skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"The interface on a Mac is settling down because it really doesn't need any tweaking"

And yet there are others in this thread whose primary reason to stay away from OS X is that window management on Linux is so much superior. It's not my primary reason, but it is certainly a factor.

"dick around with CrossOver's bottling". Umm, CrossOver is a pretty much a click to install and forget-about-it operation. That's why you pay for CrossOver rather than dicking around with wine. Me I really appreciate the fact that every crappy Windows application I install is completely sandboxed away from each other.
10 Interesting Things About Indian Republic Day
Maybe missing it, but strictly speaking as someone interested in reading (not publishing), I don't really see what the fuzz is. Been an ACM member for almost 10 years (started as a student member) and every single year I've been more than happy to renew my membership.

Sure, would be nice if everything was free, but all the stuff ACM does cost money, and honestly, the fees aren't all that outrageous, and the digital library access itself is very much worth it.

Rather like receiving Communications of the ACM every month (or close to it, anyway); I enjoy reading it and would totally forget about looking the articles online every month otherwise, so it's actually fairly convenient for me. Would much prefer that Queue had been kept around as a printed mag, though.
Ask HN: Share/swap service for co-workers?
The idea: A web-based service that allows people who work in the same location to list things they're willing to share or swap with co-workers. (Things like books and magazines, music albums, etc.)

Question: Does this type of service exist ... and if not, is it worth creating?
Anybody paying attention to http://www.techmeme.com/110124/p25#a110124p25 ?
Now to make such stuff the default and change being tracked to 'opt-in'.
It depends on the article. Yes, there are some articles I would gladly pay $15 for (like Boneh/Shaw's work on collusion secure fingerprinting). However, in a lot of cases, I'm going to read a paper for its citations. If I have to pay $15 for that paper, and then pay over and over again for each additional paper that I want, the costs quickly become unsustainable.

Though, as the replies to my question (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2133193) point out, many times you can get a paper that you need by contacting one of the authors, so it the payment isn't as big of an issue as it could be.
If there is leak I'm of course happy to fix it. Ahh, this is a bug I just committed yesterday fixing something else for someone. Will fix right away -- the html version is supposed to be using POST by default.

Edit: fixed. The non-JS versions are somewhat new and there are a lot more bugs floating around them. Please report whenever you see something awry.
users savvy enough to find/install extensions are probably using adblock or other things anyway. this doesn't really mean much from google until they make it a built-in feature of chrome so all of their users benefit from it.
DoubleClick Founder Discusses His Latest Venture - FindTheBest
I agree with you in terms of how conservative these categories are, but my assumption was that these are the categories that are most likely to get you to click on consumer products that you'd be willing to act on most immediately. Example: the type of music I'm most interested was categorized correctly, and I tend to look for new music to purchase.
The link to the screenshots has been posted several times before. This time I see a lot of requests for the screenshots coming in and it still goes on after three days.

Any idea what is causing this?
Long term, the price of oil is capped by the cost of converting coal to diesel. Last I saw, this price is around $70-100 per barrel. Coal to diesel is horrible for the environment (twice the CO2 emissions of burning regular petroleum), but the unfortunate fact of life is that both China and the US (two biggest energy consumers) have essentially infinite supplies of coal (1000+ years at current production levels). The US will not enact a Carbon tax in the near future because 1/2 of Americans believe stuff that is false (CO2 does not lead to global warming). The only thing preventing large scale coals to liquids development are the huge capital costs involved and the reluctance of banks to take the risk that the price of oil will drop below the magic number ($70 per barrel).
Grace Hopper's first captured bug
Yeah, seems like marketing bunk. Especially considering how their new shiny Geforce 5xx line is only a 10-15% improvement over the last gen. Show me the numbers!
If you are ordering a manufactured good, however, 2M definitely means 2000. There was some hilarity in ordering the first round of MakerBeam parts arising from this; we thought we were going to be getting 2 meter long beams, for a panicked minute.
Thank you for pointing this out bromley. I've been reading Gabriel's responses and in no place does he mention that keyword level data is needed for understanding differences in user behavior based on entry keyword. This might not make a difference if you run a content site, but for any type of commerce site, I don't want to know how "Google" does, I want to break it down to the keyword level and better understand where efforts should be focused.

I also don't think that the keywords are shared with 3rd party networks explicitly. I think what's happening instead is that you search for something, you land on a page relevant to that something, and the ad network code is reading the content on the page and assigning a keyword target or theme to your search. For example, you might search for a Ford F-150 and you get to Edmunds and the ads are sold on a "by make/model" basis using ad segmentation so the ad network now can assign your cookie a "Pickup trucks" behavioral tag but it never had to read the referrer header, it was implied.
annoying != harmful

pet peeve != constructive criticism

sensational title != worthy content
Designing PilarHQ's landing page [video]
If you're interested in other extensions/plugins at all, have you seen http://donttrack.us/ ? The site is one giant ad for DuckDuckGo, but it has some useful links at the bottom.
Please elaborate. I'm not very informed about this kind of issue. Can you suggest any reading I could do?
This is Holden Karnofsky, co-founder of GiveWell. Mark, we're glad to see your new project, and we appreciate the kind words re: respect for what we do. A couple points of clarification:

1. We don't claim (and have never claimed) that our recommended charities are the only ones worthy of support. Our goal is to identify, and drive money to, outstanding charities; our audience is donors who want to do as much good as possible, but don't have the time/resources to research charities on their own. We recognize that our methodology is not the only way to identify promising groups (though we believe it is most efficient for serving our audience). Think of us as investors: we work to find outstanding opportunities, but don't claim that all non-recommended opportunities are bad ones.

You can see more about how we think about this issue at http://blog.givewell.org/2009/05/07/small-unproven-charities...

2. In your analogy, it seems to me that the problem with "that kid's" behavior is that you can't unilaterally decide whom to marry. But you pretty much have your pick of where to give - there aren't any major charities that will turn you down as a donor. Given that situation, why not give to the best charity/charities you can find? We don't encourage anyone to "sleep alone," i.e., not give to charity.

Our recommendations aren't for everyone. We recognize the value of Philanthroper as a way to hopefully get people to give more than they would otherwise, and wish you the best with this mission. We hope that you'll consider featuring our top charities among others, because - like the others you plan on featuring - they are organizations with something special to offer.
Have you seen Coraline?
hn-books is becoming more and more useful, keep it up Daniel!

The books are more nuts-and-bolts and the quality of the reviews is improving with every iteration.
Great input & tips, thank you. I added a note about missing instructions as you suggest.

Re the edge case, what browser are you using?
neither tv nor quick travel require eyes to focus on one point and converge on a completely different one.

IOW, 3D movies induce eyesore and headaches, and there are plenty of people who experience that, myself included. could that hurt developing eyesight? no idea, but i can imagine why it could.
very useful, thanks! worked like a charm ...
If you're worried about interest rate risk, a short term bond fund will mitigate that risk. Also keep in mind that a 'market crash' for bonds is only a ~10-15% drop.

Wait a minute, you're worried that bonds have had a big run up in prices and are now overvalued, yet you want to get into precious metals?
Google Maps works great as a default without having to install a new application. Further, the free NYC Mate official app is great for offline (underground) access. Both include time schedules.
The progression in your list of 'safety net' investments is 1) Cash 2) Savings accounts 3) Certificates of deposit
4) Bonds. That last step is a doozy. Considered this coursely, BND is perhaps appropriate. But it is hardly 'safe'. I think Taleb's idea of safe is more oriented toward catastrophic events. Think LTCM, Asian crisis, S&L, unregulated derivatives.
And now you know someone who does read his monthly copy of CACM from cover to cover. And I pay extra for it (again, student pricing doesn't include physical copies -- something I think they should extend to professional members).

So are you suggesting that I should have to print it out because people shouldn't be forced to pay for it? Or because I'm using some dead trees? Because if it's the second, there about a million more useful places you could recommend people cut down consumption, than on my monthly magazine with about 100 pages, that, again, I pay for.
Difficult to draw too many conclusions from that since whilst Jones and Williams are more common in Wales, the vast majority of British people with those surnames are English. Jones and Williams are the second and third most popular names in most of the outer suburbs too. If there's any pattern here it's more likely to be the reverse; the density of very English Smiths is much greater in the outer suburbs.
Actually, super heroes CAN die... if they don't make money for their parent companies. We just don't see them die :)
Domain profile reports on the "Decisions that cost money"
'Do-Not-Track' is a bullshit, talking point gov't mandated initiative, relevant ads offer better user experience, they are not 'evil'.
Stop going to the 3D showings and let the market do its magic.
That linked op-ed on the "softening" of American jobs just gracefully skips over the fact that those hard-nosed, hard-chargin' back-breakin' jobs he wished we all had (as he sits in an industry that is so completely the opposite of that) have all moved to China and other places where cheap labor is the ultimate advantage. We can keep graduating Mechanical engineers until the cows come home, but if someone can make more money (or, indeed, any money at all) being a stock trader or realtor, most would consider ME a dying industry in this service-based economy.

He seems to focus on industrial entrepreneurship, a capital-intensive proposition to be sure. I peg Brooks as a "supply-side" kinda guy, so he would probably point to tax cuts as the divining rod of spurring entrepreneurship in that area. Thing is, you can cut taxes all day, but if the bank won't lend you any cash because they're not lending anything much less to your really expensive first-time venture, tax cuts aren't gonna help.

And, VC cash is hard to find in the US unless you're doing software, consumer, web, mobile, or cleantech. If you're in "old line" tech like medical devices or consumer electronics, forget it. Overseas is where to go. Open up shop in Singapore if you're building the better artificial heart.
it made so much because it used a new technology that people were curious about - and it used it well enough. that's not going to happen again.
It's too late for me - once user tracking became prevalent I switched to using ad blockers and haven't looked back.
Right. One of the talking points in my "discuss" section was "is BND safe enough"? I'm still looking for something better. Suggestions welcome.
I work at a company called DeepDyve; we work with publishers to provide alternative (cheaper) access models to their content. We have an online-only viewer and let you view articles for a limited amount of time (we call it a rental). If you are interested, please give it a shot and let me know how sufficient of an alternative it is. We currently allow 1 free rental (which will work for our ACM content), but we'll be adding free trials for our subscription plans instead very soon. http://www.deepdyve.com http://www.deepdyve.com/browse/publishers/association-for-co...
Indian firm planning sub-$125 Android phone
I've been planning with Aaron to come down and do a F# tutorial. He's an awesome guy.
You can always go through a site like 99designs.com or another freelance site. The benefit here is that you can get an idea of the design prior to paying and also evaluate multiple designs.

If you choose to go with a freelance designer you select on your own, there are a few things you should do prior to engaging. First, look through their portfolios, you are looking to see (a) what their previous work looks like in general; and (b) if they have done similar work. This is important in that someone that can do great "graphics" work, may not be that skilled in layout for a site. You will also want to make sure their work is "original" and they are not just copying templates or other people's work.

Narrow it down to 3 or 4 designers from your search. From there attempt to contact previous clients to get references if possible.

Finally, before you engage anyone, try to have an idea of the look/feel you are trying to achieve. Do you already have a logo? Do you have a color scheme in mind? Compile a list of sites you like/don't like and why the site falls into a particular column. These questions will help the designer from shooting in the dark at the design and ultimately save you time, money, and revisions.

As for payment, never pay full upfront. Maybe half upfront, and half upon completion. Or if you can do thirds that is even better. A third upfront, a third upon receipt of a couple mockups, and the final third upon delivery.

Make sure you have outlined how the final product will be delivered. Will they deliver via a PSD and you are responsible for getting it converted into HTML? Will they deliver working/valid HTML? If they are delivering HTML and image files, make sure they are using valid CSS. You don't want to spend another day or two converting pages of tables into valid CSS.

These are just some basic thoughts, but should get you going in the right direction.
yes, that's right: this is just one arrow out of the quiver. sanitizing the search terms out of the referrer does not fix the full problem.

whether the advertisers are receiving the headers are not depends on how the ads are served. to my knowledge, most of the time, they're not receiving the header directly, they're using JS to access the referrer indirectly (it is exposed via the document object). some adblockers merely hide the ads, which would still allow the advertiser to access the referrer. others prevent the ads from loading which i believe would prevent any access.
You've got it backwards -- they're worried that the FTC is going to put the hammer down if they keep going with business as usual.
You know, I think a hidden point in all this is that fundamentally, part of what movies do is try and control the audience's attention. It's the entire point behind carefully choosing camera angles and focus in the first place. The movie-maker is trying to inform the audience: "These are the people you should be listening to, this person's reaction is what matters, this object is significant to the plot..."

If you can't control focus, then you are presented with a much larger scene. You (the viewer) would be choosing who and what to pay attention to, removing control from the film maker, and unless this additional degree of freedom is compensated for, the experience would go down. The way you tell the story as a result would change dramatically. You can't just tag on "3D version available!" to a movie and expect it to work, it requires a different way of telling a story.
Awesome reply, thank you - honestly, I was looking for validation of my own similar thoughts on the subject. I have previously written about this subject here (very similar to your response): http://www.komlenic.com/242
None of these are "Must Read"
IBM Centennial Film
You should think of investor money as rocket fuel. You only need it if you have build your spaceship, charted your course, and now want to get there fast. If you don't know what you would do with the $100k, don't take it. But, even if you don't want the investment right now, talk to this guy and see what a deal would look like. The best time to educate yourself about the fundraising process is when you don't need the money.
What Direction is the Electromagnetic Force?
Unfortunately, less expensive alternatives are going to be hard to bootstrap: a new, no-name journal almost by definition hasn't had the chance to establish prestige by publishing papers which go on to get widely cited.

Well, it depends. If (and I admit that this is a huge if) you can get a couple of really big names to start publishing stuff in your new journal, you can bootstrap a journal pretty quickly. However, for this to happen, the big names that you're dealing have to be really, really disgusted with their current journal.
Funny you should mention "The Random Walk Guide to Investing". Towards the end of that book the author mentions Scott Adams himself, and ends up basically saying "what he said". I think the book adds very little to what you can get from Scott's article (or mine), besides perhaps some tax advice and common sense stuff (pay off your credit card bills).
I accidentally upvoted this trite comment, but Ian Sommerville has earned the right to pen an "X Considered Harmful" article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Sommerville_(academic)

Ok, sure, we have all avoided his works because they're a pain to read, but he is someone you would expect to get along with the ACM as they needlessly peddled his and his peers' "methodologies".

[Edit: Seriously, in the last few days I had to step in an introduce no less than Matt Welsh and Rob Pike to HN, now Sommerville. HN's aversion to book-learnin' is surely paying off.]
Webdis: HTTP + JSON API for Redis
Is it just my imagination or is everybody who ventured an opinion there a guy?

Anyhow If I had to pick just one concept, I'd probably go with either standpoint epistemology or situated knowledges. Oppression theory, intersectionality, and gender theory would all be high on my list too. For those who have read the whole article, did anybody mention any of these?
You're conflating a lot of issues here. This "If you can notice it, it distracts…" is a lot like the objections to talkie cinema. 3D you can notice isn't inherently any more distracting than any other element of the feature, including sound, color and texture. But equating "noticeable 3D effects" with "crappy pseudo-3D" is not valid.
stereo 3D is the word you're looking for, probably.
I see the billboard as nothing more than a prank that is now pulled out to beat down the discussion about the actual subject matter.
There are some comments here accusing Murch of Luddism, more or less, and attributing his 3-D skepticism to that.

It's worth pointing out that after spending his entire career editing film by hand, he was one of the first editors to switch to editing film with Avid; and after being a prominent proponent of Avid, he was the first film editor to edit a major motion picture with Apple's Final Cut Pro, somewhat against the wishes of Apple, who didn't think it was ready (despite the name). Meanwhile he developed a database application in Filemaker Pro for keeping track of all of the shots in a movie, starting rather early on, as I recall --- an application now in use by some other film editors who have worked with him.

So whatever the guy's faults (he does seem to enjoy a good story more than fact-checking it) he's not a Luddite. If he thinks something new won't work, it's not because he distrusts new things.

(Disclaimer: he's my father-in-law, so my judgment may be biased.)
1. Annoying things are harmful in the long run when you can't fix them.

2. There is really no need for constructive criticism when someone does something that is very clearly wrong.

3. Titles aren't content, duh.
John Brockman often combines these into book form and sells them later. Look for it in a little while.

Here's previous edge question compilations:

What Is Your Dangerous Idea: http://amzn.to/fTgjYk

And others: http://amzn.to/fkoFdv

(yes, affiliate links) I have essys in two of them. :-)
Based on anecdotes, it sounds like GoDaddy has bigger problems.
I love ArXiV :D
It's not a Ponzi scheme though, is it?

It might be a scam, but for it to be a Ponzi scheme, the developers would need to use the money they get from the first publishers to, say, buy the apps they've developed to show it gets great returns to get new publishers to pay... (or something like that)
GvR: Asynchronous RPC in App Engine Today
I bet that something similar to the http://www.it.uu.se/research/group/hipe/papers/succ_types.pd... success typing used in erlang's dialyzer could be used to provide some level of type checking. Type hinting would only make this simpler (and with a strong contract).
Slate has also covered this, and the problem has been known for a long time:

"The Problem With 3-D: It hurts your eyes. Always has, always will."

http://www.slate.com/id/2215265/pagenum/all/

With slight differences, stereoscopic 3D on a flat screen is an over-50-year-old technology. It gets repeatedly tried, then the novelty wears off and the negatives become familiar, and it recedes for a while – returning when it's 'novel' again.

Perhaps children who watch a lot of screen-3D can adapt. However, it's equally possible lingering impairment to vision could result – temporary or permanent. See the speculation by Mark Pesce about why his 1990s Sega VR project got cancelled:

"Keep doing that and you'll go blind"

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/32814.html
Unfortunately just encrypting the login page would not protect user accounts from Tunisia's ISP. The ISP can just sniff your session cookie and hijack your session instead. They won't be able to change your password but they can read and write all your other data.

The only real protection here is to go full SSL and not forget to set the SSL only flag on session cookies. Even then, you only have to wait till Tunisia buys a forged certificate for Facebook.
The future is here...  3D food printer
but information I post on Facebook doesn't just go to my friends.

i'm not arguing more or less secure; i'm arguing that the risk/effort/cost/benefit profiles are different, and in most situations for younger activists and audiences the balance favors Facebook.
I came here to just post this. The author does not understand leveraged ETFs in the slightest, and sounds dangerous to boot.

He begins by decrying the stock pickers, and then goes on to endorse ARM. Ahem?