skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The confusion over this issue springs from the overloading of voting as both "promote/demote" (community appropriateness) and "agree/disagree" (personal opinion).

It's easy to understand why a 'demote' should be withheld once the community goal of deemphasizing a inappropriate comment has been reached.

It's harder to understand why someone should withhold their personal opinion, simply because they were later to vote. To the extent the net score is an opinion poll, more votes are more representative, no matter how late they arrive.

These two sometimes-conflicting senses could be split into two axes of community feedback, one promote(up)/demote(down), the other agree/disagree. Agree/disagree would be shown as a different score, or tiny sparkline-like bars reflecting not just the net value but the separate agree/disagrees totals. Then people would have an outlet for 'piling on' with personal opinions without unwanted karmic or order-of-display impact.

This might also serve to highlight some interesting classes of comments: those respected (upvoted) but generally disagreed-with, or those with high simultaneous levels of both agreement or disagreement. (Right now there's no way to tell if a comment scored 1 has no votes, or 20 upvotes and 20 downvotes.)

(My previous comments suggesting the same can be found via http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=214521 .)
"Please don't downvote comments that are only mildly mistaken or disagreeable to scores as low as -10. That kind of score should only be for spams and trolls."

Why not just limit it to -5? There's already the flag for spam and trolls. Just add that to comments as well as posts.
Using geometry to solve algebraic problems
News.YC was "manipulated" from the beginning. There have always been customs about how to behave, and software for enforcing some of them. For example, there has always been protection against spam and sockpuppets.

The most important thing to me about this site is the community. In any community you seem to have to have rules to prevent abuses.
Pundits are largely hacks. Hitchens seems to me more in the tradition of the public intellectual (I think Orwell's a fair reference point). He's in the media game but not nearly as much of it as, say, David Brooks. He's also pretty fearless about breaking the rules. Pundits don't do that.

I'm really not as big a fan of Hitchens as my comment made it sound. There's just one thing that makes me giddy and that is his fabulous English style. That exquisite combination of literacy and wit really does belong to a great lineage, and I love it. That's probably why the reference to "Vanity Fair writer" got my goat. Todd Purdum is a Vanity Fair writer. Christopher Hitchens is Christopher Hitchens.

Since I'm already going on and on about this (and well into baitland for the !HN crowd), I have a couple questions. I'd love to hear some credible answers if anyone's game. So: among the pundit and journalist classes,

1. Who else would have the integrity or the balls to have himself waterboarded in order to be able to write meaningfully about torture?

2. Who else would, or could, ever write something like this: Stone earned himself constant surveillance from an already hostile F.B.I. until the foul racist and pervert J. Edgar Hoover finally turned into carrion on a full-time basis in 1972.

Doesn't sound like punditry to me!
I thought karma had an influence on how something appears. If not what is the point of karma?
No, it was more of a fantasy, or as Orwell put it, a "fairy story".
The one button sign-up
What Is GM Thinking?
Man on the Moon, Future and Past
"Complete independence" is partially based on net wealth. If you have 100 million in the bank, you can tell your boss to buzz off, so it's a moot point.
"CIA officers who have subjected themselves to the technique have lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in."
You really shouldn't comment about GPLv3 if you haven't bothered to read it. GPLv3 says NOTHING even _remotely_ similar to what you quoted. In fact, the only real difference between GPLv3 and AGPLv3 is that AGPLv3 has exactly the requirement that you quoted above!

I don't care if you like GPLv3 or AGPLv3, but at least get your facts straight.
Amazon has had the problem of bi-modal review distributions for a while (most reviews are either 5 or 1 stars.) They've done some ineffective things to try to change that, like specifically requesting reviews from people. But then, unless people are emotional about a product, why bother?

Skinner: [Looking at political buttons at Cockamamie's] Hmm. These campaign buttons are all partisan. Don’t you have any neutral ones? "May the better man win," "Let's have a good, clean election," that sort of thing?

The best solution would be to do what governments have always done: Limit the amount of votes per person.
Please someone down vote this topic for me, as I don't have that ability yet. He's posting someone's post on something that they think is weird just because they don't understand the language..
Technology: It’s at the Scene of the Crime but not the Criminal
When bugs really do matter: 22 years after the Therac 25
Good points (though I suppose they didn't use cellophane during the Spanish Inquisition either). Even more than that is this:

flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me

Real torturers don't do pre-arranged signals. This is a huge difference. It means that real waterboarding and what Hitchens endured aren't even in the same category. Hitchens' experience would be better described as a kind of lower bound for what people being waterboarded go through. And he does in fact say so in the final paragraph.

Edit: interestingly, it turns out that he didn't give the pre-arranged signal. He thought he did, but what actually happened was that he lost consciousness.
Sell Your Old iPhone For Quick Cash: Exclusive Offer For TechCrunch Readers
I've never downvoted a story before but this one deserved it; but now I can no longer downvote! I am sad.
Hmm how is your barebonesmvc framework different from this? http://tiago.zusee.com/code/nicedog/
Ok... well here is something that especially bothers me when working at my shell prompt. In vim, I press W to skip to the first character of the next word, where the only word delimiter is whitespace. In emacs, M-f moves forward to the next word, but any punctuation (including underscores, strangely) is considered to be a separator. So how do I perform this movement in emacs?

In vim, I press l to move to the right one character. In emacs, it's C-f or I have to reach for the right arrow. Do you really think the movement commands in emacs are just as convenient as vim?

I think moded editors mirror the desired functionality perfectly. In some cases, I just want to be typing a lot of stuff, and when I'm doing that, I'm in Insert mode. In other cases, I want to move around the file and make various minor edits, and for this I'm in Normal mode. How is that "simply wrong"? It's basically similar to when a user of a point-and-click IDE would switch from typing stuff to pointing-and-clicking on stuff.
Alternatively, you could let people downvote as much as they want but cap the karma hit at -10.
Hitchens is one of the leading intellectuals of our time

Sorry, I couldn't downmod that hard or fast enough. Hitchens is a warmed-over Trotskyist. The fact that he ever had doubts about water torture's status as torture should give you a clue into his mental state.
"... I don't buy his (Neil Young)aversion to mp3s. Vast majority of the population can't even tell the difference between 128kbps and 192bps ..."

I do.

Firstly it shows good taste. NY is a sound quality nut and I for one is grateful ~ http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-9937142-80.html

"We are trying to give them quality
whether they want it or not. You
can degrade it as much as you want,
we just don't want our name on it."

When I listen to Old-Black http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Black with the amp cranked up loud I really want to hear the sound (distortion and all) and not the technical limitations that some company puts on it as is the case of iPods. Don't beleive me listen to Doug Kayes explanation on mp3 recordings ~ http://podcastacademy.com/shows/detail1600/

As for marketing I don't think the "rich hippy" really needs it.
There is no such thing as downvoting stories. Welcome to Hacker News.
Really? I'm curious why you say that, and also why you think the two ("warmed-over Trotskyist" and "leading intellectual") must automatically be incompatible. I certainly don't admire him in every respect. But he changed a lot since 1968, and even then had an individualist streak that was a little deviant for the hard left.

Edit (responding to your edit :)) - I don't know of any evidence that he doubted it before. I would guess the point of the experiment was more to be able to write about it from experience.
China's Oil Strategy
And he knew the entire time that they werent going to kill him, he could stop it, and he wouldnt be subjected to it again.
Good point. However, even if times get tough for Google, the basic principle (a large number of advertisers that trust them are worth more than a smaller number of referrals) still stands. For Google to start screwing their advertisers, times would have to get so tough they'd want to throw their entire business model overboard. Somehow I doubt that will happen.

(and I say this as someone who's not particularly fond of Google to boot)
really? I thought I just haven't got enough karma to do so..
VC's love Nimbuzz, give $15 million
Part of the problem with the tomshardware review is that it has been pretty thoroughly debunked. The test just ran through loops repeatedly until the battery died; what the testers ignored was the fact that since the HDD systems were much slower than the SSD systems the CPU spent more time idled waiting for io, leading to more power spent on CPU cycles and CPU cooling in the SSD tests. The test results fail to note the fact that the SSD systems would run through far more loops than the HDD systems and since the testing methodology was flawed we can't know how much of the battery power went to the CPU/fans vs. the storage systems.
An Open Video to HP
Yep, even the folks promoting Bluray are making the realization that most folks can't tell the difference between it and DVD.
Yippee! Thats great. But how did u findout delicious's and stumbleupon's? By reverse engineering technique... like... Were these found out(or guess-worked) by constantly keeping track of the ranking of content?

Joshu, i think the del.icio.us formula is right, or they might just be using a different time constraint than 1 hour(maybe 2hrs or anything else). Because to findout what's popular they dont require any complex stuff. Simple math as specified in Danny's post is enough for their task.

Go Danny! Go!!!
When your counterparty in a transaction is a $100b business, they have an interest in keeping their end of the bargain. When your counterparty is a 14 year old pimply-faced kid, he has no incentive not to pay.

It would only work with a centralized bank that insured against credit default risk.
I've read everything he's written to date. Which is why the last two were such crushing disappointments.
var message = "Hello";
var blah0 = function (x) {
return function () {
print(x);
}
}(message);
message = "World!";
var blah1 = function (x) {
return function () {
print(x);
}
}(message);
blah0();
>> Hello
blah1();
>> World!

Two lines shorter! Ha! (I know, I know, line count isn't everything, yours better explains scoping, etc :-P)
Depending on how much you hold a grudge...

Everyone who picked on you at high school, everyone who picked on you at primary school, the disapproving family members who told you to go get a real job, the insecure best friend who constantly undermined your confidence, and generally anyone who ever doubted your ability to finish what you started in style.

At least, that's my motivation. It may not be very healthy, but it gets the job done.
You know -- there aren't a vast number of consumer-facing applications that really need this kind of power.

Video games? Ripping a DVD? Editting video?

And what does this mean? As a hacker, am I forced to target my tiny little application to multiple cores?
I guess I've just recoiled against everything he's said. For a sample, look under the heading "On the 2003 invasion of Iraq".

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens

It doesn't warrant much elaboration. I mean,

I, for one, will not have [the Vietcong] insulted by any comparison to the forces of Zarqawi, the Fedayeen Saddam, and the criminal underworld now arrayed against us. These depraved elements are the Iraqi Khmer Rouge.

Well, whatever. The vietcong [1] are still great heroes to him, I suppose. Fine. But the motivations of ordinary men don't change from place to place, and the various arab defenders and the vietnamese communists are almost surely identical morally. His defense of the Iraqi war is pure mind-fuck. I'm not completely against the war, but I understand its grand strategic purpose: To secure vast and necessary oil reserves from encroachment by Russia and China (the latter has been securing incredible resources in Africa, for example. This is no small threat.) But what's his motivation?--it's impossible to say. He just seems inspired by dead ideology.

[1] There was no shortage of atrocities or terrorist acts committed by the vietcong. I understand this as asymmetrical warfare. Hitchens understands this as good vs. evil. Specifically, good.
NIST previews long-awaited mathematics reference
On a properly configured TV, it is easy to tell the difference. My grandparents (85 and 90 years old) can tell the difference between HD and non-HD. They were actually surprised and excited by what a big difference it makes. My grandmother especially got that initial HDTV euphoria, where anything, even sports, is fun to watch as long as it is in HDTV.

The problem is that most folks can't properly plug in and configure an HDTV.
>Vast majority of the population can't even tell the difference between 128kbps and 192bps.

That is true. However, I think most people could be taught to tell the difference on proper equipment, if they were given a double blind test and they heard at the 50th percentile or better.

There is a very real difference between 128 and 192 kbps MP3s in the sound quality that you can really perceive. In 128 kbps MP3s you lose all sounds above 16khz. With 192 kbps there is enough headroom to keep most of the way to 22.1khz which is the frequency limit of CDs. On some very loud passages (like most modern music) a V0 lame MP3 would probably start rolling off the upper frequencies.

192 kbps with variable bit rate is plenty of sound quality for distribution on the internet. You just can never re-encode it so you don't own the music quite as much as if you had the original CDs.

Since I doubt Neil Young is promoting ideally encoded MP3s, you're probably right about the red herring.
I may be mistaken, but I'm not using the term "strawman" incorrectly. I believe his portrayal of an overly extreme and super naive entrpreneur is intentionally used so that it's easily refuted. How many startup founders feel the work they're doing is so unbearable as to consider it "evil"?

> I know people with no money who never worry about money, and I know people with pots of money who worry constantly.

This seems really bogus. I know poor people, wealthy people, and ultra rich people. The kinds of things they each worry about are totally different. Sure, they may all technically "worry" about money, but that's where the similarity ends.

> You've got an education, a skillset, and a salary that is the envy of the world, so what are you so afraid of?

A serious medical condition with myself, a family member, or a friend. Generally any problem that would prevent me from being able to work for an extended period of time. You don't have to be paranoid to worry about this. Unfortunately, it's just not that rare.

More personally I'm afraid of having to significantly limit my interests to fall within relatively limited amounts of expendable time and money or to things that are profitable.
Maybe ComputerGuru just doesn't have enough karma to know about it ;)
There have been so many double blind tests of various codecs (just browse here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec_listening_test ) and they all show that vast majority of people simply cannot tell the difference between 256kbps MP3 and a CD (certainly not within two standard deviations). Sure, some golden ear guys can tell but even they have hard time coming to two standard deviations.

Also, some music actually sounds better as MP3s! Yes, strange...

The fact that some of the 128 kbps samples were consistently judged to be better than their original CD counterparts by this skilled group – even by the best among them – stunned our editor (who participated in the test although his results were not included in the evaluation, and had to confess that he got only 15 points). It seems safe to declare that there is no musical genre that is especially well-suited or ill-suited to compression. It is apparent that there are quite other factors related to the technical aspects of recording that will later adversely affect the results at low bit rates.

Finally, most of the people listen to their music on portable players and/or computers and speakers on those are so bad that you can't really tell the difference between 128kbps and 256kbps. Double blind tests show that there's no statistical significance when you listen on these devices.

So yeah, NY's latest 'better than CD' ploy might work out with audiophiles... same people who buy $400 digital cables and $500 wooden knobs so their music sounds better.

In the end, it all comes down to good mastering and not codecs and delivery medium. Modern music is heavily compressed and there's a lot of clipping and that has nothing to do with MP3s.
I was going to do a follow up on this, but I decided it may be better if I dedicate another article to the topic. I think you've raised a really good point, and there are two really good counter-arguments I've seen so far to working 80 hours a week:

1) 80 hours isn't always more productive than 60 hours of someone else's time, and in fact may be counter-productive.

2) What do you have to show for after 10 years of playing the startup lottery? In your best case: you probably have a huge bank account, but no life left at that point.

I think this deserves a separate discussion. I'll keep this in the back of my head and think it over, post up another response when the time's right. At either rate, it's cool to see your guys' feedback.
It seems we share a distaste for ideologues. You just think Hitchens is more of one than I do. You could be right.

Hitchens on the Iraq war is a little puzzling, I agree. I think it has perhaps more to do with his own evolution than with the matter as such. It's hard to imagine him supporting that war many years earlier.

Anyway, as I said, I like his writing. Looking over that quote page you linked to, I ran across this quintessential statement, about Michael Moore:

Europeans think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities.

I just think that's brilliant. And it makes me laugh. Ok, now I'm really going to get flamed... I had better stop.
We'd offer it for free if we had a way to. But we have to pay the bills and buy new hardware somehow...
Cocoa Text System - Key Bindings on OS X are Damn Powerful
Not very weird, this is weirder: http://calculist.blogspot.com/2005/12/dynamic-scope.html
Apache Hadoop Wins Terabyte Sort Benchmark (1 terabyte of data in 209 seconds)
I'm just one guy, but I think the GetClicky pricing is pretty fair.

We've got some web analytics functionality as part of our marketing software suite and it is one of the more expensive things to support.
Signs You're a Crappy Programmer (and don't know it)
"... Spend countless awkward saturday nights doing that. It beats spending'em reading pop psychology. ..."

I know the feeling.

In following the "shyness" thread, I often get the same feeling I did at school - it's playing the game, learning how to be popular which to me at the time was a complete waste of time. I was more interested in learning or trying to re-definine the game. The big problem with being thrust into social situations that you find awkward is you are at a complete disadvantage. Like a traveler in a foreign land you can simply miss the cues, the locals take for granted. If you are not familiar with the local customs you are going to stumble. It's almost like there needs to be some form of Hackers "etiquette-school" where you can overcome shyness and mind blindness. Where social scenarios are created from modified Jane Austen novels to be practiced to improve your social skills. To pass you have to recognise, decipher and act accordingly in tricky social situations. I partially solve this problem by taking along an "empath" (a tip from StarTrek) who I can consult with. Am I boring someone with technical stuff? Do I avoid that person because their body language is negative? Is it okay to ask this question? But this isn't good enough.

As a budding entrepreneur you need to master these social skills because as in any entrepreneurial activity, you have to some extent with engage human assets. Where I come from this is out of necessity. Like minded people clump together and socialise simply to survive, pass information and advice. Just like here but in the real world. There are advantages in "keiretsu" like activities.

Shyness is simply another hurdle to get over. You cannot let it get in the way. The real problem is in the free market there are other entrepreneurs who are not so reticent or who simply delegate this function. Viaweb hiring Schwartz Communications is one that comes to mind.
He lost consciousness? I thought he said he practically threw the metal pieces to the ground, to the extent he could even though his hands were bound.
I was completely convinced that, when the water pressure had become intolerable, I had firmly uttered the pre-determined code word that would cause it to cease. But my interrogator told me that, rather to his surprise, I had not spoken a word. I had activated the "dead man’s handle" that signaled the onset of unconsciousness.

I interpreted this to mean that he lost consciousness and that the (what shall we call them...) administrators were the ones who made the decision to stop. Reading it again, though, I see that's not obvious. I confess I haven't yet found the stomach to watch the video. Perhaps it clarifies things?

Edit: perhaps his meaning was that he felt himself blacking out, thought he gave the spoken signal, but in fact gave a nonverbal (but still pre-arranged) signal. In any case, the important point is that there were agreed-upon signals to stop the torture, whether he used them or not.