skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That is true. A small town also has the downside of constant rumors and everyone being into every one's business. Stuff like "did you hear so and so is pregnant!?" or "he bought a Mercedes, where does he get the money, doesn't he work at the post office?" and stuff like that.

Some of it is innocent, some can interfere with other's lives where they would want to run away.
Why not grab the users Mac address and IP and award them a badge based on each comment they leave? A disqus like startup can add such a system and the badges would range from extremely positive to extremely negative (hateful useless troll).
Case in point: http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos
C, c++, Obj-C at work (with a healthy mashing of bash scripting for the meta-work)
Why wait? Everything in these demos was possible with IE5 and its VML implementation. Canvas has been in FireFox from the start.

You don't need HTML5 to do vector graphics in a browser.
The HTML5 canvas and audio API's are fairly simple and easy to coordinate. You probably do not need a library unless you require complex collision detection, or physics math.
FAIL indeed... watch it unfold: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=splashid

On that note, I am sure a lot of you use ssh keys.
Do you password protect them?
What about keys used for automated server administration tasks? Surely you can't password protect those. (Do you see the init process typing in a password? ;)

I think USER-CENTRIC KEY MANAGEMENT will be a big trend in the coming years. Not just for key management, but for login to any web service.

Imagine a future where all the "social network" does is transfer opaque encrypted packets from one place to another. The User, with his "keychain" (held on his machine) can browse the "social network" from anywhere and decrypt the messages intended for him.

Using current technology it would be quite inefficient: sharing a new photo would mean encrypting a copy for each of my friends thus transferring an order of magnitude more traffic.
Perhaps new crypto is needed?
Maybe we use AES for the data and send an auxiliary crypto header with 100 copies of the AES key encrypted for each of the 100 friends you wanted to share the picture with.

Research plug: Stefan Brands has invented a very cool upgrade to the basic public-key signature schemes. His protocols allow for "partial disclosure" of only certain parts of a certificate signed by a third party.
(unlike the current sertif. schemes in which I have to show you my entire certificate cleartext so you can hash to check the signature)

He has a free book on the theory:
http://www.credentica.com/the_mit_pressbook.html

His company Credentica was acquired by Microsoft and I think he is leading the team there to make this idea practical.
Or just turn off comments altogether and let people comment on HN (et al). This happens inevitably, right? Many times the comment thread for an article is actually longer and more rich here than on the source website itself.
I'm not sure why someone who posts a comment would have to return 24 hours later to sniff their own droppings in order for the comment to have value. (I'm responding to "Might as well just leave the comments off" here). That perspective might make sense if 100% of a blog entry's audience arrives within its first day, but I would wager that the bulk of any blog entry's audience are lurkers who arrive later.
SiagaNews.com - Ketua DPC Hanura Depok Dipecat
> The skype approach seems far more preferable. My guess is that as SMS/IM/VOIP becomes more ubiquitous the standard etiquette will be to ask before calling.

That makes sense for services where voice is a peripheral system (MSN, iChat, ...) but I fail to see what sense it makes for Skype, which is first and foremost a VOIP system, with instant messaging tacked on.

If you don't want VOIP as a primary communication device, here's an idea: don't use a VOIP service as you primary communication network. Use some other IM, and when somebody requests a voice communication and you allow for it, you start the call (from a skype account set as invisible)
Its not quite fair to complain about this though, since PA state income tax is relatively low (3% fixed). Pittsburgh has city taxes too, something like 1% for Allegheny county and another 2% in the city of Pittsburgh for schools (which non-residents dont have to pay). Even accounting for those taxes, you're probably still around what you would be paying in a lot of other states.
Those are the sustainable startups I mentioned. I have higher hopes for those, even if the stakes they're playing for are smaller. I still see plenty of companies raising a lot of VC and tracking drop-dead burn rates of 1-2 years.
A city doesn't need a centre
I actually get a ton of value out of Twitter both personally and professionally (it's a question of who you choose to follow). However, what your expectations from Twitter are shouldn't be the same as your expectations from a blog. It's great for finding out about events or what might be happening at an event, about getting instant feedback on something (your example, although it can extend beyond a product), and finding material that other smart people find. But if you want to understand and hear someone's thoughts or wisdom, it's not the right venue, and that's what some people are finding out.
Just to be clear on this as well. In MA dual-consent is only required when one party has a reasonable expectation of privacy. That's been extended to include secretly taping someone in public (if the camera is hidden, the other party has a reasonable expectation of privacy). In a public place you can record to your hearts content.

This whole thing is about whether or not police have a right to privacy during their work. I think when this finally hits a court of note that it will be smacked down pretty hard. Courts have already found, for instance, that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy during a traffic stop for the person being stopped. Officers are now attempting to claim that privacy right for themselves, and it seems REALLY unlikely that they will succeed in doing that.

*note: I run a business that (as part of what we do) records phone calls, so we've had to deal with some of these issues. I'm not a lawyer and probably not exactly an expert.. I just know enough to be pretty damn dangerous:)
In what way would it help to understand why?
That, too, has its downsides. Raganwald has a lucid post about it here: http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/07/thanks-for-submitting-my...
Bill Gates isn't in congress, and he doesn't hang out a Georgetown bars in between writing his newspaper column.

Moreover, among those senators and babble-recyclers in the media, let me assure you, none of them are Bill Gates.

The author is saying that nobody anywhere close to Washington power centers has any perspective on this.
Hi, I think its a case of 'each to their own' in terms of what works best. I have just completed a masters over three years of part-time study.

- A4 Pad to write to do lists and general thoughts / ideas.
- Binders to store content worth printing.
- Online Bookmarking Application to store bookmarks to online content, tagged according to the course and assignment. I found the 'view later' type functionality of some apps to be useful because I could just mark a few documents for reading later when I got home from work.
- Google Calendar for noting seminar dates, submission deadlines and for loosely planning my output deadlines.
- Google Docs for writing assignments sometimes, but mostly MSWord on my PC.
- Notepad for the occasional bit of free-writing.

I would generally print my calendar off for any given month to keep me focused or remind me when I was falling behind. That would stay with me at all times, particularly for my dissertation. I tried the level of detail you suggest in point 1. but it never worked for me; I kept my planning at a higher level.
Processing plastic into oil just to burn oil as fuel is fundamentally still wasteful, because of all the great things you can do with oil (produce more plastics, for instance) you're still burning it for fuel. The presence of this technology might seem to turn useless plastic waste into useful fuel, but on the contrary--if you can turn plastic back into oil, and then back into plastic over and over again, the long term value of oil for making plastics is even greater, and so is the potential loss of burning this reusable, recyclable resource as fuel.
Very cool. Might have to look into this should I get back into coding and people in Chicago are interested. Might be a little tougher for us married folks though.
In the comments:

Why traditional blogging is a better medium than micro-blogging or social media - via Twitter

Quite ironic.
The idea that if you disagree or have a lot to say you should create your own blog post is also a bit ridiculous.

Indeed. If you want interesting conversations about your blog posts, have commenting (threaded is better; saves a lot of time). If you don't, just don't have them.
I really like Andrew Sullivan’s simple system, soliciting readers to comment via email and then selectively publishing those he believes create and add to an ongoing conversation.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com
I think he means "increasing". I don't think a rate can expand any more than a temperature can elongate.
1. The values of :after methods are ignored.
2. You're calling person-age from within the method so you enter infinite recursion.

What you were looking for is:

(defmethod person-age :around ((someone person))
(let* ((age (call-next-method))
(category (if (< age 16)
:child
(if (>= age 66)
:senior
:adult))))
(values age category)))
$9 Here, 20 Cents There and a Credit-Card Lawsuit
Does he need a resume when applying for a job? What if you got this from him in your pile of resumes:

Degree: None
Experience: None
Skills: Javascript ninja & rockstar, watch this [url]

Would you hire him?
> Copyright laws are designed to ensure that authors and performers receive compensation for their labors without fear of theft and to encourage them to continue their work. The laws are not intended to provide income for generations of an author’s heirs, particularly at the cost of keeping works of art out of the public’s reach.

How are they not, when they're set at decades past the author's death? The Berne Convention mandates that all works other than photography and cinematography are to be copyrighted until at least 50 years past the author's death.

And as usual countries are free to go even further: the European "Copyright Directive" (2001/29/EC) extends it to 70 years (as does the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 in the US).

How is this anything but providing income for generations of an author's heir exactly?
I cannot prove causation, but all the job applications I recall seeing ask for the applicant's educational level. Companies use that as one of their qualifiers for choosing whom to hire. In other words, those that have access to college have better access to employment.
Top Ten Android Cellular Phones of 2010 | Horizontal Image
Man, I love conservatives.

So, you're proposing eliminating the ability of politicians to influence how laws are written?

Got anything more specific than that? Or is this like the Republican budget proposal.
Sadly I think we are in the minority.

I did Electronic Engineering and about 60% of my year group are now all pure management. Some of the rest are "consultants". I'd say around 15% went into engineering.

I went to learn something & to have a damned good time doing it. A lot of people I met were there because they had nothing else to do and at least could get a job at the end.
You're mixing up computer science and programming. Programming is easy to learn without formal instruction. Theory on the other hand, can and does become quite complex. Sure, its still possible to learn theory on your own, but the professor with the Turing award makes things much easier.
A Clojurist's Guide to Java
No, the issue is I went from working and living in the suburbs to working in the city. For doing that, I pay an additional 2% in taxes on top of my local (suburban) tax of 1%. The wage tax on non-Philly residents is ~3% and my local municipality will let me count that toward my local taxes. So, it really is a pay cut. It's not going to make me go broke, but it is infuriating.
yeah, I am on a pristine box without slime; and those written after a few beers late at night.
Υπότιτλοι The Expendables 2010
A message for the entire world?
If you could give a single idea or message that reaches entire world what would it be and what is the most simple way of expressing it?

Everyone on earth would receive this message from the very top leaders to the poorest.. oldest and youngest.

Would you want to share an idea, an ideal, something life changing, something self serving, something of utmost importance whatever that may be?!
I personally go to university because I think it is a lot of fun.
It's not really stressful, I still have some time to do little side projects (most of the time, I am able to find a type of lecture that allows me to do that stuff on the side).
Isn’t Facebook pretty much the same thing, though? I’d say it’s taken off with quite a few people?
In all possibleness, it's a perfectly cromulent usage.
Well for a start it gives the publishers some long term security to encourage investment. Imagine all rival record companies being able to press a work the moment the original author dies. More worryingly, imagine business rivals having a vested interest in the early death of artists...
No it's not a requirement that I use canvas or svg. But does svg have javascript functions to make elements drawn interactive, like keyboard movements etc? (under the assumption that svg/canvas is one way. like only draw and not refer to the elements and edit props)

Teamonkey and Akihabara. Thanks for the links.

CakeJS and Akihabara are both good enough for me. Also, CakeJS's Google Code page says that the author is looking for a maintainer.

http://github.com/kesiev/akihabara

Somehow, these days I feel like if an opensource project is on Github it seems to be active and the maintainer responsible enough. Don't know why I have this feeling, maybe it's just easier to look at the last commit date or fork it or just find another forker who's been working on it actively.

And if anyone's interested, I'm using the graphics from http://www.lostgarden.com/search/label/free%20game%20graphic... to prototype the game. This guy has some cool graphics to make prototypes look neat :)

P.S: Just tried Akihabara's demo game Legend of Sadness here: http://www.kesiev.com/akihabara/demo/game-tlol.html and it's super awesome. Suits my needs.
Rape Charges Against Wikileaks Founder Dropped
It's much more easier to start a web company today than 10 years ago. Cheap cloud services. Endless web frameworks. Client side libraries. Server side libraries. Matured architectures. Many best practices.

What's improved in VC world in the last 10 years? Better laws? Better standardized practices?
Once in a while do a goatse, problem solved.
Stuart Halloway (part of clojure/core and author of Programming Clojure) has a great response at the bottom of the comments:

Clojure’s STM API does not include agents, atoms, and refs. Only refs are part of the STM API…

…consider your article title: the reality is that Clojure provides a bunch of different bullets to handle different problems. And this doesn’t even take into account Clojure’s other concurrency-savvy features: immutable collections, vars, futures, and delays, to name a few.
Every time I read "If you're an entrepreneur, you need to focus on profitability", I think to myself:

No shit.
"It’s annoying when the Skype phone starts ringing randomly"

You mean like, uh, when someone phones you normally? my counter view is that I hate it when people send me a chat saying "hey are you free for a phone call". Am I signed into Skype? Yes. That means I am probably able to take your call. Sheesh :)
Look at it through the hype-cycle:
-Tech Trigger: PC's are common
-Peak of Expectations: ~2000, max unsustainable web investment/activity.
-Trough of Disillusionment: Bubble explodes, the web bleeds cash.
-Slope of Enlightenment: Agile/Lean startups rise from the ashes.
- Plateau of Productivity: Startup environment becomes normal and fundamentals increasing known.

Conclusion: There are plenty of bubble, but general web startups aren't one of them. Let's look at green tech's future as the next Bubble D'Jure.
Ride a train? By the time my daughter is 9 she'll be flying alone back and forth betweenOK)
You may want to think about having it store the data locally and 'phoning them in' in batches at some random interval. Otherwise it seems you're going to have some crazy concurrent requests every 5 seconds. Cool idea, though. Very whimsical.
Acne treatment 9
Clojure in Python
Valve Puts An End To The Steam On Linux Rumors
If you could hit a button and be at their doorstep, the vast majority of reasons to chat rather than going to visit them would still apply, though, right? Going to visit someone has a major overhead, socially. A quarter hour of conversation, at the least, before you can politely get to the subject of the visit, etc. Phone conversations have some of the same costs to a lesser degree: it's quite rude not to devote your full attention to the call (or appear to do so), and there might well still be a few minutes of overhead. With IM, you can almost just start talking. It cuts through all the extra junk around actually having the interesting part of the conversation with a person, but you can still have an actual conversation (even while you both do other things as the other person types), which is important for discussing things at length.

Basically, I would say that calling and texting have very different social costs, but calling and visiting are much closer that way, and that this is why it's almost always better to text than call, even for extended conversations.
Can VirtualBox take on VMware for SMBs?
Yup, will definitely code a prototype and link up some open source chatbots.

On the other hand, I think being a human participant will be the fun bit :)
Yeah, but I also can say that there are a lot of jobs out there that ask for a college degree, but are more than willing to drop that requirement for the right person.
There are many issues that complicate recycling. There are many different types of plastics. The possible uses and available processing methods differ. There's the matter of sorting them, minimizing impurities, transport costs, energy of processing, issues with various toxic materials.

At least five years ago an electronics/metals/scrap/recycling dealer I spoke with told me he was shipping his monitor scraps to the central valley (California), near Kettleman City I believe. He'd mentioned that there was a plant able to process the plastic from computer monitor cases into oil. I doubt that it is a cheap way to get oil, and it probably can't produce huge amounts of it, but it is a good alternative to putting scrap in a landfill. California collects a recycling fee with the purchase of monitors/TVs which goes to subsidize processing later. I'm not sure if the conversion is cost effective without the subsidy, but it seems the right thing to do regardless.
I believe there's another processor near Victorville California. I heard they actually get quite a bit (over fifty cents a pound) for c.r.t. glass. It contains a large amount of lead.

Dealing with our wastes can be dangerous business.

http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/california-cluster-birth-defect...

Huell Howser on PBS has had a number of shows relating to different kinds of recycling

http://www.calgold.com/green/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo2Pl7UxbNo

I have to laugh and cringe when Huell keeps scooping up and pouring c.r.t. glass sand with his hand... no doubt throwing a bunch of lead dust in the air. Opps!!
Brilliant. Crazy fb connect video game trailers, Old Spice and now this. Online marketing has actually become really entertaining.
Actually, I'm not mixing them up. There are incredible amounts of information readily available that will enable you to learn theory. If you are smart and motivated, you can learn theory without instruction.
I don't understand this graph. Wouldn't "no diploma" also include "no college" and "some college"? And wouldn't that mean that the line would be in between those two rather than being longer? Or is this referring to no high school diploma?

I'm also curious what the graph would look like if you included people who have Masters and PhDs.
Dear Dave: I have the facts and I’m voting no
"what do I have that's worth actually broadcasting?"

It's an ego-driven medium. All of it: YouTube (when actually done for its intended purpose and not flagrant copyright flouting); facebook/myspace, foursquare, getglue. It's all about what you're doing and more recently _where_ you are when you're doing it. It's about the inherent need for self-fulfillment.

Let's say you have great taste in music. Just by someone noticing your daily playlist, you have an admirer. That admirer might want to know more about you based on that superficial quality, and follow you on your social update tool of choice. It's a tool of communication, much like a phone (actually more like a partyline, but I digress).

When it boils down to it, people need people, and as social creatures, we find every convenient avenue of acquiring and managing our social sphere as we can without expending too much energy. If we didn't care about any of that, hell, we wouldn't ever even comment in HN, right m0nty?
Ad sales would be done directly with the bloggers. We are trying to pick a good pricing plan: commission free or 15% of the cost of an ad space.
Would you notice if someone stopped posting on Hacker News? Does that mean Hacker News isn't valuable? What if someone decided to stop editing Wikipedia? When you read the news, do you remember the byline of every story you read?

For large public conversations, most of what you read is contributed by people you don't know. Your friends' contributions are only a small part of what makes the place what it is. And yet the overall effect is valuable.

So post or don't post, as you please. There are only a few people whose posting schedules I keep track of, but I still value the overall effort.
Which of these 10 marketing challenges relates to your company?
You grab a sample of some of the most successful people in over 100 years, people who are quite literally one in many millions, and use this to say people over-value college?

If we could all be that lucky, then sure, college would be worthless. But there's a hundred million people for each one of those who want to have something instead of all or nothing.
I feel that comments on blogs themselves are slowly being replaced by comments on sites such as HN, Reddit, etc. I notice again and again, at least with personal blogs, that a post with 90 comments on HN will only have two or three comments on the post on the original site. Additionally the posts on HN are more likely to be negative than the posts on the original site.

Perhaps it is because people feel less inhibited when they are posting their thoughts in another neutral space. If the author of the article doesn't want to be trolled or flamed on his own site then why not just link to the HN discussion, as I have seen other bloggers do?

If your post is controversial or interesting people will discuss it, and you can do nothing to stop it, because closing comments on the main site will just cause people to discuss it on another site, as this HN post is proving.
Just to be even more clear, none of this will stop a cop from arresting you if he so chooses...

http://reason.com/archives/2010/08/02/ignorance-of-the-law-i...

or threatening you with jailhouse rape...

http://reason.com/blog/2010/08/18/guys-in-jail-are-going-to-...
Putting New Tools in Students' Hands
So... what's it doing? More explanation would be nice.
In short, the same way a musician in NY finds his way to Carnegie Hall. Practice.