skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I would imagine if someone had a business that had dynamic activities in smaller units (like woot off or something comes to mind) it could be valuable, but you're right, ideally, analytics should be too late for anything that makes or breaks your bottom line. It's for looking back at what happened to project into the future, and you have some time to do that.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2313976
It won’t be valuable to everyone, but here are some cases off the top of my head:

- On a popular news site or blog, if a particular entry becomes very popular, you may want to follow up on the story on the same day.
- On a corporate or sales site, you may want to track big stories (traffic, particular referrers) as they happen so you can respond if necessary.
Speaking from experience (working at Google), the answer is simple: you feed them.

I have breakfast, lunch and dinner here. Frankly, cooking annoys me and going out and buying food involves making decisions more often than not I just don't care about.

My fridge at home only has Coke Zero in it and I think I've forgotten how to buy groceries.
Ask HN: Why was the story about Dropbox mobile security issues killed?
There was a story this morning covering security issues with the Dropbox mobile apps for Android & iPhone, demonstrating that these apps send file metadata over unsecured HTTP.

Now, the story is dead: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2322585

Why was this story killed? I'm legitimately curious as it didn't seem like flamebait.
Down ?
Gleim CPA Review
This is a great review of the Gleim CPA review materials.
This is something I can't quite wrap my head around. Why would I want the symbol for a unit to be similar to a constant that I will very often use in the same calculations? That has a good chance of ruining my dimensional analysis if I finish up a calculation later. A bathroom break could convert 2 * pi radians into 1 cycle * radian, or 1 cycle into a unitless 2 * pi.
I often wonder about the nature of the value of real-time stats also. It's certainly cool and I guess it's useful for certain events (after you tweet something, publish a post, etc.). After that, maybe it would be a very valuable tool for large content publishers—they could see what content is hot and pull it out to the front page, etc?
Pretty awesome for 4 days, IMO (I don't like how elements are ghosted out until hover, though). It really needs an "upload a photo" option.
I would say that some fields use it as a tool to weed out those that cannot act under pressure. There are some activities in life where if you cannot deal with condescending feedback then you probably cannot work in the field at all.
A tablespoon of whisky in their milk, that usually does the trick.
convert into pi equivalent units.
It "can be" implemented recursively. If you're going to be pedantic about this (and who doesn't love being pedantic?) you need to be very careful about your definitions, because regardless of what you write you're going to have jump instructions in the finally-executed machine code. If you say that you can't have a loop "anywhere", you're limited to recursion, and then what will you do when someone comes along and points out that recursion and looping are ultimately equivalent? This is one of those cases where examining the boundary too closely makes it dissolve under the scrutiny, and it's better just to smile and nod and play along (and have fun arguing).
You could. This lets you use it with your own number, lets you record outgoing calls, and is useful outside the US where Google Voice is not available.

As an added benefit, you get two extra devices to carry in your pocket (this box and the recorder itself), and you get to change the 9V batteries.
Is this still on? I might be able to attend. Not 100% sure but I definitely want to.
The Dangers and Opportunities of Platforms
No. There is no historical account of anyone accomplishing anything with their life beyond the age of 25. After 25, it is all downhill. If this is a serious question, then my answer remains the same.
Hmmmm....

You are half the man you should be.

;)
Isn't it a thoughtful act to sign up for this service? :)

We're not ignoring non-romantic thoughtfulness in the sense that we don't know about them and the potential in those users, but rather ignore them in order to get something out the door and gauge interest.

We too worry about showing up like spam. Our current algorithm is to send a mail no sooner than 7 days but no later than 21 days after the last notification, which hopefully isn't too often. We're looking at adding user accounts to let people customize this timeframe and the suggestions.

Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, except he said that is one thing he can't do.
Technical description of Fukushima Daiichi situation
That's a bit like the way Fannie and Freddie received no direct appropriations... before they collapsed. They had an implicit guarantee, which was worth just as much as cash, and wound up costing a lot.

When people trust the FDIC, it's not based on the idea that they're an independent entity charging sufficient premiums to handle any eventuality. They're not; they predict they will be below their legally-required reserve level through 2017 and not hit their target reserve level until 2027 (with rosy economic assumptions):

http://problembanklist.com/fdic-deposit-insurance-fund-to-re...

http://problembanklist.com/fdic-projects-losses-of-billion-o...

The FDIC only inspires confidence because of the understanding that if necessary the full resources of the government would back it.
judging from media reports/biographies, a lot of our "tech heroes" would then have counted as "insecure"?! don't know about that.

i've gotten to know some people who i consider brilliant or at least very, very good at what they do and, judging from my own small sample, they've been all over the place in terms of manners/considerateness. i don't think this is a valid classification scheme...
1b Tweets a Week, 140m Tweets Sent Per Day, 460k Accounts Created Per Day
Emotely Turns your Phones into Wireless Controllers
Did this ever actually launch? I don't recall ever hearing about it although I probably wouldn't have remembered anyway. I also didn't realize lycos was still around!
Coaches are on the same spectrum as advisors and investors… but not on the end you want. Paul Graham once cautioned me about advisors: “Be careful about getting advisors. An advisor is just somebody who doesn’t believe in you or your idea enough to invest in it.”

I like this. However, it's not unfeasible to think that there are some people whose role is better as an advisor rather than an investor. Maybe they have the time and lack the money.

I think writing off advisors entirely to embrace investors is a bad idea. Mainly because there's a divergence of goals: maybe an advisor wants the best for a company in the long-term while an investor might be swayed to give advice that benefits his investment more in the short-term.
On the other hand, that may be the cause instead of a side-effect, at least in a number of cases. (e.g. "You need to get laid, bro")
I wonder how many of those tweets/accounts are spammers?
One of the popular answers from Quora hit the nail on the head. A lot of "early acheivers" i.e. those that achieve some form of success before 30, end up blowing the dough due to bad investments, reckless spending, etc. At least that's what happened to me.

I'm 31 & on my 4th business. The last biz was reasonably successful at one point, that is until I blew the cash and became reckless with both my personal and business' finances.

Now I'm starting from scratch, no exit strategy for the foreseeable future, but all the desire and ambition I had when I was 18 in my college dorm room pondering on how to be a millionaire by 30. I seriously doubt I've missed the boat
That's it, I'm admitting it.

"Tom, no, not among the hall of nerds."

No, it's the best time. Everyone, I have an announcement to make! I...am kind of like a hipster.

reveals fedora hat and threadless shirt

<<My word! They do exist!>>

No longer will I be prosecuted for enjoying a cultural product that is making it's first appearance in the cultural scene.

I also speak for every newbie who dislikes dealing with the console and I speak for every newbie who doesn't posses the skills of a sysadmin, but wants to understand their way around unix. I also speak for every CS major who thinks caustic arguments, over which programming language sucks, are a waste of time.

And yes, I am currently learning Haskell, not because it is underground but because I enjoy recursively declaring functions. Now who here will help me understand side effects?
You can be very, very good at what you do and still be insecure.
I think one and two overlap.
Only the first 5 million years, then something interesting happens.
Here's a solution in Python, using pretty much the same logic as the top vote-getter on Stack Overflow:

def f(a):
print a
print a+1
{999: int}.get(a,f)(a+2)

f(1)

Note, I had to count by twos, because when I counted by ones, I got a "maximum recursion limit exceeded" error.

Basically, the concept is to call f recursively, until you get to 999 (and had printed 999 and 1000), at which time you call some non-recursive function (I call "int").

At 999, the inner-called f function terminates, leading to the unwinding of the stack (each previous f function terminating), and then the program ends.

This statement is the hard one to understand:

{999: int}.get(a,f)(a+2)

Basically, it's saying "Look up 'a' in this hard-coded dictionary that only has one value in it - for 999. If 'a' isn't found (as it won't be most of the time), set the look-up value to the function called 'f'. Otherwise, set the look-up value to the function called 'int'. In either case, call that looked-up value, passing the parameter of a+2."
I don't believe their is a specific length, obviously if it is too long, unless it is very interesting most people will click away. However this is really besides the point, I believe if your service meets a potential customer's needs, the length of your video isn't going to matter. Someone can click away from a long explainer video and go straight to the product if it is useful to them. All these gimmicks about conversion are just that, gimmicks. If your product meets customer's needs, you'll make the sale.
Four Olin Students Create "LockCracker"
That is inspiring. Can you tell us in detail what worked for you besides the hard work? Was it the school, some courses, internships, connections that landed you in Amazon?
If there spelling or grammar is off, just let it go.

I'm not sure if we are being trolled here or whether it was an actual mistake.
"Having kids at 16 years old with no father around is"

what happens to some people. The actual teen birth rate in the US is 4.15%, no data on whether or not the father was part of the family unit post-partum. Are you suggesting that 4.15% of the US population is vastly responsible for looting during natural disasters or riots? Or are you just beating up on teen mothers with rudimentary sexual education, little understanding of the workings of an advanced society (which encompasses most if not all teenagers) or lack of funding/access to family planning?

Your politically regressive talking points have little value in any argument that anyone can easily pick apart with statistics. I do that for fun. It's easier to state that you think that poor, black people are naturally prone to looting and there's nothing that anyone can say or do that will change your mind. I'd respect more for your ignorance than for your feeble attempt to explain your position.
Poll: Purchasing music online, MP3 or FLAC?
Doing some research for my next project, I hope this isn't too off-topic.

Your favorite band just released a digital-only album for sale online. You get your choice of two download formats, they're both the same price. Which do you pick, and why?
MP3 (100mb download)
FLAC (400mb download)
I already bought a pie for the office. Where can I find a half Tau?
Maladvertising: The Cybercriminal Bong
Is it true that Windows NT was so-named as it was supposed to be VMS+1 ?
Does this fit the criteria for python:

print str(range(1,1001)).strip('[]').replace(', ','\n')

Edit: added missing [ as pointed out below
Woopra is missing from this list. It is very solid.
I hope that Blogger does such a great job of this revamp that they begin to attract users who would otherwise choose Wordpress.

If they do this, they will have an excellent platform that developers may consider returning to.
Ask HN: Is anyone trying to hack NCAA tourney brackets?
I would imagine there's some geeks out there that could do historical analysis to come up with best guess NCAA bracket. Any takers?
I'm probably in the minority with this, but...

If someone's ignorance cannot be altered or at least reasonably discussed, I think that's perfectly okay. That just means it's time for me to move on.

I don't see how attacking or embarrassing someone would make you feel better about your side of things. I'd much rather let that person enjoy their own ignorance.

Note: I tend to lack/block out very strong emotions
How many people do you know who started off at an age of 19-20 and were a tech celebrity in 2-3 years? Well I do not know of many hence they are and will be an outlier for me.

A lot of things including luck and timing beside the usual clicked for both Mark and Bill and hence they are where they are today!
Microsoft Uses Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami To Promote Bing
Anyone knows of any mathematician who made a significant contribution to the field after his thirties?
'Amazing' demand for iPad 2 seen as 'insurmountable lead' for Apple
Unfortunately being an ass is frequently a great way to get laid. Nice guys finish last and all...
... and how I came to write an article about it on slate.com, said mugshot inclusive, to further my own career as writer.

Eh?!
Function pointers are all kinds of iffy - you can't translate them to void *, for instance (this makes total sense if you consider the fact that C programs may run on embedded devices with separate RAM/ROM addressing schemes). I'm not sure about arithmetic, but I'd expect it to be undefined.

If you do want to put a (non-function) pointer into an integer, convert to (C99) [u]intptr_t. Of course, that does not have to be defined...
"We were not out to win over the Lisp programmers; we were after the C++ programmers. We managed to drag a lot of them about halfway to Lisp."

- Guy Steele, Java spec co-author

http://www.paulgraham.com/quotes.html
Subtracting function pointers doesn't have to have any meaning.

Tiny C (from 2006, 5 years old) gives:

function pointer expected

MS C 6 (from 1998, 13 years old) gives

error C2296: '-' : illegal, left operand has type 'void (__cdecl *)(int )'

Turbo C 2.01 (from 1988, 23 years old) gives:

Size of structure or array not known in function

etc.

I think the really clean solution (as far as I know, at least it works with all the compilers I've mentioned) is:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2323771
In 1897, Indiana tried to regulate Pi.
The 4G speeds AT&T is bragging about are actually slower than their 3G speeds
To be fair, if one of my friends fell into a water fountain while texting, I would probably never let them live it down.
Not everywhere needs to become Silicon Valley. IT is well-trodden ground with established players and power centers now. Smaller cities like Portland would do better promoting emerging industries than trying to catch up to the web startup bus 15 years after it left the station.
MP3. Why? My i/Phone/Pad/Pod plays it. My car stereo plays it. My TV plays it. My xbox plays it. It's supported by pretty much every electronic device/software imaginable that plays audio.
It would be great if someone who flagged the submission provided an explanation as none of the comments seemed to raise a particular issue. You'll be doing us all a favour before some sort of HN-gate is ignited. I did see a few emotionally-charged comments against Dropbox.

Also, Pahalial created a votebox ticket that has received quite a bit of support:

https://www.dropbox.com/votebox/4452/enhanced-mobile-client-...
One thing to consider is that it depends very much on how you define "success".
Lock down an nginx setup: detailed walkthrough with extensive notes
The Story of Citizens United V. FEC [video]
I guess the man who has found the One True Development Process has now found the One True Language as well. :-)

But seriously, I think before you can say things like "I don't think there are any more types" with any useful meaning, you have to have some idea of what a "type" of programming language is.

For example, most current languages are at least strongly biased towards either a declarative style or an imperative style. Considering only languages that are in reasonably widespread practical use today, rather than some hypothetical ideal, we see that a declarative style can lead to very neat expressions of pure data manipulation, but is often less effective when we're dealing with side effects and a time dimension. In contrast, an imperative style puts things like timing and side effects front and centre, but tends to lack both the elegance and the safety that more declarative abstractions can bring. Both approaches have their strengths, but for a general purpose programming language, I don't believe either is ideal on its own.

Is it a stretch to think that future languages will support both better ways of describing real-world processes (things with a time dimension and effects that might interact) and better ways to describe pure data manipulations without specifying irrelevant details? Would a language that made a sharp distinction between these two goals, instead of trying to bend both aspects into a single programming style, be counted as a new "type" of language?

One could imagine a similar "middle ground" debate between other extremes as well. Again, most mainstream languages today are basically either statically typed or dynamically typed, though we do see a few common overlaps, such as polymorphic OO function call dispatch and "variant" types in otherwise statically typed languages. Would a language that was statically typed by default but natively supported dynamic typing within the system look like anything we see today? What about a language that was basically dynamically typed but supported type annotations for checking some properties at run-time, or in advance? How does that compare to the kind of type inference we see in some of the more expressive static type systems today? Again, there are already a few languages that are experimenting with some of these ideas, but I suspect they are a long way from becoming the norm yet, if indeed they ever do.

I think we'll see plenty of innovation in programming language design for a long time to come, but at the lower-level end of the language spectrum it will mostly be in cleaner ways to blend between extremes that each have both strengths and weaknesses. I also expect we'll get much better at supporting things on a larger scale, where I think so far we're barely scratching the surface of how to build interacting, independent systems involving concurrency, distributed execution, fault tolerance, high performance, etc.
But if nothing links with it, so there are no executables using it, that would seem to reduce the attack surface.
Peach is a SmartFuzzer (generation and mutation based fuzzing)
Take away access to quora.

Then they'll get so much more done during regular hours, your problem will just go away.

</sarcasm>

Actually this is a fair question that deserves and honest answer. My experience...

1. Don't do it regularly. It gets tired real quickly.

2. Have everyone understand why overtime/deadlines are important. Be open and honest. People genuinely want to help and will shovel shit under the right circumstances.

3. Hit your deadlines. Crying wolf only works so many times.

4. Make it tactically easy with simple things like: bring in dinner/drinks, carpool, motel room, day care, casual dress.

5. Pay them with overtime or comp time. (Amazing how well this works.)
I've had lots of moments where I let bitterness get the best of me, and started flaming. Upon reflection, I think I understand why.

As programmers, we are part of a giant ecosystem of software. What one programmer does affects another, even for two people who don't directly work together. This is unlike (say) sports. If there are other skateboarders who have terrible form, it doesn't affect me.

On the other hand, if a large number of people make what I perceive to be a bad engineering decision, like using SOAP (SOAP's safe to hate on these days, right?), that affects me because I'll have to write software that interfaces with their systems that use a terrible protocol.

And if I see a person arguing in favor of a terrible idea like SOAP, I perceive that they are not only using SOAP themselves, but encouraging others to do so also -- if they succeed my life gets even harder. If other people seem to be agreeing that it's a good idea, instead of recognizing it for the insanity that it is, the frustration grows. And if the person is arguing in a self-righteous way, that makes it seem justified to be snippy back.

It's probably not the most healthy reaction, but there you have it. This is what led me to post rants in the past like: http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=446030&ci...
Is anything nuclear ever really super safe small and simple?
Samuel L. Jackson was 46 when he was cast in his breakout role in Pulp Fiction
I built my very first plain HTML website when I was 25, I spent the next year learning software on my own while bartending. In the intervening 9 years I worked at both corporate and boutique software companies, I started a software shop in Sydney that has a successful kiosk product (installed in 90+ malls in Australia and the US). I moved to NYC, sold my share in the old company and my newest startup is just starting to generate revenue.

Last week I was at Harvard where I watched the awards ceremony for an Innovation Challenge—which I was invited to judge. A humbling experience, I might add, those kids are bloody amazing.

I'm a high school dropout and I'm completely self taught.

I'm not where some people are, and I'm certainly not wealthy (yet), but I'm quite happy with the trajectory of my life, having just turned 34.
> This is the decade of your life when greatness is forged.

As is any other decade in your life.

It's not like the years 0 to 19 didn't build the foundation of your intellect, and you certainly don't stop developing (sometimes essential) new skills when you turn 30.
I'm definitely interested. Someone out there has probably done work in this area already, but still I would be interested.
Agreed. I pointed out a comment from the original link and was hoping someone would run the iphone client and report on the results. Was quite surprised to see the story killed.

Clickable: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2322585
It's not simpler, it's identical. 1 "cycle" = 1 tau = 2 pi.

And in any case, I think using degrees to teach trig is a terrible idea and only causes more confusion later. sin90 = 1 makes no sense, and the fact that that's my first thought when thinking about sin only causes me problems. If I had instead been taught radians first, a lot of stuff would be significantly easier.
Will this count for solution? :)

MAX = 1000

def execute_if_not_equals(value, other, &block)
noop = lambda {}
[block, noop][value / other].call
end

def print(i)
execute_if_not_equals(i, MAX) do
puts(i + 1)
print(i + 1)
end
end

print(0)

[edit]: updated to not use != operator which is probably a cheat.