skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
How is it that the virus is like a "military-grade guided cyber missile" yet it is transferred by "memory stick"?
This is tantamount to the anti-abortion argument that "if you didn't want to get pregnant, you shouldn't have had sex."

Birth control is not 100% reliable, and abstinence is an undue burden to place on anyone. Your values are from a time when women didn't work and there was no social welfare; a fatherless child would often die or be destitute. Abortion was illegal, and children would languish in orphanages.

Now, poor women often abort, and white babies are in high demand by potential adopters. This women works on Wall Street, so she can undoubtedly afford to raise the child on her own. It's hardly a similar situation.
Newark Public Schools To Get 100mm Donation.. Courtesy of Zuckerberg
I am disappointed that Google New isn't listed today on Google New. :(
If you don't know about Cory Booker, I can't recommend the documentary Street Fight enough. It's available on Netflix streaming.
Here's a much-less-sensationalist description (from symantec.com):

Stuxnet infects Windows systems in its search for industrial control systems, often generically (but incorrectly) known as SCADA systems. Industrial control systems consist of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), which can be thought of as mini-computers that can be programmed from a Windows system. These PLCs contain special code that controls the automation of industrial processes—for instance, to control machinery in a plant or a factory. Programmers use software (e.g., on a Windows PC) to create code and then upload their code to the PLCs.

Previously, we reported that Stuxnet can steal code and design projects and also hide itself using a classic Windows rootkit, but unfortunately it can also do much more. Stuxnet has the ability to take advantage of the programming software to also upload its own code to the PLC in an industrial control system that is typically monitored by SCADA systems. In addition, Stuxnet then hides these code blocks, so when a programmer using an infected machine tries to view all of the code blocks on a PLC, they will not see the code injected by Stuxnet. Thus, Stuxnet isn’t just a rootkit that hides itself on Windows, but is the first publicly known rootkit that is able to hide injected code located on a PLC.

In particular, Stuxnet hooks the programming software, which means that when someone uses the software to view code blocks on the PLC, the injected blocks are nowhere to be found. This is done by hooking enumeration, read, and write functions so that you can’t accidentally overwrite the hidden blocks as well.

...

Fascinating: http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/stuxnet-introduces-fir...
Our "current notion" of love may certainly change, but the neurophysiological fact of love does not (at least, not on the same timescale). I don't know what the original commenter was referring to when he said love, but I rather think he meant the emotional connection, not poetry (who think that has anything to do with love nowadays anyway?)
Steve Jobs is still cooler and has more respect.
Pre-cursor to IceBreakers in William Gibson's novel Neuromancer?

Life imitates fiction.
This is the paradox of capitalism. As things become cheaper, they become more like a commodity.

These clones of ideas are simply turning that idea into a commodity and aside from some minor surface changes, they're really the same. The competition created is fairly artificial.

Instead of thinking of it as a rip off, think of it as a way to improve your own commodity offering.
There is no shame in it. The took back the job offer. No big deal. More forward and just tell your company you would like to stay.
...and yet the site /still/ converts better than yours!
I disagree. If anything, buy stock in McDonald's.

While the world's economy continues to suffer, people will be working longer hours, more depressed, and stressing out. This is basically a recipe for fast food profits.

On the other hand, it isn't all roses. Some things may be working against fast food profits next year:

- This year, U.S. farmers had higher wheat yield, but the rest of the world had problems (particularly Russia), so prices were high. U.S. farmers are not making assumptions about the yield for next year, but to be safe are prepping for lower yield. If there is lower yield throughout the world, it will mean further increase of costs.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/08/05/129009148/rus...

- Unless they get the sugar beet problem worked out, that is going to eventually make cola costs rise, which will be bad for the fast-food business.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1298917...
Feeling intimidated by your competition isn't a prerequisite for wanting to eat their lunch. There's also potential to expand the market for MATLAB by getting some of the Fortran & C scientific computing crowd to reconsider whether writing low-level code is worth the additional pain when the value of doing so for performance reasons is highly questionable.
Building A Home Office On A Budget
I have trouble believing that any moderately sane or respectable nation state would deploy this thing. It's roughly the equivalent of launching thousands of missiles at completely random targets around the world, but programming them to only go off if they land on the enemy, hopefully. It also opens a Pandora's box of mutations and clones. It's far too evil and stupid for any country below NK insanity levels.
Pearce Delphin sparked worldwide Twitter porn chaos
What you describe is pretty much what I envisioned. It would be simple in the following sense:
- there will be no cart, buying an item shoots them to the checkout process
- we will only list a single item/day
I heard a similar story the other day by a friend of mine about his colleague. This guy left his job at previous company while his Green Card application was in the 2nd stage. He was tired of waiting in that 2nd stage for years with the hope of reaching to final stage. Finally he got too tired, and he switched the job to a different company. Just within 1 week of joining a new company, magically USCIS released new dates and that guy's application was able to go in the final stage of the Green Card process. Unfortunately, for that to happen, he needed to work with his previous company. He has no option than to talk to his old employer. They took him back.

Weird things happen with immigration cases. And big corporates are sensible enough to understand such situation and help good employees.
Rate my Viral App: Fly Like a G6
His bonus must have been about $100K+ ... I wonder why he decided to give that up? That would have helped him starting a company.

Or maybe, my reasoning is the very reason I wont create an Amazon.com :( ...

I'm still confused as to why he decided to forego the bonus. The only thing I can think of is that he had some feeling about his idea and his capabilities w.r.t that idea that he couldnt wait?
Why? Is it too much or too little for you?
Could you point out a WoW mechanic that is actually taxing? From what I understand, WoW AI is a height agnostic beeline and battles are heavily scripted at best. The tricky part seems to be the real-time player interaction a.k.a 3d chatroom, which has nothing to do with game mechanics (e.g., IMVU).
This was a fun little app that I built in 6 hours on a Sunday. Add your own text after the domain URL and it'll appear on the G6 Plane.

The App was built using rails and rmagick, the image manipulation actually took a lot longer than expected but I'm pretty happy with the results. I even added subtle things like having the windows overlay the text.

Anyway tell me what you think? And yes, I do realize the irony of posting a rate my viral app but I'm really curious for feedback. Thanks! :)

Edit: I'll also post my traffic results in a blog post later on if people are interested in the results.
Thanks for the pointers and the quick reply. I'll look spree up. If I go with something like paypal to handle the checkout process, do I still need to worry about general security? Much thanks :).
Tubemote brings its remote controls to other sites
I would think the accelerometer trigger would be in case of any unintentional dismount or an unscheduled end-of-trip, rather than a cyclist powered change in speed.
But yes, have both. Options are good.
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects
It's largely a matter of personal preference, but an important consideration is that using site.com will mean any cookies served from site.com will also be served on any subdomains. For more reading on the subject: http://www.phpied.com/www-vs-no-www-and-cookies/

"Basically you should always use www if you're planning to use any other sub-domains and you want them cookie-free."
wow...amazing coincidence -- he makes a generous donation and appears on oprah one week before "The Social Network" opens. I applaud him for his generosity, but question him on his timing. If this is about spin control, then it's sort-of ironic that "The Social Network" might do more for the public education system than "Waiting for Superman".
Sneakernet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet

In this case through USB keys. Presumably people updating software on the machines or running diagnostics. Possibly USB dongles to unlock the machines.
A word of warning: Highly addictive, and not in a good way.
As I understand it, he was a VP at DE Shaw - which probably put his annual bonus at least several times higher than that (and low 7-figures wouldn't even be too unusual).
Ask for the old job back... but explain the situation, it doesn't sound like there's any reason you need to 'stick your tail between your legs'.
Magnetic particle inspection
Will they be able to do satellite deployments and research in such a vehicle? Are we really advanced enough to be sending something that big and fast into the air that is under automated control? They better guard the guidance controls on that thing like a hawk (no pun intended). It would be a heck of a thing if it fell into the wrong hands.
Autocomplete Fuzzy Matching
What people fail to understand about RSS
There is some great advice already here. But here are a few things to ponder:
1. I say good riddance. Better not to be working at this place.
2. More importantly, things could have been worse for your immigration status if you would have joined this company and they would have eliminated your position then. Now you at least have the option of going back to your current employer without any hassle of visa transfers.
I just wrote the following, but it doesn't really take into account your immigration status. That's tricky.

I don't agree with the prevailing sentiment. Obviously you left for a reason, and that reason still exists. It would look ridiculous to go back.

I'm sure you'll get a few interviews out of this thread, and if you're good, a new job. There's always risk changing jobs.

For an entrepreneurial crowd, it seems everyone here is forgetting that it's risky to pursue something you want. I left a well paying job were I was liked and performed well to go to a start up who is still paying me by the hour. They even changed the start date a couple times after I already gave notice -- it was flaky behavior, and I told some people at my old job about it before I left. They looked at me like I was crazy, but I wanted the new challenge. I wanted to develop a product from the ground up, and if the new job hadn't panned out, I would have found a way to be OK.
Just tell them the lunch was so good you've decided to stay.
News Struggles with Accessibility
That's risky, because it might come across as implying you don't care about their own problems because you have/had your own.
Unprofessionalism? Retracted offers aren't new. During the 2001 recession, many fresh graduates newly at Boeing had offers retracted. At my current company, one employee left to join Doctors Without Borders. We gave him a farewell dinner, and talked about the work he'd be doing abroad. Two weeks later he was back in the office. Turned out, DWB couldn't take him after all (I don't recall the details). He made the best decisions given the information he had. He did nothing wrong, and nor have you. Explain the situation to your employer. You have nothing to be ashamed about, but maybe your new employer does.

And stop tying your self-worth to your career. You are not your work.
Step one find something physical to do to burn off the stress.

After that, come back and read all of the great advice here.

I would go back to your boss, and say, "Hey I guess the offer really was too good to be true. Do you know of any openings at the company, and smile? Can I start Monday?"

Let's hope that works. As for SF I am not even a RoR developer and I get an email/phone call once a week looking for someone. So if you don't get your job back list SF as your home, and plan a trip out here. You should be able to line up 5-10 interviews during a 2 week trip.

You probably want to look at companies that are large enough to have HR and to cover relocation expenses.

I know that http://www.castlighthealth.com/ is hiring RoR developers, and pays well. My roommate seems to be pretty happy there.

Good Luck, and remember that the engineering manager at that other company liked you, and may change companies at any time. Heck if this happens enough to him, he might be looking for a new job right away. Don't burn bridges.
Minecraft has been a huge success, but $250,000-a-day is a little misleading. The site was down for the last few days due to mentions from Penny Arcade and elsewhere (PA ran two comics on Minecraft, which is insane exposure to a huge gaming audience). Notch turned the downtime into a free-to-play period, but you couldn't buy Minecraft while things were down. The $250k/day number actually represents a few days of sales pressure, but it's still awfully impressive...
TCP Slow start plays a big role here. The fewer the packets required to carry the request, the faster the complete request can be addressed by the webserver, leading to a faster download.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-start

Essentially your client waits for ACKs from the server when it sends its first packets. The greater the RTT the higher the penalty. This is part of why DC -> NJ didn't see much benefit but CA -> NJ saw a nice boost.

There was a great talk on this at Velocity Conf 2010: http://en.oreilly.com/velocity2010/public/schedule/detail/11... - I have not yet found video, but you can flip through the slides.

Checkout this visualization of the slow start and you can see how sending even one fewer green dots over a large distance could considerably change the overall time.

http://vimeo.com/14439742
Having picked it up a few weeks ago, the game is an odd blend of open-ended creative sandbox, epic-scale exploration and survival horror. It taps into that feeling of opening up a bin of Lego and not having a specific model instruction booklet. Its feature-set is still very fluid. Yet it seems to out-do Civilization's "one more turn". This is a game where if you picked it up tonight at 7PM and started out, you'd hear your alarm clock going off in another room as morning rolls in.

The game has essentially gone viral at this point. Multiple webcomics are covering it. There's decent coverage on social news sites. Industry rags have picked it up. Industry veterans (I have a friend at Disney Interactive, and another at BioWare) have absolutely taken notice, Valve in particular. Some review sites are seriously considering it as their "game of the year" candidate. This weekend the website (and authentication service) collapsed under load. With some outside help it's up and fine after some refactoring and offloading things to S3. Today he cracked 25,000 unit sales for the day, or about $340K USD in gross revenue.

Yes, he. Until very recently, it was basically a one-man show. There's a few dedicated folks coming on board now, but that's what's humbling. Today, Markus eclipsed my day's compensation in just 88 seconds.
Wireless carrier-pigeons: Reaching the world’s unconnected
Not a big fan of the song starting when I hit the page. Probably should have noted that beforehand ...

It's an interesting campaign, but I'm not sure how this is supposed to benefit your site, do you expect everyone to embed it?
Two-on-two is also a 1:1 ratio.

Really, you get 3 points for that, and I get -2 points for a valid criticism and a book mention? People don't like dead trees? If you care about being a better manager, get the book -- it's a much better treatment of the subject. Actually I think ol' Rands here ripped off a lot. See page 12.
+1 more for trying to get your job back. When I left my corporatey job of 5+ years to join a 10 person startup in August 2008 as I walked out the door on my last day the CEO said something I'll never forget - "If you ever need a job, just call me." Total class. If you've done good work for someone and they aren't morons, of course they will want you back whether it's a year in the future or a week :)
Gosling also wrote about being at the mercy of suppliers impacting SPARC and it probably contributed to the problems.

http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/at_the_mercy_of_suppl...
The comparison between Intel and ARM is like comparing Microsoft and Apple. On a customer facing level, they may appear similar, but they're different beasts, and arguably in different markets.
It may be satisfying to, as you suggest, "burn" the company; but it's also unprofessional. Granted, the startup that rescinded the job offer was behaving unprofessionally, and may even be civilly liable for it's actions, but that does does not mean that you should respond in kind.
This is a total micro-optimization at best. Nearly every client is going to support compressed content. The difference between minified then compressed and unminified and compressed is tiny.

You are right though the difference probably does matter on the scale of Google, MSN, and Yahoo, but I wouldn't focus on it for my site.
Ask HN: Consulting Projects
Right now I have a good consulting project that pays the bills and lets me work on my own projects for the other part of a week. While I am working on that, I am also working on selling my cars and slimming down on my monthly expenses so that I can be really lean with a potential startup while I shop for a co-founder.

I was wondering what advice all of you can provide for finding part time consulting projects. Site's like Zendesk seem to be better for hiring cheep developers, but I need to find ~$100/hr gigs.

Right now I go to plenty of tech events, and search craigslist. I am also planing on redoing my blog/ website to be more project driven and less blog centric. I basically plan on making more clear of what my last and current projects are.

Any other ideas?
Love the song, and it's an interesting campaign. I like the inspiration from TechCrunch. It would've been cool to add some paint colors to it as well. I'm quite interested to see the traffic charts. What would you consider viral?
"I only know about hackers and startups. I have absolutely no idea how drone programmers behave/get motivation/work"

That is the most absurd false dichotomy I have read this year. You sound like the "artistes" I know who think that anyone who isn't raging against the machine is a pawn of The System.
My first guess was that it was the US. Yes, I'm a citizen of the US. I do believe my country would do this.

If this isn't the US, and we aren't creating things like this, then I would be completely shocked. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it came out that we've been developing things like this for the last 5 to 10 years. Our government has historically never been behind when it comes to tech weapons innovations, at least not in the last 70 years.
It's not just a pride issue; your bargaining position in relation to your previous employer changes in this situation, whether you like it or not, whether or not your manager acknowledges it or not, whether you get the sa, me terms as before back or not, and whether they are nice people or not.

The fact is, you left, it didn't work out, and now you're back because you need something. Next time something good comes up and works out, you're going to leave, they reason. That makes you a risk.
McAf.ee Short Url
Work in progress, not boring by any means... But that mentality has really helped me to steer many of my decisions.
So, uh.... anyone for an HN SMP server?
I use org-mode as a personal wiki. I have a global wiki where I keep: time logs, notes on various software tools, books, there's an "idea_bucket" for random thoughts, etc.

I also have a personal wiki for my main project where I keep: road-map, bugs, competitors, etc. I separated this from the global wiki so I can check it into git with the project.

I've been doing this for about two years and I'm very happy with the way it works out.
You should absolutely let it be known who this company is. If you're uncomfortable do it anonymously. Rescinding an offer after a candidate has quit an existing job is shameful and anyone doing it should be outed for all potential candidates to know of.

What if a major funding event had fallen through, and the company rescinding all outstanding offers and cutting expenses allows half of those 50 employees to retain their jobs for another month? Truth is, you have no idea what's going on at that company. These decisions usually aren't made lightly. I say this as someone that's been in the exact same position in the past. Move on, holding a grudge will only hurt the OP.
I seeing startups come out of nowhere and start turning an industry on its head. Online flights have been so stagnant (at least the main, big players) for so long, nice to see someone bringing some fresh new and useful features!
Cheers Jarin.
I think some people who write about enterprise software either haven't worked on really big enterprise software or don't realize how it came to be bad. The problem isn't that suddenly your product started sucking -- mostly it's that inefficiencies or poor design decisions made 3 years ago suddenly start biting you in the ass.

In other words, software ages like people -- year to year there's not a huge difference, but 10 years later you look back and say "what the fk happened?!"

Now, some software just clearly wasn't designed with usability in mind. Much more, however, was probably designed with a limited goal that was forced to quickly adapt to more complex situations. Startups and web companies have it relatively easy -- you can simply change your code on your server and suddenly everyone's up to date. Other companies have to deal with backwards compatibility and standards and shipping and all the pains of large projects in general. The people who come in saying "Well the people in charge are just idiots. If I were in charge we'd have SCRUM and new languages and modern development practices and everything would fix itself immediately!" really don't know what they're talking about.

I think that the article has some good points (not getting involved enough with the actual users is a big one), but they're really too young to say "we have found the Holy Grail!" Removing features, especially, strikes me as something which sounds like a good idea but can really hurt you as a business. When your customer is a 300 person mid-size corporation you can easily say, "well, we had to make some changes here and that feature had to go." When your customer is a retail giant employing 300,000 people all over the country, you think very, very carefully about removing that feature.
On a semi-related note, I think it's really interesting that something like 80% of Jobs' net worth is from Pixar (now Disney), not Apple. And yet a lot of people don't even know he was involved in Pixar at all.