skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I started coding at the age of 10 in the early 80's, using a Timex 2068.

My first source of information were the computer provided manuals, with them I got to learn Basic and overall computer architecture.

Then back on those days there were lots of books targeted to get kids to learn programming. With them I got to improve my Basic skills, learn Z80 Assembly and enjoy typing Assembly via hexdumps.

Later I started reading the Input magazine, which had code to type for all major 8 bit platforms.

At the same time I was getting MicroHobby, MicroMania and the newspaper A Capital with its computer section on Friday's.

Then when my English skills improved, Crash and Your Sinclair became part of my magazine collection.

Later I got into the PC and Amiga worlds, then I was reading Spooler, Amiga Format, PC Techniques, Dr. Dobb's Journal, The C User's Journal which became The C/C++ User's Journal, C++ Report, Microsoft Systems Journal, Game Developers Magazine. After having devoured all the programming manuals that came with all Borland products I was using.

During my GNU/Linux FOSS zealot phase I was also a regular buyer of Linux Journal and Linux Format.

Parallel to all those magazines, regular trips to the local library, getting some books when travelling to Lisbon or Porto.

Access to BBS were out of my budget back then, so I only got to access them when I got into the university.

So I started to access BBS, shortly followed by Gopher sites and USENET, before the Web got any meaningful meaning.

Also given that the university had a huge collection of CS books and research papers, all the way back to the foundations of computer science, I also got to visit it regularly.

Other than that there were the computer clubs and demoscene meetings to get to exchange knowledge between persons that shared the same interests about programming.
Project Name:How to Create a Snake Game in React
It's troubling that airlines require reliability redundancies in order to maintain safety. The reinforced cockpit doors were good solution, and then...Germanwings happened. Wow. I just don't know if I even want to fly commercial anymore.
The OpenVPN 2.4.0 Audit by OSTIF and QuarksLab Results
I have given Walmart a fair chance on a number of occasions. I received damaged and used goods for my trouble. The store gave me a huge hassle when I tried to return the items ( i.e. a PlayStation that had been smashed to pieces ), they treated me like I was a scammer/criminal.
Mali Graphics Debugger: One Year On
It's a cute scenario.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm fairly sure they can compel me to lie to you. I think the standard is that the police can, at least with a warrant, compel you to do anything that you would do normally. For instance, if you're a company that keeps a database of user actions, they can compel you to give them access to that database, because accessing that data is a part of your normal business process. They can even compel you to write some software to extract the specific data they need (within reason). And in your scenario, I am able to access my own computer, and do so regularly as part of my normal life.

You probably came up with this scenario thinking about so-called "warrant canaries," which hinge on law enforcement not being able to force companies to lie to their users. But it should be noted there is no case law or precedent regarding warrant canaries, and the legal consensus seems to be it is unlikely to hold up in court.
I mean, there are plenty of products that you can get at both Amazon and Walmart today, and you could get those at Walmart instantly. Prime just allows you to get that product from Amazon in two days, without worrying about the cost of extra shipping, the hassle of actually getting to a Walmart (traffic, parking, weather, etc.), having to wait for someone to go get it, etc. Amazon just pushes all those unpleasant 'wait' factors to the experience of the deliverer, not the receiver.
>cost $3.83 per book to print, shrink wrap, and ship to the US.

This is because they have access to a traditional printer and are able to order the volume needed for that price. A print on demand book from amazon that is 200 pages, full color will cost ~$15/book. But, that price is fixed whether you buy 1 or 5000 copies. Add in amazon's cut and you're looking to make 30% for each sale on amazon.com. If they handle distribution to bookstores you're looking at a 10% cut.

This is the option available to most self publishers and the margins are not that much better than going with a traditional publisher. Especially, because the author needs to front all of the costs for editing, design, etc.
There was this estimation technique one of the Sixty Symbols professors talked about, where you do all of the calculations, but you only keep one significant digit. It's something you can do quickly in your head while conversing with someone, but tells you pretty reliably if something is feasible.
The non-binding provision "to send the modifications to the original developer so that they can be incorporated into the canonical version" sounds like a neat compromise between copyleft and just plain opensource. It avoids the hesitancy which commercial developers might have about using strong copy-left.
Hey I am the author of the post, please LMK if you have any question! Hope you like it. Thanks!
At least with Linux I can choose to install and whenever I want to install it. I don't get that freedom with windows, and it packages it's system with advertisements
Of course there have been 6 core processors before the Ryzen chips, the difference is Ryzen brought them to the mainstream.

The Ryzen chip is a third of the cost of the Intel chip and doesn't require the expensive enthusiast X99 platform.

AMD's great achievement is bringing 6 and 8 core chips /to the mainstream/, affordable by pretty much everyone. Intel's X99 enthusiast platform has been around longer but is massively more expensive.
Yes because humans should work for computers not the other way around.
Or, you know, the captain could have told the co-pilot "I have control" as they are typically trained to do in handling emergency situations!
This is both right and wrong....

Intel's "10nm" ~= to TSMC's "7nm", so they are right that their "10nm" is a lot less dense than Intel's "10nm", but they both ship are around the same time, so this means that there's really no difference in terms of time to market.

It's true that the node names are messed up, but Intel acting as if they have the "moore-al high ground" and they "aren't marketers" rubs me the wrong way because from "32nm" and "40nm" and below, Intel's node was far less dense than the industry standard.
Divident tax is after you paid 20% corporate tax. At the end you probably save the NI, but you have many other charges (accounting, time spent on paperwork, business rates, etc.)
It is a terrible business and business arrangement (eg, the original contracts to purchase said software or equipment that uses software) that doesn't insist that the purchased software/machine run on manufacturer (in this case Microsoft) approved OSs.

So your answer to the difficulty in making an OS secure is that anyone writing an application to run on that OS should instead be contractually required to support that application on arbitrary future OSes that don't even exist yet?

Good luck getting anyone to supply anything on that basis. You'll need it.
Ebooks where it can only be passed on to a new owner after it has been modified
How to Disable SMB on Windows Machines to Prevent WannaCry Ransomware
> Compilers came with comprehensive manuals. When you paid for things like Turbo C++ or Paradox or MS Cobol you got a well edited, indexed and quality printed book that covered the entire language and tools comprehensively.

Often, three or more books: commonly a library reference (which was just what it says, but with a lot more detail than many packages today have with their low-effort, auto-generated API docs), a programmer's guide​ (a comprehensive guide to the language supported), and a user's guide (a guide to the tooling provided.)

The web has made finding answers to hard questions quite a bit easier, but it's also made the basics quite a bit harder. Current (to the software version you are using), correct, and clear information covering the majority of things most people would use was a lot easier to find when getting a compiler meant getting books with exactly that information.
>and it would be wonderful if the U.S. could return to being viewed as "the good guys"

The window that this occurred in is much smaller than many people realize. You need to go back in time a little, but not too far back — also, only look at our actions abroad and mostly ignore how we treated certain people domestically. From the outside looking in, the US has mostly kind of been the "eh, okay I guess?" guys. Or the "good by contrast guys."
This is simple. No one wants to buy a new Ipad model every year. I personally just hand mine down to my kids before I purchase a new version every 3 years. But since the first gen Ipad Air, I haven't felt like I need to buy a new one. The first air was light weight and had a decent enough processor to handle all the apps that I use. I can probably push it for one more year before IOS updates slow things down.
I mean the criticism in all directions but above all across employees (horizontal) and from employees to bosses (bottom up).
My father bought us a TI-99/4A in 1981. The manual was quite good, and was essentially a tutorial for BASIC programming since BASIC was the OS. I got through that quickly and then just started trying stuff on my own, more and more complex.

A lot of things were simpler since there were no external libraries, no network updates, even no real choice of language. You just keep reading and experimenting and building your skills. I kept a 3-ring binder of notes, things I'd written down or photocopied from books.

My next computer was a Commodore 128. This had a better version of BASIC, more memory, and a CP/M option. You could also program directly in assembly or compile down to it, so I learned to read and write 8-bit assembly too. People are still learning new tricks with the old Commodore computers but by and large, you could still learn this machine inside-out in a way that's really impossible with today's more complicated, constantly updated systems.

After that I went to university and had both teachers and internet access, and programming has never been the same since...
insisting that an expression is original

Yes, I found the "priming the pump" comments cringeworthy, and they do concern me about his mental state, but I thought much of content of the interview was actually very clear. Consider his statements on "legal immigration" (which unfortunately he first misheard as "illegal immigration"):

Economist: And what about legal immigration? Do you want to cut the number of immigrants?

Trump: Oh legal, no, no, no. I want people to come into the country legally. No, legally? No. I want people to come in legally. But I want people to come in on merit. I want to go to a merit-based system. Actually two countries that have very strong systems are Australia and Canada. And I like those systems very much, they’re very strong, they’re very good, I like them very much. We’re going to a much more merit-based system. But I absolutely want talented people coming in, I want people that are going to love our country coming in, I want people that are going to contribute to our country coming in. We want a provision at the right time, we want people that are coming in and will commit to not getting…not receiving any form of subsidy to live in our country for at least a five-year period.

Economist: But the numbers of those people could be as high as the numbers that are coming in legally now? You’re not looking to reduce the numbers?

Trump: Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, we want people coming in legally. No, very strongly. Now they’re going to be much more strongly vetted as you see. You know, we’ve broken the all-time record [of detentions at the border] by many times, 73, we’re up to 73, it’s going to go up to almost 80% at the border, we’ve…you know, really stopped it. We also want farm workers to be able to come in. You know, we’re going to have work visas for the farm workers. If you look, you know we have a lot of people coming through the border, they’re great people and they work on the farms and then they go back home. We like those people a lot and we want them to continue to come in.

I thought his answer in the first paragraph was refreshingly clear and defensible. While his grammar might be lacking, the message itself seemed very clear, although hard to square with the usual media mantra of "Trump is anti-immigrant".
Any particular reason this isn't FOSS? Seems like a nice alternative to Bartender, but making it "free as in speech" rather than "free as in beer" would make this much more attractive.
The author is nothing if not confident about their predictive senses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8943297
also, to a much larger degree than today you could do your job with K&R (or the equivalent for one of the other 3 environments you might use) and man pages. by spending (wasting) a lot of time you eventually figured out the nuances of the systems you were using and that was it.

this model of gluing together several large undocumented packages just wouldn't work - because you couldn't debug by just typing error messages and pathologies into google
No One Really Knows What a Marketing Campaign Is
The thermodynamic argument is wrong. The radiant energy only depends on the temperature of the enclosure, not on its size. For example, if the diameter of the oven doubles, then each surface​ unit of the oven transfers energy to the dough at a rate 4 times slower, but there are 4 times as many surface units. The result is that the total energy flow dies not change.
Agreed. No solution will be good, but there are definitely less-awful ways than averaging the inputs.
I'd hoard programming books, magazines, and articles. Now, I just rely on the internets, keeping a file of useful links.
What a strange thing to ask for a completely normal comment. Like it's unthinkable that someone other than an Uber employee would say it.
I think most voters don't understand the issues, or feel defeated

Maybe, I mean I don't know about "most voters" to be honest. I certainly feel like we're defeated and will be walked all over for the rest of our sad existence
Shouldn't the pilot have instructed him to keep his feet off the pedals before takeoff? Seriously, a minute going over safety procedures with a neophyte and nothing would have happened.
Second this. Walmart is definitely milking their brick n mortar advantage here and Amazon even followed suit, they used to have free shipping w/out Prime for anything over $55 or $50 I think, then as soon as WalMart did > $35 for free shipping, Amazon followed suit.

If anyone can derail Amazon at what most people need, it's Walmart. Obviously, WalMart isn't a tech outfit like Amazon, but with a few choice acquisitions (e. g. Jet :), and ramp up time, they will certainly have Amazon wondering what hit them really soon... Walmart needs to do a better job of advertising their online offerings though.
firing off 1-click purchases on amazon whenever you want vs saving up a list of 5 things you need so you can hit the delivery minimum is a big qualitative change in how I buy stuff online

Has there been a quantitative change, too?
It’s obvious that he just wants to be left alone to get on with what he enjoys – hacking shit, and figuring out how stuff works

No, he wants to be left alone because it endangers his life to reveal his identity. Jesus, do people seriously expect someone that's done heroic deeds like this to jump out and scream "I am Batman"???
People usually need to anticipate a lot of hardship/uncertainty before they're willing to get into a war. De-prioritizing Netflix traffic doesn't really fit the bill.

These issues are much more sophisticated than many people appreciate. Democrat and Republican, all FCC commissioners have a telecom industry background, which causes everyone to posit that they have a bias toward their former employers. But how can you be expected to regulate the telecom industry if you have no idea how it works? How do you establish that someone knows what they're doing if they don't have an industry background? There are a lot of complexities here.

That's why our system of checks and balances is so important; it puts clear constraints on the powers of each segment, making it so no segment can get too much control. FCC is an executive-branch enforcement body; it can only do what Congress allows it to do.

Congress is at the heart of the governmental ineffectualness in the US. Fixing Congress would take care of most of our other problems.
oh yeah, who remembers installing slackware from 14 floppies & praying no kernel panic after recompile. oh and neverending rootshell exploits.
>I guess you've never worked with budget-constrained grant projects before.

Unfortunately that also comes with completely incompetent IT staff.
Chart: Here’s How 5 Tech Giants Make Their Billions
Sam Altman to run for governor of California?
maybe its like some other post in this thread said. maybe amazon isnt all that special in reality. but in our minds, it is.

shopping at amazon is seamless. even when you order something and then dont want it. i dont have to accept the package and then send it back, i just tell the postal person that i dont want it, they return it, amazon accepts that as a return and ships the money back without asking questions. not probing questions. they just dont ask. they do the thing i expect them to do without even bothering me with an email. it doesnt bother me at all. thats whats so good about it.

i get that thats first world problems. but hackernews IS about spoiled software engineers being spoiled.

amazon has this weird concierge service built in. it just works for me.
I wasn't talking about the language, but the runtime I guess.
There are ~2 million FBA sellers and roughly 42 million Prime-eligible SKUs - hundreds of thousands of inbound shipments. You can't just buy a couple of fulfillment centers (with their homegrown WMS software) and be off to the races.

For comparison, your average Wal-Mart distribution center has ~100k SKUs and one 'user' (Wal-Mart).
I'm of similar vintage, although my father was a mainframe technician, so I had some significant on-site expertise to draw on, even over the 6502 and Z-80 boards in our basement. One thing I've noted, now that I teach programming to the Stack Overflow generation is that we had to be much, much better at troubleshooting. Now, we had the advantage of dealing with pretty primitive systems -- 'troubleshooting' often involved an oscilloscope (or the poor kids version: a latch accessorized with an LED and resistor) and an 'upgrade' like as not would involve a soldering iron---but my systems were simple enough that I had a pretty accurate mental model of how the whole system worked, and the number of subsystems that could interact to produce an effect was very limited. On modern systems with complex multiprocessing, multithreading, dozens of peripherals, operating systems providing shared services to hundreds of process and every program connected to a fault-tolerant network stack to effectively imfinite other computers that may or may not be standards compliant or even malicious. My childhood mental model of "well this address line should be going high if the data is being sent to ..." is almost quaint in the face of that.

Still, I've noticed that the Google/SO approach to troublehooting is, all too often, to collect an exhaustive set of things to try, and begin trying them. If you discover one that works, say yay!, and move on to the next problem. If you're very, very nice, post that it worked so that the solution can be lifted marginally higher in the queue for the next person. My students (who, admittedly are very inexperienced, I suspect this behaviour becomes less prevalent later) seem to spend very little time on what was a critical first step for me: hypothesize about what things could possibly be causing the problem and then come up with an experiment (often involving a simplified program or using only a subset of the system). My initial tests were rarely to isolate the problem: they were to either eliminate or comfirm a class of problems as I successively isolated the specific cause (ok, so it remains if I move it to another block of memory. Maybe it's a race condition? Ok, what if I force this test high, then there won't be any branching in this code block ---that's vaguely recalled from a problem that came down to needing a NOP in one branch path to avoid a fencepost error in some probably over-optimized code). The benefit was that, after a few months of troubleshooting like that, you kmew your system absurdly well. Conversations within the tiny community of fellow travellors (there were about a half-dozen in my high school of more than a thousand students) were heroic tales of bugs run to ground that we all learned from and tried ourselves.

Unfortunately, it's not really possible to learn a system that well any more, they're too complex. But I wonder if the ease of just typing the error message into Google means this generation don't learn the application of the scientific method that good troubleshooting really is. Because, for many of my students, it seems as though if the answer isn't on SO, then it will forever remain a mystery.
I was going to say that in the field of safety-critical systems, there is a whole lexicon of ways to describe things going wrong, and this was probably just a way to discuss the problem with precision. I was curious, however, as to how a triply-redundant system could lead to this outcome, so I have been reading the report, and I came across this [my emphasis]:

"Although there were many injuries on the 7 October 2008 flight, it is very unlikely
that the FCPC design limitation could have been associated with a more adverse
outcome. Accordingly, the occurrence fitted the classification of a ‘hazardous’
effect rather than a ‘catastrophic’ effect as described by the relevant certification
requirements.

Really? The pilots were certainly worried about a "more adverse outcome" if it recurred near the ground.

This statement is followed by an apparent justification:

"As the occurrence was the only known case of the design limitation
affecting an aircraft’s flightpath in over 28 million flight hours on A330/A340
aircraft, the limitation was within the acceptable probability range defined in the
certification requirements for a hazardous effect.

This non-sequitur seems to say that because such faults don't happen very often, such events are merely hazardous (unless they mean even the occasional total loss of an airplane and all aboard does not count as catastrophic.) This is followed by an enumeration of quality-assurance practices, as if they argued for this event not having happened.

I guess I will have to read the whole report to find out why this failure in a triply-redundant system does not raise deep concerns about its architecture.
Pornhub will make Virtual Reality industry mainstream
No it won't, Walmart already has distribution centers galore and the $ to buy more. They do lack an external seller platform, and maybe that's not such a bad idea with the amount of fake crap one could get through Amazon...
Others have said it, but Amazon's free two-day shipping with $25 (or was it $50?) purchase felt nearly magical.

As a student, I could take a $40 cab ride, or spend all day Saturday on train schlepping a shower curtain from Bed Bath, music from Best Buy, and a cheap dorm fridge from Wal-Mart. Or I could order it from Amazon at competitive prices, and it showed up on my door step in two days. Amazon was the equivalent of finding entire extra days in your schedule.

(Note, Prime came later. The original magic was two-days, $25 minimum, no membership.)
When the author says "world" , I hope he means just the US. I don't think Amazon has any influence outside the "US world".