skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Thank you for your thoughts, particularly regarding the low price point -- it's certainly something I'll look into (and A/B test, as you mentioned, but I need traffic first...).

I hadn't even thought of talking to insurance companies -- I'll start looking at that, too, with a buddy I've got in that business.

Thanks again!
Judging from jedburg's post, I'd argue that it allows them to hire people who would rather spend 3 hours up-front writing some code than spend 3 hours up-front writing a cover letter.

Which is preferable for the programmer, too, since the up-front, likely 'wasted' time is spent doing something enjoyable. The investment in writing a cover letter only comes after.
My last team switched from Subversion/Rietveld to Mercurial/Review Board about a year ago, and I have to say that I much prefer the latter.

Even leaving aside the advantages of a DVCS such as Mercurial, I think that Review Board has a cleaner, more responsive UI. The "interdiff" feature (i.e., show diffs between changesets in this review request, not against the trunk) is pretty great, too.

Also, as a fairly mainstream Django app, it's not dependent on the App Engine runtime, which lets you run it on any standard Python/WSGI-capable web server on any recent version of Python. (App Engine only supports 2.5.)

If you're using Mercurial or Git, I'd highly recommend you check out Review Board; the initial setup is easy if you've deployed any WSGI apps before, and the web API makes it pretty easy to tie into your ticketing/CI/IRC bot/etc.
Are either of those feasible? Are there other actions that are feasible, and is the EFF doing those?
Good! The significant amount of context is that, coming om your previous writing, I seriously hope you're not dabbling in something like nano-statistical-adversarial-mating-synergisms.
I love the idea of being able to do a
git merge html5-bilerplate html5bp-test-upgrade
into one my projects and pickup the latest best practices to review. In practice I've never done that and I hand pick the parts I want.

Paul Irish's projects (and his cohorts) do a really good job of exposing the current state of web technologies. The Modernizr docs for example talks about how many JS and html5 apis are supported differently and what you can do about it.

http://www.modernizr.com/docs/

Himself and the yayQuery team are a large part of why I love Javascript.
They're currently going from not making smartphones... to making smartphones and actually trying to compete in the current market. It's better than nothing.
You don't want "rockstar" anybodys. They are hard to deal with and think they are special. You want stable people who are good at what they do but don't think they are god.
>If you think it is too much to ask, well, I guess you just don't apply. <shrug>

This response seems to me thoughtless, cliche-ridden, and inordinately smug--rockstaresque even.

That "I guess you just don't apply" really doesn't seem to be the product of the thinking you claim to have put into this. Obviously there are people who might apply even if they think it's too much to ask on spec. Obviously there are people who might apply even if they are motivated by something other than mere fun. Obviously there are people who might apply even if it takes them a lot more than "a few joyful hours." Saying such people probably aren't the ones you're looking for is beside the point--beside the ethical point--except insofar as it's a pretty clearcut instance of your shirking all responsibility (it's all their fault if they underestimate their chances, or ignore the injunction to do it for fun) with the kind of callous indifference to the work and time of others captured neatly in your closing shrug.

Tl;dr? That wouldn't surprise me.
The other thing is that if working at Reddit, you'd effectively be doing the work of a founder, but for no upside.

Just how exciting is "standard benefits" to anyone here?
While software risks should ideally not be included in part of those risks, investing has some inherent level of risk.

Once society finally grasps that, we'll hopefully be better off. Not condoning what these guys did by any means, but caveat emptor for sure.
Retail stores do this all of the time, I don't see why this is any different. Is it not the responsibility of the consumer to spend his or her money wisely? More and more it seems like the consumers are following the mantra of it's not what you SPEND it is what you SAVE...and with the advent of social buying it is giving lazy deal seekers a great way to "SAVE" every day :-P
For stupidity, if nothing else. I trust everyone here knows that employers regularly install tracking software. And I also trust that you wont do it to your own employees.
I interpret mastery not by knowing its complete bloated feature set, but instead by saying that for any effect or purpose that I turn to Photoshop to solve, the challenge is completely in the design of the effect, not ambiguity about the use of the tool.

But then, you never stop learning.
> Don't be mad at the patent holders for protecting
> their work- they published it for everyone to
> benefit from in exchange.

Is this really the case anymore? Would the world have been a worse-off place had Amazon not patented One-Click? Would the world be a worse off place had Microsoft not patented parts of FAT32?

The point of patents was to encourage inventors to open up to the world how their inventions worked. There are so many patents granted presently that are not really secrets in any fashion. In most cases, they are just the next iteration in a long line of improvements in a specific area. It has become a me-first free-for-all, where it doesn't matter if the first person that needed to solve problem X would have come up with solution Y (regardless of the person). It just matters who walks down to the patent office first. There are a number examples of patent cases where someone developed something, then someone else saw that and tried to patent it before the original inventor.

The flaw in your statement is your presumption that all (or most) patents should be valid. I argue that most patents granted in the two decades (at least) should never have been granted and do more to hinder innovation than they help it.
Word, Excel, and Autocad are all more than twenty years old. They date to an era when C++ was the only tool available.

Furthermore, all of them can host modules written in "toy languages." Word and Excel are extended by VBS and C#. Autocad is extended by C# and AutoLisp.
I think it's fair to say that people exist in all fields of work that don't enjoy the work they do. I feel bad for them; but there's a (false) generalization being made that just because you don't spend your time outside of work doing it means you're not passionate (or, to take the generalization further as was done several times in the comments, a "bad programmer").

I spend 8+ hours per day sitting at my desk at work slinging code. I love my job; I learn a ton while I'm here and I believe I'm helping in building great software. My skills improve daily during my time at the office and most days, when I get home, I'd rather do just about anything than sit at my desk at home doing exactly what I've been doing the past 8+ hours.
Windows Phone 7 has been on the market for less then a full quarter. It is a brand new OS, better on initial release then iOS 1.0 or Android 1.0. So stay calm. In time, people will see Windows Phone as an attractive alternative in the market.

RE point 1 and 3, Nokia did this already - it was supposed to be Maemo. They didn't go anywhere with it. They turned it into Meego. We know what happened with. Nokia failed MISERABLY in this regard.
While your logic is right, I think you have missed the point of the post. While apps are certainly important, differentiation is probably going to be a bigger factor because you only need a relatively small number of killer apps to kick start an ecosystem. Just think of how the iPhone AppStore got started. To this day I'm still using Bump and Urbanspoon. I think Nokia is betting on that they can monetize from an ecosystem that they can control with a higher profit margin, then just be a small fish in a big pond with not a whole lot of control and thus ways to make money.

Remember what Elop said in the memo, the enemies are not fighting with devices and apps, they are fighting with the entire ecosystem. Nokia doesn't have its own now, and they need to create one. If they jump onto the Andriod ship, what exactly can' they monetize from the ecosystem that Google can't even milk?

This is a really big gamble on Nokia's part, if it works it's going to pay off big time. Palm tried that and failed but hey at least they got an exit to HP. At worst Nokia is just going to repeat that and got folded in MS. What makes you think going Android will end better for Nokia? I wouldn't underestimate 2 desperate turkeys with beaks.
Steve Jobs is showing us how to hold the iPhone right
Why is this on HN? It's clearly written by some kid who hasn't yet realized that there are people who think differently than he does.

He also probably doesn't have a family, a house, or other responsibilities. There are only so many hours in a day and once you have all of those things, you can't spend every waking minute working on code -- if you want to or not.
is child-rape enlightenment?

Okay, you're asking an imbecilic question, but I'll answer it because you're basically setting yourself up: No, it isn't.

Now, is the mutilation of children, practiced by the Egyptian population in general, enlightenment? Is it? Huh? I answered your bullshit question; do me the favor of answering my real question.

Maybe you should read the original article I posted and think twice.
reddit is built around exploitation. they are owned by conde nast yet they have to beg their users for some "premium subscription" to upgrade their servers/hire new people.
How the Internet differs in emerging markets
I like it, but isn't the approach a little overkill?

If you'd design a declarative systems where you declare your datasets and how they transform into each other, then you could analyze the dependency chain and do the same thing as a library instead of a separate interpreter.

Sprinkle some transparent pickling, hashing and timestamping in there and you get all of the benefits but much more reusable.

Am I underestimating the problem?
Wow, they just lost 10B in market cap in the morning.

Ten billion dollars!
> For the record, I meant philosophically opposed to tests the tested believes to be meaningless - which is the only useful definition.

Then, for the record, in this case, it helps to highlight people who think they know it all when they really don't.

> Your explanations push the hypothetical case far, far away from the test presented initially. It sounds less like the equivalent of cleaning bathrooms and more like actual work.

Again, confusing execution and strategy.

But then again, you're philosophically opposed to tests the you believe are meaningless.
Ask HN: Do American startups hire developers from foreign countries?
Hi, I am from Brazil, but I did travel a lot as tourist and know a few countries, but I miss some work experience outside, and Brazil is a little behind in the startup business my focus right now.

I would like to work in the US for a startup for a while( like 2 years, don't wanna live there, just some exp. ) to get some extra knowledge, I think I already have the resume for it, Java and learning some Rails.

But I can't see how... Because I can only get a work visa as if I find a Job, but Jobs only take resumes from people with working visas. so... the old egg and chicken thing.

What do you think are good resources ( monster ? linkedln ? ) to find a in a startup job there ?

and

What are the upsides and downsides of working in IT in the US ?

Thank you !
I'd say it's a revolution the army joined in on. Parliament is stacked with Mubarak's party, so having them take over wouldn't have been much of a change.
With Android, as others have pointed out, Nokia would have faced immense competition from HTC, Samsung, and others who are established in the marketplace. With WP7, they at least have an opportunity to come in at the ground floor.

Also, given the relationship between Elop and MS, there can be some shared resources to make Nokia the flagship for WP7. With Android, they would have been just another manufacturer.
Apple Rumors Round 2: iPad and RFID?
Not sure what the cupcake deal you're referring to is, but the cupcake place by my house sells a single cupcake for $3.50, so $50 for 2 dozen minis doesn't sound completely off.
Show HN: Receivd - Real-time file sharing for families, friends and coworkers
Hello HN, meet Receivd.
Receivd is our solution to the problem of sharing files securely and easily with your family, friends and coworkers.

http://receivd.com/early-access

With the desktop and web app, you can create lists of people, then drag and drop files to share instantly. You can also send files to just one person. On top of that, you can even send files to people when they're offline.

It's standards-based and powerful enough that you can send files in the gigabyte range with ease. Any photos or videos you transfer will not be touched up, delivered just the way you sent them.

Please feel free to share your comments and suggestions. We'll be monitoring this thread all day.

EDIT: Just in case you were wondering, we're targeting sending out the app to the first round of early-access users next week.
Thanks for the feedback. We'll definitely make adjustments to the call to action based on your thoughts (you're most likely not alone in your sentiment).

A question I have is:

"Get answers from local experts" only covers 50% of our product offering as we see it, and leaves out the fact that we are very focused on integrating external APIs to add implicit value for users. Our position is that this is really critical, because the problem in the past that has sprung up time and again with services similar to ours is that in low-density population areas functional, real-time Q&A is extremely difficult. Or do you think that this doesn't matter?
I was expecting this picture.
http://gizmodo.com/#!5574278
Zero-Inflated Count Models and their applications in social science
PlayStation 3 Hacker Must Allow Sony to Inspect His Hard Drive
If you take a look at the Barnes & Noble site for the Nook Color, you won't find a single mention of Android - it's pretty clear that they do not intend to be a part of the Android ecosystem at all, unlike the Droid.
I use atomic for ipad - $0.99 only
Firework's preference for objects over layers is what is key here. It drastically increases my productivity and allows graphics to be much more mutable than Photoshop.
sounds like: we can't get our server side right. so we gonna offload all computation to the enduser's browser :]
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1543014
That $50 billion number seems to have been fished out of thin air. IIRC, the US government estimates his fortune at closer to $2 billion. Large, yes, but not at the same level.
And then there's this bit:

>History matters; the Android codebase is designed to be ported in ways Microsoft is probably culturally incapable of even imagining.

NT is portable. It's been ported to at least four CPUs that I know of (x86, Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPC), and MS has announced that they will deliver it on ARM.

I don't much care for MS, but pretending that they're incapable of writing a portable OS is nonsense.
I know the basics, and that's all I need to know
If you mean webreakstuff.com, may I gently suggest you have a landing page that does not make explicit reference to 2010...
This could be an interesting addendum to the How Old Are You poll (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175588).

Personally, I feel like I'm writing the best code of my life, now at 41. Taking on a startup is different animal though.
Can BankSimple Live Up To Its Name?
i hear the Borg pays really well..:)
This is a company I would definitely would like to work.
Always innovating and with some very nice products.
Load the torrent into your client and it will show you the file structure. You then select the file(s) you want to download.
It has nothing to do with age, it is just a spark, I still have it in my eyes, burning as bright and hot as when it all started for me twenty years ago.
This is my own musings, so bear that in mind. But. One of the goals of nanotechnology is to build things on an "atom by atom" basis. One of the objections to this is that it is energetically infeasible; building things "atom by atom" involves a certain amount of energy required for the sheer basic chemistry involved, and the waste energy would be enough to fry whatever it is you're trying to build.

The obvious solution to that is to do what we programmers already do, which is divide and conquer. Instead of building atom-by-atom, you grab two very small bars of the target substance, stick them together (heat penalty), hand them up to the next level which sticks two such other bars together, hand them up to the next level, etc. Just as one example.

This sounds like another. If you can build tiles of circuitry and put them together, then you can stick two 2x1 tiles together, then stick two 2x2 tiles together, and bootstrap your way up to a macroscopic result in a reasonable time. As opposed to the current monolithic (pun intended) top-down approach to circuitry design. Ultimately it looks something more like middle-out design.

So, I'm interpreting this as an announcement that they've created a microscopic component of interest that could be used to assemble something yet more powerful in a reasonable number of steps. Big news, really, though still just one thing in a stream.
Here was Reed Hastings' response to their bearish recommendation in December: http://seekingalpha.com/article/242653-netflix-ceo-reed-hast...
That's easy. More than two words that are three characters or less in a row? Meme spam.
Khan Academy and BitTorrent Partner to Distribute Educational Videos
Arab Al Jazeera is very much like Fox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samir_Kuntar#Reception_in_Leban...
The subtle dig at getsatisfaction was interesting. (For history: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1650-get-satisfaction-or-else ).

This is a good show of selective transparency. The last 100 should serve to make potential customers feel warm and fuzzy without actually showing anything to potentially discourage them (other than if the last 100 were :( complaints)).
Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything
Some notes from his talk:

* <!doctype html>

* The web server can serve certain meta tags (e.g. in .htaccess for apache) which would not have validated. (e.g. X-UA-Compatible to specify content)

* <meta charset="utf-8" /> is acceptible in most browswers

* // instead of http://
makes a relative URL, works in most if not all browsers

* html { overflow-y: scroll; } fixes contents moving due to scrollbar appearance on longer pages

* DD_belatedPNG - better IE PNG fix
http://www.dillerdesign.com/experiment/DD_belatedPNG/

* Often a good idea to use font-family "sans-serif" instead of "Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" for better cross-platform sans-serif font choice
Hrmm...not to be disgusting, but you would take a live example of a company doing right by their customers to rain on their parade because they used two exclamation marks instead of one?

sigh Sometimes people can make mountains out of molehills.
Thanks for your feedback Andrew.

As Robert noted we plan to make adjustments. Early next week we are adding the functionality for users to ask questions directly on the site, without having to use the iPhone app. Your copy, "Ask your question," might be a good fit there.
Great, application I think. I am a little rusty and it's like CAD, you need time to get used to those 2000 menus.

But it delivers what you need.
It is near impossible to grab the audio + video assets because they are streamed which makes it impossible to obtain through wget.

Further more, many of those assets are accessed via iPlayer which has restrictions on access outside of the UK.
Technically, this is against most merchant agreements anyway. I've often wanted to create an "I have to adhere to my credit card contract and so do you" tearsheet to hand out to merchants who require insane minimums (like bars and their $10-$20 minimums) and require ID for verification.
Maybe you could add a "let the internet know why" field?
Hey, this was actually easier and more fun than expected! I tried it out at the Python REPL and now I have a mostly-working implementation using os.path.getsize(), file.tell(), file.seek(), and file.readline(). The fun part is that I hadn't used the first three of those functions in Python before today. Layering a binary search on top of this looks as easy as

*REDACTED*

with some edge case checking and start-of-next-line seeking.

I'd have thought there was more to this, but it seems pretty straightforward.

Lessons learned for me: Python standard library docs are great, repl development is great, and text files are fun.
People also seem to have forgotten that the bulk of Nokia's sales don't come from smartphones. All they're doing here is replacing the OS of their 'flagship' lineup. Since Nokia smartphones have barely entered into the consciousness of the wealthy Western consumers who have been buying Apple/Android in the last few years, this /has/ to be an improvement.
But there are two! molehills!!
Love it! Could this be used for situations too (ex: a bunch of people living together.) You get stars for doing chores, taking out the trash, cleaning up cat barf, etc. The person to reach the goal of X number of stars "wins," and the scores get reset.

A friend of mine uses this system in his house (he lives with 8+ other people). The points mean nothing, but it really does encourage people to clean up the cat barf!
Rest assured, chums. Reddit doesn't mention "rockstar" anywhere in the job listing; it's just their Ops Manager and Senior Product Developer using the term.
When people ask for my personal information with a transaction, I just say politely, "No, Thanks."
I predict that Apple will say "why should we pay to use VP8 when we've already paid for a superior codec?"

Once VP8 costs money, it has no benefit over H.264.
Are they hosted somewhere other than Facebook, for those of us without Facebook accounts?
I was wondering who would be the first in this thread to engage in off-topic personal attacks against the author. You were the first. Congratulations, I guess?

Please, let's try to keep HN above this.
The point that it may be stagnant is well taken, which is why I said "reasonably successful" instead of "stomping everyone else into the ground". But irrelevant it is not.

Fair enough. But if you look at how quickly Windows Mobile went from being the de-facto Smartphone OS to completely irrelevant and take into account (as Nokia's CEO acknowledged) that they are being taken on and losing market-share at every point which they've usually excelled at, it's clear that while they may not be irrelevant now, the way there is not very long.

The need to do something drastic was IMO very real. If going for Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 as opposed to other options like Android was the best choice can clearly be debated, but something had to be done. Staying with the "reasonable successful" platform they had would not have been a viable long term strategy.
Ask HN: What advice would you give.. yourself?
If you were able to to write a letter to yourself at a particular important time in the past (be it before a big decision you took, or a time milestone such as when you were 18 or 21), what advice would you give.. well, yourself?
I rather see academic books for free on the web, I am not much of a video guy, no time even for a one minute youtuber. Kudos to the Khan Academy for their effort, but more is needed in the free ebooks arena.
I'd like to see a password recovery option. I have been randomly locked out of my account and can't get back in.
ck2, when you get a chance try it again, the issue should be fixed.