skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Does not seem to provide any credible research that either position have an effect on innovation.

Basically seems to be trying to argue that because open source advocates that software developers don't read patents that we are incapable of understanding what is out there and where innovation needs to be done. (Since it is recommended that we don't since then we can be done for willful infringement)

He doesn't seem to believe in independent invention and sides with who gets their first should get be granted monopoly. Therefore he doesn't think copyright is a valid protection since he wants a enforced monopoly.

Doesn't seem to really understand the software landscape at large. Seems to be advocating an utopia enterprise vision where each component is created just once and everyone just uses that one. No reinvention, small refinements, or customisations needed.
I know WHS is probably easier to set up, but Microsoft did not pioneer the concept of "drive extender". Linux had something called LVM since 1998. According to Wikipedia, IBM AIX had a similar feature in 1989. MS also had similar capabilities in NT for quite some time now (disk volume sets), they just weren't shown to the home users.

Autobackup can be done by rsync, file access by Samba, printing through CUPS. Oh yeah, you can run all of the above on an $50 wifi router with custom firmware. It will also barely use any power and not make any noise.

EDIT: I am not attacking MS, and I don't hate people who don't use Linux. Just pointing out there is a way to achieve this functionality with mostly off-the-shelf software and hardware. Startup idea? Nah, more downvotes :)
I assume it's a reference to profs at public universities--- though most of the profs being attacked in the linked article are at French public universities.

In the U.S. I think humanities profs are actually often net money-earners for their schools rather than net spenders of taxpayer money, though. Humanities students cost much less each to educate than science/engineering students (no labs, no real equipment, no computers, lower faculty salaries), yet pay the same tuition, which often produces a surplus: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-Really-Do/64740/
What's New in Python 2.7
I am going through Cormen et al. with the objective of getting my feet wet but the whole process is painfully slow. I thought it would be nice to have at least some familiarity on the widely used algorithms across the globe. However, you are right on ditching programming languages with huge boot times. I am happily trying out my algorithms in Python.
I like it (although I must admit I love indie rock to begin with), but isn't it quite similar to http://www.thesixtyone.com/ ?
If you want to buy a pre built solution, you're looking for HP MediaSmart. See: http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/...

Size wise, it's small (photo: http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/wp-content/uploads/hp_mediasmart...). Cost wise they're relatively cheap (considering it comes with enclosure, cpu, motherboard, hard drives, etc), I've seen them for ~$300-350.

It uses Windows Home Server plus their own custom add-ins. They're nice. You get everything I mentioned before, except this is pre built. They have things like integration with Tivo. I decided to build my own since I had spare parts lying around, otherwise I would have bought one of the MediaSmart machines.

Also, when you say something with "more media capabilities", it is doubtful you will be able to surpass a WHS-based system. This is because a system like MediaSmart, out of the box, will stream everything to any PC, any mobile device, any windows media center, etc. They've built it for streaming media, and all kinds of ways to access the content are already in the ecosystem. They have even included a silverlight/flash based streamer if you decide to only use a browser (they transcode on the fly then stream it to your browser). Devices (eg. xbox 360) and even entire OS's are designed to work with WHS (Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7).

One more thing: the WHS and MediaSmart communities are great. Many websites/forums discussing ways to use it, how to optimally set up your home, issues you'll encounter (and resolutions), etc. (http://www.wegotserved.com, http://www.mswhs.com, http://homeservershow.com, http://www.whsaddins.com, http://www.homeserverhacks.com, http://www.mediasmartserver.net, to name a few)

If you're looking to start out with your first home server/theater, the community welcomes you.
It sort of makes sense to me within the domain of literary fiction. Mordernism was all about showing the cracks of the modern world - disintegration of institutions like religion, the damage done by WW1, differing-perspectives/unreliable-narrators, proliferation of media, abandoning rural life, etc. Modernist literature strained to show/express these cracks. Post-Modernist literature simply accepts them and works from there.

But yeah 'what is Post-Modernism?' is one of those 'ahhh, ummm...' questions.
On a personal perspective, the achievements feel more like a fun "to-do" list. I often don't know what movie to watch, and having a list to go through and check stuff off of (aka, "Oscar Winners in 2010") would give more direction on what to watch next.
That's my usual approach, so the algorithms outside the domains I've studied were unfamiliar. Would you be able to recommend books in graph theory, and statistics/probability? I'd be much obliged.
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B0...
Contextualism is not the exclusive of post modern theorists

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/contextualism-epistemology...
The only thing you really need to pay for is the actual Windows 2000-whatever servers with IIS, everything else you can get for free. Visual Studio Express Edition is free, the .Net framework is free, and you can integrate with all sorts of popular open source products such as MySQL, Postgres, memcached, Cassandra, etc.
They really like to take it all the way, don’t they? They take two undeniably true (ahem) statements like “absolute certainty and hence absolute truth don’t exist” and “culture influences truth finding processes and the status quo within cultures makes changes in certain directions easier or harder” and carry it to excess. They turn mere problems with how humans can generate true statements into central pillars of their doctrine.

What’s the big deal? There are certain statements which allow us to make useful predictions. (I would call them true statements but I won’t insist on that.) We have to be vary of our biases, we have to be ever vigilant in our search for useful (true?) statements and it’s a damn hard process. But it’s not impossible.
Godblock: block violent, sexual, and psychologically harmful religious material
Maybe as a fallback in case the extension isn't loaded ?
I think the dynamic programming meant here is more general. They mean saving results of a recursively formulated algorithm in a table so that you don't have to recompute them. This can be used for example for finding longest common subsequences, but it is much more general.

Can you elaborate on the general search procedure?

Is there a good resource that ties algorithms together like you've done here, but less concise?
Yea, the allure to WHS for me was the zeroconf and that it all just works with all the devices/terminals I already have with minimal effort.

RE: concept, understood it may be used for other OS's. Was pointing out that WHS uses a different file system than normal windows, one built to scale in terms of drives.
>Also, if they were such a great weapon, able to set ships alight from the shore, why did nobody ever use them again?

Other advanced Greek technology was lost and unmatched again for centuries. Note the Corinthian connection in the origins of the Antikythera mechanism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism#Origins

However, whilst lost to the West, many of these traditions lived on in the Byzantine Empire and Arabic automatons and inventions (Al-Jazari), so there is some continuity. The migration of Greek scholars and texts from Byzantium to Italy at the behest of philhellenic sponsors then sets the stage for Da Vinci and others as the article notes. If anything it serves as a reminder that high technology and culture can be lost in the vicissitudes of human arrogance, conflict and oppression.

Although confined to the elites the Greeks knew the earth was round, and they had a theory of evolution and complex mechanical computation devices. Today we battle against people trying to insert creationism into schools and a massive and systemic attempt across the West to censor and control the Internet. The only thing we can be thankful for is that the flat-earth movement can't get any traction in the face of satellite imagery (although, the moon landing hoaxers are not too far off such a proposition and get quite a few people to believe them).
Somehow getting noble and Nobel mixed up when talking about stuff that can go boom seems less wrong than in other contexts.
Ask HN: CSS typography resources
Are there are resources out there which act like the layout grids and resources, but focus on fonts and stylings?

The YUI grid tool, 960 grids and others all give good resources for layout, and I've seen a number of tools that help with color selections, providing a palette of colors that 'work' together. I've not seen anything that provides a similar 'pre-fab' approach to fonts and font stylings.

There's probably something out there, I just can't find it. Any pointers?
this is a splendid book that covers the most probabilistic/statistical algorithms:
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/mackay/itila/
Gotta love some of the suggestions. "What you need is a linux box". It's like saying, for syncing files all you need is rsync.

The reason services like Dropbox succeeded is not because there are no alternatives.
On that I definitely agree. I think in terms of their interests and biases, most people in the broad "postmodernist" camp want to find any variety of certainty impossible, whereas I'd come from the perspective of agreeing that there are a whole lot of problems and complications with certainty, but I actively want to work towards it rather than being happy that there are so many bumps in the road.
You can see a video of the talk, uploaded with Knuth's permission, here:

http://river-valley.tv/an-earthshaking-announcement/
I tagged along to a lecture on 'Phenomenology' recently. I cannot for the life of me tell you what was said. Something about 'Being' in 'historical context.' It was almost completely unintelligible.

This sort of thing is an assault on the mind. I wouldn't say it's harmless either, it's potentially depressing.
TV Underground
He also seems to think that independently inventing something is the same as copying it.
Tim O'Reilly Explains the Internet of Things
How to Update iPhone 2G with Firmware 3.1.2, Jailbreak and Carrier Unlock Guide
For the poor SOBs like me with 1st-gen iPhones that cannot install the new iOS 4 version, here is a guide to jailbreaking and unlocking Firmware 3.1.2 on your phones. It's the best you'll get!
Heh Me too.. Where? I'm in Brugge.
I wonder if, for certain types of worker, e-mail is stickier or more attractive because "doing e-mail" looks like work, whereas "browsing the Web" could be frowned upon by a passing higher-up?
No, he's completely right. Regardless of what the framework may or may not allow, the fact of the matter is that most .NET web applications are using the full ASP.NET stack, which means that it's the place where most of the mindshare is, so for all practical purposes it would be more difficult to find people who aren't using it, and if you aren't using it then you're probably using another technology stack.

For that matter, when using just the base .NET framework for web development, I fail to see any advantage over Python or Rails beyond familiarity, and many disadvantages.
I dunno about that. They just sold to Amazon because they were running out of money.

Exactly how much revenue does a competent CEO need to accumulate before they can turn a profit and become solvent? Tony marketed his way to $1 billion with borrowed money, but it's shameful to have the much revenue and run out of funds.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/201...
In my experience, .NET, VB, Visual Studio (all while great tools) require you to do things one way, their way.

That is simply not true. However, I agree that breaking out of the MS mold requires more effort than it does for other technologies, and if you couple that with the fact that the overwhelming majority of .Net developers available are unable to do so, then you get a major reason not to do a startup using .Net technologies, it's simply extremely hard to recruit the right people.
Title incorrectly credits Dawkins with said disrobing -- he's only reviewing a book by two other authors who should be getting the actual credit (assuming credit is due, a different debate).
Most people don't use Emacs just for the editing, and a big part of the point of Vim is that it's a simple tool that does one thing and does it well. Almost any serious development environment (editor and development tools, integrated or not) can be made to do most of the stuff that any other can do. Tool preferences are about how the tool fits with the user's personal style, not specific checkboxes on a feature list, even if it's something like "customizability".
This looks like a really clever way to produce content and inbound links for SEO purposes. No mention of copyright terms in the instructions - this is going to be an issue for you.

Also your point 3. says "no ads" but I see ads on the front page, yes when you read down it's clear but the headline punch is taken away as people have just seen the fp ad. TBH your ads are pretty neatly done and pretty unoffensive.
Ridiculously simplistic, though worth looking through if you've never heard of the concept of "points" or "badges" or "awards" in an online community.
This is useful. I love the simple layout with the editor on the left side and the other stuff on the right.

I also love the fact that it's a simple notepad but you can add markup etc when you need to, because sometimes the stuff you write in notepad starts growing and you really want to just start formatting things right away.

However, I really like notepad.cc better because the text window is bigger. When I resize your little window using google chrome's default handle, the stuff on the right side goes below the box etc and I can't get the box in full screen, I can only resize it to the right.

Since it has formatting, having an easy way to see a preview would also be pretty sweet.

Over all, good job. It's nice to just paste and start using, but currently it seems a bit simpler to use notepad.cc
The Poison of Arrogance
There's a lot I'm excited about in this release. Many convenience methods and classes have been backported from py3k and some really useful new modules, too (argparse stands out). There are also a few notable bug fixes and enhancements to existing modules ("maxtasksperchild" in multiprocessing Pools is awesome!)
Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world
I think his notion about the open source community is dated by a few years and seems to be based on FSF = open source. A lot of open source projects are written now by companies that are anything but anarchistic. Open source simply becomes an end to consolidate subject matter experts across companies on a single project rather than each company inventing their own. eg cassandra , tornado , rails.

Software innovation happens at a few different levels -> the math like algorithmic level, innovations in implementations, and business innovations. Allowing patents on algorithmic innovations would strongly chill the pace of innovation.

Lastly as a person doing a startup - the upfront cost in terms of time and money for doing patent research would be pretty damaging. Would be interesting to hear from other startups on what they feel about this.
Only thing remaining is positive customer feedback on the book. Awaiting your evaluation. :)
The first crack-hit is also usually free. Same business model.
Oh.

I was wondering who was filling in for Freddie Mercury.
they do mean dynamic programming in a more general sense: but dynamic programming was invented originally to solve Bellman's equation. it turns out many other problems have a similar structure which is quite surprising! before bellman's seminal work in 1940s, it wasn't known how to efficiently these problems. indeed, you can often do something like Q-learning for finding approximate solutions to dynamic programming problems even faster.

the general search procedure is just A* search but with the beam search pruning each time you expand the fringe of exploration.

i don't know a good source, i picked this up from a bunch of courses/research.
And the Vim plugin is an absolute failure, and the development enviroment takes 30 seconds to startup, 30 seconds to connect to a TFS server over the Internet, and stutter every 20 seconds whenever you want to switch windows. oh, and let's not forget the 15 second build time for debugging.

Vim is here, now, the very second you need it, over an SSH connection, and far, far more customizable and with more useful plugins. The advantages of Visual Studio (namely, integration of features and great code completion) are lost when a framework fits in your head and you've automated most of your tools.

I say this as a person that spends 50% of his time on VS, the rest on Vim.
Power will corrupt any interesting intellectual movement. Still, postmodernism cannot be discredited just because it does not make sense to people outside of its paradigm. It must have been quite irritating for the old art establishment when Abby Rockefeller put together the Museum of Modern Art... one among many cases of funding chasing what appears to be insane.

Lastly, I'd argue if people do not want to deal with what is "funded", they can rebel and create a new movement. This is how humanity moves forward.
Exactly -- the Sokal paper makes the claim that since the paper was obviously nonsense, the incident proves that the 'vaunted academia' is off their rockers. But this is hinged on the assumption that the meaning of the text is derived from the intention of the author, and since the author intended it to be nonsense then the paper must be nonsense. But this is hardly something that we can assert unequivocally. The question of where the meaning of a text comes from is exactly one of the thorny questions that 'postmodernism' aims to address (among other disciplines).
The best case study I've ever heard is Tescos. Apparently they were a downmarket British retailer in the early 1990s. They teamed up wit a statistical consultancy called dunnhumby and now they're the third biggest retailer in the world.

Apparently one per cent of marketing mail is opened, while 98 per cent of Tesco mailouts are opened (because they offer people targetted discounts). No surprise large retailers and grocery chains are rushing the adding significant ML capabilities.
The CLI is as much a technology as Ruby is, with respective canonical implementations.

Now Visual Studio is a tool. But not fundamentally different than a tool like Vi or Emacs. And csc is not fundamentally different than gcc.
I find interesting to note that Shostak doesn't take the time to debate Hawking on the potential dangers of extra-terrestrials but rather claims that deliberately attempting contact poses no additional risks. I will certainly claim no expertise on the subject of contacting extra- terrestrial life, I will note that directed broadcasts will reach far more star systems than background RF radiating off of the Earth, all else being equal.
I'm not after SEO benefits. In fact, something I forgot to add was the robots.txt to stop indexing user pages. I'll add the copyright terms.

By "no ads" on point three, I mean no ads on _your content_.

Thanks for your input.
My pageview:hits ratio varies between 1:3 and 1:5, on a WP blog with minimal images, FWIW.
As far as I can tell, he's mostly working through some pretty narrow problems in linguistics and literary theory about the difficulty of resolving webs of mutual references into logically consistent, stable frames, not making some sort of general claim about reality (and he rarely mentions science at all). The "Derrideans" may be another story, as often is the case with disciples.

I think the real problem is not Derrida, who very few people have actually read, but what some of Derrida's followers and imitators have done. If you're interested in how this plays out in a deeper level, Francois Cusset wrote a book called French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States, which delves into how theory and postmodernism became so powerful in the United States. He treats them as epiphenomenon as a way to explore what's happening.

In his description of the 1970s academic milieu, Cusset says that a number of avant garde journals came about, which, although wildly different in concerns, were similar in style: "Acronyms and wordplay, together with a ludic relation to the translated concepts, reduced [the writers'] cultural distance. A similar allusive or parodic relation to one's own erudition signaled a self-critique of academic procedures" (62). That's part of the problem: these kinds of writers lacked Derrida's rigor and narrowness. Some of them still do. The "allusive or parodic relation to one's own erudition" can quickly devolve into "lacking erudition or rigor."
Being "clever or kind" isn't mutually exclusive, but being "clever at the expense of others, or kind" is. It's a good point in my opinion. It's easy to forget the human element.
> In my experience, .NET, VB, Visual Studio (all while great tools) require you to do things one way, their way. That just doesn't sit well.

To be honest, that's not my experience. I've found that .NET gives you a lot of freedom, however things can be indeed easier if you do things the "recommended" way, but there's also an "if that's what you want, you can do it if you think you know what you're doing" mentality as well in the design of the framework. I mean, C# even has pointers which is quite uncommon in similar high-level languages, albeit well hidden so you only get to use them if you really want to.

Contrast that to Python's famous "there's only one way to do it" philosophy. Don't get me wrong, I think Python is really great stuff but I think it's unfair to say that .NET (as opposed to Ruby or Python) forces you to do things "one way, their way". If you want to do web development, you can choose between MVC and the (kind of) continuations of WebForms; imperative or functional, direct SQL, LINQ or the Entity Framework etc. - there are a lot of choices to be made.
My time doing deployments and dealing with Windows Server issues is not free. Neither is the time lost using RDP instead of SSH, dealing with licenses, requiring much more HD space than the alternatives, and lacking real scripting solutions.

I have yet to hear anyone using LINQ on anything that's not SQL Server, and considering the NIH syndrome in Microsoft, I wouldn't recommend it.
Thanks for your comments. You can preview what you've done through the "preview" button, complete with any custom CSS you might have added.

I understand what you mean about the bigger writing space. I've been looking for the best way of optionally increasing the width, while retaining sidebar visibility.