skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You’re not really pretending that Prime isn’t first and foremost, about shipping products, right? Google exists because people are slow to associate non-monetary costs with their services. I mean, I think Bing is a bad joke, but Google erecting a paywall would be a gift to MS, and Apple.

Fortunately I can’t believe that anyone at Google believes more than a fraction of a fraction of their current user base would pay.
I would love for Apple to sell more types of Macs that were lust worthy besides the iMac line. But looking at this.

https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/02/apple-reports-its-holiday...

I think it would make more sense to make iOS devices that could replace the need for a Mac.
Tell that to the Whigs.
Except that college/uni is frought with unnecessary stress and anxiety driven by exams etc. And I'm not saying people should focus on making money from a young age - quite the opposite actually. We should be free to explore whatever we choose. I just feel the college/uni education system is a bit of a con and learning within the confines of that system is expensive and not that advantageous to most. I too believe uni should be free (it used to be here in the UK) - and funnily enough, less people chose to go to uni back then despite it being free! Now that it's super pricey, more people seem to go as more is spent on marketing degrees to the public and it's "just the done thing" in society.

Edit: just saw this on the BBC - very relevant to my point: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42923529
Nice work! Looking forward to see what tools you'll add to the site in the coming future.
Right but in a office environment we could be talking about drive by attacks where yes someone has physical access, but not enough time to be able to disassemble the machine and replace the keyboard without anyone noticing.
> While after the recession the fed was responsible for buying more than half of the treasuries for years, those days are over.

That is hard to say, fed is planning to wind down QE, but it's also trying to hit a certain interest rate, when those two objective collide, i.e. interest rate going up too fast, it'll be interesting to see what happens then.
False. There are many professional athletes playing today who started much later than age 3.
Interesting article (also something of a condensed version of his book, The Case against Education), and a couple of counterpoints.

Caplan is making several seemingly-logical assumptions that most readers will miss. I will say that at least some of these assumptions are false, negating the conclusion.

Caplan assumes that people are largely immutable ("What I’m cynical about is people."). His touts several studies about both the retention and application of knowledge that support his point excellently. That being said, these studies are, at best, empirical estimations of a philosophical issue. The issue of "real world" ability suffers from being largely impossible to test, has no real definition, and is fraught with assumptions, none of which make for rigorous science.

Caplan, as I imagine, is taking college at its full cost when arguing that less people ought to go. I would like to point out it is fully possible to provide a college level education for significantly less than is done so now. I believe point this out makes his pragmatic argument much less strong.

I take issue to this claim in particular "My exams are designed to measure comprehension, not memorization. Yet in a good class, four test-takers out of 40 demonstrate true economic understanding." If just 10% of students understand, I would argue the teacher is either grossly ineffective or the student is grossly underprepared. Teasing out the fault is difficult, but don't forget, this anecdote is wholly from the teacher. Also, what constitutes "true economic understanding"?

I don't disagree with Caplan's conclusion personally, but I do disagree with how he arrives there. Calling students philistines is both an unfair generalization and a sidelining insult. His assumptions allow him to arrive at an agreeable point, but that path taken is full of disagreeable compromises.
I don't think that so much craft is lost, I think it has just reduced in scale. For example, I still believe that there are places where Linotype machines are available and usable, even if the number has shrunk.

Maybe this is a good example of a long-tail problem? As interesting technologies are supplanted, the number of practitioners drops, levels out at a low number for some time, and then eventually goes to zero. Then the hard part is—if people still care—extending that tail as long as possible.
The benefit is that you don't need huge amounts of land, can use surplus energy in a useful way and produce something that is of immediate value.
But not all stimulants etc are used for performance enhancement, etc. There are many legitimate uses so like anything else, there would have to be exceptions to “the rule.”
I think we are just fucked at this point. For a power of this scale, where potentially catastrophic results can arise from even a single source point, it really falls on the users/creators/management (ie us as a society). It can turn out great if we can all cooperate and play fair, but we have long ago blown that chance before any of us were even born. At this point the only working solution i can see is creating numerous AI simultaneously to balance each other out and regulate each other to the same effect that power is distributed amongst a group of people rather than be consolidated in a single individual. Creating a single AI or a handful of AI in the hands of a few is just too great a risk and power imbalance but in the beginning I fear it is what will happen as everyone is already in an arms race.
Chavs certainly don't have to be men. Also I'm pretty sure the youth requirement has atrophied now, and it's more of a direct class-epithet.

I don't think there's a race-neutral equivalent in American English, but "white trash" captures much of the spirit.
Thanks for replying instead of downvoting me, but I still find your answer unsatisfying.

I actually agree that learning a bit of history and politics is quite useful. But I mentioned art and literature.

I'm a major consumer of art and books, but why would I need to study them? Let's take art, for example.

There are many cases where counterfeiters have created fake "masterpieces" that fooled all the experts, even creating masterpieces that are in the style of some famous painter, but were original creations, and were sold accredited as being lost works of that painter.

Once unmasked, those paintings became essentially worthless.

Hence, it's "value" as art was purely based on who painted it. It had nothing to do with the artwork itself. To me that calls into question the whole purpose of the study of art, as even the experts seem ill-equipped to determine what is "great" art and what is a "hack job".
Off-Grid DIY Project: Making Fuel From Algae (2018)
> It all depends on whether their process is efficient enough to be worth it.

I don't see an estimate. But:

> The achilles heel of all negative emission technologies is cost. Government policy units assume that they will become economically viable, but the best hope of Carbon Engineering and other direct air extraction companies is to get the price down to $100 a tonne from the current $600.

I get that $600 per tonne CO2 is about 1.7 times the current global mean price of diesel. And $100 per tonne CO2 is about 0.3 times that. Given diesel-electric conversion efficiency of ~40%, you increase those estimates 2.5 fold. And then there's the energy input for hydrogen production, and the efficiency hit for chemical conversion.

It doesn't seem workable to me.
And why can't high school communicate these critically important concepts? The current trend seems to consider those 4 years as utterly wasted. The biggest problem I have with education, as someone from an "Elite" engineering school, is the sheer inefficiency of it. We spend the first quarter of our entire lifetimes to get "educated". There has to be a better way and throwing more years at it isn't the answer.
Architectural, MacOS has a firm foundation. They don't need a completely new OS like they did in the pre OS X days.

They just need to fix bugs. Rewriting from scratch is seldom a successful strategy.

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...
The data structure OrderedDict does what you describe and has been in the stdlib since I think 2.7
Yeah its super odd.
I've been toying around with Python 3 and using it for most of my personal/hack projects, but I somehow missed the unpacking improvements: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0448/

In particular, being able to create an updated copy of a dict with a single expression is pretty cool:

return {**old, 'foo': 'bar'}

# Old way
new = old.copy
new['foo'] = ['bar']
return new
We ought to be moving towards de-stigmatizing and
strengthening the vocational education system

Here in the UK, the traditional problem with the vocational education system has been the lack of incentive alignment between its users and politicians. If our representatives are drawn from our abstract symbol manipulator class, whence comes the representation for the vocationally educated?

And education administrators, when faced with the choice of sending a disruptive student to the well-politically-represented-abstract-symbol-manipulator track or the poorly-politically-represented-vocational track, by and large responded predictably to their incentives.

Solving this problem is, I think, crucial to effective vocational education policy - unfortunately I have no idea how it can be solved.
At this point I just assume any news article is based on the US by default, unless stated otherwise.
> As history shows, all known forms of government eventually become very ineffective at spending money.

First, that does not mean that a current government will fall into that trap. That is just something to look out for, not something that is destined to happen forever.

Second, why does it matter? The efficiency of government spending is absolutely not the most important thing, or even important at all. We are considering the questions of the future survival of the species, and therefore the society and government in question (if you don't agree with this, then I recommend checking the recent 2017-2018 nuclear threats made by the US president). Efficiency is not the goal. Survival is. You are less likely to survive as a society if there is massive wealth inequality and massive unrest and chaos like government shutdowns and rising debt ceilings due to it.

Increasing govenrment efficiency is a "nice-to-have", not the be-all and end-all of everything that exists. It doesn't make sense to optimize for the efficiency of something when that "efficient" machine is the most likely one to fail.

> On the other hand, I see that my logic stops to work when the government ends up borrowing money anyway.

Right. The government would borrow a lot less if it raised the taxes in the first place. Therefore, raised taxes are better.
This is really cool, I had no idea it was this straightforward to manipulate LLVM internals. Definitely a side project to explore.
> because of the quantitative easing that has gone on since 2008, this money has caused bubbles of its own, e.g. the crypto lark is a by-product of sorts

Agreed. Easy money has caused investment in many projects - including mal-investment in projects that would otherwise never have been started, over-investment in sectors that can't deliver as much as they promise.

Said differently, the market is so hot that even turkeys can fly. When the market cools down, chicken will have a softer landing than turkeys, but only birds will stay in the air.

A correction is due, but it is not clear to me that the crypto bubble will fare better or worse than the stock market or anything else.

QE money will have inflated the market bubble. Private investor with more money than wits will have inflated the crypto bubble. Both will crash.

The big question is, which one is the turkey, which one is the chicken.

Back to my first question: I wonder if the people who call crypto a bubble factor in the seignorage.

In the current environment, it may be a "rational" bubble not worse than the alternatives.
Probably not because it puts into question the value of the existing monitary base.
It’s a good app. I’ve used it since the launch.
No. This defeatism is exactly out of the Russian playbook to make Americans more docile and reduce the chance for change in this country. I'm not accusing you of being a Russian shill, but that is exactly their talking point and it is wrong.

The Democrats will indeed be a much better governing party. They have nearly always enacted better policies and are way more reliable at reducing the debt than the Republicans.

Apathy is dangerous and presents a false view of the world. Real things happen in the real world. Electing a different government matters. Everyone else out there, don't let anyone tell you that you don't matter, or that both parties are the same, or that there isn't any hope.

There is hope. You do matter. Your vote matters.
You talk about the socio-economic ladder like it's a bad thing in and of itself. IMO, it's only a bad thing where it sets up an incentive gradient that encourages bad behavior. The libertarian capitalist view is very aware of how you're rewarded with socio-economic status when you feed the hungry, invent cures for diseases, and generally provide wanted goods and services.
Then they should update both simultaneously, like Android has done for years.

But not even being able to update even the browser by itself shows an extreme level of incompetence.
I am convinced God does not play dice.
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>I would like to point out it is fully possible to provide a college level education for significantly less than is done so now

Yea, exactly. That, and I just wish I could study and compete for degrees in an open, competitive and lucrative system.
How so? I thought the Treasury sold bonds on the open market to finance the deficit.
I question the universal value of higher education, too. But I come to a different conclusion: that is, that education ought to be reformed to make it more universally valuable, not systematically kept from the people it failed.
>Once unmasked, those paintings became essentially worthless.

>Hence, it's "value" as art was purely based on who painted it. It had nothing to do with the artwork itself. To me that calls into question the whole purpose of the study of art, as even the experts seem ill-equipped to determine what is "great" art and what is a "hack job".

One can make the argument that if society doesn't fully understand something, that makes studying that thing that isn't fully understood more valuable rather than less valuable.

In fact, I think that might be the whole of our disagreement (and the larger disagreement between those who think school should be purely vocational and those who value a broader education.)

I believe this is what is meant when the college people say that they are trying to teach "how to learn" - it's about thinking about problems where the answer is unknown and maybe unknowable.
Quite a tangent topic to the article.

The article uses the first 3 paragraphs to setup the premise that schooling is not translating directly to job skills. The article is not about "we should get rid of non tech subjects".

The real TL;DR summary is in the last sentence of a very long article:

My thesis, in a single sentence: Civilized societies revolve around education now, but there is a better—indeed, more
civilized—way. If everyone had a college degree, the result would be not great jobs for all,
but runaway credential inflation.
Trying to spread success with education spreads education but not success.

On topic for the whole article please.
Apple Music on Track to Overtake Spotify in U.S. Subscribers
That's a one time expense and is not that high for most people. Real estate is much worse.
Interesting typo on the name of the dyslexic-friendly font they use. They mashed up OpenDyslexic (which they offer) with Dyslexie (which they do not offer).

Fun fact: The latter sued the former unsuccessfully several years back.
I am surprised more families are not planning a trip abroad around the delivery date, to benefit from cheaper healthcare of a comparable quality + free extra citizenship for their kid.

The market exists in other countries: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-island-where-chinese-mother...

I am surprised american parents don't hedge their bets by getting a EU citizenship for their kid. If anything, the kid may benefit from free healthcare if they get something bad as an adult!
I think there is more at play here. Some of the highest birth rates are still in the lowest economic groups. While high rents are a problem and a no doubt causing economic hardships preventing young families from having children I think this is an over simplification of a larger problem.
My mind is blown. Ever since JavaScript added this, I've been wanting it in Python... and somehow it was there all along. It works for lists too!

[*a, *b, *c]
I would love to see an open source meetup alternative, maybe one that I can host myself for my meetup.
Here's one argument against college education for jobs: you're very likely to be forced to move far from home to find any work in your field. There just weren't programming jobs within an hour of me in upper NY so I had to move to a place in New Jersey that I don't like that much out of necessity. I'm sure it would've went the same for chemical engineering or whatever else with very few exceptions, maybe law or medicine. If I'd taken a trade like electrical work or plumbing I could live anywhere I wanted - everyone has toilets and wires - but now I'm at the mercy of the programming job market until I can transition to remote work, so it'll be years until I get to live somewhere to my preference.

Where do you live? If it's not in or very close to highly dense areas, encourage trades if you don't want to have to take a plane or drive hours to visit your grandchildren.
I’m glad other people feel the same as me. Sometimes it seems like if you’ve got a SDE job people think you’re the king of the hill. I’m working on an exit from tech as well.
Current list of tools: html, css, js compressor, image to base64, json to csv, csv to json, OCR Reader, unzipper (browser only).
Built with react.js (next.js framework) and node.js. Uses some open source packages.
> The US is obviously getting far better infrastructure/education/welfare system/research/military/etc.

Is it?

Research is on shaky ground:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/data-check-us-governm...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dr-no-money/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/trump-bu...

http://theconversation.com/men-get-most-of-the-research-fund...

https://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12016710/science-challeges-res...

Welfare system is failing:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/29/our-i...

http://time.com/5090112/infant-mortality-rate-usa/

https://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/528098789/u-s-has-the-worst-r...

https://www.propublica.org/article/die-in-childbirth-materna...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/america-home...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42248999

https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html

Education is failing en masse:

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/americ...

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students...

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/03/10/469831485/america...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertreiss/2015/11/17/how-to-f...

Millitary is using shoddy, ancient tools:

https://newrepublic.com/article/113484/how-pentagon-boondogg...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/us-modernizing-its...

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-military-re...

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/01/hasc-ew-expert-bacon-us-...

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/01/armys-basic-illusions-go...
Y'know, reading this whole conversation and seeing only these two pronunciation spellings reused, I can't help but wonder if some of us are agreeing but not realizing it.

Because there's at least 3 possible pronunciations:

* dee-mon

* deh-mon

* day-mon

I personally use the middle one for "daemon" and the top one for "demon".
"It's such a popular tourist spot, no one goes there anymore." (Apologies to Yogi Berra.)

Tourism-based economies can't fail from becoming too profitable. If prices are high, it's only because people are still willing to pay them. It's market forces in action.
Funny thing I learned recently - the US federal budget deficit has little to do with how much the government borrows: federal institutions can borrow money on their own, that is why for instance the US government debt can grow faster this year even if the deficit is lower than the previous year.
Even further....

My mom still uses my 2006 Mac Mini Core Duo running Windows 7 when she has students over when she tutors.

Her main computer is a 2007 era Sony Viao Core Duo with 2GB of RAM running Windows 7 and Office.

I'm using a 2008 Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo with 4Gb of RAM as a Plex Server.

I just replaced a Pentium Dusl Core laptop with 4GB of RAM circa 2009 with a newer laptop. I still use it occasionally. It's my only computer with a DVD writer.

It helps that my main use of a computer involves work and my main laptop is work provided.
The fact is, people perceive trades as socially inferior to white collar careers requiring college. This is completely independent of earning potential, mind.

And software engineering is mostly a trade. The fact that you do it indoors, in offices, without getting your hands dirty is deceptive; it's conceptually very similar to construction, mechanics, plumbing, etc.
Couldn't it just be explained by saying that as more women enter a field typically dominated by men, the pool of potential employees expands and so the expected income from one of those positions decreases.

I'd say it's also true that as time goes on there are an increasing numbers of businesses 'going digital', which more often than not means getting a wordpress site and an e-commerce package set up. These are relatively simple, and don't require as much experience as a back-end position, and thus don't demand a high salary. You might have 50 businesses 'go digital', which employs 50 different web design shops, but they could all be hosted on the hardware from less than 5 hosts.

Just off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts, feel free to flame.