skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The film industry's high entry barrier is getting much, much lower. An Avid editing workstation now costs < $10k, they used to be more like $50k. At this years NAB, DaVinci (high-end color correcting software), went from being a $200k Linux system, to a $1k software package to be run on a Mac Pro you already own.

2K DPX is now doable on a (high end) NAS system where previously you needed a high end SAN with Fibre Channel, and Nvidia's Cuda makes a system that can do do "city-bending CGI and special effects" positively affordable.
Is there something I'm missing?

Africa is 45.78%
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=africa+poverty+rate

India is 25%
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=india+poverty+rate
uh, do you have any data to back any of this stuff up, particularly the conclusions?

btw, it's buffett. buffet is all-you-can eat luncheon etc., pronounced a la francaise.
> Extending prototypes of existing objects is amazing and powerful

What can you do with it that you can't do in class-based OO languages?
We'll the alternative to personal responsibility (that is, being personally responsible for your own retirement funds) is a massive ponzi scheme.

There is no chance that people could be "forced to save" as that has always turned into another tax in every place it's been implemented.

And who wants to retire? I'll retire when I'm dead, until then I'm gonna be busy doing stuff(work or otherwise). And I'm saying this as someone who's got no money.

And governments are not good at this sort of thing. Take the Irish government for example(my home country), ran a massive surplus for years during the boom, saved a nice little nest egg. It was supposed to be for public pensions(actually not supposed to, it WAS).

Then in 2008 they gave it to the banks. THEY GAVE IT TO THE BANKS!!!!!

edit: I concede that not everyone wants to work until they're in the grave.
That's basically why Social Security was first introduced, and I think it still makes some sense. Looking at it in the other direction, it's more or less a fact that a large proportion of people won't save for retirement. Therefore, you have three choices: 1) a bunch of destitute and possibly homeless old people; 2) some sort of after-the-fact spending to provide emergency services/shelter/care for destitute elderly; or 3) some sort of mandatory pension system to make sure elderly don't become destitute in the first place.

People generally find #1 unpalatable, so the practical choices are #2 versus #3: do we set up some sort of general pension system to make sure elderly make at least a bare minimum income to stay off the streets (currently $20k/yr or so), or do we instead set aside money to spend on housing and caring for destitute elderly, e.g. through government-run nursing homes?
Government provision does not have to be based upon savings. In its simplest form it is just an obligation (of the current working generation towards the elderly), and if this is not tied to monetary figures then it is much less vulnerable to financial turmoil and trickery.
I prefer silence for zoning in ... the quieter the better, not even humming air conditioners if possible.

If I do feel I need some help to zone in, hip hop works best for me (Eminem's 8 mile album is my fav). I can't listen to classical music and concentrate on something else. Impossible. .. and songs with good lyrics are equally distracting .. but since English isn't my first language, I can only cursorily follow hip hop lyrics and so I quickly fall into listening to the words as sounds without meaning .. and the beat goes on.
There are ways to turn down the amplifier (by reducing the voltage to the cathode or the cathode heater), but it would be more practical to simply turn on the device before anybody gets close enough to be subject to really intense radiation.
I got 2 free samples AA batteries from http://www.USBcell.com in 2007 during their demo (at DEMO), and I've been using them ever since to this date with my wireless Microsoft mouse. I found out that my mouse will work with just 1 AA, so while one is being used, I stick the other in the USB drive (to charge), and I just swap when the one in the mouse runs out. And it's been 3 years!!!

No shaking required.

Whenever I replace the AA from my mouse with the one I just unplugged from the USB drive, I time how fast I can "reload" <-- used to play Time Crisis 1 and 2 obsessively back in high school :D
This is probably the link you were looking for: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1522327 (great post -- it piqued my interest too, so I'm very interested in hearing more ideas)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/14/poverty-india-af...
A business partner of mine has an email-newsletter, nothing fancy, but at the bottom of each mail he has a written plea to pass along the mail to people who might be interested. I don't know how big his list is, but this one sentence brings in more new subscribers than anything else he does. I mention this here because I think there are many such "short-cuts" in every marketing system, wating to be discovered and exploited.

The last small business I was working with bought all adresses from an adress brooker firm, very detailed stuff with names of the person to contact and so on. That saved time and the mailing package they send out was good enough to bring in enough business to make it worthwhile. The upside here is the saved time.

As an intern for a VC company I used the websites of trade shows to determine who the players are. I than looked up theire websites to determine which keywords they optimized for (the second-rate keywords, not the first row of general stuff) and than searched the web for other sites ranking for those keywords.
*know.
'Inception' was a classic example of recursion.
Elitist crap. What does he mean by significant contribution? Even the best developers need some help with any significant project because nobody develops code in a vacuum and the best projects tend to be used by many people with varying skill sets who over time tend to add their own contributions to the code.
Reading his points, I wonder how much experience he has and what the scope of his experience is.

My experience is that if you've got multidisciplinary teams populated with reasonable people who have a good grasp on real world constraints (usually a delicate balance of compromises between scope, quality, time and money), all of his four points break down.

On the measurement point: While I'm sure some of the more clueless companies might use some arcane and pointless measurement systems, I haven't seen any half-decent dev shop use any of the measurement practices he talks of.
Ask HN: CMS Advice.
We are looking for a CMS with following features in mind.

= LDAP auth

= Wysiwyg editor inside browser

= Can declare schema like faculty, students, courses, rooms, meetings, minutes, projects, papers, reports etc. along with presentation hooks

= Tags and date attributes

= Good search with tag and date restrictions

= Be able to chop meeting minutes document into minute items via data entry mechanism or post facto (don't want to score whole doc wrt query but individual items discussed; tags associated with items too)

= Can extend using Java and JSP (preferred over PHP, Python, Ruby etc.)

= Keeps past versions preferably with diffs

= Easy backups

We have considered XWiki and JSPWiki. Would like to know what the community here would recommend.
Zed, is that you? :)

http://zedshaw.com/essays/programmer_stats.html

I think we've seen that already. Mean is "good enough" for most programmers apparently. And to be honest in many cases, it's ok. It was a microbenchmark, not a big evaluation of latency of both algorithms.
Something that still resonates with me from university (which is pre-www) is a quote from one of my most cynical professors:

Most people who call themselves experts at something usually just read a couple of articles more than the next guy.

These days, you just have to write a blog entry with a slightly more authoritative tone than the next guy.
You're going to be learning C and / or Java in your first year so, you're just getting a bit of a leg up. If you have a strong preference for Java go for it first, but, I'll say uselessly (cuz everyone else already has) that you'll learn more about computers with C.
Most big companies are like that to some extent, though I have not myself seen one quite as severe as this one. It is worst when a small company pretends to be big by insisting on following processes which might be necessary to make a huge globocorp manageable but make no sense at all when everybody is in the same room.
The financing through loans no credit check home Within a very short time
Write In a Formal Style

Formal style is boring. I think he meant conversational style. Write as if you are having a nice, friendly conversation with your peers. This produces persuasive writing.
This could be evidence of the argument that a lot of what people have to say has to do with the magnitude of their thoughts and less the actual direction.

I.e., if I say, I'm really, really happy right now. A trained psychologist, or someone who looks at it objectively, might note: there is this issue with happiness that I'm going through. Similarly, all of the points in this blog post usually are introduced via the very opposite stance (esp. the latter two -- i.e., requirements are the most important thing except for maybe measurement). But you can actually learn things from people if you look very objectively at what they're talking about and less the direction of their conclusions.
Taking Web Humor Seriously, Sort Of
Not really, just a callstack four* calls deep.

...just four?

Hmm, actually there was multi-threading, using sort of kick-based synchronisation primitive.
as a side note, bohem's gc is also generational http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/#details
Perspective is relative, my friend. Your mind, then, will be very different than it is now.

For that matter, unless you are a true believer in an afterlife, for most of us, every day above ground beats the alternative.
"But you do know that blacks commit a lot more crime (~ 10x) everywhere, not just America?"

That's a bit incendiary without a citation. Got one?
I sometimes work with developers in China, it's pretty common for me to send a link to some tech info on a blog etc and then have to copy and email the content instead, since the site is blocked for them. Even one site I created myself, which has <10 visitors/day and barely any content was blocked at some point.
> I'll retire when I'm dead

Unless you die prematurely, no... You'll retire when you're too tired to do stuff, or when your health doesn't allow you to, or when you become unable to care for yourself in many other ways. Mostly it's not up to you when you stop "doing stuff" - even less if it's about earning money (who would hire an able and willing to work 60-70-yo these days? - realistically).
... then watch the previously low cost of living skyrocket as everyone does this and brings their money with them.
I'm not sure what you mean, since current compilers already warn if you write that code.
A Broken Heat Sink Can Shut Off Your PC
Haha, Debian take package security seriously? http://digitaloffense.net/tools/debian-openssl/

But for real, it's not that hard to integrate your language library distribution thingy into something like Debian. Using what the OP was talking about as an example, CL has had the Common Lisp Controller (http://www.cliki.net/common-lisp-controller) in Debian for a long time now (6 years? more?). This still doesn't help answer "which libraries should I use? which ones should I avoid?" For something like that, the problem with the CL community is that people are generally reluctant to criticize each other's work.
I am not a financial advisor, but I am a personal finance writer.

This is well intentioned, but too reductive.

All 401(K)/403(B) plans are not the same. Mine is managed by the vanguard and has microscopic fees.

Similarly, all investors are not the same. I don't think it's necessarily sane to sock money into an S&P 500 index fund, especially one that's capitalization weighted.

As much as it sucks to say this...the best way to deal with your finances is to get an advisor. A lot of them are leeches, but good ones exist.

The emergency fund idea is a great one though. I'm partial to keeping 3 months of expenses in cash and another 9 months in highly liquid, low volatility securities.
مشاهدة مباراة الاسماعيلى وشبيبة القبائل
Spyderco Knife - Spyderco Knives - Spyderco Delica
Download Videos From Facebook
The blog post gives the example of how more distractable old people can outperform less distractable young people on a specially contrived mental test. Similarly, if you put a bunch of junk for someone to trip over on the way to the bathroom, it would be the old person who tripped over it all that would remember it on his return.

But in what real-world mental challenges do old people have the advantage over the young? In mathematics, for example, you're an old man at 30. Except for Erdős the meth-addict, of course.
Yes.

http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/

http://groups.google.com/group/taking-children-seriously/
Yeah this was great, only my library doesn't subscribe to ReferenceUSA. My wife also works at both of the colleges in town and neither of their libraries subscribe either.

Where else could I find access to ReferenceUSA?
that´s funny. for me it´s just the other way round: if there´s music while i´m coding i can´t concentrate very well and always listen to the music instead of coding. :)
but it´s possible that this is because i´m a musician too.
i always wonder why i can´t blend it out while coding. (i can blend it out while driving a car e.g.)
has anybody else similar experiences?
That's a good point. You might be able to have a rotating beam passing over a crop, although if aimed at the crop it might have a negative effect due to the surface water heating aspect. Perhaps there are particular frequencies which might be effective against insects, but leave crops unharmed.
It's hard to take seriously an article about how software development is different when it neglects to mention what exactly it is allegedly different from.
A good start is to not live beyond your means. Having consumer debt that you can't pay off every month is going to put you in a deep, deep hole.
Your understanding of life and things never changed before? Recall your beliefs 10 years ago. Now imagine 30 years passed - there is a very good chance that your desire to live will be strong. You will be miserably calling your current selfish self "an idiot" for not saving up while trying to meet ends on the government money.

No offense really, but some people can't extrapolate their own personality even 5 years ahead. Trust me, you will change with age, everybody does. Hopefully it won't be too late to start saving then...
You got that right brotha!

I'll add a bit more to your last statement about internet and programmers: these bloggers usually have had experienced the pain with software development in general but they rarely offer constructive criticism (like this article) or they would treat the symptoms (.e.g: coming up with new process, new tools, or new whatever).

The basic problem is still there: people (including themselves) are the problem.

Sort of the blinds leading the blinds.

Software Development is not too much different than gadget/hardware development. Just ask Nokia...
I cringe when I see that quotation trotted out as some kind of truth. It's a joke, popularized by Mark Twain.

Statistics can be insignificant or misinterpreted, but the statistics themselves aren't lies: they are statements of fact (measurements and calculations based on those measurements). Statistics are some of the best tools we have for teasing meaning out of measurements.

(If the "measurements" are actually made up, then yes, they are lies, but then the fault is with the person cooking the measurements, not the statistical tools they bring to bear. One can also misuse statistical tools, but again, the problem is with the user, not the tools.)
What if she watches it?
What happens when there are many more elderly than current working people?

The article suggested planning for 30 years in retirement. If that follows a working life of 40 years which follows a childhood of 25 years, then each working person is supporting 1.5 dependents. Assuming a steady-state population; if you have a baby boom followed by a baby bust followed by another baby boom, it gets worse. That's a big obligation.
"Talk less" is only good advice for those who already talk a lot. I had to learn to say things without caring too much for their relevance. It helped a lot with conversations.
That's usually what happened in this day and age isn't it?

One of your most vocal developers read a blog or an article and tomorrow he'll implement the new core threading part of the system because the idea was just damn good and suddenly y'all lose customers :) and he'll get the pat in the back.
Webapp only for the foreseeable future. The security/privacy is something we've spent a lot of time and effort on. (Our CTO is a crypto by trade with a focus on financial applications: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cat/ ) Thanks!
My plan is one mentioned on NPR several years ago: retire, but work part-time at a grocery store that has insurance benefits.
Monte Carlo sim. of One Banana, Two Banana to develop a card counting strategy
No, I searched for him on my own computer and he shows up at the bottom.

I wasn't logged in as him. I don't subscribe to his blog on Google reader or have any social media connections to him. I didn't find the post through a google search. I don't have Google Toolbar installed.
And arguing about what was beneath the black sheets (iPhone 6 or boxes?), or how many employees they have does nothing but further the Willy Wonka Factory image of Apple. Brilliant, isn't it?
What a Programmer Sees When He or She Watches Inception does not have the same panache.
Interesting enough I find a hang over unleashes my creativity.
But generational collection has to be explicitly enabled by GC_enable_incremental() and whole thing looks especially experimental. Main problem is that you cannot reasonably maintain remembered set(or grey set for incremental GC) without write barriers and write barriers are not practical when you cannot modify compiler.
Original While Writing a Marketing Term Paper
Success in marketing term paper lies mainly on selection of a good topic. But it should deal with a real problem in marketing for the term paper to be interesting and useful. You can find tips to select a good topic and advice on writing a marketing term paper.
I know that I should find a financial advisor to help my wife and I plan what to do with our growing incomes. However, I have no idea how to pick a good financial advisor and keep hearing how bad many of them are. Any advice on this subject, even if it is just a reference to a decent guide?
Things You Can Do When Windows XP Won’t Boot
When your computer hardware appears to power up okay, but the Windows XP operating system won’t boot properly, you have to begin a troubleshooting expedition that includes getting into the operating system, determining the problem, and then fixing it. To help you get started on this expedition, here are 10 things you can do when Windows XP won’t boot.
Ask HN: Resources for finding short term projects?
I'm a webdev in the midst of a work dryspell although I anticipate having plenty of work in 2mos or so. Im wondering what resources are out there for finding shorter term project work in the 1-3 mos time frame. My interests are Python, Django, Server side JS.
Looks good but one bit triggered WTF:

> Mostly precise scanning (stacks and registers are scanned conservatively).

Why would you code a conservative garbage collector for .NET?
> "If I include a university education under 'school', then I would say that an enhanced ability for learning would enable you to gain much more knowledge during those few years of dedicated learning."

That depends on one of the facets I would like to know about before using such a chemical. When one takes it and is able to read volumes quickly, what is the useful recall rate of that information later?

I'm not convinced that our brain's memory writing systems can be speed up without some loss in the number of conceptual connections made which are part of the basis for useful recall. But if the chemical also speeds up the forming of those connections, maybe it balances out well and is overall a net gain. Some data on it would be nice.
I don't really see that much of a difference. Working "for yourself" just means you deal with clients directly. You still have to work to make other people happy before you can be happy. They will only pay you as much as they need to, and collect the benefits your work brings them. True, working harder or better lets you have more enjoyable work or earn more. On the other hand, when working for others, working harder or better earns you promotions or allows you to change jobs or employers to more enjoyable or better paying. Where exactly is the difference?
Got it thanks. Maybe I'll start blocking obvious spammers too.
Inception also understands "Big Oh" ideas -- when you are looping inside the third level down, you have 10 seconds on the outside giving you 10^3 seconds on the inside. (EDIT: a single "tick" in one level allows for 20 or so "ticks" at the next level of dreaming, because of extra brain capacity during sleep.)

Hehe -- I loved the movie...
That totally sounds like a dev I used to work with.
My 401k is an index fund. Or a couple of them, rather.

I dunno what other people's 401k plans look like, but I've got about as much flexibility to invest as I do with my Roth IRA, and pay less in fees. A lot of that's because I knew more about finance when I set up the 401k, so I was already on the index-fund bandwagon and didn't pick it because, say, my dad had an account at the same firm.

Fund selection and account type are mostly orthogonal. The reason to decide between a 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, or individual account are tax and withdrawal considerations, not investment decisions. Then you make investment decisions within the account based on where you want your money to go.
I was with you until the last bit, that's pure bullshit.

The bank bailout is really a bailout of people who took on mortgages they couldn't afford. People like your neighbours. Maybe even YOU. The alternative was to let nature take it's course: call in a million mortgages. Voters wouldn't like that...
NIST Forensic Web Services [pdf]
Definitely don't agree with the last point, if it isn't accompanied by a minimum of mental awareness and quality of life. Certainly the (thankfully, few) elderly people I've known who died after a long, drawn out decline were quite unhappy about it. My grandfather lived 10 years past going blind, breaking his hip, and going increasingly senile, and spent about the last five years of that time constantly asking why God wasn't letting him go when it was his time to go. Doesn't sound appealing to me.

I think everyone I know over 65 has given whatever do-not-resuscitate/no-life-support/etc. directives they can, and would give more if it were allowed. The single most common fear I've heard people of that age express is not a fear of dying, but a fear of living too long past the point where their health runs out.
re: Bach: agreed. I've found that really listening to Bach -- even starting to understand his use of counterpoint -- requires enormous concentration, but is totally worthwhile; for that reason, it's easy to tune out when I just need some background noise.
What a Programmer Sees When Watching Inception is just as good, and makes no unwarranted assumptions.
doesn't this problem reduce to the availability of labour?

i'd like to see a thorough accounting of how much labour is required to maintain: our food supply, our residential properties, basic services, etc.

and i'd like to see that compared to current price of these things, to see if they make any sense.

it makes no sense to me that as we've progressed technologically, it seems to have become increasingly difficult to survive.