skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A lot of tech people do seem intent on 'sandbagging' engineers of feebler talent/knowledge. Some of the conversations remind me of this:
http://www.kontraband.com/videos/5173/Family-Guy-Skywalker-S...

The thing is the uber-geeks do this to each other too, the difference is to them it's water off a duck's back.
> 1) I clicked a ton of shirts; does it ever end? Where are the suggestions?

The suggestions are at the bottom. I'll make some changes to make this attract more attention and to make its purpose clearer. But no, there is no "end" per se.

> 2) I clicked "help" and got nothing. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, all on a Mac.

Oops, fixed!

> 3) Could you preload the next comparison so the site is snappier?

Good suggestion.
Ads that target men are a lot worse, IMO, than ads that target women. Have you ever seen a commercial for GoDaddy.com? They typically involve lots of blonde women with huge tits doing vaguely sexual things. The same goes for ads for Bud Light and most sports.

Ads targeted to men are just as, if not more, patronizing and sexist. One wouldn't think they would work on males older than 13 years old, but they apparently do.
I apologize— I didn't mean to call you a bigot personally, so although I do feel that sex prejudice is a very important and undervalued issue in our culture, I'll admit it was a poor choice of words.

I was merely trying to elucidate the broader point that shaming can be appropriate in the case of "differences of opinion"— after all, bigotry is just the extremity of the belief that one's personal prejudice is well-grounded in fact.

Of course I appreciate that you're willing to discuss this civilly, and I hope you'll forgive the hyperbole.
The NYTimes had extensive coverage of the situation in Tunisia.
It's a majority, certainly. But isn't it more elucidating to say sales are nearly split between the iPhone and iOS devices other than the iPhone?

'Most', at least colloquially, seems slightly misleading to me. The difference after all is less than 10%.
The author has not charged money for his app yet so while we know some users like the application, it doesn't tell if they are willing to pay for it.

I agree that it depends on the customer whether you should charge right off the bat or not, but the article does indicate its a paid site now:

"Then after two months of free – I turned the site paid."

"Subsequently Pluggio retention rates of paid users are thorugh the roof – with the average paid user sticking around for six to nine months."
Yet another Microsoft attempt at mobile? If they screw Windows Phone up, I doubt they will get another chance from the public.

Microsoft is good at one thing: backward compatibility, if they throw this away, I don't know if they will have enough value remaining in their offerings.

I really think Microsoft should either man up, and create a descent mobile OS, or simply stop creating new crap every once in a while.
Peep show: inside the world of unsecured IP security cameras
I really hope you're right. The demos I saw of Lion scared me a bit about the future of the OS. I was hoping for some new features/refinements, along the lines of tabbed Finder windows, better Spotlight, and Resolution independence. Instead, I saw iOS looking menus, and not much by way of features. That caused me to be concerned about the direction of the OS. My main concern is that an "iOS direction" may remove and simplify, rather than supplement and improve.

I should disclose that while I love OS X on my desktop, I have the robot in my phone.

EDIT: Added a sentence for clarification of my concerns.
I think there's a limited market that would pay for this now, you say you would, other users say they would. But this is not something he can offer to only some users as an extra feature, so all his users would have to be comfortable with it. From a business perspective, I imagine he has done testing to figure out what price is right and from a security perspective it would probably is not too unreasonable if he just waited until he had enough volume to allow this to happen with only very limited price increases or at his current margins.

In the meantime, the bug bounty + very qualified developer strategy seems like a reasonably sensible option while the service is presumably, still in its growth phase. I guess we'll find out.
If they are correct then their prediction is still just part of the long, long list. Why would it stand out?
Python has this feature. But if you want to get serious, eliminate [1] all side-effects like Haskell.

[1] Or rather, make all side effects explicit---including visible to the type system.
I hope Github adds this as well.
As Groupon Employee pchristensen has pointed out in this thread, Groupon has hired thousands of employees. According to the Wall Street Journal, "about half" of them are in sales (I suspect it's more). The real measure of Groupon (which I haven't seen yet, and it is probably because it's too early to measure) is going to be small business retention rate. Groupon is very much in the same space as web Yellow Page/directory companies, but with a much more profitable business model. It is likewise vulnerable to the problem of churn. Those thousands of telemarketers can burn through all the local businesses fairly quickly. How many will stick around 2 years from now?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1968491
In fact, Netflix is most interested in library stuff, says chief content officer Ted Sarandos, who has been running around Hollywood striking streaming deals with any network, studio and producer who has content to sell. Netflix even likes serialized dramas that traditionally don’t sell for much in TV syndication because, unlike procedurals, they must be aired in order. “I don’t care about last night’s episode,” Sarandos says. “I do want all of last season’s episodes.”

I wish I understood his thinking. Ted, you may not care about last night's episode, but the viewers damned sure do.

I, for one, would rather stop BitTorrenting episodes of shows that are likely to be spoiled if I watch them even a few days after airtime. ("Hello, Dexter? I have money I would like to give you. Why aren't you interested in taking it? No, I am not going to get cable and subscribe to Showtime. Thanks for your, um, input.")
Cute idea, but I don't drink (for medical reasons).

I suppose I could try reviewing code in both caffeinated and decaffeinated states, but being decaffeinated gives me enough of a headache that I don't think I'd be much use that way.
Works in the Safari inspector too.
Show me a study that proves that men and women think in exactly the same ways and that there are no biological differences in their programming.

I really can't understand how anyone who accepts evolution (Surely most people), but doesn't accept the idea that perhaps the female and male minds have evolved and optimized to different things.

Given that we have obvious and numerous physical differences, it seems terribly unlikely that we have no mental differences. Especially given that physically and internally the sexes brains differ quite a lot (size, weight, number of neurons etc).

For example:

Number of neocortical neurons (females) = 19.3 billion
(Pakkenberg, B., Pelvig, D., Marner,L., Bundgaard, M.J.,
Gundersen, H.J.G., Nyengaard, J.R. and Regeur, L. Aging
and the human neocortex. Exp. Gerontology, 38:95-99, 2003
and Pakkenberg, B. and Gundersen, H.J.G. Neocortical
neuron number in humans: effect of sex and age. J. Comp.
Neurology, 384:312-320, 1997.)

Number of neocortical neurons (males) = 22.8 billion
(Pakkenberg et al., 1997; 2003)

Males were traditionally hunters, which is why they have greater spacial abilities. Women were traditionally carers, which is why they have greater communicative and caring ability. This isn't cutting edge stuff. Look up the numerous studies. Look at the anecdotal evidence.

I think that if you disagree with the above, there's no point continuing. It'd be like trying to argue with someone who denies evolution.

I completely get that we should not discriminate UNFAIRLY based on any attribute of anyone. But to deny obvious differences that clearly exist is just silly.
I think Groupon has one small problem, and that's when they sell a holiday in Wales in an offer in, say, Sheffield. So the business isn't actually in the city it's selling into.

Also, Groupon offering deals in towns (not just cities) would be great for us non-city dwellers.

But it sounds like an honest business, and I hope I find a deal I like.
Apology accepted. It's been an enjoyable discussion and I appreciate that you feel strongly about the issue.
It was remarkably fast. I put up the blog post, updated the website, sent out the emails, tweeted, updated the /topic in the #tarsnap IRC channel, and then came here to submit only to find that it already had 5 votes.
Should You Sell Your Company?
A Social Network Where Inquiring Minds Run Wild
I'm re-reading Peter Lynch's classic "One up on Wall Street" at the moment. He's a big advocate of share buybacks over dividends (unless Apple can some up with something else to do with the cash.) Warren Buffett is also.

Buybacks reduce the number of shares outstanding in the market and thereby increase earnings per share, which boosts the share price, rewarding existing investors. So we may see Apple engage in buybacks.
Code review is always good, but some code deserves more checking that other code. There are some parts of Tarsnap where the worst that could happen is that you'll get some mangled messages printed to the terminal -- that code is clearly not as deserving of testing as the core cryptographic functionality.
Merging SMT solvers and programming languages
unless your code flies the plane :)
A year of the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange: improving large publishers’ returns
Trunk.ly Keeps Track of the Links You Share Online
A co-founder relationship shouldn't be a zero sum game.

It's often valuable to be stingy, but you'll be spending more time with your co-founder than with your kids. The relationship has to be strong.
I've never had a DoD grant revoked. :-)
I think that it is a warning sign.

Warning sign #2: Does this person have a technical background or is a business/idea person?
shows that are likely to be spoiled if I watch them even a few days after airtime

How so? Do you mean by hearing/reading things that give away the plot? I often watch shows several months or years after they've aired, but that's just because I have so little interest in TV to begin with.
That's silly. Most men will naturally also be able to lift heavy weights. That's not to say women aren't allowed to work in jobs where you need to lift big weights, but it'll be more natural for most men.

The sexes have obvious physical differences, as well as obvious mental differences. To deny either of them is stupid.
I don't think you see my point here. You can't use statistics to judge individuals.

If that study were a hiring situation and you figured that, since "women are more empathic than men", you should only consider the female applicants, you would be tossing out nearly as many qualified applicants as you'd be keeping. It's just not a useful thing to say based on that data.

When you add in the fact that saying "women are more empathic than men" contributes to the broader social condition that empathy is encouraged in women and discouraged in men, and that mean women get a free pass because they're women and caring men can't get a job teaching children because they're men, it becomes a positively damaging thing to say.

And what do you get out of it?
Tarsnap doesn't use app engine. Google's index went nuts and I have absolutely no clue why. The real Tarsnap website is at http://www.tarsnap.com/
If Steve is really sick then it's probably just a coincidence. He's a genius but not god.
Apple commits $3.9 billion to secret long term component contracts
Forgive me, but I just finished (finally) reading Clayton Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma," so naturally, this looks like another prime example to me.

It is amusing to watch the entertainment execs flail around. But apparently, it's not necessarily because they are incompetent. Ironically, it may be their actual competence in their current positions that prevents them from seeing the value in the long tail (or anything else made possible by new technology).

They have long made money a certain way. Now, a new method (internet streaming) is coming along. They would like to use it, but they can't. They can't because it doesn't satisfy their current customers.

Netflix is happy to pay for and take the deep catalog. They are new and therefore able take the risk in creating the new market.

I can't give the theory a good showing myself in a brief comment. But if you haven't read the book yet - go do it now. It's amazing how stuff he wrote ten years ago about older companies sounds like a history lesson to me today about Microsoft, Google, et al.
EightBit Me
Yes. This is why you need to upload data with a new key in order to ensure that it is re-encrypted.
On reading too much into few words
VLC is by far the best Vid player out there

Only if you aren't watching files with, say, ordered chapters, or comments inside the SSA files.

Granted, that's most of the population, but there's a very particular dislike of VLC in the animu community, although some of the commonly-stated criticisms have since been fixed.
There's some sort of analogy in here about how alcohol 'loosens you up' could be related to getting in the proper state of mind to 'code fearlessly,' but I can't seem to find it.
In terms of stylistics, the initial page sure looks old-school, but I really do love that wormy dhtml5.com effect that follows the pointer.
Okay, again, you said there were studies. That means you have to find them, not me.
Here is what I am doing. I am calling FB.init and FB.login , after a click so that the popup window shows up.

You can see it live here: http://qbix.com

Now, if you go and put it in an iframe (try it with jsfiddle.com or something), then in every browser except Safari and IE, it works: the popup shows up, and after I click Allow, the fbs_ cookie gets placed.

In IE, I think I can easily make it work by sending a cool P3P header so IE can save cookies.

In Safari, I can make cookes be saved by first posting into that frame. In your jsfiddle or page or whatever, make a form with method="post" and target="thatframename" and then submit() that form using javascript. Now the cookies should be set for my domain, right?

Yes, but now open up the Developer console on safari, and click "Storage". Watch what gets saved. A bunch of weird cookies by facebook. On every other browser, the fbs_ cookie gets saved but here we get a bunch of weird cookies. Why? How can I get the fbs_ cookie saved so I can make calls to my server and have the user authenticated properly? See what I mean?
The value-add eludes me, I'm afraid.
Here is a project that is addressing the security and platform-independence issues while running native code: http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/
"For now, Quora feels like a website designed for techie insiders without instructions for mainstream users."
Then I imagine the value-add of rick-rolling also eludes you.
Not only code review, but also useful for UI design. Drink 12 beers and then try to use the app you just designed :)
I agree most with this comment.

The article reminds me of get-rich-quick books. "Look at me, I spent relatively little effort and am making XXX amount of money off of it." It's just missing the tagline: "AND YOU CAN TOO!"

As you say, building minimally and only as you need it is good advice. I think the financial snippets are nice and illustrative too. But, the lack of information on market analysis, finding the niche, or information on what the product actually is - all greatly reduce the usefulness of the article.
Not sure I follow. How do you know those games are being downloaded on iPods and not iPhones?
That's interesting, but I think wrong. First, a founding CEO doesn't need 75% versus 50% to keep them motivated. Second, if your are both going all-in, and your partner thinks you are worth 60%, you'd better have good reason to think you're only worth 25%. I could understand talking yourself down to 50/50 or 40/60, but 25%? That's makes no sense at all.
Isn't that the point of their book (and also books by guys like Steven Landsburg), what we call economics is really just sociology applied to buying and selling things.
There looks like a lot of content on there, but I'd go crazy before gleaning any of it with that pointer. Please make it stop! Was this a joke post, an example of poor design, or a serious link to some beefy content?
What I don't get is why the Winklevoss' don't just go ahead and start a social network "done right" that competes with Facebook... maybe one that has better privacy settings, or better $x than FB.
Flag this please.

Not redeeming in any way.
How can social networks and mobile apps be applied to solve global problems?
I think they've always planned for Windows Phone to be merged into mainline Windows eventually, once the hardware is ready (though expecting that to be the W8 timeframe is a bit optimistic on Intel's part). That's why they've been careful not to expose the underlying CE kernel to third-party native code (only through a .NET VM) - so they can change the kernel without breaking things.

Not sure how that makes it "not a long-term platform", though - that's like saying consumer Windows in the 90s wasn't a long-term platform because they eventually swapped out the 9x kernel for NT. The switchover, when it eventually comes, should be mostly transparent to users and developers.
You can already edit files from your own repos on GitHub from web browsers.
I would be cautious about celebrating this. It might be a bit of a tokenism; the former runner ups are replacing Bin-Ali and his family, and they might be trying to hijack the revolution by placating the youth.
You can always check your close friends profiles from time to time.
What should you do if you can't avoid writing crypto code?

I found myself in this situation when I tried to find a bcrypt implementation for Common Lisp. There wasn't one. Folks in #lisp suggested I adapt the blowfish implementation in Ironclad, since 'bcrypt is just blowfish anyway'.

I ended up writing a Lisp wrapper around one of the C implementations, a process documented at my blog (http://www.letsyouandhimfight.com/2010/07/14/cl-bcrypt-a-fir...), but it's unsatisfactory for a couple of reasons:

1) Both the current C implementations are designed to be integrated into libc. The Openwall implementation does have the code factored out into its own file, but there is no support structure for building a shared library. (Python's bcrypt bundles a modified version of the Openwall C source directly with it, for example.) Common Lisp's FFI is intended for working with installed shared libraries

2) There appears to be a bias in the Lisp community towards pure-Lisp implementations, for (hopefully obvious) reasons, so an implementation as hacky as what I came up with is unlikely to see much use.

If I do go back to trying to write a webapp in Common Lisp, I think I will find myself having to reimplement bcrypt in Common Lisp. First, I'll have to find a sufficiently portable method of getting cryptographically secure random numbers; as of the writing of that blog post, there wasn't one that I could find anyone recommending. The more difficult part will be to convert the C code into Lisp code without missing any places where operations on the C types don't precisely correspond to the same operations on the Lisp types (due to, say, overflow).

I'm worried I might get something wrong, but I can't just use the crypto code written by wiser folks than I, because, at least in the Common Lisp community, that code doesn't seem to exist.
As far as open source desktops go, I'm rather excited about both Unity and Gnome3, but for very different reasons.

I think Unity, which is my preferred desktop right now, is shaping up to be the nicest, prettiest and easiest to use desktop open source has ever had. I might even consider it to be the first open source desktop I could point my mother to and she could use it straight away. I'm fully expecting Unity to be just plain awesome in several cycles.

Gnome3 with the JS core is open for extension like we've never seen before in open source. I say that b/c of the ease with which someone could extend now...like it or not, JS has a lower barrier to entry than traditional tech used in linux desktops. I can't wait to see what people create for Gnome3 via this extension scheme.

I know I'll have both installed for sure...fun times ahead!
I've gone full circle in the last few years regarding my choice of desktop. I used to love only Linux. Then I bought a mac, and thought OSX was the shizz.

But more recently, I've been tending to use Linux more, and more and more.

I'm not sure if it's because Linux has gotten better, or because OSX has just enough quirks to be annoying. (eg: launchctl, Apple Python).

OSX is probably the best consumer / business desktop in existence. But personally, I'm falling in love with Linux again.
Futures always start a new thread, whilst a promise can receive its data from an existing thread.

In practise, this means that futures are best used for multi-threaded calculations, whilst promises are best used for handling events from I/O or some other unpredictable source.

For example, we can assign a promise to get a key-press:

var keyCode = promise();

document.onKeyPress(function(event) {
keyCode.deliver(event.keyCode);
}

But if we tried to use a future, we'd have to do something like:

var keyCode = future(function() {
while (true) {
var event = waitForEvent();
if (event.type == "keypress") return event.keyCode;
}
}

The future is essentially wasting a thread waiting for input, whilst the promise is inert until a keypress occurs.
One would hope that his last sentence regarding his and his family's privacy would be respected.
Google is your friend. I'm not about to spoon feed you common sense, just like I can't be bothered to find studies that show the earth isn't flat right now.

And if you're serious, you have to respond to all my other points. For example:

Do you believe that evolution exists
Do you accept that women are physically different to men
Do you accept that womens brains are different to mens

We're talking scientifically here. On average.

Is it racist to say most basketball players are black due to them being on average taller? Or maybe you think their extra height is caused by their environment :/
Looks like you rolled a hard six. ;-)
You Still Can’t Comment On Path Pictures, But Now You Can Virtually Wink At Them
It's the issue with people putting a lot of stuff out there but expecting people to consume only the newest stuff and forget that anything older exists kind of like real life conversations drift from relevance over time as subjects change.

Something like reading back through a few months of someones Facebook isn't really socially acceptable even though they are putting it all out there.
Ooh, that's a fascinating question. I'm not completely sure how to respond, since I think the two are tied together— I use a more or less evidence-based definition of harm.

I mean, looking at it logically, thinking that all women want to have children wouldn't be prejudiced if all women actually did want to have children. Would it still be wrong to say so? I can't see how.

I guess if my assessment of the facts were greatly opposed to my values it'd probably imply some more significant cognitive dissonance.
I am happy for them. Apple is a company that puts design and user experience at the front and they get rewarded for it. I see their revenue as generated by genuine consumer appreciation compared to the generic ad revenue that other companies generate.
Anything that lowers the barriers to entry, at least for submitting patches, is fantastic in my book. My contributions are certainly going to increase. +1 for GitHub support!
ATM Skimmers, Up Close