skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's not to look more 'geeky.' The difference between apt on ubuntu and fink on mac is not in their interface -- it's the number of packages that are available. I find that just about every package I need is available in ubuntu's repositories, whereas only the very major packages are available on Mac. As mentioned in the original comment by tx, the process of installing a set of libraries/programs on Mac often involves a lot of googling and getting other help, whereas just about everything I've tried on Ubuntu "just works." This is true even for programs that are not in either repository; compiling by hand also usually "just works" on Ubuntu, and I've never had it be that easy on Mac (some weird compile or link error always comes up, which then requires extensive google-fu to fix).

Another problem I find is that there seems to be a 'Mac' way of doing things which is different from both linux and unix/bsd methods (e.g. binaries often go into /Library/Framework/... instead of the usual /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin, etc.) which causes problems when interfacing with other *nix tools.

Finally, an unrelated thing (but one that affects me a lot) is the complete lack of the /proc filesystem. I think BSD/Unix doesn't have this either, so perhaps with your background you won't miss this in any case -- but I grew up on Linux and find /proc to be invaluable. It allows for easy programmatic access to processes using only file I/O, as well as allowing for awesome helper programs like htop.
In real life, nobody ever sues over individual non-commercial use. First, the company is unlikely to ever know. Second, it's just not worth the hassle--suing costs tens of thousands of dollars and they'd recover far less.

The law is on the books, but I wouldn't stress too much if you replicated a patented invention in your basement.
Git and Ruby: Git tutorials, articles and links for Rubyists
Granted: if you want to capture a specific train of thought, you'll probably have to write it down.

But I was more referring to "to fully understand many problem spaces", for which STM isn't really relevant. Understanding is a matter of how a topic is stored in LTM. Writing it down will improve your understanding of it, but it won't directly increase the amount you can understand.
Google App Engine: The good, the bad, and the ugly?
Agreed. I have used this app off and on for years. A very nice contribution on the part of the developer. I see the UI of this app as being more a symptom of the target audience. It is targeted to other software developers (I assume) since it is a project on Code Project. It is targeted to the power user elite. Every option is no more than a mouse click away and many are a keystroke or two away.

Your point is taken about bad UI design, though. There are many exemplary instances. I find that bad UI design can come from any number of functional roles.

Many programmers I know (myself included) have been around good and bad designers for so long, and have used apps similarly, that a sensibility has developed within us. Some of us also know about user experience and usability testing. If you seek elegance in code, you will often want the UI of your product to be similarly elegant.
This is cute, RPy is "the simplest thing that can possibly work" (and it does!), and most of all, it's awesome to see an R story high on the front page of YC.news.

But I would encourage readers (of this article and of YC news) to try playing with R interactively, just like you should try using iPython+SciPy interactively, to realize the truly awesome power of the libraries+language in each case. Then you will know what can and cannot be done easily in each, and can use your code in the other (or C, or shudder maybe even Java if necessary) to chink the gap. Both languages can play nice with C and Java, incidentally. But that's not the point -- let's look at an everyday situation.

For example -- I might like to do some dimensionality reduction on a high-dimensional dataset which is information-starved along some of the features that interest me (until I collapse it a little). Obviously, I'd like to read in the data (in as rich a form as possible), look at the combinations of dimensions that are most informative (probably via principal components analysis, aka PCA, but maybe I'd try some other techniques as well), plot them as predictors, and then perhaps use a bunch of resources on the Web to do some further annotation or testing and see how useful my pile of predictors is for various tasks. Off the top of my head, here is what I'd think of doing:

1) depending on the nature of the data, parse it in either R or Python, and bind it into a dataframe (sort of a fancy matrix) or list of dataframes so I can manipulate it in R.

2) almost certainly I'd do the PCA and other EDA in R, due to the sheer power and variety of packages available for this sort of task in the R environment. There are lots of libraries available for this sort of thing in Python, too, but if you have a wild hair up your ass to try some revolutionary technique that you saw in Bioinformatics or Genetic Epi (or whatever), yesterday, odds are that it was released as an R package.

3) Most likely I'd plot the correspondences for each predictor with responses I care about in R, maybe with GGobi if I had to deal with time series or high-dimensional plots. Not that Python can't do an awesome job, but hey, we're already in R so let's get this over with, shall we?

4) I'd probably want to use the results in Python for web- or database-backed inquiries, because R's DBI packages sort of suck. Maybe I'd save entire dataframes to MySQL or SQLite or what have you, and then retrieve them in Python to monkey around with the results (or use a stripped-down algorithm based on my R results to implement the 'app' version in Python, because eventually I'll bet we put this behind Django anyways...). But Python for sure if it's ever going to talk to Windows or the Web. Like, duh, rite?

So the point here is that it pays to have a couple of sharp tools lying around when your interesting problem shows up and starts flopping around on your desk. Don't be like the RDBMS guys who try and drive every damned screw with a filigreed hammer!

Hope this gets one or a few people to try R (on its own) and then stick it in their utility belt for later use.
Mini reviews of 19 Ruby template engines
So true, too bad you can't work like that every night.
Indeed, bad design is bad design, but just because the dash and controls of an industrial lift crane are 'more confusing' than a Dodge Neon, doesn't mean the crane's designers sucked.

Being a UI designer has it's pluses, but while I've on occasion been lectured by a geeky accountant or sales guy on the pros and cons of multicore processing or platform independence or something, I've found that almost everyone in the company has strong opinions on why the UI designer's work sucks. It seems that 95% of the public are really "artists" (not that you could tell from anything other than the passion of the aesthetic opinions) just working to pay the rent.
But it is full of fluff, metaphor after metaphor or personal example after personal example repeatedly hammering at a point he could have gotten across much simpler if he tried. I'm usually so bored a quarter the way through I start skimming looking for some point worth reading. Paul's writing on the other hand is of a much higher quality, doesn't assume the reader is so dense that he needs to keep hammering on the point, and recognizes that I don't care about fluff, but look for the meat. Yeggi thinks every though he has is worth reading, Paul knows better.
I agree
thinkers lack feedback: the resistance of the media
Until Amazon adds the ability to sort result sets, then I imagine it won't work very well in scenarios where you have very large result sets and need to present sorted query results to users -- especially when pagination is required. Of course I haven't used SimpleDB personally and perhaps people have found a way around that limitation.
Others have already mentioned the benefits of seeing smaller local artists. I'd like to put in a plug for one other kind of show that can be a blast: jam bands. Yeah, there are generally huge throngs of people, and yeah, lots of people are getting high. But the artists go out of their way to make the show fun for the audience, often trying out new arrangements, delving deep into the catalog, and playing interesting cover songs. Plus, the venues are often either small or full of character. It's fun seeing shows out on a lawn somewhere.

Also, there can be some really unexpected highlights, like the time I saw an MMW show back in '01 or '02, and nobody really knew much about this opening artist named Norah Jones because her album hadn't really taken off yet. Highlight of the show: MMW backing her in a version of the Sly and the Family version of "Que Sera, Sera."
Discovery of the decade? Injection 'could cure Alzheimer's in minutes'
I really don't see what the big problem with the interface is. It is not very pretty, but seems very functional, which is the most important thing in an interface.
See here for more on CRM-114:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=124085
Here's mine: the next major trend won't have "web" in the name at all, making this versioning business moot.
The list doesn't really make any sense, which would be okay if it was funny, but it isn't.
Yes, the hash is always reproducible given the same inputs, but you never specified this as a requirement in your question. Only that you want a unique identifier.

I don't know for what purpose you need these identifiers, but I have to wonder why you want to use an identifier that is going to change when the data changes. If it's going to be thrown in a relational database, this sounds like a nightmare.
Have you shipped yet? If not, how do you know that your new idea won't be similarly DOA, and by waiting you've just pushed back time without finding a product that will work? After all, you thought you had it right before.
I think language is also a factor. English grammar is dependent on word order. a thought is more free. so transforming that into sentences that reflect the thought order is a challenge. maybe this is only true for people like me who speak a different language (Farsi) which has free word order. I can write a long sentence putting all my thoughts in it without much problem. but when I write it in English it turns into run-on sentence. The only solution I've found is short senses that follow my thoughts. While English is a simple language it's an art to be able to write well so maybe that's why Paul's well written work include revisions in the process. I'm sure there are more to this but I'm not a language expert :)
Your Macbook must have some serious problem. May be some overheat condition that clocks it down. My wife's Macbook (white, Core Duo) is not sluggish no matter what I throw at it.

The ATI thing may explain your driver problems, but on my last notebooks, Linux was even able to figure out my Broadcom wireless, which is quite an accomplishment. For the last two years, I have little to no driver problems, but, then, I won't buy a notebook with an ATI video subsystem and I do prefer units with hardware that is known to work under Linux (the Vaios are very compatible, as are most HPs and Dells).
I'm not familiar with simpleDB but are you compairing a database server with a db service?
When you refer to classification, are you really talking about clustering? Is it the same thing? I've been looking at document/article clustering for NewsCred, and so far have spent some time with Carrot. Its open source and pretty good...
No, I use emacs.
Prior to P2P, which made individual copyright violation easy and fun, no one ever sued over individual non-commercial copyright violation either.

Tape trading mostly went untouched; P2P is being fought.

Making stuff in your basement no problem; Everyone sharing plans for replication on their own 3D printer not likely to go unnoticed.
Who is voting this up? This is just an incompetent reimplementation of Tripwire. The author gets it wrong, anyway: hashing the size of a file means that someone can trivially modify the file's content but keep the file size the same (e.g. add a line to /etc/passwd but delete a few comments).
This is kind of pointless without commensurate memory bandwidth. Those CPUs are just going to be waiting around doing nothing.
Randal Schwartz Gives an Introduction to Git
Long term, a large nuclear fusion power infrastructure plus 3D printers might make this a reality.

Also, as someone pointed out above, the central point of this article is incorrect. Manufacturing patented items for non-commercial use is illegal. So you would still expect to see lawsuits regarding illegal copying similar to the current RIAA suits.

Now, if the manufacturing of items becomes a trivial process, one could envision a "dark age" due to the lack of incentive to produce new goods.
The big deal is to have tabs.
One terminal window means one process. Although a process can be send to the background, it is at least my habit not to do that (most of the time).
Tabs avoid the clutter of many terminal windows. Thats it. And it is even easier than using screen.
A person named canoebuilder on hacker news? I thought I was the only one.
Hi there. I've not heard of Carrot. Do you have a link for it? My Google search brought up some orange things you grow and eat :)
I really don't think that duplicating libraries (a requirement for OSX-like .App bundles with no external dependencies) or apps checking and self-updating by app-specific methods is a good solution either.

For every duplicated library, you introduce the security and stability problems of that specific version, each will have to be addressed by the application provider, who may or may not be interested in the latest developments in the libraries it uses, instead of the original software developer. This thing can grow nasty in no time.
I used a lot of LaTeX in XEmacs in grad school. Now I've really taken to LyX for shorter documents. This is really not the kind of thing you move into *Office to pretty up afterwards, though. Once you make your PS or PDF, that's supposed to be it, but that's how I like it.

If you want to do really long essays (greater than 15 pages, say), I really recommend something based on parsing a markup language (TeX/LaTeX/troff/lout) because they're then easier to compartmentalize into multiple files and the numbering of sections and figures is automatic.
Google AdSense for Audio API
Talented Web Programmer
Can anyone recommend a talented web development firm or developer, preferably one who specializes in social web applications? We are a startup company that is well financed through angel investors and are looking for a very talented firm/programmer(s) to create our custom social web application with unique features not found in white label social networks. The firm/programmer(s) needs to be an experienced PHP programmer, who has fluency in AJAX and MySQL.

We initially underestimated the complexity of our proposed site and hired two "top" web developing firms, who were unable to create what we require. Now, a year after our planned launch, we are having to start the programming from scratch. We already have a sixty page technical scope and detailed designs of what the site will look like how it will function.

Location of the web firm or programmer is not important to us.

We appreciate any recommendations you can offer us.
John
Yes this is one pointer to study...there are some ways...but we will have to continue to study limitations in this direction too. thanks!
Skewz - a media rating site for political news
That's why Power6 has enormous memory bandwidth (~50 GB/s theoretical).
I might be able to help, depending on exactly what you want and what you are willing to pay. Shoot me a mail if you like, my adress is in my profile.
holy crap. i'd upvote that six times if i could.

find something cool for me i wouldn't have otherwise found by myself ... that's pretty much the definition of what i want from sites like hacker news.
I'm not sure that's really true. You tend to think more or less in the terms of the language you speak most of the time. For example, I lived in the US for one year and, when I got back to Brazil I'd often think like "I like this better", wheras in portuguese you'd say something like "I like more of this". My point being that we adapt to think how we speak and write, so that's not really the issue when writing down your thoughts.

I think the hardest thing is to be coherent, when you think you often skip steps that you look with greater care when you write. It's not uncommon that some of the steps you're skiping are crucial ones.
To me, this sets off warning signals...
For once, I agree with Arrington's linkbait-worthy tone.

Grandcentral is kind of more important of a service than others, and downtime is unacceptable.
Me too. Sixty pages of specs? That alone is enough to destroy them.
Wow, there's other people like me? Who don't think I'm crazy for working in the middle of the night?
I think you're missing my point. Yes, it seems more wrong to take money than to take a drink from the fridge.

The researcher in this study is saying "aha! taking a drink is exactly the same as taking money, therefore human beings are illogical thinkers in this scenario!" But it is in fact logical - it's based on the anticipated response of the person whose money/drink you're taking (and if you don't know how it belongs to - the general expectations of people in your society/community).

Also, I'm sure that there are societies in which people never take drinks from other people, and consider it the same as taking money. A comprehensive study would have covered more than an American college campus.
Yeah, I haven't even added in the thought of brand advertising as well. That would add to the effect, as the child company also gains eventual brand recognition over time in that situation.
Microsoft is still doing well off of office, and acquisitions/ventures such as hotmail and msn/windows live search. When most "average" people use their computers for the first time, and then on, they'll use internet explorer which goes to the msn home page and searches on Microsoft's search solution. The "average" user out there still uses IE, not firefox or opera. As a result they get a ton of traffic they wouldn't otherwise get.

http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=US&ts_mode=cou...

As you can see, Windows Live is number 6 on there. It is terrible compared to google, but that is still alot of traffic they get from synergy between their companies. Would Microsoft make more money if they instead sold their search traffic/IE users to google? Not at all.
Business of Software 2008 - registration open
Don't forget the upcoming google bigtable, which changes that graph quite a bit:

http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/google-bigtable...
I've noticed coding after consuming (a small amount of) alcohol has the same effect for me - I tend to go off on fewer tangents and stick to what I need to do.
permanent link:
http://adjb.net/index.php?entry=entry080409-221633
GrandCentral's CTO: "I knew DreamHost's rates were too good to be true..." :P
Here's a prime example of why I'm going to wait and see whether Google takes its customers seriously before lavishing significant amounts of time and attention on building a Google App that's completely hostage to their infrastructure.

Half a day of downtime. No explanation on the blog. Nothing you can do but wait and hope. I mean, my $7.95 web host didn't always have great customer service, but I had the option to leave, with less than a day of work.

Yeah, I realize that GrandCentral is an acquisition. Maybe their infrastructure isn't up to the "Google standard" -- they wrote it in PHP, or something. Maybe they've been Dodgeballed. Maybe Google Apps will be run by a better manager from a different division with a much bigger customer service budget. Maybe. But I'm sure that Google has more incentive to keep GrandCentral up -- or at least answer questions about it -- than they would have for my lousy Google App.
Leopard's Terminal.app has tabs. Until Leopard I've been using iTerm, but now I've com back to Terminal.app as it uses less memory & cpu and has tabs. I don't need anything more.
Google app engine limitations
This is the talk I watched after Linus Torvalds' Google talk... the one that actually got me moving toward using git. A very good talk.
Tombloo - Firefox Extension for Tumblr and the other
I disagree, but only because I believe people would consider candy that's /already opened/ by someone else to be "tainted" in some way.
JumpBox for Google App Engine
The Dictionary.com Reverse Dictionary
To clairfy, the technical scope document consists of Photoshop mockups of nearly every page of the site, and each mockup has a page description of functionality. This is intended to ease the development process, not increase it. This way, the site can be easily broken down in to phases. Ideally, we'd like to find a development team with whom we may have a longer-term relationship. We realize this size project will not have a 1-month turnaround and can even be launched in stages.
Polaroid's Back: Introduces Handheld Digital Photo Printer
Great product for today, but will there be a market in the future?
It can be easier to get firms to change when they can see the handwriting on the wall than when a threat is a distant glimmer on the horizon. Paradoxically, it may be easier to get print media to try new things today than two or three years ago. You need to pay close attention to your payback period and shorten that as much as possible to minimize the risk of experimentation. You need a proof point or prototype example: can you go back to a former employer and get them to try out your idea?
Could Madrid become the "valley" of Europe?

Erepublik and Fon are both based in madrid. I imagine there are others? Does anybody know?

http://erepublik.com
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/12/erepublik-combines-mmog...

http://fon.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
Yes. I want to see them on the front page.
Create Optimum Groups - Good Relationships Together, Bad Relationships Apart
Yes, but not on this site.
I use GrandCentral as the phone equivalent of a throwaway email address -- it's great as a number to give out to people who you don't want to give your actual phone number. But I wouldn't trust it for anything more -- today isn't the first time I've had issues with it.
AlertThingy, The FriendFeed Desktop Application, Launches
Agency under fire for decision not to save federal Web content
Should Comments be Portable?
My concerns about using something like simpledb would be about what if Amazon decided to discontinue the service, upgrade/change the service which broke your implementation etc etc. Personally I would not feel comfortable running my site on machines/software I did not have control over.
Latest Advance in Artificial Intelligence: Computer Wins a Game Against a Go Master
"... Ideally, we'd like to find a development team with whom we may have a longer-term relationship. ..."

most of the teams here, build product (their own) and don't work by the hour ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FiveWorlds.html
Clearing The Clouds Over Cloud Computing
Rather than using the arrow keys to highlight menu options I tend to type the first few letters of the menu item. Eg, Window zooming in Camino would be done by hitting Ctrl+F2, w, <enter>, z, <enter>.
Blog until you drop
He Wrote 200,000 Books (but Computers Did Some of the Work)
Job Interview 2.0
> The Police, Billy Joel, and Depeche Mode were great concerts.

What, are you 50?

> 2,000 people in a theater: good

Are you kidding? That's a massive show. You're just not exposed to what constitutes a normal show from a good touring band.
Hoping its true but having a hard time believing it. Is neurological damage even reversible?
Have a look at Yahoo's Content Analysis Term Extraction Web Service: http://developer.yahoo.com/search/content/V1/termExtraction....

And http://opencalais.com/
You guys smell like Sloanies .... And the smell stinks!