skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Geez. They should incorporate (or form a non-profit) somewhere where it is closer to $500 instead of €50,000. My Delaware Registered Agent does all the paperwork for $329, and I think it can be even cheaper if you register on your own.
It seems too early for them to be asking for this kind of money. They've only shipped one marginal improvement over OpenOffice. It doesn't make sense to me for them to toss down so much money formalizing such a new organization.

This also has some unpleasant implications. Imagine if a large portion of credible forks popped up on HN asking for money before they had a few versions shipped. It would be a mess.
Ah, I see the site author still has his obnoxious bio at the bottom of every page. No better way to alienate content owners than to make it look like you're taking credit for every submitted video.

Some time last year this Vivek guy actually took all the homeworks and videos from my course and posted them on his site, with his bio at the bottom, without mentioning my name or where he got them from once. I had nothing to do with the content showing up there. I had to e-mail him to add credit and link it back to my site once I saw the embed stats on Vimeo.

My site: http://pentest.cryptocity.net/
Do you consider it a good thing to have people getting 4 or 5 degrees and/or majors before they figure out what they really want to do in life? If yes, do you believe the cost of getting these degrees and/or attending college for more than 4 years should be paid for by themselves, or by others.
The high-level administration has multiplied also, in addition to the more peripheral administrative initiatives growing. Where there might have once been a Chancellor and perhaps a Vice Chancellor, there's now a whole Office of the Chancellor, a slew of Vice-Chancellors and Executive Vice Chancellors and Provosts and Deans and Associate Deans, all with staff, etc. Their pay has also increased, even relative to other university pay; the salary multiple of top-level administrators relative to a median professor in 2010 versus 1960 is much larger.

It seems to largely be a result of the professionalization of the administration; in ye olden days universities were largely self-run by the faculty, with Deans and Vice-Deans just being professors who moved up into that position, sometimes rotating in temporarily. Now there's a whole category of professional career administrators who jump school-to-school, roughly parallel to the executive-management class in private-sector organizations (and they expect salaries in the $200k-$600k range).
The last time I tried Rubber, it was way too buggy. So I usually prefer Latexmk:

http://www.phys.psu.edu/~collins/software/latexmk/
Ask HN: Is it just me or does the US look really broken?
I never read the frontpage of Hacker News, only news.ycombinator.com/best in order to save time.

However, I've been finding it more and more depressing lately. Is it just me, or does it seem like America is getting worse and worse?

I'm a US citizen currently in Shanghai and it's been almost a year since I've been home so I don't know how bad it is on the ground, but from the news it looks horrible and only going downhill...

From the TSA
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/fngfo/why_i_stopped_travelling_to_the_us_and_i_largely/

To the VC world
http://www.pehub.com/96111/its-not-a-bubble-people-its-a-pyramid-scheme/

To the government shutting down sites
http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-shuts-down-84000-websites-by-mistake-110216/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Torrentfreak+(Torrentfreak)

To IP laws
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011021108493059

To academia
http://blog.devicerandom.org/2011/02/18/getting-a-life/

More importantly, there doesn't seem to be anyone doing anything about these issues. Khan Academy and the Nissan Leaf seem to be the only positive posts. Just wondering what other people think.
Test cases would be very good. I've attended many events myself, Techcrunch50 being the last one and the questions that I ask here have helped me more because I get to ask the same people that have gone through the issue.
Foundations have quite a good tradition in Germany, and the benefits in terms of taxes, limited liability and international credibility are high. With the German-based model, activities are not limited to one country: the foundation can and will be active worldwide.

In addition, the German model provides a high security and stability, as the foundation's statutes cannot be changed and, therefore, cannot be abused. Setting up a corporation or an association, on the other hand, would expose us to the risk that, if a majority of all stakeholders so decided, the statutes could be changed, even as far as removing charitable purposes. In order to provide safety and stability, not only for our users, adopters, developers and enterprises, but for the whole community, a German-based foundation is ideal.

In addition, we have many active community members in Germany: the roots of the product originally lie here, we expect a lot of support from corporations and governmental bodies, and the adoption rate for free office productivity software is very high.

http://challenge.documentfoundation.org/why/
gedit has a LaTeX plugin which is what I use.

http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=gedit-latex-plugi...
That's not a comparison and your pronoun's reference is ambiguous.
I just took a walk on a sunny day to the bookstore to browse the magazine rack, stopped by the coffee shop to get a Latte and bought a cupcake at the new bakeshop.

Things are pretty awesome in the U.S. of A as far as I'm concerned.

Oh and last year I attended John Stewart's Restore Sanity gathering at the mall (and I wasn't shot at!)
This is not a customer support issue. It's a fraud management issue. No amount of fanatical customer support can stop people from using stolen credit cards to order your software. It is a digital good, delivered instantly over the Internet.

Most people, when noticing their card has been stolen, will simply request chargebacks of every unrecognized item on their bill. The vendor never hears about it, and has no idea it has happened, until after the chargeback has taken place.
The reason is that the colleges are subsidized by state property, income and sales taxes which are paid by residents over many decades, but not by out of state students.
>that are about 25% longer than optimum

Is this a property or mere probability? What are the random point sets for TSP testing? Given n points in a plane , the number of Hamiltonian paths can be drawn is (n-1)!. One of these is minimum, and our optimum solution to TSP. If we distribute the frequencies of the lengths of these graphs, (is there a particular name for this graph?) we will find the probability of a particular length-range occurring. This graph, should be different for different complete graphs. So an improvement might simply be that the 'high ridges' on such graph of input of random sets given , lay towards the left sides of 'peak'.

>A useful property of a spacefilling curve is that it tends to visit all the points in a region once it has entered that region. Thus points that are close together in the plane will tend to be close together in appearance along the curve.

Or very far! Like points around averaged areas (like middle lines, etc) and spacefilling curves do generate averaged areas. Eg yellow points around blue middle lines here http://i.imgur.com/Dl7Vo.gif

NB: I do not mean to criticize. asking questions.
If HN were around 20, 30, or even 100 years ago, there would probably be a similar proportion of these stories. Perhaps things are getting worse, but I doubt the rate of change is changing.
I live in Mumbai, India :)
In high school there were a lot of classes where memorization was the only real measure of "smart". Every test was a "remember the fact / date" test for history, social studies, and quite a bit of english. I have a really horrible memory for that type of stuff and just memorized a sheet I wrote before the test. Outside reading is a lot easier now, but at the time the school library was pretty pathetic for that type of stuff (no ref book checkout either and no study halls).

Before someone mentions the "local library", there was none during my high school years. The closest one (in the next town over) specifically barred people from my town from using it (taxes and another less happy social reason).
All the videos posted on that page are his from what I know. I have gone through them all. Which one of the videos on that page are yours? Can you post a link from the page linked here.

Also, if you wanna run a shameless plug for your own website, that's ok with me :) but don't no it by slandering someone else :)
I've lurked Hacker News for a long time, but never posted or commented until now. This is one of the most inspirational things I've ever read. Thank you for posting.
I think there is a higher bitrate version available for download. You should be able to read code in that one.
Its not about gpl vs. bsd-like licenses. Its about free software vs. open source software.

bsd-like licenses are still 'free'.
On a fairly unrelated note, I really wish Al Jazeera was watchable in the states as a proper news channel. I'd prefer to watch it than streaming web video -- I might actually watch TV news again! But I think it'd bring some well-needed balance to what else we see on the news (even including BBC).
The author of this article has internalized some Keynesian assumptions so deeply that he doesn't realize the story he is writing directly falsifies one of them. A major assumption of Keynesian economics is that employment scales with production. Thus, if you stimulate aggregate demand, you will increase production, and thereby increase employment. This hasn't happened - aggregate demand and production have recovered, but employment has not.

The fact is, our economy is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Workers are not interchangeable cogs and expanding profits does not necessarily involve expanding employment. Stimulating demand in retail will not raise the employment of construction workers or realtors. Many employees produce nothing directly, but merely improve the value of capital [1] - increased profits don't demand hiring more employees, and reduced profits don't demand firing them.

Until economics catches up with the times, all we will get are silly ideas like "invest in infrastructure" and "stimulate demand". Really, you think jobs are moving to India because of their infrastructure? Lets get real here. I've done a little work for someone who created about 30 jobs in Pune. He drives for 2-4 hours on crappy roads to get from his house in Bombay to the office, only to discover that the power is out and no work can be done today. You think he'll come back to the US if you widen a few highways?

[1] I'm a good example. My labor is directly worth nothing - all of my companies profits are directly attributable to capital (a trading system + money in the brokerage account). My employment is an investment - I have a significant probability of increasing the value of that capital.
One comment (on youtube) says this is from a radio show during the 40's; is "The Simpsons" that old?
Addressing minimalism’s misconceptions
It's time for the author to brush up on his argumentation and rhetoric. It makes no sense. But it is provocative.
Ry's is faster. Ragel does pretty good and it gets you most of the way there when you need something that runs really fast, but it can't beat what a skilled programmer can do to optimize a parser.
Can you articulate your concern?

Are you specifically objecting to the 'tivoisation' clause of the GPLv3, or has your opinion on the GPL changed, or something else? The spirit that you seem to describe is, I believe, embodied by the LGPLv2 (minus the clause that allows you to convert LGPL -> GPL.)
And I prefer my software to remain open no matter who works on it or distributes it. So, I use GPL.

Amazing how people can have different priorities and different beliefs. (And, amazing how one can abuse the word "free" or "open" in either case to mean two very different things.)
And -4 more for complaining. What do you think this is, Reddit?
Some answers:
- Default output to PDF has been there for years.

- The base .tex syntax will probably never change, but there is no reason why some tool/plugin/luatex extension couldn't read something else and convert as necessary. I used Deplate and Pandoc for a while.

- AFAIK ConTeXt has some integrated replacement for bibtex

I don't think we need a successor to LaTeX. The base is solid and ready to be built on, especially now with a sane programming language in the core of LuaTeX.
For a long time this site just ripped videos off others without crediting the authors claiming to want to build a social community. It still does, but also allows people to upload. I think the site is supposed to be a vehicle for Vivek. Is securitytube a useful resource? Perhaps. But I don't like the approach that was taken to get it to where it is.
I stopped caring and made my software public domain. Incidentally, nothing really happens until you become popular.
I finally found a great guide about the topic: http://www.amazon.com/dp/067232699X/?tag=stackoverfl08-20#re...
hehe good one =)
@Phantom Thanks for posting our videos!

@dguido Vivek here. Phantom buzzed me over this comment of yours. Let me refresh your memory -

1. None of the videos linked on "Open Security Training" belong to you. Go visit the page before talking. Every video is made by me.

2. I posted your videos and I CONTACTED YOU ... Here is the email trail for your reference:

--------------Email--------------------

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan Guido <dguido@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: Hello from SecurityTube!
To: Vivek Ramachandran <vivek@securitytube.net>

Thanks Vivek, a number of people sent me links to your videos after
they found out about mine. It's all cool!

You should link back to http://pentest.cryptocity.net, as that website
contains all of the course material. I know there are lots of glitches
with, particularly, the audio in the videos and I'm working on
encoding better versions.

--
Dan Guido

On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 1:49 AM, Vivek
Ramachandran<vivek@securitytube.net> wrote:
> Hi Dan,
>
> I run a site called SecurityTube ( http://www.securitytube.net ), where I
> post videos on information security and hacking.
> I chanced upon your vimeo channel recently and have posted a couple of your
> videos on my site:
>
> http://securitytube.net/Fuzzing-101-Detailed-Primer-video.as...
> http://securitytube.net/Windows-Exploit-Programming-Primer-v...
>
> I am planning to post the rest of the videos by this week. I hope you are ok
> with this (I have acknowledged these videos came from you).
>
> Would like to thank you again for making such excellent content available
> for all of us.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Vivek
>
>
>

------------------------------------------------

And "Author" in the end of the page is the "Author" of the video post. I have acknowledged your name in the video page and also in the email.

Sad, to see such a response for you.
You've never heard two programmers arguing over which method of doing x is quicker?

I've mainly worked commercially in .Net and the worst and virtually pointless one has to be using stringbuilder versus simple concatenation.

I've also seen people get crazy with passing around things like SqlConnection objects as they didn't realize .Net handles all that in the background.

Or people agonizing over small names for css classes while the asp.net viewstate is the same size as the whole of the html. Ugh.

The bottleneck shifting to the code as you're describing has been in my experience very rare, usually the problem with the DB is poor indexes/missing FKs or escalating row/page/table locks which don't translate into a bottleneck in the actual data processing code.
My 2 cents is to create a 'Local' section that features local writers, artists and anything else local - local Websites, and get a cut for providing local merchants with a space to market their wares.
I personally think, the user/developer distinction is misleading. I agree with Stallman that Open Source is about different goals and values:

* Open Source supporters say "Some software should be..."

* Free Software supporters say "All software should be..."

In this regard, you're right: Free Software misses the point of Open Source, namely that the goals and values of Free Software are simply wrong.
Are founders really 1000x more valuable than their employees?
in capitalism, if you own, you don't have to work with hands. the nation in general owns plants abroad, so everything okay :) in general :)

(just don't stop to spend on military, or the ownership right could be questioned)
Artificial intelligence scientist gets $1M prize
its better to listen to Ambient or some vocal trance.. (or just some 'instrumental-trance' music ( do NOT listen to music you already know the lyrics. it distracts you)
ambient or vocal trance in contrary, improves concentration ( on me btw)
Jdrop – JSON in the cloud
In Breaking Down Walls, Does Online Education Sacrifice Quality?
But they need to meet the "evolving standard of care in education that is set externally."

One of the most revealing pieces of this interview: ...the dark little secret about these [merit] grants. They do not create access to higher education for students who otherwise could not go.

Interesting - merit grants are not helpful for people who can't afford college? Doesn't that imply that people who can't afford college (mostly) lack merit?

Oops, politically incorrect thought.
Go through phil's talk he covered how you can work on 'simplification' of existing ideas, example he has given is video camera.
Well, if you haven’t hooked up with any of the following hacker/creator communities yet, you should definitely do so. Lots of interesting groups have been coming out of Winnipeg for the past few years.

SkullSpace (WIP hackerspace): http://www.skullspace.ca/

Secret Handshake (monthly meetup for freelancers): http://www.meetup.com/secrethandshake/

Winnipeg.rb (Ruby group with a monthly meetup): http://winnipegrb.org/

Winnipeg WordPress Meetup (organized by a local Automattic employee): http://winnipegwpmeetup.wordpress.com/
Space filling curves are also good for building multi-dimensional indexes for databases.

http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/TriStarp/pubs/bncod17.pdf
I've had the best luck with electronica/techno. Long time favorites include heavier non-vocal Ministry, which has a nice cadence for typing. Lately I'm on to Aphex Twin's Drukqs double album.

Classical tends to draw my attention too much, as the good stuff is really complex and deep, and will pull me right out of flow when it gets to the tricky parts. Same problem with Jazz.

Most "easy listening" music makes me want to puke and throw things or stab someone, so I just don't go there.
Some people believe an XBox has intrinsic value.

And much like the people who believe education has intrinsic value, they should pay for it themselves.
I too have difficulty focusing in noisy environments. If you're interested in filtering environmental human-sound out while still being able to listen to music, or hear an approaching train, check Mack's Earplugs out.

Clickable: http://www.macksearplugs.com/details/ear-plugs-for-loud-musi...

I use them when flying, or working in a common space. Worth buying in bulk and keeping. They can stay in comfortably on a 13 hour flight without impairing your ability to hear someone approaching/speaking to you.
We have one in Cleveland, sort of :)

LeanDog has a pretty kick ass office on an old boat anchored in Lake Erie, which used to be a restaurant. They host all sorts of meetups & such (including Cleveland Startup Weekend), they're incredibly active & helpful in the community here.

And no, I don't work there (unfortunately)

http://www.leandog.com/float.html
2/17 cartoon: Mike Luckovich on social networking | Mike Luckovich
That all makes sense to me, and like I said, it seems really an issue of how they're handling it. If they were to tax them, what would it look like? Facebook and Apple both seem to be implementing ways to take a cut of the money going through 3rd-party apps... I don't know enough about Twitter myself. Is it possible for them?
You make it sound as if universities and governments (and Apple?) do not offer services which benefit people who do not directly use the software themselves.
Seeking Interviewees for New Podcast (Before the Launch)
I'm planning a new concept for my podcast network at http://bluerize.com. The idea is that I interview startups or entrepreneurs right before they launch, whether it's a new product or a new business.

A great example would be Gary V's newest book, or a startup from #LAUNCH right after they hit the stage at the conference.

Essentially, I want to help people get attention, and also potentially add value to listeners by

a)highlighting great new products/services
b)offering special deals if possible

Anyway, if you would be interested in an interview to get the word out - send me an email info@bluerize.com

Thanks!
Clearly we need to be worried and perhaps we should even phone our representatives and ask them to increase anti-terrorism and DoD funding.
The Founder's Dilemma: To Sell or Not to Sell?
"Open Source is about the developers. Free Software is about the end users (or, it's supposed to be)."

In an ideal world, the user and the developer are one in the same.

I don't mean everyone who uses a piece of software should have to know the code intimately; merely that they should have the freedom to see it, modify it and learn from it, should the need or desire arise. The power of the Free Software movement is that it created an entire generation of users who are also developers. Most of the people here at HN have Free and Open Source software to thank for their programming skills. You're mostly too young to remember the world in which code was closed, by default, and you had to learn without the benefit of an infinite variety of examples to peruse.

"Free Software (as an ideology) offers nothing to the typical end user of, say, the iPhone."

Which is why it is important to educate the next generation of the importance of Free Software (or Open Source, though having an ideology to back it might not be such a bad things), so that the rate of software advancement and innovation continues to accelerate, and so that the gap between the technology haves and have nots does not grow further and faster.

To dismiss the ideology, I think, is to dismiss the importance of a free software culture; our Internet exists as it does today thanks to free software.

Note that I'm not discussing licenses here, but the general culture of software. If we have a culture of sharing, which RMS and the FSF has been instrumental in creating (and the GPL was merely a part of that), we have a culture in which young programmers can learn from the experienced, and a culture in which barriers to entry are not as economic in nature.

I think it's worth teaching kids the value of a free software culture, and working to keep that culture thriving going forward, despite the fact that many major corporations have a vested interest in seeing free software contained to the world of nerds and hackers.
Is it not morally wrong as a non-black hat to not inform a company about a vulnerability you've found?

I thought only black hats sat on exploits.
Using Deprivation to Understand What Consumers Value
As a European, I don't have much trouble with most of the music since my brain doesn't recognize English words so easily.

I strongly recommend some Finnish songs. They have powerful voices and pretty strong instruments with roots to classical styles, but with a metal twist. It might be your cup of tea as well.

The point is, do not necessarily avoid human voice as long as it's not your primary language.