skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Back end Software Engineer
Aurora Solar is digitizing the Solar Energy industry. Were hiring backend software engineers. 2-5 years of experience with server side development. Palo Alto, CA location
rgoldstein@aurorasolar.com
I'd recommend you to use Argon2 instead of bcrypt for storing password. It has won the Password Hashing Competition last year and is the recommended way to store passwords. Bcrypt is not bad but it could be used with insecure parameters while Argon2 does not have insecure parameters.

The way you create cookies is also insecure, you should be using crypto/rand instead of math/rand AND rather hex.EncodeToString() the result instead of just generating random numbers in the alphanumeric range.
There is certainly a lot of comfort in knowing the car will be exactly where you left it last night so you can load your kids up to go to school, go to the hospital, evacuate in an emergency etc.

Also, cars are status symbols. Everyone has a phone with a clock on it, but watches still haven't disappeared entirely. Going driverless won't suddenly convince everyone to stop liking their cars and prefer generic Uber vehicles.
I think there's more than that. The safety report they released recently indicates the vehicles also have redundant power systems, redundant braking systems, redundant steering systems, etc. I doubt that the stock configurations require as much redundancy.
Time for companies to hire Americans and train Americans rather than attempting to suppress wages.
this project is running an ipfs node in your browser

Also, is not like torrents, if disconnect your node, the file disappears!! Read IPFS docs please
Any device operating at those frequencies should have an FCC sticker, meaning they've been tested to make sure radiated RF is below some legal limits. If the cheap devices don't have the sticker or have a fake sticker or were materially changed after passing the tests, they're illegal in the US.
Court orders Sci-Hub to shut down
Free Download New Full HD, BluRay and 4K Movies
In Denmark, several municipalities have hired garbage-collection trucks to test mobile coverage (danish article with images at https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/regionale/oestjylland/skraldebiler...) and some utility companies have done the same with recievers for short-range transmitters placed in water/power/heating meters.
Facebook introduces a Messenger plugin for business websites
>$2.50 is the base price and $0.505/mile and $0.50/minute the car is stopped

Sorry, I was going off "Plus 50 cents per 1/5 mile" to mean $2.50 per mile. Where are you getting $0.505/mile from your link?
>>"...and then decide to ignore, buy, invest."

...and then decide to ignore, buy, invest or copy.
Keeping dependencies fresh across dozens of Python services
Is this the programmers’ version of “I got mine”?
China Startups – The Gold Rush and Fire Extinguishers
I ran into my neighbor this morning. She told me her son has the day off of school for elections. This was the first I had ever heard of this.
i'm not sure what your point is, exactly. do you imagine that if only minix didn't exist, this would never have happened?
The front end developer at one of the companies I was working for nearly fainted when I told him I like Craigslist's web interface. The only criticism he could muster was "But it looks like the 90s". And then he proceeded to tell me off "because you don't want to learn how to use a new interface". Of course I don't want to, it is a skill with zero transferability. Learning how to be productive with an interface that only works with 'a' given app, for 'a' duration of six months until some bozo changes the whole UI, because some focus group decided that "it would look so pretty if ..." (and that is the best case scenario, mostly it is because some UI/UX guy was inspired while sacrificing chickens to a graven image of Steve Jobs) is bunk. The two most hated things that came out of Redmond in the last 20 years were the 07 rejig of the Office UI (so you had muscle memoried a bunch of key strokes that made you super productive, well the F U buddy, we are going with this weird ribbon thingie for no discernable reason - fixed that by recording a bunch of macros that did what Office 03 did) and the Win 8 UI. I mean which diseased mind thought that it would be a good idea? And if that was not retarded enough, to force it on server users.
One day there will be a cottage industry focused specifically on exploiting the edge-case behaviour of these algorithms. It doesn't matter that the specifics of the algorithms are secret, there are always ways of reverse engineering them. That's the whole point of statistical inference.
Monitoring PostgreSQL Performance and Health
I wasn't able to tell from the post. Does this mean me and 2 friends can each download Starcraft II and play a multiplayer game, either against one another, or against 3 other AIs?
workinstartups dot com is good here in London i think
the server never goes down, because is not like TORRENTS!
Is it really easier to use markdown than bolding things using a keyboard shortcut?

And tables are downright awful in markdown (or anything barring a full spreadsheet editor).
When would you want to do this by hand?
Yup cant stand journalism today. Straight up mouthpiece for the rich.

Why did they not ask the company what the wage for that position is. How many people in Chicago did they interview. Did they interview anyone over 50 who has that exact experience? Did they approach anyone currently working in similar jobs and offer them raises and other benefits to entice them over?

Truth is the Company did none of those things so the good loyal journalist won't ask those questions.
That's a good point, same of the Nintendo comment as well. Thanks.
Given the H1-B is a "Dual Intent" visa, it is absolutely still about immigration, the H1-B doesn't just allow for temporary workers. It provides a well worn path to a green card and permanent residency in the US too, and in my experience virtually everyone I've known to use the H1-B has done so.

The H1-B cap is surely a far more pressing concern for most technology firms than the GC backlog. The H1-B cap and delays are making it significantly harder to hire foreign workers. I don't think the big tech firms care nearly as much about GC backlogs - if anything they probably like this, as it arguably aids in staff retention if your workforce is less able to easily switch job.
One question I can't seem to find a good answer for is this:

Why doesn't the self-driving tech hand off control to a remote driver if the internet connection is good enough and there is enough warning?

Even with a couple seconds notice a primed human could take the wheel and do the right thing when the sensors aren't making sense.
Two points:

1) Given that the numbers did indeed end up proving that wage arbitrageurs like Accenture were dominating the H1B lottery [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/us/outsourcin...], reform would seem to be necessary.

2) Trump has repeatedly called for a Canadian or Australian style skills-based immigration system to replace chain and quota-based immigration. One would think HN would generally support this?
It's not like that. Most top companies do detailed paperwork. This causes other side effects and stress.

For example, you could be working at Google / Facebook earning top $$$$ every year and you paperwork could be spotless. But the stress of having to go through an uncertain renewal process every 3 years prevents you from investing in big things like buying a house or having kids. You are always worried about being able to return back to your stuff when you leave for a trip overseas.

Even though most top companies immediately apply for Green CArds, the "country of birth" based green limits ensure that you have to remain in H1-B status for 15 - 20 years (if you happen to be born in India).

TL;DR: It's not the increased vetting that we fear, its the uncertainty and complicated appeal procedures that can affect genuine H1-B cases.
>The (skilled) immigration issue which concerns most of SV is green card backlogs. That has not gotten any attention from SV leadership.

Of course not. If workers were not held hostage by one company, and were free to go to any company they wanted without worrying about their immigration status, the companies would have to pay higher wages to keep their workers.
Interesting question. Like you, I too believe that a large population may prefer Lyft/Uber type services instead of dealing with the concerns of owning one (e.g., parking, requiring space for parking, insurance, time spent in fueling, maintenance, etc.).

However, I tend to think that there still may be a decent size of population who'd prefer owning. Others mentioned the convenience of using cars for storage, being readily available, lower cost of owning, reduced insurances, customizations, etc. Along with these, I believe some other factors exist.

In context of self-driving cars, we typically tend to picture urban transportation first. However, there will still be needs for long distance commuting, or taking long trips for pleasure. There will always be places where people frequent less compared to major spots/suburbs in a city.

People may not always want to hop into a random car every time they take a trip. The cost/time involved in flagging a car of your choice may not be worth the effort for some. Also, keep in mind that many think of cars as a statement, another way of expressing their beliefs. Take for example, preferring German vs. American vs. Japanese, some prefer minimal space, others may like to exhibit opulence.

All in all, there will be a large shift towards not-owning cars, but there may always be a market for owning (at least for a long while).
IT's worth linking directly to the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNO_CYUjMK8

(Also, after the first few slides in the animation, there are some pretty cool animations).
48 percent of the nation's top 50 housing markets are now considered overvalued
I felt there was a strong allegory to entrepreneurship in WD. I read it as the story of a founding team: one visionary who saw things differently, the other who was able to lead. They escape from their rigid community, and build a specialized team.

Very deep stuff in there, so well told.

I finally read this as an adult recently, and it is amazing. I'd love more recommendations for books like it (with non-humans as protagonists).
The US as a whole (including non-governmental culture, employer preferences, etc) is still making a massive push for higher education, which is a big part of what's caused the arms race of ever-nicer dorms etc.

The thing to remember about US education is that it's highly different between the haves and have-nots. That's a problem in itself, but it's a giant oversimplification to jump to "US educations are generally poor." (One of the other high school and college cost-drivers/arms-race-drivers is competing to attract foreign students.)
True, though history seems to show that copy only happens after they aren't able to buy or invest. It's much riskier from a business perspective to copy than to buy usually.
It's also possible that other companies with better ideas got squashed by Tesla because Tesla had more money. You never know. I am starting to think like that about the iPhone. In 2007 it was an innovation but now it's probably suppressing new ideas with its dominance.

In short, we don't know.
I didn't mean to say that it is the only problem. It is more like the "meta problem" as far as theory is concerned.

There are many parameters (layers, nodes, connectivity, drop off, number of trials etc). Right now they are guessed at by trial and error. The thing preventing you from saying, "Oh, just reduce the layers by 1, and add more nodes" is the non-linearity.
Thank you for that.
Just to make one thing clear, the person who destroyed the contract was after people's money.
He posted a list of contract addresses in the github issue, most of them look like ICO wallets, with a transaction made the time before he destroyed the contract. The transaction was from him to his wallet trying to drain the wallets. After he failed to he went to the destroy function thinking it will propagate to the wallets and moving the funds to him ( this part is just a theory ) or he is just a jerk who wanted to see the world burn.
One of the strangest things with visas is that the agency that authorizes a person to work (DHS/USCIS) is different and has different objectives from the agency that issues the actual visas (DoS). With a valid USCIS work authorization a person already in the US can continue working legally, but the moment they step out of the country they need to apply for a visa with a US consulate (DHS). Applying for a visa with the DHS can take less than a week or more than 6 weeks (despite having all the correct documents). With the people I've spoken to, this causes a great deal of anxiety when travelling internationally.

TL;DR: A work authorization document issued by one agency allows a person to maintain legal presence in the US. This is different from a visa -- a visa allows one to enter the country and is issued by another agency. The visa doesn't clearly specify what one can and cannot do while in the country.
Maybe an annoyed neighbor shot it down.
Co-founder left and the investor backed off [story]
> H-1B is about temporary guest workers.

The H-1B is not about guest workers, which are an altogther separate set of programs/visas. The H-1B is a dual-intent visa, so it supports both people who intend to obtain a green card or citizenship eventually as well as people who only intend to work in the US for a period of time before returning home. (Even in the latter case, this doesn't qualify it as a guest worker program, which is a third category altogether).

An easy heuristic you can use to remember why the H-1B visa isn't a guest worker program is that many people who obtain H-1B visas enter the country without any plan for the date that they will return home. (Whether or not they ultimately stay and immigrate is a separate matter, but guest workers by definition know their expected departure date when they enter, because the terms of their employment and entry are inherently temporary.)

Some critics of the H-1B visa refer to it as a guest worker program, in an attempt to conflate it pejoratively with the latter (which are generally for low-skilled labor, and therefore viewed less favorably than specialty visas like the H-1B).
Some of those points are good, others are nonsense. In particular:

1) There's no need for a garbage collector, because there's very limited computation within each transaction, and complete cleanup of non-permanent storage after each one.

2) The author doesn't appear to realize that the list of mis-compilation bugs is a list of fixed bugs. The list is only available in json because its purpose is just to let tools display warnings for obsolete compilers.

3) I have a hard time dreaming up an application that would need a string library in Solidity, because storage on chain is very expensive, and you only need to compute things on chain that require global consensus. Strings on chain are usually very short and static; for longer stuff we just store their hashes on chain and use client code to manipulate the strings.
Seriously. The Toyota “lean” approach has been advocating for this - and reconfiguring factories around this - for decades. Hell, hospital execs have been taking tours of Toyota plants to import those ideas into HC for a good 20 years or more.
Insulin-Releasing Implant for Type-1 Diabetes
In many ways basketball is more skill and tactic based than something like football, and I suspect that has an influence. I also think bjj is disproportionately popular among programmers for the same reason
> Aegis applied for a half-dozen visas this spring, and only one of them made it through the lottery. The year before, Aegis secured a visa for someone filing a type of job he’s filled with H-1B workers in the past. So Narayanan set up a client project for the prospective new employee, a woman who was living in Dehli, India, at the time.

Sounds like they are exactly the type of consulting firm the administration is attempting to crack down on.

> USCIS challenged the application in August, which irked Narayanan because he had provided everything the agency had asked for. Narayanan was doubly annoyed because, without someone else to handle the new contract, it fell to him directly. For the last month, Narayanan has been spending four or five hours each morning doing the work himself, forgoing his own primary responsibility, which is to bring in new clients. “We might not make the profit we were expecting because of these issues,” he said. “We are afraid of on-boarding new H-1B employees, because of the unknown world.”

My heart weeps for him. If he could do the work himself, is it really so specialized he required H1B for it? Or was it more he just didn't want to pay the local rates?

That said, having hired through the H1B program I sure hope it remains viable. Reforms based on salary instead of lottery seem like a good compromise, reducing outsourcing and low salaries endemic with H1B mills. I'd much prefer a floating high salary floor (say top 25%) and uncapping H1B entirely.
The function of mining is not limited to the PoW, it's also an arbitration mechanism for decentralized minting/scheduled inflation.

The block reward incentivizes participants. Why should I run a monitor node for this new cryptocoin? Who will allocate the coins and how?

> Am I certain that I need strict global consensus?

Perhaps not but IMO it makes things much simpler to design as a result.
This is absolutely correct. I don't understand this mess of an immigration system, where first you have to lie to visa officers saying that you are using the F1 visa only to study, and you will definitely go back to your home country, then get a dual intent H1B, with a near infinite green card wait.

Set clear standards and expectations. I know that for a lot of people stuck in green card queues, Canada is looking mighty attractive right now. Instant PR.
This is really the central issue.

The H-1B program hasn't ever been a way to get solid talent from other countries to come to the United States because equivalent talent can't be found here. It's ALWAYS been a way to expand the pool of cheap technology labor so that companies dependent on expensive skills can grow faster.

Economics is economics. Companies have an incentive to fight wage inflation when they experience it due to a reliance on high-skill individuals.

I remember going to the offices of a well-known bank and finding nearly the entire development staff comprised of foreign workers on H-1B. Most of them were from India.

That can't be an accident and it's certainly not an indicator that talent is in short supply. What's in short supply is CHEAP TALENT. H-1B workers are cheap and don't have any ability to complain about their working conditions because they can't move to another company as easily as a permanent resident can. That alone is worth the legal hassle a company assumes when bringing in these workers.

SO, word to the wise....make sure you stay one step ahead of the skill levels of the Indian outsourcing companies or your days are numbered.

In the meantime, support candidates that are willing to rein in this amazing abuse of our immigration policy.
"Don't move it twice" was a common saying when I had a summer job contracting. Don't move the wood off the truck, cut it in the bed of the truck, bring cut pieces in. Save all the dinky, random cuts for last, do them all in one go, instead of running back and forth to the truck every time. Clean from the top down, from the back to the front, so you don't have to clean something twice.

There's a lot of wisdom in the trades! I guess you care more for efficiency when it's your own energy you're spending, instead of some random computer's.
Views on immigration (and globalization) don't really align with the left-right political axis in the US.

Zero sum thinking and all that.
Thanks! Will fix right away.
>clean the water he drank for 24 years,

I mean, arguably neither did the Chinese, depending on where you are and how much they've let pollution occur in that area.

I think you are grossly overestimating both the value of these immigrants (it isn't hard to see how much garbage science gets published abroad and how useless a good chunk of international students are) and the entire mechanism for technological improvement and innovation (most of which is market, not PhD, driven).

You also don't cite any sources for your claims; this information would be helpful to anybody seeking to agree or argue with you.
Do you mind to share what kind of X in “how to properly document X” pages you have?
I like that idea and would like to do similar!
I think the parent poster's point is that the H1B process is far from the bottleneck there, for shops intending to bring along their foreign workers rather than churn through cheap employees, which matches my experience.
Not a job board. But I love using my phone and calling folks :)
I've done Keto several times, and while the results were always fantastic the hardest thing is that 3-4 day period where you need to watch what you eat to enter ketosis, one false move can reset your progress and really discourage you; however for me once I'm in ketosis I'm pretty disciplined at keeping it up.

If this drink can get me into ketosis quickly and allow me to maintain it by following the regular diet then I'm sold. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out.
>hypothetically, some non-financial systems don't require ordering or conflict resolution and thus such systems don't need PoW.

If you don't need trustless time ordering of data, you don't need a blockchain. You just need... a database
Rebuilding Strava's Leaderboards Infrastructure – Design of the New System
It's because I pointed those things out. As far as I could tell GoT is primarily about feeding those pornographic desires whilst hiding behind a facade of medieval fantasy fiction.

I would have continued the series if I thought his writing were any good, in spite of the clearly repressed sexuality he was indulging himself in.
This rant has some good points, but completely misses other very important points. The main one being that those "really fast interfaces" were only fast or even useable if you spent months to years learning how to use them. They were also horribly limiting. (For example, with no mouse and no way to change where the input is focused, you can't re-sort the lists by a different field.)

I worked for a major cash register manufacturer writing DOS-based software for point of sale (PoS) systems in the 90s. One thing our customers (big stores) constantly reiterated was that training costs were very high and retention very low, so they wanted simpler-to-use systems, but with no less functionality.

The big wins tended to be combinations of hardware that made the process easier (think grocery store scanners), and better UI on screen that was easier to understand and use. We ended up making a graphical (but still DOS-based) UI along with some specialized hardware (an LCD screen with function keys around it so the command name was right next to the key, but could change per screen). It's been used for the past 20 years by the likes of Walmart, Target, and the USPS, so I guess it worked. (I haven't worked on it in 20 years, so I'm sure it's changed from how it was when I was there.)

It may very well not be as fast to load any given screen or respond to any given command. But it costs less to train people to use it, and it's easier to understand. I believe that it also helped improve checkout speed, as well, which was important to some of the bigger stores.

I feel the pain the OP has, but I don't think their rant is entirely justified. There are good points (especially about maps!), but they're also seeing the past through rose-colored glasses.
I see a lot of new RTS games produced, but what I don't see is any reason to play them. They're pretty much the same as what we already have with different graphics and different tech trees. Different, but not better, or at least not appreciably so.