skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
When booed, Sheen responded, "Too bad. I already got your money."

Sheen: "What stories do you want to hear?" Everyone is yelling, booing.

Sheen: "I'm having a great time!"

Charlie Sheen is sitting on stage tweeting. Guy behind me just yelled, "I want my money back!"

Sheen: "Tell the guy next to you booing to shut the --- up so the rest of us can enjoy the show."

Sheen has lost control of the crowd. He left the stage and ordered some music. Rapper onstage now.

Crowd booed the 'Winning' video, which features Snoop Dogg, not Charlie. People are leaving. The end? Charlie didn't say goodbye!

And so ends Charlie Sheen's first live show. Wow.
My bad for not noticing this. Thanks.
The solution to the password/username problems in the Unix-like world would be to use SSH with password login disabled, just using keys. Attackers can still brute force a key, but it's a pretty unlikely scenario. If you've got SSH, then you won't need FTP or any other admin ports open. Even more secure would be to VPN directly into the data center and access your servers over the internal network only - though that's probably overkill for most purposes.

I wouldn't put too much trust into obfuscation techniques such as using non-standard portnames and URLs.

Backups are of course deadly important. There are a million things that can kill or corrupt your servers. Most of the time, you don't really need to use an online service for that. Another machine somewhere in the world capable of cron, SSH and rsync will almost always do the trick.

It is also a good idea to establish mechanisms that enable the servers to alert you of strange things going on. For example, you can set up the system to message you every time a remote login takes place. If it's you, you can discard the notification. If it's not you, you know instantly that you've got a problem.
As a quasi-average person regarding computer usage, I can tell you about the way that less tech-savvy people around me deal with their laptops, as I deal less and less with people with PCs:
If it is an older model, it tends to be a matter of "hibernate until it runs so slowly that I have to restart."
Other than that, there is always some hard-core believers that you really need to shut off completely every time you use it.
I was wrong, ruby 1.9 has callcc back since 2009, you have to `require 'continuation'` now, though.
The article assumes that people are happy to click on a link within an email from an unrecognised source, in order to cancel a fake member account. This rings all sorts of alarm bells, I would never do that.

If I got an email like that, I would click the spam button and the server would probably face regular spam blacklist issues from big providers.
I'm really intrigued by this idea... Does anyone know of anywhere that's actually tried this?
I'm still confused by this notion of startup, because reason tells me that if the business is as important as it is, then doing anything in your power to keep the money coming in is a good thing.

Is the definition of a startup going full-time into a project that is not yet profitable? Not many of us have that luxury.

Is it a product? 37 Signals did OK with Basecamp in between consulting gigs.

My solution has been to ignore the syntax and just worry about building my empire, one sale at a time, whether it comes in the form of client revenue or product sales.

I really think it's less about "startup" than it is about having a vision for yourself and the world.

Good post.
For those on FireFox, AdBlock will automatically catch clickjacking like this.
Enjoying reading the book so far, but also worth checking out, and what turned me on to it in the first place, is Freeman Dyson's review in NY Books.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/mar/10/how-we-...
This is kind of like how we discuss things like privacy concerns on Facebook here where the vast majority don't care. Sure there are real motoring enthusiasts talking about stuff where TopGear is irrelevant, but for the rest of the world, the vast majority, I don't think this is the case.
Yes I have the book at hand, but it's on Kindle, and it's somewhat painful to look up the references on a Kindle. Thanks for giving me these articles. I will read them.
They do this on the SomethingAwful forums, it's referred to as hellbanning, though I'm not sure if the term originated there: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hellban
I'm reading "The Information" right now.

Gleick's book takes a wide and multidisciplinary view of information. It traces our history through the lens of information and then turns to examine the cultural impact of Shannon's work. It's fascinating how the formalization of information just 60 years ago has so deeply impacted our world.

The prologue about Shannon's time at Bell Labs is an elegant, even beautiful, exposition of information theory's importance. As introductions go, I'd rank it up there with the introductions to Will Durant's "Story of Philosophy"[1] or Andrew Steane's "Quantum Computing" [2].

So far, at least, "The Information" hasn't dug into the technical details of information theory. That's probably fine and does not appear to be Gleick's intent.

---

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Story-Philosophy-Opinions-Greatest-Phi...

[2] http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9708022
They can't be avoided in most cases. Among a host of other reasons, there are the opt-in laws in the US & EU
http://www.lsoft.com/resources/optinlaws.asp
Wil's metaphor is brilliant and the values he describes are exactly what our industry needs to hear. I have been jumping from product to product for years, with the expectation of dump trucks arriving one day out front and unloading tons of money. I'm doing it again with my current company. We have a solid niche, strong traction and are leaders in our space, but rather than making what is good, really excellent, I'm considering jumping to the next shiny ball that may be the home run. This blog entry has caused me to reevaluate.
Indeed the number itself does not necessarily infringe copyright.

A really simple example is to imagine giving the number "N" encoding a movie in divx format to someone in the year 1995, since they have no means of converting the number to a continuous stream of video and sound (a video animation), the number is useless to them.

On the other hand, you can give them the same movie encoded in an older format (mpeg2?); this will be an entirely different number "Q" bearing almost absolutely no relationship to "N", but it will still be the same movie.

The presence of different encoding formats is a proof that copyright does not restrict what number you reproduce.

This could be kinda worse though, because it could imply that copyright restricts the distribution of ideas.
its not about /hour charge, its about the work. The work is getting done, it may take 2 hours or 6 hours. People will pay you, if you are really good at some type of development. Have a portfolio to show. Sartups are heavily funded and want to spend money, they will get tax deduction for paying freelancers, so target startups and show your work, you will get paid high bucks, startups want the work done now and are ready to pay the VC money and they know they will be getting results as expected from a guy how charges ridiculously high rate.
I was the cofounder at CEO of SiteAdvisor before it was acquired by McAfee in 2006. I haven't had control over it since then and left McAfee 4 years ago but my sense is that they are trying to rate sites correctly but just understaffed/underfunded. I read the reddit article but couldn't find the URL in question. When I was running SiteAdvisor we made mistakes but were also accused of being a scam by the biggest spyware distributors etc who hated the fact that we were calling them out. So I think it's important to take it case by case.
Doesn't that make it even easier for malicious users/bots to cause problems? How does qbix.com strategise against that?
This might be unconventional, but it's the only thing that worked for me:

Exercise, but not out of duty. Use it to pump up your state and get endorphins flowing. Weight lifting works well, but pushups, squats and other body weight exercises are fine. Air boxing works really well for me. Running is ok but I haven't found it to be as effective.

End your shower each day with 3-5 minutes of cold water. While you're in it, fight to keep control of yourself. Stay resilient.

Basically force yourself to overcome trials everyday, and use that to get yourself into "Beast Mode." Once there, concentrating usually comes naturally.
The BBSs of the 80s had the concept of the Twit Bit, which, if set for a user, they were the only ones who would see their posts. It was if everyone else were simply ignoring their posts.
The biggest relative spike was when the HN thread about _why became the de facto Internet condolence page.
How much [cw]ould you pay for a mac mini? I have one sitting across the room from me that I hardly use. It's an early intel model with 1gb.

I want to buy a new one to run OpenCyc (which requires 4gb) on but I can't bring myself to just scrap the old one.
No, it's more like me saying "why should I be strip-searched every time I go to the mall? I know there are people who shoplift, and the shop owners want to protect their stuff, but holy crap, I've got rights too!"
This. Silence is not consent, and if you start mailing me regularly because I did not browse to some URL telling you not to, you are a spammer and I will treat you as such.
I don't know how exactly it all comes together, but I would hope that Maloader and Cocotron (http://www.cocotron.org/) would enable many Cocoa apps to run on Linux (on Intel) without recompilation.

From the Cocotron website: "The Cocotron is an open source project which aims to implement a cross-platform Objective-C API similar to that described by Apple Inc.'s Cocoa documentation. This includes the AppKit, Foundation, Objective-C runtime and support APIs such as CoreGraphics and CoreFoundation."
It's probably a combination. Mood (mental state) is critical for me. Lists and timers can work well in the right state. Otherwise they just add more layers to procrastinate with.
Just as @comex anticipated....

@comex: "I give it 12 hours until someone makes Gmail Motion for real using the Kinect."
The only problem with cutting out #2 and #3 completely is that you don't always know what information will be useful to you.
Thanks. And that is "deliberate practice" which is a whole other magnitude of difficulty from just practice or play.
I was looking for a cofounder for a year or so after my last company was acquired and found Founderdating incredibly useful. Everyone there was very high caliber and I ended up starting a company w/ two guys I met there.

I always recommend it to anyone who is looking for solid cofounders. These guys put on a high quality event.
Can anyone give me the link to this? I've had an extremely eventful week/3 months and I have no idea what this is but suspect I would like to see it.

Thanks.
I wonder how hard it would be to implement the Apple Obj-C runtime's ABI for GNUstep so that this could be used to run obj-c programs and perhaps eventually actual Mac apps. If it were shown to be feasible, I would expect the combination to get a lot of attention as an alternative to Wine for running proprietary apps on Linux.
Scientific way to price b2b software - cdixon's posterous
At the very least it appears improper to apply an unsolicited security rating to sites while simultaneously selling a "hacker safe" badge.

Also (sorry, I know nothing about law) doesn't this put McAfee/SiteAdvisor at risk for defamation suits?
Future-y Space-y Animated Short: Day 2241
Clearly we have to outlaw chisels!

(edit: to be clear: j/k - I think most of the arguments about 'information is meant/wants to be free' are pretty funny. I'm yet to have one proponent share their bank details and password with me :)
The Strength of Relationship Function
I understand your point about letting women "do what we do," because although it's not common, intelligent, strong women like yourself will rise to the level of their male counterparts despite cultural pressure. But I think you still have to admit that the pressure exists, and keeps some women who otherwise would succeed out of the business and out of Open Source.

Myself, and most of the girls I know, were raised to be "ladies." That means that skills like cooking, drawing, and playing classical instruments had a higher value placed on them than computer hacking or coding skills. Just as you say, many of use don't learn to use a computer until we reach college and have to start writing essays (for our acceptable "girly" majors: I chose to major in French because I didn't even feel like computer science was an option for me at the time I entered college.)
It's girls like this who need the support of a female community before they can feel comfortable enough to dive into programming. No matter how talented, not all girls are going to be able to write their first code at age six because parents often actively discourage their daughters from spending time in front of the computer - just look at the comments your neighbors made! My own parents frequently booted me off the computer so that I would go practice violin, etc. My brothers on the other hand, were allowed to use the computer and often received tech-related items as presents. For whatever reason, computers are still perceived as a boy's plaything rather than a girl's plaything.

While I don't think shaming men is going to solve this problem, I do think there needs to be a supportive community that welcomes women into the tech world, which is exactly the point of Gina Trappani's article.
I have played with Node.js and I really like it. I would love to spend more time learning it but I can't get myself to commit until it hits 1.0

Anyone else feel this way or should I just get over it and get back into it?
BackType is hiring product and backend engineers
If you reproduced David with a block of marble and a milling machine, would Michelangelo have a right to be upset?
It's much easier to do a startup if you've saved up a war chest :) Or if your operating expenses are so low that you can sustain yourself long enough to see the business flourish.

Ironically, the various funds of Nassim Taleb suffer the same problem: collapsing because they could not survive to the moment when their strategies would be profitable.
UPDATE: I emailed Sebastian Seung (http://bcs.mit.edu/people/seung.html) asking about this.

This is what I said:

"BTW I liked your TED talk. My friends and I were discussing it the other day, and I made the analogy of comparing the connectome in your brain to hardware and the thoughts in your mind to software. Is that a fair analogy?

David Rock wrote a book called 'Your Brain at Work' where he says that insights come from detecting weak associations (he gave a Google Tech Talk on this too -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeJSXfXep4M).

If the brain software/hardware analogy is right, is there a similar relationship between weak associations of thoughts and neurons that are "distantly" connected? In other words, are associations weak because they are indirect paths from one node – one neural connection -- to another, and would a more direct path optimize you mental ability?"

This is what Sebastian said:

"The hardware-software analogy is wrong

1) the brain is not a general purpose programmable computer. different areas are specialized to different functions

2) the connectome changes over time, unlike hardware

you're right that direct vs indirect paths do matter, unlike in communication networks. but the weakness of an association might have to do with the strength of synapses, not just the length of the path. i'm addressing these questions in my book which will appear in feb 2012 if all goes well."

So maybe a better analogy for the brain would be a network of specialized computers, like a private cloud connected to the Internet because the cloud can change with demand, and the size of connection and number of hops both affect performance.

For example, pushing data closer to the client is one of the primary reasons CDNs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network) were invented -- to optimize content delivery so content is fewer hops away from the client.

And in graph theory a common problem is trying to find the shortest path from one node to another (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_path_problem).
"When I’m checking my email, the last thing I want to do is context switch back to the app."

Umm you are signing up for a service, when you click the "register" button, you are usually presented with a message "check your email for a confirmation link" so you go do that. Where is context switching here?

Most of the users don't signup for something and then forget about it until they, by accident, stumble upon the email when they check their inbox the next time. Or am I wrong?
Then one day it suddenly hit me.. You see the thing is McAfee siteadvisor.com also sells these hacker-safe certificates to websites for $360 / year. With that in picture, this whole fucking thing just makes sense. This is just a ploy to sell those certificates.

That is some serious ass jumping to conclusions. I feel for the guy, his situation sucks. BUT:

He just up and one day decided that they're doing it to sell him some snake oil.

- Nobody from McAfee suggested he buy the snake oil.
- Nobody else told him, "oh that is a scam to get you to buy snake oil".
- He didn't ask around to see if it's happening to a lot of other people.
- He didn't try to buy said snake oil to confirm it would make a difference

Clearly McAfee siteadvisor sounds broken/underfunded/lazy/all of the above. It sucks he can't get them to deal with it. But if it was some kind of cyber protection racket it'd be happening to a lot of people with similar results. And they'd have to give you some hints as to how to "get protected". I've hosted a number of websites with executables throughout the years including one that has a bunch and is active right now. I've never been on a McAfee blacklist. I've never even heard of anyone I know being on a McAfee blacklist. If it was some kind of protection racket wouldn't they just be mass flagging things?

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity - Hanlon's razor
The various numbers that represent the work in different formats would all be related through a single mathematical property (in that when they are processed with various algorithms, the results are all approximations of each other). It's turtles^Wmath all the way down.
Finally, an android experience that rivals the iPone.
Ask HN: Would you use a cloud based browser session, browsethrough.me
HNers,

I am a pack-tabber -- I typically have 20+ tabs open on a regular basis, on multiple machines for various purposes.

I have been sepc'ing the following service to address the issues I have with limited time, too much information, lack of organization. I am curious if you would use this service should I build it?

Browsethrough.me (or ill call it topicizer.com) is a cloud based browsing session which allows you to detach and reattach to various browsing sessions hosted via the service.

Group like site tabs together, such as a reddit session and the resulting cascade of tabs resulting from that session. An HN session or a work research session.

Lump sites/sessions together by topic as well such as "photography" "Ruby" "Programming" etc and be able to return to those sessions, share those sessions, tag them, add notes and potentially other actions.

Ultimately - what I would like to see is that rather than sharing a simple link, one could share out something akin to a digital tour; "Read this, then this, then look at this, and refer to this".

Considering the browser is such an important portal for everything we do, I find it odd that there is lack of deeper level features such as I have described to help people better manage access to online information.

If you find this interesting and would like to work on this with me, drop me a note.
Sorry I don't have a citation for that. As far as I know it hasn't been researched. I was mostly being flippant but I'm not ready to let go of the concept of Talent. There are people who are no more knowledgeable or experienced than I who are way better than me at stuff.

Being able to spend that much time in that focused of an effort seems like a talent or perhaps a "condition" like Asperger's.
Naivety
did they deliver the legal case via a tesla roadster? seems that way given how long it's taken...
I've been using the GO Launcher/GO Dialer for a week now, and every fucking bit of frustration I had with android os just dissappeared. If I'd ever through "it would be awesome if android did..." that feature is in this launcher. Its not the big features, its every single little feature put together with great performance, stability, weekly updates, immediate bug fixes and quick customer feedback.

Hell it even has the perfect replacement to a task killer application integrated flawlessly into the launcher in the running tab of the app drawer. Oh and the skins are pretty awesome.

This this is amazing, I only hope these guys get more noticed!!!
I was thinking about last night. I see logic in it. (1) Target the people who you have best hope of affecting the behaviour of. (2) Avoiding compounding damage to people who are already messed up.

Prostitution attracts girls who are already degraded. It's common for the girls to have been sexually abused as a child, physically abused as a young wife, or to have drug issues. Participation in the trade suggests that the person is not a full-functioning citizen.

A motivation for outlawing prostitution is paternalistic: it's a dynamic that causes this a concentrated group of people with existing problems to spiral further.

Using the legal system to target people in that situation for their own good is counterproductive. They have low faith in government and institutions already, and jailing them probably isn't going to help that. You just end up pushing them into and out of new institutions, but they keep practicing because the business is there and they don't take control of their lives to rise out of it.

Whereas the business that fuels prostitution is vulnerable to the dynamic of the police and legal system. Users are usually people who are full participants in society and are vulnerable to shame and the threat of jail time. They generally have a good understanding of rights/responsibility even if they have periods where they hold themselves to be above it.

I sometimes read that prostitution is "misogynistic". It's not. For the most part the users don't think about the circumstances of the girls at all. Some people don't naturally behave with concern for other people's circumstance, and the stick attempts to compensate for that.