skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The differences between source control paradigms come down to a few things: what is the resolution of versioning (project/subproject/file); how are checkpoint labels created/tracked; how many levels of sub-project are supported; what tools are available to resolve collisions/migrate change sets. There's more but that's a start.

Its not really "source control" until you can have multiple team members making changes to entire source sets independently and then reconcile them in a controlled manner. Missing that, you have a "version control" system - little more useful than zipping up your source periodically and saving it in a folder.

I'm not sure the article explains enough to put git into perspective - its mostly a "what is version control" parable?
Can you provide more detail? That doesn't mesh with my understanding. The Gawker hacks are different in a couple of ways.

First, they had access to the complete Gawker database, could have downloaded it and run their attacks on their side. They still would have needed to use blowfish/bcrypt (afaik), but your high rounds are useless if an attacker gets the actual data out of your infrastructure, just like they are with normaler hashes.

Second, the Gawker guys had no salting, and they used DES, which, as you know, was deprecated before many HN users were born. This made cracking the passwords really easy ... not that it would be that much harder with a conventional salting mechanism or even with bcrypt.

I was not contending that bcrypt is not like really great, just that it's not "completely irresponsible" to not use bcrypt or scrypt. bcrypt is still vulnerable to dictionary attacks, the only difference is the amount of time it will take to get everyone's password out, which, again, is useless in a case like gawker where the dumps are distributed all over the internet for anyone with an interest to peruse.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.
One of the signs of a sleep disorder or significant sleep deprivation is if it takes you less than ten minutes to fall asleep most nights.
Steve Pavlina also talks about this in another post, and I did it for a month to train myself to get up at 345am, which I did with 99% consistency for the next 4.5 months [1]. Starting in Jan, I've been getting up at 430am instead, but this technique of training your subconscious is one of the most effective hacks I've ever tried.

1. http://ryanwaggoner.com/2011/01/135-days-of-getting-up-at-34...
The issue isn't that these people don't exist, but much as happens on dating sites, the women(devs) get message after message after message...It becomes incredibly time consuming weeding the -few- goods out from the chaf.
"Most Googlers are not good enough to work for Facebook."

Not enough dedication to prying people's lives open, one privacy setting reset at a time?
The biggest difficulty is when you have an externally imposed irregular schedule -- flying through time zones regularly, waking up for maintenance windows or other night operations, plus going to all-night parties.

The "get up at a fixed time" is the best way I've found to deal with this, but the problem is I am definitely below normal functioning on some days. Driving when sleep deprived is probably a similar risk to driving drunk, so there are times when waking up at 0546 after going to bed at 0400 means the best course of action is to take a taxi, work from home on tasks where you can't break things, or just take the day off to play games.
It's more work if you're targeting a single user with the intent to steal their PoF password.

But it's a lot less work if you already have access to the email account or server, or any server that the email message passes through - now you suddenly have a user's credentials, for free.
I just had a baby myself (2 months ago) and would have LOVED this service during my pregnancy. I too tried using Amazon, but it sucked. So, I ended up going with Babies R Us, wasn't pleased with their service at all.

Blogher would be a great source for you to find testers and get solid feedback from a group of mommies and mommies to be :). Also, one thing that I liked about Amazon and Babies R US however, is they had list recommendations. It may be a good idea for you to add some cool lists to you site such as "Top 10 Must Haves for Green Moms" or somethng like that. I was clueless when registering and appreciated the guidance of the lists.

I'll be sure to promote it here in Tokyo to the American moms! Good luck with your pregnancy!
Well, only if someone tries to go to http://XXX.XXX.XXX.42, which seems rare.

I can't think of a way to tell whether XXX.XXX.XXX.42 is an IP or a website from that string alone.

You could require that no subdomain has four "parts" (i.e., A.B.C.42), but that's harsh.

You could require that somewhere in the URL for a four-part numeric-TLD URL there be a character.

You could also require that at least one of the parts of A.B.C.D be X<0 or 255<X.

The last two suggestions are more lighthanded, but harder to implement. They'd all rule out URLs like 1.2.3.4, though.

Quick, register your favorite sequence! (http://oeis.org/)
I am working on a startup, but didn't raise my hand. I should have.

Honestly, and this is not a criticism, that evening felt much more like "talk about programmer stuff" than it did "talk about startup stuff". There were a couple of good talks about the business of startups, and the rest felt like coding, or pitches, or both (and again, this is not a criticism).
PyPy faster than C (on a carefully crafted example)
Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
JavaScript is the next C
Scrum Pocket Guide Giveaway
Searching for 'Mr. Right' to Run Your Startup
This touches on several issues.

1. Should college teach you to program?

This is a philosophical question about whether a CS degree should be educational or vocational. The general consensus seems to be that it should be the former not the latter. It should give you the theoretical foundation that you can apply to almost anything.

Therefore, college won't necessarily teach you any programming beyond what you need to read examples and do assignments, which may not be particularly deep.

2. Do you like to program?

Frankly, every good programmer I know started programming long before they went to college or at least programmed outside of college for their enjoyment.

If you haven't done that and don't do that then I really have to question if you're in the right profession.

3. Programming vs Being a Programmer.

Being a programmer as a job for which you are paid is different to programming. It involves many other skills such as design, reviews, dealing with people, writing documentation, supporting applications and so on. This is not something taught in school (nor could it be really).

I view the first 2-3 years of your work life as an apprenticeship of sorts. You've got the basic theory, now you have to go out into the real world and make yourself useful to somebody.

Many companies have graduate programs and the like. I think it's fairly important to start off somewhere that's good, meaning they'll teach you something (rather than simply crushing you, which, sadly, is more the norm).

If you can put in 2-3 years at, say, Google, Facebook or Apple after doing a good CS course, you'll have gotten yourself off to a very good start.
> WHY we do it

> Because a numeric TLD is something new. As far as we know, it has never been tested out in the open.
> Because it means being independent from ICANN, and we believe this to be an important aspect of the experiment.
> Because we CAN. And "we" also means YOU. Technically, the experiment works. It is not officially endorsed by the powers that be, but it

Point 1 is pretty equivalent to #3 "because we can", I don't think we're running out of alphabetical TLDs so I don't get the purpose of the experiment (If it ain't broke...).

Point 2 I don't understand, why do you need a numerical TLD to be independent from ICANN? Why no go for ".foo"?
Show HN: One command to transfer files from a git repo to a staging server
I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this or not, but thought someone here on HN might know of a better way. Also it's a neat little command you can use and I hope someone else finds this useful. You could also make this into a hook to automatically deploy to a staging server.
Why 42. Most of the early would be hackers and geeks and a prime number would seem way better.
What's wrong with storing passwords encrypted with a key you know but don't store the key on the server?

Yes, the attacker could read the key out of the running server, but that requires way more sophistication than just dumping a database. You could still send plain text password to people, if that's how you roll (I don't!) and the implementation is rather straightforward.
Remember nic.d [0]? Its domain was 'nic.d,' a secret site was at '__._', and someone "registered" '☠.d' and '(>^_(7.)7'.

0: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/redhanded/cult/whoNicDOffWithT...
hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy? dur.
I live in London and work for a Boston-based startup with a small office here. So, not actually a London startup. But I'd be interested in attending one those meetups in the future. Where are those events announced btw?
Google Patents
O fish, I totally missed that(I am not geek enough I guess). They should include that in the FAQ.
Yet another straw man post. He's identified a poor update and then claimed that you need to check out the android sources in order for the advantages of openess to become apparent. In reality I know people who aren't programmers or IT people particularly install cyanogenmod on their phones.

This post comes across as a fairly passive-aggressive attack, or a snarky child. I don't know why people rate Gruber's posts. I haven't found his analysis to be particularly insightful. He is usually clear in communicating his feelings about an issue and for that I'd give him credit. But whats the point in reading a clearly communicated thought if its effectively, "I dislike Android, and I intend to bad mouth anything related to Android at any possible opportunity."
heya, I was wondering the same thing. I'm busy working my nuts off, and wonder where I should be networking.

If you use MSN messenger ... add me as a contact. (That goes for everyone else)
alainrichardt [at] hotmail.com

cheers

Alain
I updated the XKCD Internet map
Various countries manage this without requiring the customer to keep themselves up-to-date with local tax laws.

The sticker price is the actual price paid (including tax), but the receipt shows the itemised pre-tax price, with tax added on at the bottom.
Fair enough. I wish it was less rare though.
Yeah maybe I'm being harsh as usual. If I got funding I'd start panicking and thinking to myself "shit now I have to make them a return"... But it often feels like announcements of funding are more like "yay we have cash! Lets buy an office, some go-karts, etc"

My personal experience has been that there's only one group you need to impress - your users/customers. If no one else believes in you so what?

Likewise, if you manage to get funding (convince one person you might have future success), but have no users/customers, it's a bit "meh".

Being rejected from X but accepted at Y still doesn't demonstrate if the idea/person behind it/etc will be successful or not.

I'm rambling now so I'll stop.
Good point; to be fair, the parable starts off saying "how you might design one such version control system (VCS)".
Two points:

1. If you're not reading mail over SSL you've got bigger problems than this; and

2. The problem is also password reuse. No one can remember a totally separate password for the 9827342 sites they've registered on. There are patterns and reuse (or a password manager, which is a little more clumsy but much safer although it then introduces other security issues). So when a password list of hacked as in this case or with Gawker, you almost certainly have compromised users' credentials on completely unrelated sites.
OK, let me be the devil's advocate here: At work I started 3-4 research collaborations with nearby universities and was involved quite a few others, nothing big, the $50K-$200K type. My takeaway? You don't get much for your money. Professors have their own research agenda, (most) PhD students care less about writing maintainable and documented code (I would know, I was one of those in my grad degree) and a lot of time is wasted in meetings back and forth.

Still, a lot of companies do it either (1) Pointy hair bosses don't know what else to do, (2) it's PR, and (3) for some types of projects this may be the right thing to do, e.g. if you have access to the campus buildings, students, and can use them in your study.

A much better way, for software and small hardware (i.e. smart sensors as Intel was pursuing in this lab) is to have competitions and offer nice prizes, a la Netflix or Google Summer of Code.
UBB would make a lot more sense if the rates reflected actual costs rather than being based on what Bell charged the customer.

For instance, if Bell charged the ISP's $7 for renting that "last mile" + 5 cents for each gigabyte, charging the same for 1st and the 500th gigabyte, it'd be a lot harder to argue against UBB. But when they charge $2 per gigabyte but then allow you to pay $5 for 40 gigabytes a block, but only a maximum of 3 blocks, it's obvious to everybody that those prices are bogus and pure gravy.
The problem with pure pull is that you end up spending an inordinate amount of time reinventing the wheel, working towards one solution that you can see, while a much better and simpler solution is just around the corner because you don't have the breadth of knowledge to see past the sort of myopic view it provides.

On the other hand a pure push approach results in lack of practical knowledge, and frequently a "purity over pragmatism" mindset. As a guy who works regularly with grad students, this is frustrating -- the 100th argument consisting of me saying "yes I know the theory your professor taught, but here is how you do it for real given the bugs in the library implementation (or the runtime constraints or whatever)" gets pretty old too.

I guess I'm saying a pure approach for either has a tendency to miss a pile of benefits, and introduces it's own drawbacks.
Doesn't git operate on a DAG rather than a tree? I mean, you have merges.
Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide comes to mind. 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. I guess many hackers will get the reference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhikers_Gu...
42 is probably the most famous "geek-number", from Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_(number)
You could always get a PS3 to use as a Netflix box. $300 and it can stream Netflix, play DVD and BluRay titles, various formats found in AVI containers, it's a DLNA receiver, and if you get bored with all that you can play PS1 and PS3 games.

I think the Wii has Netflix streaming that doesn't require a disc or secondary subscription as well. And those can be found in the $200 range.

(I'd suggest the XBox 360 but it requires a $60/year Gold subscription on top of the price of the console.)

I'd consider it a suitable alternative if I didn't have a Windows box laying around.
Essay on Leadership
An essay on leadership can explain, analyze and discuss the topic. Writing the essay on leadership is not a difficult task as long as students know how to follow the basic guidelines. This article will provide them the knowledge required to do so.
XMPP creator's "Locker" -- personal social media aggregation platform
Being an undergraduate in a large public university gives you all sorts of great opportunities, like rooming with a painter (art studio/anthro double major). Among the many jewels I've borrowed from our conversations, one I particularly treasure is the notion of praxis.

Praxis (as I understand it) is simply the harmonious blending of practice and theory into action. As I'm beginning the exit trajectory from undergrad and into the "real world" (whatever that is), I've been reflecting on my education in the art of programming. I've realized that praxis has been the only substantial educational tool I've had.

Knuth says it best. “If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.”
> pretty bitter, due to the UK attitude to entrepreneurs (urgh, why would you do that? Starting your own business is stupid).

I have heard this attitude mentioned a few times but it is something that I have never encountered (I really cannot think of a single instance). I feel very lucky for this, but also surprised/dismayed that people can be so negative about others who go an such an adventure.

Keep your head down, know you are doing the right thing. Speaking of which, I need to write some code...
It's interesting how much discussion there is here on ynews about the "Right" way to handle paswords... if it's so simple, why can nobody really agree?

A few things to consider.

1) storing plaintext passwords is a bad practice. It's fundamentally a bad practice because if someone gets ahold of a database table containing your names and passwords, you immediately have to change them all. You're broken, wide open.
2) storing passwords encryption, where the necessary apps have the keys, but the DB itself only has encrypted data. now if someone steals your DB, your passwords are relatively safe, unless someone ALSO managed to break into the right production app server and extract the key. This is acceptable for storing credit card numbers for PCI compliance... should be good enough for your website.
If the DB is breached, you are still going to through a password changing exercise, but you have time to do it without going into panic mode.

3) Hashed passwords + salt. It's worked well in unix for years. It's fine for web apps where you don't want to be able to recover a password, only reset it. Note the salt is really important here... it lives in your app, not in your DB. The idea is that if someone gets ahold of your DB, again, they can't just brute-force what they see because they don't know how you've salted it. You've made it much harder.
"I really don't think you can adjust away the teenage propensity to lie on these sorts of things."

The research seems to show that the self-reported responses are pretty accurate. For example, the number of people who reported using LSD basically went to zero right after the Pickard bust in 2003, when pretty much the entire US production got shut down. This means that if there are people lying about taking drugs they haven't been taking, it can't really be much than a couple tenths of a percent.
Important point, thanks for clarifying
Waited until this morning to respond so I could answer 26-30. Wouldn't want to be counted with all those "early 20-somethings"
I know it's not up to the pretty web2.0 standards that are common here, and certainly not as nice looking as the original XKCD, but I was interested in an updated version of the same data.

The quick and dirty code used to build it is linked at the bottom.
Is this (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2176038) the guy who wouldn't let you put up the new site? I'm fascinated to hear a dialogue on it, if so.
And they really do !
We're all busy working, I think is the answer.

Like you I'm working away furiously trying to get the MVP out the door so we can start doing some testing.

While I'm very positive about HN, I feel that in some ways attending stuff like HN meetups seems like a bit of a popularity contest, "look at me!".
I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59
I think the OP is stretching it to say that this info will let you "master the various Git commands." I knew pretty much everything in the parable, yet I can hardly get past add, commit, push, and pull. There is a distinct difference between operating and understanding the internals of Git.
Even if you read email over SSL, it's likely not transported that way.
After 5 or 10 steps, does that end in "/b/ is turning into hacker news"?
split-DNS is not the answer.
Playing, pausing, seeking to positions, and looping a <video> to your heart's content. None of which you can do reasonably well on iOS.
I obviously can't speak to Arthur Whitney's state of mind circa some summer afternoon 1990, but I don't believe the code is an attempt to obfuscate or be snobby/elitist at all. He was simply trying to express the basics of an idea in a terse form. It's the APL way.

I, for one, am happy simply finding the code 'of interest'. It's not great code, it's the initial sketch of an idea (I'll bet you AW would admit that readily (plus Roger Hui refers to it as "Incunabulum", which seems a bit tongue in cheek)) -- but, it's certainly not something you see every day, and it is thought provoking.
Whatever the reason, its definitely psychological. Nobody cares about a few dollars a year - these same people are buying Cocoa Crispies at $6/box every week.
you brain will be trained to follow a routine upon hearing the alarm. You’ll wake up on auto pilot, no matter how tired you are.

I did this every morning in high school. It also helps to immediately take a shower. I never understood why my peers would just go back to sleep and I didn't, but I suspect this is why.
Hrrrm.... I don't know that I'd say HN has "changed my life" in any specific, grand sense. But I've definitely learned a lot from hanging out here. If I had to cite one thing in particular that I've gotten out of my time here, it would probably be "being exposed to the Customer Development methodology." I'm pretty sure it was a link or two from here that first got me reading about CD, and led me to buying Steve's book, which I would cite as being "life changing" (or at least on the verge of it.)
I never know what to say about stuff like this. My kids are 21 and 23 and have been online for years. They have never had issues with nude photos, bullying, and so on. It does not have to be some huge issue. It can be, but it doesn't have to be.

I will note that my kids were homeschooled and the bullying described in the article apparently revolved around this girl's real life social circle from school -- someone she went on an actual date with who spread rumors as a form of vengeance when she didn't put out. On homeschooling lists, there is fairly often discussion about how schools have a "lord of the flies" social dynamic. From my perspective, the incident in question is rooted in that issue, not in the internet per se.

I will also note that the photos in the article, which are described as re-creations of actual photos found online, all show what look to me like very upscale bedrooms that are a cluttered disaster. The settings suggest to me a home where the parents value material things overly much and try to "dote" on their kids by showering them with money and things in place of time and attention. I never had the kind of matching decor and such shown in the photos. But I did grow up with a garden out back, home-cooked meals, and parents helping me with my homework. And my bedroom never looked like the cluttered disaster depicted consistently throughout the photos. My room got cleaned and picked up.

My sons and I laugh at the idea of them being able to get away with some of the stunts we hear about or get into trouble without me knowing. First of all, I was there so much that I would have known what they were up to -- they couldn't have disappeared for hours on end without an explanation and no one noticing. And second of all, I didn't have rebellious teens because there was nothing to rebel against. I think that's an important detail.
More links in the footer, mainly. A page to contact you either by form, email, or phone number. This goes a long way knowing that I have a way to contact you if I have problems. A Team or Company page would be good to learn a bit more about the personal side of the business and to know that it's not a 1-person shop.
The Internet has (kind of) run out of space