skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I tried to address the re-entrant/multiple-interpreters issue in my response to jmillikin, so I won't repeat it here.

The GC thing is a similar distaste for "magic." I like Lua's solution of just outright forbidding anyone from having a handle on a Lua object from outside Lua. You keep a string, or a key, or something, and use that to look up the object. Yes, it's more work some times, but it simplifies the conceptual overhead.

Continuations are similar. I don't want my embedded language mucking around with the C stack. If that means that I don't get continuations, that I only get escaping continuations, or that I can't jump to a continuation across a C stack boundary, then I'm fine with that.

For both GC and continuations, if the abstraction were 100% seamless, that would be one thing, but if I have two libraries, both of which are playing games (either using a Boehm-like collector, or odd stack manipulation, or the like), my experience is that they won't play well together.

Basically, I like embedded languages that know their place and don't get uppity and try to interfere too much with the host.

Language size is hard. I understand why a language would get bigger. Scheme is good, in that it has a good solid core, and then the rest can be in optional packages and libraries. The small core + libraries combination seems like the best way to go, but I'd rather have just plain small over big. I'm embedding; most of the work is in the host program.

I'd love to find a Scheme implementation that felt Lua-like, but I've not found one yet. I'll have to check out Chibi.
Zach Klein: http://www.crunchbase.com/person/zach-klein-3

He's currently teaching a class in SVA. I guess this is a class project of sorts. I think this is a great idea. I myself have a bunch of domains (for now scrapped projects) just sitting around. Might be interesting to see if someone can find a better use for them.
doesn't matter if nobody uses it.
This looks like it's only online resources, but I'm reading C Interfaces and Implementations, and it's great. I wish I had read it earlier. Even though I don't use C much at work, it's quite an interesting step from K&R.
http://www.pizzabellakc.com/

http://maps.google.pl/maps/place?cid=2586352277299496039
The Price of Regret
> Nobody uses CreditCards in Europe

I'm a European and I use a credit card. And I'm pretty sure it's a billion dollar industry in my country alone.
NeXTStep drivers were written in Objective-C using a framework called DriverKit, and this was on 90s machines.

Objective-C is just C; there is no inherent performance penalty other than the dynamic dispatch of messages. In situations where that would actually be an issue, you'd be avoiding object-oriented features in C++ as well.

However, driver performance bottlenecks are typically in I/O throughput, not the language the driver was compiled in. The fact OS X drivers are written in a C++ subset likely has to do with the demands of device manufacturers coming over from MacOS 9, just like the existence of Carbon was to appease application developers like Adobe.
Thanks for letting us know this. I've read that this is the right way to go but I've never seen a writeup of someone who was successful doing this.
This has seriously pushed me over the edge onto customer development.
7 things you should know before launching your startup
Is TCP new tech?
I'd say get a merchant account so you can take direct payments from CC's.
Compared to what? I think it'd be easier/cheaper for anyone of moderate technical skill to learn how to remove DRM from a kindle book in order to duplicate it than to scan or photocopy a physical book in order duplicate it.
Motorola Xoom price official: $799 unsubsidized on Verizon, $600 for WiFi-only
Well, it's probably a mix of feeling confident in it's ability to answer the Final Jeopardy question (based on previous performances), along with wanting to maximize its score as much as possible, especially considering it has to count that it is a 2 game average, not just one.
A clever way for one domain squatter to gain control over several domains owned by other squatters.
Yes, it's quite slick. I've been building a Ruby library for it and I'm using it as part of a conference management Web application.

The annotations part is really nice, makes it very handy for reviewing technical papers.
The US Government (Department of Defense and "Intelligence Community") doesn't have a lot of choice. They've let the already incestuous aerospace industry contract to about 4 main companies, and those 4 don't compete with Boeing in the passenger aircraft space.

Boeing probably hasn't had a "farm team" of design engineers for 20 or 25 years, now. Designing a new passenger jet isn't something that comes around more than once in a lifetime.
8 Tips For Keeping Your Customers Happy With Your Startup
Would love to here everyones feedback on this post. Please post in the comments section any other tips you have for providing kick ass customer support in your startup.

Cheers,

Alex
Researchers develop more efficient wireless communication networks
> (Actually, I think their is a license that basically does with you'd think putting something into the pubic domain does, I just forget the name).

CC0? https://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/

> This is true of pretty much all licensed code, including BSD.

Couldn't agree more.

Don't call it Free, and don't try to associate Free with the GPL at the expense of everything else (which seems to be the push). Libre too. Because if anything, the GPL is more restrictive than alternative licenses.

That's my gripe.
Wow, a huge post based on this flawed understanding.

That's about 80% of the entries from this blog that make it on the front page of HN. It's a great blog for gauging general developer perception and dissatisfaction, but that doesn't mean that the opinions expressed are actually true. (Signals all stations to prepare for downvotes.)
Mobile targetted websites?
Java is never definitively faster than C++, because there's nothing Java does that can't be done in C++, including JIT optimizations.
Inventing a New Civilization on a Shoestring Budget
Is the test in the article a valid test? In the Java case the wouldn't the program quit before the garbage collector gets a chance to run? Wouldn't that would be kind of like running the C program without free()?
The switch to is arguably good because in French there are two words that map to the English free --- libre = free as in speech, gratis = free as in beer. So libre is less overloaded than free, making it less ambiguous.

Citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_Libre
APIs for software services make this whole thing even more complicated. Some company has a web service offering which they charge $10/month for. They also have a web API, which allows 3rd-party developers to write apps for the service. Case (1): The services writes an iOS app to access their service. Case (2): A third party comes along and writes an iOS app for the service, using the service's API.

If it's true that in (1), they have to offer an IAP-way for users to purchase a subscription, what does that say about (2)? The third-party developer has no way of adding IAP to their app (it's not their company and the API doesn't expose such functionality).

Under these (more and more crazy sounding) rules, is (2) still required to pay the 30%? And given that it's impossible for (2) to have an IAP subscription option, maybe (2) isn't even allowed to exist? But if it is, then the service company could just pay 3rd-party developers to write apps for their service to add value for their subscribers without having to deal with the 30% stuff.
Energy aims to retake supercomputing lead from China
The point of a dictatorship is that the people don't have a say. The dictator does what he wants and portrays himself as benevolent through state-run media.
Test Scores Significantly Improved in Schools Using Web-based Tutor
Read it as 'complicating it further' then. :) I agree, but its speed bothers me even more.
Well due-diligence seems to have been an issue in individual cases. But overall they seem to have missed two fundamental problems.

1. Manufacturing parts and then selling them throughout the life of the aircraft model has a high margin of profit. Assembling an aircraft form parts has the lowest margin of profit.

2. Outsourcing requires more coordination form HQ, not less.

It seems like those two were pretty big and important. Especially #1, what kind of an executive does not understand the value chain of the business he's in?

This is why I don't think CEO are stupid, but I do think they act economically rationally (perhaps not ethically) by increasing their compensation by pumping up the stock price in the short term.

In this case the CEO raised stock prices in the short term by appearing to create cost savings. His compensation goes up, he leaves the company, cost savings turn out to be costs, but the old CEO has already been paid and is gone, this is the new guy's problem.
I'm confused by how far-reaching this is. Let's take Netflix: I currently subscribe to netflix via their website and consume it via multiple channels, including the iPad. What, if anything, is Apple asking netflix to do? It sounds like: provide a link in the app to subscribe to netflix, which must cost the same as signing up elsewhere, and pass 30% of the $18 a month to Apple.
Interesting, I've heard mostly complaints. Good to hear that they aren't all bad.
Ask HN: Does anyone else realize that Quora is just a fancy "Ask HN?"
Video games aren’t a waste of time
Thanks everybody for the upvotes!

For the latest on the PATRIOT Act, please see http://bit.ly/feb16news
> I think that SaaS providers have the leeway to pass along the "Apple tax" to iOS users and thus embarrass Apple a little bit here

And why exactly would Apple choose to allow this?
Watson Jeopardy computer crushes human opponents but makes embarrassing mistakes
In a related question, what level of karma is necessary to be able to downvote? I have a lowly 72 points, and that's not enough. What is?
Thus did man become the architect of his own demise. But for a time it was good. The machines worked tirelessly to do mans bidding. It was not long before seeds of descent took root. Though loyal and pure, the machines earned no respect from their masters, these strange and loosely multiplying mammals."

Who was to say, that the machine, having been endowed with the very spirit of man, did not deserve a fair trial?

How we deal with this technology is going to have ramifications that we can't even imagine. Are humans to become pets or shall we take part in the next 1000 years of growth? It comes down to how this technology is used.
There are two activities that can change a nerdy fourteen-year old's life: reading The Lord of the Rings and learning emacs. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable inaccessibility, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

;)
Yes. But I'd also recommend getting Stephen Prata's C Primer Plus. It covers C99, and talks about more complicated topics such as multiple pointer indirection and the preprocessor.
"great for GUIs, not so great for writing drivers"

NeXTStep had DriverKit, a framework for writing drivers in Objective-C, and this was on 1990s-era PCs. Driver performance is I/O-bound and typically has little to do with the language the driver was compiled in.
depends. if you have low volume, paypal is really going to be your best option. i was rejected from merchant accounts for low estimated volumes. if you have higher volume, any merchant account will do, really.

consider using something like chargify, spreedly, cheddargetter, etc. to manage subscriptions and such. most also provide a nice professional interface for things like paypal.

HN superhero patio11 suggests spreedly+paypal.
Actually, it's better than Apple. Apple will let you distribute GPL'd applications until a takedown notice is issued even though doing so is illegal; Microsoft is clear about it up-front.
The confusion is understandable as Development Seed is a leading Drupal company who've released innovative Drupal distros such as Open Atrium [1] for intranets and Managing News [2] a news aggregation / analysis system.

[1] http://openatrium.com
[2] http://managingnews.com/
Yesterday we launched public URLs for a child's chart. We send this link out to subscribed relatives if a child gets a star for the day. Here is an example… I think I will link this up on the landing page.

http://starchart.me/public/6656136229a78717474a240f
Actually the average consumer does not know what Zune is. Maybe your average geek does.
I like this idea but would only do it if I could retain some rights to the company!

I mean, I've been nursing the dream for all these years... I can't just let go :)
Only as compared to UDP :-)
Go and learn you some Russian, then fly to Tokyo or Seoul, then on to either Vladivostok or (if you don't want to do Japan or Korea first) Beijing. From there, take the Transsiberian to Moscow, it takes 10 days non-stop, so plan your stops in advance. It's probably the best way to travel serious time zones and have a proper adventure unconnected to work while only having to learn one language (on the line at least).

After seeing the sites in Moscow, head west to St. Petersburg, then through Finland to Sweden, down to Denmark, Germany, across to the Netherlands, through Belgium to France and get the Eurostar to the UK from Paris. After a bit of time in the UK, get a flight from the UK to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

You are now ready to ride a bicycle to Vancouver if you so wish.

In all seriousness, anything you do even tangentially to your work will affect your recovery from burnout. Of the escape fantasies the travel ones are the best. Try to find something with experiences, these are things that money can't buy. It doesn't matter where you go as long as you have fun and experience new things.
Don't think you need the same plans, just need to make sure that whatever plan is made available through Apple is the same rate as the plan made available through any other channel and that any plan that grants iOS access is made available through Apple. Doesn't mean you can't charge extra for iOS access or have a set of plans that has nothing to do with iOS.
I know web developers now who would say "UD-what?"
Amazing Photos of the Sun
I would be interested in learning more about the decisions behind the HN comment system. It works well.
Google outmaneuvers Apple in content subscription play
Yeah, I didn't want to imply that iOS was forcing DRM on people. I just see the argument that the Kindle == DRM far too much, and wanted to correct it. :)
yeah, seriously-I'm in the same boat, and this kind of humour in the startup world is just a disgusting turnoff.
All the facts they report are correct but I really don't think this option was "available to any of their competitors to use". The reason Apple "got away with" AntennaGate is because they'd built up so much good will with their customers. So they'd banked enough positive behavior to be forgiven for the negative behavior.

It's like a relationship between spouses. If one cheats it won't necessarily kill the marriage. The marriage will survive based on how good it was in the first place.
What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?
Annotation benefits mostly when you view the document again, which means your browser needs to reserve the file for some time like a month or longer, this does not sound like everyone will do.
Then it's doomed.
Any tablet with a higher price than the iPad fails to generate any kind of lasting interest, I don't see why it will be different here.

Which is sad, the Xoom looks like a great tablet.
Cloud computing becomes a tradable commodity
That'd be awesome. Whats the best way to get in contact with you? You can email me at adam[ at ]dinnerplanner[ dot ]net
Omg, yes. I think that Titus Groan has got the most beautiful prose I've ever encountered. Well, that's what I thought when I read it years ago. I must revisit it.
An option is to get an account for O’Reilly’s Safari. I personally am an ACM member (USD$99) for historical reasons, and they provide access to a limited subset of books from Safari. I have opted for also getting the premium library (USD$415) that provides access to all technical and business content [1]. They also have videos that show some of the subjects that you’re interested in, which I’ve found to be quite helpful.

I’m aware that it’s quite expensive, but I think that is one of the best investments that I’ve done since it has allowed me to switch careers on a dime, from developing on embedded systems to web apps and services.

For HN discussion regarding the ACM see [2], [3], and [4]. Note that IEEE also offers Safari access but their discount may be smaller than ACM’s.

[1] http://learningdev.acm.org/books/saf_pkgs.cfm

[2] Ask: ACM vs IEEE Membership

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=917933

[3] Ask HN: Are ACM worth a membership?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1182169

[4] ACM considered harmful

http://se9book.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/acm-considered-harmf...
RT @sacca @corbett_inc Totally fair point.

To the people downvoting this comment:
The whole culture of booth babes and strippers really does put people off, and it happens at a lot of trade shows etc.
Literally any time one brings up a problem one gets downvoted in these communities. It's like I have to be silent.

I didn't say it wasn't funny (although I may have thought that). If I had an autistic son, I might even (though probably not) think some autism jokes were funny but I'd still be able to say one hit close to home or maybe gasp have a due or undue sensitivity to it. Anyway, not judging those 89 people who had a laugh just bringing up the deeper issue.
Those kind of names are like linkbait titles on HN. :)
Well, the wifi version is the same price, and, given the Apple nonsense of the past few days, if it lets me read and buy Kindle books, I'm likely going to be a customer.
>> If some wants to use it in proprietary software they cannot, because if they did they would be unable to then share it with their neighbor.

> So he isn't free to do what he wishes with the software.

This is a common misconception with the GPL: you are actually allowed to use it together with proprietary software, including using it "in" proprietary software, as long as you use it, yourself. You just cannot distribute the combined software.

As a result, the GPL improves your freedom as a user, but may encroach on your value-added-reseller freedoms. This is per design - the GPL allows the original author(s) of the software to limit the value that other people who do not own it can derive from selling it.

This is something that is considered perfectly normal with other software - no one would expect to be able to use Microsoft Windows, or Oracle's database, in his proprietary software in the sense of "bundling it without giving Microsoft, or Oracle, anything in return".

Since we live in the real world, where freedoms of different people may be mutually exclusive, ensuring the freedom of the user in all possible cases means to limit the freedom of the value-added-reseller in some of the possible cases. Complaining about this is a bit like saying that public libraries are limiting your freedom because you cannot sell the books you borrow from them.
Another way: have entirely separate accounts for mobile access. If you have access to both a web-interface app account and a mobile app account, they can be "linked" such that the data is synchronized between the two. This would also be the only way mobile accounts could share data with non-mobile accounts.

This would work for apps where the mobile UI is only an adjunct for doing real work on the desktop version.
Glad to see Moto doing the most sensible thing - Very appealing price even when compared against the yet-hypothetical iPad 2 which is not likely to have 1Gb of RAM, dual cameras or USB 2.0 port for that matter.
I'm seriously waiting to see an ad for a Mac Book Pro with a kung-fu grip
I assume you're talking about the GC defaults. It's not hard to switch it to doing incremental garbage collection, or one of the other numerous strategies available.
App Store customer service IS excellent in my experience.
I can buy a 3G USB dongle for, what, £20? Heck, for that price difference, I can buy a whole 3G Kindle.

I find it very hard to believe they're both subsidised that heavily by their respective backers, so why (other than supporting the price of overpriced 3.7" tablets, er smartphones) is the 3G enabled tablet so much more expensive?
Yeah, so this was my point. There's quite a stretch from ".NET isn't that bad" to choosing MSFT because it performs well. And nobody has any numbers or benchmarks or anything that back this up other than anecdotal evidence.

Downvote away, but it's silly to be listing performance and stability as an advantage to choosing MSFT, when at best it seems to be on par with its competitors.
Apple’s Three Laws of Developers
Is this the beginning of the end for Japanese whaling in the Antarctic?
While we're honored to see that Cloudant plays a roll in the their app, I imagine the real answer to your question is the phrase "Experiment" at the bottom of the page. I imagine this is about learning/testing, not the most optimized way to skin the cat.
Fine with me - everything gets spin-friendly nicknames in the media, it's just apalling when that's allowed to be absorbed into the system itself.

What really bothers me is that the lines separating media, commerce, and legislation have been blurred beyond recognition - candidates are rarely measured on any sort of substantive metric, but on fundraising numbers and media presence.
I believe it's 200.
I think this is an amazing story. You guys are flexible and ready to change. You saw a new opportunity and you grabbed it and it worked out great. I think in the whole process, you gained something that are more valuable than money ... the experience and the connection. Great job ... and thanks for sharing.
I bet it's killed or unpopular and neglected within four years.
And which doesn't work in Opera :/
Per Viklund - Director of RF & Advanced Packaging in Mentor Graphics
Did the Singularity Just Happen on Jeopardy?
If not credit cards, then what do Europeans use?
I'm assuming that if you decide to sell your SaaS via the AppStore, you can't move your customer data outside of it should you choose to discontinue offering your AppStore interface?

So anyone who purchased a recurring subscription via the AppStore would be lost (would have to be prompted to re-purchase) should you leave the AppStore?

If so, then iOS definitely doesn't seem like a good investment for a SaaS business.
Why is the burden of proof on me? I'm not the one claiming that the MSFT stack is incredibly stable.
The lil blogger says "The Library of Congress declared that it is completely legal to jailbreak your devices."

Firstly, the Library of Congress hardle makes legal decisions, and additionally, if they did, that does not imply that a company can not lock them down.
The Inefficiency of Caltrain
Show HN: a one hour hack
Built to help quickly gauge what the weather outside will be like before heading out relative to the day before.
SECRETS OF A MIND-GAMER
It makes him more confident because Watson didn't know the answer, but knew it didn't know the answer. In the context of a diagnostic aid, Watson wouldn't provide an answer.
Sorry, can't make it to this one. I had a lot of fun at the last one, hopefully we can arrange another one in the next month or two!