skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> We should probably be doing modelling and formal verification and stuff like that.

This is interesting. Is this a hypothetical notion or can you share any personal experience of having worked on any projects where this is done successfully?

I bring this up because there is typically a narrow band of applicability of purely theoretical constructs in most complex systems (AWS & Azure teams both use formal methods [1] to find bugs and to increase confidence in critical algorithms but I don't believe they do this system-wide. Also the verification is only done on the abstraction, not the actual implementation.).

Richard Cook gave a talk on "How Complex Systems Fail" [2] which addresses this point, and advocates for designing for resiliency as opposed to designing to exhaustively handle all failure modes (which are impossible to predict).

Design people often design from some idealized notion of inputs and/or worst case scenarios.

Ops people know what can go wrong will go wrong, which is why ops is there to handle the deviations from the norm. Real world design exposes lift points, reveals controls and supports continuous maintenance.

Highly reliable systems are evolved, not just designed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLA%2B#Industry_use

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0k12uZR14
(as a disclosure, i've only read a very small amount about these problems, so please take all of this with a grain of... salt)

The problem is that it isn't perfectly diluting, it's concentrating the salt in areas near the desalination plants, changing ecosystems and causing problems locally.

There's also the semi-related problem of salt that isn't from the ocean making it's way there, increasing the overall salt concentrations over time.

If we could find a way to use the salt from desalination (at least partially) somewhere else, then maybe we could help offset the "saltification" of the ocean and can more easily avoid destroying ecosystems around desalination plants. (it doesn't need to be an all-or-nothing solution, we could still dump some salt back into the ocean while keeping some out and used in other areas)
Separate discussion from last week, most argue against it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18816748
Man this brings back memories. We used this program for my linguistics homework in college. In 1996. Although I think it was an app then not a web page.
Can you point me to a system of logic that is both able to make substantial claims and for which every statement in that system can be proven.

Mathematics says you cannot (the incompleteness theorems), so there will always be a fundamental truth you will need to subscribe to. This indicates that those claiming 'rationality' almost certainly have a belief that is irrational even according to themselves (if they are honest enough to admit it).

Here is an example. Suppose we are arguing about the need for a certain tax. The point of contention is whether the tax will majnly benefit the rich or the poor. You start out with an argument: even if the tax benefits those not in poverty, the effects will trickle down. Despite your opinions on trickle down economics, the argument was unsound at the very first words. 'Even if' is a form of argument via excluded middle. It presupposes that either tbe tax will help those in poverty or it will not. The law of excluded middle forms unsound logical systems. There are ways around it but i guarantee you you will not see this in 'rational' discourse

In the context of these everyday absurdities and the fact most logical systems are -- by necessity -- incomplete, its almost inavariably more interesting to talk about the unproven statements (the ideology) than the system of logic surrounding it. In other words, the ideology is ultimately what matters, even to rational thinkers.
Can you talk to the people who talk to the customers (The sales team)? It's indirect, and you need to isolate what's "real" and what's "If I had X feature I think I could close more sales"[1], but it's better than nothing.

[1]which does have value, but not necessarily value to the customer.
allowed for unproppeled growth across europe? The internal market is a massive advantage.

Also, throwing it weight around on the geopolitical stage has been proven more then useful for european nations, compared to getting picked off by either china/USA/Russia.
> Drop their system into the network and voila, you can start to find the weird things going on that seem out of the ordinary.

hmmm[1]

[1]: https://everything2.com/user/The+Custodian/writeups/Seek+And...
that is incredibly satisfying to play with
Look up "aphantasia". It's a relatively new (and trendy) term referring to an inability to "see" things in your mind. Apparently, most people can engage the visual cortex and actually form mental images, though I haven't really experienced this myself. I just get brief flashes, but mostly remember things factually.

I've personally found memory palaces and whatnot to be largely useless, probably because I can't visualize anything. Soundalike-based mnemonics work better for me (cockney rhyming slang type stuff, etc.)
That screed has so many internal contradictions it made my eyes cross.
I believe Apple at least augments their data with OSM data; however, I suspect the primary driver of this decision was price.

Edit: request are succeeding for me now.
It happened to me, although it was a long time ago, and things have changed. I was en route going from the UK the long way to Australia. I was scheduled to change places in Los Angeles and we were diverted to Las Vegas. Due to the rules about crew flying times, etc., I had an unscheduled 24 hour stopover. Then instead of direct to Melbourne it was Honolulu, Papeete, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne.

In our case we got processed, and and assuming nothing flagged up you were given a temporary visa, told not the leave the city, and told to be back by a certain time. Or else.

But times have changed - I don't know what would happen now.
Is this recent? I'm in the US, and have found that Apple Maps have improved greatly since it was released. The directions and estimates are equal or better than Google Maps for my area now.
Maybe when a collision with a planetoid turned half the planet inside out and in the process created the moon, but other than that, no.

We've created a new geological age. If there's intelligent life on the planet a million years from now they will look back and go what the fuck.
It was inevitable.
Ah yeah...I kinda took the picture with a grain of salt. I assumed even if it had existed it wouldn't have gotten that far. The link you posted makes more sense though.
Auditors in scientology are in fact using a primitive polygraph device to get gullible people to divulge their deepest and darkest secrets. This is something the "church" has used to blackmail and discredit their enemies.
If I'll become senile I'll trust each and every piece of software
SEYMOUR CRAY, FATHER OF THE SUPERCOMPUTER
The devices we own should be acting in our own best interest; we shouldn't need to treat them as adversaries.

This reminds me of Programming Satan's Computer [1] (PDF link), the first time I understood that while programming is hard, security programming is absolutely insane.

[1] https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/satan.pdf
Sure but don't act like it's just some run-of-the-mill legal process without significant political implications for Canada and their citizens, which are most certainly balanced and considered beforehand. I doubt it's an automatic process merely because a treaty exists.
Plex/Torrenting.
I suspect that diluting the brine has problems that weren't discussed. For example, it might consume much more energy than we think.
I was about to upvote you, then realized desalinization is not even expensive anymore. Shipping water from the moon to earth is just a really really bad idea. Ha, even burning the fuels to send the rockets into space would create more water here on earth than we could bring back. Fuel + Oxygen --> carbon dioxide + water
FWIW, the Tesla model 3 has an internal camera (probably more than one) that Tesla probably plans to use to observe the occupants when in self-driving taxi mode. I think the camera would deter most high tech vandals.
> You could say the same about many hacks that involve money and assets. Judge, the software let me in! That was the original intention of the programmers!

The difference being that ethereum smart contracts are supposed to be autonomous, hence "The Code is the Contract".

If you need or rely on outside parties then why not just have a standard contract?
Also, the EU has a common defence clause aswell, so all EU member states are practically under the same defence umberella, even if they aren't into NATO.
Walmart focuses on Computer Vision, cancels self scanning checkout program
That may seem like a feasible way forward but you can look at what happened when France took a step in this direction. Theyve since stepped all the way back and the protests are still ongoing.

And rightly so. The reason it's unfair is because the general population shouldn't be the ones to pay for the disaster that is our environment. They bought the cars because they needed them to survive in this economy. The people who should be punished are the big players that pushed the economy in this direction in the first place. They should be the ones to carry this load for everyone, and nobody else.
My 2c from personal experience (n=1):

1) Burnout is acute exhaustion caused by successive days of lack of sleep, successive weekends of working late with long delays in launch, feedback or project completion.

2) Depression (not the clinical kind) is chronic exhaustion and chronic depletion of dopamine. No hope. No care for the project, product or for completion because you know it doesn't matter. This is caused by poor feedback, rejections, project failures (product does not work) but mostly because of running out of money.

3) Laziness is when your subconscious is too smart for yourself about the prospects of success resulting in inaction. For example: you may be outwardly excited about a project/product but your internal subconscious mind has already doomed it as a failure therefore you find all sorts of excuses not to start or finish the project. Your subconscious has already done FWIW a cost-benefit and SWOT analysis and judges the project as a no-go or no-continue.

4) Being in the wrong job is the number 1 reason for the causes of all 1), 2) and 3) above.
That's a good point. I didn't consider that. It was my mistake to simply take that as criticism/negativity of the NHS.
To name one, trans people. It's my understanding that prescription drugs are carefully controlled in Dubai, and HRT is not permitted, and carrying HRT through Dubai can get you arrested and thrown in jail.
> That said, it has a really impressive list of accomplishments when it is used well

Of course it does. Almost every person in the history of mankind will have claimed to act rationally, including the scientist inventing better means of wheat production on fewer acres, as well as the voodoo witch doctor trying to do the same thing.

By necessity, whatever works is going to claim to have been inspired by rationality.
Thanks! I'm thinking of doing a podcast series based on the lectures. The lectures themselves are pretty interactive with lots of participation, so those may not be the best to record.

I hosted a panel on biotech VC at Berkeley last fall and we recorded that, the panelists were also guest speakers for the class: https://www.baybridgebio.com/events
VPN's need to be resolved regarding the following points:
1) Currently, only financially gifted people can even afford to consider privacy at this level.
2) Is complete, non-logged privacy even a desirable outcome?
3) Who should be able to request or correlate log data (governments, the company employees)?
In its current incarnation, VPNs and security in general only changes who can be easily targeted or prosecuted, much in the same way that residents of poor neighborhoods are routinely arrested/searched for drug use where a rich person just doesn't have to worry about getting caught for the same actions. So paid VPNs contribute to an 'internet ghetto', or more accurately: disproportionate enforcement.
A GNU package for distributed, universal and secure communications
You should listen Machinae Supremacy. They are using actual SID hardware while composing their music.
And yet:

"Monarchs in the western part of the United States migrate for the winter to California, where they gather mostly among fragrant eucalyptus trees, which provide hospitable living conditions."

These eucalyptus trees, many planted in the 1800's and are now quite large and beautiful, are under attack by many environmental groups for being non-native and others for being a fire hazard. Maybe they did not even winter in California until those invasive trees were planted?

Life is complicated, but in general humans have been becoming much more respectful of the environment as we become more wealthy. The key to preserving the wonderfully complicated ecosystems on Earth is probably to continue as rapidly as possible with our tech improvements (and get back on pace from where we stopped in the 1970's) and to eventually turn all of Earth into a park, a la Bezo's plan. Don't work to shut down nuclear power tech (we have plenty of coal to burn and that is much worse) but help it improve. Support a safe waste storage solution instead of using that problem to shut down future construction.

The other alternative really boils down to a belief that it would be best if humans weren't around. Most humans rightly oppose this view and evolution will tend to support an increase in people with that view in the long run. A religion that has "don't have children" as a belief won't last long.
I'm guessing the sheer volume of air travel in the US is one problem.

Example: I travelled to Israel a couple of times for work.
Their security is world class, but they take a more predictive approach: having trained people interview all passengers even before checkin and look for subtle body language clues or inconsistencies, as well as your nationality/ethnicity/previous travel to gauge the level of risk.

This is effective but it wouldn't be able to scale for a country as big as the US (300M vs 8M people); these are trained professionals, not folks that get paid a low hourly wage as is the case with the TSA.
A variation of that is what controlling carbon emissions is about. But no country wants to commit to it, because no other competing country wants to commit to it.

Basically any body who will do it, gives away the economic edge to a competing country. On a longer run these things will add up and then you end up handing over the thrown of geo political control to that country. Basically the existing super power(s) can't and won't do it because, doing so will create new super powers, and loss of their own standing in the world. And the aspiring super powers won't do it because, obviously it's hypocritical to ask others to cut down on emissions, when you won't do it personally yourself.

There is no reason for any developing economy to believe why the existing super powers should have the sole right to run an industrialized developed economy with first world benefits, while developing economies should be even prevented from giving their people a good life.
team no-fap
>Because the code of the DAO is a legally-binding contract, how can you argue so as to convince a judge that some behavior of the program is really a bug?

Is it? I know that some people intend the code to be law, but I suspect if/when this butts up against the real legal system, we'll see a variety of different interpretations.

Just because someone left their window open doesn't mean you get to take all their stuff.
Apple employee spoke at a recent OSM conference. Yes, they use OSM data as well. In some countries more than others. Apple also has a fulltime staff working on OSM. https://github.com/osmlab/appledata/issues, https://github.com/osmlab/appledata/
Ultimately it is a MITM attack, correct?
That doesn't match up with the facts on illegal immigration figures at the borders. There have been over a million apprehensions by CBP at the borders in the last three years of people who are not in the US legally. Those are just the apprehensions, a huge number beyond that are not caught. The best estimate is that several hundred thousand people are crossing the southern US border illegally per year and not being caught.
Apparently there are more pet tigers in Texas than in the wild. (Source unknown to me)

Tigers disappeared because of humans. Not the natural ebb and flow of the planets rhythms. Less humans = less impact.
We are not in the early stages anymore.
How do you manage passwords with Docker?
> People can't be experts in everything.

But you don't have to be an expert to conduct a web search.

> Blame should stick to the bad actor, not the people they sucker.

I mostly agree with this, but I have a hard time not placing just a little blame on the people who don't engage in even the bare minimum of research.
GDPR isn't so bad, but it is pretty vague. Holding IP Addresses in server logs may or may not violate GDPR.
> Oyster/Contactless can also be used on certain river services and the Emirates Air-line.

You can buy an airline ticket on Emirates... using your Oyster card?
It can vary hugely with airport and time of day. I've had to wait over 3 hours once in Chicago to get through immigration.
Cryptography is not a magic bullet. The assertion of a signature is that "Private Key Bar says Hash(plaintext) = Foo." But who is the private key; who is actually computing the hash of the plaintext? Note that practically every cryptographic system in existence has been broken at one time or another, and most of those breaks are not in the mathematical primitives of cryptography but in the wider ecosystem of the procedures of how these primitives are combined into a full system.

In the threat model I describe, the attacker who controls the car's system can lie to the server about what is on its system. It also has access to anything that's distributed to the car itself (such as a per-car private key!), and presumably it has oracle knowledge in the form of what the server expects the correct hash to be. A compromised car can freely lie about the hashes of anything on its own system as necessary; it can freely sign any attestation with a per-car private key; it can parrot the expected hashes of files distributed to other cars. Even if you sent watermarked files to cars, the compromised car could remember the hashes of those watermarks to parrot them back later.

So, pray tell, where do you imagine the cryptographic signature actually adds value? As in, how can you pick the owner of the private key and the owner of the hashing process such that a near-omnipotent compromised car cannot fool the server?
Transporting food is a lot more than just fuel consumption, the farther you transport a given amount of food the greater your loss potential is to spoilage/contamination/infestation etc. It also promotes unsustainability, the US exports an insane amount of grain and imports nearly half of it's fruit for example, using land in America to feed livestock and people in China, Russia, India etc while eating fruit year round by importing it from Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, Australia, New Zealand etc.
I keep planting milkweed at my house but apparently the bunnies and deer in my neighborhood love the stuff... and I've had three years of dead milkweed at the end of the season.

Will try again this year, with a higher chicken wire fence around the plant area. Many local organizations provide free milkweed seeds and/or plants to get you started (we have the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis which provides seeds every year).
As long as you're throttling, there's nothing wrong with interfacing with onScroll. I use it for all sorts of things. Scroll-jacking is the real issue.
I guess it's more a feeling of the a poem by a German Lutheran pastor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...

It isn't that the butterflies do anything that would impact your smartphones but that they are a concrete sign of change that should be more understood. If we don't focus on it now the fear is by the time we do something it will be too late.

The butterflies themselves have an incredible complex life cycle. They only live 2 to 5 week during breeding season but they complete a migration of thousands of miles over 4 generations. It just seems amazingly beautiful to me that it worked and sad to think it might end because we failed to change our ways.

This seems like it would be something incredible to witness. https://youtu.be/_zAObMlOIm4?t=362

Would you want to save something beautiful if you thought you might have a chance? And you're wrong about folks not caring about already extinct species. I'd love for the dodo to not have been killed out.

Or the Passenger Pigeon which we (USA) killed every last one of them. Billions of birds in a flock. By the time they tried to start some conservation effort it was too late.

I know I miss the butterflies. Their color and movement always bring a smile to my face. I see less of them every year.
Cool, I like the qq-tar-gz-it, but I changed it to this:

function qq-tar-gz-it () {
tar -zcvf ${1}.tar.gz $1;
}

Saves a step.
Pure drinking water literally falls from the sky on this planet.
I disagree - I work in high-performance computing and I think in our case the complexity of C++ is actually mirroring that of the problem domain. Nothing else gives us the level of abstraction that C++ does, while still offering convenient ways to specify low-level performance semantics.

I think for a while Fortran was pulling ahead for large-scale numerical computing, but the mess of different options for parallelism (and also I think in our case a profileration of algorithm choices that made not just polymorphism but the explicit distinction between polymorphism and templates more important for code architecture) have brought C++ back into the limelight.

I know that some competitors in our space have a Fortran codebase and they essentially had to hack together C++ Templates as part of their build process (i.e. pre-process a template file and generate multiple sources which are then compiled).
If you want to get specific, it's probably a magazine in most contexts. But it's really just pedantry: https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/3/6/clips-vs-...
Interesting, thanks!

For others interested, I also found that Scott Alexander wrote a tremendous summary and then rebuttal of Neoreactionary theory. An excellent example of steel-manning an argument you disagree with, then taking it apart in ways that its adherents might actually find convincing. (Link: [https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/03/reactionary-philosophy...)
I'm not exactly a huge agile fan, but there are a few things it gets right. Most of the time, software development is implicitly a process of requirements development. Nobody ever knows what they want until they see it, even if they claim they do.

Agile attempts to turn the implicit requirements development into explicit requirements development. It tries to shortcut the process of acquiring requirements by getting stuff in front of the user as fast as possible.

Now, if you really do know the requirements (like there's a real spec to follow) or you're in a situation where you don't have the architecture decided so that you can show discrete things in a small time window (2-3 weeks), then agile isn't nearly as useful.
For C/C++, and various code generation from state description tools like matlab/simulink, specific in the auto/aircraft/safety industries, I won't mention by name here, but no FOSS.

Anyway, I think about this stuff all the time and really enjoyed your article, thanks for writing it, it doesn't seem to be a very popular topic to write in such depth. Thanks again!
Scroll wheel isn't zooming the map for me.
Isn't this the fundamental question? Who do you want to decide what is news worthy for you?