skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Oh yeah? Why not?

We built a self-scaling multi-processing conversion system entirely in php @ http://massify.com/. In like 2-3 weeks. Had it deployed a week after that. It's been running for 2+ years with zero maintenance and handles all of the video, image, audio and office docs -> swf conversions. It's not a trivial system, but for what it does is simple enough to be beautiful despite the language it was built in.

It was designed to completely share nothing, message based, isolated, fault tolerant. I could go into the architecture more if you are interested.

Now Massify is not youtube scale, but this could scale to that size with minor adjustment (mostly with balancing uploads to the upload handlers). In it's current incarnation, the thing will scale by itself to whatever restraint Amazon puts on it.

We had one film contest were we watched the thing spin up a ton of ec2 instances and then tear them down when it was done. It was a little like watching an army of media converting robots.

So I was going to write this long winded thing about why I used PHP to do it, but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter. All that matters is that it works and works well. If writing this kind of stuff in PHP doesn't appeal to you, then cool, good for you. But your notion that it can't be done or done well is not grounded in any kind of reality.
Is there any boards out there that let you program in higher level languages such as Python? It'd be fun to hack on one of these but I'd rather use languages and techniques I'm used to.
It's an interesting concept.

The "Hold down the left mouse button to start moving" line seems problematic to me, as are the other "mouse" references. I have not has a mouse for year, nor do I have a left mouse button. At least some visitors will be (in fact, have been) on mac laptops or touchscreen devices. I'd recommend something along the lines of "drag the page to move around."
Agreed on perf. Lots of optimization to do, plus I could pre-fetch cache a lot smarter too (it off-screen caches x&y but nothing for the zooms which are the most painful). Thanks for trying it.

One thing I do when using it to scan many pages is to put the browser in full screen mode - it really helps.
Good suggestion - thanks.
Create something meaningful with Facebook? The last time I checked, Facebook is not a creative outlet. Sure, you can let your collection of virtual friends know that you despise public transit, and post a few photos - but create something meaningful? I don't think so.

As for your analogy - a paper is quite literally a blank canvas. You can create anything that you can imagine, assuming your talents allow. Facebook, however, is not a blank canvas. Far from it. Facebook confines its users to a predetermined set of rules for their own benefit ($).

Edit: to elaborate on my last point - when was the last time you saw something truly incredible created entirely via Facebook? Something absolutely amazing that just blew your mind. Please let me know. I'm ready to be educated.
For the record - I should have said this in the original post, I like twilio. I liked their business model and I really liked the product.

I had multiple email conversations with twilio team members over the past year and "caution" wasn't something I would say was strongly portrayed
That's fine. In fact it's a good move. But why email me after the fact. It's like you brlirve its ok to communicate with paying customers like that.
Tried it, volume is too large. Every client I've tried crashes before it can get everything, and there is still the issue of convenient storage format. I'll probably have to write my own archiver.
Sony Ericsson Abandons Symbian OS
It would be better if articles snapped into focus when double clicked. Is this inspired by ZUIs, or just an independent concept?
Instapaper is pure liquid gold for the Kindle. Marco has definitely made the right choice to create a start-up based on it.

Right now I've got probably about a hundred articles on Instapaper, collected over the month or so I'm using it, but I haven't read any of them yet. My Kindle should arrive Monday and the first thing I'll do is read those articles on it.
That's exactly right
I applied to create a fun game that's basically an etch-a-sketch. Was denied.
Absolutely. That's why I called myself foolish. I learned a lesson
Is there a page that lists all the beta features that may become unsupported without warning in the future?
I gave up on Digg not because of features of lack of features or power users gaming stories. I gave up because the community turned south (I don't remember when, but it was several years ago) and became a picture/video/-posting site. I used to find good articles on Digg, but now it's just mostly "funny" stuff meant for a 2 second high.

But then I found HN, so all is good. At least for now.
I could try that - thanks. I wasn't sure how much to move the map outside the dragging by the user but that makes sense.

Since I just had to look the acronym ZUI up, I guess that's an independent concept :). I've tried to use Google maps as an inspiration as I find it such an interesting web app.
Mark Twain, The Biggest Liar in America
It's interesting to see how long ago the Matthew Effect (aka Cumulative Advantage) has been noticed.

This sociological phenomenon was named after a verse in the bible:
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

-Matthew 25:29, New Revised Standard Version.

Nassim Taleb also talks about cumulative advantage in his book Black Swan.
It all depends on when you start counting. Python 3 was released December of 2008. That's brand new.
Nice work!

The problem with zooming is that most webpages are not made for viewing from a distance. It's difficult to discern both the content and the identity of a site when zoomed out.

Maybe you could try detecting the actual content (headline or a big picture), and show just that when zoomed out (probably together with a small logo of the website).

Other than that, the section dividers we see when zoomed out all the way are neat, why don't you preserve them somehow in all zoom levels?

In terms of navigating around, I think it would be much more fun if the zoom was seamless and much more responsive, and one could scroll and zoom at the same time (much like in a QTVR movie, ideally with the same controls).
Similar: http://rubular.com/
Well, since they don't provide an SLA you can't really hold them accountable. Does that mean you shouldn't build services for which you charge money on top of twilio?

Is twilio better suited to internal use rather than for building SaaS apps?

These are serious matters.
I like that facebook is public expression place (with more details and social connections for just friends).

I put pictures of adventures and creations on facebook as viewable by anyone with a facebook account. People who vaguely run into me can go there and find out more of who I am...sort of like a resume for friendship (tactless). We also find common interests, conversation starters, etc. I naturally make friends in person; to me facebook is just one more neat tool in the toolbox for forging and maintaining social connections and fun in general.
Hi Anthony, Twilio service status available via our public status page http://status.twilio.com/ We communicated degraded international SMS service to customers on August 16.

You bring up a good point that the information might not be readily discoverable. We'll work to make the status page more findable and to extend the API (http://status.twilio.com/documentation/rest) with features such as RSS to let customer subscribe up-to-the-minute status information.
Python and Matlab are two different beasts, and it's not really fair to compare both of them side-by-side. If you want to Get Stuff Done (tm), then I say go ahead and use Matlab. I've used it for computer vision projects in the past, and it was good enough for me. Sure, my algorithms took forever to complete, but Matlab is a scripting language not optimized for speed (though I think you can compile .m files).

But if you want to learn how to program properly, then I would stay away from Matlab. The language has some weird design choices that most programming languages do not follow (e.g. indicies start at 1 in Matlab instead of 0 everywhere else; syntax for setting up functions are odd; and other deeper issues). Go learn Python instead. Once you know Python, learning Matlab is super easy.

And it seems that Python is gaining more attention in the academic world. I know it is used heavily in computational bio, natural language processing, and other places.

http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/

http://vnoel.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/bye-matlab-hello-pytho...

http://www.sagemath.org/
Or. Just email me before you cut a feature next time.
Hi David,
I have a couple of ideas and looking for a technical co-founder. I have over 10 years of IT experience. Do you have time to team up with me and build a profitable venture?

Thanks
Vivek
I'd definitely be interested in attending that.
I'm sure someone would take offense to it being shaped like a pig, or even referred to as a pig, as the implications are still remotely offensive.

Heck, to use the technique of some parents: some starving kid in Africa would love to eat that tofu. We, therefore, should clearly be offended at its waste.
A Practical Plan for when you Feel Overwhelmed
Hi Jeff,
I had the same problem. It was not very clear from your pages or FAQs that international SMS was not supported. Now I see it's been made very clear in this page http://www.twilio.com/faq/international, that's great, the previous message was confusing to say the least. FWIW I complained about this on the getsatisfaction forums some two weeks ago http://getsatisfaction.com/twilio/topics/international_sms-1...

Fortunately I don't have a live app that depended on your service, so all it cost me was $50 deposited to start playing around.
While Facebook may not be a "creative" outlet, at least not in the common definition of "creative", it can still be useful. I co-founded of a non-profit, and we do most of our organization, event planning, and networking through Facebook. It's been incredibly useful to get the word out, not just about our organization in general, but also to spread word about specific events we hold and other organizations we support.

Have we done anything particularly creative using just Facebook? No, not really, but we have helped gather support for local artists and musicians, who do do creative things. As rimantas noted, Facebook is just a tool. It can be a waste of time [1], but that doesn't mean it's always a waste of time.

[1]: A pen and paper can be a waste of time as well. Just look at all the people doodling during lectures.
Exactly right. SOCK_STREAM sockets can't unblock the process until it knows that it won't need that buffer again for a retransmission.
Just curious, what are the alternatives to Twilio in case some one wants to send out SMS across countries?
From the Google Cache of Twilio's International FAQ:

> You may send SMS from a Twilio number to an international number and find that it works. However, this is an unsupported feature and service outside the US may change at any time.

Can't get much clearer then that.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome...
It look like rubular just shows you example matches out of text you've already typed in (the same situation you have when playing with any regex matching library directly), whereas regexio generates matches you might not expect out of the blue. Can you clarify what sense of similarity you mean to point out?
I invite the author to sample the basket of shit that is SMS delivering services out there before complaining about Twilio.

We have paid for an "SDK" with one provider, they came to our office and installed a hardware device which we also had to buy, and they still can't manage to deliver 10% of our messages. That was in Australia.

After that mess, I personally wrote Twilio a letter asking them if I can help them establish themselves in Aus and the Middle East; which they declined, saying they were getting around to it themselves, which is good.

Bottom line: I would chalk this up as a slight oversight by a bunch of very capable, if very busy people, bless their heart.

They are one decision away from being fucked over by Skype and Google, if those two ever decide to compete with them. So I am rooting for our kids, even if they have to make gut-wrenching decisions like this on the spot.

Remember, just a year and a half ago they were nothing but a RESTful URL that accepted a few XML messages. They have come a long way, imo.
That's pretty much to be expected... QWERTY is downright horrible for efficiency, regardless of (reasonable) use-case.
Find motivation. You're not going to get something handed to you on a golden plate.

Suck up whatever it is that you're confusing for pride and go to a local community college. Take some classes there. It'll be cheap. As in, work a shift at McD's once a weekend and you can pay for a class or two. And talk to their financial aid office. I'm absolutely positive they can help you out.
You could ask, you know! Yes, it is block-level data.
I originally posted 40 and then added the others in response to requests.
While the generation engine is written in python (source linked in another comment), the engine itself doesn't make use of existing regex libraries because they solve a different problem (deterministic matching vs nondeterministic generation).
Those two have better job markets, but OR has better funding possibilities. For OR, you can send your grant application to any mid-large corporation, promising to optimize one of their many messed up business processes and you get yourself a $50k on the spot.

Go to any decent campus and look around. OR people are usually older, with MBAs, and better healed financially. I worked for a few as a software developer (yeah, grad students who can afford to hire a software developer at market rates!)
And you forgot to add that Python is the "de facto" language used by google, along with C/C++ for their whole mind boggling distributed computing system. They even have hired Guido Van Rossum, the creator of Python.
I think timing is more of a factor in this than karma... There are some times of the day when new stories are less likely to be voted up.

The only time when karma does play a role is for stories submitted by people that are in the top ten and are well known... But that's a minority
Here you go:

https://sites.google.com/site/ortoolssite/home/getting-start...

I went through the sources and found them to be fairly standard. Only thing that caught my eye was the heavy emphasis on bit-packing for the sake of performance.

Anyone trying to understand the algorithms is better off with an algorithmic OR text, as the C++ metaprogramming is a little dense on this one.

You can't build it quite yet since some dependencies (like the "gflags" directory) are entirely missing. Follow the project, they promised to release more later. It's only been out for a few days.
The real question should be: what super powers would you get?
By training I am a radiation physicist and actually do know about particle beams hitting people. The LHC beam would certainly give someone an appreciable radiation dose, although the secondary synchrotron X-rays would probably be worse than the proton beam itself. In fact a much lower energy proton beam would have a worse effect on your hand/body, since that beam would actually stop inside you (protons deposit most of their dose at the very end of their range).

Of course the injury you received would largely be determined by the length of time your hand was in the beam. Really not fun results can be radiation ulcers or radiogenic cancer. If the dose were high enough you could get a radiation syndrome, where some/all of the fast growing cells in your body die off and you die in a few days or months.

The only data I could find after a quick search indicated that the dose present in the beam line would be on the order of 10^4 Gy per year. That means if you managed to put your hand in the beam for 1 minute, you're only looking at about 0.01 Gy, which isn't that much.
That was a great slide deck. Thanks for the link.
It doesn't seem like you really want to be a developer? No motivation to code, work, go to school, run a business, or even be in the tech industry.

Go to community college - you don't know what you want yet.

In terms of getting a job now - yes it is possible. Although not a programming job - I did go full time at a start up when I was 19. It just takes motivation to learn and improve.
Shoot me an email please, I wanna bounce some ideas off of you if possible :-)
Does anyone know what CPU/clock speed the kindle 3 has?
Can't seem to find it with google. Thanks!

I'm interested in the possibility of programming on the unit itself. The low-power consumption makes you less dependent on mains power.

EDIT according to http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95968, it's an iMX35 (ARM11-based) http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=I... (probably iMX353 or iMX357: max speed... 532 MHz)
In India, the SMS deliverability is very good. Thanks to fierce competition between "bulk-sms" companies. I personally use a simple, non-nonsense service http://smsplatter.com/ and have been lucky enough to get mission-critical alerts (from servers) delivered every single time.
Can anyone recommend a voltage level translator for the Beagleboard?

Edit: to interface between the 1.8V I/O of the OMAP and the 5V I/O commonly used by other devices.
Have you actually worked for google? Where do you get your information? Not everyone works 80 hours a week there, and plenty of smart people have walked through its halls, left to do their own thing, and sometimes even came back after their company was acquired. It's not a dead end, like you seem to suggest.

Also, are you familiar with the term, "the sum is greater than the parts?" Pooling resources and talent is often more effective than trying to do everything on your own.
Researchers Map The Sexual Network Of An Entire High School
Kudos to you for responding to comments like these with patience and class. The cynicism on here about doing anything other than starting your own business drives me up the wall, but comments like yours help me keep my head.
Probably not. He implies that nearly everything is beta, and thus their incompetent and unprofessional management team feel free to disable functionality with zero notice.

Only a moron would trust a company that's run as poorly as twill. Fortunately for twill, there ares a lot of inexperienced devs who see the easy API and are too inexperienced to realiE that only a complete moron would trust a company that thinks zero warning shutoffs are acceptable, even on beta features.

This is the predictable result of ycs campaign against business education, and drive to get less and less experience.
Lame geek response.

Contact your customers if you're making changes. It's simple.

You fucked up. Your response shows a complete and total lack of skill when it comes to managing client expectations , which makes sense since you are all inexperienced geeks.
Pretty much just a thin abstraction of c functions.
When a C Corp starts out it has no credit rating. You have to back it with your credit until the corporation can stand on it's own. Some of these debts will fall back to those who guaranteed them.

The corporation could file for bankruptcy and possibly the bankruptcy court could sort it all out, which sounds like the best thing for those involved.
Awesome work! Welcome to Google.
Even if it does, you would need 5 years to understand how to use it to the full, if that is ever allowed, and not limited by what the underlying OpenGL ES 2.00 would give you.
Conrrwtulations on creating a massive single point of failure in your application, and one that can fail due to many reasons.

Here is to hoping that their obviously inexperienced technical and management teams don't screw you up, that they don't run out of money, and that they don't otherwise change anything you need.
still removes attribution from how most users view tweets

I thought most users view tweets not through the twitter stream on the web but using clients. The clients may or may not show the posting app's attribution, so I don't see this as a major shift of the status quo.

Also the mobile web version doesn't have this attribution either: http://mobile.twitter.com/
Erica Vieira & Aaralyn Barra: Gangbang Darlings - Pornhub.com
Will give that a try, thanks.
Omega - Language of the Future
It DOES have many grammatical flaws and the writing style strongly reminds me of the unvetted typing of a classic older user who 'adopted' the net in his later years.

The profile that his letter draws to mind strongly suggests to me that it was either:

1) authentic and written by him and only him

2) Masterfully manipulative and two steps ahead of me
Common Signs and Symptoms of Hypothyroidism
Actually, that sounds like a very interesting idea. Is this already used in practice, and does it end up being a problem? If it's already being done, are the features that are unlocked worth the forced spam?
Ask HN: dealing with credit card fraud while selling physical products online?
Dear HN,

A contract of mine is close to launch, doing e-commerce, (partially) selling physical goods. Since I will also be supporting the codebase during the first couple of months, I'm seriously investigating the possibility of fraud, and dealing with it. We're using PayPal website payments pro.

Two humble questions for a safer Internet:

-What crash-curse would you recommend in proactively going against this problem? Articles, papers, or anything, really, that is not a commercial offering would be nice.

-In the case of fraud, how long does it take for PayPal to detect, and cancel a given fund from our account? That is, after what time shall we safely assume, that the money will be actually ours? (shipping will be immediate -but this will affect inventory management)

Specifically not asking for: paypal bashing, alternative credit card processors, adding obstacle courses to our customers.

Specifically looking for: stories with data, statistical breakdown for merchandise-driven industry's general fraud rate, and articles to read :)
Interesting, I had given it a try a few years ago but it was really too unplayable. I'll have a look, thank you.
Mark Pilgrim's http://diveintopython.org/ is a good continuation to this book if you're interested in learning Python. It's also free, and there's a more recent version for Python 3 at http://diveintopython3.org/