skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Image text recognition is a major problem we're trying to solve in our startup. I would love to be pointed to some SOTA research in this space. Hard to find anything by Googling about it.

As far as our experience goes, Cloud Vision API is a killer option compared to both AWS and MSFT. It's pricier than AWS though and is slower. MSFT is terrible in both price and speed.
No need to be so cynical.
For some more content on gerrymandering, I suggest FiveThirtyEight's "The Gerrymandering Project". Episode 1 goes through the two major ways gerrymandering gets applied, and also discusses that just because a district has a weird shape doesn't necessarily mean it is gerrymandered.

And because I've never seen a social media post about gerrymandering favoring democrats, I'd like to add the efficiency gap chart from [2]. 8/26 states listed on the efficiency gap chart here are listed as favoring democrats. I fully recognize right now gerrymandering favors republicans significantly, however I'd like to note in some areas democrats are favored.

[1] https://fivethirtyeight.com/tag/the-gerrymandering-project/
[2] https://www.azavea.com/blog/2017/07/19/gerrymandered-states-...
Not really other than applications for admission in TN status seem to have become more difficult and irrational.
This: closely followed by "people have heard of your torturous interview process and assume developers willing to both submit to it AND continue to administer it to others must be a bunch of egotistical assholes (who they'd rather not work with)".
What do you think of https://www.bridge.us (SaaS platform for immigration)? I haven't used them yet but I'm a fan of the team and the concept. We have sponsored a number of J and H visas for various people at Breezy, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the value of this platform and/or any competitors. Thanks in advance!
hey, why not get energy for free!)

Because that energy isn’t free. Panels cost money, the electronics to get it to the batteries cost money, and increased complexity cost money. You won’t get a sunroof. Those black panels that are specifically designed to optimize the absorption of the sun’s energy will absorb heat.

All so I can get an extra four miles (on a good day) of range after sitting in the sun all day. I’m not going to go as far as to say it’s a dumb idea, but it sure is hell isnt a good one with current technology.
Get a hardware wallet. I like my Nano Ledger S, but there are others.
There are places that have charging stations built into streetlights.
In your opinion, what is the outlook for foreigners wanting to participate in YC?

This question is in relation to 2 types of foreigners:

1) Regular foreigners (eg. from Western Europe, etc.)

2) Marginalized foreigners (eg. Muslims, Russians, etc.)

To further expand on what I mean by "outlook": Are foreigners welcome in the US in this political climate? Can foreigners expect extra/excessive bureaucracy (especially type 2) foreigners) from authorities? Does YC play a role in assisting type 2) foreigners who may experience 'issues'?
It's not really the same if you read the article and other comments. Or you are joking?
Whether the plan for revoking EAD for H4 Spouse of an H1 I-140 holder can be blocked by court ? Also will there be any economic implications on 100,000 plus going out of workforce ?
Take a look at current research in poker-playing for something that is closer to your setting.
It should really be re-phrased why you’re having trouble hiring developers at the rates you want because if for example you paid double market rates you would most likely be rejecting a lot of good developers. Money isn’t the only thing but it’s definitey a very big issue.
I feel like the author and/or the team is confused about what HTML5 actually is. They're probably right to conclude that JavaScript/HTML5 won't perform as well on lower end devices, but a few things struck me as odd.

They mention Facebook switching away from HTML5, but I think Facebook is using the actual DOM, whereas their game would be using the canvas part of the HTML5 spec.

Later they mention WebAssembly replacing HTML5, but what it's really replacing is JavaScript, and the actual canvas that you're rendering to will stay the same afaik. The impact on performance would probably be as they predict, but overall, their issues seem to be with JavaScript, not HTML5.
WebVR for enterprise – thoughts?
VR is looking like having a good 2018. WebVR can be a great way to create & distribute experiences, as it gets around the installs & (some) pain of unity/UE4 builds - with some obvious tradeoffs. How do we think Corp. IT will respond?
I used to be fascinated with the UFO reports and such as a kid.

However, I grew up, and learned physics. And then later I learned about things like Molecular Nanotechnology.

Aliens, as popularly conceived, have not been here, and will not be coming here.

Why? I'll explain.

Space is big. Like, really big. The distance to the nearest star system is 4 light-years away. Even for a small object, it takes an enormous amount of energy to get going at a "reasonable" speed, like at some fraction of the speed of light. For an example of a more reasonably-sized object, Voyager 1 would take 70k years to get to the closest star system (4LY away) if it was headed in the right direction.

But then you have to stop! If you accelerate up to 0.1c (very fast), you have to decelerate to arrive at your destination. This is where the rocket equation kills you. Even with super-mass efficient ion drives (which with our current technology provide very low thrust), accelerating your spaceship to a reasonable speed, and then have enough delta-V to stop at the destination requires an even more crazy amount of energy.

If any aliens are headed to our solar system, we'd see their drive flairs from a long way out.

The most efficient system is to use a light sail (really, a laser sail). This is so you don't have to carry all that reaction mass with you, thus bypassing the rocket equation. And then there's a trick where you detach most of your sail, allowing it to reflect light back towards the ship for the deceleration half of the trip.

But again, even for a small (like 1kg) payload, this requires a stupendous amount of energy. And we'd see them coming because they'd be shining a big, big laser in our direction.

There are also Bussard ramjet drives, and other speculated technology, but these would all likely be slower because of the mass required to build it.

Now simply flinging out a bunch of von Neumann replicators out in every direction would be much less obvious (though very slow), until the space dust starts building infrastructure in our solar system... but that's a talk for another day.
Yep.

In particular, stay away from anyone funded by Vista Equity Partners because they enforce IQ tests during hiring for all of their companies. That's overlaid on top of a whiteboard assessment.
Stop using Facebook. Stop using Google. Problem solved.
Fight Against Mugshot Sites Brings Little Success
Depends on the power dynamic. "I'm so hot, why would I ever date someone like you" can go both ways.
Up and Going with React Native
A certain social score has progressively been rolled out over the past few millennium. It began in the granaries of Mesopotamia and the Yellow River, and nowadays only a few tribal people aren't part of it. It's known as "money" and currently measures how well people work, sell, save, invest, not get caught, and other such characteristics. It's stacked because people's opening balances are fixed by birth rite. Because of the existence of different currencies and asset classes, it's been controlled by a loose consortium of various central banks and regulatory authorities. This Social Credit Score in China to supplement its People's Currency (Renmin Bi) merely changes the ranking criteria and governing authorities involved. There's no new paradigm here.
Similar. The reason they say "package manager" rather than "configuration management" for your manifests is because it's actually much more about packaging than it is config management.

The chart packaging format and template language don't allow you to easily encapsulate or abstract away your dependent charts, it's really just a simple package which you can use as-is, but not really possible "tweak" or "extend" charts without forking them. Contrasted this to a CM system which typically make it possible to build new modules/cookbooks/recipes/whatever on top of others, with the possibility to hide away the details of the underlying module/recipe/etc.

It's really just tarballs with yaml templates and a way to specify values for the templates.
For anyone interested, I reached out to aot@uchicago.edu and they plan to publish schematics at the end of the year.
Ask HN: Convince me of a blockchain's utility
It seems to me that blockchains have no real value, and all of the potential applications of blockchain tech seem like they could be accomplished more easily and efficiently with a traditional database.

Part of my problem with blockchains is the premise - taken for granted by blockchain enthusiasts - that 'centralized data' is bad, and the salvation wrought by blockchains through 'decentralized data' is a major source of their utility.

First, data being controlled by a single entity is not a problem. In fact it promotes the curation and management of that data, which is a good thing.

Second, the concept of data decentralization, forgetting for a moment that it addresses a problem that doesn't exist, doesn't really make economic sense.

A data oriented business provides value by gathering and managing data that was not previously available. Ownership of that data and the associated promise of profit is the incentive necessary to motivate the work of gathering and presenting data in a workable format. No one who wants to build a data oriented business will ever want to 'decentralize' their data, because then they're basically giving up ownership.

Is my appraisal of the data (de)centralization issue correct? Why?

Where does a blockchain add real value? What does it enable that was not previously possible? How does it improve over existing solutions?
They won't need to charge hundreds of cars immediately.

When car parks need to charge hundreds of cars at a time, it will be proditable for them to they will build power providing structures.
On the other-hand, I have seen lots of people who do not have high incomes spend money on luxuriates that make them feel good but the money would be better being invested into something else in the long run.

I am not talking about poor people bringing something into their life to feel good about, I am talking about people who could save thousands of dollars over three months to a year but instead spend on things like EXTRA flat screen TVs, the latest Iphone while they are still under contract to the old one, vacations where they stay in the more expensive rooms, etc.

Many times in talking to them I notice they don't spend the time to do the research on where they should spend the money so they often spend more than me for the same thing and way, way too often demand they want something now.

Example: My landlady was going to sign for a new furnace for her second rental (Installation charge+ $89 a month for the next 5 years), I talked her out of it and it turned out to just need a $50 new motor + installation charge $100).

Last week she had no sound, she wanted to buy a new computer. I backed up her files, used the install partition and reconnected her internet and email.

But she thought no sound means you have to buy a new computer!
Let's imagine we could solve the easy problem of writing the software that is fully distributed to each complex and interacts with the software in any other complex. How do we solve the operations problem of running the machines in the complex?
People couldn’t believe two dogs killed their owner
> I really want a nice OO language with Garbage Collector / ARC that compiles to native code on Windows, Mac and Linux.

SBCL[0] compiles to native code on Windows, Mac & Linux and is garbage collected. It implements an extremely nice OO language, Common Lisp[1]. The language is stable, and it's extremely powerful. SBCL is extremely fast as well, as fast or faster than C in many cases, when appropriate type declarations. Because it's by default a dynamic language, though, you don't need to declare types where you don't want to bother.

[0] http://sbcl.org/

[1] http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/object-reorientation-generic...
http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/object-reorientation-classes...
As soon as Pai’s Ruling is published on The Federal Register, your ISP will charge Netflix $cable_amount to deliver content to your home AND not have to pay license fees to the cable networks they provide. Of course, Netflix will have to pass $cable_amount along to you.
Accurate. I was trying to focus on personality traits and how companies are perceived from the outside rather than process, which I feel like I could fill a book on.
That's a problem with our immigration system. Oftentimes, there are no solutions for talented individuals. Sometimes the O-1 visa is an option. While the standard is no doubt high, talented professionals oftentimes meet it.
Thank you for the correction. I had these two conditions backwards in my mind. I should have double checked before posting.
Not sure if that was global but I did pay a Euro for it yep
> Unless you're fermenting or canning, iodine makes no difference to food.

It honestly hadn’t occurred to me that iodine could inhibit fermentation, and I had just recently purchased a box of iodized salt for the first time in years because of the reasons discussed in this thread. But lo, the fermentation blogs all seem to confirm this. I hope the salsa I have fermenting in my cupboard isn’t ruined.
Wait, aren't IQ tests during hiring illegal in the US?
IMHO, only Google's API got that correct.

The test they did is similar to providing:

MICROSOET and expecting the API's to find MICROSOFT.
News organisations have to remove legitimate journalism as a result. The BBC lists it when it happens to them, eg:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/1d0a67ff-ad97-4c...
First genetic proof that women were Viking warriors
Never realized that such a site exists. You should note that the problems listed here might as well be from any other 10000+ employee company. I don't think it is unique to Amazon.
Futures comes at a cost, however: premium and rollover costs. Premium costs is not fix if you need to rollover. You’ll need to pay both premium and interest on gbtc.

Also futures on CME are not easily tradable. The contract value is $100k and liquidity is not impressive so far.
I think that's called being diligent or conscientious. Or call it "doing a good job" or "being a professional".
I am not American and don't trust the American government to control my money or to keep it away from Putin or Bulgarian criminals, so it gains nothing.

But if it was implemented by a reputable government that respects privacy and implements the convenience of most crypto-currencies than I would take it, for sure.
Can we pivot this conversation to building cities and towns that don't need cars instead of thinking of filling the streets with electric cars?
Noisebridge will close without your help
I can't answer the latter question but I think there will be a major battle that will cross party lines if the administrations attempts to do away with this benefit.
The New Retail: Gird Your Loins
Couldn't get the drawing part to work. do you need metamask or mist?
If you have to choose a different country to move to, which do you pick and why?
Traditionally, survival.
dang, i feel like i could read you talking about the state of programming all day. so, can i ask, what is your current language/framework of choice and what would you recommend to someone in my position (just starting out, interest mainly in working on personal project that could eventually become saas products and only interested in web application development)? do you have any words of wisdom on python?
Journalism is dead. We can't, in near real time, detangle the complexities of the plans of large entities such as governments/corporations and the effects of their policies. That's typically what journalists were really good at.

That's the real problem.

Colorful thought and artful diversity is the spice of life, but priority number one is consumer safety.

We just need to know what's going on!

It's been on the downward trend towards the grave for a very, very long time. Facebook/Google are simply nails on the coffin.
Jobs' position was they couldn't make flash run acceptably on mobile devices, so they never allowed it. Looking at how Flash turned out on Android, I think history shows he was right.

Rereading Jobs' letter from years ago, basically all of it stands solid.

https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Remember when basically everyone was using flash to play video? Would we really be in a better place if that had continued?

(The one thing that doesn't hold up imo was the desire to not allow native apps using 3rd party intermediate APIs. Tons of apps are made that way now, and it's fine. Jobs' worry about hurting the platform because of the 3rd-parties not picking up the latest native APIs mostly hasn't come to pass, because iOS is so dominant that there's a strong competitive advantage/drive to quickly adopt new stuff. But it was probably a reasonable worry at the time.)
Silicon Valley's Dumbest 'Inventions' of 2017
Springboard raises $9.5M to offer an online alternative to the master’s degree
> how personal data may be used even after it's voluntarily provided

It was voluntarily provided under the requirement that said data will not be shared with third parties for commercial purposes.
Once that restriction does not apply anymore, as the data ends up being shared with third parties for commercial purposes, neither does your right to use that "voluntarily provided data".

Imho private information should be handled like a license; Sure I can allow you to use it, but if you break against the rules we agreed on I reserve the right to revoke your license to use my personal information because at the end of the day it's still MY information.
> it moves away from the "upgrade your device every X years" paradigm

Don't Chromebooks have ~4yr end-of-support lifecycles where they stop receiving upgrades?
How does a non-immigrant who is currently on H1B visa in the US go about starting and working for their own company?
having worked 5 months on an H1-B and quitting. Is it necessary to go through the lottery again if I find employment once more? If not, how long before having to go through the lottery again?
Can someone explain what this link is trying to highlight here? I'm viewing this on a Mac and it just gives me a "Not available on your device" button...
> but what it's really replacing is JavaScript

That is a common misconception, but there no evidence of this. WASM replaces Flash and Flash never replaced JavaScript.
I use Password Gorilla (https://github.com/zdia/gorilla/wiki) on Linux and Windows and use the PasswdSafe app on Android (https://sourceforge.net/p/passwdsafe/wiki/Home/). Both use the same file format (the Password Safe format) and so far the Android app has never crashed on me.
To expand on the sibling comment, if the article is accurate the social credit score is based on some of the same factors as the FICO score (e.g., do you pay your bills on time) and has some of the same implications (how easily you can get a loan). However, it also has broader scope (e.g., it also includes social and behavioral input that isn't used in FICO scores AFAIK) and broader implications (e.g., "at [a score of] 750, they get fast-tracked application to a coveted pan-European Schengen visa").
I recently overheard a "startup mentor" telling a CEO that developers are very smart and sometimes persuasive, but that they don't have a clue what is going on and need to be told exactly what to do.

She then went on to tell the CEO that she took an intro to javascript class and she felt that doing that gave her great insight into how long things reasonably ought to take developers to finish.

It's amazing that this kind of mindset exists today. While it often makes sense for startups to take on technical debt (as well as management debt and other practices that don't scale well) the issue is rarely that developers are clueless, it's that the project cycle does not include a proper accounting of tech debt and the compounding interest that it generates.

The simple answer is to first establish the minimum guaranteed lifespan of the business based on funding that is guaranteed, and work backwards to determine what milestones are necessary to extend that timeline and create a profitable (or venture backed) business. If the only option is to take on technical debt, plan for when it will be paid off.

I've seen many cases where an early team rallies to ship a product and takes on technical debt so that it can be viewed as having shipped successfully, only to find themselves mired in the debt a few weeks after launch, during which time they lose a lot of credibility and some may even end up burning out and quitting the team.

If you are hiring junior engineers, that may mean you are taking on technical debt... maybe even architecture debt. This may be a smart decision, as long as you are aware you are doing it and have a plan to pay it back before it becomes too costly.
Face controlled apps are here & they'll change how we interact with our devices
All I can say is that despite all the craziness and hostility surrounding immigration, the procedures haven't really changed that much, regardless of the country of origin, and we're still able to get visas for highly talented individuals.
Yes they are very illegal.
I am assuming you work on US immigration law? Lots of us here live in other countries so it would be good to clear that up in your description if possible.
well, not so sure about Google's AI services are superior in every way.

Actually, Google has fewer public APIs when compared to Msft/AWS for AI use cases, ex: Face recognition etc. Maybe they just don't release stuff unless it's much better than the competitor's.
> the example on the webpage is pretty contrived

That's true, but the point of the demonstration is simply that the snaky, salamander-looking shapes are not necessary.

There's every reason to believe that you can achieve stunning examples of partisan gerrymandering under various "nice shape" criteria. You are correct that the "n-1 split lines" is simply very easy to state mathematically.
I think it depends what you mean by moor's law, since everyone seems have a different view on it. If we are still talking about transistor density then it is not dead yet. Intel as shown the improvement from 14nm and 10nm is roughly in line. But i am pretty certain the next one wont fit the graph line any more.
But if we are taking about the economics of transistor where it is getting cheaper 40-50% cheaper every two years then that has gone since 14nm.