skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A friend of mine markets himself as an internet poet. He writes Firefox extensions, javascript hacks, utf-8 weirdnesses, all in the name of art.

Last month his exhibition was in one of the biggest galleries in the country.

Hope that answers your question :)
Appeal for shen
"Not for one moment did I doubt that you were the Buddha, that you have reached the highest goal which so many thousands of Brahmins and Brahmins' sons are striving to reach. You have done so by your own seeking, in your own way, through thought, through meditation, through knowledge, through enlightenment. You have learned nothing through teachings, and so I think, O Illustrious One, that nobody finds salvation through teachings. To nobody, O Illustrious One, can you communicate in words and teachings what happened to you in the hour of your enlightenment."

- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
By this logic every language should have C-style headers. There's nothing to prevent me from creating a bloated API/interface with or without the framework forcing me to declare it external to the class, in interfaces, headers or otherwise.

In Eclipse it's as simple as using the refactor tool to 'pull up interface' from any God Class of my choosing.

Neither language nor framework can force a coder to apply the Single Responsibility Principle. Coders can be willy-nilly with or without interfaces.
It's gorgeous, I went with him on a small trip around the NYC harbor the night before he left.

And nope, we are no longer working together! He and I left our company around the same time. We were acquired but it wasn't the exit either of us wanted. So he decided to go sailing and I joined an awesome new startup :)
Arduino seems really interesting, I'll have to check that out, thanks a ton.

It seems backwards that an artist has to produce something physical for it to be valuable, but I have no problem doing that if it's necessary. If I were to make prints like you said, do you think slight differences in the same idea would be justification for a higher price? For instance, put some random properties into a visualization, and churn out 1000 copies of that, so each one is relatively unique. Do you think that would be viable?
To me the most interesting part of the article was the means of befouling: the idea that the release of information does not need to have a direct effect, rather that the process of leaking will cause the targeted organization to change its own behaviour from within. I had not previously considered these secondary effects.

If an organization (government, corporate, scientific) thinks that its actions will be scrutinized and that the walls have ears, and if internally it realizes that its methods are questionable and embarrassing, it will become paralyzed with fear of discovery and less able to act effectively. Like an allergic reaction, the leaks themselves are not the point --- it's the body's autoimmune response to the leaks that can be life threatening.
Presumably it's like OS X -- it's a lot harder to make an OS that runs on any old hardware than it is if you know the hardware ahead of time.
I saw Brian Eno talk years ago and he said he thinks we've used computers for the wrong things. He argued that instead of using computers to plow through piles of data to arrive at uninteresting results we should emphasize the ability of computers to generate surprising results from very small seeds of data. Examples of this would be fractals, algorithmic music etc.

There are a fair number of people working on algorithmic & procedural art but a lot of it is pretty dry. If you can find a way to use a computer to create something that really moves people you can probably find a market.
>What did I say HN? What did I say?

You sound indignant, like no one believed you -- but you have like 80 up votes on that comment. Am I missing something?
I think we should all endeavour to explore elements of the Socratic method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method)
The maps are always fine on subways and very useful. The maps on buses, however, are non-existent or for the wrong routes. In addition, there's very rarely an announcement for stops. I would use them much more if this were fixed, as it's so much mental energy to always worry about my stop.
what do you mean by 'perfectionist programmers'? i want all my programmers to be strive for perfection while recognizing that is an unattainable goal and in the end, the software exists to serve business needs and sometimes technical debt needs to be accumulated ( but closely monitored so it can be taken care of later. ) if you don't have a desire to strive towards perfection, you aren't the type of programmer i want working for me. i think what you mean by perfectionist programmer and my idea are probably different, rather interested in what it means to you.
Am I the only one who does not understand what this actually means? Could somebody please provide a summary for the simple-minded / legally uneducated?
FUDsec - The Wikileaks bandwagon rolls into town
25 Even More – Sick Linux Commands
He is smart; not crazy!!
Ask HN: Fear of ToDo lists
I'm far from well-organised person, who remembers everything. To cope with this, I use a bunch of ToDo lists. However, I noticed that I'm afraid to look at my ToDo list. I start doing all kinds of small things just to get away from looking at (and following) ToDo lists. And that destroys my productivity even more than not having ToDo list at all. Then I do at least do what I remember :)

Anyone having similar problems? Any idea how to fix that?

P.S. I tried both paper and digital lists, various paradigms (GTD etc), tons of software.. No luck so far.
How would it be possible for a fucking computer to predict the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, knowing that the cause of the disaster was "a result of damage sustained ___during_launch___ when a piece of foam insulation the size of a small briefcase broke off the Space Shuttle external tank (the main propellant tank) under the aerodynamic forces of launch." o,.O
A perfectionist programmer is never happy with the code and will never want to release a product with bugs -- no matter how minor those bugs are and no matter how urgent the deadline is.
Brian Eno is amazing, and I completely agree with him on all of those points. Maybe programming or math in general scares away artists, but I think there's a lot of untapped value in computers artistically speaking.
he is not crazy , he is sane
Heh. I do this with my kids when they ask for help on their math homework. I won't help until they've made an attempt themselves. First of all more often than not they can figure it out on their own. Secondly if they get stuck, I at least have a better idea of where their mental blocks are.

I learned this approach from my wife, incidentally, who is a teacher.
good advice. Most insurance policies will require a survey as well.
On writing (and law)
You could not pay me to use paypal.
Thank you for giving us all examples of jasonkester's point. I applaud your direct didactic approach. But I fear we are hitting the point of diminishing returns now. We're done here, right?
Yes, but most phones with this resolution report a density of 240dpi and auto sale images to fit the full screen.

Tablets on the other hand have 800x480 screens but report a density of 160dpi and images don't scale up and look like little images in the top left corner of the screen.
I can't quite tell, but it looks like anonymous might be working hard to do some coverup.

Witness timestamps:
http://pastebin.com/re2DZb6m

http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2010/12/anonymous-rele...

http://paulrankin.tumblr.com/post/2166282743/anonymous-has-s...

Clearly two out of three links are trolling, but I'm not quite sure which ones (or all of them.)
While the maps might be bad, they need to update the routes too. Some routes are horrible and there are stops on every other block. In some areas it can take 6-8 minutes to get through 1 lane streets to go 2 blocks.
This had a round before... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1988818

The most impressive thing to me is that a machine like this existed in 100 BC
I generally default to "Yes", but the alternative is "Put this off for later" and folks who are not elementary school English teachers very rarely receive another look to their email if I can't address it immediately. I don't keep track of it but I think this means about 60% of people get yes these days.

Things which induce me to drop what I am doing and immediately get to work on someone's behalf:

1) Demonstrating that you know me well, either through familiarity with what I've done, what I've written, myself personally, or someone close to me.

2) Demonstrating that you have put a lot of work into something and can benefit from specific application of my expertise.

3) A precise request which I can satisfy. ("Can you teach me about running a business?" is not a precise request -- well, OK, it is, but only if you accept "I could." as a complete answer. "I have built an application which does X. I want to increase its organic search rankings for X, and having done my homework about SEO, I understand this means I need to get links to my website. Can you give me an idea for an X-related piece of linkbait?" is a precise question.)

Things which people frequently try that are not as successful as they probably hope:

1) "Help me, Obi Wan, you're my only hope." I enjoy backing underdogs, not losers. There is a difference. Pluck and vim and tales of what you've managed to do make you sound like an underdog. Apologies and lack of confidence and telling me who you've already asked who ignored you totally make you sound like a loser. (By the way, it very rarely improves any negotiation to tell the other party that they were the first person you thought of after the first four people you thought of said no.)

2) "This will only take..." Asking me to drop what I'm doing is much more disruptive than many people would assume it is. Also, folks have a tendency to underestimate how much work is required or how thoroughly I tend to answer requests which I answer.

3) Napkin stage ideas. Most of them will be culled before shipping. Why should I dedicate my limited time on a project which will probably be shelved, when I could instead work on something which will, with certainty, help people?
Games.

If you just want to kill some time playing a new game, you can, then just refund.
i'm interested in your friend's work. can you provide a link or reference, please?
Google was sued without any details of where and how they actually infringe on the patents (which is often the case for blanket patent infringement claims -- sue everyone and see who settles). There is no double jeopardy or anything of the like, so they can just get more detailed and refile.
Android: how to add dynamic table layout to home screen widgets?
has any one tried this?
Absolutely. Also, there are plenty of great open source developers contributing to the Chromium project to help get the OS working on multiple platforms. If you have an Eee or Dell Mini, for example, there are builds for those freely available.
How to run Redis natively on Xen
As a person, you do have the freedom to donate to whomever you like but you, alone, have to bear the consequences. But to use your business account to donate money puts you and your clients (and their livelihood) at risk.

I don't think it's responsible.

Regards
Dr. Mellanby's Tooth Decay Reversal Diet
Ask HN: How do you tell your boss you're ready to move on?
Some would say never do this, but I think it deserves some context.

I have an incredible boss. He's the reason I haven't left this place yet, although he sees, understands and shares my frustrations that corporate is hamstringing a lot of progress.

I work in the IT department of a recognizable company, a global company that produces a wide array of products as a senior engineer. You probably have one of our phones in your pocket, you may even have leftovers from last night in one of our refrigerators. I'll be the first to say this company makes some great products, but working on the inside has been a chore.

Now, I'm feeling unmotivated, unchallenged and just worn out. Granted, I've wanted to get out of IT so badly I actually almost signed up for a Real Estate Brokerage course at the community college.

Two weeks ago the manager of another department came to me and said he's interested in bringing me onboard his team. While I'm already in a great position with a lot of the senior staff for producing good results and in general going above and beyond with building the best help-desk team I possibly could, I can't stand to continue working IT anymore.

How can I relate this to my boss and explain that this new position is something I'm genuinely interested in, and that my decision to pursue it is not because of the team, but because it's just time for a change? I know his chief concern will be to promote someone to my position, and find a replacement, I'm prepared to spend the time sourcing and interviewing my replacement if it makes things go over more smoothly.

Thanks HN
شاتات
Just for the record that Google announced that they allow certain checks - http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2010/11/rewarding-w... (actually encourage and reward - better than people publicly releasing these for sure) but even for them many vulnerabilities are still out of scope. Otherwise as you stated this is illegal in almost all countries.
I got a dog. Seriously. I'm cured.
Your boss has heard it all before. Don't worry about it. He probably already knows you're leaving.

Ask your boss for a private meeting. Sit down. Chances are he'll glance at you and say "So where are you leaving to, then?"

Above all, don't stress about it. It's not as important as you seem to think.
focus on what's important. If management doesn't appreciate you for that, then it's a terrible place to work

Do you mean focus on what's important to you or what's important to management? I agree that if you focus on what's important to the people you work for and they don't appreciate that, then it's a crappy place to work. But what's important to a developer is often completely irrelevant to the business.
Well, that’s the art world for you. Ideas and execution are equally intertwined, executing good ideas means you’re not just some bum. But, an edition is especially infuriating for anyone who knows what github is.

Since artist originality is prized, anything “churned” out would be considered bad taste at best, and an exercise in money grubbing at worst. I’m not exactly sure how well a giclée monoprint would sell, especially in a very large edition. Better yet would be to set up two plates: one that is common between the prints, and then another where you add the random visualization. That’s a monotype (commonality), rather than a monoprint.

As you’re just getting into producing art, I’d say keep your editions low, around 10-30 to start. You’ve heard the parable of grading the ceramics class, right? The professor divided the students into two groups. [a] was graded on the raw volume of pots produced, 50 was a C, 100 was an A. [b] was graded on the quality of their final pot. A perfect pot was an A+. On the final day, the [a] students actually had all of the best pots, as [b] students wasted their time dreaming up the “perfect” pot instead of practicing.
For those interested in mechanical calulation, check out the Curta Calculator: http://curta.org/

I have one of these. It's amazing.
Question: Have you experience with it on heroku? Does it work well there? Any difference between its behavior and the "normal case" of RoR as far as what heroku is designed for to your knowledge?

(Like I've said, got nothing about ruby, just don't feel rails is a good fit for the stuff I do; something lighter weight like this could be a good substitue on heroku).
Since Anonymous is both "everyone" and no-one in particular, couldn't anyone issue releases or do things in their name and it'd be as "official" as anything else? This strikes me as a problem and leaves them open to a miscommunication campaign. Even Wikileaks, which used to be quite shadowy, ended up with Assange as an identifiable and consistent spokesman.
"People want to meet you, but you have to meet them halfway."

Exactly. Reach out to people. Put yourself out there. I'm discovering that the people that are worth getting to know take some effort. I've had lots of "friends" who in hindsight, where just chatty assholes.
Of course, that's what we do. But the problem is finding those people. Facebook provides a way to find your friends. A normal search on twitter will reveal 99% of spammers and 1% or real people.
I can only agree. Recently I wanted to get better at C and started to poke around in wget's bug tracker. I found an appropriate bug and asked twice on the mailing list if my suggested implementation would be okay. No answer in both cases.

Then I just went and wrote the code, put up a repo on Launchpad. I was soon getting many helpful comments.
The difference is where you start. Coming back from orbit you're going to start your run at orbital speed in no air and gradually increase air density. You'll dissipate most of your energy by the time you reach the thick air of the lower atmosphere.

The rail gun cargo is going in the opposite direction - you start in the thick air at a speed greater than orbital velocity. It's been years since I could grind through the numbers, but it makes a big difference
You could replace the floppy drive with a second battery pack on the PowerBook 5x0, in 1994. OK, I know this is useless trivia but I still have one :)
Join a volunteer group, or perhaps a church (that actually does something useful). Mix with non computer people, and contribute to your community. You will feel better about yourself, and help others. Appreciate what others do for school or a living, and they will appreciate what you do, rather than try to run a rivalry.
I think you could replace "legal writing" with "technical writing" and the article would still be on the mark. While it focuses on legal writing, many bits of advice the author gives would apply to many situation where you're trying to explain, convince or illuminate with your prose.
Dave Barry had a great line years ago; something to the effect of "a boat will end up costing you twice as much as you planned to spend, and you'll end up enjoying it half as much as you thought you would".
The 15 minute refund rule is insane. On my EDGE connection, some app downloads take that long.
This is going to make me much more apprehensive about purchasing apps that don't have a demo.
The duration needs to be at least something like 90 minutes to allow me to get a reasonable feel of the app.
Myths Of Building A Great Mobile Team
Yeah. The part of the turret you can see when you look at the ship is only the tip of the iceberg.
Currently, the 24-hour refund rule applies from the start of the transaction. That's okay with 24-hours, but with 15 minutes, it probably won't work.

I'm hoping that if they choose to stay with the 15-minute rule (arguably hurting the UX but helping the Developers), they'll at least make the timer start when the app is first run.
Angry Birds to land on the PC soon
You're thinking web apps. Think "apps that have some views which are to the web, but most data feeds for other services" and you'll be in the zone were in. Json and Xml feeds and the like.
Having just gone through the Google process: no. And IMO that's probably a good thing. Finding a balance between perfection and time pressure is something that should happen at a team level, not an individual level. I wouldn't consider it a mark against a programmer that he's a perfectionist, but I might seek to guide him toward being more pragmatic when the situation requires it.
I know I'm not supposed to snark. But teach yourself LaTeX, Mr. Yudkowsky. It'll be a gift to us all.
Security, Trust and How We Are Broken - SecTor 2010
"Do you listen to music while coding?" An analysis.
Hardware is the New Software
The article really provides no reasoning for a title like that. It just goes on to mention the testing of ChromeOS...

Frankly, I believe it'll be quite a while before people start becoming more comfortable getting away from desktop apps, and use solely web apps.
I got out of my self-induced mode of minimal outside contact by regularly (3x times a week) going to the climbing gym. You go regularly, you meet a bunch of people who regularly go, and there is no pressure to do anything but chat about your common interest, rock climbing. It's fun to hang out in a casual way with people when there is a focus...Some people like to casually hang out at parties and don't need an activity, but that isn't me.

With an example like the rock gym, you can take it as far as you want. You can just be friendly and another regular at the gym, or you can slowly work your way into climbing trips with other regulars, etc. Not to mention, you get in great shape.

BTW, you can replace rock gym with ____ readily (above comments mention dancing), the key is to have a common activity that is fun and lends itself to interaction, learning how to break the ice, etc etc.
That's why they say a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into. It's a beautiful way to spend money though.
I guess the moral of the story, whether PayPal is justified or not, is to have another payment solution in the wings ready to go at any time.
Proof that even smart guys can be stupid sometime.
>Depends on what you mean by the software. The framework overall is very opinionated, even if you can use parts of it in a modular way.

Also, Django is WSGI. WSGI is very easy to add layers to to get the job done. (Side note, does everyone pronounce that Wizz Gee in your part of town? They sure as hell do in Atlanta and it slightly confuses me every time I hear it in conversation but can't figure out they're saying WSGI).
Poll: Haskell or Go?
if you were to pick up a single new language to learn and use in real world server side applications. Which one would you pick, Haskell or Google's go?
My simple rule: find the guy who thinks he is the smartest person in the room and stay the hell away from him.
This is incredibly outside HN's scope.
Mentoring other programmers can be a lot of fun.

I knew a student once who was messing around with Java, and I pointed him at Lisp and some code for a metacircular evaluator. He figured it out in no time flat. It's fun to blow people's minds, and to watch them learn.

But as the article says, you can't help people who aren't willing to roll up their sleeves and go to work.
40 Basic Linux Command Line Tips and Tricks
The First on the web
Love it. Will almost certainly never use it (we're not bottlenecking on Redis), but I love projects like this.
Free No Deposit Bingo
Under US law, you can not donate to whomever you wish. Sending money to organizations flagged as terrorist organizations is illegal. (Not that the US has officially declared the wikileaks org to be a terrorist organization.)