skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Consider a single free water molecule. As it moves around randomly it will hit the growing snowflake on a random side and get stuck to it, jiggling around a bit until it is in a position that is hard to get unstuck from. This creates the basic hexagonal shape of the snowflake.

Because of the huge number of water molecules floating around, it should be statistically likely that all sides of the snowflake will be hit and grow evenly. But the tips of the hexagon will be slightly more likely to be hit since they are protuding a little bit. Thus the tips will grow outwards and will be even more likely to get water molecules stuck to them. Eventually the tips will get large enough that molecules will stick to their sides, creating new growing branches. And those branches will eventually grow other branches and so on in a fractal manner.

The saturation of water molecules and the temperature are the conditions for how often the snowflake is hitnby water molecules and how much they jiggle around before getting stuck. As the snowflake falls through the air, these conditions change, which creates all the varied forms of snowflakes.
Exactly :D
Exactly. In Europe, the UK seems to be the biggest market for used enterprise hardware, so take a look at ebay.co.uk. Usually they will ship to the continent for not too much (~£20), and if you have a VAT number you can get that taken off (20%).
The problem with two factor authentication is that it often turns to be just a two stage authentication, or, effectively, an SMS-only authentication.

I'm surprised that Googler still kept unsecure password reset on 2FA, while disabling it on regular accounts.
Police has arrested a man for claiming to be Cross.River Governor Ben Ayade
It's a fixed cost, so they use a fixed fee. If they just added a percentage to the price per night, people who stayed more days would be paying more despite not requiring more cleaning.
Don't most ICOs explicitly state that the token does entitle the holder to...anything? With a stock or bond, there are legal structures that underlay the promised mechanism by which an investor might get a return on investment.

While it's all nice and fuzzy now, it seems to me that the recipients of the ICOs funds can do as they please with the money.

They are structured this way as an attempt to avoid the securities regulations.

It's an interesting solution to the problem. Securities regulations are setup so that investors have a chance at a return. They are intended to prevent the situation where companies raise funds, and don't return value to the investor.

So the sponsor of the ICO just says, no worries, we're not even promising an effort at returning value to investors!

It's unclear how this is going to play out from a regulatory point of view. It is clear, however, that the chance of these companies generating real value and returning it to the token holders is close to zero.

My guess is that most people putting their money down recognize, at least on some level, that they are joining a ponzi scheme. People love to gamble.
That's precisely wrong. VR is one of the business units that google isn't getting any part of.
I think you'll find that the largest components, by far, of "that money" (the money in the stock market) is

1) debt (leverage, options, futures contracts of all kinds ... whatever you want to call it). This is by far the largest component, and represents more than 50%

2) pensions (most of which are severely underfunded in the US and catastrophically underfunded, or simply not funded at all, in the EU) (not funded at all means the government bound itself to fulfill pension obligations directly from tax revenue without any investment, and of course just loaded up on obligations)

At this moment it isn't common knowledge, but the big financial news item of the 2018-2019 to 2030 period will be pensions, and what will happen to individual pension funds. I would strongly advise people on a pension to figure out how they can somehow own the house they live in. I guarantee it will make a bigger difference in their quality of life than any investment short of bitcoin.

3) companies themselves

And only after that do we get to private ownership of shares. So what rich people will do with their money is not really a big problem.

As to what happens to 1 when the stock market crashes is simple : the money simply disappears. The money only exists because A lent to B, B lent to C, and C lent to A, after which A, B and C each claim to "have" the money that was lent. When the chain collapses because of stock market tanking or bankruptcies (or both), there is no more claim, and so that money is simply gone.

What happens to 2 is that the government interferes. This has happened before and will happen again, as they say. The government will inflate it away by printing money. This allows them to "be generous". They compensate some of the loss, generously. Say they crash the dollar by 50%, then, in one year, give 25% of that printed money to help out with pensions. How generous ! Somehow this generosity means that the receivers have to move to a smaller apartment, but hey ... look at all the money they gave ! Needless to say, 75% will go to the at that point in time favored rich to "compensate" them for the effects of 1) and the money printing.
> It's uncontestable that currently operating reactors generally lack certain safety measures we'd have added if we built them today.

It is, because it is also a tautology. To me it has no bearing over the point we're discussing.
SDS – Store Arbitrary Data in URL Shortener URLs
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the idea on performance. The new A11 seems to be doing pretty well:
https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/256090-apples-new-a11-bio...

Now imagine that with a laptop’s power budget. Put a Transmetta like x86 decoder in front for legacy apps, combine with Apple’a full stack control, custom blocks on the chips, llvm bitcode and a few more years of development and you end up with a laptop that covers 80% of Apple’s market.

They can still use Intel for higher end machines, but the bulk of laptops will be all Apple. Along with unbeatable battery life.
SRGBz–a minimal sRGB ICC v2 profile
The estimated figure will be calculated similar to how a startup's value is calculated. There is some assumption made based on current market size, say the total car sales, and potential market growth. They then work backwards to calculate the estimated value of such technology at present date.

As for making the figure public and it is pure speculation. It might be an attempt to reflect this on Waymo being greedy - as you might have noticed the by line "just for starters". Most people tend to read headlines and not content. Secondly it might give them an edge during jury selection for the trial.
Oh it's not only booking.com

The newest scam is: flight comparison websites show you a low price, but only if you pay with a VISA. Switch to MasterCard and it's an additional 20-30€. But then you invested in the whole booking process already.

Amazon Prime: Try to cancel it. They make it sound as if you lose Prime right away. There's an option "remind me 3 days before next payment" that suggests you should think more about your decision. Only after you cancelled, they tell you that you lose your benefits only after your Prime subscription expires.
Women in technology: why is this still a taboo?
Yeah, they're all about A/B testing, not automated testing. The article shows what you get when you laser focus on CRO. They do very well though, and are probably the top hotel booking site? Definitely a lesson in there somewhere.
Access denied: wheelchair metro maps versus everyone else's
This one is also very usefull: http://igoro.com/archive/volatile-keyword-in-c-memory-model-...
Precisely. Because 51% affords far too much voice for the rabble. Relevant:

http://dalependell.com/essays/remembering-the-regulation-cal...
I find the current "market equilibrium" for both hotel booking and event ticket sales quite weird. I mean, both of them charge ridiculously high fares for a service that costs a fraction of that to produce. I mean, take hotel booking. Hotels could (technically) easily set up a booking co-operative (or two to get some competition), and refuse to sell anywhere else online. The fees to be able to run the co-operative would be sub 1%. It needs no marketing budget because that is the only site that comes up when googling hotels (others are dead).

Or then I am missing something in the market dynamics of hotel booking.
You seriously had to book a shitty hotel in order to understand that you're being manipulated?

Let me give you the short version of how to book on booking, which is BTW an excellent site for travel arrangements:

1) Ignore anything that makes it sound like you're in a competition. Cheapest price, someone is looking, etc. You're trying to book a hotel room that suits you, not win a race.

2) Any hotel ranked below 9+ has problems. You just need to figure out what the problems are, and those will appear in the reviews section. Don't be lazy - you need to read dozens of reviews. The good news is that you can skip the good reviews - they won't contain what you're looking for. If you book any hotel that has a less than 9 average, make sure you understand what people didn't like about it. If it's over 9, everyone liked it, and you will too.
I actually think this is caused a by a highly croweded, overly competitive market. There are so many booking sites that they have to resort to these things to win sales.
Techcrunch is not a trash website. They are just keeping few trash editors in front of iMacs.
Not really, no. Libertarian is, on the political compass, the opposite of authoritarian. As such, there's actually a whole spectrum of beliefs.

Anarchists believe in no laws. Libertarians believe in increased liberty for the individual. This can be manifest as a reduction of laws, it may be as extreme as a desire for anarchy.

Libertarian really is (was?) about increasing and protecting the individual liberties, maximizing one's ability to make use of their freedoms.

To put those words into a descriptive use, I prefer this; You are free to kill me, you are not at liberty to do so. If you try to kill me, I have the right to defend myself.

So, libertarians are concerned with increasing personal liberties and typically for everyone. So, no, to use the above example, a libertarian would not suggest they have the right to kill people because that's reducing the right of the other person to live. Typically, a libertarian would have wanted to ensure one can most appreciate their freedoms while protecting the commons.

I use the past tense because the usual perception of libertarian is the current incarnation which is mostly made up of ashamed republicans who can no longer feel comfortable being associated with the republican party.

Really, Ayn Rand was an idiot and adoption of her book was absolutely not libertarian in nature. Liberties are for everyone, not just those who can afford them. The goal is to maximize the ability to enjoy your freedoms, and that isn't just reserved for the wealthy. Furthermore, wealth isn't an indicator of productivity or value to society. Wealth is an absolutely horrible metric for determining liberties or rights.

Way back when, libertarians were considered the kooky left. Now, they are seen as the crazy right. Really, it's a very broad spectrum that isn't easy to pin down and put onto a bumper sticker.

I identify as a libertarian, I'd probably be considered close to a Scandinavian Social-Democrat but with a touch of greater rights and expecting a bit more personal responsibility. I believe in things like a strong social safety net, inexpensive health care, inexpensive education, and a right to individual autonomy.

On the political compass, I'm fairly far to the left (very far by US standards) and down in the lower quadrant, as a libertarian.

Sorry for the novella, but hopefully this makes sense. For the most part, the leftist leaning libertarians are extinct in the US. The party has been usurped. Even before that, there weren't many calls for anarchy.

I kinda wish this could be more succinct. Again, sorry about that.
Apple will bring out iVision or something like HoloLense/Google Glasses. Same story as like the iPod.
I would guess the 3B in credit is no longer available if they have 0 cash left
I am! Good to see you :)

I miss that place; I feel like we grew up there.
This is a naive comparison when taken out-of-context. Frankly, I don't really understand how you could be an independent contractor working 5 days a week on a single route contract for FedEx -- when would you have time to service your truck or how would unpaid sick days or vacation work -- but the retirement accounts are all commodities now, especially with the internet -- in fact, my CU offers better HSA than my former employer.
And the Republican party defeated the group that fought for slavery. Things change over generations.
There's an obvious correlation, and the language of the former is also used as cover for self-identified white supremacists who until recently found themselves obliged to cloak or mute their views.

NB: that correlation is less obvious for those who have the "right" culture.
I'm courios about the salary offered. In Amsterdam Booking is known to be paying above the market average. Their salary range is also listed stack overflow careers page. Are salaries really that hight in India?
False equivalence. Campaign contributions and personal income are separate categories.

It might feel unsavory that those speeches are indeed personal income for the long list of politicians, from both left and right, who have engaged in that practice. But those events aren't about buying influence, they're about rich wankers feeling special because they get to hear some bullshit commencement address from important people behind closed doors.

Those private speeches don't buy any more influence than campaign contributions... which is to say rather little for the presidency. The higher the office, the more visibility and intervening forces there are to keep you from making arbitrary policy in favor of donors.

To be clear, I agree these things are bad. And we should strive to remove them entirely from our democracy. But the magnitude of both campaign contributions and private event income is routinely overstated these days.
Two quibbles: first, I'd argue that DOS, Windows 3.x/9x/ME, Windows NT are three separate OSs. Ditto MacOS and OSX.

Secondly, I think we're in agreement about the 'dominance for decades' thing. I should have said "Very, very hard ... and will take a long time."

Think of ITS, Symbolics, VMS, HPUX, Solaris, PalmOS, CP/M, OS/2 ... all once popular, now consigned to the dustbin.
Fast, Furious, and Cheap: server for SMB database for less than US$1000
Actually there are many holdouts were this is frowned upon.
Senderens French chef was I guess the first one to ask to be stripped of his 3 stars.
Cryptocurrencies offer unprecedented transaction speeds

Lol.
There are quite conflicting reports on pay there, and from what I can tell from their stackoverflow job postings, they're above average. What sort of pay would you expect in India for a job like this?
Given Intel ME, mmm yes?
This assuming Uber's IPO is around the corner? While a case could be made against Yahoo during Facebook's IPO (Yahoo sued FB on March 12, 2012 and the IPO was filed on February 1, 2012), situation here is not similar.

From what I read Uber has discussed about IPO prospects but 1.5-3 years later:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/30/new-uber-ceo-says-ipo-is-1...

So what effect does it have really on Uber's IPO?
List of Apps to Stay Safe During Catastrophic Conditions
The post claims "the addition of the zk-SNARK technology does not by itself provide privacy protection for Ethereum users. There is a new tool in the toolbox, but for now Ethereum transactions are no more private than before."

Does this just mean that Byzantium does not contain the ability to somehow convert Ether into Zcash? That would seem to be the feature that would enable existing ethereum balances to become anonymized.
Show HN: The First Few Users of Your App
Apple does right by users and advertisers are displeased
No idea what this is based on the landing page. A social network for people ... wearing band t-shirts?
Remote Work Digest: September 21, 2017
Holy fuck - breaching EDGAR and getting away with trading on the information - and we are learning about this now?

To be fair, I've used EDGAR and it is <cough> very legacy. So no question it was completely compromised.

The mistake was putting non-public information on it in the first place. The risk assessment for private data exposure was extreme and my damp recollection is that the site warned explicitly of such?
They could have used 3d touch. That would have made a lot of sense, I agree.
Ultrahack 2017 Sprint II
Good summary of the current political climate around the tech sector. To be honest, this has been a long time coming -- I've been reading pieces with disdain for "Silicon Valley technocrats" for a while now. It is picking up pace now, though... and the EU has already fired quite a few shots.

"I left out Twit­ter be­cause it’s not ac­tu­al­ly a com­pa­ny, it’s a dys­func­tion­al non-profit that ac­ci­den­tal­ly pro­vides a valu­able ser­vice." Ouch.
I think parent's point was simply that being critical of democracy does not automatically make you a "neo-feudalist". For example, countries with a strong constitution like the USA have a more constrained democratic process.
Does this confirm the theory that cops aren't particularly smart?
Artificial skin, DNA Nanobots and Other not boring engineering news digest
I'm on Android 7.1.1 and that setting isn't there.

The page after the gear icon only has Saved Networks, Network Notifications, Auto Network Switch (that's for Wi-Fi to data and back) and Keep Wi-Fi On During Sleep.

I don't know if it means it's buried somewhere else or it behaves like it should.

Edit: it's in Location (which I keep off), the 3 dots menu, Scanning. Wi-Fi Scanning and Bluetooth scanning, both are off maybe because I disabled location. But would those work even with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off?
How to correctly ask for feedback on your dev team
Perhaps for the better, as it's hardly a subject that does any good when driven by emotional impulses.
The solution Ferrari uses to avoid some newly rich entrepreneur buying their limited series super cars is to require buyers to be proper collectors. They can't resell the car within N years, have to own M previous ferraris etc.

This model is harder for restaurants, they actually want to avoid these Pokémon-style foodies and find the people that really appreciate the food. Not sure what the model would be for restaurants. Once you hit 3 stars you stop accepting tourists?
Despite knowing all about dark patterns, I let myself be manipulated into paying $120/night for a room (expensive by Sri Lanka standards). Because of the repeated "only 1 room left!" messages and I didn't want to mess up my anniversary holiday

A few days later, I checked again and the room was going for $50

I mailed them about it. They agreed to refund me $50, so that was nice of them
I don't think the number of Stack Overflow questions is a good indication. Given the difference in age and Scala's use of features unfamiliar to many programmers I'd expect it to generate more questions from (for example) people switching from Java, especially since those unfamiliar features are probably only known to people like Haskell developers who are rare bunch themselves.

Kotlin being a bit more of a "Java done right", a bit less radical, maybe generates less confusion.

It might also be a sign of Kotlin's documentation being better.

I thought the article was pretty weak, it doesn't really go into much detail into how things like higher-kinded types actually affect Scala programming and why you might miss them (or not) in Kotlin, but does take the time to note that Kotlin needs an extra keyword on the constructor arguments for data classes, something which is almost completely irrelevant (and, IIRC, comes from Kotlin's primary constructor syntax so is a reuse of a more widely applicable pattern).

I don't think I could come away from this with an idea of which one I should learn and use, as it claims.
That's not exactly the fault of booking.com though. Hotels have learned that if they want people to book directly with them (which gets them more money), they need to make it attractive to customers. They can't really offer a lower price than booking.com and hotels.com due to contracts they have with those companies so instead they offer a reward scheme and exclude bookings not made directly with them.

They also sometimes offer lower "member only" price for members of their reward scheme as a way to get around their contract (in that case the lower price they provide than booking.com is not public but only restricted to members so it's not a breach of contract).

That said, I don't use booking.com, I find their dark patterns too deceptive for me.
JCPenny tried to pivot, which included:

- Selling to a different demographic (young adults - like 20-25 y/o) <-- This was probably a huge reason for the failure

- Making their stores "trendy" (for example, removing POS, instead employees walk around with iPads that have scanners attached)

- Removing constant "70% off" sales

Removing the sales probably was a part of the failure. But it was not as huge of a deal as people make it out to be.
Server: Racket – An ebook about web development with the Racket HTTP server
Ask HN: Are Royalty Investments attractive options to investors?
A royalty investment is where an investor exchanges capital for royalties on one or more products, sometimes capped to a mutually agreed amount.

I believe these aren't pursued often because it's a complicated and expensive model for most business structures. As a result I'm having a hard time researching the general consensus about it.

Suppose I had a startup where it perfectly fit the model. Our company would sell products that are sold once to a single customer. Investors could perform a royalty investment by granting us capital once, then receive royalties on those kinds of sales until certain conditions are met.

Compared to traditional equity-based investments, I feel this arrangement can benefit both parties if arranged correctly. Companies can retain equity and investors could see larger returns quickly, especially if no exit strategy was being considered at the time.

How does HN feel about these types of investments?
How cannot you have a continous checking logic in the driver logic of a gearless drive?

Let me help: you can, and I have taken part in developing one.
Urbit might never become popular enough for this sort of thing to really matter.

And decisions like this might be a part of why it never becomes popular. Elsewhere in the thread people are suggesting that, say, children don't need their own "planet" or whatever it's called, and that they could be one per family and still service the whole world. But that bakes in an awful lot of assumptions about culturally-specific ideas of family and stability of family units. Granted, I think those are culturally-specific ideas Moldbug would love to impose on the world if he could, but this is why people keep saying that even the technical decisions in Urbit are pushing specific political positions of his.

Also, at this point anyone who deliberately designs an address space to be too small to handle already-existing popular things is probably not making sound long-term technical decisions to begin with.
but it's owned by Lenovo now, so Google is not profiting from that? Or is that not what you mean?
Probably because you’re sleeping?
Project Fi welcomes Android One, with the moto x4
Awesome! It's surreal to see a familiar name making such a neat app. I saw this earlier today and had a small moment of triumph since I'm terrible at solving sudokus myself. A few people visit kF every once and a while; feel free to stop by!
It would be so much better if instead of these distracting comments HN made the simple style fix so that double space does a proper indent.