skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Hi ggchapell,

We agree on your point. The company is being a bully. My issue is with the reception of the story. The larger picture is that frivolous takedown notices are issued all the time, and will continue to be issued willfully by companies until there is disincentive to do so.

Prof. Anderson's actions are commendable. I do not wish to detract from them. However, with the candor I hope a security researcher would appreciate, I point out that both parties probably expected this exchange would take place, and both parties understand Prof. Anderson's response is ineffective. (The Internet, however, may not.)

Prof. Anderson has successfully stood up to this organization, but he has only maintained parity. This kind of incident will repeat as long as companies believe they can get something out of it. Someone else will cave or will plain not know any better. The companies' goal is, basically, harassment, and they will continue to do it regardless of anything that's happened so far. So I guess my point is that I would rather see people discussing how to remedy this old situation than remarking on the letter, which while entertaining and well-written, is actually the signifier of a losing battle.

(unfortunately this is the last I can comment on this topic)
Happy New Year everybody, wish you the best. Santa Cloud
Interesting timing: just two days ago, I spent a good part of my afternoon making "emacs -nw" running inside GNU screen to look more or less exactly the way my standard windowed Emacs looks. That included mostly fiddling with terminal settings and finding colors that are supported by the terminal and resemble my original choices (and some other tweaking here and there).

Now clickong on my Emacs icon on the desktop will open a new gnome-terminal that runs an Emacs inside screen -- it looks pretty much the same as it did before, but I can access and take over my current session remotely from home.
As a matter of fact, the shortcut will actually first check if there's a detached screen session that runs emacs and ask me in a small dialog window if I want to re-attach to that session or start a new window.

Makes me happy.

Sorry if that post is of no interest at all to anyone else on HN but me...
I don't know, I'm italian and people here don't know English, yes a few do, but it's still the exception. I've also just lived 6 months in Madrid and it's even worse. I know that countries in the north of Europe are better in this sense but I see Greece to be more like Italy and Spain education than say, Netherlands education.
Dang, based on title I expected it to be Paul Graham's Top 15 articles, not that Graham was included in the Top 15.
Spotify is great, but the article paints it as the utopian fulfilment of the evolution of the music industry. While it would be wonderful (as a Brit) to think the European music industry has finally reached enlightenment, that's not the case.

* it's not "any song by any artist" (although it does pretty well). Recent releases are generally missing; certain artists (like Bob Dylan) and labels have opted out entirely.

* Spotify has negotiated a deal with the collection agencies to get its music catalog. If the agencies decide to renegotiate, they could essentially kill Spotify at will (like what nearly happened to Pandora, and forced them to block non-US listeners).

* the service doesn't "support itself" - last year it lost £16 million [1]. While I'm sure they have plans to reach breakeven, until they do they're dependent in principle on their ability to raise new capital.

* the "big four" major European record labels are investors and shareholders in Spotify, between them holding nearly 20% of the company according to some sources [2]. They probably (speculation) have board seats. In other words, the labels have significant control over Spotify's direction and decisions.

* the popularity of Spotify is a highly visible PR win for the music industry's political campaign. The EU and its member states are currently debating things like copyright reform and how to stimulate an IP-centric economy. The record labels, of course, lobby to keep the law exactly how it is, but with stronger rights enforcement measures (preferably in civil as well as criminal cases) and longer copyright terms. Entrepreneurs are calling for things like a compulsory music license for online broadcasting, meaning music startups could experiment with new business models with predictable costs, and without the massive existential risk of having to individually negotiate terms with the collection agencies. Spotify means the music industry gets to say "look, music startups are doing great!", hiding the fact that most prospective music startups won't ever have the chance to get the kind of licensing deal Spotify got by handing over equity to the labels.

I'm not meaning to bash on Spotify as a service - it's brilliant. But it's not an indicator that the music industry "finally gets it". The music industry is just as screwed and stupid as it's always been, and their backing of Spotify is so politicised it's hard to see it as a good sign.

[1] http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/11/22/spotify-had-a-16-66m-los...

[2] http://techcrunch.com/2009/08/07/this-is-quite-possibly-the-...
As a rule of thumb, investment banks will charge about 7% of the value of a stock issue for an IPO.

So, for comparison a ~$1B IPO (which this round was comparable too) would have earned a bank about $70M in fees. By that metric, only paying $7M in fees seems cheap. Even assuming the lawyers/diligence/audits/etc cost another $10M (and I suspect that's probably way too high), Groupon is still getting off pretty cheap.
Thanks, good point. Fixed :)
The last pictures taken on the last roll of Kodachrome ever manufactured:
[http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/the-end-of-an-e...

McCurry is the photographer who shot the National Geographic Afghan girl cover (using Kodachrome), they gave him the last roll.
The Photos We'll Remember: 2000-2010
Or wrong...

If you don't love what you do it's probably not worth it in the long run. Doing a startup isn't necessarily going to put you in a financial disaster. It just makes the end result more volatile.

The way I look at it is with life there's a bell curve (maybe not normally distributed but still a curve distribution). Those with a steady consulting job will fall into the "average" middle area of the curve and be "safe" financially and might not ever be poor OR rich for that matter.

Those taking risks like in a startup would more invariably end up on one side of the curve (either on the side that makes you poor due to debt etc, or extremely rich but most likely you won't end up as an "average" middle area where everyone else is and regret not taking any chances in your life).
It's a good article, with a nice analysis of the 12th century Eurasian system.

Yes, this is clearly not the 12th century, but the parallels can give a good deal of insight into our present world-system.

I think the most interesting thing about looking at the parallels is how similar the models are between 12th century and present. Yes, we move and communicate a lot faster, and there are a lot more of us, but at the core you can still see the same sorts of organizational units showing up, and the relationships between those organizational units function very similarly. That said, you can see some fundamental shifts in the nature of organizations. Slavery is almost universally shunned, which marks one institution that has shifted radically in social importance. Democracies are consequently very different from their historical predecessors.

There's a lot of interesting stuff here. Your post, on the other hand, is reductive and boring.
Practice interviews are definitely important because interviewing skills are not improved by work experience - they are improved by interviewing experience.

Interesting side projects are also really valuable. They can demonstrate individual initiative, show competency in different technologies/practices/industries, and provide interesting talking points in your interviews.
My reading of the whole incident is that the exploit was disclosed (responsibly) to the banks 1 year ago and the banks have done nothing to fix the problem. Since then the professor (along with others) published a paper detailing the exploit. Finally the MPhil student cited the previously published paper in his thesis (it would be a crappy thesis to not reference current similar work)

At no point do I get the indication that the MPhil student was acting in a way that was 'irresponsible' - I don't know how you have come to that conclusion.
I think my comment was misinterpreted by some. I don't disagree with his statement or with him saying it on Hacker News. I find it interesting that memes appear everywhere, even on sites that think they are "above them." Another example of a Hacker News meme is the phrase "Cargo Cult X." I've noticed others, but I can't recall them right now.
This is well worth watching. He's certainly quite a guy.
I've never had a job that lasted longer than six months. Some employers think it's weird but I don't really mind. Just one job that didn't last doesn't look so bad, just say "We just didn't mesh well", or something like that. There's no reason to let your friends scare you about that -- again, almost everything I've done professionally has had the universal disapproval of family and friends, and it's not that big of a deal. If you're unhappy, blow it; your family and friends aren't the people stuck sitting around hating their life all day every weekday. When I worked a "real job", I would always hate how short the weekend was, and spend most of Sunday in dread anticipating Monday's return to the death world of the office.
Amazon patents system to stop bad gifts
Copying the mannerisms of the upper class clearly marks one as a striving member of the middle class.
Cloud Startups to Watch in 2011 # 4: RethinkDB
Start registeri.ng, .NG domains go on sale
The additional reading links at the end are also interesting and relevant[1]. Also, this strip illustrates a horrible example of an abusive workplace[2].

[1] http://www.liberatedthinking.com/data/Library/SATANISM/Satan...

[2] http://bigbigtruck.deviantart.com/gallery/9680890#/d24ih85
You were right. That was crazy easy. I should have done that months ago.

Thanks again!
" I wish my friends did what they loved and not what their peers thought was cool or society deemed worthy. None of them love what they do."

I think that's the money quote here. I think Steve Jobs said it best in a commencement speech:

...I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Ask HN: What are the best technologies you've worked with this year?
So HN, what are some cool, shiny new technologies that you worked with this past year? Care to tell us what those technologies are and why they are so cool?
Ask HN: PHP & Python/Ruby?
I'm decently proficient in PHP. I chose it initially because it was easy to learn and (very easy) to deploy.

I just finished a series of small web projects, and am looking to start something more ambitious. Before I do, I want to reevaluate my choice of language: should I switch to python or ruby?

Let's say I would switch to ruby...

1) How much more productive/efficient would it make my coding?

2) How hard and expensive (relatively) would it be to deploy?

3) Why shouldn't I switch?

4) Other major ruby advantages?

And finally, how should I go about the transition if its worth making the jump to ruby/python?
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Thanks for the feedback! I'm fixing that right now.
There's a more-or-less scheduled end date for grad school though.
There's a lot to these things. And also, the tech market for real, salaried jobs often depends on locality; the market in Kansas City (almost exclusively corporate IT staff with a handful of generic chop-shops) is not as good as the market in Salt Lake City (a lot of corporate stuff a la KC, but many more tech-specific companies using not-Java out there), and that is not as good as the market in San Francisco.
Ask HN: Disclaimer for limitation of liability?
I am an independent web application developer and a legal issue has arisen for which I am hoping to gain advice. I recently developed a database application for a new client and have received signals from them regarding their feeling about my liability for the project. They have hinted that I should be liable for any problems that might arise with the system (which is being marketed to professionals and contains non-financial, but still sensitive data). I had already signed a fairly thorough NDA before starting the project, but after I submitted a large invoice, they presented me another document that stated I was to deliver a reliable and accurate system, and that they have full ownership. This seemed reasonable to me, as I agree that they completely own the system and code. However, after signing, it was at this point that the client hinted about my liability should a problem arise. Then, I received confirmation that he is presenting the document which I signed to an attorney to ensure that it is thorough. My fear is that he basically wants to ensure that he can sue me if something goes wrong with the system.

The portion of the document to which I am referring simply states that I agree to deliver a reliable and accurate system, and does not state anything regarding my actual liability if something were to go wrong with the system. Also, I did not ask them to sign any disclaimer regarding my limitations of liability. As we all know, most software, when you agree to install it, includes fairly thorough wording that obviates the software company from any liability that might arise from using the software. Should this type of agreement, in some form or fashion, be part of a standard contract into which I might enter with a client? Given the document that I did sign, what recourse could this client have, should there be a problem that arises with the software? If any additional info is needed to thoroughly answer the question(s), I will do my best to provide it.

Typically, I have a personal and trustworthy relationship with my clients. I perform honest work and often an actual contract has not been necessary -- I develop code for a client, invoice the client, and then they always promptly remit payment. This process, which might seem risky to others, has worked well for me in my geography. However, this situation has made me re-think the process a bit, at least regarding self-protection in terms of liability disclaimers.

Any and all input regarding this situation and/or your past experiences is appreciated.
I'm reading http://craphound.com/ftw/ For The Win By Cory Doctorow right now. In it some of the main characters try to join a Gold Farmers Union, and the argument of how they can effectively mobilize is that now anyone in the world can instantly communicate and organize for workers rights and fair wages. Before these communication tools only the rich had the ability to organize countrywide and worldwide, but with access to skype or other VOIP tools the workers can have the same level of organization.

Maybe Cory Doctorow has a fan in the Chinese Communist party and they decided to nip that particular problem in the bud.
It runs on Google App Engine, and I'm using the standard webapp framework on App Engine, using the basic Datastore API. I use jQuery for the basic interactions and jQuery UI for the buttons and icons (as well as some of the CSS-related stuff). I use Jinja2 for templates, and the gae-sessions package for session management. I use the DuckDuckGo JSON API to get the zero-click info. Overall, there's not a whole lot of code to be honest, since I use so many third-party tools.
I just wondered about sending a letter to a swag of restaurants offering it as a service. Say that the first 3-5 to respond can take up the offer but potentially take on more. Quick site build, get interns to do the maintenance, and then eat out at a different restaurant each night of the month. Hmmm.
Not really -- either the information should be revealed to the public (in which case you don't have to be distrustful of them) or it shouldn't (in which case you should prevent them from learning).
I signed up but I'm wondering, how does it make sense for you to run the site with just a small one-time fee?
I'm looking forward to the impending arrival of Chicago's Groupon mafia.
Wow, a lot of comments about taking and reading without actually paying. I expect that at slashdot, but I guess I expected more from Hacker News readers.

Some of us write books and do expect to be remunerated for them. If you do not like the system, or the price, then do not purchase them. If you want to read something, then give a little back to the author. What makes you think that your work deserves pay and someone else's doesn't?
Small point perhaps but a place I was working at five years ago was developing in house custom apps for their workforce on the old windows mobile phones (probably 5 or 6? can't remember) but they did it because you could dev in .net and well it did what they needed it to do. That was about 400 devices and they were not cheap back then.
This is fairly even. I would take a look at each and decide which style you like better.

In general... ruby there are many ways to do things ( bit of a perl influence there ), python tends towards one sanctioned way to do things. That is a horrible overstatement but somewhat true.

I would advise you to send a few days with each and see which seems more natural. I prefer ruby w/ its blocks and more smalltalk and lisp-ish feel to things but I did python programming for a number of years and you will be fine learning either.

You should switch from php even if you go back to php to learn something new and expand your knowledge AND don't stop there, keep learning and go father afield later. Pick a functional language like scheme, clojure, haskell etc and learn that. Get up and cozy w/ smalltalk for some serious OO learning. Spend sometime with Erlang. Never stop switching what you use to learn even if you keep going back to other things to pay your bills- Java, Perl & C++ payed by bill for 7 years but during that time I learned Dylan, Smalltalk, Scheme, Python & several more.. each one I learned made me a better programmer.
that's my email, it works. I don't see anything from lukev and your email is unlisted.

Since I can't edit my original post any more, let me also add that I did a summer internship with Edward Tufte and have done analytic design consulting work and helped build and design one web app (tmedweb.tulane.edu).

Hope you can get back to me.
Adventures in Analyzing Stuxnet (27 C3 presentation)
"Cassandra requires all nodes to be restarted to apply a schema change, which can be quite a big deal."

That's no longer true. In 0.7, keyspaces and column families may be created, altered, or dropped live.
>Android is better for being able to develop on your platform of choice (though I suspect developing on Mac is best supported)...

Quickly like to point out that Eclipse on OS X is atrocious.
The 3D snowflakes are fantastic! there are more here:

http://emu.arsusda.gov/snowsite/stereo/stereo.html
Show HN: Facebook Profile Collage in iPhone app form
Your post is interesting but it misses a key point: Selection bias is everywhere, but in the US and most other countries you do not get run over by a truck if you watch Fox News, run your own blog or decide to make fun of politicians.
For the curious: http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/index.html

Essentially, sex is biological while gender is social. Transsexuality is a disparity between what someone was born biologically as (sex) and what they identify as (gender).

See also: http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm#AppA
I've heard of people taking TOS & Privacy Policies from competitors and similar sites, removing any identification and then taking it to a contracts lawyer and having them go over and customize it. They say it makes it a lot cheaper since the attorney has something to work from. I will be trying this method out in the future but if anyone else has done it this way, I'd like to hear about their results.
As with all legal matters, you should consult a lawyer to obtain proper legal advice. This comment is, of course, not legal advice and shouldn't be relied on as such, but it may help put you on the right path.

Without reading the contracts, knowing where they were signed, etc., a pretty universal general principle is that if you make a promise to your client, you will be liable if you do not live up to that promise. Some of these promises will be expressly in the contract and some of them may be implied by law.

If you agree to deliver a reliable and accurate system (this is essentially a warranty), then if the system fails to meet that, then you do have a liability exposure there. What constitutes a "reliable and accurate system" is open to interpretation and will affect the extent of your liability, but the point is that the door is open.

Instead of disclaiming the giving of any warranties, often contracts will contain a limitation of liability clause, which caps liability. So, while a software developer may warrant that their system will do what they said it will do, if it doesn't, the most a customer can claim back from them is the capped amount. It is common for this to be limited to the amount the customer paid for the software.
I'm not sure what the point of your post is. Even if you're in the top 0.1% of the country, based on whatever combination of criteria you prefer, there will still be hundreds of thousands people that are better than you. It's a statistical fact that should have no bearing on your happiness.
Dark wood veneer desk, black keyboard and monitors (and computer under the desk), and taupe walls, here.

Not bad, but gear that's not grayscale would be pretty cool.

Mind, then we'd have to worry about whether our keyboards and monitors matched...
Do you want reviews of the landing page, or of the idea too?