skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My big concern is add-ons.

The whole reason I use Firefox is the availability of add-ons such as NoScript and Cookie Culler. I'm guessing NoScript will work with Quantum, but Cookie Culler hasn't been updated since last year.

Roomy Bookmarks is also a major quality-of-life factor; it allows me to have a well-stocked bookmarks bar. And it definitely won't work with Quantum. That alone will give me strong pause about updating.
>That comic by Dr. Barski tears me up every time! Just to test, I went and read the comic again and I cried, again!

I confess I also cried when I realized such a book existed.

It was like God telling me: "Don't be ashamed of being a nerd. You're unique and we love you."
http://www.dropboxwiki.com/tips-and-tricks/exclude-folders-f...

From

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Ignore-folder-withou...
Ask HN: Did lunar calendars cause right-to-left writing systems?
I am not an expert and may be off-base here. But I believe that Chinese and Semitic writing systems are right-to-left (in the Chinese case, up-to-down first) and that these cultures used predominantly lunar calendars. Meanwhile, Western and Mayan writing systems are left-to-right, and these cultures used predominantly solar calendars. The moon waxes from right to left. Is it possible that calendar systems influenced writing direction?
Matplotlib Lead Developer Explains Why He Can’t Fix the Docs–But You Can
If people ever ask you for certain kinds of help or are baffled that you manage to easily do X when X is their worst nightmare, you may have a something to offer. But, it can still be a lot of work to figure out how to turn it into a thriving business.

I have started a number of blogs in response to apparent demand for information I know on various subjects. Even that has been very challenging in terms of trying to figure out how to best serve the needs of other people, turn it into a business model, etc. I have "pivoted" repeatedly in certain problem spaces. I might have a few things that don't completely suck at this point. ;-) But, I am still sorting out how this becomes some kind of meaningful income stream, etc.

Best.
I wonder if the author made new chapters free..
Another aspect besides the field which others gave great insight about, one aspect is costs and access to capital.

When I decided to go the startup route I had a strong idea, validation from potential customers, high barrier to entry for competitors, very small amount of software dev to do, etc.

Only problem I needed between 500k-1M€ of starting capital to get the idea rolling. I only had less than 50k€ in my name. I found potential investors but obviously a very large dilution factor.

I switched to another idea, which required considerable amount of software work that I could do before creating the company but needed about 50k€ of starting capital. I went that route, found cofounders, a team, etc...and so far, 6 years and a few small rounds, we raised about 1M€ and are one of the only players in our field to be profitable, despite competitors having raised significantly more.

Recently I had a look at another problem I could solve in an entirely different field (which I know little about). I estimated startup capital at about 5M€ to reach MVP. Guess what? A few weeks ago a joint venture between major players in this field announced a 3 year R&D programme and 25M€ investment. There is no way I could beat them.
> people can have significant financial incentives

Of course. People who believe they will be better off leave the commune. Those tend to be the highest producers. What's left are the low producers, and that can't sustain the commune, so it collapses.

The next obvious step is to prevent the high producers from leaving, and history shows how that plays out.
There's no dilemma. I never said it wasn't possible. I'm saying that it's far more difficult to be disciplined oneself, than it is to learn some tools. Thus, it's far more interesting for a teacher to try and instill discipline in the students, than to teach the latest set of tools. The former is far more stable and will affect a person's behavior much more deeply, the latter will keep changing and can be added to a skillset within a week by reading some tutorials.
I see an effort like License Zero less as an encroachment on existing "Free and Open Source" licenses and culture, and more as an alternative to behind-closed-door development.

I want to _sustainably_ write software, not for donations but by having people who want to use it, pay for it. If I have to go closed-source to do so, then that's what I'll do. I don't have a big company behind me paying a salary.

But I would prefer to make things in the open, sharing my process; I'd like to allow students and other individuals to benefit from my work, either freely or very affordably; and I'd like to charge for-profit companies a fair price for what they receive.

The open source community tried to trademark the 'open source' label, and failed¹, precisely because it is _too descriptive_: it sounds like a generic way of describing source code that isn't private, not a specialized term with specific ethical and legal implications. But nevertheless the 'Open Source Definition' campaign has been rather effective in limiting use of the term. So I'm not even sure what to call what I want to do: maybe "open-source-ish"?

Some of my work belongs under OSI-approved licenses, but not all of it, and I appreciate that people like Kyle are working, creatively, on alternatives.

1. https://opensource.org/pressreleases/certified-open-source.p...
J.D. Salinger, Syd Barrett...
I hate it when pop culture romanticizes isolation. These people need help. Good example is Christopher McCandless (movie: Into The Wild), whose decomposing body weighed only 30 kilograms when it was found.

On one hand you have Zarathustra, the sage coming down from mountain after 10 years of meditation to spread the wisdom. On the other hand you have everyone else, decaying, dying slowly and suffering in silence.
Matt was also a lead on webmaster relation issues. ... There are good people who have already been doing that.

Can you suggest some?

I'm still trying to resolve a years-old issue that Matt Cutts gave me incorrect information about. You can read our back-and-forth (before he stops responding) here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5418864
I would think that after following Google's search endeavors so closely for so long, being invited to join Google and see it from the inside must be incredibly exciting.

If it is, congratulations! Have fun!
This. Eddie was never mainstream but he was not offensive for the homophobia jokes. He was offensive because he said shit fuck pussy in a time this was not considered socially appropriate. It wasn’t until this became more “normal” that the underlying message could be considered offensive.
Except there's a great caveat with this approach. People that are highly productive and self-motivated often don't give a pleasant impression because they are fascinated with the idea and don't care for the looks. And vice versa, those who will look like a great friendly team, will be passionate about, well, looking great and friendly. They will spend time getting together, having endless pleasant talks about the latest news and their favorite TV show and couldn't be bothered to get out of the comfort zone and actually deliver something measurable.
Paving the way for a lithium battery that uses an asphalt electrode
> He promised the disadvantaged he'd get their jobs back from Mexico and China

All candidates promised jobs. Trump was promising jobs that either no longer really exist due to automation or are soon to be automated out of existence. Clinton and Sanders promised more forward-looking jobs without the racist overtones. It was obvious to anyone not watching Fox News which plan would be better for poor people in this country. When I said he never championed their cause, I meant he never championed the cause of the poor over the rich. He championed the cause of the white over the minority and immigrant. Sanders and Clinton were put forth visions to help the poor that were far more compelling. The problem is that those visions included black people and immigrants, so large swaths of the country dismissed them.

> I blame people who care more about illegal immigrants than the disenfranchised citizens suffering in poverty in the US

Illegal immigrants are human beings too and deserve every bit the consideration that citizens do. The same logic that you use to dismiss illegal immigrants can be used to dismiss poor people in fly-over states...they were born in poverty across some arbitrarily-drawn line and what moral obligation do we have to care for them? Well, if you believe that you have a moral obligation to care for one group, you have a moral obligation to care for the other as well. Arbitrary lines drawn on a map, whether delineating states or countries, don't change that.

> I blame urban liberals who have no comprehension of the plight the poor in the US are suffering through

You mean those same liberals that mostly voted for Sanders in the primary and Clinton in the general? Both choices were demonstrably in the interest of the poor people described in this piece. Those liberals you're blaming may not have experienced that sort of poverty (however some of us did...my mom was on welfare until I was 8 years old), but they absolutely have the interests of the poor in mind when they vote.

> I blame upper management of the Democratic Party

No arguments there...the DNC elites absolutely screwed over the country believing that no one could lose to Trump and that the demographics of this country had permanently shifted. They got their comeuppance but we're all suffering the consequences.

> Hillary Clinton is nowhere to be found after her crushing defeat

She did write a book about the election, but I think the election really pointed out just how damaging and counterproductive she and her crony wing of the Democratic party have been to progressive causes. That she's now out of the spotlight speaks more to being marginalized by those with actual elected office (like Sanders and Warren...none of them are asking her for her help) than it does to her lack of interest in trying to fix things. Too much of the country, including Democrats, hates her right now. I think there's almost universal agreement that we'd all like her to step away from public life and leave the future of this country to a new generation of politicians.
There's a natural tradeoff here though: the easier a business is for you to build, the easier it is for others to copy it. If you're a skilled practitioner doing something near the limits of your abilities, it in no way guarantees that you'll find product-market fit, but when you do, the market is more likely to be yours for awhile. There will be fewer people out there who are capable of competing with you and it will take them longer to get up and running.
Author uses link shorteners to hide the fact that all these items have affiliate links to make the author money off you.

Stay classy, Medium.
Could you explain more about this vehicle inspection? I've never had a required inspection but I haven't driven that much either.
Agreed. I understand your point now. Thanks.
Hi!

Yeah I made a mistake once. It happens.

If having a PhD in computer science (programming languages), being reasonably smart, and using the language for 20 years (up to and including most C++14 stuff) doesn't make you an expert in that language, then your language is far too difficult.

In fact, C++ is far too difficult and there are very few genuine experts in it. For example, who can explain why using push_back on a vector<map<T,unique_ptr>> is not conformant to the Standard, without looking it up? (I'll save you some time: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=683729...)

There's also a definitional bait-and-switch going on here. C++ proponents use "C++" to mean "the language that lots of projects have been using for 20 years and lots of programmers know" when espousing its popularity. But when necessary, the meaning changes to some "'modern', 'safe' subset of C++" ... that few programmers know well and few projects stick to rigorously. The exact definition of that subset changes depending on the situation, too.
I really like the thumb-reach heatmaps. This has been my personal experience on larger phones as well: I should be able to "thumb the numbers".

I don't like a redesign because it's simply too ingrained. It's a sailed ship.

Note that our screens are big enough to waste space to nothing, at least for a phone dial screen. So we can redesign it to:

___________________________
| |
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| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
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| 1 2 3 |
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| 4 5 6 |
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| 7 8 9 |
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| 0 |
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|_________________________|
I suspect a close examination of the pig's genome would also be a remarkably multifaceted demonstration of the DNA evidence for evolution.

Two minute introduction: life is largely built out of proteins, which are chains of amino acids (small organic molecules) which "fold" into interesting shapes and interact with each other in interesting ways. Our DNA is a set of blueprints for making a suite of proteins that builds us.

One of the curiosities in our DNA is that multiple sequences can code for the same amino acid in a protein. It doesn't matter how it's coded in your DNA, the protein still functions the same way. So one piece of evidence in favor of evolution is that most organisms share a common DNA sequence for common proteins, even though there are potentially millions (or more!) of different sequences which would code for the same protein.

So if humans and pigs have evolved any of the same proteins since they diverged millions of years ago, you should also expect them to be coded for in "more different" ways than if they were evolved in a common ancestor.

(You wouldn't expect the coding for the proteins to be completely different, since they probably evolved from a protein shared by the common ancestors.)
Beauty in this context is interpersonal relationships that I had been missing out on because of the filter that social anxiety was creating. Sorry if I wasn't more clear with the analogy.
I would say the second one does.
> You're not likely to die in a car crash if you don't drive a car.

Unless you're collateral damage.
Yes, this is the problem with AI risk---there's a community pushing hard to gather resources to the cause, but little or no scientific work to be done. This is a rather pathological situation---among other things, the AI risk community makes their own cause look silly, and they promote an unduly negative vision of AGI. I've written more about this here: http://www.basicai.org/blog/ai-risk-2017-08-08.html.

On a positive note, as a piece of science fiction, this was an enjoyable read!
A tool is short term, shallow, and goal-oriented. Building discipline and good practices permeates a person's life far more deeply than tools.
It was sold to Mail.ru a long time ago. I think Mail.ru sold them a couple of years ago. They say they still have millions of users
I was maybe 10, and I remember that I was so pissed off by the age test that I found the way to bypass it simply using CTRL-Z.
After that point I wasn't really much interested to the game because I didn't know what the hell to write and what to do.
But at least cracking the age test was fun.
> The dial pad is fine. Leave it alone.

i did

https://github.com/ransomw/simp-phone/blob/master/client/app...

... and it still turned out to be a convoluted story of code design.

perhaps the results will be useful to anyone considering pursing the UI design end of things.
Support for capturing ACH data (account number, routing number, etc) with the 'Elements' UX toolkit.
Using Kafka's Streams API for Real-Time, Predictive Ad Computations at Pinterest
Holy shit. I'd leave the country and renounce citizenship over something like this.

Reading words? Looking at pictures? Watching a video? Felony jail time? Really?

This is policy that any sane person would resist.
Ahhh. That explains why lets encrypt does it!
It took seven people to make a useless static file generator? Bandwagon security.
Xcode 8 is still better, because Xcode 8 actually works.

Xcode 9.2 might be great, but 9.1 doesn't seem to take any interest in the most urgent problems of 9.0, i.e everything breaks as SourceKit grinds relentlessly in the background chewing up more and more memory (it reached 18 gigs physical ram on my 16 gig MacBook somehow!).

First it forgets how to find symbols, or refactor, then text entry slows so much until I have to wait a few seconds every time I type just to see what I typed, finally the editor just freezes for lengthy periods. That's just the most prominent problems.

Fortunately restart fixes these problems, but not most others.
Thanks! That worked for me. I had no idea.
Fair enough, but remember to put a “per capita” section in the scale.
This is an interesting subthread. Humor and social taboos have a fascinating relationship. A lot of old Monty Python sketches spoofed British uptightness and reverence towards Queen and country in a way that may have been somewhat subversive at the time, but the taboos have disappeared to some extent. Meanwhile, other taboos have been introduced into our society that make humor from previous times more uncomfortable.

We’re also developing bubbles, to the point where a comedian like Dave Chappelle, whom no one would consider to be on the right hand side of the spectrum, releases a comedy special that’s uncomfortable to watch for those of us who grimace at rape jokes.

Maybe we just need to forgive creative works that came from less enlightened times, and realize that we ourselves are in a less enlightened time than someone else will possibly be.
Historically, it seemed to me that many teachers (at all levels) took pains to prepare students to handle disagreement in a healthy way.

More recently, it seems that our culture has changed, and that students are being not just indulged, but even encouraged to respond in the unfortunate manner that you describe.
Nobody wants this. Automated disclosure means getting even more automated-scan reports. Total waste of time.
did anyone actually read the article?

This should be the take-away quote:

> So that was the original Leisure Suit Larry. It was a game that provided an absurdist joke about sexy pixel women that entertained an audience of people frustrated with text parsers by subverting genre expectations.

The new versions of the game destroyed the essence of the game by moving away from text parsing to mouse-based, and by moving away from pixel graphics to rich graphics.
Is there a picture of him to compare?
>Communes have been tried, voluntary ones and forcible ones, over and over. They never work out. People just aren't wired up that way.

Communes from the 60's still exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hog_Farm
There's also the factor that those coal jobs are GONE. Even with increased demand if the Trump Administration is able to really push that through, automation and changes in mining mean that all those jobs as coal miners aren't coming back, and the people who were told that they are coming back were simply lied to.
but the costs between that and coal production and combustion are not exactly the same.

And what are they in favor of? Coal? Solar?
There are some things you could change that will be going away - such as having separate (and equal sized) forward and back buttons and separating them from the location field; breaking out the stop and reload buttons; changing button appearance; and the like that depended on XUL and are going away with the new "Proton" UI.

Even now adjustments I used to be able to make in seconds by installing an alternative theme now take an hour of wrestling with the Classic Theme Restorer extension to restore and unbreak with each version upgrade.
Don’t Get Too Comfortable at That Desk
Note that there are a ton of ways to grab screenshots on linux that don't require you to start gimp. (I'm assuming you're using linux since you mentioned gimp; yes I know it runs on other platforms, but those platforms also have other, much easier ways to capture screenshots). On linux workstations I usually have one of those quake-console things so I hit whatever key combination triggers it (on my mac it's double-ctrl, brings down iterm 2 window). From any console you can use the "import" command (part of imagemagick package). This lets you grab the whole screen, a single window, or an arbitrary rectangle. `import foo.png` Gnome has its own screenshot tool, and there are likely dozens of other packages that do the same thing.
While i have no intention of drawing moral equivalencies: in the US, watching child pornography videos can earn you felony jail time and permanent registration on a sex offenders list. Agree or disagree with the punishment, watching a video resulting in jail time is not without precedent, even stateside.
It seems that you have an issue with beliefs that you assume people have, rather than a literal reading of what they stated. People generally interpret things much more negatively over text channels like email, than hearing the same thing in person, so I'd be cautious of such a negative take.
DNA is the world's oldest blockchain
A 2017 Nobel laureate says he left science because he ran out of money
I don't think he's actively against those tools. I think he's actively against claims that those tools actually solve the problems developers deal with, instead of uncovering the true behavior that lies beneath those problems.
Yup...

Ontrac lies on their track. Had a package get reported as delivered one day, but it actually arrived the next morning. I happened to actually be leaving my apartment right as the guy was walking up. I really wanted to ask him why the tracking reported the package already delivered when it wasn't, but I had to get to work and didn't have the time.
It would bring in triple that. Personal dividend tax is 20%.

Plus California takes another 10% off the top, so they could start their own space program!
Compared to Zuckerberg, sure. But 29 is hardly that young to be this articulate and wise. I feel like sentiments like this is much more about hero worship than a statement about how unusually well spoken he his compared to most people his age.
(declaim (ftype (function (integer string) cons)
foo))
(defun foo (a b)
(list a b))

(declaim (ftype (function (integer) cons)
bar))
(defun bar (a) (foo a a))

(declaim (ftype (function (integer) integer)
baz))
(defun baz (a) (+ (foo a "b") 42))

The SBCL compiler:

in BAR: an argument of the wrong type.

; in: DEFUN BAR
; (FOO A A)
;
; note: deleting unreachable code
;
; caught WARNING:
; Derived type of A is
; (VALUES INTEGER &OPTIONAL),
; conflicting with its asserted type
; STRING.
; See also:
; The SBCL Manual, Node "Handling of Types"

in BAZ: the wrong return type

; compiling (DECLAIM (FTYPE # ...))
; compiling (DEFUN BAZ ...)
; file: /private/tmp/test.lisp
; in: DEFUN BAZ
; (+ (FOO A "b") 42)
;
; note: deleting unreachable code
;
; caught WARNING:
; Derived type of (FOO A "b") is
; (VALUES CONS &REST T),
; conflicting with its asserted type
; NUMBER.
; See also:
; The SBCL Manual, Node "Handling of Types"
The Rise and Fall of AIM (2014)
Coming from a rural area where all the farm jobs went away and half the people are unemployed: they very well can, and do.

There are three main hobbies in my hometown: drinking, heroin, and TV. things haven't changed a bit there in 20 years because nobody cares to change anything.
Good grief, I really couldn't agree less.
In the same way it's a progressive social issue to support universal healthcare, I'd say it's a progressive issue to accept refugees and other immigrants trying to make better lives for themselves.

The common thread is empathy and a desire to help those less fortunate.
Yep. A DNA sequence is a DNA sequence. Once it has successfully installed itself into your genome it doesn't matter where it came from. There's no revision control in DNA.