skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I don't think the video was shot with a mobile camera, but probably a DV camera typical of the day – Canon XL1 was pretty popular if I recall. These days you can record HD video on your cell phone, but a decade ago (and recall, the original iPhone was released just in the year prior to this video) you had to get dedicated equipment that would run in the thousands of dollars.

Camera quality has absolutely exploded in the last decade, when compared with how much they've shrunk, and Apple certainly had a role to play in that transformation. I'm not at all surprised that video from a decade ago looks so dated compared with video today.
Well, why would highly evolved beings with interplanetary travel go to some guy's bedroom to give him a good scare?
In any case (criminal or civil) the gut reaction/bias the public or a layman may feel when one opts for the 5th (silence = culpability/liability) is ignored in favor of the law (5th != guilt) applied by both judges and informed juries.

Take a real-life case:

-OJ criminal case for murder, doesn't take the stand (found not guilty)

-OJ civil case for wrongful death, takes the stand gives inconsistent statements/impeached - not regarding anything to do with the case itself but his prior record (found liable)

Yes, the standards are different in civil and criminal but the legal strategy is the same...the defendant doesn't have to do anything, the burden is on the other party to prove their case, and opening yourself up to cross when there are criminal allegations (whether in a actual criminal case or civil case) would be a questionable legal decision. All this is compounded in this Uber case where allegations of (potentially) criminal acts are being made in the civil case because potentially a criminal case may follow, but it does beg the question if this theft of intellectual property is so obvious why hasn't law enforcement brought the charges yet (they in fact may, but see how silence doesn't really indicate anything). FYI, yes in a acquisition Uber likely assumed all liabilities, but that would also generally exclude liabilities as a result of criminal acts.
Flavor: Desktop
Headline: Polished and modern Desktop/User experience.

I'm using Ubuntu full time for the past 4 years. Some how it still feels like I am using some what old software although Ubuntu has come a long way since the beginning. I don't mind a release with no new technical improvements but only dedicated to improve all the little details and a polished experience of the overall user experience. Given looks are one of the important factors for an average user to evaluate a desktop, I believe any effort on this front will help a lot if furthering ubuntu adoption.

Role: Web developer and Digital marketer
Iowa lawmakers consider making most 911 calls confidential
It Came to Them with a Message
Blog  Workplace Productivity: Measuring the Unmeasurable?
FLAVOUR: Server, some desktops

HEADLINE: New command line installer

DESCRIPTION: The cli installer inherited from Debian needs to be modernized. It is ugly, asks too many questions and has some weird behavior, for example when not configuring a network connection at installation, only a cdrom apt mirror is added (even when there's no cdrom drive).
>. Cut my speed down to under 35 in heavy traffic where I just have to trudge along ...

I found this became easier to handle when I considered it a different kind of puzzle : how do I navigate that traffic without stopping or even using my brakes.

This usually involves increased following distance. Then I get to watch all the people who can't look past the gap in front of me rush in, realize this isn't helpful, punch their brakes , and switch back to a different lane. Endlessly entertaining!

Added benefit is that people behind you will start hanging back as you do (those not rushing around and failing to get ahead anyway)... Part of the puzzle is seeing how much of a smoothing effect you have on the traffic behind you.
Show HN: Alexa Skill Gives You Newest Job Postings
- FLAVOR: Ubuntu Desktop

- HEADLINE: XFS + FDE Installer Support

- DESCRIPTION: Full-disk encryption set up is a breeze with the installer, unless you have a few different drives and want to use XFS. I recognize this is not a majority use-case but FDE with multiple drives is challenging to configure.

- ROLE/AFFILIATION: User
OMG! I LOVE IT!
Plaster and timber flooring isn't so bad. Brick is also better than concrete. More rigid materials tend to transmit sound better.
My father was a fairly well-known concert pianist in his day, who also taught students continually. Each week, he would be enthralled with a new practice technique or hand exercise he had arrived at. Last week's technique was abandoned, not mentioned again. My mother would mock this, implying that he must not know what he was doing, since he changed his mind so often about what works.

He explained to me that the exercises were not being abandoned at all. They were being refined gradually over time. He had one goal, which was improving the uptake and resilience of brain and muscle memory for music. Every refinement was an opportunity he'd spotted, deep in his own mental language, to hone in on that goal.

The way my coding style (both deep and superficial) changes continuously over time always reminds me of the way my father taught piano. My goal, roughly, is to find the perfect balance of clarity and brevity, while maximizing the ease of continued development. My 27 years of practice has resulted in a long chain of insights about how to achieve that. It's always changing. The way I wrote code 8 months ago wasn't wrong, but I found a set of principles that's better. It wasn't bad, but I would not write in that style today. Why would I? I've learned things in those 8 months.
Would HackerNews be an acceptably named place to drum up some publicity? Politicians know that difference between Hacker and Cracker, right? ;)
An Ankhmorporkian always can.
Schools Shift to Free, Public-Domain Curricula
Ivan Illich told us this in the 70's, in "Energy and Equity"

http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Illich/EnergyEquity/Energy...
> Google did take Levandowski to arbitration.

What happened in arbitration?
International gentrification?
I was writing the exact same thing. The apps are not integrated, fancontrol doesnt work on recent desktops (dunno whose fault is this) compared to windows, and its hard to get a bird's eye view of the system settings. A better package manager UI would help.
Good stuff. I'm currently working with chatbot development. And I have to keep this kind of stuff in mind all the time.
I can't stand my autodim mirror. It is always dimming too much and/or at the wrong time.
I have the dual problem of 1.HEADLINE: I've got a HiDPI notebook and suffer when I have to connect it to a common 1080p screen.
Yes, it would be. Being awesome for some (like myself) is obviously not an argument in itself; I added it as a bit of humour :).

Regarding your very good question - it has been asked before. I'll direct you to the classic:

In 1970, a Zambia-based nun named Sister Mary Jucunda wrote to Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, then-associate director of science at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in response to his ongoing research into a piloted mission to Mars. Specifically, she asked how he could suggest spending billions of dollars on such a project at a time when so many children were starving on Earth.

Stuhlinger soon sent the following letter of explanation to Sister Jucunda, along with a copy of "Earthrise," the iconic photograph of Earth taken in 1968 by astronaut William Anders, from the Moon (also embedded in the transcript). His thoughtful reply was later published by NASA, and titled, "Why Explore Space?"

The response is to be read here: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore-space.html.
Oh no, a website for hackers. is hacker news a website for hackers, how about slashdot? If you are responsible for what people use your software for, even when you actively tell people not to do that, then it should also be true for guns, alchol (kids drink your bud beer, so arrest budweiser execs?).

This is one of those fundamental questions, similar to do you own physical devices or just run the software on them, like the tractors. It should be you aren't responsible for what people do with your software, if there is any legimiate use. The prosecutorial power of the us govt is very large, and they can coerce people to plead guilty to crimes where they weren't really responsible.
Acceptable belief vs. True belief are independent. There are some beliefs that are acceptable (Jesus) and others that are not (Zeus, Scientology). They are equally likely depending on your perspective.

The Internet has enabled people that think they have found a true belief that is unacceptable to find each other more easily than ever before. The creation of these micro belief systems is one of the most interesting aspects of the Internet. Lots of these on Reddit as an example.
How could that possibly work? Gun manufacture requires machinery and resources, and drug production requires specific knowledge that's not widely disseminated. Anyone can learn how to write software.
I've personally found Bach to be the most productive music.

One recording I've been listening to is Bach's works for lute; the tone is atmospheric, while the compositions are profound but even enough to become meditative.

https://youtu.be/WGpl1Utbqzw

Also listening to Glenn Gould's entire Bach recordings, but piano is a bit more distracting.

I wish someone brilliant would do something new and inspired with Bach and synthesizers.

Also listen to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Such rich soundscapes, though after Bach the compositions (notes, not sound) can sound needlessly repetitive and simplistic. A trade-off.
I think the current government was looking into that at some point, but I don't know what happened with that.

I remember when I worked at a startup the choice when I got stock options was - pay the tax up front based on the current strike price value - or pay a higher tax when you exercise them and make a profit. If you take the first choice then you'll need to do a lot of paper work to get that money back should the company fail.
What about recession of the coral reef?
Especially when I'm 60, because then I will be at the very end of making mortgage payments AND I will out right own a house.
same thing here. its clunky to login and always see an error message.
Here's one that is maybe more concrete. And I hope I'm understanding everything correctly.

Say you're a startup running your infrastructure in AWS. You spread it out over three different regions and within each region you use 2 availability zones. Your network load is automatically balanced over these three geographical regions.

Now an earthquake happens in one region and although it's unlikely both of availability zones within that region go off line (fiber to the region is cut, power-loss, whatever). This means the entire region goes offline.

If modeled properly you should now be able to figure out what the consequences of this will be for the entire infrastructure. Will you be able to stay online if surprising behavior (an entire region going offline) happens?

Of course the big issue here is always mapping real world scenario's onto models that fit well enough.

EDIT: It's a matter of taking the "nasty integral" part out of it as per nerdponx in another comment on this thread. This can really help with doing Fault Tree Analysis for example as the statistics solving part there has always been a big problem for systems big enough (MCMC solvers help only to a degree).
Or maybe they just had a decent feel for design already? I look back at some things I wrote in the first couple of years that I was coding, and it's actually pretty alright. Maybe a bit amateurish and not how I'd do it now, but not terrible. I can't be the only one like this.
> It it a joke?

no, that's the whole point of it. to someone coming outside of energy field research, nothing has raised a clear warning.

the only thing that looked fishy is that they were more about trying to convince people than stating facts, and that's why I didn't stop my inquiry there, but after looking around a little more I just couldn't establish trust (and establishing trust isn't my job either way, I'm not gonna research a curiosity topic for days on end, my time is limited)
I do sketches both on paper, and in code. I write all my code in many, many drafts, so that by the time it ships each function has been rewritten. I'd guess about 5-10 times on average. Possibly contrary to intuition, I find this enables me to work much, much faster, and have far fewer defects than not doing it.
I doubt that, WhatsApp was bought by facebook to datamine contact lists, I'm pretty sure the FBI can request this data.
Sourcing Parts on TaoBao: An Insider's Guide
I don't think "fake news" is a particularly good PR term.

I just think there's a lot of people who will take any buzzword and angrily throw it at things they don't like.

I'm continually amazed by the things I see described as "political correctness", and "clickbait" or "virtue signalling" are all the same as "fake news" in common usage. They all translate as "stuff I don't like or agree with and is therefore bad" and any genuine meaning they may have once had has been stripped.
>Do people likewise call all God-believers lunatics?

We don't call them lunatics. I guess the difference is that there's more of them, and it's just easier for everyone if we get along. Less so for the more fringe beliefs.
Unfortunately, I've seen IT departments taking this joke as an axiom. It seems common in schools and universities, where the infrastructure is maintained by being so limited as to be completely useless - and hence unused, and thus without problems caused by users...
No, they are controlled by lobbyists working on behalf of the industry to limit entry into the market. It's about profit, not safety.
Press Alt?
the renter pays more than

And why is this a problem? The landlord takes on administrative hassle, and -- more importantly -- risk, for example

- Can't rent out the property.

- Property needs to undergo repair.

- Tenants don't pay rent, destroy the property.

- Liquidity risk: property is not as easy to sell as many other goods, in case of emergency.

All of the above happen with a certain probability and that needs to be priced in. The last one is rarely a problem but the others are major considerations. And I have not even mentioned transaction costs for buying/selling a property, not to mention taxation. For these reasons, property typically doesn't have a good ROI, vis-a-vis e.g. investing in shares. A lot of property investors are naive, and would be better off investing in a passive index fund. So in many cases tenants get a good deal. In my experience buy-to-let is lucrative primarily when

- Landlord has multiple properties, Economies of scale kicks in.

- Landlord has relevant skills (plumber, electrician, or ... tax expert, lawyer) so he can get some jobs that need to be done substantially below market price.

- Is physically close to the property, so can visit/check easily.

- Has unusually low cost of capital (lower than bank-based mortgages).

Ideally more than one of those.

only thing separating

The landlord has already proven financial stability, while the tenant typically hasn't. Many tenants tend to be young, e.g. students who are by-and-large not yet ready to take on the major responsibility of buying and maintaining a house. My heuristic for when you are ready to buy a property: > 10 years in a stable job, enough savings to put up 1/3 of the price up-front. After-tax income high enough so the mortgage can easily be paid. Good timing for a mortgage when you pay it off a bit before you stop earning (i.e. before retirement). Given a 25 year payment schedule and retirement at 65, age 35-40 would be a great time to get a mortage.

Plenty of countries do quite well with mostly-rent based system. German Chancellor Merkel rents, for example.
Ahem... Spent too much time in these circles, doing what people do there. Some of it not really legal. Authorities noticed, took my hardware and told me hat I maybe should think hard about going back there. Got new hardware and changed course.
Is GraphQL the Next Frontier for Web APIs?
The bubble pops once the big development firms start going under. At some point, the highly leveraged property developers will stop being able to clear out the apartment blocks they're putting up presuming $1m+ sale prices. They're the ones who pop the bubble, since a few bankruptcies are very likely to cascade into panic selling.
Also called ramblers.
People claiming to have been personally visited by Jesus (in a non-metaphorical sense) are generally considered lunatics. People believing that alien life exists are also not generally considered lunatics.

It's the fact that he claims to have been abducted and "taken to visit a distant star" that makes him sound unreliable. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
As an American, how else do you build houses? Solid concrete? That seems a little ridiculous, especially for interior walls...
Do either of them qualify as fake news? How do we combat fake news if nobody knows what it is, and how do we prevent collateral damage/unintended consequences?
Where do you guys get a job without any time constraints? Also were you born with all knowledge? You are saying for example that the booking system you made in 2009, which was the first time you ever "programmed time" is pretty much perfect? (change the example to shaders, or physics, or your first Node back end blah blah). I am calling Bullshit.
Don't group everyone together like that. I used to frequent 4chan, and eventually joined in the trolly lulz threads. It was all just for fun. What made the site fun for me was the recognition of a foreign culture, the assimilation period where I began recognizing what made the site's culture unique, then a sense of being because I recognized the mentality the site formed. Like many things, it all had to do with our tribal evolution. Some may take lulz seriously, but don't assume everyone does.
Why? I think if you are offended it makes the analogy even more precise.
I use e.g. 8.8.8.8 as my DNS server. When that server needs to request a record for me, the other servers it connects to will only see 8.8.8.8. With this extension, the 8. server will embed my subnet into the request and allow upstream servers to see part of my IP.
A lovely new apartment complex in the centre of Cheltenham has 10-15 shop fronts available, every single one is empty. Quite astonishing as the apartments seem very popular.
That image is totally iconic for me. Rocket equation be damned, I still think there should be SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit) ships.
Convince me it will? The less well off are just above the welfare line as it is. They can work 20 less hours a week and not see a big drop in income.

It's the boomers a recession will hurt. People on minimum wage actually do shit for a living.
Sketch 43 features an open, JSON based file format
No cat videos out there?
You actually can manufacture guns in your own home for your own use completely legally in the US. Just for your own use though you can't ever sell or gift them. There's a whole market that sells 80% complete billets with most of the more difficult parts complete such that all someone needs is a drill press to complete the firearm.
It's also what one would expect if US consumers are getting horribly gouged on prices. But then I guess you'd also expect to see pharmaceutical companies enjoying super high profit levels... Oh wait...

EDIT: Given I am unable to address the 'econ101 argument', would you care to take a shot?
- FLAVOR: Desktop

- HEADLINE: Laptop Support

- DESCRIPTION: Support for various notebooks. Wireless and high resolution screens and battery life seem like pain points.

We have some biologists using ubuntu on the desktop and when they want to use a notebook, its not easy to make that happen, so they end up on macs.

- ROLE/AFFILIATION: Software developer for biologists
Better stability is really important! Recently there was an update for the nvidia drivers for 16.04 LTS, this broke our GPU servers on Amazon and ruined desktop login for my grandfather. All because the updated Nvidia driver no longer supported the GPU's.
Building a Startup Doesn’t Make You Special. (2016)
People are still the biggest security threat to any organization
Bored... something: https://www.ias.edu/scholars/dijkgraaf
I've visited Tasmania a few times and LOVE Launceston. Would move there in a heartbeat, but the trick is, if things don't work out, we could never, EVER afford to move back here. I have older parents etc. still living here, so can see that we might have to either stay, or work out some sort of cunning plan to try and share time between the two locations.

$215,000 wouldn't even buy you a 1 bedroom squat here. I could probably sell my place and buy a BIG place in Launceston, but like I said, if it ever came that we had to move back here to care for elders, it won't be possible at all.
> 1. HEADLINE: A way to have different scaling for external monitors hooked up to my HiDPI laptop.

This would be awesome. Even when both the laptop and the external screen are 1080p, different scaling could be helpful if you want to use a dual monitor setup effectively.

Unfortunately, it's a tough nut to crack given current desktop behavior. For example, you can have a window that straddles both monitors. What should the scaling be? You need to switch at some point as you're moving a window back and forth - when? So it's a challenge, but solving it would be so worth it!
`FLT_EPSILON` represent the minimum difference between two adjacent floats around 1.0; it should be scaled according to the input argument. E.g. your `equal_float` returns `true` for 2e-6 and 4e-6 which are clearly not the same number.

A better comparison would check for zero somehow like this:

bool zero(float x) { return std::abs(x) <= std::abs(x)*FLT_EPSILON; }
My biggest wish is Ubuntu (and Debian) switching from systemd to any other init system. I know that won't happen but I was asked and that's the only thing I want, whenever you like it or not.
FWIW, I never graduated from college but turned out quite successful, at least as far as job position and compensation goes. I make well over average at a popular software company in the Bay Area.

Still, for the past 3 years I have been using my weekends and evenings to work on my BS in CS. And, while surely I was able to be successful building software without it, a new clarity has come that had never been there before. Perhaps it's because I have industry experience to draw on but I regret not having done this earlier in my life (I'm 39). So my point is, if you're in college reading this now, please do yourself a favor and see it through to completion. You're in a fortunate position (even though the daily grind sucks), take a deep breath, pause, and enjoy it.
Verizon will pre-install spyware on Android phones to track your data
- FLAVOR: Ubuntu Desktop

- HEADLINE: Simple way to setup mdadm raid mirroring post setup.

- DESCRIPTION: A nice way to setup a simple mirror drive on your system if its already need installed. Window's disk manager does it nicely and it would be great to see the disk utility enhanced to allow the same.
Yes! The German contribution to computing history gets overlooked. History is written by the winners, so the history of computing is American, and us Brits get miffed when Turing, Bletchley Park, the Colossus, Atlas at Manchester are ignored. There should be more recognition for Konrad Zuse [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse
I've always been confused when people talk about tooling for their programming languages. It made me fell like, maybe, I was doing it wrong by using a console-based text editor along with whatever compiler / interpreter is appropriate. This article finally made it clear to me that "tooling" means "a Rube Goldberg device I cooked up instead of learning how my programming language works." LaTeX is a lot easier if you understand what it's doing for you.