skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
IMO, the best solution to resolving the tuition pricing/lending issue is to strip away bankruptcy protection from the lender's side of the student loan equation.

I worked for a bankruptcy trustee for a couple of years, and it was an enlightening experience. Generally speaking, the greater the security, the higher the dollar amount you will be loaned. An example: A bank will loan you hundreds of thousands of dollars for a home, but only $10k in credit cards. Why? Because they mortgage security is the house. The bank has something to take. With credit cards, the debtor simply has to file for bankruptcy in order escape the debt. This introduces a level of accountability on the behalf of the lender.

Rewind to student loans. There is no accountability to the lender. You cannot escape student loan debt. Period. As a student lender, rather than evaluating the risk of default, I am left to focus on the debtor's ability to service the debt. I may even loan them more money than I think they can realistically pay back. Why? Because I'm able to borrow money at such low rates that I can generate a tremendous cash churn at a rate that is many times my borrowing rate. Even if I have to write off a portion of the loan value at the end of the term (the debtor dies or flat defaults and goes to jail), I'm still ahead of the game because I've been compounding my earnings for years.

It's a sick system with no escape for student debtors. The system was created to incentivize higher education, but the unintended consequence is that an entire market has sprung forth from a custom tailored opportunity for predator lending. Big surprise.
I've developed a web-based alternative to OpenTable: http://www.sexbyfood.com
Perhaps he meant it's open enough for a phone manufacturer? Not that I completely agree with that definition of "Open".
If you change your mind and consider doing Python or Ruby as well as HTML, count me in as a customer.
And why is that? What facts directly support that opinion?

I think that if that was the case, there wouldn't be an immediate discussion following Jobs' comment on the same thing. If anything, I think the fact that these remarks have made it all the way to this discussion proves that it isn't such a clear-cut answer.

In fact in many areas I'd disagree with the statement that integrated is better. While in some cases simplicity is great, what the hell is the difference between a store with 170,000 applications versus 90,000? If you're saying that the average consumer can tell the difference, I'd call BS. If you're talking about an above-average user, then the issue is moot because they will know how to get the applications they need without hassle anyway.

Not only that, but fragmentation in itself has many levels. Yeah, everyone that codes iPhone applications has to use (somewhat) similar tools and API. However, what's the main draw for an app-maker? If anything, I think what platform a developer writes for has a lot more to do with his previous experience than the current dominant or integrated platform.

Don't distance the developer from this. Consumers and developers, especially in these kinds of micro-transactions, are intimately tied. Things that affect developers DIRECTLY affect consumers, and I don't think it's so easy to draw the line.
You mean like Xerox, or the old AT&T (pre-SBC takeover)?

Xerox has PARC, and AT&T had Bell Labs. Xerox is still in business, still making copiers, but where's AT&T? Bought by SBC, that's where.
While those three things are certainly true and Gabriel's post does a great job of showing them, don't forget: anyone can do it.
I'm sure his proposal didn't preclude keyboard shortcuts.
"Using Software to Enhance Healthcare"
This article is about a software - and it does enhance healthcare, albeit for profit.

you mean nothing good ever came from a for-profit non-open source company?
I think the best scalable thing that you could do would be to generate a lot more useful automated warnings via all registered channels. And then have a process you outline somewhere on timelines and how to correct. I think the biggest hassle from the user perspective is it all feels like a black hole and black box.

I understand the argument behind keeping it a black box, but it doesn't need to be as much of a blackhole. For example, in this case the following could have happened:

1) Site triggers some alarm for violating something.

2) Just those site(s) get strongly penalized.

3) Automatic emails go out in the message centers of Google Webmaster tools, analytics, adsense, and Gmail -- wherever the sites show up registered. In my case, it would have been all of the above.

4) The messages indicate the nature of the violation, that there is a penalty in effect.

5) There is a link to click on if you think you've corrected the errors.

6) If you click it, it auto-checks your site in y days and sends you another message that it passed or not.

7) If not corrected, it stays penalized or there are a series of penalties until full blacklisting.

That's all automated, i.e. scalable. I understand there are some tricky bits about how much to reveal about why things were penalized and what not, but I think those could be worked around usefully.
Upsizing Your IPO - What You Need to Know About 430A - Part 1 of 2
It varies for different cases depending on a lot of factors like severity, impact on users, etc. In the particular case from above, to find out the history of what might have happened, I just picked a domain at random and dug into its history to find the autogenerated pages with tons of typos for each domain.

I kinda thought one example would make the point. Does it help that much more to give another example? I can look more up. For http://www.bigbadblogdirectory.com/ it looks like you were autogenerating typos not just for websites, but for popular blogs. So http://www.bigbadblogdirectory.com/jeffmatthewsisnotmakingth... looks like it had

(I had to cut out the vast majority of the typos because the comment was too long for HN.)

jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspoot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.bloyspot.com, jegfmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnomakingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthwesisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.nlogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.ccom, jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.bligspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotakingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmakinghtisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmacingthisup.blogspot.com, jdffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnot akingthisup.blogspot.com, ieffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup/blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmajingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthishp.blogspot.com, jeff atthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com, jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot/com, jeffmatthewwisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com."

I could post more examples from the other domains, but my point is that this is the sort of thing that users dislike and complain about. If you were a blogger and saw pages like this ranking for your name or your site's name, you probably wouldn't be happy either. From looking at a few domains, I don't think that we overgeneralized from a few pages in this case.

I know that you've moved on and the domains are shut down now. And I'm not trying to be cantankerous. I'm just trying to say that from our point of view there's good reasons to take action on sites like this so that users don't complain to us.
From the studies I've seen, once you take into account the risk selection practices of charter schools, the advantages disappear.
"flat defaults and goes to jail" - the following isn't a joke question: do you actually mean that people go to prison for defaulting on a loan? I thought debtors' prisons were... a concept we got past around the Victorian era?
Yeah, but this is like asking for a refund after you've already eaten two-thirds of the meal. If you want your money back shortly after starting, fine. But this guy already received 2.5yrs of legal training. Full refund? No way.
That's the one—thanks for digging that up.
If you check the base salary, the year-over-year increase was between 4% and 7%, which is more than I get for a yearly raise, but not entirely unreasonable. Don't forget that the "Other" category is most benefits that aren't necessary paid out as real dollars to the employee, though it could be paid-out vacation time saved up over many years.
This happens everywhere. The Toronto Transit Commission does the best 4 years of your last 5 or something like that. I knew two people that worked there until they retired. The first was a "field clerk" (basically a secretary for a construction site) the other was a construction inspector.

They both paid the same percent into the pension yet despite salary differences of $35k vs $85k they both took home the same amount from the pension fund because the field clerk managed to get promoted to construction inspector for the last 4 years of her 35 year career there. I tried to show them how stupid this system is using Excel spreadsheets and how either the lifelong construction inspector is getting screwed or the taxpayer who backstops the pension is getting screwed but they wouldn't hear it. Whenever someone complains about their defined benefits public pension cutting their payments I just roll my eyes because it seems like these people don't want to care about how things work, they pretend that there is a magical piggy bank with endless money.

The worst part is that the construction inspector got bored at home so he eventually came back through an engineering firm as a "consultant" doing the same job he did before, but pulling both a salary and a pension now. Madness.
I thought OMGPOP was Winter 06 by Charles Forman is that wrong?
Hi,

My name is Matt G and I work with appbackr. The backr is purchasing units number one to say one thousand. The developer gets paid a wholesale rate immediately while the backr will profit as the app sales via itunes. We hope that the backr and the developer work together to help the units sell and the app to get more downloads. The developer will always own the IP. Hope that makes sense. e-mail me and I can explain more. Cheers -
matthew@appbackr.com
The videos are great. Also, webmaster central has a ton of great info.

However, I interact with a lot of customers who seem put off by webmaster central. It seems to be a very outdated interface. I understand it's important to be clear and concise when explaining these issues. But if you look around the web 2.0 world at people providing similar information there's a harsh contrast.

Put simply, webmaster central is small text with a dark appearance and little or no graphics. In my experience and testing this harbors a mentality of "This is too complex". Users seem to encounter long wordy pages with no graphics and convinced themselves it's beyond them, before they begin to read.

Making a page lighter and throwing in a few visual aids goes a long way in curbing this issue, as well as making the information easier to understand and more fun to read.

It seems like a small thing, but it scales to become overwhelming when you consider that most people who encounter a page like this and dismiss it at a glance start looking for an email us link or a contact phone number.

This is my experience anyway. Perhaps your results may vary.
I don't think it is so much Apple, per se, that is nearing the bubble burst as the broad category of mobile gadgets. The "was it worth it" question applies to the category more than the particular company.

Right now I see a lot of these mobile gizmos being sold as status markers and fun toys. Sure, for some they are valued tools but mostly: status marker and/or toy. A status marker branding for a mass produced, mass market item is inherently self-limiting (status markers have to be unusually expensive and scarce to last). A fun toy branding for a product that is fundamentally expensive to obtain and operate month to month is on a collision course with economic reality -- especially when it's a product that breaks easily, is easily stolen, and, anyway, needs to be replaced every few years.

I'm not claiming I can "time markets". Apple may very well have several more great quarter or, if the stars align, might tank after two. I am saying a sharp downturn seems to me to be inevitable and not too far out.
Earth’s Atmosphere Top to Bottom
Changing Dating Patterns in India, and group dating sites opportunity
I entirely disagree that visualization is a/the missing panacea.

Code is not a visual thing nor does it even represent a visual thing -- making it visual accomplishes nothing (except for making it visual).

Pictures, formatted document text, 3d models and videos are visual things. Music notes are a specific type of visual language, audio is time-linear-spatial (or something less gibberishy like that) and can be represented visually. These things are all extremely different from software.
I thought education can have so much more potential.

If we so desire, there could be a genuine basic electrical engineering classes where kids are taught to assemble their own electronics, build robots, amongst other things.

What we got though, is the uninspired math class, the boring basic computer class, reading plays that are meant to be played out, and so on.

However, formal education must use a metric of some kind. A way to say a neat number. The penchants for mechanization where teachers are taught to "teach", not learn and teach, are widespread. Why don't we have industry professional, scientists, and so on, work with the teacher directly?

Doesn't it alway seem to you that educations are in general, just mediocre. The IQ of kids are more than enough to handle complex ideas.

We don't try very hard, but those who try are more likely to be successful, and seemly much more knowledgeable.
And how's that for serendipity: the original was posted exactly two years ago to the day.
I believe your analogy to web developers fails because the purpose of education, at least in how they describe themselves, is presented as something superior to commerce. And yet, all their actions and policies are (becoming more) commercial in nature.

When I, as a web dev, contract with a business, we're both aware of the commercial aspect of the relationship.

Schools, OTOH, present themselves as mentors. Who happen to drive you hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in order to build a grander institution.

I think schools (esp JD school) is more similar to the methods described in "Economic Hit Men". Briefly, the World Bank would overlend money to developing countries at the behest of U.S. political and corporate interests. Those U.S. based interests would pretend like getting so much lent to countries like Indonesia and Saudi Arabia was in their best interest, when it really was done for the benefit of the US groups. Schools appear similar to that, to me.
Why is this so? Does the charter school do the same thing as public school?
You don't happen to have a link do you?
They're hard to find, that's for sure. Even if I manage to land on an interesting episode or two, I often lose interest as the rest of the shows seem to fall short of that initial first impression.

One exception for me has been The American Entrepreneur, which is hosted by Ron Morris. It's actually a radio show out of Pittsburgh, but I access it via iTunes as I live in the Chicago area. Lots of content, tons of interviews, interesting topics, and very helpful, practical information. He's also very easy to listen to, which for me is a must as I listen to the podcasts when I'm out for a run. And the show is on 6 days a week, so there's no running out of episodes.

Here's the website: http://taeradio.com/

Hope this helps,
Evamarie Pilipuf
www.TheFlexibilityCoach.com
well done sir, well done
"Schools are in business to make money, not to get people jobs."

And the soonest everyone realizes this, the better off they will be. The problem, as I see it, is that they present themselves as this romantic ideal of higher purpose / education.

At least ITT Tech has the decency to tell you that they're focused on getting you a job. Even though they usually don't (from what I've heard).
Interesting quote:

"Larry [Page] asked me a couple weeks ago how much it would cost to send people one way to Mars and I told him $10 billion, and his response was, ‘Can you get it down to 1 or 2 billion?’ So now we’re starting to get a little argument over the price.”

Larry is currently listed on Forbes as being worth $14b, so $1b really isn’t a huge amount of his total cashpile.
Loopt Feeling Right At Home With Facebook Places
Single page link: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-ch...
A Short Film Shot Not With Cameras, But With Grand Theft Auto IV
This might not be a correct assumption, but the difficult part about it is defining "quality", and should there be a difference, identifying the culprit.

I suspect that the "back to the basics" ethos of NCLB has done more harm than good (it's amazing how quickly children learn to read when they're read to every day, rather than the current method which seems to involve lots of phonics instruction in spite of English's phonetic weirdness).

This is the same "back to the basics" ethos that was promoted shortly after Sputnik was launched, and the same ethos that was promoted after "A Nation at Risk" was published.

And when that ethos doesn't work, we generally pile even more on it. "Chidren not performing well enough at math? We'll do 2 hours instead of 1! We'll cut recess!"

I don't think I'm disagreeing with you here, but the only successful attempts I've seen to "improve education" have been the ones that offer more engagement and more freedom, with higher expectations placed on students (as well as a willingness to work around student learning, rather than forcing student learning to work around a pre-determined progress chart).

Everything else has been ham-handed, at best.
Peak Data Approaches?  Hard limits in the capacity of fiber optic cable
Thanks ! you just gave me a great idea !!
My mother-in-law bought me a Lego F1 Ferrari for my birthday a couple of years ago. Probably the best gift I've received since I was a kid. Because it turns out that I still I like playing with Lego, but I no longer think to buy it for myself.
Using Quantitative & Qualitative Tests to Optimize Signups
What ever happened to standard mapping of ctrl, alt, space, shift for arcade games on PC?
If you really care which programming languages I already know or which applications I have used before, I can only assume that you're overlooking my ability to quickly pick up new technologies and adjust to new ways of thinking. I would encourage you to correct this, as it is a mistake.

I know it's tongue in cheek, but my god does the current generation not have any humility at all? This is going to ruin your world view, so brace yourself:

You are not fucking special in any way shape or form. Even if you graduated with the best marks in MIT and have been programming since the womb, guess what? So have people every single graduating year for the past 20 fricken years.

The only constant in your never ending job search is - wait for it - YOU. Get over yourself. You are not entitled to anything. You are the lowest of the low, and have proved nothing to anyone that matters.

Start the journey at the beginning. And Yes, you are at the beginning. Your accomplishments so far are shared by every single person in the work force. Be humble and gracious until you actually distinguish yourself.
The article mentions the school systems in Finland as a potential model for our public school system, though there are economic differences. I was curious, so here are a couple of relevant links.

This article from BBC summarizes the basics, plus a couple videos.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm
This focuses in particular on student age, school structure, and respect for the teaching profession.

An longer article about Finland's school reforms since the 1970s.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3098447
Most do, yes. It doesn't matter if you're in a private charter school or a large public school, with large classes or small classes, if all that is going on is the lecture-then-test that limits itself to rote recall.

If that's all that we're doing as teachers, it doesn't matter a single bit where it happens, so long as students can be made to comply.
Jacques, if you're in the Netherlands (as your whois indicates), then you should file a complaint with KiFID, your financial services regulator.

http://www.kifid.nl/overkifid/contact

In India, most issues that the banks don't bother about get resolved very fast with a single complaint to the regulator!
Twitter's UX: Separate the hits from the geekhacks
I Just Won 2 Swag Bucks on www.swagbucks.com
So it's a Lego compiler, but it can't quite compile itself yet. I guess that's the next step?
I'm not sure why you got downvoted for that. It's demonstrably true that Jobs has talked down certain product lines before releasing something in that field. Remember that post-iPhone joint talk with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, where Bill Gates was all about the tablet-format computer, and Steve Jobs dismissed that, focusing instead on the phone?

When the iPhone first came out, third-party development was, in Jobs mind, to be relegated to HTML and javascript. John Carmack had 'a fairly heated argument' with Jobs that had him saying "I have an iPhone right now and it's a platform I would enjoy developing for but Apple is not taking progressing steps in regards to [gaming]."

I' sure there are more (better) examples, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that when Steve Jobs ramps up the negative rhetoric towards something, Apple is simultaneously testing and developing something along the lines of that thing being dissed.
> Anything less than 100% correct is broken.

There is far more gray in code than that!

Slow, inefficient code. Poorly written, indecipherable, spaghetti, unmaintainable code. Undocumented code. Untested code. All can be (in theory) not broken, but are far from 100%
But it was a one-way trip... I assume a trip there and back would be a tad bit more (2-5X).
This is absolutely terrible advice. Lunch is the ideal opportunity to expand your social network, make connections, learn from others, etc. It is by definition a small-ish block of time and if you're not feeling particularly talkative you can just concentrate on your food.

Getting to know colleagues from different parts of the business will greatly expand future career opportunities. Lunch is the best way to do this, followed by happy hours and other after work activities.
Kaspersky site hacked and redirecting users to fake AV
I realize things are a little different in JS, but when you're working on a massive product with a small team, no matter how great the code is, eventually you learn that the variables DO have to be descriptive and properly organized namespaces ARE very important.

Many of these conventions evolved, in my opinion, because it's difficult to create large applications, period. No matter how much effort you put into abstracting everything and modularizing components into smaller components.

Anyway, these were the only ones that I thought were a little out of place.
Мультибар Тикно
What will this app do different from my current FAQ page, why should I sign up with your service?
BTW, I see you want vertical splits by default, just like me. Some of us on the vim list have been working on a new option called splitvertical that would open splits vertically by default (You'd use :horizontal to override). I'd love to have you try out the patch and send bug reports (it's been my production editor for a few weeks).

https://groups.google.com/group/vim_dev/msg/679fee5026967b82
The inverse is sadly still true. 49.61% of our visitors used IE in the last 30 days. 10M+ uniques, predominantly users in schools.
Oh true, he wouldn't necessarily owe BC. Probably a bank or Sallie Mae.

Still, his degree's ROI is probably very negative right now. No harm in trying, and his letter has created a great discussion.