skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Why these jobs pay less? That is capitalism at work.

Tech jobs are now essential to maintain competitive edge and keep the big profits going at companies, and they want to bid up to get good talent. Even small barely surviving companies have to pay good $ to get developers etc. because of the market forces.

OTOH lets take a daycare teacher. They are being paid ultimately from the money average people have left over having worked, paid their tax, mortgage, bills, food etc, given it to another company who has paid their overheads and finally paid the teacher their salary. (Forgetting government subsidies - but still...) There is no way this can be a large amount of money (unless you have 1 teacher to 30 kids, but then there are safety issues).
I felt very much like this when the work being asked of me was less than 8 hours worth of productivity.

Once the requests started coming in for significantly more than that, I needed a system of rejecting requests and creating project timelines based on very consistent output.

I feel like these two things go hand in hand. But if you only have 4-5 hours of work to do, go ahead and be disorganized. The cost of the productivity system is bigger than benefits you receive.
The closest I've ever actually gotten to having an assistant was a stretch of about 2 years after we had our 2nd child. Since my wife and I both work full time, we needed child care.

It was about the same price to hire a nanny as it was to send 2 kids to daycare, so we did some interviews and hired one.

That 2 years was probably the easiest stretch of dual working parent life that we ever had. She did a load of laundry and a load of dishes each day while the kids were having naps. If we were low on detergent or supplies that the kids needed, we gave her cash and she'd pick it up on her way in. If somebody needed to be at the house for some reason, she was there and neither my wife nor I had to remove ourselves from work to take care of it.

We literally came home from work, ate dinner, played with the kids. When the weekends came around we didn't have to dedicate a chunk of it to laundry/cleaning.

It was pretty fantastic.

I can only imagine how having a actual assistant would take things to the next level.

All that said, the types of phone calls that Google is talking about making here aren't that beneficial...yet.

When Google can call my cable company, wade through the phone tree and get a service appointment or issue resolved...I'll be all over it. Even just wading through the phone tree and sitting on hold until an actual person is reached and then handing it back off to me.

Those are the time wasters I'd want saved. What Google is doing here is equivalent of automating the functionality that people pay for with OnStar.
the only string parsing is 'a.b.c', which is mostly equivalent to T.a.b.c so you can completely ignore that capability

the very slight difference is that using T you must be explicit about attribute access vs key access whereas 'a.b.c' will try both
That's completely false.

For example, the per-capita CO₂ emissions in 2013 were of 20 tons/cap for the US, whereas it was 8.5 for China (world mean is 6.3): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhous...
Thanks. Always good to hear from people who actually know what they are talking about!
Anecdote: My niece was on a female floor in her dormitory. Supposed to foster a supportive environment for the women to pursue STEM. What happened? A few gave in, turned to Liberal Arts. They began to chatter to the rest about "why bother". After 1 semester, only my niece was still in a STEM field (ChemE).
Features removed or planned for replacement starting with Windows 10 1803
The World's Most Powerful People (2018)
I like to compare STEM to Harry Potter when it first came out. I remember being one of those dorks in middle school who couldn’t get enough of it, and I thought not many people enjoyed it as much as I did. Only a handful of people mentioned it, and I was pretty social back then. Then the movies came out followed by the “cool kids” going crazy over them. Suddenly you have to like Harry Potter in order to fit in!

The only difference is that STEM isn’t labeled as cool by “cool people” yet.
To be honest, almost all banking services are solved by credit unions. This begs the question of why we even need for-profit international banks.
99% of the time? Where did you get that?

GPS is better than human only wherever it has better data. Bring it to a place where it has no data and its useless.
Meanwhile, humans can easily adopt to find themselves in places they've never been before.
I'm interested in hearing thoughts from people who've used digdag (https://www.digdag.io/) or pachyderm (http://www.pachyderm.io/). Pachyderm is the most interesting to me. It seems to be focussing on the data as well as the data processing.
You're not wrong for beginners. They shouldn't use all or any of these tools starting out. But when you reach the point where you understand React and you start to reach the limits of React's features, i.e. inline styles isn't cutting it anymore, setState is growing too big and too complex, etc., that's when it starts to get hairy. Because continuing down the path of pure React is painful, but learning all these damn libraries is also painful. That's where a lot of people get lost imo.

Not to mention the times where the codebase predates you. My first experience with React was on a codebase that was pretty horribly managed. Basically a combination of magpie developers and a total lack of understanding of React patterns. When the developers are finding and trying to integrate the next new shiny lib every other week, it becomes a nightmare for any new developers.
It is not FUD. I work at a major telco/ISP, specifically on ensuring GDPR compliance for a number of applications.

Personal information that is deliberately and freely made public by the owner of that data (ie. you, the user) is free to use, both for the service on which you make it public, and for anyone who happens to read it on your publicly visible profile/wall.

The reasoning is that you made a deliberate choice to make this information public, meaning you have given consent to public viewing of said data.

What this Facebook issue is about, is the collection of personal data that you have not made publicly accessible, because it is private to you. FB is using this data to tailor ads and to modify your feed, giving you politics you agree with, suggesting pages for you to join, and so on. FB is also profiling you and inferring your private information, and using that to track you across the web (on every single web page with an FB "like" button, for instance). They have a disturbingly detailed profile on all of their users, including highly sensitive data such as political standing, sexual preferences, medical history, even possible infidelity.

FB is perfectly usable without giving them access to any other personal information than a fake date of birth and a throwaway email account. It is perfectly usable with "targeted ads" turned off. It is perfectly usable without the "optimized news feed", it can just default back to a chronological feed instead.

The violation of their users' privacy is not essential to the service FB provides to their users.
Isn’t the word “Web” in the title completely unnecessary? I couldn’t see anything in the article that was specific for web development compared to any other kind of software developer!

Or is “web developer” used almost as a synonym for “software developer” now, as a way of disambiguating from e.g. a “brand developer” or “property developer”?
I think it would be good to stop considering the opinions of RMS as worthy of discussion as long as they don't pertain to matters of free software. (I say this as a GNU maintainer.)

Unfortunately, GNU has a number of people who like to argue, and who like to argue fervently about and against simple and little measures to bring GNU a tiny step closer to a more welcoming environment for other people.
If they are doing a self driving car pilot, it would be stupid not to have some junior legal staff in the same or nearby county. The senior lawyer just calls the junior staff (who are always potentially on the clock when it comes to that type of work) and says "get your ass down there!"

That doesn't seem like a Hollywood movie to me, that just seems like the way competent people operate.
At least when it comes to Facebook, for a significant number of people, participation in Facebook is not an actual choice. It's similarly to living without electricity: Yes, you could do it, but the costs are too large to actually do it in practice. It's still freedom of choice on paper (because no one points a gun at people and forces them to use Facebook), but not in practice.
This is maybe one of Facebook's most crucial achievements: It has turned itself into something which people feel they cannot live without, even if they might hate it.

Google is a bit different story. Living without Google is doable with some but not gigantic sacrifices.
I've been browsing this thread for about 45 minutes. Not a single comment is rude, most of the comments are trying to debate about the issue.

If you post a submission on a forum and expect everyone to blindly agree with you or you else you consider it as "hate", then the problem is perhaps with you.
Not to mention: there's now an incentive for builders to reduce the quality of construction (and potentially skimp on other energy-efficiency measures in the building) to offset the cost of the solar installation.
Those theories are also too exciting (and hence likely to be overbelieved).

A more mundane reason might be that interstellar travel and communication turns out to be impossible (or near enough).
I don't know how true this is; I've also had the experience of sitting around a restaurant table with academic math nerds and other times with computer programmers, and the differences there was pretty stark as well.

But another point: pay attention to the distinctions we're drawing, because "computer science is less social than other STEM fields" is not the same argument as "computer science is more forgiving of antisocial behavior".

The latter statement is one I could easily be convinced of! We all know about dev cultures that thrive on toxic behavior, and a lot of us have seen firsthand how homogenized groups of developers have mistreated people from outside their narrow social experience. A lot of this is well-studied human behavior: you pay a different kind of attention to the only woman on your team, or the only black person, than you do to the nth 20-something male nerd from central casting, and that can cause people to falsely attribute things to the outsiders.
It is a red line, not the red line.

For a while I've felt like the solution was that I needed to be detached from Google products and services (along with similar data-driven companies), and that was good enough.

I feel like we're rapidly approaching the territory where I need to make sure nobody I talk to is attached to Google products and services. I feel like this is line we're crossing now, where Google has inserted itself directly between the people I want to communicate with and myself, and is changing (or generating) that content directly.
VOX just released a video on the "Duck Curve" phenomenon that arises as a result of renewables[1]. Does anyone here have any insight on what the state is trying to do to mitigate negative downstream affects of the duck curve?

[1]https://youtu.be/YYLzss58CLs
How will this change the discussions around net metering? Part of the offset of costs for solar were supposed to be the ability to sell excess back into the grid. And what happens when the grid no longer benefits from new electricity generation? If the new requirement is just for panels without storage it seems like a long-term transfer of risk and cost from energy companies to home owners.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/solar-has-transformed-into-...
I am just confused.

I think we might agree that how social women vs men are in the certain age group are relatively constant through time. IE in 60s men is about as social as they are now, but the number of women in STEM decreased through the same time period.

I think it is just market forces in play plus gender roles in childhood. Women get discriminated in tech(study and jobs), resulting in subpar outcomes for women. This information propagates through the market so women choose not to participate in that kind of work because opportunity costs are too high and they choose to do something else.

Very similar situation growing up where gender roles and parents push girls away from STEM.

If companies and educational institution in STEM treated men and women the same, we would get much better distribution.

Not rocket science here. Education plus equal treatment.
It's illegal in many states to record a conversation without obtaining consent which is something this product does as a matter of course. This product shouldn't be legal to operate in those states, so you don't have to look very far before finding critical flaws in this approach.

That said, "identify on challenge" is something that Google might be more likely to adopt rather than "identify on call pickup". The latter being something they might spend more lobbyist dollars to oppose.

But what you've said is certainly (or should be) a real concern.
I'm not clear on why SB827 high density housing near transit and solar panels for single family homes are mutually exclusive. A solar rooftop on a 4 story high density building is like a rounding error compared to all the other costs. California should be moving forward on both initiatives, no?

The great thing about the requirement is not that it is the absolutely most carbon friendly solution but that it creates a viable alternative to the PG&E monopoly on energy in California. They pretty much can effectively hike prices at will under the current setup. We need to reduce the amount of pricing power of all monopolies via credible competition.
Why do you think ranking is important? A simple chronological news feed should be perfectly fine.

Sure, rank search results based on how many users a given group has, and put the most popular ones at the top. That doesn't require violating anyone's privacy.
Here's your simple rule: https://medium.com/@annevictoriaclark/the-rock-test-a-hack-f...

Quoting: "It’s as clear cut as this: Treat all women like you would treat Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson." and "But definitely don’t hit on her. It looks like she could kill you with the chair you’re sitting on."

It's really that simple.
If you're in tech you shouldn't need to do it that way. Indeed/linkedin/stackoverflow/craigslist etc all have tons of tech jobs which you can selectively (or not) target. Many require not much more than a resume to apply
Ask HN: How does one find a research avenue? (retry)
Hi all. I am trying to collect more responses by reposting this, as HN is a community I'd really appreciate some advice from. Previous posts: [1][2].

I am considering getting into research, and I'm trying to figure out how one goes about finding a problem to solve.
Backstory: I completed my bachelors in '16 with some significant side/hobby projects (kernel/systems) and I'm now working as an engineer at one of the Major Ones :/. Although it pays well for now, I am slowly losing motivation and creativity and it is replacing my 'engineering for the fun of it' mindset with 'do what you're told to'. I'll need to adapt heavily to be able to thrive in this environment as a generic software engineer. I'm not learning, I'm not specializing, and I start to realize that I want to put in concentrated effort and work towards something for myself. Hence the idea of pursuing research. Or working for/on a startup.

My reason for going into academia to pursue a PhD would be, to be able to focus X years of independent research towards an idea I think can turn into a product later. But that depends on the idea/domain, the supervisors I work with and how success is measured (number of publications v/s real-world outcome, which may have a gap). Of course if I can't turn it into a product later, I have specialized and can come back to the industry.

Please correct me if my perspective is horribly wrong : ).

Thanks.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17024792
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17027601
If you have the cash and can invest it better (net taxes and fees) than what the cost of the loan is, why not? If you are fortunate enough to qualify for a very low interest loan (usually on a new car), even a very reasonable growth rate on your investments can be sufficient to effectively pay for a couple car payments on the loan each year.
I feel like if you talked to code conference runners, you might have a different opinion - being one of the few women at a social event really brings out the socially awkward or aggressive advances.
Cross browser/backward compatibility, especially IE...
Pedantic, but

> why are some many women maids or professional housekeepers? Most people in this career don't get much on-the-job socialization.

is this actually true? I've gotten the impression that housekeeping services often send multiple people to the site.
There was a study done on creepiness awhile back. Pretty interesting read: https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.20...
It worsens local economic conditions by directing local resources to unprofitable forms of work.
Cool... it looks like... errr... javascript :D
Windows Notepad fixed after 33 years: Now it finally handles Unix line endings
This is a great talk by Ryan Florence (one of the creators of React Router) where he basically reimplements the basics of the library from scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPJxmZx62gI

I'd also just look at the React Router codebase. The components are pretty well written and somewhat easy to understand: https://github.com/ReactTraining/react-router/blob/master/pa...
Most of my work focuses on scientific computing of one form or another.

Org-mode is the digital lab notebook that I have needed forever. I have a private repo with one folder per general project and one or more org files inside. I mostly treat them as append-only FILO pipes.

PI wants a progress report? Export the relevant headings to a PDF and email it.

I want some literate-programming style "work in progress"? Easy, you can even hook jupyter in, and dump plots out simply. Export it to a PDF if you want, or make it a blog post with some nice HTML styling.

Project documentation? easy.

Paper drafts? Yup.

It's wonderful.
This is a good point. Sustainable growth requires a balance of power, which is why things have developed in this direction. Collective action at large scale has traditionally been controlled by governments. The most successful governments are bounded by popular will, which is directed by institutions, which are informed by traditions that have developed from previous successes and failures.

Disruptive innovation requires disturbing some part of that chain of influence. Microsoft and Apple have found success mostly by providing tools to people who exist in established parts of that chain. Google and Facebook and many other current-generation startups are more likely to use the power of collective action to create feedback loops where collective action directly informs further collective action with limited checks and balances. This sometimes leads to imbalances which spark mass outrage over policies that do not fit into people's concepts of how things ought to work.

Is this kind of power sustainable? It's likely to follow a more volatile path of quick growth followed by outrage over the outcomes that make people uncomfortable, but it might find equilibrium regardless, as it still has to exist in the world that was formed by traditional institutions.
Not completely, but neither will hoping that the free market changes it's behavior suddenly.

Climate change demands aggressive action all over the place. This is one component.

Also this is the literal opposite of virtue signalling. They passed a law. Virtue signalling is when you do nothing except express opinions.
> men don't want to even get close to the line of doing something that could be perceived as inappropriate

Yeah I am wondering why someone would stick their neck out, especially if they have below-average social skills. Lots of personal liability for little personal gain, and #MeToo just publicized the existing uneasiness with professional interactions. It's not like any women helped when I was evaluating a career in nursing.
The market is not a meritocracy.
I think some of "creepy" is lack of responsiveness to social cues. Creeps are men whom you don't trust to take "no" for an answer and men whom you don't trust will ask in the first place instead of just taking (ogling, touching, rape).

There are geeks and bros and attractive and unattractive men in both columns; but geeks who aren't good at decoding and reacting appropriately to subtle social cues tend to trigger this reaction more often than bros whose social facility masks an underlying lack of respect for bodily and emotional autonomy.
False. The US the biggest CO2 polluter per capita and the second biggest CO2 polluter overall. California contributes a significant chunk to that equation.
Aha! This is a POSIX-required behavior, not documented in the GNU "info grep" or man page.

According to POSIX, the syntax is:

grep [-E|-F] [-c|-l|-q] [-insvx] -e pattern_list

What is pattern_list? "The pattern_list's value shall consist of one or more patterns separated by <newline> characters"

In the GNU man page and info, the pattern argument is referred to as the PATTERN metavariable, a noun in singular form. The only hint I can find that it can contain a plurality is this, in the man page:

-F, --fixed-strings
Interpret PATTERN as a list of fixed strings (instead of regular
expressions), separated by newlines, any of which is to be
matched.

This drops the hint that there may be multiple regular expressions in PATTERN separated by newlines, which may instead be treated as fixed strings.

A similar description is in the Info manual.

Elsewhere in both documents, PATTERN is misleadingly referred to as "the pattern".

This may be worth a documentation patch.
I don't think the timeline bits are, although I think it's under consideration. (Sorry for being extremely fuzzy there.) I know you don't actually have to pay for hosting with them, which I don't think they do a great job of communicating yet -- a hosted Micro.blog is actually just Jekyll with a web front end, and there are people using their own Jekyll setups, or WordPress, or a few other solutions. (I'm pretty sure the timeline is actually built on top of JSON Feed and webmentions.)
There is no reason to assume GP was motivated by that intention, in whatever situation you're imagining. You do so from a position of privilege.
Of course it's feasible. It's called English!
The use case for Duplex could be tremendous for people like me (deaf etc) depending on the implementation/rollout. Too many times I’m unable to interact with remote banks because they refuse to accept my calls through relay services. Right now I’m completely locked out of USAA despite the fact I’ve been a customer of them since the 70s. It’s forced me to have accounts with local banks in case I have to appear in person.

I don’t know if this tech will help me in the future but am looking forward to the possibilities.