skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I don't think they have enough employees.

When I send them DMCA takedown notices, they only remove the content if I remind them 3 or 4 times. After weeks of reminding them, the content has been seen by thousands. That kind of defeats the purpose of them even offering to take down the content.
In the article it mentioned "portions" of the internet. So I have to assume every one polled figured it would not be the part of the internet they are on but the part they(the bad guys)are on. If there was such a thing.

Like someone else mentioned. The consequences for such a thing are so much larger than what they are trying to stop.
What's the tech/startup community like in B.A. these days? Are there good developers around?
I doubt I'd ever earn enough to be worth cutting a check to, but if we could pick from a (short) list of charities, there might be enough to be worthwhile.
I'm not sure how they can get away with that. Some of these companies are desperately trying to "be like Apple". They to be a little bit unique and refined. But the truth remains, all of these laptops display certain aspects that Apple would never even consider.
In my company:

1) Works with business analysts to design and code applications according to business requirements. Intermediary between engineering and business.

2) Engineering responsible for architecture and heavy lifting. ie; build a framework for the developers to use.

3) Same as 1 with more responsibility.

4) Same as 1 except more experience/skill set is specifically web related.
>>The payoff will come a decade from now - or two, and it will consist of knowing

For me, the payoff was immediate.
It is hard to match the experience of holding your newborn baby or young infant in your hands and just looking at the baby or talking to him or her.

I also agree with the (message in the) quote above that good parenting will have its own rewards in the future.
Wow.

When I put up my thread ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1826828 ) I had no clue that it would spark off something like this. This community truly is amazing.
TDD for product dev: Where we're going we don't need... roads
I think that '#' is a remnant of IRC channels, which used that 'tag' as well and are also focused on a specific subject.

(Just a personal theory, though, no evidence.)
I can personally vouch for the stability of ZFS and FreeBSD 8.x. I've been running it in production for years (FreeBSD 7.x before I upgraded about 4 months ago). The only thing I don't like about running FreeBSD is that the Java support is a bit lacking. I really hope the OpenJDK effort will be the new standard JDK we will all use.
Giving private feedback seems like a wasted opportunity to share your knowledge widely. Would you consider publishing somewhere both the CVs and your assessments, after removing personal data and companies names? Thanks.
That's what I originally envisioned with DuctMail. It's a simple reminder system at the moment, but the basic idea was:

command@ductmail.com
Subject: Plain English Arguments
Body: whatever else we might need.

For example:

Email: reminder@ductmail.com
Subject: Today at 5PM
Body: Buy milk!
Also, don't forget to buy some KY, and a lawn chair.

The problem with other systems is they usually try to put the arguments into the email.

I'm working on a todo system as well.

Email: todo@ductmail.com
Subject: Name of Todo List
Body: One Todo
For Every line
Of the email

Sends you a reminder every so often, and you can reply back with what you've accomplished by putting a - in front of the item.

Their are other ideas being worked on. One I'm trying to find time to finish up is a daily habit system.

It would email you in the morning reminding you what you want to do every day, and then at the end of the day, it will email you, asking you for an update on how you did, and you could reply back, etc.
Glad you are open to the idea. Even if you already have a startup, here's a few reasons to do it anyway:

1. SW attracts a lot of different types of people - BizDev/UIX-Designers/Coders/Legal/etc... You may help someone w/o the technical chops bring some traction to their vision/dream/idea.

2. You WILL meet people that might be useful to you down the road. So great, you have the technical chops, but lack bizdev - well, you are in luck b/c you have met people who have that skill that might be able to help your dream come true.

3. It's fun! It's intense, but very fun. Especially if you are a competitive individual.

4. It's not a bad recruiting ground for tech talent. These people go to these events because they have passion. What more could you ask for?

When I went to it, I wasn't sure what to expect. A bunch of unemployed novice programmers? A pure networking event? I never, in my wildest expectations, expected to meet such quality people at the top of their respective games.

I've never been to events like this (hackathons/etc...) so maybe this is a common thread. For me, it was a great experience that I would repeat again - regardless of my current status.

Hope this helps someone.
Oh, great, can you help us then?
Source code theft... right. Tech journalists need to stop referring to source code as the "secret ingredient" or what have you. What could possibly be in the code? A faster algorithm than hundreds of PhDs have discovered? Or a novel approach to something (which of course would be covered by patents)? Maybe Oracle has discovered a new system call in windows that speeds up their file seek time, but for some reason isn't documented by Microsoft.

The whole notion of stealing code being worth anything is laughable. What do you do if you have stolen code and you need to extend it? Or if you need to fix bugs in it? If your engineers are any good, it'll take more time for them to figure out how the stolen stuff works than to build a comparable version.
"I believe applying to elite schools is a total crapshoot unless you satisfy an instutional need of the university"

As an ex-Ivy leaguer, that is the most truthful statement in your offer. ATTN APPLICANTS: remember this and don't get discouraged.
And Apple devices use "Live HTTP Streaming" as their alternative for real-time video.
For further exploration of the parallels between the drug game and the rest of the game: check out the wonderful section of Freakonomics that's devoted to breaking down how successful crack dealing gangs conduct business.
Canada Gets Real About Seed Investing With New $45 Million Fund
Ask HN: Coding Mistakes = Bad Coder?
Hi,

I want to know whether other HNers have experienced something I experience on quite a regular basis - as I am coding I will very often overlook something obvious and make a very silly mistake. These are almost always resolved immediately, usually with a thought similar to 'how could I be so stupid?!'. What makes this worse is that it happens with stuff I knew really well as well as stuff I'm not so familiar with.

What I worry about is that this might indicate a lack of skill, or perhaps even more fundamental than that, a lack of talent.

I feel I have talent in programming because it seems to come easily to me, I have flashes of insight on occasion, and my brain seems to work well in the 'gear' of programming, but this possibility is just totally eating away at me, especially since I want to one day work somewhere I'd be happy, or found a startup myself - if these 'top tier' roles require me to be talented, what if I'm not?

I wonder whether it might be indicative of tiredness, or just not being in the right 'head space' for coding at the time, but I seem to experience it even when I'm 'on the ball'.

Another possible explanation is that I am so focused on a particular part of a problem that my brain remains in auto-pilot at effectively the wrong level when I go to perform some other task.

Okay, so perhaps this is a little vague, so to summarise - do you guys ever experience making silly mistakes when coding then quickly recovering? If not, why do you think I do, and do you think it is an indictment on my ability as a coder?

Thanks!
This is a classic technique: Oracle is trying to distract from HP's lawsuit against Oracle by discussing a different issue to divert attention.

Man, Oracle likes to play rough.
Skype Manager should model Work 2.0, not Work 1.0
Skype Manager doesn't reflect how we actually work, see ourselves or live our lives. Three things Skype can do to make it better.
Yes, I am excited too.
Re: "Hospitals, nonprofit groups, anyone running a website has to drop everything to lock it all down now."
That simply isn't true. Unless a site uses cookies AND firesheep can understand those cookies, the site doesn't have a worse problem today than it did last month. It would be very nice if every site, of every group, implemented SSL for anything remotely personal. But from what I've read I doubt firesheep poses an additional threat to any such not mega-popular site.
Attract
One way to look at this failure to innovate is to see plain old leadership ignorance: Microsoft, despite all of their efforts and hired brainpower, just hasn't been able to connect these dots. The GP sees this failure as something else: continued unwillingness, by the corporate leadership, to seriously support these innovation efforts. I agree.

If you disagree and think that Microsoft's leadership is willing to change and has just not been able to, then their leadership must be phenomenally incompetent. Just ask yourself, what's their cohesive product strategy? Where's their commitment to excellence? How many of these research projects are designed to build on the strengths of Microsoft's offerings or fix their weaknesses? Why aren't these research projects winnowed down into economically viable and marketable products and services? What's the corporate vision?

A simpler explanation is that the leadership of Microsoft is afraid of anything that competes with their two cash cows: Windows and Office. If this explanation is correct, then any product or service that Microsoft makes (or participates in) will be sufficiently hobbled in order to keep Windows and Office at the forefront of their offerings. It's their "strategy tax." Mobile devices and web services both compete with Windows and Office, in some way, so the company has done relatively little to advance in these two areas.

It doesn't matter which way you look at it, though: spending billions and having little success to show for it isn't a merit badge, it's a mark of failure.
Or to put it in the simplest terms, don't shit where you eat.
Is the "no-money down" method of investing even possible these days?
Don't know if you saw this article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1816141

The writer claims you can potentially backdoor the admissions process by simply starting to take classes at the school you want to attend. Would be curious to know if you think this has any merit.
I work both sides of the coin. I have a degree in fine Arts, but have been a software guy for many years.

I put in an initial design when I make a HTML mock-up. I tweak it until I think it is good, then start to code the actual functions.

As I work with it, within a few days, the constant usage and testing show me what is wrong with my design. I then often iterate, updating the design whenever it starts to annoy me. At the start of the project, this is often once a week. After a few revisions, I slow down, and by the time I've been working with an app 6 months, it is fairly stable.

In terms of how you actually make your design, the KISS principle remains valid. It is much easier to add small UI elements to make a page more interesting than to scale back from an over-engineered design.
Twitter logged me as someone else Privacy Fail
I recall speaking years ago with the head of admissions at Caltech, who had previously had a similar job at MIT. On his desk was a newspaper clipping about legacy admissions, so I asked him for his opinion. He was a very polite man, but you could see the fire in his eyes: he was not happy with it, and rather emphatic in declaring that neither Caltech nor MIT would do such a thing. (This is definitely consistent with my experience at Caltech. I know of one Caltech student who was the grandson of a big-time donor, but he was also one of the best in his class, and clearly had what it takes to get in anyway.)

I find it very interesting how you describe applying to Ivy League schools as a "total crapshoot." I wonder what your opinion is about high-end science/engineering schools (not just Caltech and MIT, but also CMU, Cornell, Harvey Mudd, etc.) Is their admissions process just as flawed? Or are they more predictable?
Sent you an email..thank you very much.
Awesome. Looking forward to this.
In that case then my point about the difference between searching your property and searching your mind is totally refuted.
I agree on the photo bit. I still haven't bothered to really figure it out. Now mobile photo uploads on the other hand, those are awesome.

* Take picture
* Hit 'send to facebook' (maybe add a caption)
* Done
They are strict indeed :

"We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone," (Steve Jobs, quoted on the Wikipedia page about the AppStore)

Even though you bought the thing (and it's not exactly cheap), you cannot put it to all the legal uses you'd like to.
There is someone else deciding for you that some things do not make for "a good user experience", and, as seen in the quote above, they enforce their own moral standards about it.

I find that evil.
Of course, that's just my opinion, but who knows which other things they may feel they have a "moral responsibility" to keep off their platforms ?
Interesting story there. We'd get emails saying: Why can't we see a working demo of PadPressed? We did, but it just wasn't clear enough. So, I rewrote the site copy over the weekend to highlight that like whoa.
Mobile Users Prefer Browsers over Apps
70 LEDs crammed into a pumpkin. Overkill in tutorial form.
I am way past this point (just finished grad school), but am just wondering what are some of the typical red flags in a college application?
Not necessarily. For example, let's say I have a safe, and I've hidden the key. The police get a warrant to search my safe. I am then legally obligated to allow them to search my safe, which means that I am legally obligated to reveal the location of the key.

In the case of the safe, if I refuse they'll just break it open. Strong encryption is not so easily broken so it may not be in my best interest to cooperate (whereas with the safe, it probably is).

Personally I think encryption passwords should be protected by the 5th amendment, but I understand the logic in saying it's not.
I was about to suggest the same thing, except it basically turns you into a computer. If the app (/api) is small enough, this could work really well. But even for something as "small" as Basecamp, the "protocol" could get decently complicated fast. Somehow this equates to the Terminal vs. GUI apps debate to me.
I agree - evidence is awesome.

Here's a pretty good assessment of it:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/774928.html

One thing I don't think is in dispute: "Cry it out" works quickly and involves less exhaustion for parents and children.
Alternatively, remember this and go about satisfying some need. This really shouldn't take more than two years assuming you have a decent level of diligence. Two years is really enough time to become pretty much the best at any sport, instrument, or other activity you can think of, at least at the high school level.
On the plus side, Facebook actually loads.
I was a little taken back when I saw firesheep running on my university's (unencrypted) wireless network. The number of cookies/sessions being sent back and forth, and the ease with which they could be stolen, was staggering.

SSL has been around for awhile, the CPU time required is negligible compared to the other tasks most web-apps are doing now, and for any real business, the cost of a simple cert should be trivial. Plus, with SSL-offloading common on platforms like netscalers or aws EC2, many sites could probably support SSL without their web servers noticing.

I needed a quick (< 5 hour) project to try out rails3 and learn what changed, so this seemed like a good way to cut my teeth.
I apologize it's ugly -- design isn't my strength.
Offer HN: Advice from PhD on NLP, machine learning, and data monetization
Do you have questions about machine learning, natural language processing, or data monetization in general?

In particular, I'll field questions on:

* recommender systems

* profit optimization in ecommerce sites

* autotagging

* creative ways that NLP + ML can add value to your product and give you a competitive advantage

* whatever else you like.

If you have a specific technical question about ML or NLP, please post it on the MetaOptimize Q+A site (http://metaoptimize.com/qa/) and post a link here as a comment. I'll give you the detailed answer over there, since the Q+A there is designed to be archival and is more searchable. Other sorts of questions (like "How do I turn this data into money?") can go in this thread directly. If it seems like a longer discussion, email me at joseph at metaoptimize dot com and we can talk about setting up a Skype chat.

p.s. I'm also hiring people for remote project work, if you are kick-ass at ML or NLP, or you simply can ship correct code really fast. Email me at joseph at metaoptimize dot com.

Who am I?

My name is Joseph Turian, and I head MetaOp­ti­mize LLC. I con­sult on NLP, ML, and data monetization. I also run the MetaOp­ti­mize Q&A site (http://metaoptimize.com/qa/), where ML and NLP experts share their knowledge. I recently demo'ed autotagging of hacker news to make it automagically browsable (http://metaoptimize.com/projects/autotag/hackernews/).

* I am a data expert, hold­ing a Ph.D. in nat­ural lan­guage pro­cess­ing and machine learn­ing. I have a decade of expe­ri­ence in these top­ics. I spe­cialize in large data sets.

* I’m business-minded, so I focus on busi­ness goals and the most direct path of exe­cu­tion to achieve these goals.

* I am also a tech­nol­ogy gen­er­al­ist who has been hack­ing since age 10 and has pro­grammed com­pet­i­tively at a world-class level.
"It can hide negative things, but it merely provides automation for knowing something you refuse to tell."

Encryption doesn't hide negative things, people hide negative things. Almost like guns don't kill people, people do.
I'm not so sure that's true. I'm pretty sure that not allowing the police to search your house (given that they have a search warrant) is at the very least considered obstruction of justice (in the US).

The difference is in the consequences of refusal. For a home search, it's usually in your best interest to open the door because it's really easy for the police to break it down. For an encrypted hard drive, it's nearly impossible to retrieve the data if you refuse to decrypt it.
... and it shows. Facebook's API and platform are terrible.
http://shawnpresser.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-become-game-...
email is a very generic communication, and in my opinion, it is possible to build tools on top of email that can give every collaboration/crm/project-management tool in the market a serious run for their money.

Every email front-end now supports extensions/plugins (for gmail, its gadgets+contextual api or DOM scraping), and of course there's imap to interact with the data, labels, headers and attachments. These two together yield a lot of potential to build a lot of tools that can be very useful.

We have built GrexIt (http://grexit.com) which allows Google Apps mail users to store email discussion from their inboxes to a shared area, where others who were not a part of the discussion can see them. This helps our users very easily create a knowledge base out of their work email. Some of our users are also now using GrexIt as a collaboration tool.
do you guys ever experience making silly mistakes when coding then quickly recovering?

Yes.

A good coder isn't one who doesn't make any mistakes -- everybody makes mistakes. A good coder is one who writes code in such a way that mistakes will be detected before the code ships (via compiler warnings/errors, static analysis, assertions, tests, et cetera).
It's incredibly easy for you because you know how facebook works.

The first time I used facebook, I was like whaa? What's a WALL? What's the difference between a post and a note? How is sharing a link specifically different from embedding it in your status?

Lots of complexity there, but we learn it after a while.
Small grammatical nit: setup should be set up.
Roundup of apps that will make you wish you had a nightstand
Desktop alarm clocks don’t have many features, take up a lot of space, can take some time to set, and are especially annoying in the morning. For these reasons it is a great idea to invest in a nightstand app for your iPhone, iPad, or iPhone Touch, so here a couple have been reviewed for you.
In the About section for you on the link, it's got 'PodPressed' and is linking to podpressed.com.
A Clumsy Foray into the World of TextSlide
Defending Sparta from the Persians.
How much is storage? zfs has some utility for small filesystems (less than 1TB) for backups and reliability, but it's real strength is in storage consolidation.

The problem with cloud storage so far is that it can easily cost 10X the price of local storage.

IOW, I can build a ZFS cluster on Nexenta for say $25K (without support, but if you're considering this you should really consider the support unless you're a hard-core OpenSolaris guru) for 44TB of redundant, replicated storage.

That's a one-time cost of ~$0.60 per GB, and it can be amortized over a 3 year lease.

Just try and find pricing for Rackspace's uNAS service. ;-) We were quoted $2 per GB. Over three times the price. Wait, nevermind, that's MONTHLY and doesn't include transfer. So that's... $3.2M!

$3.2M vs $25K.

But make it fair and add the support. Also, go with a packaged Nexenta solution from Areasys. Hire a full-time SAN administrator. You're still looking at less than $500K to lease it vs $3.2M to host it.

Course, cloud storage is evolving very quickly, so this can and will change. Will it be cheaper? Possibly. Especially for smaller organizations without the time, skill or budget to purchase and manage their own in the short-term. Are we there yet?
Fresh Web UI, Mobile UI and Wireframe Kits
Yes, you are right but we had to draw a line somewhere (last time lots of people got confused). Let me bring up some ogg stats for you to add to the discussion: it is less than 1% in total.

Most people who use Firefox are doing so on a laptop/desktop with the Flash plug-in installed - in that case, video sites just use Flash.