skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
First, let us correct your assumptions: Very few Americans get out of poverty. Social mobility rates are surprisingly small in the United States. The American Everyman is very likely to die in the class into which he was born.

Secondly, not falling into poverty in the first place really is a question of help. Wealthy people (read: almost all HN users) have networks of wealthy people to assist them when times get hard -- parents, children, siblings, friends.

The poor do not. Poor folks have networks of other poor folks. If I lose my job and my house, I have a year of cash and goodwill to live on, couch-surfing and stretching savings. If a member of the working poor suffers a setback on the way out of poverty, he could be back to square one, or worse, in a matter of weeks.
Free Software and Entitlement
Where I grew up I would say building your own home is almost as popular as buying one. But I wouldn't say the land is "nice." You can even do this in places close to Silicon Valley, such as the Santa Cruz Mountains. Although, there can be a lot of restrictions on the land use due to environmental and other zoning regulations.
On p. 4 and p. 5 of the review, the 3g pics (top-left of a 4-set, or leftmost of the 3 magnified) look at least as good to me, if not better, than the 3gs pics (top-right-of-4; middle-of-three).

(The 3g pic on p.4 seems a bit orange compared to all others -- but I don't know the subject's real complexion, and that's why I asked my question of baddox. Is this an inherent skew of the 3g or an artifact of their technique? Except for the color-difference in that set, the 3g photo has as much or more definition/contrast.)
Cloud Server Benchmarking Part 5: Encoding & Encryption
...directly addressing Krugman's viewpoint:

"The Krugman doctrine of perma-deficits is ruinous - and has in fact ruined Japan."
Single page:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/...
How do I add another lib? ... Show an example without cheating!

It's amazing that you get voted up when you clearly did not read my post. I wrote: "If I needed a different library, I'd have edited project.clj to include the dependency." Let me explain that in detail:

lein generates the following default project.clj:

(defproject myproj "1.0.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.1.0"]
[org.clojure/clojure-contrib "1.1.0"]])

Then you change it to:

(defproject myproj "1.0.0-SNAPSHOT"
:dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.1.0"]
[org.clojure/clojure-contrib "1.1.0"]
[mysql/mysql-connector-java "5.1.13"]])

To wit: you add a dependency by including it in the :dependencies vector. For example, Berkeley DB JE would be [com.sleepycat/je "4.0.92"]. Then you run "lein deps", which takes care of the rest.

I hope you aren't arguing that editing a text file to include a dependency is too difficult, so I'll address your other point: the Clojure site does not mention Leiningen. There's actually a good reason for it: it is not a core necessity for using the language; you don't have to use Leiningen to use Clojure. If you understand the classpath, you don't really need it. Leiningen is a convenience, not a necessity of life.

I'll readily agree that an overview of available development aids would make for a nice addition to clojure.org. No definitive "Beginner's Guide to Programming in Clojure" exists. It would ideally explain how to get started at the REPL, how to use SLIME and swank-clojure to work with Emacs, and how to use VimClojure to work with vi, how to handle packaging, and how to deal with dependencies. It would also explain why and how someone might want to use Ant, Maven, Ivy, Leiningen, and the clojars.org repository. I'm sure that someone will write this guide some day soon.
Given that they've already sold 1.7 million of them I imagine they committed to at least an extra 0 on the end of that quantity number.
10 Tips for startups and small businesses on using voice in your marketing
How hunger affects our financial risk taking
Thoughts on Leadership
Let's get in touch; we may do something together and learn from each other. (omar.abid2006-at-gmail.com)
this is what I called twisted logic. Like seriously? how does using technology not solve the problem that you need to change the way it is played. The author forgets that it is still the world's most watched and popular game and there is a reason it is so.
We have so many people today who needs aren't being met and still aren't contributing. What about Basic Income motivates people to work when all their needs are met by doing nothing?

This question even ignores logistical difficulties like what the definition of a wage "to meet all their needs" would be, or where the money to fund such a program would come from.
I remember being quite surprised in the UK when I heard from a friend whose tooth broke off that he would have to wait several days for an appointment. Also long wait times with broken limbs, I seem to remember (forgot the details). That was 13 years ago, but still, there might be disadvantages to the UK system.
I'm glad the comments here reflect what I was thinking.

As a boy scout I survived on less than that for 6 days! As a 13 year old kid! And we didn't steal food either, we were nowhere near any gardens. we pulled rabbits out of rabbit holes and ate them.

And we didn't have any Pepsi either.

No wonder they lost the revolution :)
(but, you know, they're not charging $500 AND locking you into a contract right?)
Yes, I'd been running a pretty recent Cyanogen mod, but not one that was 2.1. I had been thinking about using a 2.1+ mod but haven't had the time to sit down and figure the whole process again. The keyboard on the G1 is great, but that's about it. After installing and using Cyanogen it always felt like the phone was laggy for doing the important things, answering calls, etc.

The best phone I've owned so far for functioning as a phone was a RAZR v3. The best smartphone up until about a year ago was the G1, but with limited ram the hardware has been unable to keep up it seems.
I still can't get AdWords on the search network to work in a scalable fashion, but the content network continues its years-long tradition of making my business viable.
can't believe people are suggesting to change how the world's most popular and most watched game is played
Most of the social help programs that I have seen so far, except for unemployment, are overrun by scammers. I lived in a section 8 apartment for a while and the same people qualifying for $25/month rents were driving Escalades. For these people there is nothing at this point in their lives that is going to change they way they live and think. Educating their kids is the only way to break the cycle of poverty.
To quote the poster: "Or, should I consider another device from Verizon, etc. instead?"

Suggesting the iPhone is perfectly fine because, as far as I'm aware, it falls under "another device."
Those sorts of jobs are not evaporating, those are most of the jobs.
Very few Americans get out of poverty. Social mobility rates are surprisingly small in the United States. The American Everyman is very likely to die in the class into which he was born.

Not true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_mobility#Economic_mobi...
(take 8 (phil-hagelberg))
If only I could get one at that price :( stuck with LG
This reminds me of the whole thing with pharmaceuticals. pills 2-X cost $.10 to make - the first pill, however, costs millions.
I know with my Black Berry on Verizon my screen is littered with new Apps that I never installed (Bing, NFL,Skype, and more). It is pretty annoying.
Are you sending to 40,000 different email addresses or sending a total of 40,000 emails per month? If you are sending to 10,000 addresses 4 times a month (for example) then take a look at iContact. 10,000 subscribers 6x a month would cost $74 a month.
However, if following his advice in the past has led the world to financial ruin, wouldn't it be logical to question his assessment of the current situation?
The theory of "car dent" and "no of dishes in sink" are kind of justified but the "protagonist" of the article i.e. no of bee stings does not fit with the theory of poverty at all. Does not matter if someone has one or ten bee stings, people get it cured for sure.
Doesn't control system theory require some level of predictability in the system, plus a system that does not adapt to the controls placed on it?
You would have to ask the Newslabs guys. They made that decision.
Ask HN: How much traffic spike does being listed top in HN cause?
How much increase in the number of pageviews can one normally expect if a url gets a top spot in HN ?
This strikes me as very poignant, and makes me wonder about how we form our networks. Why is it that the wealthy know the wealthy and the poor know the poor? Is it usually as simple as the existing networks of your parents that you are born into and then expand upon? Is it school, either college or high school or those who drop out of high school becoming your network depending on how far you go? Is it the who you work with? Is it out and out classist snobbery? Probably all of these things and more wrapped up in one...
It's definitely a solid phone. When I got it (pre-order) I was worried about the hinge for the screen, but it's held up remarkably.
You're right, the 1950 FIFA world cup had a second (final) group stage. Ironically, the last match ended up being the decisive one anyway.
Like I said, I've seen a couple fakes. They've always been really easy to spot, though, and disappear quickly.

I'm in the Boston/Cambridge/Brookline area, though. I imagine the real:fake ratio gets worse as you get into more sparsely populated areas.
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2007/06/why_do_the_poor....
> some penchant for buying any food

> set himself on fire in bed

> uncontrollable giggle

I wonder, what could possibly lead to such things?
Ask HN: What are the best services for web based personal media management?
This started as question, but it ended up looking somewhat like a proposal, since I'm thinking about something fairly specific here. What service best meets this features set?

1) Ability to collect digital media metadata, regardless of where it is being hosted

The service needn't be, in fact shouldn't be, a hosting provider, but toolsets for creating, collecting, and managing media metadata found on existing hosting providers, linked to and embedded in the service. This should work for media objects which have discrete, generally static containers, such as video, images, and audio.

In the future, to ensure data durability, the content storage could take place on a distributed, peer-to-peer filesystem with intelligent routing and caching algorithms.

2) Robust media navigation interfaces, running on a skinning engine

A default interface for browsing found media which is useful and fast, including features such as infinite page scrolling, resizeable image thumbnails, content type filters, object scaling, image slideshows, audio/video queuing and playback. No interface is ever perfect or complete, so having a marketplace where designers can submit and users can select their current skin of choice would address most use needs.

Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr all recently updated their interfaces. Are they better than before? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe after a learning curve. Maybe for some users, not for others. Maybe for some cases, not for others. And, this wasn't the first interface reboot, and it won't be the last. For lack of a skinning engine, interface designers for services usually end up appealing to the common denominator of their audience. This is essentially the fat tail of interfaces, and the long tail isn't accommodated for.

3) Full set of media management actions, separated by discrete purpose

Purpose (Common Actions)

Memory (ie: Bookmarking, Saving, Starring, Faving)
Propagation (ie: Linking, Sharing, Reblogging, Retweeting)
Evaluation (ie: Liking, Voting, Rating)
Classification (ie: Tagging, Foldering, Listing)

Because each service has it's own nuances, limitations, and omissions in their implementation of and terminology for management actions, not all major actions are supported by all services, and they often conflate and merge different purposes into one.

4) Full export of metadata out of the service for an easy exit

This can't be yet another data silo. Users need to be confident that if the service goes out of business, changes it's rules, gets acquired, etc., their metadata (time and effort) will be safe.

Lala recently got acquired by Apple, and despite offering all kinds of credit refunds for purchased songs, they offered no way to export Library metadata, songs, playlists, and all.

5) Import of existing metadata from major services for easy entry

Many major services have APIs allowing users to extract their metadata. It could then be consolidated and standardized into the service, letting users hit the ground running.

Note: I originally posted this on Quora, but think this is a good group to ask too
These attacks are not Wordpress-specific. The CEO blog was running Wordpress, but every type of site got affected.
WordPress is evolving into a more complete CMS -- take a look at the Pods plugin: http://podscms.org/
I Like the headline, but the author presents a bunch of regurgitated fluff in the actual article. In the guise of motivation, all I took away from it is that the author is a pompous jackass. I mean, what's wrong with "settling" and taking care of your family if that your motivation? Why should you get ridiculed for it?

I really hope that this is a satirical article mocking some of the so-called "motivational" crap that has littered HN recently.
Just curious. Why do you think unemployment isn't overrun by scamers?
I think a lot of us can empathize with this theory. Motivation increases as a tangible milestone is in the near term and if nothing is within a reachable distance it becomes increasingly difficult to start down the path. It's similar in concept to all of the problems people have completing a project because the end goal is no where in sight.

The interesting part is how you use this theory to help the impoverished. Can you just throw specific vouchers at the situation to alleviate some of the problems, as the end of the article suggests? I don't think this is feasible - it moderately resembles the Gulf coast debacle right now. Sure you can stop some of the problems, but rarely does it solve everything.

The book sounds interesting, but all the reviews state that the author lacks data to back up his intuitive claims. I'd love it if he could provide some hard evidence to the theory, though I bet the most intuitive social claims often are hard to prove scientifically.
Absolutely. But in and of itself, that doesn't make him wrong.
> "Find the search for truth"? Either you search for truth or you don't. In the process, you may (or may not) find the truth, and you may (or may not) be closer to it. What did you actually mean by "hope of a search for truth"?

I meant that (per the argument under discussion), in some areas there is no (real) possibility of searching for the truth. So, in those areas you don't "find the search for truth." When the OP talks about math vs. human language (all other contexts?), he appears to imply that in math it is possible to search for truth, but in "human language", there is no possibility of finding truth. So, what I meant was roughly this (the following is a reconstruction of the OP's argument, as I understand it, not my views):

1. In math, where there is "a fixed set of consistent rules" (his words), you can meaningfully search for truth.

2. In "human language", which "is not a formal system with complete rules and non-contradictions" (his words), you cannot meaningfully search for truth.

3. The phrase "mutual understanding" indicates a second-best option (since the search for truth is ruled out) for "human language". As you and I talk - now for instance - we cannot usefully search for truth, but we can at least try to figure out what the other person intends to say. That's "mutual understanding," and I think you can see why it's only a consolation prize compared with the search for truth.

The whole thing reminds me a bit of a certain kind of logical positivism. Only some statements are even potentially truth-evaluable. (For example 'x = x' is truth evaluable.) All the rest is simply an expression of personal belief, attitude, disposition or emotion. Under that view, if I say "action x is always wrong" and someone else says "under some circumstances action x is not wrong", the best we can do is figure out what the other person means by their statement. But there is no possibility of saying whether either of those statements is true or false, since such statements are (by definition) not truth-evaluable. That's the kind of thing I thought the OP was saying.
Thank you for actually spelling out what exactly they were complaining about, and I can see how this would be an issue when viewing a monitor. However, you don't have to go to very large distance until the focal distance is effectively infinite.

So I guess the moral of the story then is to combine the 3D technology with a projection system that puts the image at close to infinity (like http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/Scenery_display_2.htm).

I've played around with this lens approach for flight simulators, and I have to say that having the image near optical infinity makes a much larger impression than you might think. You are actually looking through the screen, not at it. The quality isn't great, but it greatly adds to the feeling of immersion. I think this is more important than 3D, since stereoscopic vision really only works at quite short distances.
I suspect that arguing about wrong referee decision or how close games could have ended is a major factor in what makes football so popular and emotional.

No spectator sport is really about watching the better team win predictably.
As another commenter noted, design, innovation, packaging, marketing, employees and obviously profit/taxes... aren't counted here.

But yes, the iPhone is pricey if I compare it to other devices. For example, Google Nexus One have a better resolution, memory and processor that the 3GS, but the 3GS is more expensive.

I don't bother paying $1K or more on a phone, but at least this phone comes with cutting edge technology from the inside (speedy processor, large memory, Open OS...) and the outside (High resolution screen and Camera, amazing design...)
Why do cannabis dispensaries need 24-hour webcams, and other MUCH more sensitive businesses (say, firearm sellers) don't? (AFAIK).

I'm against excessive regulation, and this seems more egregious than most.
Guh, I can't read this on my nexus one because www.boston.com keeps redirecting me to a mobile site that doesn't have the content.
As a physicist, one can't even think about 'chemistry' without starting with the Schrödinger equation..
How did you climb out of your situation and mindset?
> So many of the single women in my social circle complain they can never meet decent guys and would kill to be talked to be a decent, intelligent guy at the grocery store.

Tell them to take the initiative, then. Make eye contact, smile, and make a comment to start a conversation. Most women are far better at that than men, anyway, especially in a place like a grocery story where most of the time if a guy takes the initiative he comes off desperate.
Ommwriter - A new concept of text editor, the kind that wants to help you write.
I think it's a reasonable idea if set low enough.

Over time remove Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment assistance etc and set all taxes at a flat rate then give everyone say ~700 to 1000$ per month inflation adjusted + heath care. The problem is we live in a democracy so that number can and will be fucked with. Also, handling money for young children to avoid "professional welfare mothers".

PS: The odd things the actual numbers don't change much from the current system, but the advantage is it removes perverse incentives. There is no threshold where earning more money is taxed at insane levels (sometimes over 100%) as public assistance is removed.
You're essentially saying that anyone who gets hammered by the "correction" necessarily morally deserved it because they must have "played in this mess". Because otherwise, you are arguing that some of the people who didn't play in the mess should give money to others who may or may not have played.

This, besides the fact that a correction has already happened, as evidenced by the drop in house prices and the number of homes in foreclosure.

If there is another "correction" now, beyond what has already happened, and it causes even more bankruptcies, discharged debts, haircuts, bank runs, and the like, then the entire economy will suffer, not just those who played in the mess.

As banks look toward deflationary times, they are holding onto cash reserves. (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/EXCRESNS) This may be because they fear making loans that will not be paid back 100%, but the result is deflationary because they are all doing it, and they are all keeping that money from the system. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A deflationary period, while our country has so much private debt, combined with high unemployment, will likely leave us with more and more bankruptcies and the "dynamo problem" of the great depression. If this is what you're looking forward to to punish a few house flippers, well, I can't agree with your sentiment on that.
People seem to be assuming that the point of the game is to determine which is the better team. It isn't. The point of the game is to get the fans interested, excited, vocal and voluble.

The best teams tend to float to the top over the course of a season, and the best teams are more likely to win, but the excitement would be lessened if the result became more predictable. If I play Kasparov at chess I'll lose and the game will be completely uninteresting, but if I play backgammon against the world's best there is a chance I'll win. That creates more interest.

I agree that howlers such as the "ghost goal" from England, and the offside goal for Argentina are blots and shouldn't happen, and I don't argue that technology should remain prohibited, but I do think that meddling with the rules to try to make the game less "chancey" are mis-guided.
I think it really comes from the ease of the exit and the disconnect from anything human. Even when you come down to it on a snail-mail level there is still a human element to that communication. Whether it be the signature at the end, or hosting a physical object in your hand, I think something makes it more real.

When you are online everything fits into the same type of frame: Words in a font on a screen. It looks just the same just about everywhere. I think it may be that these people believe they are yelling more at a screen and some text than a real human being on the other side.
Luck is a big part of the appeal of soccer. As with most sports, you usually start rooting for the team that is popular in your area. With a significant reduction of this luck-component, strong teams would dominate the leagues which would in turn reduce the appeal for supporters of smaller clubs. Under the current rules, it's not unusual for a smaller team to win against a much stronger opponent from time to time. To tilt the probability towards the favorite reduces the appeal for supporters of the underdog.

It seems that people who grew up with high scoring games, exact time-taking and video referees often times feel the urge to "fix" the perceived flaws of soccer. I don't want to be snotty, but a lot of people love the game in it's current form. If you don't get what's fun about a good game that ends in a 1:0 that's fine, but please don't ruin it for the rest of us.
They can and they are. We ARE going to default on our debt, it's inevitable. We can't possibly pay back the money we owe. We're going to do default the hard way by not paying our debts or we're going to default by inflation.