skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Why does it bother you if people switch from ff to chrome?
They are stealing content from instructables.com -- how is that excellent?
How to offer $1,000,000 and not loose a penny using game thoery
Anonymous attacks Tunisia
What happens to your price point (9.99) with a VAT increase? (value added tax)
BNFC project page:

http://www.cse.chalmers.se/research/group/Language-technolog...
Wow, now I want to contribute anyway, as a token of respect... and I don't even use clojure!
The Rise of the New Global Elite
You'd probably want to compare to an epsilon AND exact compare, otherwise you could oscillate between two values.
Unrelated: I am mystified by your competent use of the term "orthogonal" coming just two words after you used "you're" instead of "your." That is just bizarre!
This depends on how much you believe in moral-relativity. There is a concept of ownership and rights (sometimes legally defined) associated with IP. Disregarding those rights can be seen as unethical. There is no precedence in our culture saying that you have the right to disallow comments on your IP, which is why your example is not considered unethical.

To take your example to an extreme, is it unethical to trespass on someone's property? Is it unethical to look at someone's property from the street? Our concept of ownership would suggest that the former is unethical, the latter is not, but is that just because we have artificial ideas of ownership?

My ethical system includes IP ownership. I think it is unethical to use GPL code without releasing the source, for example.
You might want to stop saying that, since it doesn't make any sense. There's no more a global cure for corruption than there is a global cure for people not being nice. Not everyone is going to behave how you want them to, and there's no reasonable alternative.
When I first learned programming (at the age of 6), I sat down with my father, he told me what we will do: a dancing man, and we did just that, in C+4 Basic.

Looking back, commodore basic was a very good first choice, because I didn't need to be able to read, let alone read english: I could recognise the print symbol (?), I knew that I have to put whatever I want to write on the screen between quotation marks, and then it was only a matter of looking at the keyboard and finding the right symbol for various parts of the dancing man.

So something very trivial, yet, fun enough for a 8 year old is a good start. The hard part is figuring out what to write, as that must be something he'll have fun with, thus, it will be fun writing it too.

Sitting down the two of you, with you first explaining what you will do, then doing it, and then letting him play around and change the code here and there is the best way to learn in my opinion.
Facebook Poses Serious Threat to Google
Craig Newmark on How the Obama Administration is Crowdsourcing
Facebook API: post with PHP
Seconded. Chase Jarvis (professional photographer) says much the same, and it's made me carry my camera around all the time. He even made a site for it- http://thebestcamera.com/
OK, I looked at the arrows. (1) What's your point? (2) Is there any actual reason why you haven't said already what it is, rather than all this "Look at the flowchart" / "Look at the arrows" nonsense?

There is an arrow from "Do known techniques apply?", labelled "No". It leads to "Try to find a new technique". There's an arrow back from there to "Do known techniques apply?". Obviously, if you succeeded in finding a new technique applicable to the problem, the set of "known techniques" has expanded and you then follow the "Yes" arrow from "Do known techniques apply?".

Is it your opinion that there is something wrong with this? If so, what?

(If you respond with another passive-aggressive "Look at X" reply, I shall ignore it unless looking at X immediately convinces me that you've been right all along and I've been missing something.)
I use it at home, work and on my laptop every day too and have no notable problems.

On the other hand, I spend most of the time in the terminal/vim and browser, so I may not be that representative here.
You get to take that up with the folks who made the promise.

Note that many such promises aren't what most of us would consider promises.

For example, I promised myself a nicer car last year. Am I in pain because I didn't get it?

I regard a govt department's plan for increased spending in much the same light.
You left out the people with no kidneys and no money. They are the reason people frown on selling organs. (That, and the question of whether all the donors would actually be voluntary.)
Reminded me of John Graham-Cumming's incident http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1811718
Ask HN: Whats your litmus test on whether to pursue a business idea
Even before putting up mock landing pages and buying traffic to see how it converts, how do you first filter your ideas and decide which one to pursue?

I have a business idea like every other week and I apply this quick 3 question test to see if I should spend more time research it or not.

1. Do I feel the pain of the problem myself?

2. Is this a universal problem?

3. Am I able to solve this problem?

Interested to see your versions of a litmus test. Would also be great to get feedback just in case I've missed an important question.

P.S I wrote more about my thinking at my blog pragmaticstartup.tumblr.com
Like anything, it's external value is worth what the highest bidder will pay.

It's also likely that you value the domain at some higher amount than they do.

Someone once told me "serious negotiators make offers". If you want to sell it, I would determine a price and contact the appropriate person at their company with your proposal. Something along the lines of:

Dear Mr. Doe:

As you may already be aware, I am the legal registrant of johndoe.co.uk, which I had originally registered for purpose X. Additionally, I am aware that your company operates using the domain johndoehs.co.uk. I am primarily aware of this based on the increasing number of mis-directed emails and website visitors I receive that appear to be looking for your company.

While I cannot calculate the exact value, it would appear to me that your organization may be losing some business because of the similarity of our two domains. When your own employees mistake my domain for yours it would seem to be a clear indication that much like an elegant logo or catchy advertisement, my domain could offer your business increased visibility to your customer base.

With the above in mind, I propose to transfer ownership of johndoe.co.uk to you for the sum of $XX,XXX. For the sake of efficiency, I will point out that in advance that it is difficult to ever properly assess the true value of a given domain name, and sometimes the value can only be really determined by calculating potential lost sales and the impact on confused or frustrated customers who do not realize that they have used the wrong channel for their communication. While I have no intentions of misleading your customers that attempt to contact you by sending emails that wind up in my inbox, I can also not be responsible for politely redirecting all of these persons to the proper recipient on your end.

If you would like to accept my offer, or discuss the particulars in more detail, please contact me at 555-555-1212, or email me: sales@johndoe.co.uk. If this is not a matter you are interested in pursuing, I completely understand and wish you luck in your endeavors.

--
Cheers,
Me.
The movie actually did depict a split society. At the top was President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, who operated at a much higher cognitive plane than Frito the lawyer, who operated at a much higher level than the masses - for example the woman operating the Fischer Price diagnostic panel at St. God's Hospital, where Dr. Lexus was clearly high-functioning - presumably well above his undepicted & "tarded" ex-wife, a pilot.
This is so cool, it makes me salivate a little. The author said it took 4-5 days for the construction and another 4 or so for the software. Anyone know how long it takes for someone without much electronics background? I have a vision of a bunch of unfinished components sitting around on my kitchen table for... months.
Ask HN: how to KB select "New York" in dropdown lists?
Any US State that has a space in it is painful to type to completion because when I type space, my browser resets to any word and I'll jump instead of "Yukon" or something.

Anyone have an idea of how to choose a selection with a space inside a dropdown list?

Sorry to populate Ask HN with such mundanity but I couldn't think of a more avid group of life hackers except for possibly somewhere in a vim/emacs forum.
I for one can't wait for the high-quality new film rips to show up on BitTorrent once this is inevitably cracked.
The expectations per dollar funded are much lower for a business.

Individuals think a $100 contribution gives them some reason to bring up issues. Corporations think something similar for a $100k contribution.
Scratch from MIT is designed to help with this: http://scratch.mit.edu/

For more formal programming Processing is a great learning enviroment: http://processing.org/

In both I would say the best method is to find challenges your son wants to undertake for himself. Learning to explore, play and fail is the way forward.
Assetmap, Top Prospect, Tasty Labs Aim to Put Social Networks to Work
This doesn't rank high on the "cruel" factor. It is more resourceful (and hard work to pull off) than cruel. To me, the second guy who pretended to be the hunk, got inside info and then got the woman on a date seems to have used a much more creepy strategy. Why? Because he lied TO THE PERSON HE IS SEEING. The denial of service wasn't lying to the person he is seeing. It is lying to all the other dudes. Which is just fine. Lots of guys are COMPETING for the same girls, and in a competition like that, you don't necessarily have to play fair. I see this more as using intelligence to get a leg up on the competition, and frankly, the only reason why he wouldn't want to confess this to her -- is NOT that he would seem like a lying creep -- but because it would highlight the fact that he wouldn't be able to get her otherwise.

As if girls never do a "denial of service" attack to guys when they are competing for the same guy. Like not inviting their hotter friend along when they are first meeting each other.

PS: Do you find Hitch (the character in the movie) a creepy liar?
Forrester Predicts One-Third of U.S. Consumers Will Be Tablet Users by 2015
After examining the streets in the town I grew up in (Overland Park, KS), I think it is more likely that you found an error.

Whatever kind of algorithm they are using here, I'm quite impressed by it.
Seems to me the number of people using RSS readers isn't even that important - RSS is infrastructure, most of its users aren't even aware of it (eg, various "latest stories at.." widgets). The annual "RSS Is Dead" posts would be meaningful when/if we see a decline in content publishers supporting it, rather than browsers developers.
Memorize an awesome passage. It will make you eloquent.

Just last morning, I memorized the Carl Sagan story on our pale blue dot, and already I have subconsciously borrowed phrases from it twice in writing and conversation.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

– Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
Because it's an open project that symbolizes the freedom of the Internet, besides from being a wonderful browser driven by passionate people from the company and the community.

Also, it's a matter of respect. The fight for an open web and liberation from microsoft tirany has made possible to have this huge network of knowledge that is changing the society from its basis, allowing truly free exchange of information and culture and an universal way of communicating with whoever you want.

I know chrome is better in many aspects, but represents the desires of a company that only wants to be richer. The open web google promotes it's just part of their expansion plan, and I need to remind me this each time I use their wonderful browser.

Sorry for extending but this topic always touches feelings
Great article.

The last sentence is what I thought when I first heard about this: "The one sure thing you can tell from this is that Facebook clearly can't self fund itself enough for what it needs, even on $2bn turnover a year."

It will be really interesting to see some actual, real-life numbers from Facebook regarding their profit/loss/revenue/expenses. My guess is that we will soon enough.
If you are interested in learning Haskell first hand from some real and friendly experts, come to the upcoming Learn Haskell Workshop at Hacker Dojo next month. Details here: http://wiki.hackerdojo.com/w/page/Haskell-Hackathon-2011

It's not far from YC.
Sandy Bridge arrives from Intel with up to 50% performance boost
Ask HN: Does anyone know when Quora is going to release an api?
Welcome to Quora. Do Yourself a Favor & Slow Down.
I'm sure I'm not the only person on Hacker News to have taken advantage of OpenCourseWare. If any of the MIT folks are reading this thread, I'd just like to offer my sincere thanks for the good work you do.
On the other hand AMD's chips will be much, much cheaper to produce between using less transistors and working on an older process.
It is a systemic problem. Let me give an example where reasonable number of people will laugh at you if you don't bribe your way out of a harmless situation.

Road infrastructure is sorely lacking in India which results in crowded streets. A huge percentage of drivers violate traffic laws everyday to gain even the slightest advantage over fellow roadsters. If the person gets pulled over, what is the best thing to do in that situation: go to the nearby police station, wait for a few hours, pay the fine legally or bribe the cop and get on with your travel? Which would you choose? In this case the person who violated traffic is almost begging for the traffic cop to take a bribe so that he can be on his way.

Same situation permeates every public office. Do not underestimate the problem caused by people who are willing to pay a bribe to get preferential service. As long as such people exist, people who accept bribes cannot be shamed into not accepting it.
Move Slowly
Maybe it's my age, but I don't understand this site. At all.
Dear god, stop trying to replicate Silicon Valley elsewhere.

Create a newer, better ecosystem for entrepreneurs. You're pretty much destined to fail if you try to replicate SV. Move the goal posts to something else.
Rushkoff proposes we abandon the Internet, and create something better
"For all the folks getting excited about my quotes. Here is another - Yes, I am a terrible coder, but I am probably still better than you :)" - Rasmus Lerdorf
Sparkfun has a 3x3x3 kit for $69: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9867
It seems to me like the author is jumping to conclusions. Just because no one cares to answer his question, does not mean the Quora is a "dead man walking". Quora has value not because of the amount of content, but because of the community. If I wanted nothing but lots and lots of content, I'd look to Yahoo Answers. However, I'd rather go to a website where very smart, experienced people are often willing to answer questions in detail. If someone pointed me to a source with the answer to my question, I wouldn't be offended, I'd be glad. The author seems to have taken a little offense that few people if any were willing to spend the time to write out a reply to his question.
Apple's holiday iPhone, iPad and Mac sales stronger than expected
My first thought when reading about this is I know NVIDIA makes rack mounted devices with their "Tesla" GPU for HPC applications like this. I would feel more confident with hardware designed for what the Airforce is trying to do and it seams like the Tesla servers would have a lot less wasted hardware and may be more efficient in a server environment.

So I googled it and found out IBM already moved from Cell to Tesla last May.

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/05/ibm-cheats-on-c...

I'm also curious how AMD's new APU will affect this market.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2067057
I never could understand why anyone would think RSS is dead. Blogs, sites and podcasts leverage RSS to blast out updates and notifications.

RSS is just underlying protocol. You might as well say 'http' is going away. It will someday, but not anytime in the near future.
Tangential, but I don't understand this reaction after he tells them in class they're going to go through a proof together:

'You should have seen the shock on their faces! Some started complaining. So I said, "No, seriously. You will all prove this. Just wait and see. It will work."'

Are people really that timid when all they're being asked to do is try?
"Only" made 10%, and starting in 2006 and proceeding directly through to the world bottoming out? I think the previous commenter you are responding to must have been joking.
Big Data Giant Joins InfoChimps to Save the World's Structured Information
The Ten Surprises for 2011
You're comparing Netflix US users against global Bittorrent users.

Netflix likely has a large chunk of US users.
And likely streams a larger portion of the content in HD.
I'd never heard of scratch but that looks very interesting for an initial foray. Thanks for the links and taking the time out
(1) Women's brains are typically smaller by about the difference between Cro-Magnons and Homo Sapiens.

(2) WRT problem-solving ability, bonobo populations are shrinking much faster than chimps (which are increasing in some places). Perhaps that politically correct behavior has consequences....
> 6. Draw something you see on TV:
If you want to improve your drawing, you have to draw daily. Just while you are idling in front of the TV, draw some scene that catches your eye. Repeat.

I have entertained fantasies of being able to setup in the city park and do caricatures or portraits for free. I will start doing this!

My art-school trained friends have tried explaining to me that art school is about learning to look. Anyone can draw squiggles. But you have to be trained (sometimes methodically, sometimes painfully, sometimes by rote) to see, to look, to observe.

Before you can do something like: http://freekhand.blogspot.com/2010/12/barcelona-sketchcrawl-...
they'll have influence over you, wouldn't they?

Only for the items relevant to the contract terms.
sad to say, but i'm guessing that fax machines have more users than hulu and netflix combined, quadrupled. really is a pointless statistic.
I could possibly obtain many kidneys, in return for plenty of money. In fact, I believe this is the whole point of not having a free market for body parts.
This post does raise some real issues about ubuntu (namely support for multiple screens). But its a shame it quickly regresses into the same old "I'm not used to it and so it is bad" sort of rant. I found it annoying that the author assumes he somehow spends more time on his PC and uses it in more ways than any Linux user. Really dents his credibility there.
Ask HN: Japan based non-profit startup process
I'm currently looking into starting a philanthropic non-profit startup in Japan but can't seem to find much information on it. What I have found information on is how to start a business there, but it seems to revolve around having an established company in the US and making a branch there. I want to instead establish the company directly in Japan. Can anyone direct me to some place that might have information on this, or even better have direct experience with this process?
And for those missing Textmate on Linux there's always redcar http://redcareditor.com/
That street ends in a cul-de-sac. That's not really a dead-end.
Highly recommend the Catfish Movie if you have not seen it. A variant of the same technique is employed.

http://www.iamrogue.com/catfish
The grander context is that this song was performed by Kanye at last year's VMAs. Both he and Taylor Swift did a song in response to the event that happened two years ago, where Kanye took Taylor's award.

The basic concept of the song is I'm a jerk, don't know why, but stay away from me because I'll be a jerk to you. The title of the song is Runaway -- the girl should be a runaway from Kanye.
Surprise and delight: The secret to creating evangelists
Of course they will try to influence you if you let them. You have to make it clear that development of new features (or fixes to issues for which there is no reasonable workaround) is not part of the support contract and they will be separately billed for it. This is how it works everywhere I've worked at.
so you're saying goldman figured out how to sell debt that will never get repayed and collect fees (pay bonuses) on the deal?

i'm shocked, shocked
Just started a new job (sysadmin) and was asked "Mac or PC?" - which in my case meant Mac vs Linux... I played with the idea of getting a MacBook Pro but went with the HP EliteBook and Ubuntu current simply because this is what I have been using for the past 5 years. I like Ubuntu - on HP laptop hardware I have very few problems.

Most of the OP's 'faults' are indeed 'not what I am used to...'

"Sleep is funky" is a valid point. I have to make sure nothing too 'interruptive' is going on or the laptop never actually sleeps...

But "Network transfer speed is slow."? he has an earlier blog post which contradicts this.

If you are willing to play around for a while - find the window manager that works best, choose/ configure programs and futz with hardware - then Linux is for you. When you get 'there' you have a solid, stable work environment.

These type of posts inevitably disappoint - I hope to learn something and that seldom happens. I feel no urge to go out and plug Ubuntu for the masses and don't get it when someone 'tries' something for 14 days and finds it lacking vis-a-vis what is comfortable and familiar.