skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"You agree your purchases of Heroku Services are not contingent on the delivery of any future functionality or features or dependent on any oral or written public comments made by Heroku or any of its affiliates regarding future functionality or features."

Translation: We threw out the roadmap after the acquisition. Really this goes without saying for all companies, but it's interesting to see it so explicitly stated.
Private starts with a P. Privileged does too.
BMJ calls Andrew Wakefield a fraud
World's Cheapest Upgrade? AT&T Pins 4G Label to Existing Network
I am not a Ruby programmer. What's the syntax for using a variable as the key, which is actually synonymous with the Python code?
I honestly just prefer good old fashioned Development Driven Development.
The super-elite aren't hurting anything - in China. In that article the author draws a connection between the faster-than-expected recovery in wealth of the American-super-elite vs. the still struggling middle and lower classes. This connection suggests (but certainly doesn't prove - not by a longshot) that the super-elite are affecting the economic recovery of the non-super-elite.
There isn't necessarily any correlation between the newbie status of the questioner and the complexity (or lack thereof) of the question asked. This is particularly true of questions in niche sub-domains of programming such as image processing or scientific computing. In these niche areas, it is relatively common to see newbie Stack Overflow users asking PhD-level questions (often poorly worded in broken English).

The questions are typically not duplicates and the knowledge is valuable precisely because the expertise required to answer the question is rare, yet the reputation system does a poor job of rewarding the few experts who take the time to answer them for a couple of reasons: A) The questioner rarely bothers to give the answerer credit by marking the question as answered. B) The system does not allow a third party to mark the question as answered when the originator fails to do so. C) The people who answer these niche questions often only answer questions in their specific area of expertise -- they don't answer many of the more mundane programming questions that require little knowledge or effort to answer. Thus, despite the valuable expertise they've demonstrated, the reputation system fails to award these individuals with credit relative to the actual value of the information they dispense.
Pressure cookers are awesome. For example, they'll cook black beans in 15 minutes instead of 2 hours. And they taste amazingly better than canned beans.

The best pressure cookers are from this swiss company, Kuhn Rikon:

http://kuhnrikon.com/products/pressure_cookers/

Super simple to use and safe.
What is MapReduce good for? (short video)
Well-put: "Everyone is a designer. Design is a fundamental part of everything."
In that case, go for it! You have nothing to lose. You'll always be a doctor, but you may never get this opportunity again (low expenses, no kids). If you spend all your time working on Plan B, you'll never get to Plan A.
On the subject of cool byte-string properties of encodings: http://keyjson.org

sorted(map(encode, values)) == sorted(values)

</ shameless plug >
Nobody else seems to care about accuracy in labeling things "4G", I don't see why AT&T should.
More Google Search Issues
Click on the 1st result of this query
http://www.google.com/search?q=amortization+modification

It goes to this page:
http://www.startingtowhoop.com/vidplayer/source/fla/amortizationloanmodification.html

I presume they are doing this to generate affiliate education leads ($20-40/lead).

This is similar to what Chris Dixon had shown in his analysis:
http://cdixon.org/2009/12/19/anatomy-of-a-bad-search-result/

where they translate between languages and post garbage.
====
Bing is slightly better with the same query:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=amortization+modification

The 1st result goes to this page:
http://loanmodification.name/?tag=amortization

=====
I posted using a throwaway account & I am not affiliated with Google/MS or not into SEO. I just don't want Matt Cutts analyzing all my submissions /comments at HN :) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2063693
I am confused. Does this only affect people with older cpus that do not support SSE2?

I am not affected by the bug, yet am on a 32 bit CPU and PHP 5.2.16 was compiled with -O2.

uname -a:

Linux www 2.6.9-67.0.22.ELsmp #1 SMP Fri Jul 11 10:38:12 EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Running the test script outlined above comes back immediately. No hang.

CPU is Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5430 @ 2.66GHz which support SSE2.

Since my CPU supports SSE2, would I not be affected by this?
John Galt, I should hardly have to explain to you that some small number of people simply hate free markets, and a much larger number have no idea how they actually work.
What's wrong with this?
They rebranded their existing HSPA+ network as 4G; they're not dumb enough to try to pass off EDGE as 4G.
Keep in mind Einsteins brain was especially small, and nodes were closer together. In addition, women's brains are smaller than mens, but it is fairly well understood that both genders are equally intelligent.
The time-saving bias: How drivers misestimate time saved when increasing speed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Geier#Controversies

http://www.casewatch.org/civil/geier.shtml

> Dr. Geier, who is a geneticist and an obstetrician, is not qualified to give a neurological diagnosis.

> Dr Geier's testimony is not reliable, or grounded in scientific methodology and procedure. His testimony is merely subjective belief and unsupported speculation.

> Because Dr. Geier has made a profession of testifying in matters to which his professional background (obstetrics, genetics) is unrelated, his testimony is of limited value to the court.

And that's a court order.
Pizza And Ramen Are Hurting Your Startup
Incidentally, the author was also the one who wrote this delightful piece: http://ridiculousfish.com/blog/archives/2006/05/30/old-age-a...
Hans Rosling explains 200 Years of human history in 4 minutes
There doesn't have to be a lag; if you have not gotten or spread the disease but get your immunization late, no concrete damage has occurred. It's not like the immunizations only work when you're two, they'll work anytime.
MS already has a universal binary format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_assembly

I wouldn't be too surprised if one part of MS's .NET push was a desire for architecture independence.
Conservatives Call for More Spending – On Science
Am I the only one to find this UI inconsistent and ugly?
The implications on current work environments in almost any business might be profound. Enterprise Software design, Work desk architecture, cubicles, 9-5, are all but symptoms of a industrial era work culture.

While effective (indeed there are jobs i am hard pressed to imagine another model) this work environment is long in the tooth, and shows significant strain in knowledge and creative workplaces.

The current batch of smartphones, and pad computing had a profound effect on my life, and on the life of everybody I know who uses them, the lines between work and pleasure are blurring, you can only imagine when hi-res kinect like interfaces will be integrated into them. whats more, IT managers (myself included) are easing control over these systems, permit them and encourage them, it is cautious, but it will be a sea change.

Small "enterprise" apps, that do simpler tasks, might become more and more prevalent, The disparity between the desktop environment and pad for some tasks (like reading for instance) is getting bigger, and makes the older one seem outdated. The coming workforce shouldn't be expected to perform to the best of its abilities with outdated tools, or stay in their chair all the time for that matter.

There are many clouds I personally see in this horizon, DRM for one, the disappearance of material from a cloud resource (ala wikileaks) without any due process another. But for me, especially in the US, and here in NY, where the last mile everywhere is owned by Verizon, bandwidth, its cost, and control over it, is the biggest concern, these technologies are stymied by the draconian control of Telco's.

We are on the verge of another giant leap in computing, this one, apart from new usability paradigms differs from the previous PC revolution on its reliance on connectivity and bandwidth, without them, the devices are a poor experience.

Something got to give, Telco's cannot be allowed to control this future.
I think "User Experience Driven Development" is better name for that methodology coz design now is more "look" than "feeling" of product.

User experience is base of all products.

I select such algorithm:

1) UX

2) Layouts

3) Features <-> Specs <-> Code

4) Design (look of product with awesomeness, but shape determined by ux)

5) ???

6) Profit!
The frist question in response to a question is almost always "What are you trying to do". Can you capitalize on that need for context in some way?
Most of us aren't interested:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=943722
If the atmosphere and functionality are to continue coping effectively with the ongoing growth, I think new ground will have to be broken in how to manage large online communities. The human brain only deals effectively with a community size of about 150 persons. More than that causes issues (strife). Most online communities only have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% to 30% of members as "active users" to some degree. I don't remember the statistics as well as I used to, but I think (typically) about 20% are "regular" posters and another 10% are one-time or very rare posters. I have in the past found that this meant that a forum with more than about 700 members would be effectively bumping the ceiling on that 150 person "community" mark. What I have seen is that this tended to cause spin-offs in some fashion or another.

My thought is that older cultures tend to be more formal as a means to effectively cope with the larger-than-150 community size of developed cities. I don't know how to apply that to the culture of an online community but I think that is where there is hope for effectively coping with the size of HN. This is the largest forum I have ever participated in. I know there are some other large forums out there, but I don't know how they compare, size/traffic-wise, to HN. In terms of culture, my general understanding is they tend to be less polite.
Sure, but you haven't hit bottom yet. Why can we encode arbitrary information? How does it help us? Where does the ability live? What is it connected to, and where did it come from?
Not being a securities lawyer I don't have a 100% accurate answer for you; however I would say there is a difference between common stocks which have no performance guarantees and bonds/warrants/etc which do have guarantees (with risk/reward taken into consideration of course).
where can i learn more about gut microbes? probiotics? gary taubes new book?
> That may be true in the US but what about in other jurisdictions?

I think that could be "the rule of the bigger gun". It's hard to argue with the guy who drives a tank across your lawn.

And preventing military use is a bad idea. The military are not always in offensive roles. And they are not automatically wrong when they use the force.
In a persuasive setting words are currency. Gresham's Law (bad currency drives out good) applies. Since the words in question are actually numbers we get slapped in the face with it this time. Or we get a chuckle, depending on your prior level of cynicism.
Where are the HN users you're talking about? Promoting using GPA for hiring? That doesn't sound like the anti-higher-education HN I know and love/tolerate :)
This requires a bit more work but is also more flexible:

https://github.com/dimitri/el-get

It helps you manage emacs packages and elisp that are not packaged.
People here don't want to believe this. They will still vaccinate their kids and worse will be in favor of forced vaccinations. They trust the government research. They trust the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies. This stuff is just a bunch of nonsense by troublemakers.
Interesting - why would Zynga want a social browser? Are we going to start seeing gamification in the browser? Open ten tabs to get $ in Farmville! Otherwise, this is a really expensive talent acquisition.
XML'd XML - The Daily WTF
Sure. On the one hand the mid-to-high end desktop isn't the be-all and end-all of high-end chipmaker revenues anymore. And on the other hand a mid-to-high end Windows ARM desktop might be usable with some combination of native Windows and Office, an increasing supply of new ARM-native Windows binaries from ISVs (the Internet should help by making distribution much easier), Web apps running in ARM-native Web browsers, and butt-slow emulation for old but indispensable x86 binaries. It seems to me that the biggest issue could turn out to be PC games. Presumably nVidia either has to get the big games studios to issue ARM ports of their next and recent games, or it has to go on being successful at selling standalone GPUs for gamers' x86 PCs, or it has to give up on its gaming constituency for a time at least. I presume that since most PC games are now written to port to PowerPC and/or Cell, doing an ARM port isn't the adventure it might once have been?
Yes. Once you've built a few web apps and are confident you can build the one you want to be for your startup you're ready. At that time you should definitely go full-time if you want to maximize your chances of success.

Just don't go full-time until you're not going to be spending the first 6 months learning.
Thanks for the note -- I'll keep looking for a fix.
Philadelphia is comparable to the Bay Area: via commuter rail that runs every half hour, $7-ish and 20 minutes from downtown. As with BART, Philadelphia commuter rail charges much more for the airport than for other locations at a similar distance from downtown, which might be $4 or so.
Education course on hiring for startups
Some of us don't have an Android phone either, so we won't be able to run it. It'd probably be useful if you elaborate some more about what's your "take on about.me/threewords.me", if you want some feedback about the idea and ways to improve it.
Don't just vote him down, folks...he's posting links and support for his position. Surely someone on HN is knowledgeable enough on this subject to respond with something more detailed than clicking a down arrow...
May I suggest a couple of links to some in depth analysis of these studies by scientists in a form the layman can understand? Links about researchers stealing money from their university do not add to your cause as it has no bearing on whether or not a particular immunizations are more dangerous than the disease they prevent.

Something along the lines of this but from the opposing viewpoint: http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/more-ev...

And to address your concerns re Thimerosal. Apart from the fact the general scientific consensus is it isn't dangerous it was removed from almost all vaccines around 2001. For more information: http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/Questions...
A lot of my startup friends have been having a terribly hard time hiring people here in the bay area and in NYC so we are putting together this educational event around the topic of hiring.

Tried to bring together the best people we knew who have hired successfully in the past to share their tactical knowledge on the subject.
steve blank's Four Steps to the Epiphany. Steve also has a list of books on his website, steveblank.com/books-for-startups.
I've been waiting for this option since the original OQO came out.
I down voted because none of those links add to the debate in a useful manner. See my reply.
Unlike the comment that you're responding to, your comment adds no value whatsoever and your straw-man position is as worthless as the one you're railing against. You sound like a person who finds it unconceivable that someone could have looked at the evidence and come to a different conclusion, so you assume they must be blind.
I don't mean to be rude, but I often hear complaints from non-development departments at work of how bad some developers smell... While it might be possible with very regular washing and the right kind of body/environment for this to work, do you really want to risk the above?

What are you doing this for? Because you can? Because you have to spend less money on products? Because you disagree with using chemicals on your skin?

Most people will think you're disgusting if they find out. Entering into a psuedo-scientific debate with them will not work out in your favour. I don't think you should follow this just from a couple of people's anecdotes...
I believe they want to cut Facebook out of the equation so they are not handcuffed by their restrictions and whims.
I don't see a price mentioned anywhere.
VsClojure: A Visual Studio 2010 Clojure extension
Here's another curated set. http://ngrams.tumblr.com/
Using the Right Essay Format
The essay format is essential for a well organized essay. A standard essay will consist of an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. Knowing how to write these sections of the essay will ensure that students are using the right essay format when writing.
I agree that some analysis for laypeople would be useful, but that's part of what I love about HN: an expert in this topic might come along soon and offer such an analysis. I think having a voice of dissent that offers something other than hyperbole and unsupported hand-waving is useful, and shouldn't be discouraged.
They say you can only activate this for new apps. But there's no way AFAIK to do this while keeping the same app id.

There should definitely be a way to do a one-time upgrade from master/slave to this new datastore without having to mess around with moving our data from one app to another.
Sled Driver Giveaway Challenge
I'm fine with much of that, but only after someone proves that they deserve it. To me, these seem more like rewards or perks than initial offerings.

As an employer, if someone comes in to my office with those requirements, they need to show me that they can produce...otherwise, we're not starting off on the right foot.

Can you imagine someone in any other field asking for the same? They would be laughed out of the building. I'm not saying that makes it right or wrong...but it's certainly interesting.

I guess my point, and what's most important to me, is not the tally of hours worked, but someone's willingness to buy in to our product, and more importantly, their ability to recognize the difference between getting by and getting things done. Team goes both ways.
Why does this crash wolfram alpha?
Paste this into Wolfram alpha and see that it causes it to crash:

exp(21 – 1.1*log(1,000,000))

why?
Incidentally, I interned at nv and my cumulative average at the time of applying was somewhere in the high 60s. Don't believe everything it says on the box ;)

(I was a software intern, but the job I had applied to asked for 80% as well.)
Goldman Sachs Says It May Sell, Hedge Facebook Stake
it is very unlikely that you will be able to successfully start something that is outside of your area of expertise and the opportunity cost of failure is quite high for you. Instead, I would recommend thinking about what tools and/or applications would help you a lot in what you are doing now and if you think you came up with a good idea, either try to mock it up yourself or look for a partner/co-founder who can create a working prototype for you, or just hire a contractor to do it. None of this requires quitting your job, just the opposite
I wonder if the parent is objecting to the word "loyalty" - Loyalty implies a certain degree of unconditional support; while I think that when talking about countries, we're better off with conditional support.

That said, if by loyalty you mean conditional support, I agree completely. Governments don't exist in a vacuum, and there is constant pressure from the those who directly benefit from a less-efficient government.
Why did the Quora website get so slow at the end of December 2010?
This reminds me of when Heroku was acquired...
I call it Cloud 2
F*** Hackers [For Idea Guys Only]
lol aka javascript circa 1920
What makes Burp stand out? Every time I need something like that I end up downloading 17 free and pay/trial tools, mucking about till one works, mumbling 'God, I'd pay not to have to do that again' and forgetting about it, till next time.
Probably a talent acquisition, I don't see why you would acquire Flock for the product.
It's a beautiful tradition. On my graduation all soon-to-be engineer colleagues also made a solemn promise more or less like the ones other engineers take in other countries and schools.

I also like the idea of passing the iron rings down through generations of new engineers. In Brazil we don't. It reminds the ones new to the career that others came before them and that others will come after them and of the obligations we share. That's one thing many of us forget much too frequently.
syntax is rad, ask any pure mathematician.
Absolutely, but once a child has left the normal cycle of immunization either the parents or the government need to make an effort to get them up to date. IMO this by and large won't happen without either policies in place or a large public interest campaign directed at it.
it just displays a picture, a small bio and the app menu links to my e-mail and social accounts (twitter, facebook).

EDIT: that data is static (doesn't access the web)
There's a free evaluation version and a free online book or two - all linked from code.kx.com username anonymous/password anonymous.
After hours customizing vim with pathogen and git submodules and recompiling a bunch of timed I really wish vim had something like this
Or:

D.) Like the chorus of voices who were scoffing at MSFT's investment at $12 billion a few years back, you're not as prescient about valuations as you think you are.
Interestingly, outside the "1st world" mobile phones are quite common. The speed at which this technology trickled down is amazing, about ten years from yuppies in major cities to subsistence farmers in failed states. Even more amazing is penetration. Most things just don't go that far down the economic ladder at all. Basic, fundamental things like vaccination, artificial fertilizers, electricity or regular phone lines which our grandparents took for granted have been outpaced by mobile phones in many places.

Tablets may be similar enough to mobile phone to hope that the same economics apply and we might see the <$3-a-day majority benefiting by 2020. Hopefully.
Can't the same be said of accountants or wall streeters? Top founders like Bazos, Jobs and Gates all seem to have pretty solid mariages; is the divorce rate higher for people who have tried to start a business or is it just an excuse for these tragedies that people of all walks of life have to contend with?
I don't understand the Anti-Vaccine crowd. I see no possible way for what they espouse to be morally responsible. Without vaccines the mortality rate of children to these diseases would be higher than the total rate of autism. This means that you would have more kids die than get autism even if every case of autism was directly caused by a vaccine.

This leaves us with two options for the beliefs of the anti-vaccination crowd.

1. They believe that a dead child is better than one with autism.

2. They are comfortable letting everyone else's children take the "risk" of getting a vaccine while they sit back and rely on herd immunity.
I guess there is tons on the die just to convert CISC to RISC. That about it.
It's also worth noting that the ITU (closest thing to an authority on this) announced that "4G" has no technical meaning and therefore might as well apply to T-Mobile's HSPA+ network. I'm sure AT&T was pissed.

(Only LTE and WiMAX can use the ITU label "IMT-Advanced" but that term is lacking a certain bit of marketing cachet)

http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2010/48.as...