skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I reminded of the early days of Silicon Valley when it was mostly suburbia, farmland, and chip manufacturers and I think of all the hardships they must have gone through creating startups in their parents' garages.

CA is one of the most regulated, least risky places, on Earth and yet has led the way in innovation in multiple industries for decades.

More likely, Mars will be like Antarctica: a desolate and undesired research station and occasional tourist destination for those with too much money.
Annual assessment of real estate value is banned under prop 13.
Random anecdote time.

At a used bookstore recently (in Hobart Book Village), my too-young-to-read daughter took a fancy to _The Life of a Bear_, probably because of its 24 illustrated prints involving bears. After realizing it was a ~120 year old book and gently extracting it before she removed one of the pictures, I became slightly fascinated with it.

It appears to be a perfectly cromulent children's chapter book, of similar vintage and theme to _Black Beauty_. Its author was anonymous; in the edition I have, he is simply referred to as "by the author of 'The Life of an Elephant'", the author of which was referred to as "by the author of 'The Life of a Bear'." You can find reprints on Amazon by one of the "reprint any out of copyright books" companies, and a half dozen old editions on ABE.

After much detective work and the WorldCat database, and the assistance of a professional librarian, I did eventually discover the author to be apparently one Sir S Eardley-Wilmot, who was a naval officer at the time (hence the anonymous publishing; it probably didn't pay to be "the naval officer who writes children's books"); he did apparently republish the books under his own name, after he retired, and a third book "The Life of a Tiger" was eventually published, maybe posthumously. He even gets his own Wikipedia article, which mentions the books he wrote on military history, but not his children's offerings.

So anyway, the point of the anecdote.

One point I could make is on the ineffable mystery of why some books are cultural classics and others aren't; why is _Black Beauty_ still beloved by millions, and _The Life of a Bear_ forgotten? Is it purely a matter of artistic merit, do people just like horses more than bears, is there an underlying message to Black Beauty I don't remember since reading it 30 years ago that resonates?

Another point I could make is on the surprising robustness of this print volume, as you mentioned. It has probably been forgotten for a hundred years, not particularly well cared for, just thrown on a shelf somewhere and still in good enough shape.

Or it could be on the inanity of most of the books we are slowly forgetting. Does it really matter if this children's story about a bear vanishes from the Earth? Has our culture been lessened, did we forget something important we once knew, are people less happy for not having read this book?

But what really sticks with me is something completely different: this book is not in the long tail of books. Maybe not the fat head, but solidly in the chubby middle. It received many print editions from multiple publishers on different continents over the course of 30, 40 years. It's in multiple libraries; it's been digitized and is available for reprint at the push of a button. It's probably in the top 10 million of the ~130 million books ever published.

Can you imagine what is in the bottom ~120 million books?
High end restaurants aren't skimping on ingredients to survive on razor thin margins in a cut-throat value-driven market segment.
> It still rankles me that Nicolai Tesla's name is associated with all this.

Why not? He was also an unstable "genius" who couldn't figure out the business side of things. Seems appropriate.
Debian in 1998? Try the fall 1994 Yggdrasil Linux in 1995 then:)
The CD (bought in a store, only copy available) was damaged out of the box in a subtle way so that it started spitting errors over one hour after the installation began when I was very likely in front of the third coffee. But the installation continued somehow, so in the end the system sorta worked but I had problems everywhere and no books, no Usenet, no Internet to ask for advice, just a local BBS I couldn't connect to anyway because that half working PC was the only hardware at disposal. This is what kept me back like 2 more years before trying Linux again (Red Hat).
This is kind of the point of C. It maps directly to the hardware. There are very few decisions the compiler has to make about the code. And it is for that reason that C does not allow for higher level abstractions. On one hand, it is a pain to write. On the other hand, you know exactly what is going on under the hood and nothing is ever going to stop you from shooting yourself in a body part of your choice :)
I enjoyed the read. Thank you! In typical internet fashion I'd like to share my thoughts! Also, I am not a pro with Javascript, so bear that in mind.

> ...Java and C++ — meaning that JavaScript itself must have at least the same abilities and capabilities to achieve the things it needs to achieve as these languages.

Javascript, Java, and C++ are all Turing complete languages. Technically so is a Microsoft Excel workbook. Meaning if it is technically possible to compute something; you can do it using any of these languages.

> The multi-paradigm nature of JavaScript also means that patterns can be adapted for its requirements and implemented for best results. You’re not bound to a singular inheritance pattern. With JavaScript, you have a choice of pseudoclassical, prototypal, and differential, and even functional inheritance.

This right here is actually why I am not a fan of Javascript. Can you see how it can be confusing to understand all the different ways of writing Javascript? And what typically happens is they all get combined into one SPA written by several different authors. Not to mention that Javascript inheritance and the way it works under the hood seems less intuitive than other languages. For example, "class" is just syntactical sugar and "inheritance" in Javascript just means "delegation."

And then there's the point you made about floating point precision. So while I believe you when you say that Javascript is easy enough to pick up, it's not very approachable. At least not for me. Perhaps you're right though, and I just to spend more time with it.

Feel free to correct me.
tech lead

I wonder if this is the whole story - and it sounds like he wanted out really anyway.
Mega Man (DOS) and Mega Man 3 (DOS) Speed Fix
Density of rocks seems to top out around 3.2 g/cm³[0], but if you could find a way of scanning for material that was 99%+ Carbon and which had the density of diamond (3.51 g/cm³) and you could detect very small buried items, then that might be a start.

https://chem.libretexts.org/Ancillary_Materials/Exemplars_an...
Find a French Cafe run by a Frenchman. I used to go to one by my old job that sold loaves and half loaves. He had a sign that read “Life’s too short to eat bad bread”. The prices were reasonable for everything.
Google falls to third place in worldwide smart speaker market
linkedin is so gross. just making my protestations known.
It wouldn't surprise me if the "unoptimized" strlen is just as fast or even faster on modern x86 hw. Both algorithms need to process the same amount of data. Thus they will fetch exactly the same number of cache lines from main memory. Likely, the cost of fetching those cache lines dominates, meaning that it doesn't matter that the "unoptimized" version does more processing per byte. Only way to find out for sure is to run the benchmarks.
>> let J&J and other companies like it sell prescriptions to addicts

Sounds like you're pretty angry, but you realize they didn't "sell to addicts" - they created them with a concentrated, coordinated strategy involving all aspects of the medical system. Letting them carry on business as usual while leaving it to public health and society at large to clean up the mess strikes me as a bizarre suggestion...
The polls are worthless because not representative why is it so hard to understand?
Returning to your counter argument, do you see the connection with my computer analogy?
I think maybe you're trading Shopify fees you don't like today for Stripe fees you won't like tomorrow, I'd just leave the site making $5m/yr alone and build however many other websites you want.
About living past 75 and play not being so meaningful (per the author) and also about a year potentially making a difference:

I just came across this story[0] on Metafilter, about a 75 year old woman, originally from France -- the author's grandmother -- who took up Dungeons & Dragons during the last year of her life (she just died of cancer, which interfered, but didn't fully stop her from playing):

[0] https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1165011404086284289.html

Briefly: it brought her joy and allowed her to explore new vistas and to exercise her creativity. It also brought joy to her grandson -- the DM -- to her fellow players and to everyone reading about it now.

P.S. There are people creating fan-art of her gnome character, Terminatur, (which she originally drew a couple of versions of) and posting it to Twitter: https://twitter.com/antnhz

And the character may live on in the campaigns of strangers.
I recently went back to traditional watches because I was frustrated with being able to control notifications in a granular way.

Ultimately, I need the time, preferably in two time zones, and the date. I've got a GMT watch now and a Casio I use for when I'm working on the house of in the yard.

I like my Apple Watch for workout tracking, but that's the only mileage it gets these days.
There are limits to what they can restrict.

Yes, the limitations can't violate criminal or contract law (or other laws in general), and can't completely prevent the licensee from making use of the licensing rights they paid for. Otherwise, any restrictions are fair game.

If the putative licensee doesn't want to accept the restrictions in the license, their remedy is to not enter into a licensing agreement in the first place; they have no right to simply ignore the license restrictions.
The danger of all these opioid rulings is that it might get a lot more difficult for people who suffer from pain that needs opioids to actually get them. After seeing these rulings, what company in its right mind would actually manufacture opioid pills any more? Doctors are going to be very, very, conservative about how they prescribe.
It would be so nice if C had "fat pointers" (ptr+len). It's such an obvious small change that would have a massive impact on usability and safety.

Unfortunately, C is dead. Microsoft thinks C is dead, and intentionally keeps their compiler awful. Even ISO WG doesn't seem to have a vision for C's future and have been rearranging deck chairs for the last 20 years.
Many libraries will have regular sales open to the public where they sell whatever they are trying to get rid of for a really low price.

The sales are mostly resellers trying to find value. In some ways that's a good think making a market for books people want at a reduced price, but it is also frustrating being someone who wants to acquire books to read competing with people trying to make a few dollars.
Bare metal is almost entirely unnecessary in 2019, because you can configure Linux to only occupy one core for all of its processes and threads. The other cores you can assign to your own apps and they will never be schedule off of that core—zero context switching overhead.

And you can still SSH into your "bare metal" box, run gdb, etc. Best of both worlds.
well, um, the cathedral doesnt burn down naturally every dry season and then regrow :o
my project doesn't have a setup.py because it is not intended for packaging and it doesn't have a pyproject.yaml because to be honest, this is the first time I heard about such a file. But then again, the title says "zero-config".
There's a real difference in that for a speaker of a language where those are two allophones of the same phoneme, butter and bu'er mean the same thing; they're the same word pronounced differently. For a speaker of a language where the difference is phonemic, they're different words pronounced similarly.

That matters if a speaker of the former language tries to learn the latter. It's hard to learn to reliably make a phonetic distinction that has never mattered for comprehension before. See also Japanese speakers struggling to distinguish "rock" and "lock" in English.
> At this point all I can do is refer you to a dictionary.

The paper you cited as "disproving" the author's argument for "prefect equilibrium" was co-authored by the author.

Indeed, in the comments on the article, the author explains further:

>> [net carbon sequestration] is not related to the total amount of photosynthesis, but to where organic matter is being buried and removed from atmosphere and biosphere. This occurs in places like swamps, peat bogs and in particular deep ocean sediments. Material from the Amazon probably plays some role in this (e.g. organic material being swept out into the ocean and being buried in deep sediment), but this process is not strongly related to the amount of photosynthesis in any given area. I suspect the burial of a tiny fraction ocean plankton in deep sediments play a dominant role here.

> Fear mongering? Now you've truly lost me. If asserting that forests net sequester carbon and produce O2 makes me a fear monger, then I'm guilty as charged...

Sorry, I am talking about making claims like "the amazon produces 20% of our oxygen." and I was doing so to justify what you called "nitpicking"

The point I was trying to make (and clearly did a poor job with) is summarized by the author in one of his responses to attacks like yours and strainers:

>> No ecosystem scientist I have spoken disagrees with the science in this post: it simply highlights a long-established scientific understanding that oxygen angle is a myth. Just like no serious climate scientist denies the seriousness and importance of human-caused made climate change. If you choose to be selective about which science to choose to hear you fall into the same trap as the climate deniers, construct your own alternative facts universe and you betray your scientific training. The also open yourself the other, more accurate arguments being discredited as a package when the scientific truth emerges
Sued for $17 Billion, ordered to pay 1/34th of that. In State court, by The State.

I don't know if that counts as a "landmark ruling", but maybe it will. We'll have to wait and see if anyone else crashes up on the rocks.
I've been meaning to make a single quote fork of it, but haven't yet got around to it. Wonder if anyone is interested?
Why can’t we stop climate change? We don’t empathize with our descendants
I Created a Profitable Blog Helping People Defend Against Bullies
It looks like some effort was made in 2010 to coat the reinforcing steel with a porcelain enamel [1]. I believe the enamel's primary function was to provide a bond with the encasing concrete. Naturally, it would also help to protect the steel from water and oxygen.

There must be a reason why ceramic cannot fully replace steel. Cost perhaps.

Maybe these technologies would be better combined.

[1] https://www.ceramicindustry.com/articles/90943-improving-ste...
A while ago I read a book about what they did with epogen. They definitely deserve punishment but I am afraid this will work out like the banks where the fine is just cost of doing business and not deterrent.
There’s a giant volcanic rock ‘raft’ floating in the ocean
I feel like I have noticed this for years and never realized it had a name. I honestly think it happens in almost every field.
In my country at least, I've seen ( from people I've known at various points in my life ) that addicts have no trouble obtaining the real article on the black market. The thing that really alarmed me though was how easily people who were clearly addicts seemed to be able to get legitimate prescriptions for opioids from doctors and dentists.
I'm also not sure I agree with allowing opioid addicts a clean supply of prescriptions, but this is clearly a very nuanced problem and I haven't seen any of the data on what works and what doesn't.
Nathan Marz – Clojure, Continuations, and Red Planet Labs (Audio)
Amazon Employee: I don’t think I want to work here anymore
I think being told what you are not allowed to do by strangers on the internet can elicit a certain stubbornness. I don't blame either side, but think it is strange for people to be so sure of another's intentions.
A relative of mine recently got an Apple Watch as a gift. He has since been transformed by it. The health/fitness reminders/achievements are huge motivators for him - he was fairly fit, but now he is in the best shape since I have known him. Im thinking of getting one too :-)
Esperanto isn't intended to be anyone's native language (it's an "international auxiliary language") so that's a weird way to compare speakership.
Not really. They're launched from a base at 28 deg N. So assuming they launch due east, you can get to a 56 deg inclination and spend less delta-v than you'd need to drop the inclination to zero.
The spy in your wallet: Credit cards have a privacy problem
'useless' projects like this are much easier to share than useful projects that might be tied to a company and therefore hard to release.
I had the same thought. I'm not an American, and not a lawyer, but doesn't the ruling in this case count as precedent that will allow others states to pursue lawsuits against them?
> a lot of scrubland out there that doesn't have enough water for agriculture

That's for the solar panels!
> How is that not racist?

I would argue that not including the citizenship question is racist. It makes logical sense to include it, to do otherwise is to manipulate the results based on race.

> He wanted to scare Latinos into not filling out the census and put it writing.

Again, I say this as a minority. It doesn't feel great to be used as a pawn. As a citizen I would have absolutely no problem answering that question. Many, many Latinos would also be ok with it, so putting words in their mouth is an example of racism coming from the Left.
I've only been in the newspaper once regarding a finance company collapse (I was a customer) and I remember two problems. First, I was motivated by the questioning to couch my story as one of hardship (it wasn't really, but clearly that is what they wanted) and I complied. Second, when it was in print they quoted me almost correctly but framed the quote entirely wrongly giving it a different meaning. I suspect that the reporter understood at the time what I had meant, but when reading her notes later on didn't remember the context and recreated a wrong context to save the quote.
As an AE major, what aerospace discussion do you think is terrible?
NASA Worldview: Satellite Detections of Fire
VMware is bringing VMs and containers together
Huawei wrote their own AOT compiler[1] for Android (on ARM) so they seem to have the necessary expertise in this area.

[1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/3022747/heres-w...
I think concrete bonds with steel just fine. Problem is when it rusts or is exposed to chloride the steel corrodes which expands and cracks the concrete.

I think massive reinforced concrete sections that are kept dry are stable long term.

Some work is being done to find alternatives. Difficult because you need high tensile strength and toughness. And the alkaline environment will wreck other materials. I think ordinary fiber glass turns to gel over time.

A lot of reinforcing bar is coated with epoxy. But I think that's not working out very well in practice. Any nick in the coating directs the corrosion to that point.

Whole thing is an open problem
I don't have those graphs with spikes at the moment, but there are more interesting ones.

Here is an article in Russian with graphs [1]. This [2] is a graph where axis X contains a turnout percent (how many voters took part in voting at a polling station) and axis Y contains a number of polling stations with that value of turnout.

Here is another graph [3]: axis X contains turnout percent, axis Y contains number of people registered at the polling stations and each point is a station (there are about 90 000 total in Russia). You can see that there are large polling stations with turnout above 90% and number of voters above 2000. You can also see that elections seem to be very popular as majority of the points lie in the right part of the graph.

This graph [4] is built by the same rules, but contains data only on polling stations from one southern region - Ingushetia. You can see how neatly points align along the line at 80% turnout. People of Ingushetia are very active.

These graphs [5] are built by the same rules, but for other region - Chechnya and for 4 different elections in 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2018. The perfect line in 2011 becomes diffused by 2018 and slightly shifts to the left. On the graph for year 2018 one can see that there are "atypical" polling stations who have suspiciously low turnout. One of possible explanations for this could be that in 2018 several dozens of brave volunteers decided to take a risk to go to Chechnya as observers.

[1] https://habr.com/ru/post/352424/

[2] https://hsto.org/webt/2y/xh/wf/2yxhwffbr7oy0escvp1ecvmcjdc.p...

[3] https://hsto.org/webt/4h/3e/ko/4h3ekola6f-to10zgpvlbg9bd1g.p...

[4] https://hsto.org/webt/ri/c6/ul/ric6ulcyzuefrxvnjm7n6g7qcz8.p...

[5] https://hsto.org/webt/dw/j2/bl/dwj2blnsrah7_fwkzbqk4eyucga.p...
Ask HN: Best resources to gain math intuition?
In high school I did the lowest tier maths and then jumped in the deep end by doing a year of electrical engineering. I’ve now done those harder math classes but I feel like there’s holes here and there. I think when I took physics it really brought out these flaws and lack of intuition.

Would anyone have a good resource for building this up?

Thanks
This is my first comment in HN. That's a very good advice.
Some drugs are simply too physically addictive to just release into the 'wild' and let the chips fall where they may. I'll tell you where the chips fall - with huge portions of the country hopelessly addicted to drugs that are extremely difficult to quit.

This isn't weed, which isn't physically addictive, or even alcohol, where addictiveness varies from one person to the next. Opioids are addictive across the board. The best comparison is cigarettes. And look at how many people ended up nicotine addicts when we let those chips fall (40% of American adults in the 60's and 70's).

And unlike cigarettes, opioids can make you feel really, stupendously good.

I agree strongly with legalization of many drugs. But I can't find a way to agree with legalization of the most physically addictive drugs. Those are better handled through strict regulation, ample support and, even though it's a losing battle, some measure to limit supply.
You don't need to sell me on Clojure being a nicer foundation than Python in most respects, but the thing I keep running afoul of when doing data science on any JVM language the performance hit from all the copying it takes to pump data back and forth across JNI.

The showdown that's more interesting to me is Clojure vs Julia, which is very nearly an acceptable Lisp, and also has a nicer interface to C libraries. And, IIRC, also the ability to interface directly with C++ libraries, without having to first wrap them in a C-compatible interface.
A citation indicates that other people actually care about the content of the paper.

Consider Researcher A, who has one paper with a hundred citations, and Researcher B, who has ten papers with two citations each. Probably Researcher A has made a larger contribution.

Whether you're in math or any other field, the fact that a paper is correct or reasonable enough to make it past peer review doesn't mean anybody gives a shit about it.
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20803879