skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is a little off-topic so mods, please flag/move as needed. (Wasn't sure if I should make this an Ask HN or not).

I feel I may be a victim of a false accusation of sexual harassment. I am really not sure how to proceed at this point. I have not put up a fight for fear that I could loose my job (which may already be in the works at this point). Management has not used the term "sexual harassment", only the verbiage that "I have made a female employee feel uncomfortable".

As I am currently in a temporary internship position due to end in a few months, I am not so concerned about this job, but this experience has made me very concerned about being falsely accused in the future of sexual harassment or rape. Should I just avoid all interaction with women at work completely? How would I do this with a female boss? (refusing to meet with her in private?)

Any advice is welcome.
You make it sound like they are not providing any real value, but Palantir has lead to multiple arrests, and some claim, even helped in finding Osama. The complain seems to be that they are overpriced, not useless.

Also, there is nothing wrong with a Java/Swing backend. Its not cool, but any company handling that amount of sensitive data will not use a 'cool' stack.
This is also the subject of the latest "Seriously..."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05711xn
> I can assure you it probably has the worst overconfident brogrammer culture

Everyone I know at Palantir has at one point or another mentioned to me (boasted about?) how difficult it is to get a job at Palantir. Sample size < 5, but I'm starting to think this isn't a coincidence.
What I find ridiculous are Apple's prices. I need 16GB RAM, 256+GB SSD for dev work. In 2014, a MacBook Pro with these specs cost me €1500. Today, it would be €2000. I lost my MacBook on a train two weeks ago [1]. Because of this surge in prices, I decided to go for a Dell XPS 13. It's supposed to be the best Linux laptop and cost me €1600 with 16/512GB.

[1]: https://fman.io/blog/lost-laptop/
In the actual article it says 25% are 'willing' to switch to the Mac, not that they will.

I'm 'willing' to switch to a Porsche 911. That doesn't mean it's going to happen.

The truth is we really don't know exactly what the report said at all. The whole article looks like it's predicated on deliberate distortion and misrepresentation of the underlying source.
Pretty sure 1 is just one pulse in the UK. Zero is at the far end of the dial next to 9.
Here in Britain there's a Microsoft advert at the moment (maybe elsewhere too, no idea) that says at the end of it "You don't expect to be able to draw on a screen"

That's literally the only feature they mention. Touchscreen compatibility. It makes them look like they're from the stone age and completely unaware of the competition
16 years that it has only been available for Windows, the parent says.
Yes, being single forever is indeed an option.

Men should learn to deal with rejection, but let's not pretend that they don't have the burden of initiating. I've literally never been asked out by a woman in my life.
Nice joke
Ah good point. I never thought about it like that. Thanks.
As the conclusion says,

I’m not implying wrongdoing on Verto’s part, but I don’t believe their survey results. The idea that such a huge chunk of the PC market could or would simply up and move to Apple, or that Apple could even absorb the influx of customers within such a short period of time, are both highly dubious assertions. Customers may talk about making these kinds of moves due to brand halos or favorable perception, but there’s no indication that PC consumers are going to leap for Apple en masse.
>Should work on both the client and the server. SEO is very important to Reddit, so lack of universal rendering is a deal breaker.

This sounds like a total non-sequitur.
Ask HN: What are some great public trello boards that you use?
Hi!
What are some of the public trello boards that people are using?
> can we also let drug makers just market their drugs without a $1 billion effort to test it in FDA approved clinical trials?

FDA approval is an important step for marketing drugs that don't actually work very well.
"The billionaire who exploited his wealth and position to engage in and perpetuate consequences free garbage bro culture said sorry like 5 times, what more do you people want?"
In NZ 111 is the number and worked fine - but then that's because the the exchange switches and dials were set up backwards to the British ones (rumoured to be by mistake!)
That was because TypeScript didn't support decorators back then - the "at" comes from the at sign.
Subtyping adds huge amounts of complexity to type systems and type inference. Dart even chose to have an unsound type system because subtyping and parametric polymorphism (generics in Java) were deemed too hard for Google programmers to understand. The Go designers agreed.
Haskell and OCaml are a joy to program in, in part because they (mostly) eschew subtyping. So yes, subtyping is controversial.
I am kinda surprised that he bailed out on the grounds that it would help the Russians.
If you look on what basis journalist make decision whatever something is newsworthy (or at least claim to do, as there are quite curious exceptions) there is one thing that never enters the picture - intentions of the source.
Author of this piece have quite strong feeling that continuing this work would be wrong, though at no point he gives any supporting argument why it is so.
>Sounds like they learned from their mistake of using Python on the server-side. Dynamically typed languages for large code bases are terrible.

Yeah, those pesky dynamic languages only power some of the biggest sites on earth...
Does that mean that powerful men should never hit on women?

A rich and powerful VC is almost always going to have more power than any woman he meets. Even if they're not actively raising money or trying to get a job, he's still a powerful man who could someday offer those things.

I'm not trying to be trite here, but I really do wonder what the line is. Even as a man, I certainly pay attention to my interactions with powerful men (investors, CEOs) despite not currently trying to get something from them. If they hit on a woman in that scenario, would it be harassment?
>doesn't report the numbers of dissatisfied Mac users who plan on switching to GNU/Linux

It's the year of the Linux desktop, at last! Maybe it really will happen before I start drawing my pension after all.
I think you are complicated the issue too much.

Who cares if a society it's a meritocracy or not? The point, it seems to me, is, is it a meritocracy that work for most of the people? Because what is the point of a society that doesn't work for most of the people?

I know that if I train hard every day I could improve my 100m sprinter time. I also know that never mind what I do, not in a million years I could beat Usain Bolt.

If we live in societies where the life of the average guy improve at the same time that the pie grows there is not a problem.

If we live in a society where, even when the pie grow my life is worst, and when I complain, you point to Usain Bolt and say "see? it can be done!"; well, I don't think that it's going to work for long.

It seems to me that feeling explain a lot of the "populist" movements around the world.
>Prove how? They could have succeeded in spite of dynamic typing, not because of it.

Then maybe the burden of proof is on you?

If you started your career recently, it's easy to be caught up into this "static typing" as some kind of the only way.
its not always about the size of the site, but the size of the code base, the amount of the services and most of all, the amount of engineers working on it.
I wonder how many people in power or have strong influence are psychopaths or sociopaths. I've had the misfortune to observe a psychopath in the workplace and in this case they touch people a lot. They touch people of the opposite sex more than same sex but they touch a lot of people. I wonder what is being said behind closed doors.

I have friend who is an employment lawyer. When I first asked her what she does she said "I keep old white men out of trouble". How sad.

Edit fixed typo
"This guy f*cks!" - Russ Hanneman
Just think how safe you'll be riding in an uber when the groggy driver is doing his 12th straight hour of the day and hasn't rested for weeks, all to get them out of the dire straits that Uber has set them up for. Taxi!
In 2014, USD/EUR exchange rate was around 1.35-1.40. In 2017, it has been around 1.05-1.10.

So assuming Apple originally prices things in dollars and converts for foreign markets, 1500 EUR in 2014 is the same price as 1900-2000 EUR today just based on the exchange rate changes.
Actually what we need is a huge corrective in media, the stuff feminists complain about all the time.

e.g. bell hooks' film stuff, The Bechdel Test, Anita Sarkeesian's work, etc.

This problem forms in large part because men are too attached to media that reinforces notions of women as secondary people, objects, and reward trophies.

The problem is that people's empathy with women going through harassment abruptly stops when they themselves are implicated in some manner.
Take legal advice, not HN advice.
Yes, they use it at Google and basically everywhere else. The JS circle jerk is extreme here. JS has its uses - mostly because it is the default language of the web and the web has many uses. That is all.
Power companies, coltan, iron, steel, aluminium futures, rosary beads, etc.
Why are comments like this allowed? Putting fingers in your ears and scream "no!!!" over and over is not very useful or constructive
> With Valgrind, I would say dangling pointers are a solved problem by now.

Given the frequency with which use-after-free vulnerabilities are discovered in C++ programs, I’d say they’re not a solved problem. Valgrind is great but it doesn’t help when the only inputs that cause bad behavior are bizarre attacker-generated ones.
How to prepare lookbook for online fashion store
"A rich and powerful VC is almost always going to have more power than any woman he meets."

It means that he should be very careful in doing so, and in any case never do this in the course of his work - e.g: in the course of negotiating with entrepreneurs, or even co-workers.

I suspect that if this happened in a non work situation, it wouldn't gather this amount of outside attention. Would a tech VC, hitting on a TV anchor or an actress(say) be considered inappropriate, if he has nothing to do with the media business?

I genuinely don't know. But I suspect if he keeps his love life separate from work, things would get tremendously easier.I think "power imbalance" becomes a factor only when a working relationship is involved.

Still, interesting question. I think it behooves anyone who has significant money and/or power to be very careful in conducting their love lives.
I disagree. It's quite possible the behavior was completely unsolicited and uninvited. Things are sometimes exactly as wrong as they appear to be. To assume otherwise, with no evidence other than your own anecdotal experience, is... well, pretty much sexist!
I assumed literal "you are making me uncomfortable" - I think it is best to go with what parent wrote. The "you're harassing me with repeated advances after a rejection" does not sound how real people talk.

I also think that saying whatever gets the person away is rational - through it might be rude in context. I mean, you assume that saying something insulting or exaggerated is irrational, but that is not how we judge rationality in other contexts.

My experience was that when collegues started bullshit (not harrasment but they had many jokes about women targeted at me), being nuanced and nice and "rational" did not made situation better. Just longer while they had fun and I definitely did not. Answering in hostile rude way right away turned out to work much better - issue largely ceased to exist.

I think that the expectation that women should be the nice one is what creates a lot of problems. It is teaching girls ineffective communication (which leaves them thinking only two options are HR or leave). People on the spectrum honestly don't get nice, people who test boundaries don't see nice as boundary and jerks find nice funny.
TypeScript's IRC channel on Freenode is an amazing, supportive place, too. In sharp contrast to #gonuts, which is a cesspool.
This article, and this conversation is about one pathology. You bring up a different one and say "we should treat them equally!" - that's not very different from the "all lives matter" bullshit.
Sexism and discrimination of women in tech industry is a massive problem.
What you described probably exists in some cases, but is not a) related to the problem at hand and b) orders of magnitude less profound.
By bringing it up here and trying to tie those two together you're devaluating the severity of the problem at hand in the same way as if you went to an article about rape and started talking about those promiscous people who like sex.

Those pathetic douchebags were not "primed" by any experiences with women "dating up". They were primed, trained, protected and covered up by the shitty patriarchal society we live in. And it's worth tackling that problem without attempting to dilute it in "maybe she wanted it" sauce.
As a man, I really value these clear, blunt accounts. It's like a bug report with details - here's what I need to know to identify the problem, and begin addressing it.
As a restauranteur, I (very occasionally!) get calls from people accusing us of making them ill, threatening bad reviews and demanding vouchers or refunds.

The majority of the time it's someone who tries the same scam on every restaurant. Fortunately, around here at least, independent restaurant owners and managers keep in contact with each other and keep a track of these things. I did hear about one scammer recently who called every restaurant in town saying they had made him ill on the same day - the chain places pretty much all gave a cash refund for what he said he'd spent.

Other times it's someone who has actually eaten with you but forgotten that they had seven beers with their steak.

Whatever the situation appears to be, the best way is to always take accusations super seriously, ask for a doctor's letter, a sample for testing, contact environmental health etc. This is the point where everyone backs down, scamming or just hung over.

Never had a genuine food poisoning case at anywhere I've worked or failed an inspection or anything of that sort...we know what we're doing better than you do at home after all
Craight Wright Talk at Future of Bitcoin Conference
I found some of your comments quite insightful, especially about varying stabilising forces for varying income/social classes.

I think the old (paraphrased) quote is relavent here: A rich man saves up for a £300 pair of new shoes that will last him a decade, while a poor man buys a £5 pair of boots every month because they wear down quickly.

Honestly, being able to fix some things is one of the most important traits to have if you want to save money. Learn some motor maintenance skills (well, with DRM'ed cars now that may be a bit harder), basic shoe repairs, computer repair, woodwork, etc.

I think we've lost our way with technology somewhat (and i'm a young millenial!). I see my dad and how he helped build some of the rooms in our house, did basic diagnostics for our car when it acted up, made our home's wooden stair railing from scratch. And he worked as a manager for a small basic factory. I can't see anybody my age being able to even just sand some rough edges down from freshly-cut wood, or being able to jack-up a car. It's depressing what advanced technology and increased societal specialisation has done to us younger generations...
Not Java/Spring?

Google at least is known to use C/C++ for its backend. Python is (or was?) used in YouTube.
I'm in the UK. Don't even get me started. Thanks Brexit voters, you really stuck it to The Man this time!
Maybe there is a philosophical divide between us, but this argument sounds really weird to me.

From his/her point of view, of course being born to educated parents is luck, if not what else is it? We don't have any choice or any influence on the matter of who we are born to, and we cannot change it with our effort or lack of it.

The fact that from their parents' point of view it's not luck, because they worked for it, strikes me as irrelevant in this context. It can be relevant in a societal context but the post you reply to was talking about the success of an individual and how it can come just by luck, without that individual working especially hard for it.
Usually those people are repeated offenders and once first victim comes out, other are encouraged to do so too. That would give claim more weight. False accusations are rare anyway, but I understand your concerns.
HTML/SVG/XML component serialization of plain, nested data, iterables and closures
> Palantir has an outdated software stack (Java/Swing).

How is that supposed to be even vaguely relevant?

Palantir sells intelligence, not hip-compliant software.
I've worked with TypeScript on and off for a couple of years now. I don't like it.

The compilation step is a major pain. Even after using it for several months straight, I feel like I'm in a constant battle with the compiler. It's slow and difficult/annoying configuration problems keep coming up from time to time. It slows down my debug cycle and the compilation delay makes me lose my train of thought. I used to love using console.log() to quickly test an assumption in JavaScript; you cannot do this with TypeScript (it's not practical given the 5 to 20 seconds compile time); you have to use the debugger every time and step through stuff (even when you have a very good idea about which specific variable you want to check) - It's extremely cumbersome.

I have gone back and forth from dynamically typed languages to statically typed languages many times for years and I've spoken with engineers who used to be Java developers for many years, then switched to Javascript, then TypeScript and they shared the same thoughts as I did. TypeScript is slow and restrictive in a way that is unnecessary. It's got Microsoft all over it.

Also it forces all developers to use bulky commercial IDEs like WebStorm because you rely more on code completion to help you figure out the right types. You can say goodbye to Atom, Sublime and the rest... Atom's TypeScript plugin is not good enough unfortunately.

At my previous work, even developers who said that they liked TypeScript secretly didn't like it because they used the 'any' type Everywhere.

I wonder if the people who are making this decision have actually tried TypeScript themselves for any decent amount of time on a decent sized project. I don't think they know what they're getting into.

I decided not to renew a lucrative contract at a finance firm as a front-end developer in part because I did not enjoy using TypeScript every day.
You'd be surprised how fast a society can collapse if it's left to wannabe Einsteins and Feynmans and Elon Musks and nobody is there to dig ditches, clean the garbage and work the assembly line.

Or how better a society would be without tons of well paid white collar jobs (advertisers for one).
For the benefit of people reading this on mobile, here is the text from the above comment without the indentation:

Among his other activities, Woz collects phone numbers, and hislongtime goal has been to acquire a number with seven matching digits.

But for most of Woz's life there were no Silicon Valley exchanges withthree matching digits, so Woz had to be satisfied with numbers like221-1111. Then, one day, while eavesdropping on cell phone calls, Wozbegin hearing a new exchange: 888. And then, after more months ofscheming and waiting, he had it: 888-8888. This was his new cell-phonenumber, and his greatest philonumerical triumph.

The number proved unusable. It received more than a hundred wrongnumbers a day. Given that the number is virtually impossible tomisdial, this traffic was baffling. More strange still, there wasnever anybody talking on the other end of the line. Just silence. Or,not silence really, but dead air, sometimes with the sound of atelevision in the background, or somebody talking softly in English orSpanish, or bizarre gurgling noises. Woz listened intently.

Then, one day, with the phone pressed to his ear, Woz heard a womansay, at a distance, "Hey, what are you doing with that?" The receiverwas snatched up and slammed down. Suddenly, it all made sense: thehundreds of calls, the dead air, the gurgling sounds. Babies. Theywere picking up the receiver and pressing a button at the bottom ofthe handset. Again and again. It made a noise: "Beep beep beep beepbeep beep beep."

The children of America were making their first prank call.

And the person who answered the phone was Woz.
I don't think that's fair to lump Travis Kalanick into the same boat as Dave McClure. Kalanick didn't sexually harass anyone personally, his subordinates did. There isn't really any evidence that Travis Kalanick tried to cover anything up either. If you read that Susan Fowler blog post regarding sexual harassment at Uber, it sounds like she was sexually harassed by one person, and the HR department wouldn't do anything about it. To me that sounds like the harasser and the HR department are the guilty parties, not Travis Kalanick.
So how many VC millions were thrown away just because the founders were cute women with bad ideas? do we have any statistics? If not how would you compute that number?
NY Post on Trump’s Tweets: 'Stop. Just Stop.'
> If the women isn't interested, you stop.

I feel like this is much easier said than done. Emotions can be complex and fickle. Many books have been written about how to woo a potential mate. There have been tales of love potions for hundreds of years. The dating scene is filled with people who use subtle manipulative behaviour to score.

What I'm trying to say is that it can be very hard to know whether someone is interested. And the success of your wooing efforts determines -- retroactively -- their creep factor.
There was an interview with Sara Lacy(sp?) from Pando where she says that it changed when the founder demographic changed. Before, it was either nerds, or older, experienced people from Intel, Cisco etc. Now, the "bros" are starting companies.

She credits The Social Network with being a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The problem is that this sort of hierarchy rewards two abilitys- sliming and kicking - and (if you are good at that) upholding and extending hierarchys.
Reading your comment, it just occurred to me that I don't know if there is any country where healthcare works well without government intervention.

We always talk about the USA vs. Europe, but I don't know if there are other examples that we can borrow.

When you talk about market directed healthcare, do you have any example in mind?
But false accusations are possible about anything. By this logic VCs should avoid talking with anyone.
Why I never read of men sexually harassed by a woman? Isn’t that suspicious that something is not right?
Plain Javascript is valid typescript. You can add types where you need them, via type declarations or jsdoc comments. Typescript is easy to use in a partial way, the type system only gets complicated if you turn on all the strictness settings and have to explicitly annotate every type, even in dynamic code.
Why is her age relevant?

Asking a woman who's 25 if she's still a virgin is a clearly loaded question - if she says yes then she's admitting to be inexperienced and should sleep with the the 'man' asking in order to learn the ways of the world, and if she says no then she's admitting that she's sexually active and therefore willing to sleep with a 'man' like the one asking the question.

Creepy assholes use this sort of tactic because they get off on making someone else feel bad. If you see it you really should call them out.