skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Personally, I never ever give my email credentials out. I totally agree with Jeff Atwood on that.

However, while you're at it, why not ask people for their facebooks/myspace credentials? You'll find many more "friends" there than in my email contacts, plus facebook is far less sensitive privacy-wise. If someone got hold of my credentials, the maximum they could do is deface my profile and send some stupid messages to friends. If they got hold of my gmail account, they could access almost every other account that I have through "forgot your password" links...

Not that I'd actually give you my facebook credentials though :)
Most of the Hackers I know (including myself) are interested in Robots. It doesn't matter if it's some ground breaking invention from Anybots/NASA/RandomSmartyPants or if it's something funny like this.

I also appreciate a random "Hacker Humor" post now and then!
Dimensions, a computer-generated movie illustrating dimensions 2, 3, and 4.
Not enough syllables.
> The only real up side is looking for the job is REALLY fun.

... and you get compensated in experience. ;)
This product has great synergy with my geospatial social death-squad meetup app!
But the whole point/problem with the "Long Tail" is that it's inefficient. A single person can benefit from a single portion of the Long Tail without trouble, and all the different single persons benefiting from all the different little portions of the Long Tail add up to make something huge; but for one person to mine through the entire Long Tail isn't easy.

It's been the concept of many social networks, from Technorati to Delicious and even to HN - the Long Tail is difficult to mine, inefficient to follow-up on, and generally not worth the trouble when you can keep up with the A-list instead.

I'm sure there are some non-Blockbuster movies that would fit me perfectly and that I'd enjoy them far more than my current "top 10" Hollywood moovies; but, you know what, the effort it would take to locate these, the time wasted watching billions of hours of NON-good stuff just makes it not worth it.

That's the perpetual problem with the Long Tail.
That's rather unfair. Visual Studio 2008 is several orders of magnitude faster, more powerful, and much more responsive than NetBeans. NetBeans is cleaner, but once you get used to VS you'll realize it's the best IDE. This, coming from someone who used to live and die by IntelliJ & NetBeans. Visual Studio is a really great IDE, and togther with the .NET Framework is one of Microsoft's greatest achievements and a huge boon for coders working on MS' platforms.

I agree with the rest of what you said though, but I don't think it's applicable to VS.NET. For instance, you could have talked about how bloated Office has become; while it still has tons of good new features, they're inefficiently done. You could have discussed how while Windows is a decent design/principle it has an increasingly more shitty implementation with each and every revision. But Visual Studio?? Well, I wish I could use it on Linux right now!
I love the changes to the language to remove the warts and to improve consistency across the language. Python thrives on consistency and always having exactly one obvious, readable way to do something. I welcome the simplified integer math, print function, unicode string unification, and other changes.

However, the biggest change, potentially, is function annotation. Function annotation brings the possibility of an extra level of documentation in code, of static-style type-checking which can easily be turned off in production, and of a standardized design by contract programming style.

Hopefully, we will have even bigger, easier to understand Python programs!
All hacks don't have to be useful. This is a cool hack. Yes it purpose was to be funny, but there is some interesting technical knowhow involved here.

Goofy as it is, it seems like perfect hacker stuff to me. Music, programming, robots, etc. I vote it belongs here.
So, I read this, and I think, "it is surprising that Zed Shaw doesn't know what a buffer overflow is". For instance, his "extensions" "overflow" is a case where 2-3 character strings are "overflowing" a MAXPATHLEN buffer.

Favorite quote: "Seems like there’s some changes here to determine correct stack direction on the native CPU. Why, that could be a stack smash exploit in the making!" You go, Zed.

Two tips:

1. It's Ruby. Go write the exploit. If you think it's the patch to bignum (where the offset you're looking at only controls a load, not a store), write the testcase and prove it.

2. Read the code, not the diffs.
Both String and Array have integer overflows. If an attacker can control the size of a string or the index to a string or an array, they can control the address in native memory where Ruby will write data.

The details of these vulnerabilities are not under wraps; they were fixed in commits labelled with their CVE numbers.
You're the first person to say "work less". I agree that "working less" is a luxury only 37Signals has. I've never worked harder in my life.
No, it's a terrible idea for the founders. "2 out of 3 businesses fail. So investors need the third to make up for the other 2." Remember, all three of the companies got pushed into a stupid business plan by the "hockey stick" requirement, when a less risky plan could still have made the founders millionaires.
I would give a lot for something like Google Books, but with a possibility of subscription, not buying from Amazon or some publisher. Don't think it's legally possible though...
Just technical enough...?

Brings to mind the oft-quoted "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing".
print("fatal error", file=sys.stderr)

So, Python has become even less succinct for the sake of "consistency".

I think there is only one flawless, absolutely consistent machine, and that's Turing machine. The urge for consistency and simplification (I mean, if you are consistent in your aspiration for consistency) inevitably leads to reinventing the Turing machine in its purity. It's OK, except for some reason nobody wants to program for it.
Business cards
A2m provides business cards, printing, Flyers, brochures, full colour posters print manchester based
print >>sys.stderr, "fatal error"

Considering this is this old version of what you copied, I don't think anything has been lost...
For those who don't know, Zed Shaw is famous for
1. creating mongrel among other things; he's a good programmer
2. his rant against some rails leaders: http://www.zedshaw.com/rants/rails_is_a_ghetto.html .

His rants are hilariously inflammatory (although this one about the vulnerabilities isn't particularly fiery).

It should be noted, however, that he's not crazy. I hear he's actually a pretty nice guy in person.

"""
If you haven’t noticed, I’m funny and enjoy having fun. Enjoy my site, tell me if you use my projects. Don’t take it too seriously though, it’s all an act.
"""
- http://www.zedshaw.com/index.html
These small savings do matter, because they are low hanging fruit.

Convincing people to turn a television off all the way (or better yet, making it automatic) has no downside with respect to quality of life. Not taking a bath on the other hand certainly affects the quality of life of those around you.

Being able to turn off one entire power station because soft standby has been disabled is a small step, but as the cost is insignificant why do you care that the step is only small?

One thing you see from incrimental programming is that waiting for the 'final answer' doesn't work, but a large number of small steps does. It's the same in all things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEVO2ywceyk
This guy doesn't understand the market. It doesn't matter if Microsoft will do a better job managing Yahoo. It doesn't matter if Microsoft sucks compared to Yahoo. It doesn't matter if Yahoo has "fantastic properties".

The only thing that matters is, was Microsoft's offer, on a per-share basis, better than what Yahoo is likely to do on its own?

The answer, despite "fantastic properties", is "probably no". Yahoo is not getting better compared to Google.
Building an iPhone app in a day with CakePHP
This is probably balanced out by people in hot places who have to expend extra energy on air conditioning.
MySpace versus Facebook: Analysis of both traffic and ad revenue, using Google Trends
Evolution of Gmail chat
NebuAd hires like spyware, acts like spyware
Product leaks just lead to trouble & headaches for all
How to Truly Bring Online Video to the Mainstream
Sponsorship: Monetization’s Dark Horse
Will business buy the new iPhone?
I'm more optimistic. I'd say that since we have the Internet, mining the long tail is finally possible. Yes, we don't have yet the perfect tools to do so, but it's definitely doable, and 20 years ago it wasn't even a dream.
Also I'm more inclined to invest into it: I got much more enjoyment from Evil Dead then from any current blockbuster - 90% of which I don't even watch anymore).
Which Niche has the Long Tail in Online Video?
Thats definitely a good point. Waiting for facebook connect :)
I never liked that either, but the new version is physically longer and requires more typing. Moreover, I couldn't find any change in 3.0 that results in less typing. I might have missed something of course, but this announcement doesn't seem to be something to be excited about.

I was waiting, for example, lambdas to be allowed to have compound statements. Python, a nice language otherwise, could have been improved in many ways, none of which is found in 3.0.

Instead, the spirit of Python is coming closer and closer to Java: you are not supposed to do this, says Python to you, because it's a bad practice and can lead to errors.

I'm disappointed and I think I'd rather wait for another, more concise nobraces programming language.
Interview with Alan Taylor, Creator of Boston Globe's The Big Picture
Experts find key to saving fuel: say gallons per mile
You learned the rules of chess in one day, but how many chess games will you win with only one day of experience?
I really wish they had added real lambdas.

Don't get me wrong, these changes seem good. But every time I hear about a new Python release I keep hoping that I'll see they've finally reversed their policy about lambdas and made a real one instead of the compromise they have right now.
Openx - Manage your advertising campaigns as a leading money maker web publisher
a = Array.new

a[0x7fffffff] = 55

(irb):14: [BUG] Segmentation fault

Presumably this is one of the attack vectors that was fixed.
from pep 3099:

At one point lambda was slated for removal in Python
3000. Unfortunately no one was able to come up with a
better way of providing anonymous functions. And so
lambda is here to stay.

But it is here to stay as-is. Adding support for
statements is a non-starter. It would require allowing
multi-line lambda expressions which would mean a
multi-line expression could suddenly exist. That would
allow for multi-line arguments to function calls, for
instance. That is just plain ugly.

Thread: "genexp syntax / lambda", http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2006-April/0010...
mileszs, what's more disappointing is that they did it the wrong way from the start. I fully understand the decision to wait awhile if you've got an established project and you want to slowly move it over. But the reddit guys didn't, and it's pretty clear they did basically no git homework before proceeding with this.

That would be bad enough on its own, but then they handled the response really poorly. This "we don't have time" response was the sane cap on the mouth of a bottle of crazy agitated mailing list messages from a different maintainer saying strange things. It's pretty likely they never even considered it before someone mentioned it.
You can always consider print as low-level feature and wrap the whole thing in a fancy stream.

class err_class:
def __lshift__(self,other):
print(other)
return self

err = err_class()
err<<'fatal error:'<<'thats what happened'
I also tried and failed at his suggestion.
probably spam
It would be possible to clearly watermark a PDF file with the serial number of the person who checked it out of the library. That way if it is leaked it shouldn't be too difficult to find the person who leaked it.

I would definitely use such a library if it existed, provided that it wasn't too expensive and had novels or books I could not find at my local (and free) public library.
Login Form Design Patterns
Of course I can do it, then why isn't it done already in the language?

Printing is something we do all the time in server applications, and that means, the printing facility in the language should be polished to death.
What do you guys think of the "reseller" hosting business model?
I recently came across the concept of "reseller hosting" from for example hostgator.com. Apparently one purchases a cpanel plan from them, along with web templates and related tools to be able to create a site to "resell" hosting solutions to customers.

Is this a worthwhile pursuit? Or is the market simply too over-saturated for it to be worth a risk?
what does a real one consitute of?

and why do you want that? i use pyhton as a superb general-purpose language and for gluing together a lot of different parts of software/programs.

for that purpose, simplicity and readability is essential.
This is a solution looking for a problem. This just solves the 'I save exactly x gallons' while most people just want to drive to work slightly cheaper.
That's because really cool languages provide you with the power to build what you want, not the ton's of built-in fancy features.
I'm guessing that it would also not be too hard to remove the watermark... just like people did with iTunes. On the other hand, that doesn't seem to have hindered Apple's revenue stream.
Algorithmic Structures with POV-Ray
I created some algorithmic structures with the free ray tracer POV Ray. I tried to create a city with a few lines of code by just setting houses normally distributed around the center.
Or look at the recursive box structure I created.

Any other new ideas - let's discuss it ;)
An unhandled case is only one kind of bug. Needless to say, filling in all those entries in your spreadsheet says absolutely nothing about whether those decisions are correct.

Look, this is a gimmick. Not having used such a tool, I'm not going to say that it's worthless. But I will say that I'm very suspicious of anyone who looks to gimmicks as the Salvation of Modern Programming. I've seen it too many times.
The Trons: Robot Band That Could Play Better Than You
There is one advantage in having necessary stuff built into the language: others can understand your code quickly.

As for printing, it is so basic and simple, if implemented right of course, that I wouldn't call it "tons of fancy features".
I understand there are syntactic obstacles, in fact I've been following these discussions, but... I'm very sorry, who cares?
Exactly. There are few places where we can get free energy. Making TVs more energy efficient is one of them, so we may as well do it since it is such an easy task.

If you do the math (40W * 24h * 365 * .09 $/kWh)
You end up with a savings of $30 a year

At 5 seconds to turn off the TV properly you are at $60/hour. Most people would think this is a good rate for their work.

Maybe if I try and generalize this to something that it doesn't really apply to by using abstract principles with no math behind them I can get more up votes...
When scribd loads a pdf as a flash only page (the links from Hacker News for example go to the flash only) there is no way to download it. But I have seen scribd pages where they have a row of icons above the embedded flash and one of them is a download link.

Personally, the only problem I have with scribd is the use of Flash. I think I would actually use the site if it presented pdfs using javascript and images, much like Google books. You could still search the book, just as Google books does, because it searches the text on the server side and returns images of the pages with highlighted text. I think this does add something new to PDF in that it makes it possible to share a book online without allowing easy download if there is interest in doing that.
Like in any crowded business, you have to have an edge to succeed. There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands hosting providers out there, so competition is gonna be very though.
However, if you already have a big client list (say, as a freelance webdesigner) or add some value to your hosting packages (e.g. a new, supersexy blogging platform), you can have good business.
Competition on price is surreal, especially with a reseller package.
Python 3.0 is going to be better, but not much better. I really like python because its very clean. Python 3.0 shouldn't become python++.
Those robots surely listened to some Joy Division in their youth for their influence :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUr8wj3nG9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LAW7BdJ4gM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flVEoNuEYgE
I think it's pretty clear that the problem is car pollution. Like the article says, effectively communicating a cars "greeness" is the point. However, I do admit that changing completely to this number might be a bit weird. I'm not very good at math, but wouldn't the GPM number be a decimal usually? Like .025 GPM? That might be a bit of a mental leap for the general population to take.

I suppose a compromise could be reached if these numbers where used in tandem i.e. 15mpg/.0XXgpm

edit: Scratch that. It's not really about car pollution as it is about conservation of fuel/saving money which are different things.
I am not sure that there is a new idea, or that this guy is saying anything I didn't hear one of my engineering professors say 5 years ago.

However, the problem with these calculations is that they cannot take into account new technology that will be created in the next 30 years.

To fufill our energy needs, we only need to tap into 5% of the Sun's energy that reaches earth. So while discussions using current technology are important, lets make clear that the long-term goal is sustainable, low pollution (and radiation) energy, and that it can be achieved.
Don't ask for people's passwords. Ugh. Just because other sites are acting badly doesn't mean you should too.

Those sites that want your passwords have not figured out a decent solution to the problem. That's an opportunity. Do something better.
I agree. It's irritating how idiotic people get with languages. They go from "This is the bees knees! It can be used anywhere! It's the best thing since sliced bread", to "This is irrelevant now we have our new fad favourite language"

Why can't a language just be good at some things, and not others? Do we need a grand unifying language that is great for everything?

If you want a reliable, scalable, bullet proof backend, java is still pretty hard to beat.
In Germany you usually talk about how many liters it takes to drive 100 km. And you get numbers of around 5 to 10 (or higher).

Even the article says: "When the tests were repeated using gallons per 100 miles, the volunteers correctly picked the greenest option from those available."
Canada requires fuel economy figures in liters per 100km.
The problem with reseller hosting is that you have absolutely no technical control. You sell hosting to a bunch of people, and then if the server(s) crap out, you start fielding a ton of angry phone calls. There's absolutely nothing you can do to get things back online except wait on the (sometimes shoddy) hosting technical support.
The final project for everyone in my intro course was to write a LISP interpreter. Have we fallen so far?
Turing's machines are clunky. Do lambda calculus or grammars instead.
Tip #0: Get off the treadmill that Microsoft has created for mobile developers over the last 20 (yes, 20!) years. Worth with anyone else.
You should be yearning for proper tail recursion instead.
Yes, it was. Go look what happens in gdb when you do that.
Instead of

print("string")

I would have liked to see

fn op1 op2

to be the standard function invocation - like in Haskell. (I know that would have wreaked havoc with the rest of Python's syntax.)
ReadyBoost - Using Your USB Key to Speed Up Windows Vista
At least marginally. There are more efficent methods to heat your home that using (in effect) resistance.
Well, I came from VC 6.0, and I found that VS 2003 wasn't too bad, but VS 2005, on a 2 Gig dual proc Dell laptop runs like crap. I get frequent pauses and delays while typing, and it just breaks your flow. (to be fair NB can sometimes do this too)

However, the worst aspect for me with VS2005 is the brain dead UI. Example 1. Pop-up tabs next to the scroll bars. Nuts. Example 2. The remove the output window by hitting escape that was in VC6.0 is gone. Nuts. Example 3: Horribly slow output window and constant unnecessary redraws. See next para.

Try this and let me know if it works. Run any app over remote desktop, like Word, Outlook etc, then try running VS. At least on my setup, RDP is great over broadband running almost anything, but when I run VS, I get bizarre slow bottom to top refreshes about every 5 seconds, or when I type. This makes it almost unusable unless you look away from the screen when typing.

I used to do quite a lot of development on a server box running VS, rather than run it locally and have to go to Oracle over a VPN connection. This is now almost unbearable.

To be fair, I think .NET is at least decent, and C# is a friendly enough language, with delegates and some nice things in 3.0. (and really nice in 3.5!), but development of anything outside the MS ecosystem is like living in a vandalized neighborhood. e.g. Most cool stuff is broken on Windows.

I shouldn't disparage Windows. I think the kernel is decent. I know how to program GUIs. XP has always been rock solid for me. But ... Windows has been left behind by most of the fun stuff, and it's just irrelevant to most interesting development outside of a corporate environment.
Why would you do that - when you have to pay for the water and energy?
Ah, missed that poll from a few months back. And a couple of the recent posts were apparently killed before I read them.
My post was not part of the Scribd backlash but an honest question why HN was doing the redirection. I think it was the first time I posted a raw PDF link and noticed the issues. I like Scribd for some uses, e.g., providing a good exchange system for non-hackers who also upload Microsoft Word docs.
Yeah, as the Verizon reps made stunningly obvious[1], the average person struggles with small decimals, but making it a figure like gallons per hundred miles (or liters per 100 km like I have seen in Europe) would make it easier.

I heard a similar story to this on NPR the other day. It pointed out that the EPA already gives it's efficiency ratings in gallons per mile, which are then converted back to miles per gallon for the (not so) benefit of the consumer.

I actually really liked the idea of gallons per 10k miles. This gives a nice beefy number to think about. For instance, my 2004 Chevy Aveo uses 294 gallons per 10k miles. My dad's truck uses 625.

I think they could take it even further and just put a dollar figure on the car. Say the entire industry agrees that 15k miles a year is normal. Pick a gas price for that year and put the total cost of gas on the vehicle. At $3.50 a gallon, my car would have $1544 on the window, whereas my dad's truck would have $3281. That is a difference that is immediately obvious to everyone. They do something similar with appliances, where they list the estimated annual operating cost, which makes picking the most efficient fridge quite easy.

[1] http://imgs.xkcd.com/verizon_billing.mp3
Map of citation flow in science
Mysterious Brain Cells (Astrocytes) Linked to Blood Flow
ISPs experimenting with new P2P controls
that is a pretty ridiculous offer . . . that's why I enrolled my 7 year old in business school, and now that she has an mba the six-figure offers are rolling in . . . with equity of course.
Why Oil Prices Skyrocketed
Yes, but will the car manufacturers actually do this? Sounds to me that it could cost them some sales...