skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I personally was approached by what I now believe was an undercover spy agent in San Francisco. I believe he might have been Israeli.

How we got there is a long story. But, the person (agent) came to a coffee shop that I frequented and made himself very visible talking audibly about certain areas that were my interest.

I'm a very outgoing person so after over-hearing him by the second or third encounter there, I approached him or he approached me by asking to share a table. Don't fully remember.

After several meetings, he tried to goad me into saying things which were utterly antisemitic and anti-Israel. So I started to suspect something was off and those days I had a very good memory and I started noticing some contradictory stories from meetings to meetings.

So suspecting something was wrong, I dropped all contact. Then he started calling me and asking me why I'm not coming to the coffee shop anymore and used other phone numbers that were not identified as his to try to call me.

After a while of ignoring him, he stopped calling. But, the whole experience was rather strange and made me realize how easy it is for the Israelis to run a spy network (or a soft spy network) in the open.

So when I see stories like these, I'm not only not surprised but I'm wondering why there are not more of these published on the press.

edit some related news:

1 - An Israeli spy firm was reportedly hired to dig up dirt on ex-Obama aides involved in the Iran deal

- https://www.vox.com/world/2018/5/7/17327278/ben-rhodes-black...

2 - UK campaign to smear Corbyn. Note, the source here might be a biased here as they're fighting what they perceived to be Israeli occupation

- https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/new-chal...

3 - Additional reporting on Israeli spying on American citizens

- https://www.thenation.com/article/how-israel-spies-on-us-cit...
I don't think that's really true as a general rule. Passing a variable of an unexpected type or nullable could have completely unpredictable behavior depending on what assumptions the code makes about the incoming parameter. It could have no effect or a catastrophic one, there's really no way to know without reading actual code.
I've seen that too. And I've also seen some of the same people with very adaptable personalities who are continually learning and inquiring and who make working at such places tolerable.
The linked Facebook article includes a screenshot of the feature in Spotify allowing people to send and receive Facebook messages.

"In order for you to write a message to a Facebook friend from within Spotify, for instance, we needed to give Spotify “write access.” For you to be able to read messages back, we needed Spotify to have “read access.” “Delete access” meant that if you deleted a message from within Spotify, it would also delete from Facebook."

You've got an axe to grind and its tiring me out. Whatever.
The article this discussion is about starts with a mention of Citizen Lab. It's true that the first sentence doesn't directly mention Citizen Lab, but it's tied together starting with the 8th paragraph.
"Takes many types" ≠ "cannot be typed". TypeScript supports decorators, union types, and `any`/`unknown` types.

Those generic use cases are good examples of flexible types, but I have a hard time seeing how

* "I don't know whether the `getMyReplies()` function returns a list of items, an iterator, a non-rewindable generator whose results I need to cache, or a closure with/without memoization" and

* "I don't know whether the singular Reply entity has a field called pid, parent_id, parentId, ParentID, ParentGUID, or parent_message_identifier"

are advantageous to rendering a list of replies.
Visible upvote count for Ask HN submissions?
There are quite a few interesting ASK HN submissions that ask about books/resources/guidelines for specific subjects. I understand that on HN, vote counts are hidden to prevent bandwagoning but in certain situations, it would be really helpful to see how many people approve of a particular book over others, especially if the reader is new to the domain.
What would be cons of allowing such questions to have visible vote counts?
More on the firm named in the article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cube

https://www.timesofisrael.com/cambridge-analytica-linked-bus...

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5397148,00.html

Why am I not surprised that it's linked to Cambridge Analytica?
The review in question says it's mainly habitat loss caused by conversion to intensive agriculture [1].

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00063...
Is this anything worth considering, if it cannot be used for training?
BTT Price Moves Up Ahead of Airdrop
This quote from the article stands out to me:

"A Pro invests as much money, as many times, for as long as required for the situation to attain Clarity. This Clarity allows only two outcomes, Dead or Liquid. When a Pro declines the invitation to invest in a follow-on round, it means they’ve reached Clarity: In the eyes of the Pro who declines to invest, the company is Dead, their initial stake is worthless. Write it off and move on, no tears, no recriminations."
Sounds like he was just trying to hit on you.
> Are there any reasonable people here on HN who are willing to actually trade their lives to live as a Uighur in China or a Saudi female? Or any sort of Venezuelan?

Or a poor US citizen?
Tracking auto rates daily across all banks, unbiased
Used Macs for 15 years, then a year ago I decided to go back to Linux and I now have a Lenovo X1 Carbon and a Purism Librem 13: love them both, but will probably only use the Librem in the future.

I have to say with the recent release of the Librem v4, there's not much reason to get an X1 or an XPS13: the Librem looks great, works great and I really like the idea behind it.

As for Mac vs Linux: it really depends on your workflow. I do backend dev in Go, Rust and Ruby, so I was already in a Terminal most of the time.
Loved the space colony with the hang glider.

That one caused me to consider a 2001-style rotating space station — would it be possible to ride your bike counter to the rotation of the wheel and cancel the centripetal force?

I reasoned that you could but that your direction of travel, tangential to the inner surface of the wheel, would still keep you "grounded".

A simple ramp though should allow you to launch yourself "hub ward".

Am I missing something?
I think the point might be that you don’t need to trash something else just to say the Pi store is cool.

I personally think the comparison is silly. Because you get to play around in the Pi store I think it’s much more similar to a games-workshop or board game store than an Apple store. Even if the aesthetics are similar to the latter.
Killer Graphic Design Tips That Will Boost Your Customer Engagement
This is super awesome. Does anybody know if they have an analogous program like Today at Apple but for kids to actually experiment with code? Would be nice to have volunteers though. Just a thought.
Introducing Data Reactivity in JavaScript Tables
Why is it always Israel or Israelis involved with these type of stories?

What are Israeli's so afraid of? Another Holocaust? Arab invasion? Definitely justified fear but I'm sure many other country has similar spy rings and employ similar methods but Israel definitely comes up on top of this trade.

I guess being successful at tradecraft automatically means you are above the normal Judeo-Christian morality that is preached upon the rest of the people while the elite enjoy unchecked, boundless power which they deploy to keep their position.

But you look at world wars, ethnic cleansings and the history of hostility between different groups, you will find strange patterns. For instance, it was estimated that the European settlers committed the biggest Holocaust of all upon the Native Americans number in 50+ million in just a span of a 100 years systematically. Then you have weird freak events like WW1, WW2. Maybe this is Karma at play. Like the opiod epidemic impacting white demographics more than other groups in the UK and US, seems like strangely ironic--once the Sick man of Asia, now the synthetic drug manufacturer of America.

edit: and as predicted my comment gets flagged for dare mentioning maybe Karma is real.
We attempt to do what you describe: charge users for whom we create lots of value (power users), and give it away for free to others (casual users).

The difficulty is that if you want word to spread among communities of people that contain your power users (and would-be power users), then by charging them money, you're constraining growth in those key communities. Any thoughts on how to deal with this specific tradeoff?

I'd be interested to hear more of your insights, especially about how the balance might change over time. Do you give away more for free in the early days, to raise more awareness? How do you know when it's time to stop giving it away for free?
"They traded short term gains for long term losses."

This is the entirety of the problem with modern capitalism, isn't it? There is no way to account for long term losses that stakeholders can put value on. Just look at what we've done to the environment.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but to think critically and not fall in love with an idea more than reality. TBH, sounds capex intensive and there must be reason(s) why it was abandoned, i.e., cost to hookup areas and inflexibility of rigid, expensive infrastructure deployed such that it's not scalable for the profit that it could generate... if Manhattan, HK and Tokyo don't use it anymore, why now?
Let's talk about presentation tools
That's an interesting hypothesis, I hadn't considered that.
Firstly, I have known several people to name their animals some variation of their type, but barring that.

I see it as a courtesy to myself than those that come after me to provide relevant context to a variable name. If the type in the scope of the variable is meaningful to its use then I will include it.

Good or bad code tells me what it does, rarely does it tell me what its supposed to do.
Indeed - I still use it (among others) more or less any time I'm looking for flights.

It was tomhoward's cofounder Fenn Bailey that also first introduced me to "microcaching" with nginx via some blog post many years back, a trick which has been of much use over the years.
SELL/Квартира улучшенной планировки ул.Доценко«Нива»-12 школа.0634132548
So optimistic. I loved the 70's. It was what drew me into the idea of a "brave new future" (no sarcasm intended).
Show HN: Upload Your App to Apple App Store Connect Without Mac
I remember seeing these in some book when I was a kid... pre-internet... thanks for sharing.
I have a computer engineering degree and have worked for several multinational companies. And I have previously lectured CS whilst doing a part-time masters - which I didn't complete.

I have no knowledge of what it would take for somebody without some academic credentials to teach. But there is no harm in giving it a go. Universities, in general, are keen to build links with industry.

Your skills, knowledge and experience are far above the level at which boot camp courses are taught. It is very hard for people with advanced knowledge to teach entry level learners, there is just too much that we take for granted.
MJob Market in Potential Discussion of 2M USD Investment
Damn, there used to be a Micro Center 5 minutes from my house. Now, there's only 1 in all of CA.
Ian Peter's History of the Internet (2004)
Micro Job Market - mJobMarket.com the freelance website has gain traction in the market recently and in potential investment talk of 2 million USD.
I would love to throw in a joke in response to this comment but I get the feeling it would not age well.
I want to create a mobile app for you!!
James!!!!
I’m not security expert, so I had to look that up.

MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise or Coercion (depending on source), and Ego or Extortion (depending on source).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_spying
More than one spy in NYC? I am shocked!
Not at all. Typing bugs often leave code looking perfectly fine until you discover that one of the variables you expected to be y was actually x. And the only way to find out is to just print out everything
I was thinking 9% is a pretty decent return!
Culture comes from the top. That culture is busted. The fact you can spot problems and solutions plus you care enough to try is a big indicator you're far better off in a culture that will utilize your mindset much better.
Microsoft has stores now too, don't they? But the apple store comparison is probably more appropriate.
"absolute" is a bit of a funny qualifier to use here, given the many soundness holes in TS.

For example (included with --strict):

https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/#src=class%20Base%20%7B%...

(I like TS, I just don't think it fully solves this problem!)
There's plenty of dark fiber in numerous metros thanks to the dotcom times, the main issue is last mile premise deployment and the cost of labor involved. You can't miracle away those costs to miraculously hook everyone up without spending billions sans a profit model.
Fair enough, I've toned down that sentence.

That said, though I can sympathise with the frustration, I've learned that sentiments like "ignorant backlash of the public" and "outrage culture damaging a mostly functional market due to sheer ignorance" don't get us to good solutions.

As you said, the problem is a real one, and Volantio has shown that it can be significantly reduced through smart application of technology well before departure time.
They failed to even make the comparison beyond the headline, and oddly, don’t really say anything about how the raspberry store is cool... just that it (might) make sense, contrary to popular intuition
I don't quite get why an Israeli spy would like to get you to say something anti-semitic/anti-Israel. Would he want to blackmail you then? Did he want to make sure you are supportive of Isreal, sort of reverse-psychologically?
Exit strategies have become an important architecturual requirements when we buy systems. I know this article is pointed at consumers, and the comparison to buying clothes is excellent, but it’s actuallly a big thing in modern enterprise as well.

We buy systems we know are going to die. Sometimes they even die because the supplier build something completely new, but mostly it happens when we go to the competition. In either case we still need to be able to migrate our data and business logic seamlessly, and the companies who can’t show us an exit-strategy up front, putting it to contract 4-5 years before we need it, are much less likely to get our business.
Many thanks. BTW, Adioso is not dead, it's resting. We spun it out of Volantio so I could rebuild it only without all the mistakes. Stay tuned.
SJC is an outstanding airport. It's very convenient, easy to access, nice and close to the downtown core that it serves. It would be a shame to lose this gem of an asset.

There are policy and technology options to work around the tightness of the city and the airport. This is a city that needs its airport. It's a rare asset to have such a versatile and productive airport so embedded.
Plotting Cool Looking CFD Streamlines with Matplotlib and Sympy
so I think this kind of managers is the “shit” :)
It's exciting unless you have invested considerable time in learning data-science and machine learning from the ground up and want to make money from it.

Yes, it still needs that expertise to run models well. But those without the expertise sound more confident and then ruin the market with the expectations they elicit.
The study is examining the amount of venture funding received in countries affected by GDPR, which seems unrelated to your statement “startups that never get off the ground because the cost of compliance is prohibitive”. Investors backing off because of perceived costs of compliance do not necessarily mean compliance is all that much expensive. Furthermore, it would appear that the study is incomplete.

> Wagman and Zhe Jin didn’t break down their data by business model, but if companies in the data extraction business receive less funding, Europe as whole and European consumers in particular probably won’t be any worse off.

> There’s also the question of data quality; Jia, Wagman and Zhe Jin cautioned in their paper that their dataset was not complete. And indeed, according to Pitchbook, a multinational firm that tracks public and private equity investment, while venture activity in Europe dropped somewhat in the third quarter and is likely to be relatively flat for the year as a whole, the share of capital received by software companies is higher than ever before, which would suggest tech innovation isn’t exactly being stifled.

It would seem that we are an impasse until further empirical data is collected. Perhaps an American experiment is in order?
Reference counting is a garbage collection algorithm as per CS literature, you are mixing it up with tracing garbage collection algorithms.

Swift makes use of SIL and LLVM bitcode before the final binary is produced.

Likewise C# can be AOT compiled to actual machine code via NGEN, .NET Native, CoreRT and Mono/Xamarin.
We have to change how we grow food. Endless monocrops of corn and soy – much of it grown for animals in industrial feedlots – totally void of biodiversity. Without competition, well-adapted bugs can wipe out entire crops. Hence, the ever-escalating war of farmer vs bugs, fields drenched in pesticides.

There are alternatives: Agroforestry, silvopasture, permaculture. Diverse agricultural systems that lean on natural processes. It would mean a diet of more plants, less animals. But frankly, meat is far too cheap. None of the externalities are priced in.

I stopped eating meat years ago, but still eat fish on occasion. I would rather pay $100 for sushi, than live in a world with no fish.
It's fine just say it anyway.
Look at the messy cables between the monitors. This is how DIY/hacker shop is meant to be.
I'm not a finance person but it seems there is at least a way to put a value on future gains vs present gains, and it looks like money now is always quantitively better than money later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discounted_cash_flow
> In that case you never gain the advantage of dynamic languages.

Treating the code as statically typed makes the code predictable, less prone to bugs, and easier to maintain. If a function's return type is determined by dynamic factors at run-time, it becomes a maintenance and debugging nightmare; the effect is compounded as more and more unpredictable dynamic functions are chained together.

> operate on function arguments regardless of type

parameterized types and other techniques allow you to describe this type of behavior in a type safe way.

> Or generic validation utils that take many types and return the passed in type after performing internal validation logic relevant to the type.

All these things are possible in typed languages.
38% of bugs at Airbnb could have been prevented by better unit tests
I imagine shutting down SJC would be much more palatable if you could hop on a BART from the major South Bay downtown areas and easily get to OAK or SFO.
The OP was frustrated about having to prompt interviewees to talk about their accomplishments and how they always talk in first person plural.

I am in support of this being the natural way of thinking. No one could do what they did without support.

I am also vaguely suggesting that maybe every company’s process of promoting, hiring or giving out bonuses is wrong.
AMD also decided to abandon my Radeon, dropping DX11 class features and video hardware decoding on their rebooted open source driver, so where is the difference?
Yup my bad, my untyped I meant dynamically typed.
Trustworthiness is not an absolute thing. I trust my German government pretty far though, because I know I and my people can eventually hold them responsible for most things. The U.S. government, in most things, I also -mostly- trust, maybe not that far, but a lot farther than Russia or China.

And yes, I'd much rather have the NSA spy on me, than Russia and China. And that often is the choice when choosing technologies.
How to Improve Website Performance
Please reach out to the FBI counterintelligence unit at the San Francisco field office.

It sounds like nothing came of it, but screenshots of text messages, call logs, or other information you have may be of assistance in other investigations.
People don't know how to handle libraries that update frequently because it requires more buy-in on a specific aspect of CI/CD that folks don't often invest in (admittedly because it's not immediately obvious).
Massive discredit for any cause you push?
To talk about "monolithic" systems and "UNIX philosophy" is to not really understand. It's an oft-made mistake, even just considering systemd alone.

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19024256

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13390245

The actual ideas in computing when it comes to modular systems are cohesion and coupling. Modular systems should have high cohesion and low coupling.

The objection to leftpad levels of granularity is that it is high coupling, lots of little modules inevitably requiring one another in large numbers and complex ways. And a lack of any grouping at all is actually a lack of any sort of cohesion, coincidental or otherwise.
And a big part of growing up is controlling those feelings when they lead to outcomes that you'd rather not have.
Awesome, great to hear!

That micro-caching trick was so cool. It wasn't actually for Adioso, but for the Falls Festival, a huge New Years Eve outdoor music festival here in Australia. The coolest application we heard about for that technique was when Google did a doodle for Robert Moog's 78th Birthday [1], and the Moog company's humble little website got hammered.

[1] https://www.google.com/doodles/robert-moogs-78th-birthday
Every now and then, an anustastic conversation on HN comes my way, and I remember how fucking lame this place is.

It’s not just lately. It’s pretty much always. People aren’t worth talking to here.
"Then the stupidity of United and the ignorant backlash of the public ruined it. Infrequent fliers associated overselling with the United incident and completely ignored the functioning 99.9% of cases that benefited all fliers overall."

The United incident had nothing to do with overbooking.
I've had an extremely bad experience with Air Canada that's eerily consistent with this article. Upgrade to business at the ticket counter, assigned seats, and then a red light and a sad noise from the ticket machine when I tried to board. Then a torrent of excuses, blame shifting, and rude behavior. This really soured me on Air Canada.
I once spoke with some Alstom director. He told me that contracts with China required giving away their intellectual property. And they did not have that many other contracts outside China.

I asked him if they weren’t shooting themselves in the foot. He responded: “I can either fire everyone now or in a few years, what would you chose?”.

I’m glad I don’t have to take this kind of decision.
Exactly the example of the FOSS religion I was talking about.

Game devs just want to put shinny pixels on the screen, no one cares if it is a blob or not.

AMD is open source and there is hardly any advantage, X routinely crashs, doesn't provide support for the GPUs that were dropped from the rebooted driver, being stuck with fewer capabilities than fxgl.

Hollywood studios are quite happy with NVidia drivers.
yes this is tinder working as intended. i wish they would ban users like you quicker
Agreed. It’s pretty rare for the airlines to not find the volunteers they need. Often they need to bump up the comp to get them, but they get them.

In fact, I’ve volunteered a few times. If I’m flying back home to visit family, arriving one day later isn’t a big deal when the airline pays for a hotel room, meals and offers enough comp that I could fly back home twice.
Clojure protected REPL