skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I agree. I have long said that they have a very difficult problem. The trouble is that too many people just say "oh they should do something about it" without having even close to enough knowledge to see what a hugely insurmountable problem it actually is to 'do something about it'.

When you consider the vast amount of words, pictures, and videos that are posted constantly, to check everything for 'bad' content would take a huge army of people working 24/7.

And then of course, people don't realise that checking everything means some stranger going through all their posts and making a decision as to whether to allow it or delete it.

And with these sites reaching so many jurisdictions, whose model of decency and legality do you use to decide what should be censored?

And finally we have the looming issue of 'Truth'. Who decides it? Truth can be a slippery thing in some cases. It is not always easy to ferret it out. Hell, if there was a law that journals could only publish established truth, every newspaper in every country would have to shut down immediately.
liquid hydrogen safety https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bFJK5kU_UQ

[it doesn't explode on contact with air]
They usually don't need to know what a static IP address is. A good rep will know that this is above their league and connect you right to somebody who knows what you mean. The availability of such a person depends on the quality of the customer service.
> How and what we eat is a the very core reason to why we are considerably more developed than the rest of our ape cibilings, and that is a very important fact to remember.

Thanks again. Why I agree, I also the the opposite. An sick and obese population. I see similarities with other animals that we feed (ie dogs). Humans and dogs are often in bad health at the end of our lives, while apes and wolves are doing well...

What do you think of this? BTW how did you get into this field, own interest (like me) or some formal studies?

(we're running out of replies, I may reply in some other way if you do not mind)
Oh, that's pretty cool. I want to try this when I get home.

I think it would help me sleep easier with my Windows installs, though I don't know if any of them are logged into Microsoft accounts anymore.
What does it mean in that instance to provide a service that makes taxes easy to file for you? Intuit's entire business model is making paying taxes easier. Except you have to pay for it.

How does that fit into their logic?

What happens if all the taxes are abolished and there is no need for that business? Will they start lobbying for more tax or lobbying against the final cut? Or lobbying for an income report system with the tax component stripped out, basically building what would have helped in the first place?
How much of that explanatory power is derived from explaining things that have happened in the past, vs how much from explaining things that have happened in the future?

You can fire a cannonball and observe a parabolic arc, you can learn to hit a target reliably from any distance, and you can develop a unified theory of gravity, air resistance, and the rotation of the earth that explains why firing at such-and-such angle with such-and-such amount of power will strike a target at a fixed location. That theory will allow you to hit targets reliably even in firing situations that you've never encountered in the past. But induction is your only justification for believing that gravity, air resistance, and the rotation of the earth will affect cannonballs and missiles the same way tomorrow as they did yesterday.
There are basically 3 types of recommender engines:

Content Based: If you can represent your products as a vector, you can have a distance between each product, then you have a item-item recommendation. You can use all kinds of embedding to achieve this results, some techniques that we tried are word2vec embedding of user navigation, auto encoding of features using neural networks, dimensionality reduction with PCA, ALS, etc. There are lots of libs for solving these problems as is a very studied field, usually numpy and for finding the neighbors we use ann from scikitlearn, because if you have millions of items, you cant just find the distance between all the pairs.

Collaborative - Filtering, here you use the pairs of behavior of the users, <user, item, ranking>. There is a surprise lib in python that works well, you have the MlLib from Spark too, this techniques are called matrix factorization techniques, and also gives you a embedding of the item or the user, and you can apply the techniques of content based to find user-user and item-item recommendations along the user-item recommendations

Hybrid Models: These are the models that use behavior and features of the user an items, LightFM is a good lib that works well, but you can model it with other tools like neural networks ( https://ai.google/research/pubs/pub45530 ).

The challenges are depending on the company, its not the same to recommended small amount of items to large number of users than large number of items to small number users.

There is a whole specialization in coursera that is really good https://www.coursera.org/specializations/recommender-systems
8-core Ryzen is a huge upgrade from an Intel U and doesn't cost nearly as much as 16- and 32-core machines
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding about how people drive. People don't look at a speed limit and then drive 15 over; they drive the speed they feel comfortable with, regardless of the speed limit. Studies have shown this:

Q. Wouldn’t everyone drive faster if the speed limit was raised?
A. No, the majority of drivers will not go faster than what they feel is comfortable and safe regardless of the speed limit. For example,
an 18-month study following an increase in the speed limit along the New York Thruway from 55 to 65 mph, determined that the average
speed of traffic, 68 mph, remained the same. Even a national study conducted by Federal Highway Administration also concluded
that raising or lowering the speed limit had practically no effect on actual travel speeds

https://www.motorists.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/speed-l...
Thank you, now it's a lot clearer. I will try it on multiple workstations next time I need to run a large job.
Another major difference between the pseudoestrogen problem and proper hormone replacement: consent.

The general public has not consented to poorly-understood, poorly-controlled hormone therapy.

Most of us are already nonviolent, so the proposed decrease in violence isn't even possible for us. The only net effect, therefore, is likely negative.

It's kind of like saying that a minority of men have a testosterone deficiency, so let's put it in the water supply. Doesn't it sound more insane when formulated that way?
Which proponents are you talking about? Usually one of the talking points on tax "reform" is that the tax code is too complicated and reform is needed to make compliance easier.
Snapchat explicitly does this with the BFF feature
Technically true == true.

If you are a contracts lawyer, then you are doing a serious injustice to the profession by saying contracts do not include verbal agreements.

(And I say this based on actual practice litigating contracts...)
> The IRS have all the data

Not..entirely true.

My 2016 taxes were professionally done, but we somehow forgot to include one of the something-something-1099 forms from a brokerage firm. The brokerage reported some RSU stock-sells to the IRS but didn't report the cost-basis, and so the IRS assumed the cost-basis was $0 and thus taxed the full sale as income (effectively double-taxing all the RSUs). They just sent a tax bill for something like $20k plus a bunch of fees and interest.

It's an accounting-error so we won't owe much, but I doubt we would have seen this mistake if the IRS had just told us a total amount to pay. We have two tech-job incomes both of which are highly-dependent on equity, so we'd almost certainly end up getting a CPA to run all the numbers again anyway.

I'm a fan of reducing bureaucracy of double-reporting tax info, but I'm personally unwilling to trust that the IRS and various banks / brokerage systems are up to the task of generating trustworthy data (and/or erring on the side of the taxpayer in situations like this).
Event management – how to find the perfect venue for an event?
You're giving me an idea.
One niche application is music composition. When you're writing a score for full orchestra, you need lots of RAM and lots of cores for accurate playback.
For some, yes.
However, in some cases, no. For example, I have a sole proprietor with a lot of 'business expenses' (web hosting, software licenses, etc.) Those get deducted.

It would be nice to get this streamlined! taxes are such a chore.

Too bad there's a multi billion dollar industry - tax preparation and accounting - supported by taxes. It will never happen.
Driving is unsafe. I could drive right into a tree!

Yeah, well, don't drive into trees then.

Well-designed, verifiable, auditable paper ballot systems already exist in the US. In many states, the paper-based ballot process is completely safe and reliable. For those states that struggle, the correct solution is to look to the states that don't struggle, and imitate them.
This constant abuse of language to play duplicitous games with users is unethical and betrays crass opportunism. This is not a business, it is 'growth hacking' to a tyranny.

Posturing about evil while doing exactly that is vulgar. Google's language and design has been persistently deceptive. If you think users are 'idiots' as many software folks so derogatorily claim why go through such lengths to deceive them?

Another self serving myth to perpetuate denial and make the surveillance industry feel ok about being sellouts. Android is designed to leak data like a sieve. The very notion of privacy or security with the OS vendor and ecosystem obsessed with surveillance and collecting user data is fantastic.

Google would not be where there are had they been transparent in their communication. Users would be far more circumspect and as they learn the extent of surveillance utter disgust will quickly follow. This is just another type of corruption and fraud.
Not the basis at all, just one example. Here's another good one that OP added at the end in an edit:

> It’s no secret that the IRS and big spenders in Washington, D.C. want to socialize all tax preparation in America. The (ironically-named) IRS Office of Taxpayer Advocate has been pushing for IRS preparation of tax returns for years. There’s only one reason proponents want to do this—tax revenues. If the IRS invites a conflict of interest by adding “tax preparer” to its role as “tax collector,” it’s a near-certainty that everyone’s taxes will rise. In fact, higher tax revenues are a major selling point of mandatory IRS-prepared tax returns.

...

> More importantly, it directs the IRS that it “shall not compete with the private sector in providing these services to taxpayers, nor acquire, develop, or deploy enabling systems to duplicate or replace private tax preparation services.”

> Never again would taxpayers have to worry about the IRS filling out a Form 1040 for them against their will.

These are unserious people that shouldn't be anywhere near the halls of power.

https://www.atr.org/taxpayer-advocates-issue-joint-free-file...
Voter suppression keeps Georgia a red state
Jordan Peterson on Product Sales, Entrepreneurship and Success [video]
>People of the US won't trust a damn thing the government does, probably for pretty good reason, and the whole country suffers for it.

Lobbying by companies like Turbotax (Intuit) and others is largely behind this. I think many Americans would be ok with just paying a bill the government sends them which is based on information that they know the government already has.
I also closed my startup and was super depressed while my wife was pregnant and for about 6 months after.

The baby actually helped, because I was so tired from getting up in the night, my brain didn't have as much energy to be depressed or worry about my problems.

I just kept chugging along sending out applications, and it took way longer than I expected but a good job came through.
There are other locales other than the US. Anyway, I guess you can eventually vote in such congress that they see their only mission in providing platform for direct democracy & safeguarding its availability.

Other than that, what I have seen in representative democracies (and authoritarian states) worldwide have never sparked the "expertise" feeling in me.
Getting a bit topic here, but just to add to that (because checking in node_modules drives me nuts): The output of, eg npm install, in node_modules can be different across machines in the case that a module has a build step that creates a binary dependent on the architecture of the host machine.

Checking node_modules into VCS is a code smell and footgun. Don’t do it. Check the lock file into source control and make sure you have a reliable cache in between build and registry (eg the yarn public registry, which caches everything, or a private registry and/or proxy).
Generally in my experience people drive around 70-75 mph regardless of the speed limit. At 50mph some people may lean lower, but it's generally usual to see people on 75mph highways going 75mph. There were some in Michigan.
10% property tax would spawn a rebellion. Mine is a bit over 2% and people complain about that.
You can get a middle click on a MBP trackpad with third party software.
Wouldn't this depend on your particular configuration of muscle, bone, and fat?

Personal preference, activity level, desk type, and (dis)ability status would all be important factors, as well.
Needs a [2015] tag!
Ask HN: As a CS professor, what books should be in my office?
I recently moved into my new office as a professor and would like recommendations for what books I should keep on my shelves (they're completely bare at the moment). My research is in the human aspects of software engineering, but I am particularly interested in books outside of my specific research areas since I probably already have them.

So, what books should every [computer science] professor have in their office?
Also in Michigan, they just raised the speed limit on some Michigan expressways to 75 from 70 because they found that was the speed most people went.
Overt acts of evasion aren’t simply not sending in your paperwork.

It would be actively doing things to hide, falsify documents, etc.

This seems to be mostly for businesses and folks doing a lot of cash transactions.

Sounds like OP isn’t making much money to begin with — is it really worth the IRS time or to prosecute him?

I imagine they’d tell him to pay and fine him.

Doubtful it’s a felony based on his description.
Thanks for responding, dv_dt

You're right to point out the commute. Thing is, traffic goes up exponentially closer to work. A 10 mile commute still takes an hour each way.

Likewise, the cost of living goes up dramatically. If I moved closer and lost the job, I'd still be facing a salary decrease if I went back to being a regular engineer.

Also, full disclosure, part of the salary is due to the fact that the company's fundamentals aren't exactly "rock-solid". There are some questions to whether it'd even exist in 1-2 years.
Rachmaninoff Plays Symphonic Dances – Newly Discovered 1940 Recording
You'll see continued shift towards natural gas.

You have to keep in mind that capital costs are a huge part of electric generation. The capital costs associated with most traditional generators are too high - this is why utilities pushed for regulatory

PV/wind are cheap and have low opex and will start to eat at the baseload generators. Gas plants can spin up quickly, but the marginal cost will be high if they are idle too much. That market condition will make storage cost sustainable.
Just my observation, in my state the highway speed limit is 80 and people drive at right around 80, and drop down to 75 at night. Then, on a Texas road where it was 85, I was surprised to see most people still going about 80. And in a neighboring state where the speed limit is 70 for similar roads, people still drive right around 80. And once I drove through Chicago at night through a stretch where the speed limit was 45, and people were still going 75 - 80... not sure what the deal with 80 is, but it seems to be the sweet spot a lot of the time.
It's 30% of what remains after the "cotisations sociales" (or "charges sociales" as people who hate them like to call them). These social contributions amount to close to 50% of what the employer pays. So it's 30% of what remains, which is already only barely half of what the employer paid... These social contributions cover health insurance, retirement contributions, a pretty generous unemployment insurance, etc. So even though they are expensive for people working in France, the social safety net they provide is pretty good.

The 30% income tax you refer to would not be enough to cover that. I think the income tax in France doesn't even cover the interests of the national debt, that how little it is in the grand scheme of things. Hence why we have a hell of a lot of other taxes (VAT at 20%, CSG, etc.) to keep going...
This is certainly true. In particular, Americans for Tax Reform (the group founded by Grover Norquist) lobbies against any attempt at making paying taxes easier for this reason. Their argument is that people should be constantly aware of how much they are paying in taxes, and making it too easy would hinder this.

These groups, combined with tax preparation companies, prevent any meaningful attempt to make paying taxes easier.
This is a fantastic post! Thank you so much for sharing it.

Perhaps another post (which maybe you should write! Or I may (though I'm certainly nowhere as good), or why not both!) might the unifying principle of finding solutions to fixed-point equations. In general, having a Bellman-style update equation, you can usually construct either (a) DP solutions to this problem or (b) contraction mappings whose fixed point solves this problem.

Perhaps the most general form I know of the above principles is the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation [0], which is used absolutely everywhere in control theory and has deep connections to several fields (including the theory of PDEs, such as heat equations on manifolds along with several other cases). Many, many problems (including all of the ones mentioned above) reduce immediately to an appropriate instance of the HJB equation (either in the finite or the infinite case), which admits a simple DP solution that can be very quickly computed.

Anyways, again, awesome post. I'll be following your blog quite closely :)

---

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman_equati...
> ...I think US taxes are now similar or higher. Ie 28% federal + 10% state + 10% property taxes equals nearly 50%.

You can't just add the percentages up like that since federal and state taxes are marginal rates. You'd have to add the effective tax rates.

> Lower taxes? In France the bracket for a family for €104,120 to €279,132 is only 30%.

This range is $118,000 to $318,000 USD. At the federal level for a family $165,000-$315,000 is at the 24% marginal rate of taxable income (not gross).

In the convoluted system we have, you'd knock off $24,000 as a standard deduction, then any amounts contributed to retirement accounts (401k's and IRA's), HSA contributions if applicable. If you add all those vehicles up, that's up to another $54,000 taken off of your gross income. No idea how taxes in France works, aiming to point out there are tax advantaged spaces which would significantly reduce the tax burgeon.

Quick looking at things, NY state income tax would be about $20,500 on $323,000 in earnings (no deductions, credits, averages to about 6.3%).

I'm curious where you got your 10% property tax guesstimate though? I'm not familiar with New York to try to estimate through things, but [5] makes it seem not nearly that bad. Is it a highly localized thing?

"Property taxes in New York vary greatly between New York City and the rest of the state. In New York City, property tax rates are actually quite low. The average effective property tax rate in the Big Apple is just 0.80%. The statewide average rate is 1.65%."

--

Interestingly, Iowa, which people on the coasts would probably lump together with Oklahoma as low cost of living flyover states, has very high state taxes. 8.98% on earnings above $70,785. [4] New York's highest bracket hits at $2,100,000 and is 8.82%. [2]

[1] Federal Income Tax: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/federal-income-tax-bra...
[2] NY Income Tax: https://www.tax-brackets.org/newyorktaxtable
[3] NY Property Tax: https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-property-tax-calculato...
[4] Iowa Income Tax: https://www.tax-brackets.org/iowataxtable
[5] New York Property Tax: https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-property-tax-calculato...
What's driving Elon Musk?
Interactive Innovation Exercises
I live in a state that has 55 mph limit, and I've spent lots of time in states that have a 70mph limit. everyone drives the same speed regardless, around 75-80 on a straight and wide highway in the left lane, around 65 in the right lane. the sign means nothing.
>First, that requires a new Constitution, throwing out our existing representative democracy and starting over with a new model.

There are all sorts of changes that wouldn't require a new constitution, just likely an amendment. They're unlikely to happen though, as our current representative democracy would need to voluntarily give up some of their power.

>Second, not everyone agrees direct democracy is a good idea. Adding a layer of focused expertise in the form of representation is arguably a very good thing

There is a massive amount of room between a pure direct democracy and our current system. Our two party system removes any semblance of Democratic choice on issues the parties agree on.
Surprisingly enough, that tends to not be the case - http://www.sehinc.com/news/truth-about-speed-limits-explaine...

My personal anecdotal evidence on this, having recently driven cross country on I-80 (mostly 80MPH speed limits) and through Montana on I-90 (Again, mostly 80 MPH) shows that people drive at a speed that is safe for them. My car, and those that also seemed to drive a few MPH over the limit were all newer, highly capable vehicles, and the largest added risk was the chance of running into excessively slow moving traffic. When the visibility dropped, I slowed down, and when the visibility was clear, there was no additional risk in pushing it up a few MPH.
While I suppose it depends on the proposal in question, the ones I've seen generally follow a "make the simple cases easier" rule: get the forms pre-filled with what's possible to prefill, verify what's filled in is correct, and if necessary, complete what's missing. If you need to file for deductions that such a system misses, it doesn't have to be any harder than it is now.