skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There is still no reasonable competitor to SQL. It's an entrenched standard, that NoSQL doesn't completely replace.

Luckily, it's an open standard (like email) and adding in support for an open, strongly-desired, useful stamdard as a feature should be applauded.
Some colleges teach you to think, some don't. A 'classic' liberal arts education starts with debate, discussion, and rigor. An engineering school starts with terminology, overviews (survey classes), and specialization options. Learning to think takes both an institution willing to teach it and a student willing to learn it.

However, it seems that a number of people, possibly more than half, under-estimate the value of learning how to motivate yourself to finish things in the presence of losing interest in doing so. Lots of people "get" the joke that the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the effort but they don't get the fact that folks who never learned how to motivate themselves through the finish (of which having a college degree is a reasonable signal) will 'drop out' at the 90% point at best, and become dead weight at worst.

Combine that with the unemployment statistics of folks with versus those without college degrees and statistically it seems you want to be in the 'with' group.

The bottom line is that college is the first place you get to show the world your work ethic and your 'mettle.' That's because for many its the first place where not-going is considered a legitimate option.

You can be very successful without finishing college, see Bill Gates or Steve Jobs as examples, just like you can get into the National Football League or Major League Baseball by going to open tryouts. If your personality is suited to that, its going to be a great option for you. But success on those roads isn't the "more common" outcome.
It's not about flash sucking or not. It's about Apple wanting to have more control over their destiny than they used to. I think the bad years when Adobe decided to abandon the Mac platform left a bitter taste in Apple's mouth, and now that they don't have to kowtow to anybody they're making sure they do things their way.
Ok, granted, text-to-speech works, but it's still not good enough for main stream adoption.

Roomba, on the otherhand, is a pathetic, if you compare it to visions.
Hear, hear! I'd love to hear from and bounce ideas off other HNers on chat.

Skype: ternaryworks

GTalk: tj.hackin.smith
Here is the Kickstarter website: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plugbot/plugbot-mobile-...

looks like they have a ways to go.
While I largely agree, keep in mind that assuming Gmail has 10 million users (i'm sure it has more), that's 20,000 people who lost their email.

.02% is still a ton of people.
There's an easy technical solution to this: just block the freaking querier.

Also, if they didn't render a result as an image, maybe it wouldn't take so freaking long...
12 steps to 12 zeros (worldtize.com)
From oil to drugs and everything in-between, no entrepreneur has capitalized on the Worlds most profitable audience, why? Are you unsure it exists, does that extreme wealth seem out of range or unrealistic to you? If you have any interest in learning the truth about how to make "THE BIG BUCKS," email me, I need a good programmer, I'm currently trading knowledge and a map to the biggest pot-o-gold you ever seen, in return for use of a skill I don't posses.The 12 zeros are real, thank you - GTV

Email gstacks00@aol.com (zero zero)
Chrome Gaming a Priority at Day One of Game Developers Conference
:) I meant VMs (as in Virtual Machines).
Thanks for the feedback!

One issue is that there is no company vision. When I ask about the company's goals, founder #1 says that if we make enough money to survive for 10 years, then that's fine. founder #2 says we're a high-growth company, and we want to be bought out for $400Million.

The follow up question, "what's the plan to achieve that vision?" is met with blank stares from both of them. The vision is inconsistent at best, and there is no plan to agree or disagree with.

In my opinion, founder #1 just wants a high-tech sandbox to play in. If he gets enough money so that he gets to keep playing then he's happy. founder #2 has friends who made a bunch of money in a startup -- he wants to be like them but doesn't actually know how.

I already started floating my resume out there to test the waters a bit. So far, everything seems better than here. I'm concerned that I'm looking at the greener grass on the other side of the fence, though.

Excellent tip about no longer sharing their vision. I had no desire to air our company's dirty laundry in an interview -- but I had to scramble for a PC response when posed that question a couple weeks ago.
> It is easy to tell people not to let their insurance lapse. If they have no income, this is not feasible.

If they have no income, health insurance isn't their only problem. There's housing and food as well.

> Plenty of employees in the current system stay with their employer out of fear of losing their coverage instead of pursuing other opportunities.

Lots of things have that effect, including having kids, buying a house, and so on. Many of them have far greater effect than pre-existing conditions, yet ....

There are also people who can't take the leap because taxes keep them from saving enough. Increasing their taxes to pay for other people's healthcare is going to make that worse.

None of the proposals address cost. (No, preventative care doesn't actually reduce costs. It "merely" makes life more enjoyable.) They just cost shift differently.
Ask HN: How do you handle small web/tech requests from friends?
I'm sure most HN'ers are the resident geeks in their wider circle of friends and get a lot of requests like:

* Can you set up a WordPress blog for me?

* Can you migrate my website from sharedHostX to sharedHostY?

* Can you help me pick an e-commerce service to use to put my store online?

* Can you fix my slow/crashing computer?

I get a lot of these (from Non-Tech friends) and stacked up they take up a fair amount of my time. I've never accepted money for doing stuff like this, even when offered, but now wondering whether for anyone that isn't family or immediate friend whether I should.

I'm wondering how you guys handle these kinds of requests?

EDIT: On the point of learning to say "NO": I guess I've always seen doing requests like this as 'paying it forward' or participating in the gift economy.

But when it comes time for me to need help I'm more likely to Google something/work it out for myself then really ask for help.
A similar quote I remember: "Nothing is ever as good, or as bad, as it first appears." I don't have a source for it; it may even be a misremembered version of a misquoted version of that quote.
Chip Life New Version 1.3: WordPress 3.1 Theme
libertarianism is often a placeholder for "a world where everybody has virtually unlimited piles of money for which they can pay for basic services like clean water or a functioning local road system"
I still want a technical definition of what Net Neutrality is. No using words like "freedom", given me something that is not open to interpretation.
"PlugBot" Hardware Pentesting tool win form of Wall-Wart
Free Kitten Wallpapers: http://placekitten.com/1920/1080
or
http://placekitten.com/1280/1024
http://placekitten.com/1024/768
etc.
Comcast-NBC approval protects business Internet, accidentally
/*_/|
=0-0=
\'I'|
|<|,,\_
|[>,,/,\
|[|,\_,,)
((J(=_*/

This one is valid C/C++/ObjC, Java, PHP, CSS...
I've been playing around a lot with Rhino recently, making it do all sorts of interesting things. It was nice to get a quick example of how it looks in V8.
Absolutely, as long as you send me a picture of you riding a giraffe!
Don't forget a line-of-sight algorithm so that where the character goes in the darkness, it gets light.
Was it like that last year ? I remember there were some speaker/reserved seats at stage right, but I wasn't actually aiming for the front row because that might introduce a crick in my neck :-) So I guess 'patron' rows would be possible.

The shunting of those who want to blog/surf to the balconies was pretty nice for those who don't want the typey typey glowing screen distraction.
Computer Co-Ops Minimize e-Waste & Bridge the Digital Divide
Absolutely. I can just call each of you XX_01 up to XX_(however many) and then do my analysis. If it shows something interesting about you and your voting patterns (and I don't know what it might show - this is (informal) research so I don't (yet) know what I'm doing) then I could only tell those who weren't anonymous.

I'll probably try to arrange something so that people can semi-reverse engineer their results. Once I've worked out what I'm doing, and get any results, I'll let people know, and they can decide whether to release their data, or become known, or whatever.

I have thought about this, I haven't got any firm conclusions, my principle is that people's data is theirs to release.
I am a indian living in US for more than 10 years and this article sounds so true!
His main source of info is probably also AT&T. He doesn't have to be evil, just misinformed. If you thought spear-phishing attacks were effective, just imagine having a multi-million dollar budget for the lobbyists to construct an alternate reality for this one guy.
The 10 Python Conferences Happening at PyCon 2011 (part 1)
Depends on the person. I always have to fight the urge to send them this link: http://lmgtfy.com/

Often I try to find the easiest walkthrough online I can find and e-mail it to them. I add in the messaged something along the lines of "here is a guide to doing this yourself, I should have some free time in x weeks if you get stuck." Usually this gets them to at least attempt to do it themselves and most of the time they are fully capable.
what you say is true at the national level. Yet there is a hope. This is classical case of "tragedy of commons". Right now the US enjoys the most benefits while the cost is carried by the whole world. In short time China will be enjoying disproportionally much benefits while the costs is spread around the world (i.e. in particular US will be carrying more costs than benefits). This dynamic disbalance will force reconsideration of the current world order.
Cato supports its corporate masters:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Industries#C...
I don't know if people wonder why startup founders get more money than employees. I think they wonder why the current CEO does.

Maybe it's just me, but if you have started and are running a successful company you "deserve" every cent you can keep.
It's not the fact of risk, it is a question of level. Specifically, the statement "just as dangerous" is just not true. Dangerous yes. Equally so? No.
> Currently ISPs serve you

I'm not a board member of Comcast. I don't even hold any voting shares in CMCSA.
If you are interested in GPU coding, checkout www.tidepowerd.com for a .net cross vendor system, also falls back to CPU and they are a startup :)
The Big N.O....

I do a limited amount for close family, and a very small number of non-profits I help out.

For the rest and for complicated requests from the above folks, I refer them to a computer shop or other person, or say I don't have a good recommendation on where they could get help with that.

I just helped out one non-profit by pointing them to some existing web tech they could use instead of writing software, and gave them a quick sample, and offered to teach them or find a consultant to teach them how to do the full version of what they wanted.

With another non-profit, I help them with the stuff that's fun for me, and connect them with other people to do the other, more time-consuming stuff they want to do.
That's not it. These people want a 'special' discount 'just for them', they don't want the prices listed on the website.
The original funding came through some government-sponsored startup loans with very generous terms. We were within a week of closing the doors when the more recent investment came through. Because of the financial issues at the time, the terms of that investment are not great for the company -- sort of kills any hope of a bidding war in the future.

So no, nothing with a proven track record. I guess that's even more evidence that supports leaving.
Dear Photoshop user, meet Fireworks
You don't have to know how to fly an airplane by instruments alone, either, until you want to get an instrument rating.

As an example of a lower barrier to entry, the (relatively) new Sport Pilot certificate allows for the operation of smaller, lighter aircraft with training and testing requirements that are not dissimilar to those for getting a driver's license.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_Unit...
HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down
>The problem with the Wolfram Alpha terms of service is that they forbid natural, common uses of the web site.

It seems that that only applies to general circumstance usage. That is, it appears, once can enter into arrangements with W|A to allow non-human usage of website.

To prove, just search for "calories in apples", for example in Bing or Google search.
What is your day job? If your day job involves any of those things just quote them a comparable hourly rate and don't feel bad.

I usually let people know up front how much the service they are requesting is going to cost. A lot of the time this scares them away.

You could always try to work out some sort of service exchange. Given the people you are helping offer services that you'd want / need.

or you could learn to just say no.
Hmmm... for me at least, quite often the requests are from people who are non-technical and so don't have the ability to do it themselves.
I use them too. Been a customer with them for something like 5-6 years, never had a single issue. Absolutely flawless service.
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich - http://amzn.to/ep7taj

It's not a programming book but I quit my job 2 weeks after I read it :)
Yes, I finally finished the schedule over the weekend: http://us.pycon.org/2011/schedule/
But we vote and elect our government. Don't we?
"... But more seriously, you would be releasing some personal data to me ..."

No, but then again how would I be able to stop you?
A significant amount of the source material about Night Dragon came from the same email theft that outed the wikileaks and CoC issues. Since it sounds like you believe the latter, why would you say the former isn't credible?
Unfortunately on the Internet, Republican has become synonymous with racist radical Christian.
Wondering where you got all the pictures from? Is this a gray area of copyright? I'm asking because I've tried to source large amount of pictures in the past will little luck.
As a monthly Orlando visitor, I would love to be able to hop a train to Tampa, as well as down the eastern shore to Miami. And easier alternative airport options vs MCO would be nice as well. A two hour train ride would make Miami a viable alternative destination for an Orlando visit. Multiple airport destination choices will help alleviate congestion and will help lower the ridiculous spring fares.

Better yet, I would like to be able to take modern (read next generation beyond current Amtrak tech) rail all the way from Milwaukee to Orlando for these trips.

I think the skies are getting pretty saturated with plane traffic, and security/fear concerns make air travel miserable.
Good point. I'm a consultant/contractor by trade so I have a very clear billable hourly rate...

But my billable rate for SF-based high quality developer network and API ecosystem strategy + development is not good value for setting up WordPress. In fact it's probably a degree of magnitude bigger if you compare it to getting a student or off-shore person to do it.
The problem with this line of reasoning is that it requires a starting point of free actors entering into commerce with each other. If "government" were not involved here, none of these service providers would exist at all. They have been given legal monopolies / oligopolies over markets created by government investment. It is superficially plausible to think that "free market" reasoning might still be useful in sorting out how things should work, but as a practical matter the voices arguing loudest for libertarian ideology are paid for by rent-seeking oligopolists. (None of this is meant to challenge your sincerity, BTW.)
How I learned that it's actually pronounced "MySQuirreL"
Maybe it's bad eyesight but every time I see a headline similar to this I misread "V8" as "VB" and scream inside my head "WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?!?!?!"
Oldest WWI Vet Died
George Orwell's Politics and the English Language (which should be required reading for everyone) has a section titled "Meaningless words" which contains this wonderful sentence:

"The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another."

I try to keep it in mind whenever I see someone mentioning freedom, openness, rights, etc. Generally it seems like these are used for emotional appeal rather an actual clear definition.

Edit: Link to the essay. It's short, and very well worth the read. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm
If you have physical access to the server, it's already screwed. This is hardly "cracking" RSA encryption.
Clearly it's time to disrupt the commenting system of HN.
I wasn't really thinking about a wardrive/loiter scenario, so much as a "plug a laptop in, then slide it behind a desk/filing cabinet,etc." kind of scenario.

No matter what the form factor, you're probably gonna want at least power and an ethernet connection. Most enterprise networks are pretty locked down on the wireless side, but on the wired side it's still pretty uncommon to find any significant lockdown like 802.1x authentication.
this followed what was an excellent talk by @ckj. totally blew everyone's mind with their @font-face icon rendering hack they do.
I completely agree. I've been asking around recently for a decent source of imagery for placeholders, it's a stupid thing to spend time on every time I build a site where visuals are essential. This service is an interesting way of tackling the problem, and I think it's technologically interesting - and the image selection looks very high quality and professional compared to the random Flickr rips I was doing before.
Yes, I saw that, and perhaps I'm a bit skeptical yet but I'm not prepared to take a huge corporation's PR soundbites at face value.
Apple's Tim Cook hints at cheaper iPhone, prepaid possibilities to come?
Today's 'Steampunk' is yesteryear's 'Sci-fi'
UW Lamborghini lab in top gear, Aventador next
In the programming category, I'd definitely have to say the pragmatic programmer.

Written in a way that makes it very easy to understand, especially for relative newbies, it's not technology bound, encourages good practices and fosters curiosity. In short, it's timeless.

This should be required reading for any junior hire imo.
What do you mean "Saved Stories?"
When FairPoint doesn't perform its obligations under contract, that's presumably something for the New Hampshire authorities to pursue, as they were the other party in the contract. How is that a federal responsibility?

since we're not a desirable market, there's no chance of getting any other companies to deploy to those areas

Again, is that really a problem the FCC should address? It seems you're extending the idea of net neutrality from regulating existing networks to guaranteeing network access for all.

edit: typo
By and large, I refuse such requests. Often I dodge it in a subtle (yet true) way by pointing out that I run Linux on all of my own computers, have for years, and therefore have lost touch with the state of Windows admin/repair/etc. This suffices to keep my mom, sister, aunt, etc. from giving me too much grief to help them.

Beyond that, my non-techie friends have basically been trained to not bother asking me, as I pretty much always politely refuse, by pointing out how slammed I am with my day-job and startup project. When you explain to people that you routinely work 80+ hours a week (and it's true) they tend to be more understanding.

That said, if it's a question I can answer without doing any significant research, and if the person has shown some initiative in trying to deal with the problem on their own, and if I actually have a spare moment, I'll occasionally try to help somebody by email or whatever. One of my sister's friends was taking an online class on Java programming, and I answered a few Java questions for her, but I never spent more than 2-3 minutes on it.
A pool of liquid Sodium, Plutonium and depleted Uranium buried into the ground, running unattended for a hundred years...

What could possibly go wrong?
Facebook Scams Involving Soldiers
"On Tuesday at a car show in Geneva, Lamborghini is taking the wraps off the first production car to come fully through the lab, through its entire gestation process.

Called the Aventador, it's a $370,000 Batmobile that goes from zero to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds.

The Aventador's bare body -- before the V-12 motor and other parts are added -- weighs just 504.9 pounds."
How about the better? There's vast oceans between "the best possible price we can possibly get" and "whoever offers first".
baa baa

edit -4 looks to be the limit to downvoting
Make a table:

| blue | red |
--------|------|------|-----
pearls | | |
--------|------|------|-----
empty | | |
--------|------|------|-----
| | | 100

We know that 40% of the eggs are blue, so we fill in 40 at the bottom row in the blue column. We now also know that 60% are red. Similarly, 20% of eggs are empty & red, so we fill in 20 there. Now we can calculate that 60% - 20% = 40% are pearls & red:

| blue | red |
--------|------|------|-----
pearls | | 40 |
--------|------|------|-----
empty | | 20 |
--------|------|------|-----
| 40 | 60 | 100

Now comes the final bit of data: 5/13 of the eggs containing pearls are painted blue:

| blue | red |
--------|------|------|-----
pearls | X | 40 | 40+X
--------|------|------|-----
empty | | 20 |
--------|------|------|-----
| 40 | 60 | 100

With X = 5/13*(40+X), or X = 100/3.

| blue | red |
--------|-------|------|-----
pearls | 100/3 | 40 | 220/3
--------|-------|------|-----
empty | 20/3 | 20 | 80/3
--------|-------|------|-----
| 40 | 60 | 100

Now we can answer the question: what is the probability that an egg painted blue contains a pearl? For every 40 blue eggs, 100/3 contain pearls. So the answer is 100/3/40 = 5/6.
"Tove pissed off Warren Beatty by asking his name not just once, but twice" is the funniest thing I've read in quite a while.
Sony touts high-speed 17.7 megapixel CMOS sensor for cellphones
I'm not sure what your definition of mainstream is, but I commonly see text-to-speech listed as an advertised feature of mainstream consumer products.

TTS's dirty little is that it's actually much faster to read something yourself than have something read to you, assuming you are fluent in the language. It's not a failing of TTS, it's just people not properly considering the use of technology. The same goes for the roomba and the programmable microwave. It makes much more sense to have small single-purpose robots that function well, than a single multipurpose humanoid robot.
Is it possible to package this for npm (or something alike)?
That's true, and a good point in regards to legislation. Not everyone who oppose Net Neutrality is dong so because of the corporations. There are legitimate concerns about how the FCC would regulate the internet.

However, when speaking of freedom being restricted in opposition to Net Neutrality, it seems like the only possible freedoms being restricted are those of corporations who would wish to do things that would be restricted by Net Neutrality, not those of their customers. However, when this is mentioned, it's painted as "our" freedoms, making it look like it's everyone's freedom, when realistically it's only the freedom of those corporations, and not the citizens, as is implied.
Sorry, I should have looked a bit harder its right bloody there!