skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
And here on HN the socialists are in full force alleging the successful didn't earn it, government is the only solution, and minorities can't be successful on their own. I imagine we're being hit by an r/socialism brigade.

I have a graduate degree that I worked quite hard for, and paid tuition for while eating macaroni and cheese, paying a mortgage for a tiny and old home, and otherwise watching every penny and scraping for every dime.

Now I'm almost middle class in a city where you really have to be wealthy to live well. I take public transportation and constantly study to learn new things so I can get ahead and continue climbing the ladder of success.

And we have chumps like this author who don't care about the thought I put into choosing my vocations and studies, and thinks that if I'm successful then I owe it to everyone else who half-assed it or just didn't think or care, to provide for them as well.

Shame on socialists. Their philosophy is responsible for 100,000,000 deaths globally. Hitler was a full-throated socialist too. If you're going upend society and then force everyone to share everything when the vast majority of those can't do well with things they actually own, you destroyed your society's wealth, not the "greedy" people who wouldn't recreate it from scratch when they don't get to keep it.

Socialists still can't do it. See Venezuela. See Cuba. See North Korea. Shame on them.
All that an 80% tax would do is suck the wealth away to the 1% even faster. No one is minding the store--the money the federal government takes now at 25-33% is mostly wasted on nonsense that benefits the war machine, the healthcare machinery (think: rent seekers) and all manner of pork projects. I can't see forfeiting even more to them, I just wouldn't bother to work at all. Enough is enough when it comes to this socialist utopia dream--it doesn't exist, it has never existed, it will never exist.
Security is defined by some assumptions. The stability of society and the ability of the government to enforce that through the military and police. Very fragile the things we take for granted.

When there systems fall, only those with either high enough walls around them with ability to sustain independently within those walls, or at least the ability to escape to another currently stable situation will be secure.

When a Gotham'esque hell breaks loose, where is your security then?
German socialist health care saved my life without bankrupting me (I've seen the bills) - so: I take my chances.
Treasuries, CDs, et cetera. You should be able to build, over a few years, a decent rainy-day fund on $300,000 a year.

Disclaimer: this is not investment advice. Do not take investment advice from Internet comments.
Lib with useful methods to handle Lua's table when it's working as a Hash
"you're free to buy a million Euro gold-plated scooter."

Sure, and if you keep yourself warm at night by burning e50 bills, you won't be taxed extra, either. My point is not (or only partially) about the current tax, or how it's justified. My point is that the societal context in which these taxes were instated are a key point to understanding why things are the way they are. And the pertinent part of that context is Calvinistic austerity, which is ingrained in Dutch collective psyche. I know that there is significant cognitive dissonance among a large part of the Dutch population when someone claims that religion has shaped their world view in some way, especially among those that consider themselves 'atheistic liberals', but it's silly to deny it - there are tomes and tomes written about this in social science literature. I mean fuck - my wife gets almost angry when I claim that her world view is shaped in part by the society she grew up in, and therefore by religion, as much of Dutch society is influenced by Christianity one way or another. But objectively speaking, how can this point be denied?

Anyway, when the BPM was reformed a decade ago, the objective was to keep it 'fiscally neutral', meaning that the amount levied in total needed to stay (roughly) the same as it was before. So current rates are a direct consequence of the way it used to be. In Belgian law (where a similar thing happened in 2012 or 2013 I think) it's even more explicit; there a (what I think is a) regression formula is part of the law that determined the new calculation for the 'road tax' as it is called there. Tweaking the parameters in that formula until projected revenue matched historical revenue was essentially how those rates were determined. In such a case, how can one claim that it's really about environmental concerns? Of course the direction (towards 'polluter pays') is there; but again, my main point (but I'll agree that I'm probably burying it between all the tangents...) is that the real answer to the GP is: to understand the why of these taxes, you have to understand the society it operates in.
"The store reps are not government officials or police officers, nor do they scan ids."

Neither they are here (in EU), but nobody is going to talk to you unless you provide an ID anyway. Asking for ID doesn't seem too hard, even for non-trained personnel. You don't have to be a detective to match name/code on ID with the name/code on account.
> if you give an inch, your employees will take a foot.

Employers have been eating up to 10 hours (2 hours per day) of unpaid commute time of employees for ages. Is it then really surprising that no one wants to waste time coming to work. If that time was paid, if commute time was paid, then maybe you would consider it. But it's a very simple economic calculation. It's like why am I paying for that time. I don't have to, so I won't. That 10 hours is 20% extra salary that is not paid.

And if your argument is that you could live closer, then the counter argument is that employers should have their offices in affordable areas where any employee can afford to easily live because rent is cheap. Not in the middle of downtown because that's what their peers or customers expect.
Google's reCAPTCHA now on Android
I second the comment by ig1.

I think this is a natural consequence of a disconnect between what the economy values and what the popular imagination values.

A disconnect mirrored by the mythological transformation, experienced by nearly-all it seems, from naive youthful idealism, to somewhat-cynical grown-up pragmatism.

I'll have a stab at describing the disconnect in the following way: our minds are born in the gutter, with our imaginations looking up at the stars, but as we grow up we come to value, not the lights of distant stars, which come to seem cold and providing no sustenance, but the closer more familiar lights of the homestead, the township, the city. Those things which end up reminding most of other people, of home, of money and security, rather than lofty and distant ambitions which our culture also mythologizes as ludicrous and insane.

As Picasso said, and Zuckerberg for a while echoed on his profile, and Musk seems to against-the-odds still embody: "that every child is born an artist, the problem is how to remain one once we grow up."

Random note: My Chrome autocorrect would like to "autocorrect" Zuckerburg to Cheesburger -- you'd think the closest string in terms of edit distance would have been "Zuckerberg" but hey, maybe it works off some other metrics.

I was planning to do some serious coding this evening. But cooking and had too much wine so now I'm useless for everything except waxing ridiculously on Ask HN.

TL;DR - ad optimization is unglamorous but necessary. And not even evil. More relevant ads are a lesser evil for sure. We are raised taught to reach for the stars, but as we gain that much-sought-after "independence", they get us to trade, "a walk on part in the war, for a lead role in a cage", as Pink Floyd so eloquently put it. In other words, what's economically necessary is not-as-yet completely in line with what our pure souls aspire to be.

Civilization is still an infant. What can you say?
In what way? IT is very diverse and some places are specifically looking to hire non-Asian minorities.
Don't think I could live there, I like sunshine. Some people love living in the city because of all the amazing stuff you can do there, but it's too big (and dark in many places) for me. I wonder what NYC will look like in 200 years. Can you build higher?
Guilt is mentioned exactly once in the article: "At least posh people in England have the decency to feel guilty." I think that's rather overstating it - some people, mostly traditional aristos, feel a sense of noblesse oblige, but they're only a small proportion of the rich population.

I don't think framing it in terms of guilt is helpful, nor is trying to construct privilege as something that people should be ashamed of. It just makes people very defensive. What is better is for people to be aware of what advantages they had that other people did not, especially when they're telling other people what they should do or saying that everyone could get to their level if only they worked hard enough - hard work is not sufficient, avoidance of obstacles is also necessary.

(Private education is tax-deductible in the US? Blimey. The UK setup is slightly different - private schools are usually structured as non-profit educational charities, with tax advantages, and even that is grudgingly accepted due to the age and character of the schools.)

Did you have a computer at home as a child? That's a huge advantage that was outwith your control.
What a load of garbage article.

Paying for your kids high school directly AND paying taxes to support other kids FREE education is somehow a bad thing?

What twisted logic people use to bash the wealthy.

Not only do YOUR kids get MORE and more jobs are created but you get to bash the rich guy. Fucking pathetic poverity stricken attitudes
Linux Mint 18.2 “Sonya” Beta Is Now Available
I find interesting your wealthy classification.

What is the difference between the first two? I can't figure it out.
https://www.thelocal.dk/20151120/whats-the-deal-with-denmark...
It doesn't work like that. You don't get what you're 'worth'. You get what you negotiate. Its a market, your skills are for sale, you have to make a good deal.
> Anecdotally, I have never had a virus on Mac (that I detected) and neither did any friends, but Windows got infected all the time.

If you're getting infected all the time using Windows, you're doing something stupid. The operating system provides the vulnerabilities, but you might want to reassess how you're using your software.
I have coded somewhat like this before, where my methods were mostly static. It feels good, but it really didn't give any return in the sense of making my code less complex or easier to test. Generally it's actually very easy to test a method that isn't purely functional, due to simple object creation during the testing process.

As far as complexity, it just meant that I would make the first argument of the function the object that I was modifying. So basically, the function might as well have known about this in the first place. Eventually I just moved back to class syntax and I didn't miss it.

I honestly don't understand how to do JavaScript in a purely functional way. The nature of the beast is that user input modifies data, which results in changes in state. To me, that's a contradiction of the functional paradigm, and it is better to be functional when you can and otherwise just be explicitly stateful.
That's quite a statement, do you have any references to back it up?
Launched today: PWA for running foosball leagues – free for everyone
From the outside looking in, your social welfare system seems ludicrous to me.
cause I know the tech industry is "bubbly". Lot of people working in tech don't quite grok how tough it is for others to get by.
Lets face it, while we're high enough to see the "real money" we're still a lot higher than everyone else salary and job security wise.

What if programmers were a dime a dozen and highly trained social care was where the lucra was at?
Source? If true, why does the UK have a longer life expectancy than the US?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...
> I remember going to a NYC comedy club and the comedian started joking about me. "Why aren't you doing homework?"

I don't understand this at all?
The Amazon Effect and How Retailers Can Slay the Beast
I don't think it's generational at all - it's just whether you prefer to write something that looks more like a 'real' word.
Anyone have pre-print/draft version link for this cite:

Alessandro Lenci, Distributional models of
word meaning, 2017

Doesn't appear to be release yet: http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-linguis...
I don't understand these comments. I lived in Italy for a long time, with high quality public healthcare for everyone even in a country which is not doing so well economically after the financial crisis. Yes, if you have something not risky you have wait-times for exams of 1-3 weeks (even here you can go private if you want and I assure you costs are BY FAR lower than in the US... like a full low abd eco costed me 40e to have it done in the next hour, just because I had to travel), but if you have ANYTHING risky there is no wait time, you get your exams and surgeries asap the same day if needed. The system works that well exactly because is not the amount you pay that put you in the front of the list, but the seriousness of your condition after the first medical evaluations.
Works best on Android since Apple is stalling the web experience.
You are looking at my point and refusing to see it, and then go on to make the same point yourself.

You want Amazon to take full responsibility for their merchandise, but yet okay with Apple not doing the same thing.

Amazon has to take the same responsibility with goods, as Apple has with apps.
Lyft Gets $25M and a Fleet of Cars from New Partner Jaguar Land Rover
Please link to your laptop.
It entirely depends on one preference. Although I appreciate good mechanical keyboard, I can't say the same about multi monitor setup. For long years I was saying "the more monitors the better" but after a while I realised that I am more distracted with 2+ monitors. For me large monitor with high resolution, preferably, ultra-wide plus spaces/virtual desktops in the system is the best solution.
Above the tropic of cancer, the sun is south of you at noon even in the summer, but rises and sets a little in the north because the earth is more spherical than cylindrical.

I think http://www.suncalc.org is a useful site for seeing where the sun will be at different times of the year. Zoom out the map, then move the dynamic icon north and south in June and December.
Would be interesting to see a breakdown of your spending vs the 30k household here.

After all, if you always adjust your spending to your income, you will never be rich in any 'cannot be ruined' sense. Consequently, it would be unfair to compare situations to the 30k family and conclude you are in the same boat.
I have seen people sit next to a manspreader, said "Excuse me," and been completely ignored, thereby being forced either to push them physically, or shrink away from them.

Would you believe that?

Not everyone is happy with asking someone who is encroaching on their space to move. You may feel this isn't a problem. My observations tell me it is.

Would you believe that?
You would pay 80% to have your healthcare paid for, but we already spend double, as a percentage of GDP, vs. any other country for health care and we have worse outcomes by many measures. More government spending will just make the problem worse. Something, anything, besides spending more money has to be done to solve the health care crisis but political thinking is so calcified that we can't imagine a solution that doesn't involve spending more money.
I don't think the Boomers are the major impediment there--for decades it's been all about one generation and they have done nothing but suck the life out of everyone else while at the same time pulling up all the ladders.

Why do you think high taxes and "safety nets" are the way to go? Why can't we just be free? How many times must collectivism be exposed for the fraud that it is before we stop re-visiting that waste of time?
Sure, but so can decision trees.
Yet we saw in a story last week how this protection doesn't amount to much when an app can generate 80k a month fraudulently because Apple isn't policing their store to the level many believe them to be doing.
Presumably it would try to correct to whichever you usually use - though if that's 'OK' it might give up on the correction by the time you got as far as 'y'.
I would go there. No... I would move in there.
Innovation Starts with a Single Line
Socialized health care is not socialism, and US health care is not free market health care.
Saying Soviet Union is socialism is like saying China's government really cares about communism.
And US health insurance does the same without the high taxes. What is your point?
Comparing Speech Recognition for Transcripts
It works best for those who pay the least towards it.
A IIcx with the full page display, 6.0.8 and Word 5.1 was a great writing environment. In some ways I'd still prefer it to my current Word 2016.
Xbox One X that recovers the old titles of the original Xbox
Easy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3158591/Hospital-wai...
The whole point of e2e is that you don't have to trust the server (for content; you do have to trust that they aren't saving metadata).
MBC Action
Socialism != soviet union.

The world is full of countries with more equally distributed healthcare systems than the US with better public/private balance. The one that gets brought up most often here is the UK NHS, but there are plenty of others.

(Ironically, even if you limit yourself to actual communism, Cuba has quite an effective healthcare system. It just relies on not having freedom of movement so doctors can't move to better paid countries)
Except for the fact that the first waves of Cuban-American migration were almost exclusively made of the wealthy and middle-upper classes who were profiting from the Batista dictatorship, therefore it's a bit disingenuous to say that they came "with little more than the clothes on their backs" in the early 60s. That's not to say that your anecdote is false or romanticized, but it is still anecdotal."with little more than the clothes on their backs" in the early 60s. That's not to say that your anecdote is false or romanticized, but it is still anecdotal.
>The goal is to make the company’s workforce more nimble

No the goal is to reduce head count with out laying people off. Companies that go from Remote to Non-Remote do it because it is an easy way to reduce head count with out having to Lay people off, it is a methodology to force people to look for work elsewhere.

People that can not relocate or have built their life around working from home can not or will not make the transition back to working in an office easily. As such they will seek out employment that better fits their needs which is ultimately these companies goal because they want to avoid that "XX Company is laying off X,XXX people in the next quarter" headlines
Considering that France has the best healthcare in the world and is very much socialised, I think it really does work very well.

Also, in the UK, you won't die waiting. Someone else who doesn't have a serious illness will just have to wait a little longer. They do understand how to triage you know. In fact, they probably do it better since people get treating according to need rather than what kind of insurance they have.
A MBP with touch bar costs 1/3 of a new car in my country. We need the high taxes to protect the national consumer electronics industry.
Does anybody know what happened to "Wayland Over Wire" which was supposed to solve this?
It's interesting to view commute time as the employer's time rather than employee's time, and therefore as time that should be compensated. I'd always thought of it as the employee's time, and the employee's decision about where to live and how to commute, etc. As an employee I'd factor in the commute when making decisions about a job.

Playing with this idea a bit: do you view the clothes that someone (only) wears to a traditional in-person office as rightfully the responsibility of the employer? Lunch?
> Was your friend bamboozled into thinking that he could earn $250k/yr as a dancer?

Its more the old meritocracy adage. "Work hard and you'll be comfortable". Its more than that. Sure he could have made it dancing but not JUST dancing, if he'd gone for more a PR and choreography route, if he'd considered effectively wasting his training on doing something easy like being a backing dancer to a pop star.
However all of this is very much "create a successful startup" level than "be a code monkey level". To succeed as a dancer as much as a programmer you really have to go above and beyond.

I have worked sanitation before too. Honest work though.
Yes, a bit.

I learned how wealthy, privileged, and protected even 100k is when we pulled our kids from a Catholic elementary school and moved them to an integrated urban magnet school (median income $35k). Suddenly we had some classmates who couldn't properly afford food, school clothes, and field trips. Not just one or two families, but many nice, hard-working families with smart kids. Just -- wow -- middle-class us -- we were suddenly rich, and I'd never really known it before.

My eldest will perpetuate her privilege and attend an Ivy in the fall. Her classmates, with exactly the same talent, education, hard work, and academic achievement will not, despite the availability of financial aid. Their families just didn't know how to micro-manage the application process, they couldn't afford extra-curricular enrichment, and some had other issues at home like immigration status or family health problems. Edit: and legacy preference; I am an alumn.

While I don't think it's malicious intent that "keeps low-income people from achieving what we've accomplished," there are definitely structural elements that do. I'm sure the existing system of financial games, housing, zoning, and education could be rearranged to help them much more.
I'm in a similar position to you (I grew up on free lunch and now have a well-paid engineering career). But your or my existence and success doesn't negate the trend; there will always be outliers. I don't think I've ever had a coworker who grew up anywhere near as poor as I did, and all things considered my family wasn't all that poor.
I can't say I have a particularly well reasoned argument for saying that. It's just my moral intuition. I definitely can say that I don't think that a person's wealth and well-being should be determined by "value to the market".

(FWIW I also come from a public service town, where very intelligent and talented people lead decently upper-middle-class lives, but salaries top out well below where one could get in the private sector.)
I can see now how adding a 'supposedly' in the 4th paragraph would make my point more clear. Sorry about that.
That's fraud, because that car would then be worth €11000 and should be taxed as such.

You think nobody tried to undervalue taxed imports yet? Probably a fraud as old as mercantilism.
Hi, I went to a doctor this morning and recieved a prescription for which I will pay nothing. Apparently I don't exist?
You can solve sudoku with a SAT solver. You don't need neural networks, this was an assignment in cs 251 at UIC.
The app is built on Enonic XP with GraphQL for the backend and Angular for the front-end. Open source for everyone to enjoy: https://github.com/enonic/app-office-league
> I'm not convinced. We all know the rules: "Don't take the piss"

Where the definition of "taking the piss" is determined by Apple alone and is subject to change.
Every time sudoku comes up on HN I think back to when Ron Jeffries tried to solve it using Test Driven Development ;)

http://ravimohan.blogspot.se/2007/04/learning-from-sudoku-so... - enjoy :D
Yes I would believe that. But I would not believe it is the case that is a societal problem that needs a sexist sign.