skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"No matter what the function, there is guaranteed to be a neural network so that for every possible input, x
, the value f(x)
or some close approximation) is output from the network"

Okay, so what? You require more and more neurons (ie. parameters) to approximate your function better and better. You can do the same with piecewise constant (Riemann sums). You can do this with trig functions too (Fourier transform).

"This result tells us that neural networks have a kind of universality."

I don't know what this statement means. What mathematical properties do neural networks have that other functions don't? The ability to approximate continuous functions isn't special. Given 5 points, I can perfectly fit an elephant to your function. And it's not like you are fitting the function with as few parameters as possible.
I find meaning in living an enjoyable life and trying to make the life of future generations even more enjoyable (starting with my own kids, but hopefully something wider too eventually).
So there are a couple issues here. Taxes(on the rich), economic opportunity(from monopolies and corruption), land ownership, and implicitly a notion of fairness and these all become merged in to one issue but I don't think they really are all the same at all.

Land ownership seems like a much more mundane part of the economy actually but it is being equated with the entire economy. So what does land ownership have to do with monopolies, corruption, and the rich paying proper taxes? What are proper taxes for the rich to pay?

To me the land ownership issue is being used as a wedge to reinforce a different idea that a tiny percentage of people have economically disenfranchised everyone else. I really don't think land ownership should be equated with that however. At this point, the argument is very different. It's gone from why we should confiscate people's land to what tax rates should be, or who the "rich" are, or why real estate prices are what they are. To me the land confiscation case seems like scapegoating of landowners for things like real estate prices or economic inequality.
That sounds like very honest and value-providing work.

And, though non-essential (down there on a hierarchy of needs), beauty is important to human lives.
Up until probably WW2, war and revolution were the ultimate redistributor of wealth and arguably mitigated or even prevented too much concentration of wealth. Arguably in some cases that concentration is what precipitated wars and revolutions.

I worry about this now, particularly in what's increasingly a post-nationalism era with almost frictionless global capital mobility. The ultra-rich do their damnedest to pay almost no taxes on their massive wealth and buy themselves even greater tax breaks. The Trump tax "cuts" (I say this because for many professionals living in blue states it was a tax increase) were such a nakedly self-serving (even corrupt) wealth grab at the expense of the country. It's depressing how easily manipulated the GOP base was and is in supporting this (or at least not holding their representatives to account).

What difference does it make if you have $50B in assets vs $60B? I mean really?

You gained that wealth because you lived in a country that was politically stable, had infrastructure like roads and bridges and wasn't being invaded or fighting wars (mostly). Someone needs to pay for that.

This almost feels like an algal bloom of wealth. In an algal bloom, individual organisms are finding local optima. The net result however is that everything dies.

So how about this:

1. We need stronger estate taxes. Inherited wealth is a recipe for a permanent ruling class and a pox on our house.

2. Owning land in the US subjects your worldwide income to US taxes.

3. We need to start property taxing income rather than taxing spending. This further lowers effective tax rates.

The last one requires a little explanation. Let's say you earn $100m in a year. As ordinary income this may cost you $40m in taxes. Of course, no one pays that. It's typically structured so you only earn income for tax purposes when a gain is realized.

So if you need "only" $20m to live this year instead you just realize a $20m gain and pay taxes on that, leaving the other $80m untaxed. It's worse than that because not all of that $20m will be a gain. This allows you to offset tax liabilities essentially indefinitely.

But it gets even worse than that. At the height of the QE era, you could borrow money for essentially nothing. So instead you borrow $25m, putting $5m aside to service the debt for some number of years and don't realize any income and pay no taxes whatsoever. Companies were issuing corporate bonds like crazy in this era to avoid US corporate taxes.
What kind of things do you help people with?
Thanks for the info! I hope that can change very soon.

I got into the MiSTer for the Amiga minimig core, watching the project develop has been really enlightening, for example, the wildly interesting MSX completely passed me by as a child in the 1980s.
Nor the emissions when those trees burn because they were planted in a place where waterbed can't support their density. This is happening in CA nearly every year.
emergency doctor
Used to teach music part-time (guitar, theory, composition, recording, production, everything), ended up working +20hr every week teaching only + full-time job. Dialled it down but I do sometimes teach in small groups via Skype.

Now I do a bit of consulting, helping bands with production, composition and chops in general. The plan is to get back to teaching but only through apps.
I established DamnInteresting.com in 2005, a place where myself and handful of others produce original long-form non-fiction in article and podcast form. Despite plenty of traffic, it didn't reach the break-even point for several years, because I despise advertisements and I refused to add them to my site. I funded the project in other ways, such as donations, publishing a book, licensing content, etc.

Nowadays it still only earns a little every month, but that's mostly owing to a rise in expenses (e.g., I pay the contributors more). But profit is secondary for me, my primary motive is to have an excuse to research and write this stuff, and for intelligent people to consume it.
I am into older Maserati's. Own a couple of them. I do a lot of manufacturing myself. 3d printing, cncing. The problem is that whenever I design a replacement panel, wishbones or various other stuff and try to sell them commercialy I will get sued by the original Maserati company. On a low scale it's fine, but you will never get a living out of it.
The only parts which are in a gray area are rims, exhausts, filters, springs and couple of other parts.
My second ever solo my airspeed indicator froze :)
I'm going to say something most likely naive, but I always thought that democracy needed a ladder reset. If online games need to in order to keep the competition healthy and the game fair, why not real life?

Now, how you'd go about doing it, I have no idea.
>> The idea that job applicants get offered wages which they perceive as too low does not mean that there is not a shortage of similar talent on the market, even at reasonable wages, if there even is such a thing.

In the Bay Area, I rarely hear friends complaining of wages "perceived" as too low, usually it is more absolute in terms or it wont pay rent. This isnt usually the case for entry level or medium level jobs. But I constantly hear of this so called shortage of experienced engineers. The fact about experience engineers (10yrs, 15yrs, whatever) is that experience is also correlated with age, family, children and throwing $150k at someone with family simply doesnt work. It isnt a perception issue, you literally cannot fit a family into a studio apartment and afford braces, health premiums, co-pays, etc.
Wow, after skimming the site, this is a really cool idea! Imaginary play is a great thing for kids but it's a hard sell if kids struggle to "come up with" a story... Giving a little bit of structure is brilliant, and based on your customer reviews, it looks well received.
If you were supplying things that less affluent people can afford, you might have different but equally strong regrets about the unsustainable ways that business operates. For what it's worth, the full life cycle environmental impact of cheap plastic laminate counters is likely worse than that of polished natural stone.
For the wealthy, myriad advantages in college admissions (even without cheating)
You're asserting that, but not really giving evidence for it. Do people with very long-term leases really think any differently from home owners? Why?
Sounds like https://hoodmaps.com/ but adding actual walking routes.
I guide sea kayaking expeditions and provide instruction for a local outfitter. It pays for itself, as kayak gear is not cheap, and forces me to exercise my social skills. My "day job" is solo remote founding engineer for a RegTech SaaS.
Here's the latest info I found on PubMed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30968949 - "Home use of interdental cleaning devices, in addition to toothbrushing, for preventing and controlling periodontal diseases and dental caries." As dental plaque is the primary cause [of tooth decay and gum disease], self-administered daily mechanical disruption and removal of plaque is important for oral health. Toothbrushing can remove supragingival plaque on the facial and lingual/palatal surfaces, but special devices (such as floss, brushes, sticks, and irrigators) are often recommended to reach into the interdental area... Using floss or interdental brushes in addition to toothbrushing may reduce gingivitis or plaque, or both, more than toothbrushing alone. Interdental brushes may be more effective than floss. Available evidence for tooth cleaning sticks and oral irrigators is limited and inconsistent. Outcomes were mostly measured in the short term and participants in most studies had a low level of baseline gingival inflammation. Overall, the evidence was low to very low-certainty, and the effect sizes observed may not be clinically important. Future trials should report participant periodontal status according to the new periodontal diseases classification, and last long enough to measure interproximal caries and periodontitis.

Basically, good current dental hygiene practice is to brush and floss like the experts tell you.
I have seen this video and it's well put together. But how does it advocate for reorganizing the economy to eliminate market principles, which is the entire debate we are having? Great video, but wholly irrelevant to this discussion.
Look, your original description was basically the textbook definition of supply and demand in a free market. Intuitively it’s explainable, but in the 21st century, at least in many parts of the western world, the wealthy are essentially driving the ship and steering economic and political outcomes to their own advantage. You’re describing a perfect utopia, which doesn’t exist.

>The alternative to letting the individual determine what they want is to let someone else choose for them.

Really because we can’t use policy or regulation to have folks pay some cost for the impact their decisions have on society?

Your black and white view of the world is incredibly misguided. Your post reminds me of a recent commentator on FOX News stating socialism would turn the US into Venezuela... LOL
Or you can do:

git fetch
git rebase origin/master

I usually use `git fetch --prune` to clean remote refs.
Just bought Deep Work because you mentioned it; Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You was refreshing.
This site is so old it's almost a museum piece itself, but it is basically the Wikipedia of historical computers.

http://www.old-computers.com/
Android 6+ is quickly becoming the norm for app development support and within at most two years 5.0 will become obselete.
Water would be a problem, although that could theoretically be solved with solar powered desalination.

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_greening
Antivaxers are popping up everywhere.
Yes

https://youtu.be/stc5MUIloP0
> Some win, others lose, but the status quo is that we are sweating from work in order to live in a world with smart refrigerators, automatic garage doors and pointless baby toys.

Where do you draw the line as to what is frivolous or not? Technology in the kitchen and the Pill enabled women to go to work and to delay childbirth to a time of their choosing. More to the point, who are you to decide on where the line is?
Humans.
There were known Ainu populations in northern Honshu as well before the Yamato fully assimilated them, though this process happened centuries ago. The Ainu were not limited to Hokkaido.
> Sell plant starts - a little late for this year, but it's one of those things you can save seeds from your regular groceries / food prep at home and early Spring...ba-da-bing ba-da-bang...kind of almost free plants!

Might work with vegetables, but aren't most grocery fruits derived from cuttings?
Have I Been Pwned Uses K-Anonymity
>Apple freely replaced it for 6th Gen nano after several years due to battery issue in the former.

My iPod Nano was similarly replaced with a 6G version. However, I also received a cheque for $5 approx. in lieu of an earlier class action lawsuit, which I never banked and still have it somewhere.

https://www.cultofmac.com/166069/bought-an-ipod-between-2006...
Aside from the things mentioned: Like software, wood is something that is around us everyday, but very few people really stop to think about how it's assembled. Wood and technology are things we can never seem to escape in human civilization.

People see computers like a black box that does magical stuff, in the same way they will look at a curved wooden chair and simply sit in it, without thinking how it got to be in that shape and how the carpenter knew it would be a safe design for holding a person's weight. People also don't think much about the types of woods used and their special properties, similar to how people don't think much about technology stacks and why certain applications work better than others.

In wood working it's also common to make other tools and jigs out of wood for you to use, to make other kinds of cuts easier. This is the same as writing smaller programs that do one task to help accomplish other tasks. A woodworker may use a series of tools and jigs to produce some end result the same way a programmer may pipe different programs together to make some end result. Each tool is a lot like a discrete program with input parameters that applies some effect to a piece of wood, and their combination allows for the production of a multitude of wood works.

Also, when you get good enough at building furniture, you will begin to wonder why people would pay so much money for something you could easily build yourself, similar to how people wonder why pay for Dropbox when you could just mount an FTP server on a filesystem and use some version control. $400 for a coffee table is ridiculous, I could build the same thing for maybe $100 in wood, and probably better, because I can be sure it wasn't mass assembled by a crackhead following basic instructions in a sweatshop.
That's such an awesome little hack. Next think we need is to synchronize multiple tabs and a multi-player favicon game where you get to shoot the tabs of your opponents.
China tried it and it's not really working https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-North_Shelter_Forest_P....

Also looks like a similar project in Africa https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Wall
The soil is generally fine, the limiting factor is water. In Central Oregon's "Lake County" near where I live, 10-20k years ago was dense forest and thousands of deep clear water lakes. It's all desert now except for the "Lost Forest" near Christmas Valley. A fascinating enclave of ancient trees that somehow survive in the middle of the desert due to what is suspected to be an unusually shallow ground water system.
Usually dealing with stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Sometimes helping people change habits: work out more, lose weight, etc.
I watched this show when I was a kid by the end of 80s on Brazil! Thanks for remembering the show!
On Game of Thrones, humanity has plot armor
It's a bit boring TBH. Basically OCR+NER, I guess some journalists have already done similar stuff using Google's NLP API.
Hence the quote "Computers are like a bicycle for our minds." It never really caught on, though.

How about a person in a glider playing in thermals.
Would be interested if anyone in here has a pipeline operating on regulated data (HIPAA, financial, etc). Having a hard time drawing boundaries around what the data science team has access to for development and experimentation vs. where production pipelines would operate. (e.g. where in the process do people/processes get access to live data)
Yeah you're right. I think that's the point the gp comment was making originally. It's not just developed countries either. There are massive industries supporting millions of people that are non-essential. The problem is many of them actually do provide a large increase to quality of life. The improvement granite counters make is questionable, things like computers, phones, vehicles and other large scale damaging things, while not necessarily essential, do bring a dramatic improvement to quality of life and paradoxically enough allow people to make money providing.what is likely another non-essential service or product.

It's always been like this though. In the end, there's no reason for humans to have ever made most of the things we have over the millenia other than because we can and did. Once we had food and shelter and all these things pretty much taken care of, everythong else after was pretty much just for the fuck of it and we've always been at odds with the world and destroyed and altered our environments. The scale has just kept increasing to the point where there are massive global industries devoted to this.

At the same time, humanity still follows our basic survival insticts. We still have that inner subconcious mentality of scarcity when it comes to essentials. So it ends up being treated the same way in our economy as luxury goods and you end up in this situation where people are trading non-essential things for essential things.
Off-topic question, purely for curiosity: MicroSD cards aren't particularly great for IO, correct? What's a next-step-up IO that would still be cheap, and do any companies sell an equivalent-to-RPi3 board with better IO?

(USB should be better than MicroSD, but that takes up CPU, correct?)
Yes that's true, but the actual percentage of ownership hasn't changed, it stays the same. But the bigger issue is that the economy is not really a finite thing. Owning a certain amount of land, maybe by inheritance is not the same as owning a never changing percentage of all the resources. A good counter example might be something like inheriting shares of Google, or Amazon. Those people might never have owned any significant percentage of land but that did not stop them from owning something else that is more valuable than the land. So the resources change over time and I don't really see why land ownership is being used as a proxy for everything. Now, also, you may have not been making that point yourself but just clarifying. I just want to talk people down from the land confiscation movement because it seems destructive and pointless.
> Not all of the lessons of history apply in a post-scarcity world.

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

I'm not sure what you mean by "post-scarcity"? Things may be "available", but that doesn't mean people have access to them.

While it's nice to think of land as "unowned", in practice, someone controls it, and they almost never have the interests of the occupants in mind. Besides, I've found that people tend to treat property better when they consider it theirs and have space AWAY from people.

Going along with your point though, it might be best if everyone received some designed size plot of land (large enough to build a small family residence on at least). Yes, there would be competition, but in competitive areas, the land plots could be smaller. In "unwanted" areas (Kansas, Wyoming), plots could be large enough for profitable cattle and farming industry. The good thing would be that no one would be without land to built on; they would have their own space to "be them" and live as they wished without rubbing shoulders with their neighbors (which tends to make Americans rough around the edges, regardless of age/sex/political views). Currently, many people struggle just getting an apartment, let alone a house.
Notably, the mechanics of a new system would need to be worked out, and would likely be abused, manipulated, and ruined because of selfish people, but it's a nice thought.
mutt

Nothing better!
You have wildly mistaken the plain meaning of that statement. They declare their model suggests global warming will drive the loss of carbon from soils - not Trees, or aforestation programs.
1. Mostly Craigslist, with a bit of AutoTrader. The reality is AutoTrader is swamped with dealer listings and sponsor listings that I don't feel I'm receiving any additional value for their listing fees.

2. Repairs and preventative maintenance. We average ~4 feet of snow a year, so tie rod ends, wheel bearings, control arms, bushes, flex pipes, exhaust hangers, etc. suffer since no one really maintains a steel car properly. The reality is when even a Honda or Toyota dealer is $125/hour and a Lexus or Acura dealer is $175/hour, people don't replace $18/ea bushings -- but when things rattle or feel loose, they sell the vehicle like it's going to explode.

These aren't difficult repairs, they just require lifting the vehicle (I have a Bendpak Quick Jack) and doing it. People also don't properly clean their undercarriage, and rustproof. I do. Very easy, very inexpensive. Though when many people treat cars as disposable, it lets a lot of nice stuff come onto the market for the well-inclined.

3. Not an issue unless you're in Porsches on up with encrypted ECUs, and even then, that prevents MODIFYING them, not reading diagnostics. Regardless, this has been a problem 0 times since I've started many years ago. OBD-II is a wonderful thing, and there's no weird shenanigans coming from Honda/Toyota at all.

4. I only do paint correction, as in "level a clearcoat" to a mirror finish, and only for vehicles that merit it (let's ignore that any car sub-$150K new comes with some level of orange peel). I do not buy any vehicle that needs a respray, ever. It can be DIY'd very well, but the amount of labor is prohibitive. Not enough money made for the time spent.

5. I've an umbrella policy, mostly because I have one for my primary business, in the odd event I ever were sued. In general, vehicles are sold as-is. Zero concern here.