skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The preface's Problem 1 was a fun exercise proving a beautiful identity. Hint: Lbh arrq bayl bar gevt vqragvgl gb cebir vg, gur sbezhyn sbe fva(2k).
there are a lot of finance and manufacturing programs that are written in cobol, rpg, etc. so the gui is nasty but then people have written windows, web clients on top of them. they are kludgey but complex programs.
>you can probably only reliably make a profit during rush times (i.e., Thanksgiving, December)

Still, it'd be a nice way to get a bolus of cash for buying, say, December holiday presents.

>Also, if you guess wrong and a popular flight did not fill up -- you have to take the flights!

You don't have to take the flights... Last I flew, there wasn't anybody forcing people to get on the plane. As long as you're willing to eat the loss (which you have to be in a speculative endeavor), you can skip boarding the first available flight and still try to win auctions on the rest of them.

I suspect the real problem with doing this is the relatively large up-front capital investment: depending on the flights, you're looking at the 100-500 dollar range per-ticket which they hold for at least a month.
Hopefully a Linux version will follow soon, the author commented on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ewnhi/this_game_needs...
I've noticed a lot of speculation about how they will translate code between X86, X86_64 and ARM. Well, the simple answer is not to translate at all. MS have been pushing managed code via things like Silverlight and .NET for some time. My tuppence worth: Windows 8 on ARM won't support legacy x86 code, but will run .NET, Silverlight and any other managed code shamalamadingdong it needs to run. I can see Windows 8 on x86 supporting legacy code, but just as 16-bit support is gone completely in x86_64 Windows now, I'm expecting no support for unmanaged x86 code in the ARM version.

Where all this gets interesting is with things like Mono and Moonlight. If MS goes down this route, they could really be exposed as Mono and Moonlight mature.
It's more problematic for those that include Ruby extensions in C, but fixing a library to make it 1.9-compatible is not generally that onerous a task (the major exception to this is string encoding, which is fine in simple cases but a complete nightmare in anything complex). If enough people just write patches for a couple of gems they use, everything would be 1.9-compatible soon enough. rvm lets you install all the different Ruby versions you'll need for testing easily enough.
Consumers prefer products with few and mostly matching colors
Thanks for the feedback. We have a new, improved version of the dashboard coming soon that will hopefully address your points in 1) - the current version was designed when we had very few events on the site, but now that we have thousands of conferences it's important to be able to filter them.

2) is a really interesting suggestion - we've been treating every country the same, but since the US is our largest market it makes sense to make States a special case.

3) is something we've been thinking about quite a bit - again, our topics worked fine when we were smaller, but the strain is beginning to show. Metadata is hard!

We'll be iterating constantly over the next few months, so keep an eye on our blog/twitter account for updates.
What must be the ideal bug report (about a CoffeeScript closure idiom)
That's quite interesting, what are the other two? And why specifically a Mac Hex editor?
I'm pretty sure it was to do with the RISC OS being lightweight memory wise than anything. I had some good spec'ed PCs at that time but those relatively cheap Acorn machines were always faster in basic OS tasks.
also says this syntax is compatible with python which is not really true. if you have this in python:

{
key: "value",
dr_nic: "The Comedian",
ttl: 42
}

python will expect there to be a variable called 'key', one called 'dr_nic', and one called 'ttl'. If you intend to do

d['ttl']

you'll need to create a hash using a literal string
Try looking for more general terms using Google Scholar.

For example, here's a UK government report from the mid-2000s, featuring several relevant industrial case studies:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file14239.pdf
I was a little apprehensive of the last release being 7/30/09, and no mention of 10.6, but it looks like it's still under development somewhat - The svn.ridiculousfish.com/HexFiend2/experimental/ branch was last modified two days ago.

Is an Intel-only version and an update of the website in the plans somewhere?
That's exactly what I did, and I work at NVIDIA. What a company says at career fairs is not necessarily applicable to everyone.
In your attempt to weed out conflating variables, you introduce a similar variable... namely: all programmers working in the same conditions definitely reduces external stimuli which could impact performance, however it introduces a different variable in which the some (or many!) of the programmers are no longer working under their preferred conditions dropping their performance.
ASLR for jailbroken iPhones
This debt metaphor is really unproductive. Fact is it's easier to make money when you already have money. So the assumption here is a nation would be better off if it subsidized the money making process, same as it subsidizes education.
Scripting News: Upcoming: The minimal blogging tool
Excellent. I'd buy it. I paid for the Humble Indie Bundle #2 pretty much just because Braid was finally out for Linux, even though I'd purchased it for my Windows desktop already.
Ruby 1.9 still uses hash rocket. I'm using RoR3 on 1.9.2 and I haven't changed any of my hashes.

I guess if you want to save some key strokes and you use symbols as keys you can use the new syntax.

The other cool/different thing about Hash in 1.9 is that it preserves order.
About time! I was wondering if Twitter had killed that off or just forgotten about it.

Won't it be called "Twitter for Mac" though?
Programmer art: Genetic algorithm imagery (Python)
Seems that "4G" is the new "2.0"
That's right. It is nice for DSLs though!

http://beastaugh.github.com/stylish/ruby19.html
I mostly agree, and believe tablets (iPad /honeycomb) is what would suit the majority of consumers -- with one glaring exception: typing. I've had iPad since release and I still loathe to type anything more than a ssntnece or two on the thing, then again maybe twitter and fb updates are teaching us to type in short bursts which is tolerable using current tablet keyboard inputs. (I don't consider 3rd party keyboard HW a viable large scale solution)
American culture has mostly become one vast infomercial.
There is a large chance B offers to sell the ticket for less than $100 -- that is, he decides not to fly, and either forfeits his ticket or accepts a voucher for less than what he paid. That's the whole reason they overbook in the first place.
Game theory analysis of situations like this usually concludes that you won't get $4999.

Because another passenger will undercut you at $4998, and take the profit ($4998 - utility of flying) instead.
But, of course, you'll anticipate that, and so undercut them for $4997.

And so on, until the price converges to near what its worth to you in the first place. That's what makes it an auction. Its harder to exploit than it first seems.

(Of course, such analysis doesn't always hold true in the real world - but I wouldn't expect to make 5k with that sign!)
Those are all great points.

Another good way is to ask the prospective VC if you can interview him. Interview him (or her) on how they acheived success, and what've they've seen in companies they've invested in. This alone will be a mentoring experience as you can gain some insight into what they invest in, and what made those (or some) companies successful.

At the end of the interview, they will most likely ask what you are up to, which can lead into them offering some advice.
I don't think the suggestions are superficial. A company does not need to follow every single one of these tips in order to increase their applicant signal/noise ratio. Many companies would achieve this goal if they simply refused to "look like a recruitment agency" and took the time to write job posting for humans, and not robots. I tend to be turned off by completely impersonal job postings, even when they list interesting technologies. Also, imo, a company has little to gain and much to lose by trying too hard to be cool: as stated in the article, you don't need ninjas, and you don't need to tell us that you only hire the top 1% (if you have to say it, it probably isn't true).

But you make a good point about the salary, and it is especially relevant for large companies.
The Best and Worst Jobs 2011
I wonder if they'll offer it for free.
Ask HN: Domain offer - is this real or fake?
Just got an email a few days ago regarding a domain name I own. It doesn't seem to be legitimate at all, but the interesting part is that he offered to buy the domain outright over paypal, which is relatively secure. I have heard of scammers using paypal before (resulting in repercussions on the receiving end), but if I decided to take him up on this offer - what risks would I be facing? I no longer use or want the domain, so I am not opposed to selling it. Here's the exact e-mail, with names and domains concealed for the sake of privacy:

Hello,

I've tried to register xxx, but i see you've already registred it a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I know a method that will earn you +/- 200$ a day with 20min of work with that specific domain.
You can read more about it on the page below.

http://www.partnerwithpaul.com

You do need to enter your name + e-mail to receive the method though.

Greetz

Michael
AIM: xxx
MSN: xxx@hotmail.com

ps. If you want to sell your domain, I'm willing to pay you 500$ for it (paypal or wire)
pss. Why am I telling you abou this method?? To make up for all the bad stuff i did last year lol...
The dark side of entrepreneurship, continued
The system will never accept more than about 75% of the fare (or, potentially less). This is also a tactic employed by legacy airlines - the newer ones don't promise a seat, so you get bumped till later, no comp.

So you're faced with a flight with 105% passengers, you have to figure out who's not flying. The schmucks who'll take a $50 bump (free drinks at the bar later?) or those who'll hold out for $400?

When no-one takes a deal, or there isn't budget, then it becomes involuntary, with minimum comp. That sucks the most. It's like wheel of fortune, except the airline _always_ wins.
Well, it doesn’t get much more low friction than piracy, especially if you are thirteen-year-old with hardly any money. I was merely pointing out that “my parents won’t let me use their credit card” is a lousy excuse on all levels.

All I’m saying is that it’s ridiculously easy to get iTunes gift cards. (There are at least three stores which sell gift cards within easy biking distance from me, getting to a store which, for example, has a decent selection of music is quite a bit harder. Buying music was quite a bit harder when I was thirteen only ten years ago.) It’s perfectly safe and there is no need for a credit card. The excuses are invalid, the kids pirate apps not because it’s hard for them to buy them, they pirate them because they don’t want to pay anything. (Thirteen-year-olds, myself included, are like that – I can’t really say that I’m surprised.)
That has nothing to do with the assertion that governments are encouraging private companies to restrict internet freedom. No number of examples of police forces overstepping their bounds is proof of an authoritarian conspiracy to censor the internet in the federal government.
Newly developed cloak hides underwater objects from sonar
It's not that it is unproductive (for me), but rather that it feels like drudge work. Which makes me less motivated to do it, which negatively influences my productivity on other parts of the project. I think we can add documentation to this as well.

Old school people might call it getting stuck in a rut. It's much easier for me to get stuck in a rut doing testing and documentation, compared to doing something new and exciting.
Blog post from Nvidia: http://blogs.nvidia.com/2011/01/project-denver-processor-to-...
Their "magic" is .NET and MSIL.They explicitly stated they aren't virtualizing or emulating x86 code during the session.
did you guys ever modify it?
$300,000 lost salary to start up - would you do it?
So I'm a doctor (not just playing one on TV) with the start-up itch that I gotta scratch. As much as I love my job and my patients, I've had this desire to build something, watch it grow, call it my own, and hopefully retire off it!
I have no interest in finding someone to hack for me. I'm in this to challenge myself, learn a ton, and make something great (hopefully).

I majored in EE at a great engineering school, but obviously that was a while back. I can program in C, but don't know the new web-app languages. All of my friends are doctors who majored in biology or some such and have zero programming experience or interest. So I can't talk to anyone I know about this and get a reasonable answer, so I ask you(very smart) people this:

1) A years lost salary is 300k. If you were in my shoes, would you dabble with a start up in your off time and see where it goes, or would you go balls to the wall-take a year off and work full time on it?
2) What language(s) must I master in order to be proficient at web design? What are the best books to start off with? I recently read Getting Real and re-read Knuth's book. I'm reading the SEIA right now, it's a pretty nice easy read. Any other reccs?

Before someone reams me, I didn't just watch the Social Network and develop aspirations of becoming a billionaire at 30! I've been thinking about this for a few months now.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.
I don't know enough about the regulations that apply here, but aren't all VCs and private equity funds subject to the same criticism? i.e. they pool private money into non-public companies?
What are the other two tools? Would my guess that another one of them was either otool, class-dump, nm or ld be right?
A lot of the body smells depends on diet. If a person eats foods that make them smell (and the foods can depend on the person) then you get smelly. If you know what those foods are and you avoid them, you decrease the smells your body produces.

This is true whether or not you shower :)
Cool. Now why doesn't PHP join the crowd and do this with arrays already?
Real time comment system for any webpage
Twitter's Official Mac App Coming Tomorrow
Correct. It is wonderful sugar, but somewhat limiting. Realistically, you need to know both syntaxes.

irb(main):001:0> hash={:"symbol with space" => nil}
=> {:"symbol with space"=>nil}
irb(main):002:0> hash={"symbol with space": nil}
SyntaxError: (irb):2: syntax error, unexpected ':', expecting tASSOC
hash={"symbol with space": nil}
^
from /usr/bin/irb1.9.1:12:in `<main>'
irb(main):003:0> hash={"symbolwithoutspace": nil}
SyntaxError: (irb):3: syntax error, unexpected ':', expecting tASSOC
hash={"symbolwithoutspace": nil}
^
from /usr/bin/irb1.9.1:12:in `<main>'
irb(main):004:0> hash={symbolwithoutspace: nil}
=> {:symbolwithoutspace=>nil}
irb(main):005:0> hash={symbol with space: nil}
SyntaxError: (irb):5: syntax error, unexpected tIDENTIFIER, expecting keyword_do or '{' or '('
hash={symbol with space: nil}
I wasn't so concerned with the specific nature of the investment vehicle in question as it seemed the complaint about GS was simply that they had sold to a client a product which they implicitly had deemed a poor choice.
In this case, perhaps this issue should be raised internally at NVidia. I for one didn't even bother applying, since having interned at companies that filtered strongly by grades, this was a major red flag.

Candidates with significant work experience - even ones still in college - are in high demand everywhere and have a lot of choices. Even a non-ninja-rockstar-guru like me had internship offers piling up outside the door. In this case it would benefit the company to not put things into job ads that don't actually matter.
Ok, when you say enterprise I specifically think SAP (as I've done way too much to be healthy) and Oracle Apps/Siebel/Peoplesoft etc. Just thought I'd clarify before I start.

The singular biggest problem with enterprise software is it's complexity. If your project is so big that you don't have a network diagram because the best you can do is a concept block diagram, your software failed. If it's because it uses dynamic routing and you can forecast information flows, your software failed. If it's because it takes a large amount of data, analyses it to generate more data, which is then fed back for further analysis and so on, then your software failed.

Because of the complexity when you start looking under the hood some really bad things start dropping out. I'm talking attack ships on fire off the shoulder of orion bad here. Tears in rain and suchlike. In other words, your way of dealing with the app from developing it's own consciousness and trying to take over the world is something stupid like a 4 year lifespan. Classic real world example I see time and time again: Thick client uses a hard coded database login to connect directly to a server, then compares user entered login and password against reference table stored in clear text. I've seen this twice in the past year alone, it's always enterprise (although once I saw it in a security product). Fail, fail, fail.

These two add to the third cardinal sin of enterprise software, they're built for particular types of process and never quite fit the business case or structure that acquired these technologies. A large charitable foundation we worked for went to buy SAP after being told they could customise it. In order to cut down costs said charitable foundation bought SAP, the tin and asked the consultancy to minimise customisation. What they got was an FI system for a software firm based in Astoria, Germany (seriously, they shipped with all the defaults and no custom profiles). This meant that they had to enter donations as sales of products.

All of this adds up to my final bugbear - price. It costs a fortune to buy the software, usually with horrible terms. It costs a fortune to buy the hardware, let alone maintain it (that is if you're allowed to maintain it), a fortune to tailor (badly) to your environment, usually involving insultants who know nothing about your actual business model/structure/processes/policies/people/etc and don't actually care a great deal about it and costs a fortune to fix when it inevitably goes wrong.
I'm not sure I understand the pay cut part. Why not start it up on the side and keep your regular job until it grows big enough to replace your existing salary? If it fails then you can just keep doing what you were doing before. Seems less risky and stressful than going all in on something you're unsure about.
In that case, I concur that the practice is questionable. The grandparent had not made this clear.
You're so right, good thing the internet (created by a people at a government institution) exists for us to have this discussion.
The data singularity, part 2: Human-sizing big data
I get scam offers through Paypal all the time. If you agree to it, they will email you a fake/spoofed "you've received money" email from Paypal but nothing will actually appear in your paypal account.

I can't actually view that url because my work network filters it as "illegal" but I assume it is bullshit.

If it were me, I'd offer to sell it to him through SEDO or some other trustworthy domain market+escrow service. If he declines, he's scamming you.
Phil Hagelberg on Emacs new package manager.
When no-one takes a deal, or there isn't budget, then it becomes involuntary, with minimum comp.

I don't believe this is true. At least in the US, the compensation for being involuntarily bumped is usually much better than the voluntary, and as a result it is almost in the airlines' interest to find a volunteer. Also, the involuntary compensation involves cash, whereas the voluntary (on the US airlines I'm familiar with) is a voucher for future travel.

I believe these are the current rules:

"If the alternate transportation is scheduled to arrive between one and two hours after the original planned arrival (between one and four hours on international flights), the compensation equals 100% of the passenger’s one way fare to his or her next stopover or final destination, with a $200 maximum additional cash compensation . If the airline cannot get a passenger to the destination airport within two hours (four hours on international flights), the compensation rate doubles to 200% of the passenger’s one-way fare, with a $400 maximum additional cash benefit. This compensation is in addition to the value of the passenger’s ticket, which he or she can use for alternate transportation or have refunded if not used.

The last time the rule was substantially changed was in 1982, and the last time the maximum additional cash benefit was raised was in 1978. For 2008, the DOT made several changes, the most important was a doubling of the maximum cash compensation to $400 for domestic flights and $800 for international flights."

http://www.airsafenews.com/2008/05/revised-bumping-compensat...

[edited to add the second paragraph, which mentions the 2008 changes, which I somehow failed to get in the first time]
If Microsoft ported Office/SharePoint to native ARM I might be able to believe this.
Sounds like a good idea. I'm operating under the assumption that it's a scam anyway, so I think I'll just go with it and see what happens. What do I have to lose?
I heard a great quote from someone once that said "I don't care how much you make, tell me how much you saved". That's really the key question here. If I made 300k/yr I'd probably have 270k in the bank after a year(neglecting taxes) because I don't have a wife and kids, a big house, or a fancy car to pay off. I could live off that for a while.

What's your situation like?
Interesting. So, some SEC regulations required there to be a Chinese wall between the part of Goldman which was betting against the MBS market and the portion of Goldman which was selling long to clients? If this is the case, then those complaining of the practice must believe that Goldman had some moral obligation to ignore SEC rules.
>Sometime mid-summer I stopped by a barber and before I'd realized it he'd squirted a glob of shampoo onto my head. It was too late to protest, so I just sat through the scrubbing. For the following 2 weeks my hair was a mess: full of dandruff and totally uncontrollable.

I find this hard to believe. My money's on confirmation bias.
probably because he builds things that require (virtually) no support and don't have any features not visible in the primary interface.

I love the guy and his projects, I'm just saying; let's not discount the amazing work of others ;)
Wow, Bill Dally is still having the RISC vs. CISC discussion. That's daring; most computer architects consider it a settled issue.
Pixel pour 2.0
A Beginner's Guide to Misinterpreting Alexa Graphs
neverthelss the instruction set and especially encoding of the newer instructions is a nightmare.

I wonder what ARM has to say about 64-bit computing, though
No, we don't know what exploit he used. (fyi, I'm in the private IRC channel with fail0verflow and geohot).

I will agree though that what geohot did and the what Team Twiizers (as they were calle back in the day) are quite similar.
Sadly, yet another author who either did not bother to read and think about Ayn Rand's work, or, worse, pretends to have NOT understood it.
I'm not sure if Okteta is available for Mac as well, but it's a beautiful hex editor I use when on linux. WinHex is great on windows. I'll take a look if this might a good choice to use on my mac.