skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
And a lot of the space has these beautiful antique wooden floors and the ceilings are held up gigantic wooden columns and beams. Most of the buildings on the site are over a century old and predate the modern construction methods that use reinforced concrete and steel I-beams.

Contrast with 111 8th Ave, which was built contemporaneously with the Empire State Building (and in the same aesthetic). It uses reinforced concrete and steel I-beam construction throughout. The brick you see from the outside is just an aesthetic facade; this is a solid building.

Oh, and there's two skybridges -- one that goes nowhere, and one that goes across 10th Ave to our space in that building.
> We're supposed to interpret other comments in the most charitable way, but a charitable interpetation is not at all possible when one says that C# is a usable solution for systems and embedded programming, that Nim is mature, or go is used in games and is a good idea to use for embedded.

Then don't misquote me. I didn't say any of that, except perhaps implying that Nim is mature. Ok right, and Go is great for embedded. I worked in embedded systems for years. 80% of the software ran on little arm boards that ran a decent OS (eg QNX, Linux, etc). Go would've saved so much trouble there. There's this weird HN filter bubble attitude that if it's more than 20MHz or does not ship with a 15 year old GCC fork, then it's not embedded, but that's bullshit. Go is a fantastic option for a very large amount of embedded software, and I'd wager what's left after that is perfectly served by tiny C programs running on little atmels.

I explicitly singled out C# for gamedev. Look, I'm trying to make a general argument that a few large still-good legacy libraries (such as Qt) are the only reason C++ is still standing. I must admit it feels a little like you're trying to misunderstand me on purpose because you don't like the message.
100,000 happy moments
The Apple II was not a toy. It was what businesses used to run VisiCalc, the spreadsheet program. Huge productivity gain over doing spreadsheets with a big piece of ruled paper and a calculator.
At the time I started, you couldn't get a degree in software engineering. "Software Engineering" wasn't even a thing. I took a course in programming for geologists just before I flunked out of Stanford. Later, I took an evening course in Pascal. Even later I took Stanford's online course in iOS programming. Whenever some new concept came out, the hardware/systems vendors had to prime the pump by educating everyone with manuals. Every new thing was so obviously superior, one eagerly sought books, magazine articles, or manuals to get on board. We all hauled ourselves up by our boot straps. It was an exciting time.

Back then computers filled huge rooms, and time was allocated by the second. "Nobody" knew how to program then, so it was easy to get a job programming for a contractor at NASA-Ames and later for the U.S.G.S.

The first thing I ever did was a FORTRAN IV program that contoured simulated lunar regolith data. These maps were crude line-printer maps with each character representing a depth.

The last major thing I did before I left the U.S.G.S. was an interactive color geologic map integrated with an ore-deposit database. That was about 1989. Since I left the U.S.G.S. in 1995, I've done website programming and "side projects." I'm currently working on a word processor for professionals engaged in a major writing project, one involving lots of source documents and notes. Like most side projects, the biggest problem is marketing.

I suppose everyone else would point to PCs as the greatest innovation. I disagree. For me it was the hugely powerful APIs Apple provided with the Mac. Before, you had to create nearly everything from scratch. It was revolutionary. As an application-programmer, the Mac's APIs were hugely empowering. I could now do things it would have taken a team a year or more to do.

I realize C is very popular and I mean no offense, but I hate it. It's prominence grates on my nerves. It's lack of discipline appeals to the worst emotionally immature tendencies among very young programmers and can lead to life-long bad habits. That is the perspective of an scientific-application programmer. I'm sure the world seems very different for folks focused on systems etc where C has advantages.

This has been rather long, but there were lots of questions to address. Thanks for the opportunity.
i'd love to see more examples of SMB software that started either as "toys" or with "toy-like" features. the only one i can think of off hand is wufoo, but im sure there are others

im working on a product that (hopefully) will address an important need, but developing the solution to that need will require pretty robust software and a services component that will take some time. to get users excited about going on that journey id like to help them have some fun and get their imagination stirring. they are used to crappy dry software and have tough jobs, so lightening their day a bit and inspiring them about the future would make them happy
I mean I agree it's likely that the process makes the wood lighter. But no, the article doesn't explicitly say the end result is lighter. It explicitly says it's thinner and stronger.

I don't really know much about the process or whether the chemical treatment can potentially make the wood heavier/absorb some of the liquid, which would offset the weight of the material that's lost.

My point wasn't that there's no way the result is lighter. My point was that the article didn't mention the weight before and after, so it seemed presumptuous to me to claim it was definitely lighter.

I went to check the actual paper to confirm, hit a paywall, and so was unable to verify. I was hoping someone would comment with more details.
My guess is that these wood boards would have much less friction than a stone equivalent, unless you had enough money to pay for a polished one.
To answer the first question, you use a fault tree analysis to predict potential failure starting points (like a broken component) and then describe how those failures will propagate through the system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_tree_analysis

For an example, say I'm building a system that needs to hold a block of aluminum at 550C, 99% of the time. Okay, so you add a thermocouple and a heater to it, easy.

What if the thermocouple fails?

Well, if the thermocouple fails open then the temperature will read infinity and the heater will shut down and probably produce a non-catastrophic failure.

If the thermocouple fails closed, the temperature will read room temp and the heater will blast full on until the aluminum melts at 660C, which is a catastrophic failure.

If the relay in the temperature controller fails, the furnace probably turns off but theoretically could fail on if the relay switch gets fused.

Okay, so I can see that there is an unlikely but possible chain of events that could cause a catastrophic failure. So I add a second thermocouple to act as a safety shutoff using a second redundant relay and controller if it reads a temperature above 600C.

Total probability then is estimated by either using real world performance metrics or best-guesses. I'd say the odds of a thermocouple failing in 10 years of operation at 550C is nearly 100%, so this failure will nearly certainly occur.

Or consider an LED array with 10 of them in parallel. If one blows open, the remaining 9 each get 10% more current so are more likely to fail. So your first branch of the tree might be that the odds are 10% that an LED will fail at design current within five years. That may well not qualify as a failure, especially since the other 9 LEDs are ~10% brighter due to the higher-than-spec current. But now your probability for the next failure is 20% within five years. So you do need to define different outcomes, usually by severity of impact and probability of outcome in event of a predicted possible failure point.
We can mark this inaugural Falcon Heavy launch as the point when people stopped laughing at BFR.

The latest version of BFR is only about twice as much thrust as the final FH variant (which will launch in a few months with slight thrust upgrades) and around the same number of engines. Recovery, even with such a complicated bunch of stages, seems to work pretty well, validating SpaceX's knowledge of reentry and reuse.

Launching crew within about a year from now is when people will stop laughing about SpaceX sending people to Mars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA
Looks pretty good! This could be a competitor to MiniHack [1], the Hacker News client I'm using right now.

Unfortunately, I just can't read discussions that are collapsed by default. Way too much clicking — some threads have hundreds of comments, often deeply nested.

I also think you could spend some time on colour and font choices. It's faded and hard to read, with almost nothing prominent. HNBuddy (https://i.imgur.com/cEPrInb.png) vs MiniHack (https://i.imgur.com/ED4YXte.png). I'd like the title font to be more legible, and the number of comments should be much more prominent. I often decide whether to read a story and/or thread based on the number of comments.

I do like that there's a way to get to the comments after clicking on a story. MiniHack doesn't have this.

Offline, opportunistic fetching and caching of comments would be good. Like the sibling poster, I read HN on the subway, where there's spotty cell service.

As an aside, since you're not charging for this app, perhaps it would be a good idea to make the code open source? I've been through multiple HN clients, and they all tend to stagnate over time. Putting the code on Github and accepting PRs would help avoid this.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/minihack/id631108846?mt=8
18k CCIE is magnitudes more than the current amount of kubernetes experts.

It's also not comparable. A network is setup only once by a CCIE. It's done and it doesn't need touching for the next 10 years.

A kubernetes cluster is setup once and then the troubles begin. Constant care needed every week for 10 years.
Yes, but does it really whips the Llama's ass?
> Either maturity has been on a constant decline for millennia

personal responsibility has been declining with the aid of comforting technology and it has led to the constant extension of state goverment reach. it's very possible the complaints are valid, and that's simply how history advances.
I run relatively regularly these days. My journey of running started with a marathon. I went from nothing to marathon in 6 months, with lots of training, weight loss (healthily because I still love to eat), and stamina increases. But after the marathon, it took over a week to walk normally again. Long runs sucked, and I really began to hate running. Running shoes were killing me, and I hated the idea that the shoe was there to help cushion the foot fall.

Then a friend encouraged me to try vibrams. And suddenly I fell in love with running again. I have huge calves, and these helped tone them a lot more, but now my strike is mid-front, and it’s comfortable to go 4-6 miles (though I struggle keeping pace with my dog).

We have a wonderful suspension system built into our bodies, but it only works correctly when applied correctly. We do not strike the ground the same when running as when walking. And Vibrams taught me quickly to strike differently (especially if I wanted to avoid really sore heels). The springiness of running on our feet transfers to our ankels to our knees to our hips to our back. I’m not an expert, and I know others can run with a rear strike, but for my body shape and what I’ve learned to run with, the front strike was important and I have Vibram FF to thank for it!
Yep, plywood gets a bad rap: it's incredibly strong stuff. Aircraft plywood can be used to build entire aircraft, marine plywood can withstand harsh weather conditions for years, and birch or hardwood plywood can look very pretty.
BUG: When part of a link is highlighted, the link gets messed up.
Iron fertilization a great example to spark thinking about low cost / high benefit solutions. That's why we created AirMiners (http://airminers.org) to track all the people mining carbon from the air. There's a lot going on!
> This is the linear tension in the wall of a pressure vessel(rocket engine) which varies as the square of the diameter. Twice the diameter = 4 times the pressure (hoop stress) the walls must take.

This is incorrect. Cutting the cylinder in half lengthwise and taking a unit length, we see that the cross section of the walls of the chamber (unit length x 2 x wall thickness) resists the pressure force from the contained fluid (2 x radius x unit length x pressure). Since the pressure and unit length are constant under scaling, this resulting force grows linearly with the radius. Thus, wall thickness has to grow proportionally to the radius, and there are no mass penalties from the chamber wall from either a smaller or larger engine. A similar result holds for spheres. Indeed, the particular result is independent of the geometry of the pressure vessel.

The larger immediate result is that pressure vessels scale just fine with size, up or down, and there's no benefit at either end of the length scale, in relation to contained volume.

What you do get for a smaller engine is more manageable combustion instabilities. Look at the 5-fold symmetry (odd, rather than even) of the injector baffles in the SSMEs. This is to stop a tangential oscillation mode, an important failure mode of larger engines. What you lose for smaller engines is that you have more of the fluid "close" to the walls. The boundary layers don't grow linearly, so you get more heat transfer at the boundary in proportion to the contained fluid. (Radiant transfer in the engines complicates the picture, but convective transfer is definitely proportionately worse for smaller engines.)
The best dichotomy I've heard for this is:

Are you building [Ice Skates] or are you building [Ear muffs]?

Ice skates allow you to do something new that you didn't even know you had a demand for. Ear muffs solve a problem that you were already solving poorly (with your hands).

[Business vs toy] is an insanely counterproductive mental framework which will create a false sense of security in founders who are actually building crap - just because you can play with it does not mean it has value.
Sure - I'm advocating that more cities should grow to the point that it is a drop in the bucket, by inviting not only Google but other companies and not treating any of them as special.

Or, sure, they can decide that being a 100K-person town is what they want their city to be, and use zoning to actively resist any single employer having over 1K people in the town. But this isn't a Google-specific problem, and if you try to address it with Google-specific solutions (either "Take special measures to invite Google because they'll bring in high-paying jobs" or "Take special measures to exclude Google because they'll destroy your city"), you'll be in trouble when some other, possibly non-tech, employer comes along in the future.
Sometime after we stop considering processed food as food, but a food/sugar or food/preservative composite.
"I was just angry and frustrated and sad that you can’t make cool shit for the internet anymore and make a living".

The internet existed before people made money from it. Plenty of cool shit back then.
Designing a Cosmos DB database
It seems unfair to compare 18F attrition to GSA, as people in tech generally have a lot more options than people in other government sectors. For comparison, the ~2 year average retention at 18F is among the best of the big tech companies [1]. Not to say there aren't issues, but this article seems to make things sound worse than they probably are.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/employee-retention-rate-top-t...
Detroit has outlawed Airbnb for R1 and R2 zoning
That section is confuse-making.

Presumably their house, car, and boats DO cost more than 10% of their income. Their payments on those items might not exceed 10%.
Nah, I was just wrong about gamedev. I genuinely believed that all modern engines were mostly programmed in C# but people in this thread corrected me. It's just the game logic scripting.
Maybe they're harder to harvest from the Earth -- costs more resources per unit to mine than logging?
This should be in julialang.org frontpage.
Yeah, it's all about fine tuning the speed of the rock so it lands exactly where you want it to go. Curling is basically shuffleboard but you can adjust the slipperiness of the track while the rock is in motion. If the rock is already slowing down at the right rate (or not enough!) you definitely don't want to be sweeping.

I do wonder where the sport originated. Ice shuffleboard is straightforward enough, but who was the genius that figured out you could sweep the ice to control the rock better. Why were there no killjoys yelling that it was cheating? How can this be an Olympic sport but dart throwing isn't?
That's pretty cool, bookmarked :) I also like the design of the site. Well done!

Do enough people take off the day after Thanksgiving that it's considered a holiday? I don't get Black Friday off unless I specifically request it. Otherwise it's just a normal workday (though often the office is empty that day, so I guess it's a distinction without a difference).
ah sorry. i did

import dis
dis.dis("a = foo.bar(b)")

which gave

1 0 LOAD_NAME 0 (foo)
2 LOAD_ATTR 1 (bar)
4 LOAD_NAME 2 (b)
6 CALL_FUNCTION 1
8 STORE_NAME 3 (a)
10 LOAD_CONST 0 (None)
12 RETURN_VALUE
Yeah well, nature. On the flip side, we are (probably) one of the few species to have evolved a sense of existential dread.
I'm a Stanford professor accused of being a terrorist
Did you visit the app (https://jordaneldredge.com/projects/winamp2-js/) and press play?
> Cumulative return for the S&P 500 over the past 9 years (conveniently leaving out the 2008 crash), with dividend reinvestment, is equivalent to a YoY gain of 16.25%

That's a bit disingenuous to use the generational market lows of 2009 as your starting point. It would be like using the all-time highs of 2000 and the 2009 lows as your range. Then the cumulative returns would be negative ( including dividends ).

> However I think it would be foolish to presume that the stock market will continue to post those kind of gains forever.

It's impossible for any economy/market/whatever to maintain a 16% return every year.
I haven't tried in a long time. I just remember this Motherboard [1] article from June.

I think I heard that Cydia was shutting down? I ran into the founder at Defcon last year, he didn't say much about it going the way of the dodo, but I don't know anyone who jailbreaks really anymore.

Recently I just had some projects come up that could greatly benefit from a jailbroken iphone for some AR installation stuff so I thought this was interesting. Maybe I should give it a go.

[1] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xa4ka/iphone-jai...
There's a third possibility: The definition of maturity is constantly shifting over generations. Each new generation is not "less mature" than the previous, but it's not an illusion either. There really is a change in the mindset of what it means to be an adult, it's just not a strict one-dimensional scale.
Used to be that guy until I found the perfect techniques that only suit me and the perfect compiler that only ICEs on the most insane of codes.
AWS instances can do IP routing just fine. There is a flag to set when the instance is created or else it drops all traffic not from its own IP.
come on. There's a silver lining, sure. But it's still a massive failure. It's not a comparison between no project and a disastrous project, it's one between disastrous and successful.
Chloe Kim Is Pushing Halfpipe Snowboarding Forward. She Makes It Look Easy
About that stock panic
You build this shared library as a relocatable conda package and add an explicit dependency in your Python (conda) package / problem solved.
Nicely done! Few notes:

1. Please have an option to turn off the reader function. I'd like to go straight to the URL rather than a parsed reader.

2. Main page is a little bit busy. Would recommend playing with the font size / weight. The first thing most people do is skim through the headlines, having kearning / a higher weight of font would help with that.

3. I find it odd that the url / time posted is above the title. Would be nice the match the main HN page and place that below the title. Just changes the mental model slightly enough to be annoying.
Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
Can you imagine if the sweeping part didn't exist and someone came out and started doing it today? There would be rules against it so fast you wouldn't even be finished saying "neat trick" before it was banned. Stopping at directional bristles seems a little bit arbitrary.
That was parent's point. Apple I was a toy, and Apple II a serious product.
I'm glad this is happening, although I'm more excited for the day when they start very obviously marking password input fields as "NOT SECURE" when they are used on HTTP sites. Although I am genuinely surprised how much Google and others like Mozilla have had to drag many site owners kicking and screaming into HTTPS. I never would have imagined that end-to-end encryption by default would be consitered "controversial".

Also, those HTTPS numbers are amazing!

* Over 68% of Chrome traffic on both Android and Windows is now protected

* Over 78% of Chrome traffic on both Chrome OS and Mac is now protected

* 81 of the top 100 sites on the web use HTTPS by default
Another reason is that, because the Merlin 1-D is small enough, they can use a vacuum variant of it as the upper stage engine rather than designing another one.
I didn't say anything about the anti-trust claims, it's typical for plaintiffs to pile on as many claims as they think are remotely plausible to stick.

The lie is the claim that Apple made that plaintiffs were selling fake goods, which you'll note Apple retracted later. Whether they have liability for their lie or have immunity under free speech doctrines doesn't change the fact that they abused IP claims.

This is not an isolated instance with Apple, I have seen many others. But, as this case demonstrates, it's very tough to hold large companies accountable without a very large legal budget.
Eating Leafy Greens Each Day Tied to Sharper Memory, Slower Decline
Making Sense of the Bias / Variance Trade-Off in Deep Reinforcement Learning
Anecdote time: I do this, and I know it's weird. You just have to look around to see that almost nobody else does it (and it drives people I'm around nuts with the constant clicking).

I think it started in like 1998 when I was a kid using ancient slow browsers on tiny fuzzy monitors over dialup speed internet. I'd be in the middle of reading an article/forum/etc and something would make me lose my place, like a picture (finally) loading above, or trying to scroll at 7 fps and the page jumping way past where I was (I never trusted pgdn), and it would be quite the chore to find my place again. So I started selecting around where I was reading, especially before scrolling, just so I can easily find my place again and it just became a habit.

Now I'm using a giant WQHD monitor at 144 Hz using the fastest page renderer in the world (webrender), so I really don't have those excuses anymore, yet the habit remains. At this point it's probably more ADD and habit than anything else; if I'm not selecting text, I'm fidgeting with something, a pen, usb drive, etc.
It's almost certainly not in the form of elemental mercury (which would be a liquid), but a solid mercury compound.
Exactly. It’s a competition to beat the previous editor’s cyclomatic complexity score! In fact, I should have said:

“If you refactor a method without increasing its cyclomatic complexity don’t bother sending for review.”
The government uses mechanisms like this to avoid civil service rules. The intention of 18F was project based engagements where staff come and go.
Validating Smart Contracts with Lightweight Formal Methods