skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
As long as people thing the federal government, or government in general, should be involved in funding, regulating, developing and in general spending money on things other than it's well defined functions - a minarchist/night-watchman state.

When someone can greatly affect the outcome of events those who are effected will try to improve the outcome in their favor. In this case, it's getting laws passed to benefit you at the expense of everyone else. This happens all the time, and has happened extensively throughout the past. It has very little to do with lobbyists, they are merely a symptom. The root problem is that the government has its hand in everything and can tip the scales arbitrarily that unless you have someone in washington fighting for your cause you are likely to get the shaft.

The correct solution is to remove the incentives for people to lobby. This can be achieved by drastically shrinking the size and authority of the government. By pushing governance down to local levels it becomes less cost effective to lobby, it's no longer winner take all -- it becomes winner takes 1/50th and has to keep winning. It allows democracy to thrive.

Anyway, in short (TLDR) - his ideas are about treating the symptom and not the cause.
"As for enforcement, the FCC can easily enforce something like this."

They're too busy looking for nipples and swear words.
In brief: Dell makes workstations, which can be bought.
Perception is Projection.
IE will keep a connection open for about 60 seconds, how much of that's going to be active? I don't have the exact number, and of course it will vary, but of course it's going to be far less than 60% in the vast majority of cases.

If a site gets spiked with the typical 'read-and-leave' traffic a link from reddit or huffpo or wherever generates, how does superpoll compare to straight epoll? Based on your description so far, I can only see it hurting - you're not just wasting time on dead connections in your poll bin, you're now also incurring the overhead of managing the migration over to the epoll bin.
Agreed. There are dozens of WebKit bugs fixed in every iOS point release. These bugs are usually exploitable on any WebKit browser which includes iOS, Android, and a number of desktop platforms like Safari and Chrome.

It's not the end of the world, but it would be nice to see companies take browser security more seriously.
There's a lot of things that can be said about job boards, finding talent, finding companies... in my mind the salient point is that the job marketplace sucks. It sucks to find a job, it sucks to find good people to hire. And it affects real people in a very real way. The ability to work in job that you love is such a meaningful thing in life, and the inverse is just as true.

I'm not saying our new jobs site is the magic bullet, but it's an area of software development that we think is lacking, and there's a ton of things we'd like to build to help improve it. This is the first step.
The unicode "mirror" character mentioned in the article was very interesting -- I had not heard of its existence before. This Google search indicates its potential for hijinks:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%26%238238;
re: obesity, don't the US corn subsidies for ethanol actually make corn more expensive? Total total agricultural subsidies (excluding tariffs) amount to less than 1% of the average american's food budget; much of it for the aforementioned ethanol. Am I off?
My understanding of the American Dream is that everyone has the opportunity to build themselves up from humble beginnings. This kid in the article thinks he is entitled to make more than 40k, instead of accepting reality and working hard to change his earning potential
Apologies, Thomas - wasn't attempting to hop on the FUD box, proclaim doom, or voice an opinion about the relative security of one platform to another.

I intended the comment to bring a few possibilities to the surface that I've not seen raised elsewhere surrounding an exploit which is otherwise being received by many in the community as a Good Thing.

Thanks for pointing out the error in the (original) write-up I'd linked. Yesterday I found myself telling a friend I thought it unfortunate to see others hopping blame upon Adobe for something they clearly had nothing to do with. If you're aware of a more detailed link to a writeup on the vulnerability in the font file processing, I expect people might be interested to see it.
You're right - security and quality certainly have nothing to do with their App Store policies. It's just that, knowing the above, some people wonder why Apple and their fans keep saying there's indeed such a connection.
Charlie Miller suggested that this flaw actually tickles a bug in IOKit, which suggests that it isn't a cross-platform flaw, which makes sense since WebKit doesn't (AFAIK) do PDF.
7 Days on Craigslist’s Casual Encounters
Build a Social Bookmarking website with Wordpress
To elaborate: in "Delivering Happiness" Tony talks about how Zappos goes as far as publishing a real Zappos Culture book each year, containing stories from hundreds of employees/partners/vendors about what Zappos the company means to them.

The book is a great read - amazing how well they've institutionalized the idea of a company culture and methos for holding onto it as they grow.
Please don't say "everything happens for a reason". It's a worthless post-hoc rationalization. There is no conceivable outcome that could be worth watching someone go through shit like that.
Just curious: what's Bushwick like these days? It sounds like it's a lot safer now.

I haven't lived in Brooklyn since 1988 and back then when I visited my friend's in Bushwick and stayed late she'd drive me home cause she felt I'd probably get mugged on the way to the subway station.

Given that her dad's bodega was robbed on a regular basis, I think she had a reason to be concerned!
So they changed their mind, so be it. I don't see what difference it will make though. With 125+ undeclared conflicts under our belt, the trend seems to speak for itself.
> Think about all the web pages on the internet. Does the web have a better batting average than the app store? Does it matter?

This. The fact that Android allows you to install over HTTP is a huge win as it lets you leverage this great distributed fault-tolerant network of computors that is commonly called the Web. Pagerank is a way, way better way to determine app quality than App Store or Market reviews.
you might try looking at the BLEU metric. It's designed to test similarity between a machine-translated text and a human-translated one, but it could be a good starting point for detecting plagiarism too.
YCommonApp: Apply to over 30 YC startups in under 10 minutes
This is very impressive, the real art.
Throws into sharp relief the regular stories we see of startups floundering after a few weeks/months for "personal reasons".

One takeaway from this that I saw was that having awesome co-founders is a must (as in the case of Reddit). Obviously this was a terrible time for Alexis; but I imagine it was a bit scary for the co-founders as well - not knowing if he would be about and in what state.

Thanks for sharing Alexis :)
I find that last line entertaining considering I feel the exact opposite way about linux and the utterly chaotic development model they employ.

I always feel like I'm building my castles on quicksand.
I only wrote one thesis and I did it in Word. Most of my publishing since then has been in WordPress.

Is learning LaTeX anywhere near as useful to a professional developer as say learning vim or emacs?
Whenever I read these articles debating the value of a college degree (which I think this article isn't about, but that seems to be the way everyone is interpreting it), the argument is always treated as a black and white issue and it's not.

There are a few types of people that go through college in different ways. You have intelligent people that have learned how to "excel" well, who fit the bill of the subject of the NY Times article. They get through with a decent GPA, party hard, and get a corporate job. You have intelligent people that thrive in the learning environment that college affords, and they gain a lot out of it. Their work ethic takes them places, and some develop that work ethic in college. I'm one of the latter, so call me biased towards it. Then there are the hard working, intelligent people who feel caged from the curriculum. These are the people who question the value.

The problem with the people that already have the strong work ethic and intelligence is that they assume that everyone is like those peers in the first group that simply go through the motions, and its not a question of whether they should have went to school but how they approached it. These are the loudest voices against the higher ed system.

It's undoubtedly a broken system, but inherent value exists for some. I think we'll see a revolution in higher education, hopefully sooner than later and ideally these issues are rectified.
I mean, it should have a big "Thank you, Philip K Dick" in the credits, too. That would be nice - movies with acknowledgements?

Honestly, it's not a direct remake or sequel to anything, and that's enough for me to give major points to originality :)
He is also dismissive of transparency, yet that's one of the many steps towards fixing the problem.
For the big name schools, College football and basketball both generate huge revenues They are basically pro sports masquerading as collegiate activities. I don't have an issue with the coach of a team that in fact does generate millions getting a high salary. Arguably the US should have a club system similar to Euro soccer for football and basketball, or the NBA should start to pay higher than pennies for its minor league and the NFL should start a minor league limited to 18-22 year olds to groom players (NFL football is too rough for 18 year olds' bodies).

I think the coach of a football program making a huge sum is different from the administrator of a college - for one thing, elite football coaching talent is in short supply. The supply of executives who can lead a university is not. Last I checked there are plenty of executives cooling their heels golfing etc.

However I could be convinced to hold football/basketball coaching salaries way down as part of a movement to de-professionalize college athletics by sending the coaches who are really using college athletics as a way to huge salaries to the pros. The way it operates now is simply absurd, especially given that elite level players receive none of the spoils of filling stadiums during the prime athletic years of their lives.

Back directly on topic, the problem with administrators making huge multiples of professors is it is attracting the wrong kind of people, i.e. profit maximizers who figure out how to funnel increasingly large sums of money into their own pockets. As an example consider the activities of the UC Regents: http://www.metroactive.com/features/diploma-mills.html
I tried using LaTeX with org-mode as well, but I've found that writing a paper / permanent document in LaTeX feels more natural than doing so in org-mode (org-mode being more suited to taking notes).

I did use LaTeX to take notes all through college and it has certainly helped ingrain it well into my muscle memory.
Well, damn. At least I'm vindicated that HN would think it was an interesting article.
Technology changes all the time but there are a few arguments that never seem to die... WYSIWIG vs. doc prep languages like TeX (or Scribe, remember that?) was a hot topic even back in the 80's, with similar arguments being made. Everything old is new again.

It's amazing to see people getting enthused (again!) about LaTeX.
man tar
> Think about all the web pages on the internet. Does the web have a better batting average than the app store?

That's bullshit ... main difference is that the Internet has multiple choices for whatever you want and real competition in a Darwinistic sense.

That argument would be valid if Apple wouldn't reject apps that "duplicate" their own functionality ... like Google Voice. When Apple stops doing that, then you might have a point.

The Web also has better mechanisms for filtering out the garbage ... people rely on their search engine or on their friends recommendations (first by email, now by Facebook/Twitter), not on some central authority.

> Who cares about the percentage of shit in the app store? It's not like you have to sift through all the apps manually.

I care because people are trying to lie to me about the virtues of Apple's policies.

I also care because I want to develop for multiple platforms and it's one thing to be technically hard to have cross-platform code, and it's another to ban that practice through a license.

And most of all, I care because people haven't learned anything from the closed-world that was once called Wintel. When starting anything, people used to worry about the "Microsoft problem", which isn't a problem anymore because of the Internet ... but Apple is Microsoft 2.0 ... they know how to make customers happy within closed walls, even in the Internet age.

So yeah, it's a worrying trend ... especially since other companies like Amazon are noticing Apple's success.
I don't know the numbers, but you're probably off in comparing the food budget to subsidies on raw ingredients. Relative to what people spend in restaurants it may not be much, but in making a choice between two similar ingredients, it can tip the balance and switch the market entirely.
I've been on Hacker News much longer than I've worked at Twilio so set aside my bias for the moment and hear this from a fellow community member: Twilio is an awesome place to work. Our engineers work on interesting problems building really useful products and services (you should see what we have in store for the future). We genuinely care about helping our customers be more awesome.

Personally I've never worked at a place where my input has been so highly valued and I'm not particularly high on the totem pole (and I work remotely to boot). It doesn't matter. Everyone has something to contribute and everyone's contributions are equally valued. I've learned an immeasurable amount in just a few months from the ridiculously smart people I get to work with. This is the smartest, most committed crew of people I've had the pleasure of working with. They're fun people too.

Maybe working for someone else isn't your thing, but if your circumstances require you to do so, there are few better places to work.

If anyone has any questions about what it's like working at Twilio, feel free to contact me directly at jsheehan@twilio.com or ask your questions here and I'll answer what I can.
Did pets help shape the course of human evolution?
She may also have been referring to the discussions about women's sexual tastes and behavior.
If you don't like it stop reading his personal blog.
I was in a similar situation a year ago. Had the same "follow the rules" arguments with my parents. For the first few months after school I found contract jobs, which payed well enough, and left me plenty of time for my own thing and reflection. I highly recommend this path if you can stand living on the cheap and not knowing when your next job will surface.

After a few contracts I wound up joining a cool startup as lead developer since I wanted to pay off student debt fast and get some experience before starting my own. In a year or two, I'll likely be finishing up with this startup I'm at now and will have saved enough money to pursue my own thing full time for a while. Who knows what will happen then ...

This all from someone who had some student loans to pay off and not much money saved.

Both contract jobs and longer term employment with a startup have been hugely valuable experiences that I am grateful to have had before starting my own. There is a huge continuum between working for a fortune 500 company and as an entrepreneur.
At first I thought it might be a meta joke like: "Error 404: American Dream Not Found."
It does. A lot.

The unfortunate thing is that all these add-on job board solutions don't really go any way towards fixing the problem.

With the greatest respect in the world; I don't see this being a lot different (though I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong! :)). Not for any other reason that it is not really GH's focus...

See; it would be really cool to see this integrated with GH proper. With payment mechanisms so you could write a spec, post an ad, get someone sign up, code the work and then collect the payment. That's the sort of job board you should do :)

For the "real world" there is a lot of work to do for programming jobs - most of the offerings work for big corps and mid/large startups. Smaller indie firms like the one I work for struggle to find good local talent and there is just no one catering for us. And that is a huge market (I know at least 10 firms with the same problem within about 5 miles of where I work - in a sleepy market town).
Email sent with what little information I have.
I worked on wall street for a bit, and lived in Brooklyn Heights -- my commute was about 10-15 minutes (including walking). It was more than $1k cheaper than what the author was paying. I was always surprised that the guys at work never even considered Brooklyn as an option.
Hopefully! It is great to work with some real world customer click data...

If anyone is interested in a technical intro to the setting there is a set of slides from John Langford at Yahoo Research (many good and standard reference papers cited in it): http://hunch.net/~exploration_learning/

A/B testing could be thought of as a sort of epsilon-Greedy strategy (particularly if such testing is carried out at regular intervals initially). While not enjoying the optimality characteristics of other algorithms, such an approach can in fact outperform in many practical cases :)
His proposal misses the point that money is speech. His favored solution is limiting campaigns to 100$ per person. Then he of course would need to limit celebrity endorsements to the 100$ limit, or the amount of volunteer time to 100$ worth, or in any way supporting a candidate to the value of 100$ per person. Otherwise you're enabling those who have more time available and greater reach due to celebrity to have a greater reach than those who are busy working to produce things for the world, and have money to spend but not the time or voice that others have. It is merely favoring one group over another. Which is just plain wrong.
Five simple steps to designing grid system
In my wildest dreams I've never thought I'd hear Boston compared to Bridgeport (I assume you mean CT?). Never been to Boston, but B'port must have changed an awful lot since I lived there :-)
Ask HN: Using Copyright Songs on Youtube for Promotion
Hi HN,

We would like to use a copyrighted song in the background of a promo video for our start up. Anyone have experience with this? Do I need to license the song?
Best blog posts I have read in June and July
The article and comments on the page all read like part of an advertisement.
Yes, but he can't see it. He thinks only the degree makes him hireable.
Fedora, too[1]:

One week is the added to the schedule to maintain the practice of releasing on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are the designated release day because they are good days for news coverage and the established day we synchronize our content with the mirrors that carry our releases.

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Schedule#Schedule_Con...
Good point, I hadn't thought of that.

I do that with only one secondary email that generally wouldn't get any emails from real people, so in most cases, I'm covered. But you're right: that technic should come with a warning: you might lose your emails.

I suppose another way to go around might be to retrieve account B through POP or IMAP.
Chris is a brave man. The good people over at DIYDrones have to skirt the boundaries of legality, as they can only operate under the FAA's "model airplane" definition (very lightweight, in sight and control of human operator, etc). I wonder where UAV development would be today if we allowed them to run free over private land, as we allow for autonomous ground vehicles.

I, for one, have reluctantly chosen not to develop UAVs specifically due to the legal dangers under current regulation. I sometimes think of my counterparts in other countries, who have reached the same fork in the road and were able to continue in this field. [This is why "brain drain" happens.]
Over 60 Percent of Devices Now Running Android 2.x
No, he dismisses the Democrats' proposal of using only transparency to solve the problem.
As your boss, I just want to say that you made my day. Ask him anything (just not how much coffee I drink)
Pretty simple answer to that. You don't. Most college grads don't realize that how much you make at a job is a really poor indicator of your self-worth. But you don't realize this until after you've been on the job for awhile - kind of like high schoolers thinking where you go to college is the ultimate determination of your worth.
are the tabs breaking it into two "columns" idiomatic ruby? I prefer them all flowing "naturally" together.
How Apple's App Store Censoring Process Works
It's also full of crap. Which goes to show that Apple's method provides very little in the way of ensuring quality.
Ask HN: What email tools do you use to track opens?
For some outbound email we use Mailchimp, but a lot of first time emails also go out through Gmail. What tools do you use and what are their pros/cons?
Just a reminder but Hard Science degrees also make you take some general education requirements, for instance my Computer Science degree came with courses such as:

* 4 Semesters of Latin

* Chinese Mythology

* History

* Linguistics

* Entomology

* Sociology

* Macro Economics
Alexis - kn0thing compares, kn0thing compares, to you
The AppStore variety of crap is a million times more tasty and nutritious than the Android marketplace variety. Calling these diametrically different things the same is a service to nobody.
Chris (Cmccann7) was fantastic on the phone. I really can't speak highly enough of him. He responded to my email, took the phone call, explained patiently what he did and then wrote up an entry about it. Thank you again Chris for being so supportive.
CEOs show how cheating death can change your life
society is still out one window. destroying wealth doesn't somehow create wealth.
Ahh, I see. Thank you for the correction :-)
By not giving them the false sense of security that "consumer protection" laws provide.

There is no substitute for individual judgement, and there never will be. The reason for this is that what is good for one person is not necessarily good for another.
and rather than actually taking the time to write a new man page to help their users, they leave that stub in as a sort of "fuck you".
You might not know (or forget) Stalin's various purges of some of the most brilliant and effective people the USSR (along with millions of others), not to mention the tens of millions of Soviet citizens who died when their country was ravaged during WW2.

There was also the fear and terror the country was ruled by, resulting in a state of constant paranoia among the citizenry. Not to mention the cronyism inherent in that system, by which only the most "loyal" (not to the state, but to their bosses) had any kind of future. And then there was the massive and vicious oppression and persecution of various minorities across the nation, and of the nationals of the various countries which the Soviet Union invaded and absorbed.

And even at the start of the Soviet Union, there were the millions who were killed during the Russian revolutions, which radically restructured the societies which made up the Soviet Union.

All these factors and many more contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union. It's just not nearly as simple as saying that "capitalism is more efficient than communism".