skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Completely agree with you regarding assisting police doing actual police work. It's the ones who are trolling and/or trying to trip people (guilty or innocent) into saying things that incriminate themselves because they are too ignorant of their rights to keep their mouths shut that I'm addressing here.

Can't really argue with anything else you said either - at the end of the day, I'm just hoping that we can fight a standing action on our rights to privacy, freedom from unjust search, etc... I see this guys response to these encroaching requests as a minor battle in a never-ending war. Ironically, I'm actually in favor of Full Body Emission Scans for people getting on airplanes, for the explicit search for explosives - so I might even be to the right of you on that topic.

And, as a fan of The Wire, I'll certainly track down "Cop in the Hood". Thanks.
Politeness works fine with many people in many circustances, and it has bought me out of a few pinches. I've seen a cop's face go from suspicious anger to placidity from a smooth handling of their concerns. I'd wager that most of the time, politeness won't hurt and sometimes it will help. Sometimes though you're right, particularly with law enforcement, if someone is in a bad mood and on a power trip it will not make one iota of difference. What I took from this is to pay attention, there's no need to consistently clam up like this guy does, but remember it's an option because sometimes it may be necessary.
> and that maintaining the look-and-feel of the OS should be very important.

I don't think maintaining the look-and-feel of the OS is very important. In fact I would go so far as to say that attempting to shoe horn novel interface requirements into local OS look-and-feel requirements is a detriment to interfaces.

A bad interface is a bad interface no matter what. Same goes for a good interface.

But I think that if you look around at most of the most successful pieces of software across all platforms (by pure volume), very few of them look anything like the prevailing look-and-feel guidelines for their host platform -- I'm talking about Office, Photoshop, Firefox, Chrome, iTunes, GarageBand, iLife...

iWork at least looks like a piece of software that conforms to the look-and-feel rules.

But then we get something like Aperture 3 which could be something running on just about any platform.

Most of the top iPhone apps could be running on anything with a big touch screen (and some of them are almost pixel identical across platforms): Pandora, Remote, Yelp, New York Times, Jott, Netflix, Shazam, etc.

People care about app consistency across platforms not local consistency with the OS.

Web apps blow the idea of local OS consistency out of the water. I won't even list million user web apps because we all know what those look like, and they pretty much look the same no matter the platform. Sites that try to "look like" some OS, end up looking rather silly to be perfectly honest.

No, maintaining the look-and-feel of the OS is not anywhere near the top of pretty much anybody's priority list these days.
Made http://djb.deviantart.com/gallery/ using my eye for the fitness function. Karl Sims did it better originally, but I had some fun with it.
This is yet another reason why the pay is important. Low level jobs are process-oriented. They are designed to be carried out by average people. They are trained on what to do in various situations, of which this is probably one. I don't know about legal requirements, but I'd bet anything their training doesn't tell them to just say "have a nice day" when someone refuses to answer simple questions.

The customs agents this guy dealt with were just doing what they were trained to do. That's all they can be expected to do, all they should do. It's unreasonable to treat them as goons for simply doing their job. They're real people, most of them probably decent ones (because really, most people are decent people) who have families to feed, mortgages to pay, cars to buy, etc. Assuming that they are not makes the author a douchebag (and one who reads way too much Orwell).

There is not a distinction between goons and non-goons that can be made. He'd probably get similar results at any airport he went to because they all go through the same training program.
Swype, text input for screens
Enom, one of the best API's in the industry .. you would just need someone to set you up as a reseller, or setup your own account directly through them which requires an initial 1000 domain purchase. Rates vary for resellers, direct account holders pay 8.50 per domain at the moment, up from 6.99 several years back. Or just work out a deal with a hosting company and let them do all the setup and config for you. We routinely setup low domain rates for people using one of our hosting plans.

-Mike, AFMU.com
It sure does have a negative effect. I've been to the US, and I'm not going back unless I really have to due to their beyond anal border security.

Of course they're increasingly exporting that to their allies in Europe too, the UK is especially bad in this regard.
While it might be strictly true that a US-ian can't be denied entry to the US, recall that there is no constitutional right to any particular mode of travel... One can "enter" the US in various foreign airports (Shannon, several in Canada) and doing a "nope, I'm not talkin'" gig will probably result in a "well, you ain't flyin' either".

I also worry that being too hostile with one's baggage might get it blown up. Certainly get it inspected closely. Might not be too good for cameras, laptops and other storage media.
Yes, absolutely. A lot of Jeep owners will tell you that pretty much everything on them can be fixed with a $10 socket set from wal mart.

I love my Jeep because when my dog and I crawl into the thing covered in mud, I can just hose it out the next day. There are holes in the floor that lets the water drain out when it gets rained in, and I know that there are very, very few places on the planet that it won't take me if I ask it nice enough.

There is definitely something to be said about simplicity in engineering. I feel more connected to my Jeep because I can see everything working. There is no abstraction level, it's all just mechanical.

It's the same feeling I got when I first started using linux. I could see everything working which, for my brain, was awesome.
Which is hardly a surprise because the Mythbusters are originally special effects guys who worked on their fair share of ads.
I understand what you mean technically, but I don't think the point of the internet is to let only companies like Google introduce TLDs.
But this is an easy idea, and it's been done before. The only thing that's really different here is the timing of the announcement. And the "omg chad hurley reads hacker news" angle.

(Of course, everyone thinking that this is even remotely the same thing as Google Instant is also completely missing the real innovations in that product.)
It takes real talent to reduce perfectly readable numbers into incomprehensible speed-dial infographics.
If only I had known that in Jesuit high school; it would have made all those detentions I served easier to take if I had known the dean was actually cowtowing to me every time he cited me for an untucked shirt.
I like this idea a lot! I will definitely see about working it in :) Sounds simple, too. Love it!
Well, yes. In a disagreement, it is much more likely that domain experts are correct than that you are correct. Whenever you find this not to be the case, I would highly encourage you to take full advantage of the substantial opportunity.

With regards to "barbaric" medical practice, you seem to be conflating pre-scientific medicine with scientific medicine. "Experts" in ritualistic pre-scientific medicine probably knew no more about disease than did the completely uninformed. They were not "experts" in any meaningful sense. And, indeed, had someone been around practicing evidence-based medicine at that time, they could have completely changed the world.

As much fun as it is to talk philosophically about this, there are actually plenty of people who have wondered about vaccine administration. From my reading of the articles, the evidence does not show meaningful adverse effects from the practice of multiple vaccination. I'd encourage you to do your own reading on the topic.
So is Bob Metcalf over the whole internet is going to implode on itself idea he was somewhat obsessed with in the past?

I don't mean this as a snide comment but really, honestly, did he change his mind, and if so what made him reconsider?

Obviously his credentials add a lot of weight to those kinds of comments, though at the time I have to admit it left me scratching my head.
Well, I don't think the requirement itself was in the public's interest, especially in the era of Sarbanes Oxley. Forcing a company to go public could be extremely harmful.
Ultimately, the cops let me go, because there was nothing they could do.

In this particular instance it may have seemed this way, but if you continue, you will likely find out it's not really true. They'd just rather not go to the effort of doing what they can do. Enforcement is selective, so unless you think you can get a lot of attention in time to do you some good, it's best to pick your battles wisely.
Sounds likely to me. My server accessing and caching the images is in the US. So you're essentially seeing the American-generated results, which might be less optimized for other countries.
To be clear - as a Canadian, I only get hassled when returning to Canada. When entering the United States on my TN (which I do 6-10 times a year), I normally get waived on through, while about 10% of the time I get asked "Where are you working."
Apropos nothing, how seriously can you take a news story that uses the words "the court's conservatives used their 5-4 advantage to rule..."? Wow, that's bad writing.
I've gotten a few offers :) But unfortunately, I haven't made any decisions. On a blunt note, I haven't heard from Google. Sadface.
Where's "here"?

Personally the situation where I'm most likely to call someone sir is where I'm giving them a forceful verbal put down. "With due respect sir that sort of language is unacceptable here." or what have you.

I'm in the UK so also when addressing a Knight of the realm in a formal setting.

A
But impoliteness can tip the scale.
If I'm not mistaken, the letters after the i are causing the suggestions from Google Suggestions to come back empty, giving a null variable.

I haven't figured out why yet, but I do know all xxx-related terms will return null as well. Maybe Google is confused?
Federal cops are not his servants; they're our servants. There is a world of difference between those statements.
The bi-directional filters on the bottom left cannot be altered in an iPad.
This thing appears here with some regularity; here's the earliest dupe for it I can find:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=219758

Flagged.
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This is as old as BBSes. There is always someone who humors newbs and pretends to type his password.
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Where is 'here.' In Virginia where I'm from, calling someone 'you' can be rude.
The census may claim to treat information collected as confidential. But why would people believe them? The US government also claims census data is confidential, but that claim has been proven to be a lie.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-30-census-role_N...
You may have a valid point, and it makes me a little sad.
I understand your point, but I think it's an exaggerate view. I am happy to admit that if there's a good reason a rule should be broken, then it's ok too: but you need to know what to do. Like all rules, once you understand them and know what you are doing, then it may make sense to break them.

But imagine a user that faces an interface that looks familiar but it's all different. Maybe the most external button in the title bar expand it. Or something that looks like a button has to be double clicked instead of clicked once. The point of having a consistent UI for the whole OS is that the user doesn't need to relearn a new interface for each product.

That said there are cases where the current UI is not good enough, maybe because the developer has a new, never done before idea. Then it's ok. Apple does it, for example, as do other mac developers.

The other exception is when it's a very specialised piece of software that is not for the masses but for a very specialised niche. I consider CAD applications, Photoshop and Aperture are like that. It's not _as_ useful to use the same look because they are software that has to be learnt anyway.

However... Firefox and Chrome do try as hard as possible to conform to the UI interface so I don't follow your examples there. And iTunes is loath by everyone as a awful piece of UI, so I wouldn't use it as an example either.

Similarly many people (at least on the Mac) hate the completely alien look Photoshop has, or Office. Microsoft did put a lot of effort with OS X to follow OS X conventions, and despite Photoshop not being a mass market product, Adobe has preferred to have a uniform cross-platform interface, and there's a lot of complaints for that.

So yes, if you have a novel interface requirement then you are more than welcome to break the OS standards. But otherwise if there's no need (from a user perspective) I don't think it's a good idea.
Scala + JDK6 annotations = Simple Web Service
Indeed this is a lovely route.
Maybe I don't want to be in the cutting edge.
But I want to be a great teacher.
Someone that disseminates knowledge in a way that makes sense for the students.
Someone that is influential en students lives and maybe those students will go and become great researchers.

So yes being "just" a great teacher is a worthy goal on its own.

Even if you don't discover anything new.
If you're interested, I still have J10 stepside (very rare, 1100 made) in a barn in Ontario, you can have it if you want, for free.

I'd rather see it with someone that might breathe some life back into it, I'm Europe these days so I most likely won't be seeing it again. And with the price of petrol here what it is I can't see it moved here either.
I'm just glad you got my humor whereas other HNers might have missed it.
Look, I'm worried about regulatory capture and the iron triangle and all of that too, but people moving between the public and private sectors isn't in-and-of-itself proof of any misdeed.

Look at this specific example - the jobs have basically identical requirements: "distinguished medical doctor specializing in infectious diseases with skills in administration and dealing with paper-pushers".
"It's the fundamental (and obviously incorrect) assumption that they're some sort of thugs, rather than decent people just trying to do the job they are paid and trained to do, that makes the author a certified douche bag."

I don't find that obviously incorrect. The banality of evil is probably the most important lesson in human nature of the twentieth century, and it makes many kinds of "decent people just trying to do the job they are paid and trained to do" look a lot closer to thugs -- or at best their enablers.

Could he have done what he did in a less abrasive way? Probably so. But refusing to go along with even little infringements on human liberty is an essential part of eternal vigilance.
It's certainly less common than it used to be. My father -- born in 1927 -- typically uses sir and ma'am to people he doesn't know, unless he's being introduced, regardless of the relative social positions. I was taught to do the same in private school in the 80s (though only explicitly to "my elders"), but dropped the habit for the most part, and these days I'm uncomfortable and a bit startled when someone "sirs" me.
This is great! If only psychiatrists could be so efficient.

This is a excellent example of teamwork too.
It's lonely south of the equator.
No it wouldn't, instant search doesn't search substrings, but strings it thinks you are about to type in.

You could create a lookup table of those for each GMail account in the background even if you didn't have substring search.
You are truly scalable person :)
US citizens may have more to worry about, actually, since the most they're likely to do to a non-citizen is refuse entry, but a citizen could easily wind up in jail for years for, in the recollection of the officer, lying to a federal officer. That was all Martha Stewart was convicted of, after all.
So... this would mean that all of those things that we assume make you live longer "because they do them in Japan" are bullshit, correct?
Why can't i just give you my address and you locate it for me on the map?
They Have Money. Can They Spend It?
I don't think you can read too much Orwell, nor, in nonfiction, too much Solzhenitsyn or Milton Mayer.
It's broken

Example: 110 W 75th st, new york, ny

Compare to the correct location on google maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=110+W+75th+st,+new+york,+ny...
My GPA was worse and it never didn't prevent me from getting any of the phone interviews or the on-site. Don't count yourself out.
Blog post with the video and slides for the less-video inclined:

http://ericholscher.com/blog/2010/sep/10/djangocon-talk/
A Very Basic Clojure Macro Tutorial
the assumption that you can understand anything about their infrastructure from the stuff that they talk about is a big mistake.
Hmm. Description of Nadar caste in wikipedia does not seem to suggest it is a lower caste.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadar_(caste)

Can anyone confirm or deny?
Engineers: Right Wing Terror; Humanities: Left Wing Terror?
no linux support :(
Isn't there overwhelming logic that heavier objects fall faster? After all, force = mass * acceleration, and if there's more mass, there's more force.

Isn't it LOGICAL that the immune system will react more rigorously when presented with more strains of diseases, increasing immunity to each of them?

You don't answer questions like this based on common sense!
Can you explain how you managed to transit from "The banality of evil is probably the most important lesson" to "it's not obvious that the border police aren't thugs"? Are people thugs by default in your worldview? Or just all law enforcement officers?
Interesting, but the practical use of such a deck is negligible. Winning hands don't have an absolute value in poker, but are only worth the amount your opponent values his own second-best hand.

I suppose the greatest benefit from this type of a rig would be the ability to call off big bluffs, meaning that representing a weak hand in any circumstance is optimal.
Dude, the prayers last for about 5 minutes each and it only occurs 5 times a day, 2 of which are during normal working hours. I assume it's fine to let someone knock off work for 10 minutes a day. Heck, I know loads of people who spend hours "working on Facebook".
That is absolutely exceptional work.
People turn into thugs in large part because of their position in power dynamics. That is, it's most probably that it's the job that makes people thugs, not the people themselves (decent though they may be outside the job). Cf. Stanford Prison Experiment etc.
That may be optimum if your goal is to get through immigration quickly and easily. Clearly that's not the authors primary goal, as he says his behavior gets him hassled, but "that’s a small price to pay to remind these thugs that their powers are limited and restricted."
I get the point the author is trying to make, but September 11th may not be the right event to illustrate it. Many things have gotten worse after September 11.
When I first added myself to Ottawa, the only other person in Ottawa was "hidden" under my marker, so it only showed jlgosse.

Maybe have multiple users in those markers?
People in positions of power often act inadvertently thuggish, yes. It's in the nature of positions of power and the human condition. It's why it's so important to have checks and balances, and ensure that those checks and balances are exercised regularly so that they don't get rusty from disuse.

Take the Nazis. It's not like every German was evil, or even that most Germans were evil. It was the situation and structure that was evil, and the social proof, and a hundred and one other things, that add up to decent people doing monstrous evil.

Character really doesn't matter for as much as a lot of people like to think. Almost everything people do comes down to their incentives and their situation, from the lowest thug to the most noble statesman. Ascribing flaws or nobility to character is a way of personalizing these situations, often to justify treating people with very few options with harshness and cruelty, while rewarding people in the position to do good with social standing and wealth, etc.
If you even have the ability to tell someone everything you know, then you don't know enough.
You can. Click the Add button on the map.
Excellent question. Check out the comments. A few members of the community have questioned why they chose this elaborate process, which actually ended up with the new images actually having noticeably lower quality. This was noticed by the artists themselves, too, as Etsy's customers labor for a long time to get the highest quality photos possible. Etsy's response when this was brought up in the member forums was that they 'learned from this' and would take note for the future... a more satisfying response would be "we acknowledge that the images are inadequate and we'll re-do them".

Why Etsy thought they had to seek new image algorithms rather than just using the ones they already used is the sort of question they very rarely answer. My analysis is that it is related to the fact that they did the processing on an Amazon server. To save bandwidth, transfer time and processing time, they sent over the medium sized images rather than the original, full size image. Of course, that doesn't explain why they decided to do it in 'the cloud' at all rather than, as you say, just operate directly on the file system, in house.

They claim to have gone through an elaborate comparison process, apparently with the visual quality comparison being done by engineers - not people specializing in the non-technical side of photography or graphics. They seem to have entirely missed the quality issue, though it was apparent enough to customers that at least a hundred of them brought it up in the forums once the switch to the new image sizes was made.
I wouldn't call this negligible. Sitting in an 8-player game where you know for sure you're going to win is a huge advantage. You can act meekly all the way, which will almost surely drag at least one player in, and only bet strongly at the end. In the hands of an experienced player, such a deck can give a huge payoff.

It would be interesting to rerun the algorithm, looking for decks that give everyone a big hand, but a certain player the win. In other words, not just look for any deck that matches the goals, but look for one which will cause a lot more money to be bet.
And then we're wondering why it takes 2 hours to wait in the airport.
depends on the data sources - I assume they use different data for these kinds of studies
There are definitely some excellent craftspeople with shops on Etsy. Etsy has done a good job of managing their appearance, to where they clearly appear more upscale than eBay or other marketplaces. There are some issues with that but there's no reason to get into it here... if anyone is interested, the juicy action is always on their forums, when it hasn't been suppressed yet.
Whoa! It only needed four letters to pinpoint my home street in Finland.
What the banality of evil suggests is that "evil" or in this case "thuggish" behavior is much more a function of social role, and less a function of character, than people thought. (Yes, it really was a radical idea -- recall that two-thirds of the people in Milgram's famous experiment went to shocking an unresponsive subject with 450 volts, when almost everyone had assumed, prior to the experiment actually being run, that only a one-in-a-thousand psychopath would get there. Check out Milgram's book Obedience To Authority for more details.)