skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Wow, what a terrible article. The tl;dr comes down to this -

> Why are these websites bad? Well, I'm a journalist, so I

> asked the companies themselves! This is what they told me:

>

> > We provide our customers with lots of confusing choices,

> > and because of this our websites have to take into account

> > every possible customer with every possible need, so we

> > have to provide a mediocre experience to all of them, and

> > we can't possibly be 'pretty'.

>

> Well, folks! There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth.

> Can't argue with that. Here's something an expert in the field

> said that vaguely confirms what the companies told us [...]

>

> So, really, it's not your fault as a user when you can't

> navigate labyrinthine these sites. It's just a problem with

> humanity. Well, actually it is your fault, if you are a

> member of said humanity. But really, the websites just suck.

> [End of story]

This simply concedes that designing solutions to complex problems is limited to mediocre solutions, 'cuz it's hard!

Have you ever been to the McMaster-Carr website? Every time I visit, I am absolutely amazed by the quality of the user experience.

They have thousands, possibly tens or hundreds of thousands if you count variations, of unique products. Yet I can find exactly what I'm looking for with 3 clicks.

There are solutions to these problems. It's doing everyone a disservice to disregard that and let companies with lazy (or bad) design off the hook. As others have said, perhaps the goal of the design is actually to keep customers confused. We make it too easy to write it off as 'bad design' when it may in fact be underhanded design.
Why We Fail: What I Learned from 5 Years with “Friends” – Netflix’s Social
And I'm here with no money
Paywall :(

Seems like an opinion piece from the title, anyone care to share a summary?

edit nvm guess its only a paywall on mobile
Since I've been maintaining core memory recently, let me add a few comments. Core memory is built from ferrite rings called cores, which can be magnetized in two different directions. By passing a current through a core one way, it can be magnetized the matching direction, and passing a current the other way magnetizes the core the other direction.

The important property for reading a core is that when a core flips from one state to the other, the changing magnetic field will induce a voltage on the sense line threaded through all the cores. But if the core stays the same, you don't get a voltage. Thus, by flipping a core to 0, you can detect if the core was in the 1 state previously. This allows you to read a core, but the read is destructive since the core is now 0.

Another key property of the cores is hysteresis. A small current through a core has no effect on it, but above a threshold the current can flip the core. This is very important because it means that you can put cores in a grid, and energize one X line and one Y line. Only where the two lines pass through the same core will the core receive enough current to potentially flip. This coincident-core technique is what made core memory practical. This grid of cores is called a core plane. For a 16-bit computer, you stack up 16 core planes and read or write them in parallel.

Finally, to write a core, you first access it to ensure it is flipped to 0. Next you access it with currents in the opposite direction, flipping it back to 1. But what about the bits in the word that you don't want flipped to 1? The trick is the inhibit line, which passes through all the cores in the a, in the opposite direction. If you put a current through the inhibit line in a plane at the same time as the write, the currents partially cancel out, and the core doesn't flip, so it stays as 0.

Thus, each core typically has 4 wires: X and Y wires in a grid to select the core, a sense line that passes through all the cores in a plane to read the value, and an inhibit line that passes through all the cores in a plane to inhibit the writing of a 1. Some systems combine the sense and inhibit lines into one line, but that increases noise. (You want the sense line to switch directions so noise from the X and Y lines cancels out (that's why it's usually diagonal). But the inhibit line is forced to run a particular direction so the current cancels out.)

If this isn't more than you ever wanted to know about core, I've written about the core memory in the IBM 1401 in detail here: http://www.righto.com/2015/08/examining-core-memory-module-i...
Too small to Kafka but too big to wait: Really simple streaming in Clojure
it has not been improved or even updated in but minimal ways.
i am surprised you did not experience the intellectual delight of using the ClearCase 'config spec' with it's ability to use rules to extract the source baseline you wish to work with. In all seriousness, it is very flexible and allows significant innovation in baseline management.

In 1995, it was state of the art and revolutionary. Today a bit clunky and off the mainstream. Compared to CVS it was a very sophisticated tool.

The 'visual tree view' it provides is still very good, even today.

(note: i don't really like it and will not mind changing to a different system sometime this century)
Spot on. We experimented with a bunch of platforms for our app and ultimately settled on Flutter for this exact reason. Design is orders of magnitude simpler than in almost anything else. Working on a small team without a full-time designer this was a godsend.
This is my side project at the moment:

https://getpolarized.io/

.. but it's sort of become full time.

For me it started off as a need to manage my reading as I was working on another project around cryptocurrencies and reading tons of PDFs and web content.

Got majorly side tracked but launched it and so far there are a few thousand active users.
Click the “web” link under the title.
Exploring Programming Language Architecture in Perl (2010)
You have to label (tag) every change or it would be impossible.
Does it help if you have an APU? A processor with integrated graphics. Since scanout needs to happen at a regular rate every 16ms, does that allow reads along with refresh? In effect hiding or negating some of this?
I always thought it would be a fun project to replace the SRAM with MRAM, but MRAM is all 3.3V or less and GB and NES SRAMs were typically 5V.
In Europe we also have freight trains on our passenger tracks.

This is not unique to Europe. The vast majority of America's passenger rail infrastructure is on active fright rail trackage.
I knew about Soros smear firm, says Facebook chief
Probably not the answer you’re looking for, but the Apple Watch keeps all data on-device until you explicitly opt-in to it being synced to iCloud.
A cynical view is that US universities teaches you the opinions and manners you need to assume your role in the ruling class.
Because they think "it can't happen here". Or "I'd recognize Hitler if he was coming to power" type of thoughts. Probably because we only talk about evil people with respect to their evilness. And not how evil people can also do good things.
I've done numerous DIY solar installs, to power outbuildings on my property, as off-grid battery-powered systems. I hired professional help for our system that powers the main house, as the scale was larger and the grid-tie was beyond my expertise. But an experienced electrician could surely do that part as well. So the lack of DIY installs is less about the solar tech, and more about where any given individual's DIY skills fall.
And pretty much all of Amtrak outside the Northeast.
I couldn’t disagree more. TDD makes it possible to ship a more reliable product without superfluous code. TDD also makes it possible to move more quickly without breaking things. That “fast-paced creative process” turns into an albatross when your new stuff is breaking the old. The VC types are the ones that can actually forgo TDD because you can simply hire a lot of QA. When you are trying to ship “fast,” TDD reduces QA time and also ensures that your developers aren’t breaking each other’s work. I have hired by plenty of test-optional companies and they struggle with adding features or wonder why their application slows to a crawl with even a few hundred users — yet without tests fixing those problems results in new development grinding to a halt.

In XP parlance, a spike is specifically to allow for rapid development of a feature idea, but your entire development process ought not be a spike or it will bite you in the ass much sooner than you think and at a point where you can least afford it: when you have some mild, but not strong traction and churning users from buggy code is a real problem.

Unless you have some viral-type product (like Facebook,) move fast and break things is a terrible strategy if you care about creating a sustainable business.

Make it work, make it scale, make it elegant is smart advice, but part of “make it work” means that it doesn’t break. I would argue that pure TDD isn’t necessary, but I would adamantly suggest that shipping code without tests is far more risky than just hoping you catch issues when clicking through the application. Whether you write tests first or code first, that isn’t the issue — as long as you have tests before you ship. If you fail enough times with building a business, that’s the first thing you’ll learn.
Not opinion, it's a writeup of a German study.

https://outline.com/YdvJu4
As someone who thinks suicide is an unalienable human right, I find it insulting that someone may wish to take my guns, in order to stimy any attempt I may make at committing suicide. I am certain this is a minority view.
Overstock's CEO is going all out on blockchain
Would you be comfortable to share what you are working on?

I'd love to be a part of something like that... but definitely don't have the network for it.
No but I assume he chose something that was of meaning to them. You really don't want to turn something that should be anonymous into something that could be traced back to you.
The International Space Station Turns 20
http://archive.is/pAnYr
Amazon asked for police intervention in Spain strike by enforcing productivity
Do the aerodynamics work the same in an enclosed tunnel? Presumably at a certain point it matters less that the face isn't aerodynamic, but I've no idea how that scales.
In short, the study suggests university does not change personality or attitudes; however while vocational training increases conscientiousness, it decreases investigative or enterprising traits.

Would it be wrong to say it sounds like a lot of people doing vocational training end up just wanting to do a good job and get on with enjoying their lives? Is that a title more in-line with the article, and not even surprising?

As for broadening the mind, I believe there is an absolute derth in teaching/testing for those kinds of critical thinking skills (willingness or ability to question ones own assumptions or biases).
Thanks, this looks super cool.
You are right about those things, and some of the proposed solutions (that one and others).

It look to me PATCH is actually better; perhaps one of the patch formats can be a partial patch, for example if the Content-Type of the PATCH request is application/partial-content-patch then the first line of the body is the contents of the Content-Range header. In my opinion, this look better to me than the other replies to the message that this message is in reply to (although I admit anything I write may be mistaken; I am not perfect).
What do we say to the people who we takes the means from? "We don't trust you with these tools?". I personally find such control very insulting. At the same time, I respect their desire if it's well thought-out.
Comments like this make me sigh at the gulf of brilliance and borderline mental disability of HN.

Literally every single person contemplating suicide has access to means. Every single one. No matter how much regulation is imposed which is why it is stupid to attempt to regulate to begin with and usually used as a means to push a secondary agenda. Even someone strapped to a bed and force fed will eventually die from the process.

The only cure for suicide it access to mental health assistance and reasonable living conditions. Even that won't "cure" someone who truly wants to die.
Most people I know (I'm in university) can recite facts rather easily, they understand the theory and practice relatively well.

What they seem to lack (what most people I meet seem to lack) is questions and a questioning mind.
Rural theft is a big problem around here. Just a few months ago someone stole the entire generator at a tower site that is high up on top of Grey Butte, near Smith Rock in Redmond, Oregon. I picture a similar risk for solar panels.
As with many things, probably has a ton to do with the specific student. University broadened my mind incredibly and I’m quite thankful for it. But then, I tended towards multidisciplinary programs with subjects I didn’t naturally excel at. And I had good professors and smart peers.
I've found that if I can't just complete a certain feature, task or function on my product, and it keeps dragging on, then there is likely a reason for it being too difficult (more than just laziness on my part!)

A good approach when this happens is to redefine the feature. Either by reconsidering its importance, investigating different ways to achieve a similar outcome or mostly decomposing the feature into even simpler and more minimal deliverables and implementations.

Then deliver the extremely minimal implementation.

In a lot of cases you then come back and make it more rounded later on, or in many cases, the simpler deliverable is actually all that is required and you move onto something else entirely.

It's taking a disciplined and strict MVP approach to every task you have and focusing more on continual delivery as a north star. This tends to work because – as noted by the author – giving up on a side project is the biggest risk and one of the larger reasons for failure (you can't succeed if you don't show up).

By always delivering something/anything you get the satisfaction and reward of progress which is a lot of times all that is needed to keep going.
My pointers to you:
1. full range of motion,
2. form follows function
&
3. do exercises cleanly!
The article says Gore made his money in business, by starting a TV network and from stock options earned while sitting on Apple's board. The options were from before the massive rise in Apple's stock.

You implied Gore made his money from climate activism, but your own source contradicts you. The options are:

1. You have such confirmation bias that you don't even read articles you post as evidence, or
2. You know you're arguing in bad faith, but you hope to persuade people who don't read the link

I'm sure Al Gore has made some money from climate activism, but the vast bulk of his fortune came from elsewhere. So the comment you were replying to was accurate in describing it as a marginal increase due to activism.
I wish this was more common knowledge.
I spend most of my time with JavaScript, Obj-c and Java. It took me about 3 days to wrap my head around dart and start writing productive code.
Britain sounds like a dystopia where I can't find a tool to kill myself. Remember Bender and the suicide booths? If you're going to take the guns, please provide some of those.
José Andrés makes these amazing little sandwiches at Bazaar in Los Angeles. They're transcendent.
I don't know. I'm not suggesting any course of action.
This is exactly what is called "unnecessary wrapping".

There is no meaning of wrapping anything in a monad in a strict language, where the order of evaluation is well-defined, narcissistic snowflakery aside.

In other words, a Monad in the context of CS or PL is the solution to a problem which does not arise in Scala.

And, of course, an option type does not need to be a Maybe monad.
Shame we had to kill them all. Not to judge though, modern day humans seem to have upped the ante.
Oh you can do it with identical signatures.

Let’s say we are making http requests, with the sync code using requests and the async code using aiohttp.

Your public methods all call a private _request method with a verb, a url, and optionally something to be seriaized to json.

Your async _request method does need to do a small bit of code around sessions: make one first if one hasn’t been made for the class instance yet (or override your __init__ and take an existing one as an arg) but at the end of the day it’s just returning a coroutine that’ll ultimately give you a deserialized response. Sync can just be more direct and return a dict. Both have the same signature.
The extensive gevent monkey patching is a major turn off for me. Has it ever broken for you?
We can live in small cities. There, roads work fine.

The energy efficiency issue isn't so clear. Single-occupancy vehicles don't run empty, at least until self-driving makes it possible. In typical systems, trains are pretty empty.
For many people, keeping their guns is straight-up worthwhile in exchange for higher suicide-by-gun numbers. This viewpoint should not be discarded through shaming.
I love how you've assumed from my comment a large range of 'secondary agendas' rather than just the face value of my words.

Also I very much appreciate your bad-faith implication that I have a mental disability. Thanks for that.
suicide should be increased,
suicide = freedom and that means
more suicide means more freedom
I think CPAP users are getting scammed, just sleep on your side, all primates instinctively know to do that. Humans are the only primate that insists on sleeping on their back. Obviously if you throw up will asleep on your back you will die. 100% of people who go to a CPAP clinic get diagnosed with sleep apnea, just statistically this is obviously a scam.

These sleep clinics make money off you if they can diagnose you with a disorder that requires you to purchase a $2000 machine to "keep you alive". Of course, everyone who walks through the door needs what they have to sell.
I have an enterprise B2B app on react native with expo and the experience is great. Code push (over the air updates) on expo is a killer feature and something which Flutter doesn't seem to have yet. If you are a small team that uses/knows React then React Native can be a better choice if there isn't a compelling reason not to use it.
In any event, Functional Reactive Programming is thought-provoking. Here's a link to "Elm: Concurrent
FRP for Functional GUIs", Evan Czaplicki's thesis (although I think Elm-lang recently simplified their system.)

https://www.seas.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/files/archi...
>I don't understand why your upper comment was downvoted

There are two reasons I can think of. The first is that it really doesn't have much to do with Snowden's legacy. It's a tangent (even if I didn't start it). That's justifiable downvoting.

The second is cognitive dissonance from acknowledging the problems of US government aren't all entirely the result of Trump. It's run of the mill partisan thinking. Often people think by highlighting the same bad behavior of past administrations I'm supporting the current. Not true, but partisans are gonna partisan.
The URL is incorrect and is improperly repeated twice; this should be corrected please. (Once you correct it then the article is readable)
> willingness or ability to question ones own assumptions or biases

This is alternately discouraged or demanded in today's educational institutions, depending on whether your current assumptions and biases are the correct ones.
Wow, that’s the polar opposite of my experience (the “lacking a questioning mind” bit). Maybe you’re in the wrong program or studying a major that doesn’t fit your intellectual needs?

(Added later...) I don’t know what you’re studying. And I know philosophy and fine arts programs get shat on sometimes, but one thing those subjects allow (when taught properly) is a very, very deep questioning and thoughtfulness towards many things. In my experience, anyway.
Please keep name-calling out of your comments here, as the site guidelines request: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Remember this one too: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."
the actual numbers in the article are 42.5% and 85%
That’s an interesting opinion I’ve never heard before: suicide as an inalienable right. For clarity, you’re not referring to euthanasia by any chance, are you? If not, can you elaborate on why suicide is or should be an inalienable right?

From my understanding, people with mental health issues may be more likely to consider suicide. So my opinion is that suicide should be considered a symptom of an illness that needs medical attention as opposed to an inalienable right like free speech.
Please don't get uncivil, just because someone else wrote an uncharitable comment. It only makes the thread worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
You could do a very small side project where the requirements are:

1) simple, polished, functional UI

2) quick and dirty code

If the code is nice, then the requirements aren't met! You might even write this in large letters on a piece of paper or whiteboard next to your desk at home, keeping it visible while you work on it.

Environmental clues like that can sometimes be helpful for me. I view it as an attempt to collaborate with "future me". Sometimes the collaboration is a failure, other time it is a great success. I think one can get better at this as well.

Back on topic, one phrase I really like "Make it work, then make it nice". The definitions of "working" and "nice", of course, will depend on the context. But I find it to be a helpful maxim.
"if this were hugely detrimental to the bottom line, it would get fixed. "

The company I worked at didn't 'fix it' - they went out of business.

It would take an entire strategic overhaul to fix it - which is why these things keep happening.

I would take product line focus, brand communications, focused online retailing etc. etc.. That's hard to do most companies are incapable.

You'd be surprised at how inefficient so many operations are.

Who's going to put their hand up and say that it's broken? Or that they could fix it? Who's going to believe them? Does the company have the leadership and ability to even try an experiment? How would that work?

All of that takes thoughtful leadership across a few groups, which is sadly rare.

I think Amazon is a great example - there's so much clunkiness in their UI that I feel pretty confident some optimizations could be made. But it doesn't seem to compute in the way they roll their ops.
> Once you have a slate of bad reviews on an app store, it's difficult to fix.

Not really.

Take note of what the bad reviews say, fix the issues, release a new version and repeat.

Once you've got to the point that you've resolved the majority of the problems noted, release a version in the App Store which resets all your ratings.

If you keep going - from that point on - you should be getting better reviews and ratings which will make it a more popular app and these later reviews will eventually overwhelm the earlier lower ratings.

Also once the app is actually objectively good, use SKStoreReviewController.requestReview to prompt for reviews from users to encourage more and more good ratings.

It could be said that a poorly rated app is simply one which hasn't listened to feedback and focused on constant improvements.
That's a great point. Banking UI's tend to be disastrous partly because banks think IT is for 'back office' - not part of the product. So it always mundane. Does the minimum.