skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I get this argument. It has strong intuitive and emotional appeal. The problem is that it ignores all the environmental factors that make poor life choices particularly punishing for the poor.

Certainly, there are some individuals that can overcome hardships while coming from any background - but these are rare. The more typical case is someone who will make some good choices and some bad choices. If that individual comes from a well-off background, the poor choices (e.g. kids early) can be papered over while the good choices can be better leveraged through access to more opportunities.

For someone from a less well-off background each mistake can be very costly. Have kids too early and you are unlikely to be able to support the kids while working and paying for college. Opportunities are harder to seize as well - living paycheque to paycheque would make it hard to pick up and move to SF to found a startup for example.

I'm not saying it's impossible to escape poverty without help - as I said, a dedicated individual can most certainly do it. From a statistical point of view, however, poverty will beget more poverty because the average poor person will not have enough second chances to make it out. If we want society to improve, we MUST provide a way for the average poor person to get past some of their mistakes. Yes, it looks like undeserved handouts, but I think it's the right thing to do.

P.S. Don't get me started on education. This is the single best thing we can do to help kids escape their background and we continuously underfund and mismanage it. It's fucking criminal.
I don't have any suggestions, but I'm not sure you want to figure it out by hand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem
Listered is actually my website. And the whole point is that it stores data as objects. You make up with a list consists of by defining the properties of the items in the list and then always enter data in that list according to that blueprint.

I never heard of thingist till now but it seems like its lists of text?
The Ive thing is / was apparently about wanting to move back the UK and have his children educated here rather than work.

I'm guessing that he's set for life financially and that he'd basically have his pick of jobs or freelance work so while it might not be Apple, he's going to do fine.

But a recent newspaper article (it was the Daily Mail so I use the term newspaper loosely) said he wasn't looking to move back here and there was no truth to the rumour. No idea what their source but probably about as reliable / unreliable as the source of the original rumour which was pretty speculative to say the least.
"The author confuses linear distributions with exponential ones, comparing them as stacked bar graphs without suitable differentiation of axis."

Could you elaborate? By the way, the graph is taken from the original paper (click the details link below the graph).
Also would like to add Google releasing an open source Bitcoin client:

Article: http://www.cio.com.au/article/380396/google_releases_open_so...

Google code:http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/

Bitcoin technical lead Gavin Andresen: http://www.cio.com.au/article/380394/open_source_identity_bi...
Samsung wants to answer "yes" to every possible tablet size need, Samsung chief strategy officer Omar Khan said.

What are the guidelines (or general practice) for creating apps that scale across so many sizes?

My understanding is that Android apps tend to scale well across minor screen size/pixel density/aspect ratio variations, which is good, but I also note that most universal iOS apps have substantially different layouts between their iPhone and iPad versions: not just differing sizes but a very different arrangement of controls and even substantially differing functionality and interaction paradigms... for example, iPhone apps tend to be much more about drilling down into a hierarchy while iPad apps are "flatter".

Is there a guideline regarding where to make that cutoff? In a world of 3.5" and 9.7" screens being the only two options, it's easy to know which device gets the "little" layout and which gets the "big" one... but what sort of layouts should an app give 5", 7", and 12" tablets?
Offer HN: SEO Help, Advice
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> various online communities I'm a part of

Personally, I found out about your book yesterday, after reading your comment about videos without captions in the code school thread.
All media? No, I don't think so. Books, films, music, games, the list goes on. In fact it is only a quite small subset of media that have been able to successfully fund themselves through media.
Do you mean Chris Espinosa? He isn't working on Xcode.
Thank you Lucinda, I hope things go well for you!

From what rexreed says, it looks like we may not have taken the easiest route here, but I hope it provides some insight.
This depends on what sorts of networking events you're attending. Thinking about it, my networking events fall into four categories:

1) Target Market. Where I'm meeting with people in my target market, and other companies who serve my target market.

2) Recruiting. Not job fairs, but I recently attended a design conference in large part because I'm in the market for a full-time designer.

3) Investment. I'm not currently seeking investment, but I'll occasionally attend events with other entrepreneurs and investors, so that if I decide to raise a round there will be more people who know who I am.

4) Serendipity. Events that are simply interesting to me, and where I have no specific hopes. That said, serendipity occurs at all the events.

I try to attend one to two events per week.
Right. But you're looking at this from your perspective and not The President's perspective.

President Obama has made it clear in his criticisms that he believes the Bush administration was wrong because it didn't consult the International community. As you cited he clearly believes the International community's approval is above even that of his own congress. So in his mind going to the UN and getting a resolution is a repudiation of Bush who went without one (and in doing so snubbed the political body President Obama seems to have the most respect for)

So I'm not giving an opinion one way or the other on whether Obama's actions are in fact a repudiation of President Bush. I'm simply saying that was clearly his goal.
Oracle Ceases Development For Intel’s Itanium Chip
Heilmeier's Catechism
You really think the developer tools team doesn't have a UI designer?
I'll leave the details there up to people more knowledgeable in sports and music, but are you saying you think the system is working well when many CEOs steering their companies to destruction yield massive guaranteed compensation packages that are totally disconnected from performance?

I'm all for paying people whatever it takes, even if that means some people make previously insane sums of money. But they should have to make their company MORE profitable, not less.
If there's a huge amount of pageviews, the delay is even longer than 24 hours in GA. For one of my sites, the numbers keep going up until more than 24 hours after that day ended. This is annoying because the interface does show the day as being completely processed (i.e. it includes the day by default when you open up the reports).
I really like the unlocked door analogy, but there seems to be some kind of disconnect in everyone's mind when it comes to "online" crimes.

Door locks are extremely "exploitable", but if a 16 year old were to use a bump key to gain access to PHPFog's corporate office and vandalize the place, all of the sudden it's a much bigger deal.

I have a theory that it has to do with familiarity and empathy. Door locks are a pretty standard solution. We all have them on our homes, and we think to ourselves, "I've done a reasonable job of securing my home." When someone's home/office is broken in to, we can easily identify with them. We look at the scenario and realize that we could easily suffer the same. We empathize with them.

Move the playing field to the Internet and all of the sudden everyone is expected to have Fort Knox level security. When someone's infrastructure is compromised, everyone stands atop the high hill, looking down on the drowning masses as the tide comes in, but the reality is that we're all vulnerable at some point.

A startup could easily spend as much on security as they do developing their core product. Why? As a startup, I'm not going to invest in double-reinforced steel doors, bullet proof glass windows, armed guards, and a centralized vault. That's wasted money in my view, because I have a reasonable expectation that people will act with civility. If someone does break in, I'm insured, and I will report the crime to authorities who will investigate. If the criminal is caught, there are real penalties, and they'll carry the stigma of having to check "YES" next to the "Have you ever been convicted of a felony" on their job applications.

I'm not saying we should try these kids as adults, but when I was 14, some kids who shared a bus stop with me broke in to a house near our bus stop and trashed the place. They got caught and suffered some severe penalties. It was a valuable lesson for everyone involved. A couple of the kids were from really bad homes and suffered from greater influences than the threat of the law, but the other two turned their act around really quickly. Had they gotten away with it, or had the attitude been "they're just kids", I'm not sure they would have realized the impact of the crimes they committed. I think we need more of this balance in our views of internet crimes.
as an update, he got his laptop back (thief turned it in, perhaps because he knew he was caught). because he now has 2 airs, he's going to auction off the original and donate proceeds to japan efforts.
They've need to do it to reach version number parity with IE and Chrome.

9 and 11 > 4.
Startup vs. Company
Thanks (sheepish grin)!
For cryin' out loud, I've got to get my act together and learn Mac/iOS development.
I had a long comment to the parent but yours was more eloquent. There will be people who game the system re: "handouts" but that's the price you pay. The health care system in the US is horrendous, too.
"The thief has since returned the laptop, in hopes of clemency in the form of the YouTube video being pulled. Bao has indicated, though, that he's not interested in cutting a deal. Instead, he's content using backup service Backblaze—which syncs changes made to the laptop in the cloud—to find access the guy's Facebook page, dig up PhotoBooth pictures he took, and generally let him stew in his internet humiliation for a while."
- http://gizmodo.com/#!5784633/laptop-thiefs-ridiculous-dance-...

Now he's just turned it into a plug for his startup. Smart guy.
Care to do a write-up of your setup, the decisions you made, and your recommendations (which services you ended up using)?

It would be pretty valuable, to me at least.
And then go to jail for even a longer time. I don't doubt that it could happen, but it would be a pretty stupid plan.
I'd be interested to hear him speak about how product-focused development affects engineering decisions.
It probably violates wiretap law to knowingly tape this guy, even on a stolen laptop.
MacRuby for the Desktop: Seven Reasons
I'd like to read about your experiences. Do you have a blog?

I'd like to see more posts on HN about small lifestyle businesses (which I define as "generates enough money to comfortably support the owner's desired lifestyle") since it's the path I'm aiming for myself.
Excellent advice from the guys at PlayNice.ly.
Considering that flashing your headlights to warn oncoming motorists of speed traps has been ruled by at least one court to be speech protected by the First Amendment, you have to think that an app like this would too.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1493749

If Congress or a state legislature tries to ban these apps, I think the laws will probably get overturned. However, if Apple decides that they think these apps are in poor taste and shouldn't be part of their ecosystem, I'm fine with that. They've blocked apps that are far less offensive to me.

The other interesting question is liability. If a driver were to use one of these apps to circumvent a DUI checkpoint and then kill or injure someone in a car accident, I wonder if the app maker (or Apple?) would bear some liability. I don't think that free speech would offer much protection in this kind of case.
Ask HN: Returning faulty hard drive with sensitive data, would you?
I have a hard drive loaded with sensitive data that has failed. It is within it's warranty period and made by a very well known manufacturer. The problem is, do I send it back for a replacement and trust the drive in their hands? Even if the drive is inaccessible to me, I'm sure at least some data could be retrieved by them.

Any insight from anyone that has been in this situation before would be appreciated.
It doesn't necessarily have to be fastest, anything that can put all the points on one map is fine.
I will say this about Bertrand -- the guy works all the time. It's become a running joke with my wife... Every single time we go out to dinner & coffee in downtown Palo Alto, we wonder which coffee shop we'll see him in, working away on his laptop.
Thanks.

I think rexreed's comment may reflect the difference between the US and UK systems. We want this set up within a month though so I'll see how quickly we can do it!
So Caron talks about the top 10% which is fine, but I think the really interesting numbers are higher in the distribution.

Top: 1%: In 2004, the top 1% controlled 50.3% of the financial assets while the bottom 90% only held 14.4% of the total US financial assets.

([6] at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_in_the_United_States)

The Forbes 400 would be the top 0.00013%.
They own 1.54 trillion in assets.
The US M2 Money Supply is only 8.36 Trillion dollars.

It's also been suggested that the general population are optimists about this situation.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/more-on-...
Yeah. My [utterly speculative, outsider] feeling is that Ive wants to leave Apple to pursue other things about as much as Jobs does. The only thing I'd imagine could outweigh that would be family considerations.
Oh heck yeah. We at HN are immersed in tech. Our experience is with companies whose core domain is tech and take things like source control for granted. But what about your local gym or sports franchise or restaurant chain or newspaper? There are millions of companies that don't have any kind of technical director or direction. Where some manager thought it would be a good idea to have a web site, and hired a programmer who's measured on how fast he can throw it together. What's a testing server? Heck, what's a server?
For starters:

1) Who is the offer from? What are their credentials? Are they a (well)known /trustworthy entity, with some sort of track record?

2) If not, it could be a 'ploy' from a competitor at worst, or a frivolous offer.

3) In any case, consult a (competent) lawyer with relevant experience before disclosing any proprietary information (that could not be otherwise available) to them.

-HTH
I find having something like a Tiling Windows Manager and some custom keyboard mapping helps tremendously when coding on a laptop. Rarely do I have to use the trackpad, though it doesn't help the constrained keyboard and screen size.
I didn't dig deep into the story, but I'm guessing that a guy who records himself dancing around like a jackass probably doesn't have too many job interviews - and the ones he does have are probably not with people who read about news items like this.
I went to MIT without a high school diploma (and a few years early); I got a great score on the SAT standardized test, good recommendations from a couple of HS teachers, MIT summer camp grad student/professor instructors, and a hacker job I'd had (via the Internet).

I don't think HS is actually a major factor in the MIT undergraduate admissions decision if you have a plausible reason for wanting to skip it.
Samsung Unveils Thinnest Galaxy Tabs 8.9, 10.1 | Tricks Window
A Young Employee’s Guide to Being Awesome
> see who has the last "lulz"

My bet would be "the one who isn't in prison".
I've heard all the horror stories about PayPal and they probably do deserve the bad rep they get, but I've never had one issue with them. I've had business accounts setup within 48 hours with website payment pro with no problems, no faxes, no further proof of identification. I'm guessing a lot of this has to do with geography. We're in Canada and maybe PayPal deems us Canadians low risk? But I find once you give them your bank account details and you confirm it with them (they deposit two small charges to your account) then you're in and they have no problems with you.

But alternatives are always nice and glad too see PlayNice.ly being able to get things up & running.
This obsession with 'backing' demonstrates a gross failure to understand the subjective theory of value.

What backs gold??? Nothing other than the subjective valuations of individuals. The same is true of fiat currencies, except here individual subjective valuations concern matters such as 'not getting arrested' or 'not getting shot.'

Bitcoin is a technologic, cryptographically-rooted, informational commodity. It has unique, desirable properties inherent to its design and structure. Individuals subjectively value these properties. Their reasons and value scales differ, but the simple fact that people are already trading Bitcoins proves that it is subjectively valued.

You talk about 'confidence crises.' This is unique historically only to fiat currencies (and paper currencies built fractionally on commodities like gold). The subjective valuation of fiat currencies is derived from political considerations. As such, confidence in them is built on the ever-shifting sands of political perceptions.

When was the last confidence crisis in gold? There hasn't been one. People value gold for its physical properties defined by the laws of nature. Those properties do not change and individuals have continued to subjectively value them.

The same is true of Bitcoin. Its properties are rooted in our present understanding of cryptographic principles. As long as individuals continue to value properties such as anonymity, decentralization, finite supply, low transaction fees, ease of digital manipulation, ability to integrate smart contracts, etc... we have no reason to expect a 'confidence crisis.'

This will be true as long as the cryptographic logic buttressing the system remains sound – just like the laws of physics underlie the desired properties of gold. Breaking this cryptographic logic (akin to cheap transmutation of lead into gold) would require breakthrough advancements of our knowledge of cryptography and discoveries on hitherto unsolved mathematical problems. But even in this case, the open-source nature of Bitcoin allows it to evolve new cryptographic implementations that would avoid such problems.
The idea that every test should cover only one code change is absurd and a recipe for writing way more code than necessary. More code is more brittle and more difficult to change agile-y. Write enough tests to ensure things work, not to ensure every line of code is where you put it. That's folly and a waste of resources.
You have too much time. By the way, define "vacuous". My first "+1" was frugal, never "vacuous". HN doesn't deserve me to share my nuclear knowledge anymore, after all this "superuser rage".

My comment was "frugal". But good. Definition of frugal: "Economical in the use or appropriation of resources; not wasteful or lavish; wise in the expenditure or application of force, materials, time, etc.; characterised by frugality; sparing; economical; saving; as, a frugal housekeeper; frugal of time."

So here it ends my last comment on HN.
Should you go to SXSW?
It's annoying when the laptop keyboard lacks some keys you are used to, e.g. the Windows key or the Windows popup-menu key. You can bring up the Windows popup-menu by pressing Shift-F10, though.

Mouse vs. trackpad is an important point. In my experience, a TrackPoint is more usable than a touchpad (trackpad). So be glad when your laptop has got one.
The difference there is that in your scenario income inequality would appear "fair" to most people. The problem with what we see around us is that it appears very unfair. This is where the real problem is.

Some people might want to dismiss the idea that things should be or seem fair, but this ignores the fact that fairness is a very important attribute of economic stability. The more unfair the system seems the more unstable it will be in the long term. Social unrest is detrimental to an economy.
Firefox 4 blows away Internet Explorer 9 with first day downloads
Microsoft: IE9's web privacy hole? A feature, not a bug
I'm looking for a good and reasonably-priced lawyer in the San Diego area to help us with software IP for a startup.
No, you can make your own class based views with the 1.3 codebase. The docs describe them as replacing Generic Views, but nothing stops you from creating your own class hierarchy that inherits from the base TemplateView (http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/ref/class-based-views/#...)
hey, I'd like to play around with them if you have some to spare! 18CsFA1WJh4zCMTPWoNcwmzfod9vrdZkNS
Keanu Reeves sees Matrix 4 and 5 on horizon
Criminals aren't usually known for their intelligence and foresight and by definition they don't operate under the same code of ethics as most people. I imagine also in some circles your first trip to the joint is a rite of passage. So unless you know who you are dealing with it makes sense to take a cautious approach to any response to criminal behavior you make on your own.
New Car Tech from Ford: MuCell Micro Bubbles
I think this article title correctly summarizes the story. I don't think it is ment to be sensationalist.
What's behind Groupon COO Rob Solomon's abrupt exit?
Stock in a company is equity. You own a slice of the company. If the company pays dividends, you are entitled to a portion of its future earnings.
Are you asking for the shortest route that covers all the locations you want to visit? If so, it is computationally very hard to deal with 100+ locations and come up with an exact solution. This is known as the Traveling Salesman (err. Salesperson?) Problem and it is NP complete. There do exist some heuristics-based algorithms that may be faster but don't give the exact solution.
I noticed this too. It's not a perfect fit, but it's close.
Gemvara Locks Up $15M from Balderton Capital; Bringing Total to $26M [video]
I would agree that we mismanage education, but not that we underfund it. We spend more per student on public education than we ever have (http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66).
I think he pretty much has in his post already.

Feefighters,
Recurly,
Authorize.net,
Amex
Television and expanded marketing opportunities, for athletes.

I suspect that musicians are earning less than they did a decade or two ago. There's no way for a Michael Jackson to sell a Thriller album in today's fragmented, digital marketplace.
Milton Friedman - The Robin Hood Myth
Not at all. A stock represents a share of a company's earnings, which has real fundamental value. There are bubbles and random swings, but at the end of the day, a stock is worth something like the present value of future dividends. (Even for a non-dividend-paying stock - the idea being that eventually the company will mature and start paying a dividend.)
Well done. Great concept. I see this being very useful for Teams.
Then you should get one. Unicomp sells them, using the old IBM designs.

http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/