skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Since he's coming from the perspective of someone noticing a decline in the UC system, he might be partly noticing a shift within the education spending, rather than overall spending declining (and over-generalizing that perspective). Here's some funding data for the UC system, which has a downward trend in per-student terms since around 1990, except for a brief upward blip during the dot-com boom, and is now lower than it's ever been (as far back as I can find data, anyway):

Year State funding (2010 $) Enrollment Per-student funding (2010 $)
1965 $1.37 billion 59,000 $23,000
1970 $1.84b 73,000 $25,000
1975 $2.31b 84,000 $28,000
1980 $2.75b 94,000 $29,000
1985 $3.23b 108,740 $30,000
1990 $3.47b 125,044 $28,000
1995 $2.68b 123,948 $22,000
2000 $3.94b 141,028 $28,000
2005 $3.09b 158,933 $19,000
2010 $3.02b 181,520 $17,000

That probably understates the decline somewhat, because the cost of living in California has grown faster than inflation, so funding should probably be adjusted against a wage index of some sort. Going by pure inflation-calculator adjustments like I used in the above table assumes that you can pay staff in 2010 the same salary as they would get 1965, adjusted only for inflation. That would mean getting professors for around $55,000, sysadmins for around $45,000, etc., which you aren't going to have much luck with.

Benefits outside this direct funding were much more generous in my parents' generation also--- my dad went to a private university in California with his tuition mostly paid by the state, courtesy of the Calgrants program, which used to pay for any California student with grades above a certain level and with financial need to attend any California university, public or private. So to some extent it is sort of annoying that a generation that benefited from those kinds of programs, getting their degree without incurring student-loan debt, now thinks that they need to be cut.
In general teacher salaries are pretty poor,...

Yes, but they get great fringe benefits (early retirement, defined benefit pensions) and easy hours. The salaries aren't even that bad if you multiply by (12 months of pay / 9-10 months of work). The underpaid teacher is a myth.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art4full.pdf

http://web.missouri.edu/~podgurskym/articles/files/fringe_be...
Dell latitude d620 battery, dell latitude d620 laptop battery replacement
1、off 25%！！！Brand new
2、dell latitude d620 battery replacement:14.40V,4400mAh,li_ion.
3、Discount dell latitude d620 laptop batteries.
4、30 days money back,1 year warranty!
FB also changes their privacy features without giving users a heads-up first.
Don't skimp on music, cheapskates
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1459119
Shit, sorry. I really tried to phrase it in a way to avoid trolling, but it looks like sometimes it's just in my blood.

I'm sure Kurzweil is a deeply honest and righteous man. I'm just conflicted at how the medical establishment (that is, all the doctors I've talked to), don't seem to advocate nearly the amount of supplements he does, by several orders of magnitude. Is Kurzweil really that far ahead of this character we imagine called "modern medical institutions", or is he just wrong (as Aristotle was about astrology)? It's hard to question whether or not you're wrong when you're making lots of money one way or another.
Source code: http://www.mojang.com/compo/metagun/metagun-source.zip (linked from http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-18/?action=preview...)

I compiled (yucky) with (after unzip + mkdir build):

javac -cp build src/com/mojang/metagun/{entity,level,screen,}/*.java -d build/
cp {src,build}/com/mojang/metagun/screen/exposition.txt
jar -cf app.jar -C build . -C res .

You need some html to run an applet; App.html just needs this:

<applet code="com.mojang.metagun.Metagun" archive="app.jar" height="480" width="640"></applet>

Run with:

appletviewer App.html

New to me (but probably standard to game writers) is: using a png to represent all the maps combined (like 10x10 maps), with each pixel's color representing a game tile type (eg. yellow for oil drum, purple for portal cube, red for spikes, green for signs etc). This representation is really cool, because it looks like what it represents (an isomorphism): you can "see" the level in a png editor, even though what you're seeing is not the actual level.

Another aspect of how the data representation drives the game, is that there are no explicit arcs between game screens - instead, the screen design allows your character to walk off-screen, then that point enables you to transition to the next screen. I guess it's the most obvious way to do it: it's as if you are zoomed into a particular section of the 10x10 maps, and then you can move to adjacent maps. Maybe it's just that I've spent too much time with nodes and arcs recently :-), expecting logical concepts to be explicitly specified, instead of implied by the design. Anyway, there is no sequential index to get to a particular screen; you have to follow the path. Or you can look at that png. eg, the final boss screen is at xLevel=3, yLevel=10 (you can initialize those values in GameScreen.java; and you need to change the player start location too, because now it's not derived from the previous screen: change the last two args in the following new Level line, from 0,0 to 10,10).
Traveling to Rome. Data plan for my phone?
I'm traveling to Rome in 2 weeks and am taking my unlocked MyTouch 3G with me. I plan to get an Italian pre-paid SIM card, since I'm told this is the most inexpensive way to use my phone for calls while there. My question is about using my phone for data. The whole point in taking my own phone is that I'd like to use the GPS, maps and so on. I'm not finding much info on getting data with these pre-paid SIM cards. Do they tend to include data? If not, do you have another suggestion?

Thanks.
Here's my big list from a few months ago:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1088737

Also, although I've only skimmed mhartl's book, it looks great and has already been updated for Rails 3: http://railstutorial.org/book

And for the edge rails guides (Rails 3): http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/
How Safe is your Money?  Analysis of FDIC data.
Not really, Kodak where at the forefront of large low noise CCDs in the early 90s. They had industrial chips that wiped the floor with a lot of the science CCD suppliers.
The first pro digital cameras where from Kodak, or had a Kodak CCD inside.
From their description on their website (http://leftronic.com/):

"Leftronic develops web-based visualization software optimized for large screen displays. Our API makes it easy - just push individual data points and our application tracks, parses and presents the data."

It looks like they provide an API for you to submit your own data, and then they make a personalized web application dashboard that you can display on a display.
I notice no one is saying FastSpring or Braintree Payments. Is it because those are not considered in the sane classs as Paypal or aren't good for people starting out?
I'm an Australian living in a town with a pretty high level of immigrants, including a lot of Americans and Canadians, and I can't tell the difference between an American and a Canadian at all. I'm not entirely convinced the difference between a Canadian and an American would be any bigger than the difference between Texans and Californians, for example.
It won't make sense until you make a concerted effort to learn lisp. Dig into "The Little Schemer". It's enlightening. And fun.
How to Design Apple’s Glass Button in Omnigraffle
The bozo bit is starting to flip... Give the PM the benefit of doubt; I'd be direct with him about why you don't think his actions are right--tell him what you expect from him and why the way he's behaving isn't constructive. If he doesn't listen, do your job, watch your back, and communicate to your boss how this guy isn't healthy for your team.
Well, no offense, but remind me never to work with you. I'm sorry that the Java programmers were condescending to the Perl programmers back in 2002 but could you just get over it? Sometimes Java is the right tool for a given job. If you're against any platform on principle (aside from the single-vendor principle), then you're guaranteed to be wrong some % of the time.

If all you do is webapps, fine, Java sucks for webapps, continue hating.
You don't really see the parens after a while. Clojure's appeal goes beyond its syntax, as I'm sure does whichever language you prefer.

Curiously, the equivalent code in most other languages has about the same number of parens.
Though I definitely didn't finish reading this, I couldn't help but remember Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby (http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/) - this is probably the prettiest Haskell learning resource writeup I've seen up to date :)
I have a feeling that it is opposite of entropy. A kind of legacy information.

I know that sounds crazy, but I am tired.
I have a nearly identical startup on the east coast but it's more of a side business at the moment. Almost any good programmer has the chops to make one of these, it's just really hard to turn it into a business. Pricing is the hardest part. So... I'm guessing they aren't going to let you know. As far as the average startup guy, it's probably not affordable. I only sell to places I know have money to burn.
Backups? I'm less concerned about my Facebook pictures leaking out than I am that I don't have easy access to the metadata they're storing about me, and can't browse it locally. (In some simple open format.)
Was kind of surprised by the decline in the number of banks around. Consolidation was a big deal in the 90s, but with the "too big to fail" claims of the last several years, it is a bit disturbing to see.

Not to mention the negative fund balance...
Thank you for the numbers. Point well made.
If it didn't support enough content for 24x7 but could concentrate on 2-3 good shows and sell them direct at 99c/episode?
I guess, but in that case a fringe benefit of my job is that I don't have to deal with shitty kids. ;)
I think it would be rather easy in that universe to prove that Cheesodyne's studies are unreliable because their scientists are all made of straw. It also helps that Cheesodyne's office building is in the shape of a gigantic straw man.
The difference between a Canadian and an American is about the same as the difference between a Kiwi and an Aussie. Likewise, the difference between a Texan and a Californian is similar to the difference between someone from Geelong and someone from Sydney.
I had dropped java/j2ee since 2006 and moved to ruby and erlang community. I hated the deployment of j2ee application and the dependencies of jars, i known ant/maven would solve the problem somehow, but i enjoy the way ror/otp does
The common traps and fine prints of the lean startup approach
Understanding and measuring the value of things, always fascinated me. It's far from obvious I think.

Can we measure wealth by the "amount/quality" of good/services that you have?

Do we instantly become all richer if somebody discovers a cheaper way to build a car/TV/whatever ? (suddenly more people can afford it), or does the concept of wealth make sense mostly in relation to condition of other people ?

But anyway, perhaps we also have to take in consideration one of our often undervalued stuff: time, our time

I'm not sure, didn't check the data out there, but I have the feeling that modern life for the average people means less time for themselves.

Of course, your increased possibilities (increased wealth or reduced costs) allow you to travel around the world, take tons of pictures, having fun etc in ways that were unthinkable for the previous generations (of comparable incomes).

But we didn't get it for free, we sold our time, little pieces of our own time, one second here, one minute there.

I don't mean only the time we dedicate doing things like working, commuting etc, but also the time we sold by listening to music we didn't choose to listen, by watching advertisements of things that perhaps we don't need, by enjoying shopping, searching for stuff, addicted to all that consumer-mania stimuli which transforms our time, our attention into our perceived wealth.

Yes, because without a huge marked of people wanting to get a car/TV/whatever, those goods couldn't be affordable. Everybody in a consumer society is participating in this wealth transformation, one's own second at a time.
I'll stand by the statement.
It sounds like you're saying users should have a mental model of how a computer works in order to be successful at using it as a tool.

I disagree.

How does my car work? I press on the gas and it goes. I press on the brakes and it stops. Drive shaft? Carburetor? What's those things?

That users can't use a computer is usually, not always, the fault of developers and designers.

For example, if backing up is so crucial, why don't computers come with that functionality built in?

Why _is_ data storage separate from the application? In the iPad, it's not. And that's a brilliant improvement in computing!
Work abroad will give you Less freedom for travel because you are tethered to one place. However, you may be able to work something out to telecommute for certain periods with this job.

You should probably take whatever job is more interesting to you. Or perhaps you are unable to find a telecommuting job. I'm a freelancer, so I can do pretty much whatever I like. ;)
Tweaking of search
$1/show/2days?

No thanks. It'd mean I'd end up paying $0. Quite frankly, no show is worth $1 for a single watch. Except maybe Nova (and PBS is OTA). If their non-prime-time dropped to $0.10, possibly all the way up to $0.10, then I might go through upwards of $50-$100 per year.

Which is $50-$100 more than they're getting from me now. You'd think they'd be interested in a market they've previously had totally untapped, but they don't seem to be.
Always loving bonus500's style. It's striking, though, how often guides to monads crop up on sites like HN. No matter how many introductions or "monads for idiots" type articles get written, it seems they're conceptually difficult enough to always need more ;-)
Off topic, but I also purchased it and just don't get it. Or is that part of the appeal? I can't decide since I do spend time with it but more trying to work out wtf I'm meant to do :-)
And Carmack is well on his way to becoming the next Elon Musk.
Ask HN: Startups hiring in India?
Any startup hirings in India?
Helipad - micro-framework for AppEngine
Wolfram Alpha should come in handy here:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=california+population
#23: Users will not read dialog boxes. Especially on Windows. They will click them away and not even realize they existed.

Try it.

1) Put a dialog popup in your MS desktop app that says, "Clicking OK below will destroy the chair beneath you. Clicking Cancel will make a box of chocolates appear on your desk."

2) Observe when a user performs a task that produces the pop up.

3)Ask the user if they were disappointed that no chocolate appeared.

The user will look at you with incomprehension.

To clarify, I am not criticizing users. Users are users, we're not going to change their behavior with training or help manuals. We need to design around them.
That's pretty much the point. Film exists, but it's much more of a niche market now, instead of being the only market. And Polaroid and Kodachrome at least are wholly dead, barring imitators.

Print won't die, just like stone carving and thatching. There will always be some market. Might it lose the dominant market status though? To some degree (ease, storage, etc), I hope so. To others, (book trades, notes, no cord) I hope not. We'll see.
Looking for answers in such macro terms is probably not an effective response to the problems posed in the article.

What would likely be more effective would be data on changes in teacher salaries over time, changes in administrator salary over time, etc.

This makes a huge difference in the argument if for no other reason than that the increase in revenue over time has been due to increased services (not necessarily relating to the betterment of the state or its educational systems) rather than the deepening of the pockets of existing services in 1964.
Ask HN: Books that changed your life?
What books have you read that changed your life for the better?
I think it attacks a Drexler that never existed; the chapter in Nanosystems on ways forward outlined similar ideas to that more recent post. Just because the bulk of Nanosystems explores a class of systems that's easier to analyze and currently impossible to build, he wasn't ever saying "Let's try to build this class of systems! Right now!" The OP was a total caricature.
Looking Back - Launching AgileZen
I hadn't considered that before. Maybe I won't be such a jerk in future conversations.
These numbers of yours are adorable, but you're ignoring the fact that the people who are now abandoning spending on education first voted for spending on a lot of other things.

Policy analysis like yours serves only to distract from reality. It's well-intentioned, but fundamentally useless.
In fairness I'm not sure they should have gotten funding. While this is amazing in retrospect it was completely inviable in 1976 (the year Apple was founded). The digital photo revolution that followed was reliant on Personal Computers, GUIs, cheap memory and a many other things that wouldn't appear for decades.

The idea was just too far ahead of its time (though I suppose they could have been the most successful patent trolls of all time had they pursued it)
well for what its worth, a lot of studies suggest that you actually get better teachers if you exchange these "fringe benefits" for higher salaries.
This is not a good strategy. Besides the other good comments, consider the following:

If you're traveling from place to place, you'll be exposed to a parade of regional bugs that locals, who have more stable habits, will not be. And your schedule (reservations, plans, etc.) may not be able to afford the downtime. Finally, you don't know the health care setup, so you won't always be able to sense if something is substandard.

I spent a day in a hospital in India with a very high fever (delirious) and dehydration due to a bit of uncooked chutney that none of the locals (whom I knew) had problems with. They had to give me an IV to rehydrate me. My main goal was to try to keep it together enough to ensure that the clinic was using a sterile needle for the IV.

This was not a high point of the trip.
Sen. Franken asks Attorney General to study geotags in pictures
Six months of this service is what my sister is getting for her birthday this year.
What program did he use to record himself programming?
When grad students forget safety with hazardous materials
I've read Nanosystems, and had the same reaction to this post.
i have actually used a 'pattern' to accomplish this several times, it always involved a bunch of flags (or checking for null) and checking everything everytime anything ended. i imagine encoding this pattern into a datastructure would be pretty useful. though i don't entirely agree with the name. this is really like a thread barrier but for asynchronous tasks. So maybe Asynchronous Barrier?
Samsung's unreleased iPad rival spotted
So is the implication that the state has grown much more wasteful in its spending over the last few decades?

If you've got a plan for providing the level of services from the 60s without raising taxes, I'd love to see the details. (Consider pension and healthcare costs now versus then, even accounting for inflation)
Samsung Galaxy Tab (iPad rival) revealed
"The salaries aren't even that bad if you multiply by (12 months of pay / 9-10 months of work)."

Huh, I never thought of that, but you're right. If we just pretend that we pay teachers more than we do, they have great salaries.
I believe California currently spends a similar amount on prisons as on education. I don't believe that was the case in 1962.

That would effect total spending. Whether that means California is doing more for its citizens in this way is a question one can ask.
Does anyone else find an auto-playing video, which makes a loud noise, on loop, with no pause function, that plays before loading enough to play smoothly... a little rude?

Also, yay, new tech.
I, too, am wondering why the Scala implementation didn't fare as well as the Java implementation.

Offtopic: I'm not an expert on functional programming (just getting my feet wet; forgive me for being so naive), but after reading Scala By Example I have this nagging feeling that a functional implementation of an algorithm might actually run slower than an imperative implementation of the same algorithm. I mean, you're copying data all around the place, creating new instances of objects instead of modifying them in place, using a ton of recursion everywhere. Could anyone offer some perspective on this?
I think this is actually a much less helpful question than you think it is. For a lot of reasons, outside factors made things like real estate and healthcare a lot more expensive for the state of california. I don't see any evidence that CA is any more wasteful than it was 40 years ago.

Or, put another way, where exactly do you see an extra $100B in CA's budget?
That of course assumes that the money needed provide the same services for the people grows at the same rate as the population growth. In other words, the cost per person might actually be significantly lower to provide services for 1million people than it would be to provide services for 20 million people. And maybe this isn't due to a government 'inefficiency' (mismanagement of funds), but rather an inefficiency that is inherent in the design of our cities and services (Meaning: Long term problem requiring redesign of many services in order to increase spending efficiency).

So really, I think it's far more important to question:
1) How has the cost for these public services scaled with the population in the past?
2) Based on that, how do I think the cost of the these public services scale with the population in the foreseeable future?
3) Is this increase in expenditure due to wasteful mismanagement of funds, or a design problem in our cities and services?
If you follow Drexler's blog and see what he actually says, you'll see plenty of realistic near-term topics like http://metamodern.com/2010/08/13/progress-in-peptoid-toolkit... http://metamodern.com/2010/05/20/a-programmable-nanoscale-as... http://metamodern.com/2010/03/12/the-molecular-approach-to-a... http://metamodern.com/2010/03/01/ribo-q1-genetic-manufacturi...

You can test the OP's picture of Drexler this way considerably more easily than by studying _Nanosystems_ yourself (which is hard).
"golden ratio" nonsense. The words never link to the correct maths. It is evil, but not rational.
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/pseudo/fibonacc.htm
I spent some time working on a dashboard project (with the view to it becoming a start-up). I wanted to blend Panic style eye candy with something you could throw in a load of api keys (pivotal tracker, git hub, Google analytics, etc)

I abandoned the project mainly because the size of the addressable market is too small. I don't think Startups will spend $hundreds a month on this and there are only so many companies even interested in dashboards.
Good point.

As long as we're quibbling/clarifying, it seems we're mixing up natural selection and evolution here.
If tapping the Groxx market would require them to lose money in a larger market, they aren't going to do it. Econ 101.
How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less
Gucci shoes|cheap gucci shoes|discount gucci shoes|authentic gucci shoes
Johnny Cash & Eazy E collaborate on Folsom City Blues Remix
Claims Of iTunes Accounts Being Hacked 
Several articles were posted over the past few days where iTunes and PayPal accounts had been hacked and the money drained with purchase on iTunes.
I love how people think they can just "calculate the value of their future cashflow"...isn't this what we are preached to stay away from now? (i.e. Steve Blank's idea on "business model > business plan")