skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm also curious where the 30x comes from. If cost is indeed the square of key size I would expect:

Cost(1024) = (1024*x)^2
Cost(2048) = (2048*x)^2 = (2*1024*x)^2 = 4 * (1024*x)^2

Which is a 4x increase in cost, not 30x.
I have noticed that a negative comment(against the main point of the post) tends to be sometime initially down-voted by some superficial prejudice that it should be also mean-spirited.

It seems that the community naturally upvotes that comment to support diversity of opinions.

Of course such support tends to bring some of the provocative comments up in the list- in my view.
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Steve Jobs: No USB 3 any time soon
How to stay focused by eliminating distractions and procrastination
Need criticism on first website: giving everyone a chance at Internet fame
Microsoft Has Seen The Light. And It’s Not Silverlight.
Thanks for taking time to help me out!

I have a marketing buddy who believes the best course of action would be to polish up an amazing presentation of mock ups and present it to some angels because the site will probably be rebuilt after receiving major funding anyway.

I've been operating under the idea that it's better to get something out as inexpensively as possible and see how people respond before getting heavily invested in the concept. That sounds like what you're advocating.
Seeing this list of silly things one might find useful in high school math contests made me nostalgic for those days...
This dead-simple analysis just goes to show you that market share is not nearly as important as so many make it out to be.
No social news site is going to be perfect. If it's people that are writing comments, some comments will be good and some will be bad. Read them and decide for yourself. If a comment hurts your feelings, get over it. If you like a comment, upvote it, and help other people find the best comments.

Really, I kind of get tired of reading stuff like this because there is always some subtext to it. "mean-spirited" usually means, "someone disagreed with me". If people disagree with you, you can either get over it or learn to argue better. Passive aggressive, "oh noes everyone is so mean" is not going to change what people think. Good writing will.
Ugh, sensationalist crap. Yes, advertising on search engines is potentially corrupting. It is not necessarily a foregone conclusion, and I think that Google has avoided "being evil" in regards to ads in their search results, for the most part.

The really disingenuous part of this article is that Google does not own a monopoly on information, or information indexing. Nobody is "allowing" them to control information indexing; it's just good enough that there hasn't been a compelling need for an alternative. In fact, the author draws a parallel between public libraries and search engines - yeah, the government controlling our information indexes on the taxpayers' dime without any incentive to actually provide good results or to improve upon the system is obviously a better solution.

The author, or anyone here, or some kid in his parents' basement is more than free to create their own completely open, free, self-funded information indexer (see: DuckDuckGo!). The problem, of course, is that Google provides much better, more complete, more comprehensive, more useful results for the vast majority of information indexing, because of the ridiculous amount of money and talent they've invested into solving these problems. As nice as the idea is, the world doesn't run on nice thoughts and good intentions - at the end of the day, that brilliant engineer that figured out how to return your search results 0.03 sec faster has to feed his family.

Advertising in a search engine isn't inherently evil; it's dangerous, because advertisers will want to buy the first search results, and will often pay well for that privilege. The temptation of that offer is strong, but honestly? Google's big enough at this point that they've proved that they can be enormously profitable without having to sacrifice result quality. If anything, Google has made advertising more useful to me as a consumer, rather than allowing advertising to degrade my end-user experience. Google is successful because they've delivered consistently useful results, and then attached advertising to it, not because they've delivered advertised results and then the actually useful stuff 2/3's of a page later.

I eagerly await the author's new, open, free-to-use, ad-free, as-good-and-fast-as-Google search engine. I'll use it if he'll deliver it, but he'll be too busy Googling quotes for his next article to make that happen.
I would rather not single out any individuals/comments. In any event, it appears like a growing issue across the community, and is not isolated to just one or two people.
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Hi all the linux users over here, I wanted to find out which si the best linux you had ever used.

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What am I going to do with all these startup ideas?
I'm highly supportive of thoughtful debate, but my impression is that some of the up-voted comments lately have crossed the line from debate to ridicule.
Kesha described herself in an interview as being "very studious" in high school; she would drive to Belmont University to listen in on Cold War history classes after school and achieved "near perfect" SAT scores.[7] However, she dropped out at age seventeen and earned her GED afterward.[9] She left school after being convinced by Dr. Luke and Max Martin to return to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. They had received Kesha's demo after Pebe passed it to Samantha Cox, senior director of writer/publisher relations at BMI, and were impressed.

Why would she pass up that kind of opportunity? If it didn't work out, she could always go back to college.
Retaliation: Apple Sues Motorola Over Multi-Touch
When it comes to things like politics/religion/etc no amount of good writing can convince the other person.
Sometimes mean spirited comments can be full of usable ideas, or at least they can fuel a debate between contrasting opinions. Remember that what looks to be a mean spirited comment by you, might be taken a completely different way by someone else.

In any case I'd say that more important than mean comments is a the downvote everything I dislike regardless of if it contributes to the discussion in any way. It stalls actual conversation between different opinions.
I opted out at SFO. The incredulous TSA agent repeatedly asked me why I was opting out. I declined to provide an answer, and instead simply asked if opting out was an option and if so, then I opt out. Eventually he let me through, shouting "opt out!", at which point I had to wait for them to rustle up someone to perform the pat down.

If even 1/4 of the people in that line opted-out, it would be chaos in the security area. So do your part, and make a TSA agent uncomfortable.
Or you can use cron to run a script written in PHP.
I agree with your point that there is no evidence to suggest it makes us even a little bit safer.
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FWIW, I discovered that people take disagreements personally and will stalk you across threads if you're not careful with their egos.

For some reason I am incapable of remembering names and can only identify about 10 - 15 people here other than the ones I have met or know from somewhere else. So the whole thing feels to me like detached, anonymous discussion. I was surprised to be 1) remembered, and 2) "punished" in another, unrelated context.

There are also times when I withhold contributing to a thread because of its strong fanboy/flamer possibilities. Certain companies have .. enthusiastic supporters/haters.
"I thought this question might come up, but I would rather not single out any individuals or comments."

So, you state a claim (and it is an interesting claim!). Other people ask for instances or examples and you decline to point them out. How are we supposed to "deal with it as a community" if we don't know what you are talking about?

I really would like to see an example of a mean spirited comment receiving plenty of upvotes and being on top of a discussion. I suggest (just suggesting, since I don't have any examples of what exactly you mean) that what you consider "mean spirited" may not appear so to others (and hence the upvotes)? Sounds like a simpler explanation (or at least an equally valid one) to me.

What I have seen is that empty/mean comments get downvoted to oblivion very fast. Comments with plenty of upvotes generally have some valid points/insights/value, even if the tone is sharp or sarcastic (neither of which is necessarily "mean").

Posting a mean comment which gets a lot of upvotes and making it to the top of a discussion on HN, without getting flagged etc, would seem to take some real skill in writing.

I would really appreciate any examples.
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I don’t think that’s true at all.
1) mechanics, cleaning crew, and other people who have direct access to the planes do not need to go through security - it's only places visible to passengers where this is done. After all, airplanes are used to smuggle drugs, so the same process can be used to secrete a bomb.

2) additional security and screening costs money, time, and our patience, but there's no evidence that it's effective. A GAO report points out that the TSA expedited purchasing of the full-body scanners without doing anything to ensure it would be better than the existing system. It was done in part as a reaction to the attempted bombing of 25 Dec 2009, but without evidence that the machines would be effective against a repeat of that attack. I also recall a report (perhaps 5 years ago?) saying that penetration testing of post-9/11 security was as easy as pre-9/11 despite the attempts by the TSA at improving it.

3) Another GAO reports highlights that the TSA has done no evaluation of how to improve overall security. For example, a bomb set off in the waiting lines of densely packed airport security, or in Penn Station, would also have a chilling effect on our travel. This attack was done already against El Al's ticket booth in LA. Or consider the hijacking of CanJet Flight 918 where an armed gunman forced his way through security and got on board an airline preparing for takeoff - when the pilots are present but before the doors are secured. Full-body scanners do nothing against this attack.

4) As the GAO and others have reported, people can still smuggle things in their body. These are not detectable by the full-body scanners. With enough people in collusion, that is sufficient to get the parts for a bomb through security.

If it's impossible to keep drugs out of prison, with 24-hour observation and multiple levels of walls and barriers, it's not going to be possible to keep a bomb or weapon out of a plane. The goal is to reduce the likelihood, but there's no evidence that the full-body scanners make a real difference. Instead, they waste money, waste time, waste patience, and inure travelers to yet more intrusions on their personal life.

Therefore my annoyance comes from being told to do things which are meaningless and ineffective, and perhaps even detrimental to overall security.
"...it turned out that the stress of figuring out how to make ends meet was better than the stress of a dead end contract sapping my life and creativity away." Talk about making lemonade out of lemons! Sounds like a swift kick in the ass is all you needed. Congrats on your successes!
This post was not a reaction to a discussion that I was engaged in, so in fact there is no subtext and it's not personal. :-)
What's preventing Amtrak from electrifying Richmond-DC and NH-Springfield?
Why you are thinking about quitting when you've dedicated so much to your project and are getting investors interested in your product is beyond me. If the problem is loneliness just get out more! What difference will it make to move out anyways? Just work on your company and make a habit of speaking to people all the time. In no time you'll get rid of the 'loneliness'.
I think this is a great example of Apple's "design strategy" being completely end-to-end.

They don't just focus on the tiniest details of industrial design; the aluminum chassis, the battery layout, the screws, friction coefficients on the trackpad, etc.. they have also designed their entire supply chain with the same attention to detail.

There was a post on HN a while ago about Apple's patent on a new headphone jack design - they redesigned what is pretty much a commoditized component (and never seen by the customer), to unlock more value in the form of greater maneuverability and internal space. I imagine the supply chain is also very commoditized, and Apple is the kind of company to take that process apart and refine it in the same way, to unlock value in the form of greater margins.

EDIT: Another area where their attention to detail is apparent is their manufacturing tolerances. They've pretty much perfected the art of physically manufacturing precision components. I've not been able to find another product, luxury or otherwise, that comes close to the fit and finish of Apple's devices - and thats including things like rolexes, ferraris, etc.
Because once the 1024-bit RSA is cracked, it doesn't matter how strong the symmetric algorithm is as you'll have its key. Analogy: a virtually uncrackable safe (AES-256) whose combination is written on a piece of paper that's stuck in a box protected by a weak padlock (1024-bit RSA).
Correct, the "mean-spirited comments" are part and parcel of every open online community. This is the flip side of the anonymity and what Jaron Lanier calls "the mob switch" (google it). In other words, human tendency to gang-up/gang-down, up-vote/down-vote in batches, regardless a content.

I also noticed that often here the polite but critical comments are down-voted if they don't share the "main theme" of a post. Again, this is the part and parcel of every online community.The alternative are the one-liners and up-likes you get on Facebook, the same Facebook that coincidently is responsible for the internet-wide decline of the commenting culture.
I’m sorry but I really think examples are necessary.
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Good thing the Vikings didn't use the Thai solar calendar else they would have completely avoided airport security.
I don't really get the comparison. It seems like a really western thing to say... it's not like they're walking around with iphones and sidekicks
I actually think it's a good idea not to single out anybody; you don't want to attract the attention of somebody who is already belligerent and vile.
"you don't want to attract the attention of somebody who is already belligerent and vile."

I would rather these folks/comments are flushed out (the OP claims that someone belligerent and vile are getting a lot of upvotes, which seems strange to me - I don't doubt that mean people post on HN but if they are getting tonnes of upvotes (vs being downvoted or flagged) it would be really nice to see examples), but I appreciate that other people have different approaches to confrontation.

The problem is that then it is very hard to take a claim like "general uptick in mean spirited comments" seriously. A asking for evidence of any claim is valid in any discussion.

Heck if anyone wants to point these out but don't want to be seen doing it, just create a throw away account and use that?
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Sounds like your should stick with your start up. Fix the problem instead of giving up. The problem being, from what I read, you are dissatisfied with your current level of social interaction.

Establish a routine in which you regularly interact with people. Consider taking 5-10 hours of your week (or whatever works for you, and devote it to something unrelated to your startup. A part time job in a social place, like a cafe, or perhaps volunteer for a cause that matters to you. Check out classes in your community that you might enjoy. Maybe a martial art, or other physical activity to get two birds with one stone.

If you want to find more like-mind people, look for entrepreneur's and small business networking events and meets ups. You don't have to be in the valley to find people that are working on making a successful business.

Best of luck to you!
Volunteer experience is very common here. In BC there was recently discussion of making some number of hours of "volunteer" activity a requirement for high school graduation.

I don't think such activities are detrimental in the slightest; but they're not at all exceptional here. (Also, it's a very common "resume-building" tactic, so there's always the question of whether a student performed the activity because they wanted to help the community or because they thought it would pay off in scholarships.)
My wife keepstelling me to stop buying expensive gadgets so we can travel more. (apple is keeping me from seeing the world, darn it!)
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pg's quoted comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1833255

I've noticed that if you reply to a mean-spirited comment with a straightforward and dispassionate counter-argument, completely ignoring its rudeness and tone, you get massive upvotes. Transcending meanness also feels really clean; it is neutralized.

By framing the meanness, the site's collegiality is not undermined, but demonstrated.
I am surprised people "punishing" online but I did realize that people used downvoting for disagreement (or if they are frustrated) while it should be used only if a comment is irrelevant to the topic or is frivolous.

I usually upvote the comments I disagree with because a healthy debate always helps me fill gaps in my knowledge. But when passions and emotions rule, "healthy debate" is simply impossible. Some people seem to be too stuck up with their beliefs.

Come On guys, many times it is good to be _wrong_.
I think the main reason to "contribute to OSS" is to learn (and demonstrate!) new skills that you would not otherwise be able to learn on the job. Businesses generally are not in the habit of paying people to do something for which there is no business need. So unless you work at Google, you are very unlikely to have an opportunity to build a webserver. Unless you work on the compiler team of a big company (almost all of which require prior experience with compilers), you are unlikely to have an opportunity to build a compiler or interpreter. Unless you work for Google or Bing, you are unlikely to have an opportunity to build a search engine.

But if you contribute to Apache or Lighttpd, you're building a webserver. If you contribute to Python or create your own open-source language, you're building a compiler/interpreter. If you contribute to Lucene, you're building a search engine.

All of these teach you skills that can be very valuable if you start your own company. If you can take your server count down from 27 to 1, that's money that goes straight to your bottom line. If you can spend 3 hours writing a script that fixes a problem throughout your codebase instead of 3 months doing it manually, that's time that you can use to innovate instead. If you can index the contents of the web efficiently, you'll know how to index lots of other things efficiently, and there's bound to be a startup idea in there somewhere.

I don't think "writing some boring glue code for the frameworks our for-profit businesses use" is all that much of a resume boost anyway. Writing Mongrel or Factor or Rails, however...
The comments are as retarded as the article itself.

Typical western comparison as one commenter put it as.
If they had caught a bunch of people, don't you think they'd be singing their praises from the rooftops?
If we could dispense with all of the boo-hoo-someone-was-mean-and-downvoted-me meta posts and comments, this could be a great site.

Posts like this are the biggest problem with HN.
Or move closer to work.

When I was in Boston, I had an hour commute, half by car and half by train. Yeah, I could read a book on the train. It was still a pain in the ass, and I could be doing much more productive things at home.

When I moved out to Silicon Valley, my #1 priority for deciding where to live was "It must be within 15 minutes of work." I ended up getting a place that's 5 minutes by car or 15 minutes by bike from work. It was probably one of the best decisions I made moving out here. Now I can roll out of bed and into work, and when I leave work, I'm home and can do whatever I want.
Great point 8ren, and perhaps this is a solution to the issue. A concern is that the mean-spirited comments are not always countered in a thoughtful manner, or in time before the post drops off the front page. That said, perhaps we can draw on your suggestion, and as a community be more vigilant in quickly responding to mean-sprited comments in a logical and dispassionate manner to counter their effect.
Surprisingly, I agree with all 14 statements on that list.
It seems my brief back and forth with PG is the subject of this post. (indirectly?)

I'm not sure if my criticism of blind positivity (boosterism) is intended to be what you're concerned about, or if you're just referring to the popularity of banal and frequently unkind commentary.

I'd really like to know, because if it was my words that raised your concerns, I want to address it.
It might seem like a bit of a trollish question, but I'm wondering the same thing. I am trying to think of benefits to wooden ladders; they are heavy, easier to damage, harder to make. Probably an incredible challenge to make extendable ones too.

The one upside beyond cosmetics I can think of is they probably don't get hot the way metal does.

edit: OK, I finished watching the video, I understand now. So it's not that they are necessarily better than metal, but they are necessary in SF.
I took 18 months off and lived and worked overseas. I keep recommending it to anyone who'll listen.

Gadgets like iPads and iPhones are just diversions, the freedom you'll get if you take time off (not just a two week trip!) is worth so much more.
Our culture has sexualized taboos over nakedness; mandatory nakedness is a form of humiliation and sexual assault.

I understand if your individual experience of culture is a step apart from the norm; but you must recognize that, even if you don't see people stripping off their clothes has a sexual element, plenty of people who go to strip clubs etc. do.
I know this is no complete answer, but AFAIK they use binary diffs to detect changes in the client and a dæmon that monitors the dropbox folder. I'd also assume that the server has binary de-duplication. In their YC application they explain some other stuff: http://files.dropbox.com/u/2/app.html
This is only for a subset of comments, but one common case that's sometimes sort of accidental: a commenter disagrees with a submitted article strongly, but doesn't realize that the article is written by the submitter or by another HN user. If they had, they probably would've phrased their disagreement differently.

Of course it's nice to be polite when disagreeing with any article, but I notice myself making more of an effort to be polite when disagreeing with an HN user's own submission, compared to disagreeing with, say, a New York Times article, because the NYT reporter isn't present or going to read my comment. HN's greater volume of user-written content (compared to, say, reddit) makes this something not everyone expects to encounter; it's like ranting about how Daikatana sucks and then realizing that John Romero was standing right next to you, and then you feel bad.

(This doesn't explain mean-spirited comments that are responding to other comments, though.)
It may be challenging, but something can be simultaneously challenging and boring. (For me, an MMORPG at high levels falls into this category.)