever for 2.2 to be a legitimate development target. This is a solved problem in iPhone-land.
Nginx with 14% of market share is indeed very interesting, very close to IIS (17%).
"France excelled at many things. Punch card automation was not one of them."

Rene Carmille founded the Demographic Service in Vichy France and began conducting the first decent Jewish census in France because previous efforts had been such a shambles.

He took lots of German money to put together a punch card operation and set to work but failed to produce many names and addresses of Jewish families. However, he did manage to secretly put together a list of 300,000 veterans and others to mobilise as part of the Free French army when the allies invaded.

He was tortured and killed by Klaus Barbie in 1944.
> I wouldn't actually call it a Lisp on its own. It is a derivative, a less directly powerful form.

But you could argue every language is a derivative of another, or another's functionality, or style, or...

To fairly call a language "a type of X" there honestly has to be a lot more in common with it.

> "It's a Lisp where..." in the same way that a unicycle is "a bicycle where..."

... it has wheels??!!

I'm sorry, it's not Lisp. It has several of Lisp's useful features, but it's likewise missing a large number of them; to the point that it's a real disservice to glibly compare it and conveniently ignores a lot of the power of Scheme, Common Lisp, and their true ancestors/siblings.
The problem of too-general tools
Interesting that he mentions the period where the short story reigned before TV broke through. Seems very similar to the internet, where video has again broken through.