skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The best you can do in that instance is to code it (and bill it!) as a 'customization' that is maintained separately from the core code. That way code to satisfy the cranky customer doesn't have to affect (infect?) your other customers' experience.
Let's see if I still remember second year math.

Suppose the number of primes is finite, call them p1, p2, ..., pn. Let P be their product, P = p1...pn. Since P > pi for all i, P+1 is not prime. Therefore some pk divides P+1. but pk also divides P since it is in the list of primes multiplied. Sp pk|((P+1)-P), i.e. pk|1, a contradiction. Therefore the number of primes is infinite.

That proof depends on the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, and a theorem that says that if p|X and p|Y then p|(X-Y).
Can you provide a link to the "Zimbabwean side of things"?
Is AppJet the next big web framework?
Maintaining code branches is its own nightmare--far worse than including it in the main code, in my experience, since you have to backport all future fixes in some fashion.
I'm not sure where "Since P > pi for all i, P+1 is not prime" comes from, but maybe I'm just misunderstanding you. I think you're trying to state this proof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number#There_are_infinite...
The Big Rewrite
This title is not related to the article which is about "housing" and "investment".
Spinny Globes for Everyone
Python became blub the second the "one true way to do it" mantra was conceived.
It's actually a little ironic. The Venture industry exists because big opportunities can be pursued with fraction (maybe 1/10) of their potential worth.

But now opportunities of the same size can be pursued with a much smaller fraction (say 1/100). As an investor, you're still willing to pay the 10th. Economics goes a little fuzzy around the edges.
I would hope my organization was several times more productive per employee of an average company. I wouldn't put all my faith in it being the direct result of a specific programming language.
What was your biggest mistake? We want the gory details.
Takeaway: Representing dependencies explicitly in code will avoid you lots of trouble. One way to achieve that with an object of type X that requires an object of type Y is to require an y in the constructor for x's.
You're right, of course, from your perspective. I tend to be a pessimist, and like bootstrapping and sweat equity. Changes of directions, big funding rounds, the assertion that "good names" (a commenter above) mean a lot, those things I'm not really a fan of.
No worries. Looking really good so far on my Nokia E71. Loads very fast over 3G. I'll play with it plenty more over the coming days but my only suggestion so far would be an option to click on the charts to enlarge them a bit. They're way too tiny to be useful as-is.
I think that Damien's point is that he doesn't get the "self-evidence" or Good Thinginess of using REST as a _developer_ of a web application. I see it over and over again in development situations: As soon as the topic of webservices comes up, someone starts crying, "REST! REST! OMG, REST!" And that's usually before they've even heard what the web service will do.

It's funny: When REST advocates are pressed about how REST might not be the best choice for every, single development effort, they either:

1. Simply regurgitate REST's tenants
2. Deny that they are regurgitating REST's tenants, and then go on to regurgitate REST's tenants

I think that everyone can acknowledge the good of using REST as a _user_ of a web application -- which is what the REST literature addresses anyway. But is REST going help app developers deliver features in a timely manner? Is it the most agile way to develop? Not necessarily.

<controversial>If you follow REST to its purist implications, you probably wouldn't have a dynamic web application at all. Instead, you'd have a interlinked mesh of of hand-written HTML pages that cover every representation of the application. Hello, Early Web!</controversial>

So anyway, if REST works for you, awesome; as long as you've designed your resources and interfaces intelligibly, you're helping to make the waters of the internet easier to navigate. It SOAP/RPC isn't working for you, maybe you should try REST. But if SOAP/RPC is serving you just fine, don't let this topic rock your boat.
The algorithmic security of unsigned HTTPS is the same as HTTP. Luckily, Mozilla already has a method of displaying such a page - leaving out the lock icon and colored background. There should be no "click through" unless you're proposing a user click OK for every http page they visit as well.

PKI is a hard problem, and CAs do it well for brick and mortar identities. However, that is certainly not the end of the story. The reason someone would choose to run SSL without paying for a certificate is that they believe most everything should be encrypted, but do not value the security properties provided by CAs.

You still haven't said why Mozilla should arbitrarily block the use of HTTPS in such a fashion. Should GPG prevent me from verifying a signature if it is not in my web of trust?

The only thing a basic SSL certificate (from one of the 47 (!) default CAs) does is guarantee ownership of a domain. This is exactly what CAcert does. Visiting paypal.com, I see the name of the company and country in green, from a higher assurance certificate where more thorough checks were done. This is what banks should be using.
How RIM can stop the iPhone onslaught
Exactly. The collaborative filtering technology & algorithms is the easy part. The hard part is getting mountains of good data to apply it to. And by good, I mean monetizeable.

That's what Amazon and Netflix have done. They should solve the data problem first, and being yet another "interactive social media mashup web 2.0 social networking thingy" may not be the best way to get lots of data. The companies that have done this best have monetizeable data - Amazon can actually SELL you the book it recommends.

As for being a collaborative filtering platform:
"1. If your idea starts with 'We’re building a platform to ...' and you don’t have a billion dollars in capital, find a new idea. Now."
(http://diffle-history.blogspot.com/2008/06/postmortem.html)
No. Vastly more input data does generally allow for better output by these algorithms. BUT this in no way means that todays recommendation algorithms are good AT ALL.

In fact, they completely suck. And in reply to GP, netflix's recommendations suck very much too, to be frank.

Why don't companies care? Simply because it's hard to figure out how to make a lot of money even with very good recommendations.
He did offer one suggestion: "The most effective initiative, though politically difficult, would be a major expansion in quotas for skilled immigrants," he said. The only sustainable way to increase demand for vacant houses is to spur the formation of new households.

Think about it. Shifting the demographics of a country, screwing with the labor supply, and for what...? To prop up housing prices.

Jesus, idiocy.

It has been observed that there are two types of inflation. "Good" inflation, and bad inflation. When the price of gasoline, eggs, or candy bars goes up, it's bad. When the price of stocks [1], houses, or labor goes up, it's good.

In fact, it depends entirely on whether you are an asset holder or prospective asset holder. Many people hold houses, while few hold warehoused candy bars. Hence, the confusion. Corporations are managed by people who 1) Hold candy bars (viz, goods), 2) Hold houses, and 3) Do not hold labor. Thus, they will do what they can to inflate the price of particular goods, property, and deflate the price of labor. The value systems of the different classes are opposite in this respect.

In fact, I think it would be great if housing prices dropped 90 percent. Guess whether I own a house or not.

[1] Only Warren Buffett groks this. He once claimed that he wish all of his stock dropped in price by 50 percent (iirc)
This is a tough vote for me, because I enjoy spending my time with CS/hacker related content and yet I fancy politics.

But what I do have a problem with is the links to subscription-only content. Very often, it appears that the Wall Street Journal articles are submitted and approved to HN, but when I go to try and view this article(usually with a great title- often that might be something I would like to read), it turns out that I need to be a subscriber to the WSJ - hogwash! If this is all about what good hackers would find interesting, IMO, it should be in the realm of the free too. In other words, articles that require a subscription should not be submitted... unless of course all of HN's readers have a subscription and I'm just missing out...
Thanks for the feedback. This was a concern of mine. I knew making it too large would be a problem on some devices - and theres no such thing as too small as long as the data is legible. I haven't been able to find any data regarding average mobile device screen resolution. I'll try making the images a bit larger and see if it works fine.
if you want cs/hacker + politics, go to reddit. I personally think the way the site is no is perfect, sure some offtopic stuff goes to the front page, but almost all of the content is cs/hacker/startup only
What about non-cs/hacker startup info?
I think this is really interesting.

The core point seems to be because Apple force app distribution through the App Store they decide what's appropriate rather than a free-market economy.

While the "I Am Rich" app is stupid, I agree with Steve that's it's valid and if dumb people buy it, give them a refund.
For anyone who's worked extensively in both worlds, I think it should be obvious that a great IDE is better than a just a text editor. Yes, Emacs and Vim are amazing tools, but no, I'd never go back to Emacs after having used IntelliJ IDEA. There are a lot of hardcore Unix guys that I work with and even the most stubborn Vi/Emacs fans have been converted; it's just that good. VS for C and C++ was never worth giving up Emacs for, in my opinion.

My perspective is that Java and C# have really amazing, helpful IDEs because the languages have really been designed with that sort of tooling in mind. You just can't have that same level of tooling support with dynamic typing; I've read arguments from people like Steve Yegge but I'll believe it when I see it.

So sure, Java is more verbose and the IDE is the only thing that makes it more tolerable. And yes, I'd rather use a text editor for Ruby or Python. But that's not because text editors are inherently better than IDEs, or that the IDE is only useful for Java because it helps you manage the verbosity; it's just because the IDEs for those other languages aren't that good yet, and it's unclear if they really can be that good.
The problem with Zimbabwe is that it's not Rhodesia.
He's not 'manipulating' the market. He's trying to end the manipulation. The global supply/demand imbalance in real estate is lower than the local demand, and so by allowing people from overseas to come to the US, he's rectifying that.

It's not like he's advocating the kind of immigration we usually get (uncontrolled, unskilled, non-English speaking, general more statist/leftist people from Mexico).

And I don't think one should define good or bad inflation i terms of one's personal portfolio. The only relevant question is whether prices send accurate signals: if we have increasing oil prices because the cost of extracting oil has risen, that's good inflation no matter who benefits from high oil prices.
Not saying I agree, but here's a letter to the Economist defending interior design licensing (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1...):

SIR – Lexington seems to have confused interior design with interior decoration. The interior-design profession is regulated because the designers provide services that carry substantial risk of harm if performed by unqualified people. They design spaces in a manner that can, among other things, reduce the likelihood of the spread of germs and disease in hospitals; increase productivity in commercial offices; and encourage learning in schools. Most important, they understand buildings from the users' perspective.

Interior designers are required to know about building codes, mechanical and electrical systems, fire suppression methods and sustainability measures. The “state-mandated test” that Lexington referred to was developed by our organisation and examines a designer's competence in these areas: it does not cover “fabulous taste”.

Jeffrey Kenney,
Executive director,
National Council for Interior Design Qualification,
Washington, DC
Maybe I'm being slow, but I didn't get how they were explicitly declaring it except in the test, and I don't see how one test in a whole suite would help a newbie discover this problem.

Are they actually implying the constructor should throw an exception moaning about lack of X dependency?
Be a more open platform.
I misspoke.

I would love to have people as excited about my products as the Ron Paulians (Paulites? Paulonians?) were about Ron Paul.

I don't think it's an easy thing. Heck -- I think it is downright impossible.

Sure would be great to have that kind of excited customer base though.
I would add a forth choice personally:

mostly cs/hacker stuff, with some intellectually stimulating stuff

That's actually the balance I feel we have right now.

I voted for "no, anything intellectually stimulating" because that seems to be what we have no and it seems to be working (for me).
I wish I could vote for 1 and 2, like "yes, cs/hacker stuff that's intellectually stimulating."

news.ycombinator.com is less interesting to me now than when it was known as Startup News. In the year that it's been called "Hacker News" the posts have been far more general than I'd like. If I wanted that I'd spend time at Reddit.
I agree.

I'm not sure what his point is given that the request/response format of the data normally provides the serialisation. RESTful services in that respect are no different to RPC ones.
It implies imminent human extinction.
It's best if the site is officially hacker stuff only. The balance now is pretty good; if other topics had explicit approval they'd get a lot more common.
Probability Riddle--are you a "halfer" or a "thirder"?
Not a code branch-- a extension/plugin.

(and then you can bill the customer again to port it to the latest version)
Whether or not you support skilled immigration, the idea that we would change our stance on the matter because of home prices is absurd.
The bigfoot press conference and the art of selling a website
Wait until your VCs (econimist) force you to hire a new CEO (politician)and watch him drive the company you and your co-founders have worked hard for and you will see how much politics/economics there really is in the startup environment.

At that period you will start to understand. Be more concerned.
I am a halfer.

1/2 1/2
/ \	|
Mon Tue Mon
1/2 1/2 1
T T H

I think I have identified the thirder problem. They are assuming that it's Monday:

Mon Tue
3/4	1/4
/ \	|
2/3 1/3 T
| |
H T
I wonder if Alabama and Nevada (states with licensing laws) have better spaces than the other states. I'd guess no.
I was interested in the comment on the blog post, that you should be able to validate any proofs you use or at least have a good excuse.

I think this is a general good practice for life. Extolling the work of others that you don't understand, will not often end well. Particularly if someone questions you about that work and it's implications.
Well I'm saying if you click on a Ted article you should know what to expect. Just because he uses harsh language doesn't mean his ideas aren't worth considering.
Classic site is 'Cerf's Up' (sic) which was fine before MCI/Worldcom went belly up, now seems a sick joke.

http://global.mci.com/ca/resources/cerfs_up/?SetLang=en
Thank you for your suggestion.. but I like the simplistic and minimal nature of HN. Further, I think what really gets to me more is the submits requiring a subscription.
Even worse, he's writing blog posts in English! (the same language used by millions of semi-literate people)
Around what it is now, I think.

Though you've got to remember a lot of people here aren't in the US, so while all the US politics would be interesting to the American hackers, what about hackers from other parts of the world, which very likely make up more of a percentage combined than Americans?

Thats why I would prefer for submissions to be: "Something an english speaking hacker anywhere in the world would be interested in."

:)
I mean "good" as in "what someone desires", not whether it adequately fits some model. The reason is: If someone defines a particular price increase as "good", that person will try to manipulate the underlying model. Thus, the government wanted housing inflation, and so it artificially lowered interest rates [1]. They still want it...and so they can still get it by artificially introducing more buyers into the market.

Utter insanity.

[1] A gross simplification.
iPhone and App store is a platform owned by apple.
They have all the rights to it and they can change the system to how they desire. Now you may or may not agree with their ways but they have the full right to do it. Just the way hardware is not open, why should they open the software? Why doesn't anyone argue about hardware and only software.
NYTimes: Amid Conference Halls and Keynote Speakers, a Rivalry Forms
i stopped using digg 3 months ago and life has been great. this site is about where digg was 2 years ago no. when it first started it was hard core, now its mostly mass interest stuff.
The powers of ten
I think his problem is that he programs in Frontier and he hasn't built any support for JSON.

Library support is a rough spot when you write your own programming language, develop in it exclusively, and happen to be one of the only people in the world developing in it. He created his own XML spec for XML-RPC and wants everyone to use that instead of JSON.
More evidence of Apple's amazing ability to distort reality. Even when they break almost every rule, folks still love them to death. Definitely an enviable position.
The valuation of social networks went down. People out! Charm bracelets in!
One thing about Prolog is what I called 'backwards programming'. You write a function, say, that finds a route through a subway map from one named place to the named destination.

Once that's done, you can reverse the arguments to the function, and it can find a route backwards.

That's the best way I can describe it.

Basically, it's pretty cool and unique out of the languages I've tried, but you need a good teacher to get the most out of it.
Ambivalent. I began reading this site for the startup/programming articles and discussion, and if the site were to adhere strictly to such topics, I wouldn't mind at all.

However, folks here are generally quite intelligent and civil. I do enjoy seeing and participating in discussions on a wide variety of topics here -- from religion to politics to economics to whatever -- where the discussion stays mostly kind and thoughtful. I really can't just "go to Reddit" for that, or to anywhere else for that matter.
So the problem is not:

- Off-topic articles are not interesting.

it is:

- Off topic articles are interesting also to off topic readers & off topic readers jeopardise the nature of the site/community.
Let's lighten up.

Stories that some find totally unrelated to HN are probably 1 in 200. In most cases those stories are interesting enough to make it to the top 10.

A little concern to the problems outside tiny SV doesn't hurt anyone. Be concerned.
This site is the first place I go every day because it offers enough interesting things about my industry in addition to a smattering of other eye-opening intellectually stimulating items. If anything I think the standard should just be a little higher for anything non-hacker/cs.
You're talking as if the site guidelines don't exist.

Off-topic submissions are a smaller problem here than the kind of complaining you're engaged in. Looking through the HN posts I've upvoted, I see that I've learned things about history, music, language, physiology, mathematics, economics, and psychology, in addition to much about computing and startups. That's obviously the point of the site. People have been complaining about HN "turning into reddit" for a year or more. It hasn't, and it isn't.

The mechanism for politely expressing your tastes is the upvote. I see no evidence that it needs augmenting.
I as well like the site the way it is now. It has a nice array of cs related content to keep me satisfied, but also a lot of other non cs, intelligent articles that I enjoy reading. It reminds me of reddit in the early days. What kinda worries me is that too many political articles/off topic stuff will trickle to the top as more and more users start using the site.
news.ycombinator.com is less interesting to me now than when it was known as Startup News

aka Evolution.

EDIT: And for every single person who find HN less interesting, there are 100 new users who love what you have helped built. Be happy.
Twitter Google Docs Hacked
"Apple's approval process ensures at least a basic adherence to expected UI behaviors and acts as an effective filter for malicious software."

It's not a very effective filter, since several apps on the store have been taken down because they violated ToS and nobody at Apple caught it until users did.
Pandora could license their Music Genome (back-end that decides what tracks get played), to other companies, or go the 'songza/mixturtle/skreemr/seeqpod route and just link to music which is already freely available.

They tried going the considerate route and payed the highest royalty fees to the labels. Pandora has tried to do everything on the up and up, and they just keep getting battered because of it.
"Whether or not you believe X, the idea that we would change our stance on the matter because of new circumstances that make it a better idea is absurd."

Or did I misread you?
That is a fair point, but I don't think disliking their stupid motives is enough to make me dislike their reasonable actions.
My vote goes to "Anything intellectually stimulating that relates to CS/hacker stuff and startups".

But since there's no "Both" option, I'm going with ambivalent.
Thanks for all the great feedback. I'm going to opt for an annual billing plan implemented via the Freshbooks API for now. Since I won't have a merchant account, I will not be able to offer a recurring monthly option.

I was researching merchant accounts and processors and planning to implement an automated system via authorize.net ARB. However, I found that this would actually give me less flexibility with pricing vs. a more manual solution. If the volume gets too high, I'll worry about it at that time (a good problem to have). Since this a B2B venture, checks via mail is probably a preferred option over credit cards (at least I hope so). With Freshbooks, I can probably implement monthly billing later on via Authorize.net without many changes.
That sounds to me like a (poor) paraphrase of part of the Blub essay (http://paulgraham.com/avg.html).
He’s not arguing about whether they have the right to do it (indeed he’s not really arguing at all). He is merely explaining that the whole thing leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

Anyway, what exactly would you expect this “anyone” to argue about hardware?
I think how the community defines itself should drive the decisions of what gets submitted.

How would you describe 'hacker news' to a friend who hadn't heard of it before.

I'd say 'it's a social news site like digg or reddit, but it focuses on cs/it/hacking and start-up technology news'.

I think having a tagline which describes hacker news might guide new members to post appropriate items.
If you came to Hacker News and didn't know what it was all about, you might be inclined to post anything.

But as rokhayakebe said, the quality is pretty good, now maybe it's just a matter of keeping it that way.
You can't call the constructor without passing the reference to the object the new object depends on... Thus you can't inadvertantly initialize the objects in the wrong order.