skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Even if they don't personally use languages that require this knowledge on a regular basis, the idea that someone could come through a CS education and not know it is pretty stunning.
I think he's trying to argue that there's something more basic at work here where there's a fundamental value to computing science that is finally being realized by the world, and any drops will not be due to lack of interest in computing science, nor a dip in high-tech industries.

Not that I agree with him.
I've been using the Play framework in my classes when I need to work in groups of students who only know Java and do not know the web and it has been great!

Its quick and easy to get started on and stays out of your way most of the time. Luckily it has a 'eclipse mode' otherwise I think that would have never been a reality.
After having chosen Play! for two enterprise projects requiring roughly 1-2 developer years of work, I couldn't be happier with the decision.

Play! is by far the best web framework I've ever seen for Java.

It is as hot as node.js and socket.io combined! I can't really recommend it highly enough.

======

Strong points:

* A life-changingly fast edit-test loop. (Faster than Django!)

- Excellent beaning for form parameters (no longer have to mess around with Integer.parseInt(getParameter("objectId")))

- Libraries that obviate the crufty old ones, e.g. instead of Apache WebClient, just use WS.url("google.com ").get(). It has OAuth, Emailers, etc.

- Support for new technologies, e.g. WebSockets

- Support for non-blocking IO in imperative-looking code. (e.g. you can "waitFor()" a Future, which will cause Play! to suspend your request until the Future is ready, reusing your Thread for another request, and resume where you left off)

- Much better interceptor model than J2EE (can apply interceptors to your entire class, to individual methods by annotating, e.g. @Before, @After, @Finally)

- A routes file instead of web.xml

- Large selection of community modules to do everything from rendering your template as PDF to inlining CoffeeScript in your page.

- A framework for running scheduled jobs and for triggering asynchronous jobs from web requests.

======

Weak points:

- The default Groovy templates are powerful, but notoriously slow. The template system is supposed to be pluggable, but I haven't yet found a templating technology that feels perfect.

- The heavy use of reflection and bytecode manipulation is what makes things so convenient, but I can also imagine it being a turn-off for some.

- The Play! codebase is very light on comments.

======

Give it a shot if you haven't already.

- Play! Fanboi
Finding a Co-Founder
You're using a comparison between an each method that takes a callback and for loop--that's a pretty weak comparison to draw as the implications are well-known. Moreover, in two of the 3 cases, they're library methods that aren't part of the Javascript language so the concept is a bit disingenuous. In this case, you're comparing two different types of syntactic sugar and saying that one produces better code than the other--far from making a case that for something more complicated than a single for loop, CS can produce higher quality code than an engineer writing javascript.
Officially SCSS is the "primary syntax" and SASS merely the "old syntax that is still supported".

I never understood the rationale behind this decision (does anyone prefer SCSS over SASS?), but who cares as long as SASS remains a first-class citizen.
I've been doing Ruby for a long time, and back when the mailing list's signal to noise ratio was better, I used to read it daily, so I've been reading Zed's flames for a while. ("The Chainsaw Logger Infanticide Maneuver" was a pretty great one; I still show it and the resulting thread to people.)

I can say with a fair amount of confidence that Zed's fully aware of this effect, and is doing what he does intentionally. He has informative content, but also knows how to push precisely the right buttons. It's often entertaining, but the abasive style is also a brilliant and effective form of self-promotion. (Think Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh.) He knows precisely what buttons to push to get a reaction, and (as far as I can tell) enjoys himself immensely. It's great to watch if you like to see flames written to people that take themselves too seriously.

So I don't think you're telling him anything new here. If you sit down at a table and don't know who the sucker is...
You can make the same argument for "forcing" them to learn JavaScript, HTML and CSS—which would be a similarly silly argument to make.
Remember Mixwit? Where Are They Now?
Glad you liked that. It was fun to write.
This is why salary pools are secret. Don't share the link with your boss (or sycophantic cow-orkers) and you should be fine.
Isn't this more of a "revert changes"?
A 'random drive-by downvoter' struck again... Not much thought involved in the action, and certainly nothing to contribute to the discussion. They feel good downvoting such an obvious 'troll', and then vanish into the ether.
I am amused by this general punditry about a dual OS/dual hardware strategy. Yeah, that has just about worked out for everyone who has tried it.
Interactive development in TouchStudio
I experimented with play prior to 1.0 and loved it, but I went back to rails because I wanted access to more libraries.

Search stack overflow for java payment gateway library and you will find my as-yet unanswerred question. The java community seems much more intent on monetizing libraries and having annoying restrictions - in ruby shit is just out there.

I actually much prefer Scala as a language (although Play support was not ready then). Ruby is a dog in many ways and common practices in the ruby world are completely against my philosophy, but hey, it works and I know it.

I'd definitely recommend checking out Play and Scala.
there's simply no reason why they can't either a) parse the zip code differently based on country, or b) why country isn't listed first if there are uncrossable chasms. To do neither is simply laziness
I definitely think this is the best long term solution. I think culture is incredibly important to an organization. And, I liked the article overall.

But- there is some glossing over of technical ability. I am one to believe that the best software engineers and programmers are 10-100x better than the average. I think that is a belief shared on this site. Would I rather have a programmer who is 100x better who doesn't match the culture I want exactly, or the average programmer who does? Within reason, I think the 100x better guy.

It's easy to say I want the 100x programmer who matches the startup culture and also doesn't want to get paid a lot or take a ton of equity. But, hiring isn't that easy.
I don't really get this C Standard infatuation all of a sudden ... do what works for you.

However, from the listing of languages used at their firm ... I would have thought that they'd be testing candidates more in C# and .NET since that's what they seem to mostly use ... and then also throw stuff in some of the other languages their way to see how the candidates cope ... but thats just me.
The golden rule of CoffeeScript is: "It's just JavaScript". The code compiles one-to-one into the equivalent JS, and there is no interpretation at runtime.
http://coffeescript.org
Fair enough, but the end result is still that the "security" of the system is rather different than what most people think it is. "Just your friends see BBM" versus "Just your friends, and RIM, and the government of India, and - oh hell, let's be honest - probably any other government that asks sufficiently impolitely as well, see BBM."
Thinking recusively doesn't necessitate a mental model of the stack. See pg's comment.
I'm pretty sure DHH isn't a fan of HAML. Think he's make it clear on a 37s podcast or on Twitter in the past (tried searching but couldn't find a citation).
Thanks, and you're probably right. I just didn't want to get "well, statistically, you'll probably never be rich, so don't worry about it and move on with your life."

You are right, though, in terms of entreporn. At the same time, I feel more motivated if I think it's going to be big.
UPnP/DLNA isn't user-friendly by any definition. Nor is it developer-friendly even.

It is open though, so...
Interesting application of the technology.

Infections and acute illnesses in infants in general are scary for a number of reasons. These guys can go bad very quickly. They can't tell you if and where they hurt, so it's a little like veterinary medicine.

In training, very subtle clues like a slightly elevated heart rate or (in particular) respiratory rate didn't initially alarm me because in adults these kinds of isolated findings mean practically nothing. Very experienced peds nurses would occasionally take a look at a baby I'd just examined and wasn't worried about...and would worry. I learned quickly to trust what seemed like intuition. We'd start the wheels in motion for more vigorous intervention.

These nurses (and the docs who then benefit from their experience) were applying a lot of (sometimes unwritten, if not unconscious) heuristics in these evaluations. A system doing this rigorously, objectively, and routinely is a good application of such software.
It's only retreading old ground if the resolution is public knowledge. As mentioned elsewhere in this topic, RIM has never given any info as to what the final result of all that pressure was - I do think it's legitimate to ask essentially whether blackberry usage in those countries is compromised.
I can respect that perception but it doesn't match the reality in this case. My 50-75% estimate is probably on the conservative side. 4+ months have been spent on the site - it is functional and only requires approximately another 4 weeks worth of works to improve the UI and bug-fix.

In terms of equity: there will be no 'screwing' going on :).

Good to get that feedback though on how this posting can be misinterpreted. Thanks!
Am I the only one who would love to somehow switch the "submit" and "reset" buttons on this guy on some random website just to see what sort of anger you could incite? Imagine that blog post...
Thanks for the feedback.

Sharing is coming in the next couple weeks. What I'm planning is if you add :someones@email in the task name then that task and it's children will show up in their tasks and be editable by both people.

I'm guessing the biggest competitors are tadalist and remember the milk. Added an import feature to my todo list.
Or just as much, "Artemis yada yada", but nearly-no-one knows what Artemis is, which is built on an analytics platform called InfoSphere Stream that (like Watson) emerged from IBM research, and headlines benefit from familiarity, so...
The most sad thing there is that "Start Over" is, by Fitt's Law, a "larger" button in the sense that it's occupying an edge.

It's like a poorly designed roadway section that just happens to cause more accidents. Bad Engineering.
The way he expressed it is not perfect... but seeing other comparisons claiming the opposite (permanent branches in hg are an issue), we might need some posts like that before people notice it's just a preference.
3/4=0.75

There were 133 posts about the affirmative death spiral at lesswrong.com: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Affective_death_spiral
- You have this written 3 times on the front page: "Tasskr can send you text message or email reminders before your task is due. Set as many reminders and as often as you like for each task."

- Add a sign up button that's going to catch a persons attention, big and flashy, don't just leave it at the bottom/small print at top

- You mention a paid version - where is it and how do I know the diff between free and premium (before signing up)?

- Offer a demo +++

- Have more screenshots, make the current primary image rotate through different screenshots or something

- Link to your mobile version
You're not acting in your own best interest.

No, he misunderstood the goal of the exercise. I'd argue it's not entirely his fault, either. "What's your salary" -- asked as a general question, without further context, justifiably might not be taken that literally. (And there is no further context unless you've read the previous thread. The post here, and salaryshare.me, don't say anything that indicates this isn't a simple income poll.)

This is not a stupid or malicious user. This is a UI failure.
> It's interesting that rails is headed toward whitespace
> significance in all its file formats, yet the most apparent
> difference between ruby and it's main rival Python is that
> whitespace is not significant.

That may be the most obvious difference at first glance, but it's also the most superficial. Idiomatic Python and idiomatic Ruby will be written completely differently.
Do you operate in a demanding market? As a candidate, I'd be very skeptical of such an arrangement, assuming another company I liked equally was standing by with an offer for a real position right off the bat.
an interview is an interview, he didn't need the outburst. if he'd have skipped past it straight to the "we were singled out, we're used by..." part - I'm sure we wouldn't all be discussing it.
"X killer" goes as far back as the PC revolution, at least.

Google finds examples of Digital Research's GEM window environment being hailed as the Mac killer. This was back in 1985.

Searching for "IBM killer" finds references to the Digital VAX 9000, a failed minicomputer model that tried to beat IBM mainframes at their game.
RIM CEO calls a halt to BBC Click interview
It is not quite as big as CSS->Sass — that takes CSS from a dumb configuration language to a grown-up programming language with functions and variables. But it is a big difference, and it's not just syntactic.

First of all, I'd like to point out that syntax is not entirely irrelevant, at least not in the sense that CoffeeScript is "just a weird syntax" for JavaScript. Python decorators and list comprehensions are generally thought of as very nice features of the language, but they're really just a nice syntax for higher-order functions and iteration. That syntax makes a big difference. Just adding CoffeeScript's syntax for functions (including the do-operator) and the existential operator would noticeably reduce the size of most JavaScript code, without anything else.

But the difference isn't just syntactic. Here are a few semantic changes in CoffeeScript:

• Everything is an expression (a la Ruby)

• Equality is always strict

• A simplified class-based inheritance model on top of JavaScript's prototypal inheritance

• Switch is almost identical to Ruby's case expression rather than C's switch statement (i.e. clauses don't fall through and it's an expression rather than a statement), which makes it much more useful

I'll put it this way: I've been making websites since 1995 and am fairly proficient in JavaScript, but I have never really liked the language all that much. But CoffeeScript is a joy to use. I actually enjoy programming it, and it's just amazingly readable (both from the nicer syntax and the fact that CoffeeScript's sugar means you don't have to write as much code, and it's easier to understand five lines than 20, even if 15 of the 20 are boilerplate).
Good to see that Watson is making the transition to a useful expert system/aid-to-humans quickly; and interesting to see that David Ferrucci's and Chris Welty's comments about adapting Watson from Jeopardy use to medical use came to fruition only 2 months after they made them during a showing at RPI of the Jeopardy episodes in which Watson competed.
This might be useful - http://sahillavingia.com/blog/optimize-a-website-for-iphone-...
Would've thought the green tea is better for you.
I was a section leader for CS106A/B/X at Stanford and Eric Roberts was my undergrad adviser. I graduated in 08 and all through my 4 years, the number of students majoring in CS and taking CS106A/B/X was increasing rapidly.

Personally, I think that it's fantastic. Programming is a great skill to be exposed to even if you're not a programmer. There's no shortage of hard problems to be solved in CS and the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned.

From my experience of teaching at least 100 kids who have taken the CS106s, no one has done it for a higher salary out of college - a lot of non-CS majors take it to satisfy the Engineering GER (a requirement) and the rest take it out of interest.
That's exactly my take on these features.

Some of this functionality may be there, but the UI and UX is so horrible that there is little way to predict the output of the system.
White House White Board: Austan Goolsbee on Startup America
I think only InfoSphere is common to both applications.
Actually, yes, it is irrelevant, and yes, you don't understand. But it's not your fault. :P You're missing some context: this is a followon to a previous thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2438980

The idea isn't to see how much other hackers are making in general. The idea is to see how much companies are paying them, so that people who are being paid much less or more than they're worth can figure that out.

Granted, it's a pretty statistically silly way to go about that given the breadth of HN readership. The posts further down the thread ("PHP Programmers in Baltimore") make more sense.

Not your fault, though. UI guys like to beat up users when they screw up. Don't listen to 'em. You are giving them valuable, valuable information.
Certainly. If someone's looking for a cheap vps to tunnel through, http://www.lowendbox.com/ provides a listing of all the cheapest deals out there. While they wont provide much in the way of disk space or processing power, they're perfect for tunnels.
TechCrunch indicates that hacker got access to source code of WordPress.com VIP sites and "only" Twitter and FB API keys are leaked.

Does anybody know how WordPress.com saves MySQL passwords? Does it differ from Wordpress installations? Vanilla Wordpress installations have them among the rest of the code and thus those might have leaked too.
I think these sorts of efforts are to combat property owners who have a disregard for their community and the people who traverse their space. Neglect and decay require some intervention outside of property right systems at times.
It's a great way to "hack" your physical space.
I enjoy my share of the new agey, platitude filled narratives that 37signals has been pushing out lately. But this one seems to have been written to push as many HN audience buttons as it possibly can. Sigh...
Is Sugar Toxic?
Has any tech company used fully disclosed salaries as described in Mavrick [1][2]? It's an intriguing idea.

Mavrick describes how all salaries were publicly posted. People see exactly where they are in relation to others. Of course this created tension at first, but eventually things settled. The magic happens during hiring. An open position's salary is also public, and everyone on an interview panel naturally ranks candidates versus current employees. Is the candidate better than Joe? She better be because she'll be making more than Joe.

Has anyone heard of a tech company doing something like this?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_(book)

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Success-Behind-Unusual-Workpl...
Do your coworkers routinely sniff your network traffic?

It sounds like an awfully rude thing to do.
After a few months of CoffeeScript development I vastly prefer it to JavaScript. Jeremy, et. al., have done a beautiful job with it. I've used Sass/Less as well and believe the JavaScript/CoffeeScript divide is even more valuable.

Edit: I wrote about some of my favorite features of CoffeeScript when we added CoffeeScript support to our CMS app HiFi... http://www.gethifi.com/blog/hosted-cms-coffeescript-support

tl;dr:

1) Lightweight function declarations (with default values!)

2) Implicit Returns

3) Everything is an Expression

4) Object Literal YAML-like syntax

5) Simple, Classical OO Features (you don't have to use them and can still directly access prototypal features, too)

6) (Not in the post) Binding 'this' to the scope's 'this' using => is awesome.
I implemented play when a php app that I worked on needed access to a jar. Play made it very simple to create a rest server that called classes in the jar. I learned a lot of Java too, it was a good experience. I would recommend it to anyone, hell of a lot easier to get up and running than spring and anything dealing with tomcat.
> "change the syntax and your life will magically get better, no matter how headachey interacting with the rest of the world will become"

Life won't get better if interacting with the rest of the world becomes headachery, but thankfully the products in question aren't too hostile to rest of the world. There isn't much of an impedance mismatch between CSS and Sass and following the generated code is easy.

From what little I have written of Coffeescript, it generates clean Javascript and should be easy to follow for anyone who knows Javascript. It's not lifechanging per se but there are things which are much more elegant in Coffeescript.

1) Convenient 'this' binding using =>

2) Lexical scoping. Not much of an issue since I use the 'var' keyword all the time; either that or window.foo or something similar depending on what I am trying to do.

3) I have coded in Python and the "mandatory indentation sans braces" is something I am used to and appreciate. It makes the nested event handling calls prettier.

4) I don't need to use underscore.js while using Coffeescript. The language has some essential feature built-in.

5) The existential operator. From the docs:

"It's a little difficult to check for the existence of a variable in JavaScript. if (variable) ... comes close, but fails for zero, the empty string, and false. CoffeeScript's existential operator ? returns true unless a variable is null or undefined, which makes it analogous to Ruby's nil?"

6) String iterpolation, here docs.
It's not completely irrelevant. Having "security issues" is bad news for market share. The question wasn't asked in an isolated context - it was in the context of "bad news for market share". That's exactly why Lazaridis got emotional about it.
It looks like a lot of people are entering zero just so they can see the results of some pools.
Want to work at Flickr?
It may help that they "broadened" their requirements.

That is, before when kids showed up to get rich, they struggled through the advanced math and hated it. Now when kids show up to get rich, they expect the advanced math, but see easier/more-engaging routes through things like web, UX or media spurs.
Oddly, Blackberry is insanely cool amoung the teen crowd in the UK (well, London anyway).

Not sure why, since they have no need for business class email. BBM seems to be the main driver, even though there are plenty of altenatives on other platforms.
ActionScript Programmer Job Opening  Funny Garbage NYC
I prefer SCSS to SASS, but I like braces. I also find being a superset of regular CSS to be a plus (even though it's not something I've actually used in practice).
Paradoxical Decision-Making Explained By Quantum Theory
> Automattic had a low-level (root) break-in to several of our servers

how is root access 'low-level' ?
How did you decide what type of projects to work on (ie how did you come up with your man-rodent game / what was the inspiration)? How much time did you spend every day programming?
- Add an "Upgrade Now!" link to the top menu bar when a user is logged in

- Your upgrade page is a lot of text, too much reading. Add graphics or charts to convey your message.

- Link to a separate refund page to cut down on the clutter in upgrade

- "It is required of us to have these here but please use the contact form above instead of calling." in your contact page doesn't sound too friendly. Gotta act like you actually care about your customers and want to talk to them on a one by one basis.

Good luck
When talking about the design philosophy of Erlang, it helps to remember that it was originally implemented atop Prolog, so some of those choices may not have been intentional.
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