skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The irony is that most of the arguments for NoSQL have nothing to do with SQL itself and everything to do with the underlying storage mechanism and ACID semantics. A more accurate acronym would be NoB-tree or NoACID.
Celebrated by intellectuals with a vested interest in the outcome. Chomsky is talking about the other intellectuals that should see through this and make noise.
Not really a HN-quality article. The description of the signals is wrong or at least misleading. HUP is not the signal that is sent to make a program reload, HUP is the signal that is sent when the terminal is going away. HUP is used by some daemons to trigger a reload, but others use USR1 or USR2. The description of QUIT is similarly misleading; most terminals set C-\ to generate it, not CTRL+SHIFT as the article mentions.

Finally, 8) should not be rendered as a smiley face with sunglasses.
> That's how the world works. Deal with it.

Really?

When I see any argument start with this sentence, I immediately mistrust it. I suspect that world works in mysterious, complex, and ever changing ways, and that I get to be a part of shaping it.

I prefer:

"That's how things seem to be going right now. If you don't like it, there are probably others out there who feel the same. You could work with them to make it a little better. As you're working folks will tell you to just deal with it. Smile politely, ignore their advice, and keep working."
I'm a co-founder of a little startup project that got accepted in the BizSpark program and I can say it has definitely been a benefit to us and will be to our users when we launch in late January. We're building a web app for a vertical in the attorney space, it's a rails app built completely on an open source stack.

Why do we need BizSpark? While we would like for our customers to use our web app exclusively, the reality is the majority of practices run Windows and Office. So we built Exchange and Outlook integration using the tools provided by BizSpark. If we hadn't had access to those tools we still would have built the product, but we wouldn't have Exchange and Outlook support at launch. The benifit for us; We built a product better suited for our customers. The benefit for MS: They have another product on the list of thousands that has custom support and integration with their office suite, their bread and butter.

Clearly the biggest benefit for us has been access to thousands in software we otherwise couldn't afford. But we will be looking at the opportunities to network with partners and investors through BizSpark when we're ready.

I see it as a win for us and an ever so tiny win (because of our small user base) for Microsoft.
It also proves that Online advertising wont get you much. Creating and selling your own stuff will bring you more bucks.
Gutcheck DIY focus groups
Yup, their trying to make ends meet between games of madden and starcraft.
The TSA systems (at least the backscatter X-ray) do use a focussed moving beam to build up an image. They rely on the continual movement of the beam to limit the dose.

There are a number of safety systems to prevent the machine leaving the beam on should the mechanism stick.

And of course they are operated by the finest trained experts with a comprehensive background in nuclear physics and the ability to react in the fraction of a second before a notifiable dose was delivered
Why do you need some random date to tell you to set goals?
"Nonce" means "a token that is used once." It's sort of meaningless to say "used the nonce twice", but the only way around it is rigorously formal, but even more circuitous and confusing speech:

"Two (or more) ECDSA signatures were generated with a constant value provided where a secret nonce value should go, making it not effectively a nonce."
What kind of conditions do they impose on you as a part of the program? Is there any stuff like "an app built using Bizspark that supports Microsoft office cannot also support OpenOffice / LibreOffice," or "your app can't be open-source?" Etc?

Is it just software, or do they provide any sort of assistance with doing the integration with their stuff?

I'm curious since I could see a use for Sharepoint integration and even Outlook / Office integration for some of what I'm working on, but I'd still be leery of the whole "it's a trap" thing with Microsoft.
Yes, it is location aware even if it is using DNS. The DNS lookup is the first chance you have to direct a user to the right data center. You examine the source of the dns lookup and figure out the best bgp path from each data center that will get you back to the source. You then respond with an answer to the dns request that directs the user to what you think is the closest data center. You may be wrong if the user is using a useless dns cache like google dns or if they are using a big ISP that keeps its dns in one location (10 or so years ago Comcast did all dns out of its east-coast data center, people learned real fast to not try to do geodns on queries coming from these servers...) OTOH, if the user is using their ISP's "local" dns server then you are going to get a result that will be very, very close to optimal.

If you guessed incorrectly then the tcp handshake will start from the user to your server and you will know that they are not at the right server. If the nature of the eventual exchange allows it (e.g. it will be repeated queries or a long data exchange) then you just hit them with a redirect and let the user re-open the connection to a server that is closer to them, or you seed the response data so that follow-up queries are all exchanged with the closest data center. If the exchange is quick and not going to be repeated a lot then you will end up adding more perceived latency by trying to re-direct once the connection is established.

Putting this sort of smarts down at the application server is expensive. It is much easier to do this job at the dns lookup phase and you will get a good return on the amount of investment that this approach requires. You do need to be smart though, and make sure that you do not let geodns end up directing large batches of users that are getting service from google dns or opendns to overload a particular location.

Anycast is not the solution, it is just a different approach that brings its own set of headaches into the equation (e.g. pop switches during extended exchanges)
You're sending me on a roller coaster of emotions here mmastrac! That's pretty cool. I picked up a 360 modified it to play Reach and then sold it for over twice what I paid. I need something new to mess around with, this could be fun.
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The point is that by the time you've heard from the client on the CDN (after resolving host to IP), they've already contacted a non-optimal CDN POP.

Providing IP addresses (locations) to host queries is exactly what DNS is built to do. :)
Very nicely written.

But I realize that my reading comprehension once again fails me. I really didn't get the clue of his loss from these last lines:

"I would have said “only one,” but it turns out what I meant was “one who will outlive me.”

So, two."
the site got twenty two hundred hits within two hours?
You're right; this was from an old source file.
You make a lot of assumptions. Who is to say this was per se a tech event? It actually wasn't, it was the birthday celebrations of a major record company.

The people whom I spoke with were from a large advertising agency that use Rails developers internally. I don't see any reason to see why she shouldn't be the life and soul of a party, she is a very beautiful and very smart woman, an intoxicating combination!

I seem to have touched a nerve with you re this post. I apologise, I did not mean to cause any offence.

S
Couldn't the CDN redirect to a closer node if DNS doesn't bring the user to an optimal pop?

I'm pretty sure we're talking about an HTTP protocol so a 302 redirect ought to work, and it seems like that would give the CDN way more control than trying to distribute traffic using a cached and not reliably localized DNS mechanism.

Edit: foobarbazetc has a good point, but it still feels like the CDN has reasonable ways to work around and do a better job of selecting the correct pop than DNS. Adding a layer of subdomains which force locality (us-ny.host.com) would keep urls readable & virtual hosts intact.
Then why do you need all those Facebook permissions?
I think you're being blindly optomistic. The only way to "make it a little better" is to:

a: make it so that ANYBODY can get a hot woman, which makes having lots of hot women about useless

b: flood the industry with women. This is happening slowly, but you can't force it. Of course, if the balance tips towards women, then we'll just have the opposite, and having hot powerful handsome men around will replace hot women.

c: (myriad of ridiculous examples about fundamentally changing our species and the nature of sexuality)

You have to remember this isn't about sexism. It may well be sexist, but all it's about is having what all of your peers want but can't have makes you look powerful. It just so happens the most common want-but-can't-have is attractive women. "making it better" can only be achieved my removing the want.
What's the best time to launch a consumer facing web app in the New Year 2011?
I've been working on a consumer facing web app that would have helped the holiday shoppers. Whatever I've tried it didn't make it for a pre-holiday launch. It would be useful post holiday season as well, so was thinking of launching it early next year, 2011. Wanted to get your expert opinion on what would be the best time early next year to launch? Wanted to make sure if TC, Mashable, HN picks up the story it should get maximum exposure. Any advice?
Fixed! I guess I wasn't paying enough attention during that scene...
In case you haven't watched it yet: this is a quote from The Social Network - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/quotes?qt1307141
You don't know the ip address of the real client when they are doing the dns lookup, so you start by assuming that they are close (in network terms) to the server that is performing the dns lookup. When you are not dealing with a borked dns service this assumption you will get into the right general region of the world. Once you are in the right region you can use anycast because within a relatively small region you are less likely to see big route shifts that will pop an anycast connection and hose your content delivery.
They may think you only get paid if a) they click and b) they buy...
Adsense. With only about 10k hits a day, my bedtime
calculator http://sleepyti.me brings in $10-$20/day. At the rate you're getting users, you could probably bring in a significant load of cash. Good luck!
Here's why I have't changed over. I've used bash for years and know it pretty well. I dabbled with zsh a few times, but in the end it came down to the benefit not being worth the cost.

The cost is that the default config requires a fair bit of tweaking to get usable, and the knowledge to do that tweaking is not easily found, not so newbie-friendly as another commenter above mentions, so I have to learn a bunch of beginner stuff first before I can start to get the extra power benefits.

FWIW, I found that really understanding readline and .inputrc gave me much greater power in bash for less effort than having to learn zsh. The extra return of zsh wasn't worth the effort.
I agree with your "foolish" comment :)
> The Internet is built atop private property.

It's private property which crosses state lines, which is more than you can say for Wickard's wheat.

Today there are relatively few constitutional constraints on regulation of interstate commerce.
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This kind of fearmongering is even worse than what the TSA does. Sure, the X-ray machines could mysteriously fail in such a way as to irradiate you. But it's very, very, very unlikely.

(What's the difference between backscatter x-ray and linear accelerators for surgery? The backscatter machine is designed to emit low levels of radiation. The linear accelerator is designed to send a beam of damaging radiation into the subject. The problem that the article describes was that the radiation beam designed to damage stuff was pointed at stuff that it shouldn't have been pointed at.)

Also, doctors are supposed to be skilled operators, and their machines are designed for that. TSA agents are not supposed to be skilled operators, so the machines they use don't have any knobs that they can tweak incorrectly.

Anyway, not worried about this, sorry.
> Having beautiful women around is a signal of dominance.

Excerpt from a book by Emily Gould (ex-Gawker blogger), talking about her real job at a publishing firm

"One of my tasks at my first job had been to stand at the locked doors near the elevator bank and lead guests inside. I would stand in the doorway and wait and, when I heard the ping of the elevator reaching the publishing house's floor, I'd start smiling. After shaking the guests' hands I would lead them into the little waiting area where there were two armchairs and a little table next to a rack of our newest shiny hardcovers, and I'd bring them coffee or tea or water and then go sit back at my desk. Then, when my boss was ready - he let some people wait longer than others - he'd tell me to go and get them, and I'd lead them through the maze of the office, chatting brightly over my shoulder. If the person or people walking behind me were men, I would be conscious of their eyes following the movement of my back, conscious always like the books displayed in the waiting area: an ornament that demonstrated the company's power."
I think the OP is first drawing a valid if glib opinion I don't agree with (Word lens is lame) and then mixing up his correlations (because you're still dumb) as well as vocabulary (it would be more accurate to say ignorant).

Word Lens is a breakthrough mainstream application when it comes to language barriers. Discounting that because there are still existing problems with communication in the world is, uh, dumb.
Wise words!

Thanks for the offer to take this chat further - I'll be in touch when I've worked on it some more. Version 2.0 anyone? :)
The TSA's security measures are a farce according to any competent security researcher, so their net value is negative not only in preventing attacks, but in making flight for current passengers less safe as well as for those who will choose alternatives because of these policies.
Emergency excesses – Cong blamed Sanjay
It is not the fact that they dns server is using anycast routing that is the problem, it is the fact that the dns provider does not have a widely distributed set of POPs. When you send out a dns query to google dns or opendns you are going to a small set of boxes, the anycast address will route you to the closest one in this set but it is unlikely that any of the POPs are actually close to you. Level3 has a widely distributed set of POPs and if you are going to use a dns service that is not provided by your ISP this is probably the one to use.
Should have tried Debian; they have an optional text based installer that probably would have enabled you to complete the install.
I can see wanting to 'get back' at them if they are really abusing their beauty. Though chances are most men who want to 'get back', including the original parent, were just jilted suitors.
First, do not put ads on your site as it will annoy the users. Rather, take feedback and see what it takes to get more traffic.
I guess you can double up your existing infrastructure to handle any surge in traffic.
You do not want your users to see your page down due to excessive traffic.
The vast majority of questions are non-tech (telephony-related, account issues, and other FAQ type stuff). The next largest set of questions is technical and that's what we have the evangelists for who are all working developers. reneighbor is also more technical than she gives herself credit for :)
To use Google's DNS servers you have to put their IP addresses manually into your network settings (http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html). If you don't set these, or set them back to using the "default" you'll use your ISP's local DNS servers instead.
Free pages to get friends for your Facebook account
"502 Bad Gateway" - hosting troubles.. Can you explain a bit more about what threewords.me is?
"Asking random people to decide on what they do or do not want the FCC to do regarding the Internet will inevitably result in answers based on flawed premises."

Let's rephrase that a little and see what we get:
Asking [constituents] to decide on what they do or do not want [any particular government agency] to do regarding [any particular issue] will result in [a pretty good indicator of how congress is likely act].

If congress is hearing that "random people" (aka "constituents") are against "more" or "TV-like" regulation of the internet, then congress is going to take steps to prevent the FCC from doing whatever it is that congress thinks people don't want. If you don't like this, rather than pointing out "uninformed" typical voters are you'd be much better served by trying to "inform" them.

Caution: a lot of times, "typical" people hear what experts have to say and respond with something to the effect of, "I understand and accept the facts as you have explained them, but I do not share your opinion about what should be done in light of those facts because I am balancing your concerns against a whole list of other concerns which you prioritize very differently." Frustrated experts routinely misinterpret this as "we don't need your stinkin 'facts,' nerd-boy!" because they consider their chosen issue to be so important that they are incapable of understanding how someone could understand the facts and still come to a different conclusion. This is usually followed by general complaints about "anti-intellectualism."

Aside: when I was in high school, a group of friends and I distributed anti-H20 literature with great success: other students started making their own photocopies and redistributing them, eventually to teachers and faculty. A few days after we started the process, an airhead vice-principal (our school had multiple vice-principals) was in the process of organizing a student group when the AP Chemistry teacher took her aside and tried to politely explain to her that she had been had. At first she wouldn't hear it, and turned his attempt at a quiet aside into a noisy and public scene, much to her eventual embarrassment. I'm pretty sure he knew we were responsible, but didn't bust us because he was so annoyed by that vice-principal.
Age 15. Apple II+

The discussion here brings back a lot of fond memories. The Apple II was a great computer and easy for a teenager to understand. Source was available for almost everything (and what wasn't officially available had been disassembled and documented with high quality.)

Here's something other HN members might enjoy: Got access to an old Apple with Applesoft BASIC? Try this:

CALL -151

300: AD 30 C0 E6 B8 D0 02 E6 B9 4C B7 00

B1: 4C 00 03

3D0G

Now, run any BASIC program and listen. You'll quickly discover you can tell what the machine is doing. Floating point? Rapid ticks. Tight loop near the beginning of the program? High-pitched whine. Great for debugging or simulating a background thread.
I recently built a Facebook application that approached the same kind of growth.

Sites like this typically see eCPM between $0.10 and $0.30 for advertising. So you're looking at around $30/day revenue right now.

Consider switching to EC2. This will allow you to easily scale up to a more powerful server if growth continues or down to a less powerful one if traffic tapers off.

Depending on how you set things up, a common bottleneck for Facebook applications is API calls. Ensure you are not making any API calls from Rails, since this will cause Rails processes to hang until Facebook returns results. With high traffic this could easily cause your server to become overwhelmed. Move all API calls to Delayed Job or another background processing system if you haven't already.

It looks like you have relatively few remotely loaded assets, which is great. You can likely speed things up more by making sure that your database is well optimized for the server (Make sure query cache is enabled, and you have indexes on the right columns for example), and identify any actions that take a long time to return.

As for what to expect in the future, growth will not be infinite. There are a finite number of people on earth that are going to love your site and Facebook integration is a fantastic way to reach nearly all of those people in a very short amount of time. After a while most of those people will get bored and you will see traffic begin to fall. The best ways to address this are by consistently releasing new features to reengage users or by referring your users to other similar sites that you build.
The Lumimask: A Mask That Wakes You As Gently As Mother Nature
very cool. It'd be even cooler if you had a settings page to select which NYTimes feeds you wanted.
I'm guessing submitter discovered this in The Risks Digest. I subscribed by RSS recently and I am finding it interesting. There is a healthy culture of informed paranoia in plenty of other disciplines aside from software that one can learn from.

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/risks

A hilarious article about f16 testing is what turned me on to it in the first place: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/3.44.html#subj1
Brilliant observations and use of the "my guy." Made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I find that this is much more the norm for how successful networking. No one's going to argue with the babe.
Thank you for posting this. I lost my own 25-year friend to a drunk driver this past March, and the post was beautifully written and mirrors my feelings.
Criticism should not depend on the ability to create.

That said, this critique was crap.
Are there any of such books available in epub format so that I can read on my mobile device?
They want the website itself to NOT suggest in any way that people should click on AdSense ads. They want people to do it naturally, of their own accord - so their algorithms (googles) can handle ad placement and whatnot.

It's not the same as me buying an ad on your site and encouraing traffic.. it's not an affiliate sales program.. it's a very specific advertising setup that very clearly states you are not to encourage people to click on the ads.
No conditions at all.
11. yahoo as always at everything
What's your main bottleneck? What's driving that high CPU?

Without knowing more about your setup I'd offload assets to S3 and switch from Passenger to Unicorn.
I know plenty of club promoter douches who are "surrounded" by attractive women. They seem to be the counterexample that destroys the rule.

Dating an attractive woman certainly implies that you have something going for you. Social proof and all that.
Ask HN: Front End Dev Interview Questions
I have an interview next week, and have found a ton of questions through generic, interview-question searches. However I figure HN knows better...
He is running a site about boats, the ads are about boats, and the users are into boats. This is a fuzzy line at best. He did not tell anyone to click on ads. The problem is that google exercises arbitrary power without explaining it, warning you before they do it, etc etc.

Should google have seized the revenue from his YouTube videos? Was he able to talk to someone and explain that they were separate things and get it worked our? No, again, arbitrary power.