skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> They don't care about Material design, fancy animations, beautiful buttons

If they don't care about those things, they aren't doing a very good job of voting with their wallets. It's much easier to sell a product that is pretty.

> "elegant" code

That isn't for users' benefit. The people paying to maintain the software do care how much it costs to maintain the software. Elegant code is an attempt to make it cheaper to maintain.

> a ton of niche features

People buying software do care about that, and they are often a distinct group from users.

> mobile apps, your annoying push notifications, your fancy menu bars that you also fix to the top of the screen for whatever reason, your autoplay videos, your little "delightful" asides that interrupt the content

None of those are for users' benefit. Those are for the benefit of customers (advertisers).

So perhaps saying that users expect more isn't telling the whole story. However stakeholders certainly expect more.
You don't need "a whole lot of JavaScript", though. React and Redux are under 100k minified. So, yanno, a Retina-doubled JPEG or so. Your own JavaScript need not be particularly large--we're talking text, here, and even text that gets gzipped over the wire. If you're dealing with 2G connections, I can see an argument. If you're not, repeating it for a page blank on every action strikes me as, er, significantly worse.

And, FWIW, I have been party to metrics and user experience that shows that 200ms of latency can double your bounce rate. That 200ms of latency is not going to be coming from downloading react.min.js.

You may be right in some niches, but overall what you describe does not square for applications I build nor applications that my clients build, and I've been doing this pretty broadly for awhile.
Which doesn't make it any more valid. But I agree that big players like Google and others should spend resources on preventive defense and debunk all that in advance.

And if they'll fail, there should be some concerted effort to make a patent unencumbered alternative.
And so what do you think is the solution? Do you think that "Only by becoming a Technical Committee can MPEG [...] stay competitive in the market." is true, or what could be a valuable alternative?
If you'd read the article you'd see several examples. Drive them at 120mph into gas stations, for starters.
I've had no problem using consumer Nvidia GPUs with QEMU/KVM for this. All I needed to do was (1) use kvm=off (this does not turn off KVM, it just sort of hides it from the NVidia driver) and (2) on Windows, edit the registry to force enable Message Signaled Interrupts. When I tried it with an AMD card it would periodically crash the host when it was assigned to a Linux guest.
BITS.1/4.txt – On Bits and Rudamentary Combinations
[Insert picture of piled stones here]

The end result of computer programming is a program. A program is
made of object files. Object files are composed of code and data
sections. The end result is a binary put together by a linker. At
least that’s how programs used to be made.

Fundamental data structures build upon each other; the bit, the byte,
the array, the linked list, the hash table. Through these combinations
the fantastic structures of modern day programs and operating systems
can be created; but the end result is still a number. A specific set
of bits arranged in a way such that the bits of that number can be
interpreted by a special machine, but a number nonetheless.

Each program is of a particular sort of integer, one which, out of the
space of all possible integers that length, happens to interpret
in. way to produce a direction of reality; a specific time such that
it is in control of space and it guides it. This is what the
programmer is intending the program do to and this number is an exact
representation of it. No more, no less.

Get 1 bit wrong in that number and the program could cease to work
correctly. Given that we have control over all of the bits in this
number, getting them arranged in the correct order is quite an
accomplishment, but of course, we are using the computer as a tool to
help with this process. It is tireless, it doesn’t make mistakes. It
can deal with the magnitude of bits composing your program because
they are it’s native tongue. We only speak in abstract about the bits
of the machine. Few work directly with them, many of our minds are
not capable of such things, especially in such magnitude.

TOBECONTINUED
Does anyone still read inmails, really?
Bitcoin is Worse is Better
I had a good conversation with the student who flew in from Australia. She said she got a lot out of it, and found the discussion groups very useful.

OTOH, I've done it remotely just watching the videos and I've found it great too.
BITS.2/4.txt
To design a computer, one has to start and think at the bit level, at
first. The underlying bit is what the machine works with; our
abstractions simply organize them together in such a way that we can
understand them, but then, we aren’t talking about the bits
themselves, we are talking about higher units of comprehension,
whatever level that may be.

To think in bits requires a bit of a stretch. They are them smallest
units of information available. Information is defined as change, or
the measured change of some thing. Without change there can be no
information, and without time, there can be no change. This would make
time and information inseparable. Good thing we have time, or this
essay would stop right here.

TOBECONTINUED
HEVC and VP9 were released at around the same time, but today VP9 has twice the installed base of HEVC:

https://ngcodec.com/news/2017/10/21/why-we-are-supporting-vp...

The simplicity of VP9's licensing versus the complexity HEVC's licensing probably has a lot to do with that.
First you might want to get your countrymen to ease up on the smoking all day thing they are wont to do.
BITS.3/4.txt
A Bit is the smallest piece of information. It can take two values.
Sometimes they are represented by 0 or 1. Sometimes ‘true’ and
‘false’. What they are is irrelevant, what is important to realize is
that a bit is a class of 2 items, each one inseparable from the other
and distinct. This allows one to represent the bit with either of them
in a concrete fashion. We’ll use 0 and 1.

0 is the bit of no change. The piece of information where there was
no information. It is where things start.

1 is the bit of information. It says, through it’s transition from 0,
that something has happened. Something over time has changed. What
was unsaid is now said, what was unchanged is now changed. That is
what the 1 conveys.

But necessarily, they are both symbols of no meaning other than what
we have given them. But, being a distinct set with 2 members, easy to
recognize and easy to remember. From these two symbols arises some
questions.

TOBECONTINUED
Miniature circuit breaker short circuit protection features and choice
Yeah, but the booby-trap historically wasn't weaponized smallpox or anthrax, or spent fuel rods, that don't just kill the archaeologist, but do so slow enough and can be conveniently carried out of the dump to kill people far beyond.
Social media shaming as a service seems like it could be a big and profitable business to be very honest.
I agree in principle, and having new data affect the interpretation of old results was one of the goals for the rating system for a game I run [0]. But while I believe it's the right thing to do if the goal is to predict results more accurately, there are downsides.

Basically players want rating systems to be reward loops; they hate systems where their rating can change randomly, and they want the system to be very volatile in response to their own results. If they go on a statistically insignificant winning streak, they want their ratings to shoot up. Not a rating system to go "meh, it's probably just random chance".

[0] https://www.snellman.net/blog/archive/2015-11-18-rating-syst...
If your code doesn't give me existential angst, or make me ask, "who am I - really?", you're doing it wrong.
Yeah, I'm not sure why it's such a common complaint that phone service is required for navigation. There are plenty of apps available which let you download whole countries/regions for very cheap, and can do all of their routing offline.
Knowing One’s Place
Are You a Target for Nation-State Propaganda?
BITS.4/4.txt
Can we combine them? Smashing two objects together often produces
interesting results, so lets give it a shot. Here is a representation
of smashing bits together in every way possible, with ‘x’ here holding
a space for the distinct names we give to exactly how we are going to
smash them together.

0 x 0 => ?
0 x 1 => ?
1 x 0 => ?
1 x 1 => ?

Notice we are not necessarily commutatively smashing them in every
case, saying the 0 x 1 and 0 x 1 can be distinctly different.

Given that we only have 2 symbols to work with, the ‘?’ in the above
table can obviously only take one of those values. So, using our
first intuition, let’s fill in the table:

0 x 0 => 0
1 x 0 => 0
0 x 1 => 0
1 x 1 => 0

or

0 x 0 => 1
1 x 0 => 1
0 x 1 => 1
1 x 1 => 1

The first, bringing all combined values to 0 and the second bringing
them all to 1. Not an incredibly interesting operation, but one
nonetheless, and now that we’ve found one, they should have names.

Floor - the floor of any two bits is 0

0 _ 0 => 0
1 _ 0 => 0
0 _ 1 => 0
1 _ 1 => 1

Ceiling - the ceiling of any two bits is 1

0 ^ 0 => 0
1 ^ 1 => 1
0 ^ 1 => 1
1 ^ 1 => 1

TOBECONTINUED
Click-bait based on a sample size of 1. Please investigate and corroborate before jumping to conclusions of ‘fraud’.

(Note to Brian - Of course they’re going to ask to replace your screen if it’s cracked and -possibly- make a repair risky)
Bits.5/4.txt
Why one would use these combinations rather than the symbols is
unsure, but they are included for completeness. They could possibly be
used to ‘zero’ out parts of equations to come, effectively making a
statement or equation a comment by replacing a character, but we’ll
see if they are ever useful.

Let’s do some more:

0 . 0 => 1
1 . 0 => 0
0 . 1 => 0
1 . 1 => 0

0 / 0 => 0
1 / 0 => 1
0 / 1 => 0
1 / 1 => 0

0 \ 0 => 0
1 \ 0 => 0
0 \ 1 => 1
1 \ 1 => 0

0 & 0 => 0
1 & 0 => 0
0 & 1 => 0
1 & 1 => 1

If we continue along this path, we will find that there are 16
distinct operations between 2 bits (4^2, with 4 being the number of
combinations that can be made between 2 bits, and 2 being the number
of values that a bit can take). All are useful, but some more than
others…

TOBECONTINUED
I used isProbablePrime() before, when I had a 50x50 canvas. But it was still really really really slow. After changing to a 32x32 canvas, the difference between isPrime() and isProbablePrime() seemed negligible.
"Fraudulent"? It's this article which is fraudulent. Basically, one entitled guy who had fucked his phone up and then got it wet was given a new phone by Apple, but that wasn't enough to appease his garguantuan entitledness, so he decided to call Apple's battery replacement program (which is very generous and also has nothing to do with his issues) "fraudulent".

And then he had the nerve to bitch that the free phone they gave him was "not returnable"; i.e., that he didn't get a brand-new warranty on a three-year-old product.

What an asshole. I'd flag this, but I don't want to deprive others of the opportunity to mock it.
I’m the author. I was nodding in agreement with you for your first two points. I don’t think I’ve come to a perfect solution, but I want you to know that I actually have many of the same reservations that you have and that I’m open to changing my mind.

Here is where I still sit, however: the government had predator drones and will soon have killbots able to take out individuals based on facial recognition software.

If we can’t trust them to turn off our cars we’re fucked anyway.
Shaking a red sign that says "STOP" seems infinitely more satisfying than shaking any other kind of sign.

I get a perverse pleasure out of setting my GPS destination far in the opposite direction of where I'm actually driving, so it constantly tries to talk me into turning around every exit, just so I can enjoy the simple pleasure of not doing what it tells me to do.
I'm using Squib (https://github.com/andymeneely/squib) for this at the moment.

I have several of my current prototypes in Squib, with CI where it builds the artifacts (PNGs of each card and a PDF).

I'd like to one day set it up so it pushes the artifacts to Tabletopia (https://tabletopia.com/), but I haven't found the time yet.
If anyone is still reading this, I'm very curious why this would be downvoted.
It is not "Apple's AAC". Apple did not have any part in the development of AAC. It was actually developed by Fraunhofer as a successor to their MP3 encoding.
Sorry you had to go through this.

It's pathetic that nowadays the only way to get the attention of a company is to shame them in a public forum. While I'm not a big social media fan myself, I'm glad it's there when we need it to call out people and companies like this.

This is the only reason that "Kyle" reached out to you, not because they care about you as a customer. It's a shame really.
Engineered Bacteria to Detect Gut Inflammation
Interesting. I guess in that case the only way to speed it up is with multithreading and/or asm.js.
You bring up a good point, although I'm not sure if I agree with (or understand) the premises. I can't imagine a world where hardware and the protocols running on top will be immune to physical sources of faults, such as natural disasters, human intervention, or cosmic radiation(!). As a result, dealing with failures will always be a consideration in building distributed software systems, and Paxos or protocols that solve the same problem as Paxos will always be relevant.

I do think you make a good point that we don't always need Paxos-like protocols. Paxos is a very strong tool, so it solves a difficult problem, but is heavy-handed in many scenarios. There is a lot of space to explore lighter-weight alternatives to Paxos while still providing similarly strong properties.
Deadly WA Amtrak crash: Workers say they warned of inadequate training
Compression – the technology for the digital age
The threat model that LinuxBoot is addressing is different form SecureBoot and it can use the well known, normal Linux tools rather than the unconventional UEFI ones.

The Heads runtime can do things like use TPMTOTP to attest to the user that the firmware is unaltered and includes gnupg to verify the kernel and root filesystem signatures with the user's own key.

For cloud systems a LinuxBoot runtime can use the TPM or other trusted hardware to remotely attest to the client's own provisioning server that the configuration is unchanged, and since it is reproducibly built, that the firmware is what the user expects. This is significantly more trustworthy than the binary blobs and non-reproducible UEFI firmware on most servers.
Wait... someone at MPEG actually believed their own bullshit? That a massive campaign of extortion, intentionally complex legal maneuvering, and outright intimidation is actually beneficial to technological progress in some way? (Sure, it's beneficial to some of the companies involved in the licensing extortion scheme; I don't think anyone disagrees with that.)

Or is this guy just an incredibly skilled troll with 30 years of experience in pulling the wool over people's eyes? I don't think so, though. He really seems to think that imposing massive amounts of friction on a system somehow makes it work better.

Wow. Just wow.

I mean, I'm not unsympathetic to the argument that patents can promote advancements by funneling money to inventors, however weak it starts sounding when you look at actual events in certain spheres. But the claim seems to be that nobody is going to bother to research improvements in an interesting, impactful technical area because they'll no longer be able to (1) invent something, (2) hire an army of lawyers, then (3) profit. Er, okay. Let the people who will only work with that sort of path go do their ICOs instead.
and the "border" spans 100 miles inland of US border ... entire states, like Florida, are pretty much considered part of the border... https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone
I think with modern processor architectures there are some edge cases where you can shuffle calls around, keep the same runtime complexity, but have things go faster. For example, moving a conditional outside an inner loop function call to inside the function can cause the entire function to be loaded into cache, decreasing runtime.
Depends what you need ofcourse; a lot of people buy the newest and fastest but do not need it. Most (90%+) of my dev work works fine on an X220 which I can pick up for $80, has stellar linux support and still really good (14+ hour) battery life. Depends on the use case ofcourse, but when I see what most people around me do on their 2k+ laptops, they could have saved most of that. Also, Ubuntu Unity is just not very good; but Ubuntu or Debian with i3 are perfect. Cannot imagine a better desktop.
YC funding should really come with strings attached, like getting back to tickets in less than 5 months...
A concise and powerful state management library – iFlow
Pitch that at YC this Summer!
There are several blog posts out there on the Go vs Rust debate and how both languages are not really in the same boxing weight class, so to speak, but people tend to compare and contrast the two languages more often because they both launched around the same time. With that said, I'll take a crack at this question... Without having to define what "large amount" means to you or others, I would guess you want to pick Rust. Go uses a runtime to perform garbage collection; while Rust is not runtime-based (no garbage collection), and manages memory with zero-cost abstractions and a very strict compilation process. So, if you're turned off by your applications being attached at the hip to a garbage collector that will cost precious milliseconds, then Rust is a better choice. It's also a better choice for having more advanced language features than Go. Rust is a LLVM-based language so I believe Rust can target more platforms than Go, but Go has a better story for easier cross-compilation right now. However, one of the Rust team's goals for 2018 will be focusing on easier cross-compilation.
Lol I’m happy you guys saw this was clickbait. I worked as a technician at Apple for years, that decision is just protocol and ultimately, the part constraint and appointment wait is just part of the process sometimes.
It’s so much worse than just that jacquesm.
It's also subject to inflationary pressure.
Basics of launching a successful ICO and avoiding major mistakes
So what? Why can the govt profit from gambling but not me? Why can casinos? So what it’s unregulated, dont play if you don’t want to lose.
Telegram secret chats do not work on Desktop!
It seems like there's an answer: the market actually wants free standards because they're realizing it's more beneficial to them than any other outcome. So money and effort is being pumped into developing free video encoding standards. It seems there is an incentive for the foreseeable future to continue to improve video codecs simply because it saves on bandwidth and disk space costs, and improves user experience.

Though obviously, everything's too good to be true. Just like MPEG seems to be hitting the end, some day the AOM will hit the end, too. The world changes. Something else will emerge and impact the business model. It may be worse, or maybe it'll be a return to norms. Could just be another one of those things that cycles every so often.

With audio codecs, it doesn't look like we ever really needed much in the way of commercial entities, since Vorbis and Opus have been outperforming the competition for a long time now.
Give Square Cash a shot? Bitcoin support is being rolled out [1]. Full disclosure: I work at Square.

https://www.bitsonline.com/square-expands-bitcoin-pic-guide/
But with "yum check-update" or the equivalent apt-get incantation saying you have dozens of security updates every week or two, reading the release notes for all of them and deciding which ones can be skipped safely in your environment is too much work. Far easier to just apply all updates every two weeks or monthly or whatever your schedule is, and then reboot.
> Rationally, it probably isnt an awful idea to hedge against a marriage not working out

That doesn't make sense. Rationally, hiding that money in secret is a reason that the marriage won't work out. Hide that money, tell lies, be a scheming and awful person, and there will be a self-fulfilling prophesy of that marriage not working out.
Common Intermediate Language is the standard name for MSIL.
The government can worry about two things at once
Agreed. I will never replace my dedicated Garmin satnav with my phone. That would be a downgrade.

I don't want people trying to call or message me on my "satnav" when I'm driving.

Google maps and whatever app on my phone is never going to be as easy to use, consistent, reliable and stress-free as a dedicated device. My Garmin doesn't try to up-sell and tell me about things I don't want to know every 5 minutes. Smartphones are a constant echo chamber of "do you want fries with that" micro-bullshit and irritation.
What Is the Best PDF Converter for Mac 2018?
On the Rise of Digital Addiction Activism
This is probably because people saw the LinuxCon video and are excited that it's out.

At least that's my case :)
Hot cola with slices of ginger and lemon is a great pick-me-up when having a cold.
A major part of the research — e.g.the entire audio part of the MPEG standards — was done at research institutes such as the Fraunhofer institutes, which finance themselves from patent licenses.

So your comment is also missing a major part ofthe picture.
The NSA warrantless surveillance program, something much more egregious than anything revealed by Snowden, was reported in the plain old regular press - the New York Times, back in 2005.

James Bamford has made a long and distinguished career of writing about the NSA with his first book coming out in 1982.
I've had a decent experience with maps.me. Not a polished UX as Google or apple, but functional.
50+ points. Amazing.

Anyones guess what this means but at the least I think it shows users1 have opinions about UEFI. I think it is a good thing if computer owners care about initialization, bootloaders, owner control and freedom of choice. Clearly some do care. Hats off to those folks.

1 Besides only this one: http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/efi.html
Ok, it my be pushing it a little bit - but the point is that the US economy is chock full of things like the healthcare system. You can’t easily argue that these are just outliers and the “real” economy is extremely free market. They are, in fact, completely normal parts of how the economy works.

Arguing the converse would be precisely the no true Scotsman fallacy.
I can not recommend reading this book enough. I learned an insane amount.

I find myself using what I learned several times a week. Simply having a slightly more in depth understanding of some parts of networking benfited my thought process hugely when it came to working on problems in that area.
Agreed on that.