skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I agree with the OP comment, and also with this one. It is important to understand two things in coping with the state of the world in my opinion.

1) The reality is you need to find validation and fulfilment outside of work, because in our current society you are just a drone.

2) Don't be depressed because it seems like this is how it's always been. It hasn't. Our work culture is broken. People never used to be so far removed from their work. Trying to combine work and life is a natural thing, because people used to be tied up in it. Working the land, being close to home, running a family business, belonging to a small town of people you all known, having the social safety net of many people that are close to you and your family, being an independent contributor in the town's economy, etc. etc. This is how things were a few hundred years ago. Yes, there was less high tech gadgetry. There were corrupt officials, plagues, bad people. There will always be some element of this.

I really get the sense that so much of the first world's unhappiness right now is due to compartmentalising (the containerising if you like) of our lives. The solution to burnout at work is to create greater separation between work and home. But the problem itself is that we even need to do this. People can't live to enjoy what they do any more. You need to trade the majority of your waking hours for money you need to live. And when you do live, you're dreading returning to work and feeling burnout anyway. How depressing.

This is why the working-from-home trend that I hope COVID will kick-off is going to be a good thing. While we may still be working for the same companies, having a tighter integration between work and home is actually good for our mental health. Issues will be resolved faster. Nobody wants to be constantly angry in their own home. So if you're angry all the time while WFH, maybe you'll be more likely to look elsewhere. Taking breaks from work while at home is so much more refreshing. I can't think of anything more depressing that spending my lunch break in a work cafe with people I don't want to talk to, being flooded with fluorescent light, and thinking about how the rest of my working life will be spent in places like this.
> There can be unlimited number of copies of the same key.

Unlimited copies of a single point of failure remains a single point of failure.

> ... 47.5% of savings over 100 000 EUR were seized by the government. A 200 000 EUR deposit became a 152 500 EUR deposit overnight.

I should say that Cypriot haircut is nothing compared to how far all the cryptos have fallen in the last 3 years. Nothing. [1] If you got in over the last few years a Cypriot haircut would look downright luxurious. Speaking of wheelbarrows full of garbage, how do you think Zcash and Iota holders feel? Think they're glad they invested in "secure money"? Or are we just going to blame them for picking the wrong crypto?

> As to the exchanges - they a are a mirror image of traditional bank accounts (deposit money and hope it doesn't vanish) and should be avoided as much as possible. One of the aims of cryptocurrencies is getting rid of such blind trust based relationships and replace them with cryptographically secured ones that are bound to well-established rules that cannot be arbitrarily changed.

They are not. Traditional bank accounts are insured by the government which is also the sole issuer of the currency. To the extent the government remains functional your cash is secure, safe and insured.

If the government fails, your bitcoin won't help you either.

[1] athcoinindex.com
US projects 200k new Covid-19 cases per day, 3k daily deaths by June
All hail Apple, Google the kings of the apps. Welcome to a world where:

-everyone else must be worse.
"Evolution", evolution takes multiple generations, we won't "evolve" to deal with that anytime soon. There's no reason it will be less of a killer for people that get infected. What we can do is as you say, for now, learn to live with it, and hope for a vaccine.
Also Docker, and Kubernetes.

It really goes to show that you can write good software in any language/framework you're comfortable in. PHP powers Facebook, wikipedia, and Slack for instance and it gets tons of hate on HN.

I'm mostly a C#/Typescript/Python guy .. but good software is good software!
I agree there's no real need to use PoW this way.

But this could be interesting as a sybil-resistant voting mechanism. It could be helpful for experiments in quadratic voting, liquid democracy, etc.

As you point out it's not perfect, which is why I used the word "experiment," but it's a step forward at least.
A 1997 book by Neil Howe predicted a major catastrophe in America before 2025
I believe everything I read. This is still true. This is not a lie.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coro...

SCMP is itself source refer to a third party source. Caixin had a deleted report with about the same message. A few other apparently refer to the same blurry pics with a document saying something about SARS that were going around in Wechat groups in first week of January.

The first "something is going on" signal I remember was an article on aboluowang in the last week of December, where they cite a report of major mobilisation in provincial governments, and preparation for "medical emergency" starting first days of December.
ZzFX – Zoundboard Demo – A Tiny JavaScript Sound Effect Engine
It's good for rough pathology of certain infectious diseases and fluid and tissue conditions. Also, you're throwing around a strawman about fixed costs that are amortized in volume. Plus, robotic manufacturing and packing can produce these in massive quantities that drive the net unit costs down.

I've played with similar microscope prototypes IRL and they were quite impressive for something seemingly primitive at first, they were quite usable and adjustable.
To be clear: Sage thinks it will work, but we're not told who is on Sage not which of them think this will work.

For all we know this is Cummings not understanding any of the science.
Just noting: You have a very singular submission history, all very China-centered/positive.

Edit: And you have like 2 comments in total that are not about China. And those two were your first two comments.

Seriously? That is a shoddy job.
Thanks -- honestly, the website was the least of my concerns up to this point, but it'll get more attention now that the software is actually released.
https://tidbits.com/1994/09/26/preliminary-practical-primer-...
I'm not missing anything

I think you are missing something or perhaps you're interpreting this in a very pedantic fashion.

If you actually use the tool and ask it to export a 1-bit image you'll get a png file. If you zoom in after opening that png file in a editor like Affinity Photo or GIMP, you'll see exactly what the editor describes -- simple pixels that are either black or white.

The argument seems to be that it's not a 1-bit editor because it doesn't have a 1:1 representation between the individual "pixels" in the editor and the output.

However, I would argue it is a 1-bit editor because that's the final output -- a 1-bit image.

The fact that it maps each of the 16 'colors' to a 1-bit dithering pattern seems like an innovative way to provide 1-bit results.
Blue Ocean’s Value Innovation
> "Say you were searching for information on hats," theorizes Jaron Lanier, computer scientist, musical composer, and virtual reality pioneer, "and you saw a link about hats, but when you got to it, it was actually a weird pornography site about hat fetishes. Then it turns out there's a record that you visited this site, and now you're getting bombarded with offers from people with hat fetishes. Furthermore, your friends are being contacted in case they have hat fetishes. All of a sudden you're the hat fetish person in your social circle, and you have to go in and undo it."

This is charmingly naive. He thought you could undo targeting and social networking snafus!

If only we could replace all the Internet propagandists and seo content shovelers with hat fetish people.

That would be objectively better, right? I don’t even really like hats, but I’d be OK with it.
Talk is cheap. Have vegetarians converted a lot of people to give up meat?

No, you need viable alternatives for people to switch. Like the Impossible Burger and so on. Until then talking won’t change anything. Not even Snowden level revelations would change it. Sure you can try to use government to fight government. Or... just build the alternative.

We built the Web. We killed AOL MSN and Compuserve.

Build open source, end to end encrypted, self healing and rebalancing networks that use a version of Kademlia DHT that removes IP addresses from each hop. And also run consensus in small groups about stuff.

That’s the future right there. Trouble is, we are only seeing its infancy. I can think of about 2-3 projects that are pulling it off. And they have been working for years.

PS: When this happens, user accounts and quotas will be replaced with crypto, and centralized servers and databases will be only by opt in. They wouldn’t automatically be a thing just because they provide the infrastructure. Infra should become completely commoditized.

PPS: But. You’ll have to worry massivelu about botnets, sybil attacks and massive disinfo campaigns and reputationao attacks by sleeper AI bots. “Fun” times ahead ...
Ah, I knew I recognized that username!

Thanks Andrew ;)

How'd your thesis defense go? Wish I could have... ya know... been there.
I've also wondered about the end game and so far concluded that most societies (including the US) would go the vaccine route (which confers herd immunity) as opposed to natural immunity (what I think you mean by "herd immunity"), but I would love to hear what you think.

The reason why I doubt the end game is herd immunity via natural infection is:

* millions would die

* health systems would get crushed

* the virus is unlikely to disappear entirely, so would simmer around the world, triggering epidemics every few years or so.

What do you think?
3. It's worth considering that governments may or are likely to have people within these big firms.

Also, Google and Apple where part of PRISM. So there is a history of cooperation.
I can verify that, from an outsider's perspective, this is indistinguishable from just scooping up everything and saying "trust us, we care about your privacy".
And there are vastly more people infected with them, especially in Dec/Jan. I'm so tired of hearing people's big flu story at this point.
That's assuming that your house have grounded sockets. My house does not and most of old houses in my country are the same, only new houses have ground.
Interesting that Sun burning coal age is well under billion years, while white dwarfs - which don't have corresponding reactions supporting the light emission - can live a trillion years.
> These jobs are not intended to be long term employment where a person would support a family on

There's no intention provided by these jobs - I'm not sure where that would actually come up. 50% of fast food workers have more than one job. That alone indicates that at least half of those workers aren't dependent on another person. Average fast food worker is 29, 50% are over 25. 26% of fast food workers are parents with children.

I just wanted to say that to establish that there are many people who work fast food jobs that depend on it to live. Given that - and that there is no functional safety net to prevent someone from becoming homeless were they to lose their income, and that the minimum wage isn't a living wage, I'm advocating for it to pay a living wage. Its sort of strange to me that people prioritize the needs of dependents and children over unskilled people who are working as much as possible to keep a roof over their head.

If you need to work 2 jobs to make rent, you are not spending much time at all gaining skills to get a better paying "real" job, assuming they're available at all. You're trapped. A living wage would allow people to actually have the time to develop skills rather than trapping them in subsistence poverty. Because one person in 5 doesn't need the money, the other 4 should suffer? Should they not be treated for a flu that could kill them? Does their life have any value at all?

And if that means robots are suddenly economical? Why are they not economical elsewhere, where workers are paid a living wage? https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/business/international/li...

> Fast food will always be the lowest paid job in the economy and the idea that work is entitled to a high wage simply because it exists

I'm not making this argument. It is not a high wage, by any first world measure. That most people making that wage are both below the poverty line and get food stamps tells you its not a high wage.

Now, is it most efficient for the economy to be flooded with no-skill workers? Probably not, if there's some sort of floor on human dignity. In any system there will be leeches, people who game a system, etc. I'm concerned about them, but we should start by tracking actual outcomes. This is one of the reasons why the US is one of the least socially/economically mobile countries in the first world. We're closer to Russia than we are to the UK.
I dunno, I also said we were in Palo Alto and that her car was pearl colored- why didn't you choose to question me about those descriptors? Your pointed question seems odd, and seems to be implying something so if you have a point, why don't you come right out and make it?
My experience is limited, but what you're listing above to me sounds an awful lot like some fundamental issues with capitalism and not fundamental issues with technology. I can't speak to the rise and fall of your company, but I can speak with some confidence on your experience at a Tech Giant(tm) and a unicorn startup, having some experience with both and certainly many friends who work at both types of company.

Any Tech Giant office is going to be an absolutely miserable working environment. I had one interview with a larger company and I was struck by how openly bored my interviewers were. Obviously, YMMV and some places may be better than others. But having enough friends, even newly minted college graduates with a "six figs or bust", burn out after 6 months in a development role, it was enough to pretty much convince me to avoid them forever.

Furthermore, the "unicorn" startup is going to be extremely similar to a tech giant but with more desperation. You're joining a team of people who, in all likelihood, have very little attachment to the product and have read a few HN articles about how this is going to be the next big thing. Plus you have the young, fratty egos in play. A lot of these places are going to cover up the fact that it actually sucks to work there with "hey free keg at lunch!! haha don't have more than four ;)"

This might be too hot of a take for HN, but there is, in fact, NO job that you can work at and be valued as a person. You're appreciated for whatever value you bring into the company, but don't fool yourself into thinking that there is anything but a monetary string tying you together. You're not looking at anything wrong, you don't need an attitude shift, the system is broken from the ground up and we're forced to be participants, otherwise we won't make rent.

Find something you don't mind doing; I'd recommend looking at smaller companies with leaders who worked a long time at larger companies. In all likelihood, these companies were founded after the leaders experienced something similar to what you did. But it is your birthright as an American (citizen at least) to be perpetually unfulfilled.
There are employees that work for the money. They are not your friends outside of work. They would rather get a promotion or a slightly better paying job than dream of starting their own company. They are not passionate about the project, and will not answer emails or call after hours. They are always the first to leave for lunch, and the first to clock out for the day.

They are suckers. Wait til they realize that they wasted their time building someone else's wealth instead of their own.

That's the sales pitch. That's what I believed when I joined the world of technology. And I felt sorry for them. I have the impression that you felt that at some point. No one else has your passion. I was lucky that reality quickly came to slap me on the face.

I co-founded a company with 4 other people and we were living the life. We were featured in techcrunch, investors lined up to throw money at us, we had a celebrity hanging with us. The paparazzi were never too far. But then, we worked together.

I realized I couldn't work with the CEO. Every other word he used was Hunger, passion, success, haters. I dropped those words from my vocabulary. He believed what I believe to the extreme. It was unpleasant to see it with my own eyes.

When our finances met reality, the clashes begun. I paid our office rent for a little while until I saw that it was in vain. Rather than go through my savings, I asked everyone to get a job until we can weather this downturn. Two people did. The other two threw my own words back at me. I lacked the passion and hunger for being in a start up. I stopped paying rent.

Long story short, it's been 2 years since the landlord changed the locks in the office and the CTO, who was secretly living there, has been kicked out. He has been homeless ever since. He has all the talent in the world, but he would not get a job and sit next to those suckers again.

Completely buying into the startup story does more harm then good. The first thing to remember is that when you have your own company, you'll have to hire employees. And no one can have the "passion" of the founders. The second thing, is that thinking that employees are suckers, gives you mentality of superiority. You feel above others, and end up being an unpleasant person to work with.

There is nothing wrong with being an employee who gets paid to solve a problem. In fact, it's the most important thing in a company. An employee that solves problems then disappears until the next day.
> you need to take into account that the CFR would be higher if the healthcare system were overwhelmed with patients

This is the narrative we keep getting fed over and over again, but it doesn't seem to be working out. There are a lot of people who were afraid to go to doctors for minor issues, a lot of important surgeries canceled for being elective, etc. On top of that, 80% of people who need a ventilator who are older or have other health issues, will die on them[0]. For the younger patients, it's almost a coin toss.

Some hospital systems are overwhelmed, but some are totally empty. Treating a region as large as the US as one unified geographical region, even with our unrestricted travel, didn't seem sound.

The devastation to peoples jobs, lives, savings, homes .. everything ... we keep saying Lives > Economy, but unless our leaders address how to deal with reconstruction (no one seems to be talking about this), there could be a lot of consequences worse than covid down the line.

0: https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200422/most-covid-19-patie...
Not so much "clutching at the assumption" as saying "that sounds very unlikely given the genetic tracing we have so far showing the path of the virus".
Do you think Chinese politicians are superhuman who know things before anyone report on them?

Xi Jinping had no problem locking down cities after he learned the severity of it. It's ludicrous to think he knew it in December but somehow decided it was a good idea to wait till it spread to the whole country to do it.
That's a thing that's not related to tech IMO.

You can hear a lot of young talented and passionated going deep and hard into what they love. But it seems that successful or not, there are some bits that are important in a normal life that intense personal pursuit wont provibe. Stability, belonging to a group come to mind. Even though in many jobs colleagues come and go, when you have a stable job with people you get to know, it's a plus.

I also wonder if it's not partly a personality trait. Or at least a temporary space into ones life.
I don’t really expect just to do the fun stuff at work, but modern technology seems to progressively burn me out more and more.

I was drawn to software at a time when it seemed like we had control over things. With the advent of the cloud I feel like that control keeps slipping away more and more. Kubernetes is my new nemesis. I seem to be in the minority that perceives it as unnecessarily complex for most tasks. Someone once commented here on HN that the k8s trend made them think people are trying to pretend their code doesn’t run on hardware anymore, and that really resonated with me.
SARS-CoV-2 seems to hate both dryness and humidity. It thrives in mid-range humidity, particularly the chilly but not freezing environments.

This take has held up pretty well. Look at how much more mid-range NYC is humidity-wise than the others:

https://twitter.com/JeromeRoos/status/1236733607902937089
Just one of the engines costs almost as much as a Falcon Heavy launch.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/nasa-will-pay-a-stag...
> Globally, there are 821.6 million people that are considered undernourished or starving.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269924/countries-most-af...

Sorry to be a killjoy.
If security researchers couldn't audit closed source software they would be pretty rubbish at their jobs. It's a lot easier to audit open source of course, but researchers do reverse engineer closed source stuff all the time.
Not a conspiracy, WHO says it has happened before.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC416634/
PrivacyTools Relisting Startpage
Can someone please explain to me how a “libertarian” like Peter Thiel could start and run one of the most anti libertarian companies? What are his beliefs, exactly?

I mean besides “zero to one” and “competition is for losers, build a monopoly”?

I wonder how much effect he had on Zuck early on. He was the first big check in. Seems it was a great match there.
What happened in 2012/13 that ended this?
Kers and PyTorch
ML platform generates novel Covid-19 antibody sequences for experimental testing
Read the article, please. Author said nice things about his workplace & its leadership (AWS). But he could not bear to see unfair treatment and so he quit.
It's rare that I can read this. I used to be equating my work to my soul. And it hurts badly when you're not surrounded with people in a similar mindset.
> No, the 4% was based on academic papers and epidimeoligists

The figure was actually 3.4% and it was just the dumb fatality-divided-by-cases estimate. IMO they failed to convey the uncertainty in this estimate.

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-who-di...

> Well no, general travel restrictions and reductions, and travel bans instituted by areas under outbreak are both within the WHO policy.

The point is that it is obvious that a pandemic is prevented by restricting all travel. The economic damages of a late lockdown are extraordinarily higher than a few weeks of travel restrictions. It was extremely predictable what was going to happen and the WHO somehow did not act swiftly. This YouTuber's videos were much more informative than most info from the WHO and made much more accurate predictions which is extremely weird to me.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Campbellteaching/videos

> Yes, and if you read into the underlying papers, not just the headlines the reasons they recommend this are to prevent shortages and because it's easy to mishandle masks.

I've cited the raw source, not a "headline". The point is it was an outright lie which decreased trust in the institution as someone at the NYT also noted. Arguably, a much better lie would have been that DIY masks are just as effective as professional masks.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-...

> By who? Some people believe China wasn't forthcoming with evidence, sure. That's possibly true.

Yeah, it's highly likely the case.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/07/c...