skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Beyond any implicit insult, I don't like the logical fallacy upon which "too much time on his hands" is founded.

There's no way for an outside observer to know how much free time someone has based only on a viewing of the fruits of their hobby. That guy who built an ornate castle out of clothes pins may well have a packed schedule, and it was all he could do to cram the building in a few hours a week.

Actually, remember the guy who built a fully-functioning Daft Punk helmet that was making the rounds a couple of weeks ago? That took him 18 months. It was a labor of love for no external gain, but he quite likely had very little free time for it to take him that long.
... and a "thought leader." [vomit]
Duplicate entry - See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126993 for additional discussions.
Installing Nginx With PHP5 And MySQL Support On OpenSUSE 11.3
If we need to have camera's to protect court houses, government buildings and banks for security reasons, then it would seem that a citizen has the right to videotape any event they are involved in if they so choose. If we do not get asked our permission to be videotaped when I enter a shopping mall, then I should not have to ask anyone's permission if I am on a public road and some cop is yelling and waving a gun.
"Does that apply to security cameras?"

Private cameras, or those put there by government officials?
Luck Favours the Procrastinator
There is an exception: unless you are large enough corporation or you are the state. It works rather well...
Shared belief that large tangible objects have value is not fundamentally different from shared belief that small bits in a system have value. Shared agreement is what keeps the whole thing going.
You're Dead. Now What?
Try this:

http://ask.searchyc.com/
I think what he said is clear enough -- he wouldn't bother mentioning the type of confirmations you mention.
If you've ever used Google's search appliance, you already know that wouldn't work.
Darpa 'exascale' supercomputer in the works
> Sometimes, you can also go to a local university, open up your laptop in a cafeteria (or library), search for any open wireless network, and bypass those paywalls completely.

I think it's important to realise that, if you are opposed (as mahmud (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1591586) is, for example) to paying for this content, that you are not bypassing the paywalls, but, rather, taking advantage of the university's having already paid its way through them.

(To be clear, I think that it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do; just that it's important to realise that nothing is being ‘bypassed’ per se. I also think you're very lucky to be near a university with an open network—all that I know now require authentication.)
The self-credulity of the interviewees is amazing. Here is Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police:

"With dashboard cameras or police security video, the evidence is in the hands of law enforcement the entire time, so it’s admissible under the rules of evidence."

Never mind that dashboard video cameras have an amazing rate of "forgotten tapes" whenever the actions of police come into question.

I suppose that a person could reply that I only have anecdotal evidence of that. However, the point illustrated by the anecdote is that in these circumstances the role of law enforcement as a neutral party is in question.
I think of procrastination as "late binding for ideas".
> But we don’t have those problems around here. All of our cops around here are good cops. ... no reason for anyone to feel they need to record police officers in Crawford County.

My personal rule: As soon as any official says that about their deparment one should assume the opposite and suspect, corruption and abuse of power and authority.
Spreadsheet.

Ninja.

I'm having trouble thinking of two more depressingly diametrically opposed words.
Garbage in, garbage out? The original piece wasn't particularly impressive (rather than blame taxes for business problems, why not suggest targeted tax cuts offset by targeted tax increases?), but this somehow manages to be worse.

The ostensible reason the op-ed was crap was that Micheal Fleisher is related to someone who served in the Bush Administration. Now, while I agree that not divulging that information was a mistake on the Journal's part, I hardly think that shores up MJ's argument. It is necessarily fallacious-- his point is wrong because he was wrong in the past, because he was associated with people we don't like, and because his business is in trouble. It is certainly possible that these things might be true, but they have little bearing on the (equally bad) arguments in his op-ed, which are: taxes are slowing job growth-- see, just look at my business!

MJ notes that the original article wasn't worth much comment. Why they decided to then ignore their own conclusion and comment on it anyway is a mystery to me.

The least they could have done was try to raise, rather than lower, the already miserable tone of the debate.
It doesn't seem strange to me that anything unique enough to be described as a hobby will have it's detractors. Even massively mainstream activities frequently attract meaningless dismissives: couch potato, exercise nut, more money than sense, and so on.

Humans are natural pattern matches and subscribe to a set of ideals; anyone that does not fit their pattern and forces them to think differently is going to cause defensiveness in some people; the least of which is simple dismissal.

On the other hand, it's great that society has progressed the stage where people are being rude about your hobby instead of violent because of your skin colour.
Frustrated developer releases intell analysis software as open-source
I would like to see a HN question archive, meaning questions about HN. I still haven't been able to figure out how to do an indented quote block (which I've seen), but I know someone had to have asked about formatting at some point.
This actually opens a profound issue: why has progress in areas like computers and biotech been so breakneck fast but has utterly stalled in areas like energy, propulsion, aviation, etc.?

I think I know the answer: those fields are capital intensive, so their "generation time" is very slow. But that might not be the only answer.
This is attempting to supplant usage of laptops where there are no desks - http://www.amazon.com/Connect-A-Desk-Mobile-Laptop-Harness-D...
People can get excited about the same thing time to time. Especially in a community new people coming in.
I rather like the terms "rockstar" and "ninja". When people use them in their blog bios, it's generally a pretty good sign that they're not an expert at their tradecraft. When you need to co-opt trendy terms to sell yourself rather than letting your work stand on its own, there's a problem. If there's something I've learned about programmers, it's that the best ones know how much they don't know and generally tend to have some measure of humility about that; it's usually the newbies that feel the need to fluff themselves up with "code ninja" and "VB rockstar".

Job descriptions get a pass, since their job is to stand out.
You could write the same article for most in-depth subjects.

Want to try model airplanes ? Get ready to spend a couple of days just to figure out the various materials, radios etc

Want to try computer assisted music ? Which plugin ? Which host ? How do I write music with this, etc ?

You could even rewrite the article for Java a few years back at least (should I go WebLogic ? WebSphere ? TomCat ? Struts or something else ?).
Yeah. Most tech companies are facing an "uncertain economy" yet the execs are still paying themselves $300k/yr cash and as-much-as-possible w/ options/RSUs. If you are talented, you can negotiate. Many people in senior management are insecure, they know they are overpaid, and need people that can actually produce, to help them hold their position.
> The self-credulity of the interviewees is amazing.

I often wonder if public officials have some kind of special newspeak training or do they just internalize the rules implicitly as part of their job.
Just like he wouldn't mention the font size of the paper in the original announcement.

I seriously doubt that any of these confirmations did confirm more the the receipt of a paper that seems to look legit, nobody can verify 66 pages of advanced math in 10pt in one or two days.
"Police Officers Don't Check Their Civil Rights at the Station House Door."

Why not? I check a lot of my civil rights at the door when a police officer pulls me over.

Slightly more seriously, check this out:

“There’s no chain of custody with these videos,” Pasco says. “How do you know the video hasn’t been edited? How do we know what’s in the video hasn’t been taken out of context? With dashboard cameras or police security video, the evidence is in the hands of law enforcement the entire time, so it’s admissible under the rules of evidence. That’s not the case with these cell phone videos.”

Did he really say that with a straight face?
Most States have laws requiring the mall have some sort of sign at the entrance warning you that you will be videotaped. That sign is asking your permission and by walking passed that sign and entering the mall you have granted them permission to tape you.
well to be fair, the programmers were part of the latest wave of problems.
Oh Twitter and your timely relevance.

"Super America seeking 'Customer Service Superstars' — Factor that in next time your agency posts an opening for a 'Project Manager Rockstar'"

http://twitter.com/threevolts/status/20800932029
From http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=456#comment-44799

Scott: "I saw that comment too … and to be honest, it was sort of the final straw that inspired my $200k bet. The idea that anyone could “confirm” a 103-page proof after only two days strains credulity. And even if they did, is the vague reassurance of confirmations by unnamed “leading researchers in various areas” supposed to sway anyone? Who does Deolalikar think he’s dealing with?"
So I should simply inform the police that I am videotaping them, but that I am not recording any audio. By continuing to arrest me, they are giving their consent to being recorded.
> Why do we need to put faith and trust in authority figures?

Because they just told us to.

Didn't you read him telling us they are all good cops and we should trust them?
So nice we're doing it twice:  bit.ly hackathon this Wednesday
I've met spreadsheet ninjas before. I only just barely escaped that meeting.
"That the stupid pupils were these! I explained once—they did not get it. I explained second time—they still did not get it. I explained third time—I myself got it, but they did not!"
Ask HN: How do you relax (your mind and your body)?
Dear HN-users, especially the obsessed workaholics here: Do you have any good recommendations on how to relax?

I am a software developer that also does some product and marketing work, and I often work 7 days a week up to 16 hours a day. Recently I've been suffering severe muscle tensions (mostly neck) that prevent me from doing my job for clients and working on my own projects (symptoms include pain, nausea and dizziness - all doctors told me I'm perfectly healthy btw.). My problem seems to be that I can't relax. Well, my body can't anyway. I've started getting therapeutic massages, tried different chairs, pillows, took a week off with my girlfriend at a lake etc. but these things, if at all, only seem to help temporarily. I mostly enjoy my work, so I don't think its some sort of burn-out problem (but I suppose I might be wrong..?).

I'm hoping to uncover some good, perhaps a little unconventional, recommendation here. Perhaps there's even food that might help? Or DIY-acupuncture? Who knows..
I am sorry that part offended you, but I usually can, with pretty good accuracy.

There are studies (see Robert Levine, "Geography of Time") that use normal walking pace as a very characteristic indicator of geographic origin.

The FBI caught Adolf Eichmann in Argentina partly because they noticed his dissonant walking pace :)

Venkat
I remember the first time I was issued a corporate credit card, it was actually a HSBC MasterCard "under the hood" but branded. The way it worked was, you would pay your expenses on it, then reclaim them from the accounts department, and pay off the card yourself. They would send a copy of the statement to me, and a copy to accounts. The incentive for me to play along with this scheme was zero; I just used my own card so I could collect the airmiles.

Eventually I found out why they did this; so people had no credit history could get a card for work.
Should you just put signs on the back of your vehicle, and on your t-shirt that say by talking to you others implicitly grant their permission to be videtaped?
Interruptions at Work: "Ban Keyboard Cat From The Bedroom"
Google is quite enlightening.

http://www.google.com/search?q=I+am+a+css+ninja
I nearly went in to law enforcement, and the arguments made by police and prosecutors in this article sound like bullshit to me. The strongest arguments, in my opinion are the lack of a chain of custody, and privacy for third-parties.

Chain of custody simply means knowing who had control over a piece of evidence and when. It comes in to play when someone in a trial claims that a piece of evidence does not match reality and may have been tampered with. In a criminal trial, deciding the credibility of evidence is generally a matter for the jury. In a non-criminal complaint about an officer, it's a matter for the officer's supervisor. In no case that I am aware of is it illegal to collect evidence because the chain of custody may be difficult or impossible to determine.

Privacy for third parties is a bit more tricky. I think it might be a good idea to have some restrictions on distributing videos of police encounters with other people without permission from those people (but not the on-duty police officers involved) or obscuring their identities. Many states already have rules against recording conversations without permission, and an exemption for recording police officers wouldn't necessarily apply to recording interactions between a police officer and a third party, so this may be a non-issue in certain debates.
The persistence of paper indicates nothing more than a failure of existing software, not of concept.

The biggest shortfall is that computers do not allow arbitrary input at arbitrary times. You have to prime them to accept a certain type of input, which takes a wasteful amount of time.

Further, you are then typically locked into a certain rigid type of input, which may not be appropriate. E.g. The default for text entry boxes is to only allows text, not annotation, so work that involves annotation is poorly suited to most text entry software. Similarly, post-it applications tend not to allow arbitrary diagrams, even though that may be the most effective way to record a note.

There's no reason it must be that way, it just tends to be, because thoughtless software development is cheaper and easier.

Paperless certainly isn't feasible for everyone today. But that doesn't make it unattainable. And let's not pretend for a moment that just because pure paperless isn't feasible for many, that a dramatic reduction isn't possible. Despite the remaining valid uses, the overwhelming majority of paper produced is pure waste.

As for the 'acting' commentary you cite, that isn't omitted in a paperless future. It's absolutely preserved in the context of the visual/textual exchange of sending someone an email with the report as attachment/link/etc.

If anything, it's amplified by the asynchronous nature of drafting the message; you're forced to think about its presentation and have the time to give it the right delivery; versus a time/space-constrained physical exchange.
I would say that this picture is appropriate :)

http://johnstamosfever.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/ninjas-an...
Not only should all law enforcement be recorded, they should be the ones required to record at all times while on the clock.

If they do not like it, do not be law enforcement.

That should sort out the honest ones from the dishonest rather quickly.

Any cop can make your life living hell in a heartbeat. Anyone who is against recording has just never been on the wrong side of a cop. You have ZERO chance.
Ask HN: Would you pay for this?
Me and a friend are having a debate on which is more likely to make money?

Option 1: Build a site that gives people the ability to create a landing page and about us page in under 5 minutes where they can get people to sign up for an idea. All you need to provide is the URL and the site does the rest.

Option 2: Build a site that gives people the ability to create a landing page and about us page in 1 day where they can get people to sign up for an idea. Then the site creates social media accounts, ads and pr articles and communicates the idea out for 30 days.
In this case they do it, like 10 kilometers from the solar plant is the dam that created the biggest artificial lake in Europe. The dam is prepared to do that as it has a smaller dam after it.

The biggest controversy here in Portugal is if we have reached the limit of util unstable renewable energy, and how much/longer it should subsidized. And also the need of nucler energy.
Does anyone know of cases where photo-/videographers are facing charges for recording police officers performing their duty within the bounds of professionalism, or do all these cases involve some question of police conduct?

This answer (how should citizens know whether a recording is protected or will result in felony charges?) from Maryland's state attorney seems most relevant:

"I don’t have any hard and fast rule I can give you,"

If that's the case, this is bad law/bad policy.
It wasn't as interesting as I thought it was.

But still kinda cool - as someone else said the culture is so vastly different. Wanting a definition of "who" Rick Astley is cracked me up, even if only "for the record."

But nonetheless, what gets me the most is, in fact, how vastly indecipherable some of this must be to the jury, regardless of explanations. And the explanations themselves might possibly require many minutes / hours of defining to accurately represent the case.

Makes me wonder what they do about really complex technological cases.
See: http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=456#comment-44799
Zed is actively out to destroy people at times

Who does he have the power to destroy? It's maybe regrettable that he throws around words as freely as he does, but whatever he says, he consistently creates new and useful things.

Given a choice between him continuing as before and disappearing completely, I'd prefer he stick around.
Exactly. The place was awesome and there were no egos or politics in the office, things like this were straight business. I was honest with them and they were honest with me. I didn't say "somewhere around $X" I had a specific figure for a reason.

I didn't throw a tantrum or threat to quit over 3% (I think thats shady and wouldn't have quit anyway). I accepted the offer, thanked them, and told them how I felt.
Part of the reason is that American wallets don't have a coin purse inside them -- the reason for which is that coins aren't that useful. Catch-22
I like how old mainframe apps are always blamed in these articles. These apps written ages ago are in my view quite incredible. How many of us have written software that will be used 30 years from now?

Every time I hear about great rewrites of mainframe application (Air control fiasco of a few years ago) I just am amazed at what the original programmers managed to build which is still in use.

Rewriting that stuff means rewriting all the business logic embedded in those applications. I expect that most of the time, new apps must follow the exact flow the old apps had or else the employees using it won't like it. I've seen this first hand, were talking about buttons being placed exactly the same way.

Even if these banks modernized, the business processes would stay the same.
Were you ever irked by a polite, yet completely groundless compliment, offered out of convention? For example, when someone who is completely unqualified to judge your work tells you "Great job!"

In a situation like that, I often feel two simultaneous reactions, one being "How would you know?" and the other "I appreciate the sentiment." Guess which one I choose to act upon?

Just as "great job" from someone who doesn't know anything about it is not such a big deal because it was simply a nice gesture, so can "too much time on his hands" be (sometimes) considered to be no big deal because there was no specific malice behind it.

In other words, while I agree with the sentiment, people sometimes need to grow a skin bit thicker than they have.
Here's the short list:

* NERD_tree - Nice tree list of files for project browsing

* NERD_commenter - Mapped to ,c<Spc> to toggle between commenting and uncommenting

* SimpleFold - Folding that doesn't suck courtesy of the eigenclass blog

* a.vim - quickly alternate between a .c and .h file

* ack - way better searching than vimgrep or regular grep

* vimclojure - A must-have for Clojure dev in Vim <3

* ctk - auto-compilation and syntax check for languages. I use it to check ruby files on save

* easytags - automatically generate the tags file for your buffers

* eclim - I develop enterprise Java, eclim keeps me sane by giving my almost all of Eclipse's useful features in Vim

* fuzzyfinder - great file-finding tool similar to Emacs' C-x C-f

* gist - automatically post your buffer to a gist, download gists etc, super handy

* localvimrc - allows me to have project-specific vimrcs

* matchit - for beter % matching

* narrow - Emacs'-style narrowing and widening

* netrw - edit files remotely over ftp/ssh/etc

* paredit - the paredit.vim file from the slimv plugin, doesn't work as well as Emacs' paredit, but it's semi-useful

* pastie - post your buffer to pastie

* rails - various helpers from the vim-ruby project for rails

* repeat - allows repeating things that aren't normally repeatable with '.'

* securemodelines - don't let people do mean things in modelines

* showmarks - I'm on the fence with this one, great if you use a lot of marks and want to show them

* slime - pipe text from a vim buffer to a screen session

* snipmate - Textmate-like snippets for various languages

* supertab - tab-completion that works pretty well, this + eclim is great for java dev

* surround - tools for messing with surroundings of files

* taglist - use ctags to display a tag list in a pane

* twitvim - seriously, why use a twitter client when you can use vim

* vimball - used to install a lot of vim plugins

* vimwiki - I store all of my tech-related text here

* visualstar - this lets you use '' to search for more than just a single word

yankring - a ring of yanks when doing copy/paste

If I had to pick just one for a favorite, it'd be a tie between fuzzyfinder and NERD_tree, way better than manually trying to find the file to edit.

In addition there are quite a few filetype plugins for better syntax highlighting for the variety of languages I work with.

My entire vim setup dir can be found here:
http://github.com/dakrone/dakrone-dotfiles
Neither of them sounds appealing to me, but if I must choose, the first option sounds a tiny bit more attractive.
Work less. Take yoga or martial arts classes. Work less and do something with your friends. Work less. Take a short walk and stretch often while working. Did I mention you should work less?
Public officials tasked with speaking to the public are certainly trained for that
Using darkjumper to test for remote file inclusion
If you want to be a ruby dev, then install linux. On windows you use Visual Studio and .NET
I like HN because I can learn about people's startups, often while they are still in development. But there's also other interesting stories here (like "Ask HN" or news stories from science and programming areas) that I enjoy.

I don't know if I'd be such a fan if it was only the former and your proposed site seems to be just that?