skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think you're making the improper assumption that the drives would need to be left on during this entire time. I don't believe they would.

I don't know if the bits eventually lose their magnetism over time, so if they do, you may need to spin up the drives every so often and copy to and from drives to make sure the data is still "fresh", but I seriously doubt they'd need to be left on and spinning for the entire 50 year span.
It's hard to take health advice from a guy who considers martial arts to be a qualification in dispensing them. Especially when he trots out bullshit old wifes tales like caffeine leading to dehydration.
As for the long term, I think it's safe to say that robotics and automation will eventually remove entirely the need for human factory workers and (nearly) all manual labor.

Maybe. People are surprisingly cheap in some parts of the world, and robotics are pretty expensive. Even in the future, the raw materials in machinery won't magically get cheaper.

For some industries the upfront costs associated with automation won't be worth it for a long, long time.
You'd also want to store a few CD drives with them. And a few computers to attach the CD drives to. And from there the problem arises. Both bearings and electrolytic capacitors are essential for computers and I doubt that they'd last 50 years.
Heh, port knocking looks cool, might do that just for the heck of it on a server that only I use.

Also, yes, among with changing the port the only way that should be possible to get in is through 'keys.
Stone/metal tablets would be the best format, but consider the amount of data in question. 5 TERABYTES. That's a lot of tablets. And a lot of work to engrave those tablets.
> we will see a repeat of the web app takeover that occurred on the desktop

Desktop apps are not like iOS apps. They don't have very easy purchasing/billing built-in, they have to be downloaded and installed in a weird way (very few of my non-geek friends can install anything except apps on their iPhones), and they cost a fortune.

Apple will be doing a good job of maintaining AppStore the easiest option for both users and developers, and, well, people tend to use the easiest option.
My Facebook network is not my real social network. It mostly contains people i know, not the ones i interact with. My real social network is in my Android powered phone. I am waiting for a better merge with the contacts on my phone and the rest of social circles.
I cracked up when I saw the "war" about the time signature of Pink Floyd's song "Money" - 7/8 or 7/4 or 21/8 :D
>bullshit old wifes tales like caffeine leading to dehydration.

[citation please] - I am genuinely curious about the current scientific consensus on that one, as IIRC I have heard the reverse claim in this talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM regarding Cola being stuffed with caffeine for both its normal effects and the diuretic side-effect (my memory could be failing me, of course).

Cheers,
There could well be a start-up opportunity right there - create simple wireless sensors that can be location near meters and feed this to a web site that can track and provide advice on energy usage as well as giving notification of what current energy usage is remotely.
I've never seen a university network that prohibited CS grad students from having machines with root.

I've heard of networks like this—in some places I didn't expect—but it is neither acceptable for a research environment nor the status quo and you should push for changes in your department if this type of harebrained thing is preventing your ability to do science.
Encrypt the data with a key long enough that, by Moore's law, you'd expect computers to be able to break it in 50 years. Submit the data to Wikileaks. Destroy the key.
Very interesting topic.

For preservation, encode the data in the DNA of a bacterium, replicate it massively and put them in some kind of suspended animation (hand waving wildly).

Getting the meaning of the data is another matter. I wonder whether it will be possible to create species of bacteria that can decode the above DNA and present it directly accessible to human senses - ex: bacteria that change color, form shapes, etc.
I completely agree. I posted quickly before realising these weren't daily averages (and even then, that wouldn't necessarily prove anything). I should have modified the link when I realised my mistake but unfortunately I was busy.
My answer is that you don't put digital data in a time capsule. Digital data is easy to copy, and that's what you want to leverage. Put a two pairs of servers in two data centers and keep them running, migrating to new tech when needed. I'd assume 5-10 generations of hardware would be necessary.
You forget that 'apps' started off as web-apps in the first iphone, and neither the users nor developers liked them, so the SDK was released.

The future lies in thicker clients, particularly for mobile where the internet is not as assured as on a desktop.
I think you have to state some assumptions about technology levels at the time the time capsule is opened and whether you want the data to survive much beyond the 50 years if it is not opened.
Web design is the art of creating user interfaces for websites – the website visitors are the users. Language design is the art of creating user interfaces for programs – programmers are the users. The fields are related by the common theme of designing things for users. And I don’t see how you can call eye candy trivial without defending that assertion right after reading an article that argues it is not trivial.
Runs relatively decent on Chrome 5.0.375.125. As usual, utter functional failure on Opera (10.60).

Can someone more informed explain which one is closer to the truth?

a) Opera's JS engine does not fully support standard functionality
b) the demo uses yet-to-be-standardized functions that have been implemented in Chrome
I don't find that ironic, because

a) We don't know this economists ideas about drug prohibition and the fact that he is American is quite irrelevant. Whoever asserts something, you can always find something to deem it 'ironic' or even 'hypocritical'. In the vast majority of cases, that does not detract in any way from their argument. That would require counterarguments.

b) Different times, different customs. It's anachronistic to use todays moral standards to argue that behavior back then was considered immoral back then.
Returns the same old bogus "I emailed them once" people listed in my Google chat, apart from one person. Since I haven't given Google or YouTube my Facebook info it can't be so accurate.
I don't think genomes are anything like as big as the requirement, e.g. this link gives 0.35GB as the size of the human genome:

http://www.utheguru.com/fun-science-how-many-megabytes-in-th...
I'm not assuming that the disks are spinning all the time; I don't know what the failure rates of drives left unpowered are, so I took the spinning rate instead. Google search suggests that failure rates for unpowered hard drives is high - sticking heads etc. - and as drives are not designed for this, probably higher than powered drives.
Mental health should be on that list.
This is a great idea. I haven't started on the site yet, so forgive the perhaps-dumb question: is there a standard meta-language for scraping sites? I don't think x-path works with funky-html. So does anybody have something that would universally describe how to, say, get a users pictures from flickr? Or latest comments from Digg?

Something like that -- where the community could then develop cross-platform tools to implement it -- would truly be ground-breaking.

(I don't think this is related to the nature of the html/regex debate, but I'd be happy to be educated)

Too many providers are taking data that the user knows intuitively that they own and sticking it behind a wall. Anything that helps get that data back out is awesome in my book.
Even in the future, the raw materials in machinery won't magically get cheaper.

True, and raw materials will probably get more expensive. Another thing to consider, however, is that newer industrial techniques might not even be employable without the use of machines. For instance, humans can't make processors regardless of how cheaply their willing to be payed.

For some industries the upfront costs associated with automation won't be worth it for a long, long time

Right. It's always going to be a cost benefit analysis and I think that's a fair assessment.
I can definitely see how bleeding out of your rectum might interfere with your programming flow.
Something that really upped my motivation for running is using my cellphone's gps to log data.
I coded a small web-app to show a little bit of stats (http://fitness.marc-seeger.de/category/joggen / http://github.com/rb2k/run-a-log) as my first little project with ruby/sinatra.
My inner nerd loves to collect data and do stuff with it and my body is probably thankful for it (just finished my 800th recorded kilometer)

p.s. I currently use "cardio trainer" on android which would also offer a webinterface to data. Before that I used MyTracks (android), Nokia Sportstracker (Symbian), jogstats (webos)
Neither tape nor SSDs will last 50 years. Within about 10 years, tapes will loose magnetization through thermal movement and capacitors in SSD storage cells will flip due to cosmic radiation. Over some decades the plastic the media and/or casings are made of will just decay (a serious problem for museums of modern art and design: http://www.getty.edu/conservation/science/plastics/index.htm...). The only media with a prooven track record of preservation over decades are acid free paper, parchment and non-organic materials like steel, stone and clay. But getting 5TB on an stone tablet has its very own challenges. [Edit: And using acid free paper won't buy you anything if you print using plastic based toner common in modern laser printers, at least use an inkjet with inorganic pigment (and not dye based) ink. If you look out for pitfalls like this, you might be able to implement your requirements with http://ronja.twibright.com/optar/ and only 125 metric tons of acid free paper, which you should be able to buy for less than $200000.]

Some people claim than MO media and DVD-RAM can guarantee 30 years, but this still is an estimate, they have not been around long enough to actually know.

The only "reliable" way to store digital data for more than five years known today is to copy them to new media well in advance of the old media loosing them, and even that is difficult if the amount of data is growing faster than the the storage technologies get faster. (I don't know if I should trust Eric Schmidt, but a few days ago he claimed that currently humanity generates as much data every two days as it did up until 2003, http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data )
Microsoft on the hunt for a new look?
You'll find the answer to that (amd more) in the blog post.
http://mrdoob.com/blog/post/702
Mine are a bunch of restaurants, again all through one primary connection.

Considering that I am the ONLY person on Facebook with my firstname/lastname, and that my 522 Facebook friends are publicly accessible, how and why is Google not indexing Facebook? Is it just a matter of pride?
This post does not discuss the fact that, any idea, with a bit of adaptation, could be attractive to other types of customers.

Sometimes, simply throwing it out there for people to try, will raise interest. Many great company started with people inventing things they had no plan to sell.

The statement made in this post is naive at best. The strategy consisting of aiming at a potential customer, loading and shooting has created many monster failures too. Things are not that systematic.

It is obvious the writer does not know much about strategy courses delivered in MBA's...
I stand corrected; I missed the bit about the pebble-bed variety and thought they only mentioned the prismatic one.
I still keep around a 286 that is 25 years old and it's fine -- are you suggesting that it will cease to function sometime in the next 25 years?
Animal Attack
Some people ended up with these animals who like to attack and bite people just for fun.
Again, you'll find the answer to that (and more) in the blog post.
http://mrdoob.com/blog/post/702
Considering most of those thick mobile applications would rely on the internet for one reason or another, it's not wrong to assume that web-apps could take the reign in the future. After all, HTML offers more capability now than it did back when the iPhone was released.
Ask HN: Is there a Y Combinator equivalent in Australia?
Is there anything like a Y Combinator equivalent in Australia? Love to hear if there is as I have one start-up in motion, and a lot more ideas in mind that could use small funding and advice to thrive (but yes know I need to concentrate on one thing at a time to get results!)
While high res screens seem relatively popular, I'm hoping that nobody is running their browser window maximized with 2560x1600 screen. I'm running 1680x1050, but still my browser window is 1085x1050 atm, with tab-bar taking 200px from the side.
Well, the advice is all based on experience. You could skip the 'background and qualifications' bit and it still makes sense.

He might want to check with a GP to find out whether these are really problems that are common among programmers. When you've dealt with something yourself, it's easy to confirmation bias your way into thinking the ailments are common in your profession.
Another related problem is hygiene. I've met too many programmers that smell. Some people don't wash, don't wear deodorant or just don't realise that their clothes need washing even if they look clean.

It's especially annoying because it's so easy to fix!
I believe a tight bubble (intestine + vein) of blood hanging out of your rectum (i.e. an actual hemorrhoid) would actually be more distracting than the bleeding, which would be a relief.
Funny, but not nice and not necessary.

Downvoters: you are aware that Zed lists problems he has struggled with and that his generalization of this list to 'common problems programmers face' is perhaps not warranted for all problems mentioned? If it was a serious suggestion, jacquesm would have included an explanation of why programmers would commonly face mental health problems.
360 Health: Children With Asthma - How to Treat Children Suffering of Asthma
I think the reason it's supposedly controversial is because it implies some sort of inferiority on the part of the government of the poor nation, that they're not "good enough" to manage their own affairs. Judging by the reception Romer is getting from some 3rd world country leaders, at least some don't see it this way.
I'm using 2048x1152, but my browser window is only 1161x1069. I sometimes maximize, but using HN with a maximised window is not an option :-)
Which gives you 125 tons for 5TB on 80g/m² paper single sided, which gives you about the same cost as the 119 tons double sided in the GP, but without paper jams in the duplexer unit.
Any idea where they get the number 300 years? In the archival world, we're leery of such blatant marketing claims, especially since CD technology is only a few decades old.
Http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/you-deserve-the-best/
In some statically typed languages, it is possible to have an "Apples" and a "Bananas" type. And it's good to hear that you don't make "representation errors", because I do make these errors - which then blow up precisely after 3 hours of running the Python program.
EXERCISE REGULARLY.

Nobody forces you to drink coffee.

Really I don't think it's so hard to do programming w/o becoming a complete nerd.
Fully agree, staying behind a computer for a whole week is not healthy (even if you exercise regularly)
They run Hack and Hackers days for journo's, recently in Liverpool and Birmingham. I believe they've got videos up of them too.

We're actually talking to them about hosting one in South London in the next month or two.

Not sure what their plans in the US are, but it could be worth dropping the idea to some fellow journo's and seeing if there's an oganisation willing to act as host.

EDIT: forgot to mention, if you're interested in data you might also want to take a look at the open data initiative (data.gov.uk) and the guardian's data store http://www.guardian.co.uk/data-store apologies for the UK focus.
I think you're largely right, but I have one nitpick: microfiche, and other types of microform, are pretty stable, and only require a magnification tool to be human-readable. They're pretty much the gold standard for efficient archival long-term storage of information.

But as you say, stone and metal as well as acid-free paper made from rags or mulberry fibres have a proven track record for longevity.
Here's an associated question that archives everywhere are beginning to struggle with (though they should have begun struggling long ago). Many municipal records are being born digital these days, and records retention schedules telling us to keep a wide variety of materials permanently.

How would you store an ever-increasing amount of digital data indefinitely?
By the way, if you're interested in scraper/crawlers also have a look at 80legs.com crawling SaaS, with some custom code capabilities too.

Or, if python is your bag, there's a scraping lib called scrapy that was opensourced last year that's ok.

On ScraperWiki, they need source control as the environment is actually run on their servers, I'd guess a bespin type implementation, so you put all your code on the wiki, and it can get augmented etc. hence needs SCM. At least, for the moment, it seems they've got plans of releasing their api engine or at least calls to it in which case you'd end up doing the code locally, and can use your own SCM.

Their confusing naming could be explained that their not pitching this at coders, but rather journalists to try and get them to use the vast data resources out on the net.
Ask HN: How do I find the ideal combination of GTD, inovating and making money?
I'm a young Python/Cojure coder with a lot of ideas. Until now I just worked away on whatever I liked, but now I'm thinking about finishing a product, and starting my own company.

The problem I'm facing is this: The longer I think about which technologies to use, the larger the scope of my project gets.

For example, I'm currently writing something SMTP based. First I started using Twisted and Python, which includes its own SMTP implementation, then I went on looking at scaling, and figured Clojure would be better. Clojure offers some Netty wrappers, but nothing SMTP, so I'd have to write my own SMTP implementation. Next I read IO+treads is faster than NIO, so I decide that I'd have to write my own server as well. This goes on and on, where in the end I would build my own computer to run my own operating system running my own programming language running my own SMTP server.

I'm sure I'm not the only one facing these kind of scope problems. How do you find a balance between writing cool stuff and getting things done and in the end making some money?
Modern encryption systems do not fall out of use because computers get faster, it's because new mathematical attacks to the underlying encryption are found, and this makes brute forcing it easier than people thought at the time.

In other words, the reason we don't use (say) the MD5 hash system is not because computers are able to break the 32-bit hash system, but because people have discovered flaws in the MD5 algorithm that means it doesn't give '32 bits of strength'. In this case it's not the hardware (CPU clock speed) that gets better, but the software (programmes that break MD5) that gets better.

Hence, you could use Moore's Law to predict what computers in 50 years time will be like, but you can't know what mathematical techniques will be like in 10 yet alone 50 years. Your encryption system you use might get broken in 10 years time.
Who do you have in your team?
Didn't this get posted a little while ago?
A well aimed arrow if ever there was one
See also Dapper: http://open.dapper.net/ It's visual and very easy if don't need anything fancy.
Very well written and practical. Thanks for sharing this.
I've been doing a fair bit of development with jQTouch, jQuery, offline web apps and the SQL database engine accessible from JavaScript in Safari and it's a pretty sweet combination.
Private browsing defeated by Plugins
First Generation III+ reactor is still being built in Finland. Gen IV (thorium, LFTR etc.) should arrive after 2030.

It seems that there's considerable distance between getting an approval and building one. Areva's EPR-proto has proved that western nuclear industry contractors had forgot (comparable to UK's Trident missile -case) how to actually build nuclear power plants. This has resulted in several years of delays at Olkiluoto, Fi and Flamanville, Fr.

As noted in recent discussion, jet fighter designers will also lose some of their skills when there isn't enough new design work to be done.

"The first license application for the European Pressurized Reactor was made in December 2000. Construction of the power plant commenced in August 2005. The original commissioning date of the reactor was set to May 2009. However, in May 2009 the plant was "at least three and a half years behind schedule and more than 50 percent over-budget". The commissioning deadline has been postponed several times and as of June 2010 operation is set to start in 2013."

- 10-15 years from license application to commissioning!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olkiluoto_Nuclear_Power_Plant
2560x1600 with multiple monitors, preferably at least one portrait
Augen's Kmart tablet and smartbook won't have Google-branded apps from now on
Django middleware to convert images to DATA uris
I hadn't realized that Googles Apps weren't open source. This surprises me a bit, given Googles general attitude of open sourcing what it creates....
Coffee etc. is still mostly water. One unit of coffee/cola/tea, compared to the same unit of water will A) give you slightly less water up front and B) cause some loss of fluid due to diuretic effect but overall you still gain fluids.

It is by far not the best source of hydration, of course. You are much better off drinking water or (preferrably unsweetened) fruit/vegetable juices - or even just eating said fruit or vegetables. Hypotonic sports drinks have their place too, but not when your exercise consists of walking up to the fridge.
Since some of the solutions people are proposing assume you have a lot of space for storage, I'll assume that too.

1. Get a 9600 bps modem. Use it to encode your data, and record the output as an audio file.

2. Take this audio file, and split it up into 60 minute segments.

3. Record these 60 minute segments onto two-sided vinyl LPs, 30 minutes per side. This will take about a million LPs.

4. Print on acid-free paper, using ink that will survive 50 years too, instructions on how a 9600 bps modem works. Describe the encoding in detail, sufficient so that someone using the equivalent of MATLAB or Mathematica or something 50 years from now on the computers they will have then could easily write a program to decode a modem signal.

5. Also print and include instructions for making a record player. As with the modem, the important part is describing how the signal is encoded on the LP. They'll have no trouble building a record player 50 years from now. (Assuming they don't just photograph the LPs with the 3D terapixel camera on their iPhone 54, and then write an app to extract the signal from the photo...)

5. Store all of this somewhere. LPs will last 50 years easily in a typical office environment, so you probably don't have to resort to something like a hermetically sealed vault buried in an old salt mine or anything extreme like that.
The estimated error rate is however about 1 in 100,000 pages, which isn't quite good enough. Probably a slightly better code can be used with a small amount of inflation; even something like RAID-5 except over pages (i.e. parity pages) would do.
Riak Presentation at NYC NoSQL (09)