skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think of this as sort of a cop out (on the part of all the people who do it). If you're good at business, then you can have a far bigger impact by creating businesses than by simply giving your money to some charity.

It's ultimately a socially lauded thing to do that divorces the donor from any ultimate responsibility for the amount of "greater good" done with the funds. I think they do it out of fear that they were a lucky, one-hit wonder... and out of low self-esteem or fear of the angry mob.

YC is a great example of a way to use wealth to make a real difference. PG uses his acumen to help a lot more people level up. This multiplies wealth. Spending it on charities simply redistributes it.

It makes me very pessimistic to see that the world's wealthiest people feel the need simply to pledge the money away, and no need to risk total failure by going out on a limb to do something bigger than whatever got them there.

What if Bill Gates tried some long shot idea and it flopped? What if Zuckerberg or Case did? That would take real courage. This pledge nonsense reminds me of the self-satisfied smirks people emit when publicly putting money into the collection basket in a church. Why isn't one of these rich guys going to bat for Wikileaks? (Probably because it feels a lot better to be praised all the time for being such a great person by all the sycophants trying to get you to write a check!)
I can't really fathom why anyone would care what his reasons are. He wants to give away several billion to improve education and eradicate disease and poverty, and beyond that reasons really shouldn't matter.

Carnegie's philosophy on wealth (mentioned in the article) is not a terrible philosophy to live your life by both in the realm of philanthropy and in most other aspects of life.
I agree, and I think it's disappointing to see people pledge money so recklessly. And if it's not reckless, it's some sort of strange self-loathing that I don't understand. Just imagine what he could do by building an equally powerful company meant to fix just one problem...amazing things.
I like that it's about thinking how to give responsibly and effectively, pledging early in life so they can put their creativity to good use, as the article says. People who sign are trading ideas and logistical advice, it's like a book club for philanthropy.
Interesting, I can't find any articles about that in the news and the only reference in google to the quote is the HN comment!

Would be nice to find some other link confirming that story.
Hmm, the only question now is Visa, Mastercard, or Paypal?
Mayer: Google averages an acquisition a week
Ok, so one other, a Swedish national that is also accused of crimes 'against children' as well as 'sex crimes'.
It's certainly commendable to give away a vast fortune, and I don't want to take away from this honorable act in any way.

But I wonder why more ridiculously wealthy entrepreneurs don't, ya know, preneur? Especially in the nonprofit "make a difference space".

A billion dollars to charity is cool. You know what's really cool? A billion dollars towards a celebrity billionaire-spearheaded do-good project. (Or 1 million dollars each towards 1000 projects, etc.)

Maybe I'm missing something, and I'm certainly no billionaire, so I probably am. But if I were a billionaire, I'd be more interested in angel investing (in promising, impactful projects) and my bringing my own ideas to life.

But I digress. Bravo to the billionaires. Really, this is awesome.
I disagree. I've heard Bill Gates speak and spoken with profs who worked with him; he is deeply informed on the health and edu issues he works on. If we can get smart, creative people tackling those, all the better. Some problems don't have a market solution.
German Translation Services in Pakistan
German Translation Services in Pakistan, Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad
You're being intellectually dishonest, and you're not fooling anyone. This doesn't absolve Anonymous of any responsibility for that they're doing.
Perhaps not, but it is certainly interesting to study. Its a mob where all the members are anonymous, that has no leaders and yet manages to coordinate fairly sophisticated digital attacks. I'd love to grab a sociologist or two and throw in the vague direction of 4chan.
You can give it away while you're alive, or split it between your loved ones and the state when you die. I think it would be more fun giving it away to those most in need rather than enriching those who've already had a pretty good life... and your loved ones, too.
Why not just write a twitter API emulator so that GitHub can integrate with Twitter clients? The interface seems mostly the same.
Which is funny in a morbid way, because I think he's actually a lot safer from a possible hit in a UK prison than outside of one. The last place where you could get away with something like that un-noticed is inside a prison.

And I doubt even the US would be stupid enough to try something like that even though there are enough politicians baying for blood.

I wished they were as assertive about bringing people to trial when it comes to the Guantanamo inmates.
If Facebook does go the way of preceding social networks, it will happen in a very different way. They're a much more competent and diverse company than Friendster, MySpace, and Bebo were.
Why hate on the $15 dude? He's into doing quick designs and he'll probably have a steady stream of work. Do people feel threatened by that?
Oh my. It uses all these inane macros (in mac.h):

#define BEGIN	{
#define END	}
#define IF	if(
#define THEN	){
...

Style was a little different in 1979!
Yes, for some reason they do not mention the number of Android phones sold a day, though this is still an interesting number. Apple, Google and Microsoft are all playing the numbers game, Apple only talks about iOs devices sold (not iPhone, iPad, etc...), Google talk about activations, and Microsoft are happy to talk about kinnect numbers, but not their phones.
Gates might be the exception, and I do admire his work on malaria. But I really do wonder if there isn't a bigger idea that he's cowering away from in his quest to simply give his fortune away.
zuckerberg doesn't even have $10mil cash, let alone billions.
it's all on paper.
It may seem that they are just giving it away to charity. But many of the donations that Bill Gates provides are making new waves in terms of research, development techniques and expanding microfinance.

They are not just pledging money away. These are serious investments that are evaluated in the same way a VC/Angel pick a startup. A colleague of mine tried to apply/pitch to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the event (many people pitched) lasted six hours with two reviews and rigorous questioning. He was not successful, but he said it was a very thorough examination.^1

Bottom line: A portion of these pledges are more than putting money into collection baskets, it is putting it into the baskets of third world women who need an extra sewing machine to make ten more shirts so their kids can go to school and have food.

1 - I am sure not every donation is made this way
Ari, aside from legal issues, I think it mostly depends on how hard the installation process is going to be. If you manage to design a very small PCB which will use bluetooth, can be fit inside radar and needs only three wires to solder (DGND, VCC and LED's anode), then you can easily get some users, especially in the Valley where ppl love gadgets which they can create or expand themselves :-).

BTW. For those who are afraid of openning up their detectors you can easily desing a special version which will hook up to the LED using photo-resistor. I.e. a kind of device you stick up to detector and put its sensor over detector's LED.
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Agrees to Donate Fortune to Charities
Does anybody have a more technical description of this? as they say, the devil is in the detail
Check out http://coderun.com/ Is this what you had in mind?
This is from the PDF on the giving pledge website:

"The pledge does not involve pooling money or supporting a particular set of causes or organizations. The pledge asks only that the individual give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes or charitable organizations either before or after their death."

Interesting way to do this. I still don't really understand the need for a pledge of this magnitude, but at least they aren't pooling the money or soliciting for specific causes.

That being said, I still think Zuck is far too young to make such a strong commitment.
A couple of months ago a Swedish newspaper ran a story describing a case of assault, taking place on a ferry from Sweden to Finland[1]. Freely translated with a bit of help from google:

The film shows how the two men drops Christer with punches. Then one of them stomped him five times to the head with full force. The men then disappear into their cabin. After 30 seconds, one of them returns and kicks the unconscious Christer twice in the face. [...] But since the crime took place in Swedish waters, and none of the people involved are Finnish citizens, they were released and returned to Ireland. [...] In Sweden, the matter was taken over by prosecutor Thomas Holst. Despite the surveillance film, and the the two perpetrators being identified, he decided to drop the investigation.
- "The people can't be contacted", he says.

But they are known and available in Ireland?
- "If we were to try to bring home all the people who committed crimes not serious enough, we would get very busy."

He doesn't see asking them to be extradited as a realistic option.
- "We only do that kind of thing when it's serious crimes - like murder."

[1] http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article8031457.ab
The smartphone wars: Google changes aim
He is, but he's exceptionally helpful and generous with his time. Has my utmost respect.
Ask HN: Email/SMS ads?
I'm working on a web service which requires email and phone number during signup. My proposition is, if the user signs up to use the free service, I can text/email that user once a month.

First: what do you think about this model?

Second: Where can I find people/business to pay for the ads (both email and sms)?
I'd rather see more people following the lead of Elon Musk than Bill Gates. Instead of throwing money at problems that will always exist and producing no real value, Musk is creating high-tech jobs and advancing the state of humanity.
I realize Gates does this and I think it's great.

I just wonder if Gates might have the ability to do far more if he just invested in himself.
perhaps, but if you teach and educate your children how they can duplicate your success, and give them a headstart with the fortune you've built, then you can do just as much, if not more, than the charity down the street.

Look, I'm not advocating against giving, but I don't think jumping into pledges is the smartest way to begin.
Lua: Amazing how much you can accomplish in a tiny language that has just one data structure.

Perl: Proof that line noise can be executed.

PHP: A simple language for simple people.

FORTRAN: Accounts of its death are exaggerated.

COBOL: Still the world's biggest code base.

Erlang: When 5 9's just isn't enough.

Haskell: It will make you look leet.

J: Brevity is the soul of wit.

Forth: RPN great is.
Looks OK from here. I did see a few missed DNS resolutions redirect to a parked site earlier this evening but it was random and brief. I don't think its related.

No one would whack that hornet's nest with the kind of stick trying to take their domain would be.
Can Wikileaks cause the end of the Internet as we know it?
We are watching an interestingly dangerous event unfold right before out eyes: The internet being used for cyber-terrorism and cyber-extortion. This is dangerous, very dangerous and it can potentially lead to a, perhaps justifiable, hammer coming down hard in the form of legislation, controls and regulation that none of us want.

Maybe this marks the end of an "innocent" era on the internet. I don't know. Whether you think that the people behind Wikileaks are ideologically right or wrong, it is hard to argue that this has the potential to cause a lot of damage to the internet community. The "free" part of the internet might very well be at stake at some levels.

Is this a time for internet power-players to join forces to, effectively, find a way to extinguish the wikileaks fire? I don't know.

What is true is that their continued actions are tantamount to messing with the bull. The problem is that we might all get the horns in various forms, not just them. It doesn't take much to shut down the internet, particularly if government bodies suddenly decide that there are national security risks at hand. Think about that for a moment when you decide to support or aid these morons in any way at all.

I don't know about you, but I have zero interest in the internet becoming highly controlled and regulated. That's one of the risks here.
Ask HN: Is the state budget crisis a reason not to move to California?
For a techie considering moving to the US and trying to choose a place to settle are California's budget crisis & high unemployment enough reason to avoid moving to the state?

My natural choice would have been the Valley but I hear there is a net outflow of Californian residents, the already in-bad-shape schooling system is due for some cost cutting, and that there is a big chance taxes will increase.

If the idea is to balance living in a tech hub vs. raising a family where would you choose to move to? Given the economic situation, would New York or Massachusetts be good alternatives to being in or around Silicon Valley.
nice to see you pivot as fready. i do think that your idea and implementation has legs (http://sundarsubramanian.com/learning-from-a-y-combinator-in...)
AFAIK, Jobs has still not committed.
Point made but I think it ignores the underlying reason we have $15 website templates in the market.

The crowd on HN should remember that businesses of all sizes have had it drilled into them for the last 10 years that they need to be "online" and have a website. Economics 101 Supply and Demand says that this explosion in demand cannot be met by full-service web designers or elite design shops. Not many can afford to pay the few guys that write books on CSS and HTML to handcode them a website.

The market met the demand and came up with a method to supply the 80-90% of websites that are simply a presence online. The method was to commoditize the product and churn it out in mass volume. This also happened to RAM, PCs, mobile phones and even houses (in some areas)

This is why we have themes, templates, wordpress, HTML for dummies, Odesk, Elance etc. Its just the market meeting the demand.
I think by "emmitting" Tocomment means "sending update to the server", thus notifying everyone who is connected and is in some certain range from the point.
It does sound like an interesting service. I'm sure you'll apply your learnings from GoBuzz into your next venture.
How dare bill gates help people get access to clean water and better agricultural techniques!
Andy Rubin: 300k Android Activations per Day
Ask HN: Can a self-taught developer make a less suck website?
I got laid off more than a year ago. I decided to in another direction, and picked up the PHP cookbook, and the Definitive Guide to \(.)*\ from my local library. I was unemployed and had time. So I designed, and developed my first website (www.distractmefrom.com), believing Web 2.0 was a hot sector, which would make it easier to be gainfully employed.

The problem is that I don't know if my site is good, or not, since I've never worked in the field--I'm a hobbyist--so I don't have a large tech network to solicit advice.

So I'll leave up to you guys. Do you think my site could get angel funding? And if you're from google, reading this, please hire me.
WikiLeaks: The Web Unconference
In "Wikileaks the unconference", anybody from anywhere in the world can share their opinion through a free 30 minute real time presentation using any live video streaming service (Justin.tv, ustream.tv). Join us, share your opinion, and interact with others.
This is getting close to being a No True Scotsman type of situation. I'm reasonably sure that mobs were present during the French revolution, for instance.
> I choose JS because it is the only language that runs in the browser as well as the server (<--- Killer feature)

That's what I was getting at - that JavaScript is popular because of the position that it is in (not because of the ECMAScript specification). JavaScript could have been a number of languages, the fact that it happened to be JavaScript, is more a result of a externalities than the language itself.

JavaScript was originally developed on an incredibly short development cycle, so I would be very surprised if we couldn't create a better language for the browser after 15 years of experience.

As far as JS on the server - I don't really see the advantage (other than it's a language that people already know). Having written several Node apps, using a single language didn't strike me as a "killer feature" (especially since their usage is fairly distinct - manipulating the DOM vs manipulating data stores and what have you). Different tools for different problems. I don't see JS as being superior for solving server-side problems.
Ask HN: SMS alert you want?
I made a small app for myself with SMS alerts. I'd like to make more apps like this.

Is there anything that you'd like to receive an SMS alert for that you're currently not able to?
Every comment except this one is just a repeat of the stuff said in the original reddit discussion
From my comment on the dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1985431

Most of the underlying protocols are described here, though it is a bit out of date:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.78....

Essentially the core protocol is a gossip overlay. This generates random connections between peers in the overlay. Over these connections peers transmit information like recently seen torrents, recommendation lists, download/upload totals for other peers etc. Each peer proactively distributes known torrent files so that every peer builds up a database of torrents. Then search just works by broadcasting queries to nearby peers.

The algorithms used have dozens of applications outside of filesharing. I wrote my MSc dissertation on a similar subject:

http://scattered-thoughts.net/one/1283/644001/538941

The code for Tribler is naturally very specialised to their purpose. At some point I want to sit down and reimplement them in such a way that they can easily be reused and recombined for other applications. I have some vague ideas about building a prototype trust-based distributed database for dot-p2p.org based on similar principles.
BASIC - Got me started, taught me how to think like a programmer

C++ - Fun in a perverse sort of way, especially when using templates

C - Fast, simple, elegant, perfect

Java - Great keyboarding practice. I touch type because of it

PHP - I don't have to use it anymore

Smalltalk - Huh, so this is basically Inception?

Lisp - Promoted good beard growth.

Erlang - I now have an idea of how to go about building a telecom company

Perl - Because brainfuck was too legible

Python - Show me on the doll where TIMTOWTDI touched you

Ruby - How do you feel about writing psuedocode and then executing it (albeit very slowly)

Assembly - Helped me get into character for an 80s night party
> Does anyone take academic HCI seriously in industry?

Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, and Google have fairly big academic-leaning HCI groups as far as I can tell; they even publish quite a bit at places like CHI. Apart from machine learning, graphics, and storage systems, it's one of the easier areas for a Ph.D. to get hired in industry.
Conspiracy as Governance (Julian Assange)
The quest to give his fortune away and cowering from a bigger idea?

He is changing the way development works. He is better funded than almost anyone else with no obligation to any other stakeholders (namely governments and political entities that use aid as a political chip).

He gets the opportunity to, as a private individual, challenge the market failures of our time. Who else is going to fund research aimed at saving the world's poorest with little chance of ROI? He can basically act like China does with their foreign aid but without taking all their natural resources in exchange.

If you truly think there is some big idea he is cowering from, you may have the greatest imagination I know of.

It doesn't read like a quest to give his fortune away, it looks more like a quest to try and solve some of the most intractable problems of poverty that the world faces. His legacy is trying to make the world a better place for the people sitting at the very bottom who capitalism has forsaken.
You know, for a fresh design for my personal blog, or another take on something, $15 is great.

Would I use it for client work? Uh, no.

What's the worst that could happen? He gets too busy? He flames out after a couple weeks? Either way he got some experience and learned some stuff and built a portfolio and got paid to do it.

Way more upside than downside.
I believe WikiLeaks has highlighted two important weaknesses of the Internet.

1) The DNS situation. It shows how fragile internet navigation is, and the recent discussion (and growing success) of a distributed DNS protocol is trying to fix it.

2) DDoS attacks. Less than one thousand people (figures in another article on HN) should not be able to take down the websites of multi-billion dollar companies, regardless of the botnet and continued hammering.

The solution to #1 is trying to quell such fears as you described.
Can we consider it as Civil disobedience of the modern age?
Typically a rape victim does not throw a party in honor of their attackers, nor do they tweet about them as 'the coolest people in the world'.

The party was organized, and that tweet went out before the alleged incidents: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40551118/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in...
Your wonderings say a lot about you, and nothing about Bill Gates.

You're the reason fame sucks. He picks a direction, and some nobody starts psychoanalyzing him and pretending that his attempts to solve incredibly large global problems is just a cop-out so he can't do some new software business instead.
After a certain point, you obviously don't need any more money, but a lot of super rich people clearly can't help themselves in trying to accumulate more wealth.
I share neither your certainty that malaria will always exist, nor your belief that ending the epidemic would produce no real value. Along with HIV, it has crippled a continent and caused immeasurable suffering.

Elon Musk is doing great things. How many other potential Musks are there whose opportunities to do such things were cut short due to the very problems the Gates foundation addresses? Even just in his home country, South Africa, there have likely been a few.
I earn a pretty good salary in a developing country. 'Pretty good' is quite relative and would be minuscule compared to salaries in the developed world. But - I live a comfortable life here, and 10% of my monthly salary I donate is sufficient to support 2 kids for schooling, lodging and food.

So, yes, starting small means a lot, and it doesn't need to be a huge amount at all.
I think freedom (as in speech) is deeply embedded in the very fabric of the Internet.

I believe that regulation is inevitable, but I applaud any force that encourages law makers to abide by the laws they create.

EDIT: FWIF I don't think the DDoS is helpful; that should be illegal if it isn't already.