skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I've been using Emacs for about 3 months now and enjoying it. I'm only just scratching the surface though and not really dived too deep, I find it quite overwhelming tbh, it feels like the text editing part is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Emacs.

Org-mode is pretty cool and I love the note capturing feature, I've bound Cmd+N to this feature so I can take notes quickly.

One thing that I've not fully figured out yet is how to share notes between my work life and personal life. Sometimes I make notes at work about some cool programming trick or something useful to know, but that stays on my work machine. I don't want work related information to be accessible from my personal machines but I want access to those 'general' notes. Obviously I could set up separate files that sync, but I really like the quick-capture workflow and introducing a "should I save this here or there" type of action would slow that down...
> I don’t think there’s an easy fix for this, and that makes me sad.

I mean, there is, which is to reintroduce mixed use zoning. You essentially allow people to operate small businesses out of their homes.

This changes the dynamic very quickly because the change can happen before the new construction. As soon as it's allowed, someone buys a house on your street, or one of your existing neighbors does this, and it becomes a bistro from the hours of 6PM to 10PM. The neighbors gather there on a regular basis and get to know each other.

Then the house across the street converts a room to a convenience store, and now you can walk to a convenience store instead of having to drive to Walmart.

What makes these things viable is that the proprietor still lives in the house, which reduces their operating costs and allows them to compete with the big guys. But it's currently prohibited by zoning.

Really what might do something great is to have a new class of zoning designated for owner-occupied small businesses, i.e. you can operate a business there but only if someone who owns at least 30% of the business also lives there. Then rezone the majority of residential properties as that.
I think you have to have oxigen present for it to be corrosive. Can't they vacuum it?
I have some idea what I'm talking about, see my post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25210523 and I don't kniow about why using a packrat over anything else. I pull something off the shelf, antlr for my latest project, then get on with it.

The parser is the most trivial side of things, if you consider that a key skill it comes across as being an issue from the 1970s, not today. Writing a RD by hand is not a big deal anyway as someone else said.

If your into optimising compilers you're focusing on a very odd area to criticise. I'd gave though more about dataflow using lattices or whatever, graph stuff etc.

So parsing aside, what are the 'relevant' skills you feel are missing?

(and what are 'Database Compilers'? Nearest I can think of that may fit are query optimisers)
I ask this about alexa, google home, etc, but people are apparently using them in droves.
I am a fan boi of cheap reliable access to space. It just happens that SpaceX is the only game in town.

Relativity Space only has paper rockets at the moment, and their best design is 4 times more expensive per kg than the falcon 9.

The only organisation right now that is working on a rocket that will compete with the falcon 9 is Blue. No one is working on something that will compete with starship.
Ask HN: Where do you go for Bootstrap web templates?
I have a SaaS webapp built in Laravel Spark and am ready to pad out the homepage and other website pages. What are your go-to sites for templates? Preferably Bootstrap as I'm familiar with it.

Google returns countless sites but would be interested to know HN's preferences.
Fridge/freezer combos are already a compromise design that sacrifice efficiency for floor space. Chest freezers that open from the top are far more efficient (the cold air doesn't all pour out when the door is opened.)
Probably not... hopefully not.
I'll check my network and pass on your info if I hear of anything.
You mention a tip-jar “patron” strategy, and I took a second look having not noticed anything like that when you launched the actual product.

I still don‘t see anything.

Are you guys hiding a tip button somewhere in the interface after you sign in?

Are you asking for one-offs? Or recurring?

#alwayscurious
Prev post by me, if it's any help https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25210523
If an electricity company would offer a TV to each customer without any surcharge, then yes that’d be free, because customers are paying the same for less before. So, while I get your point, we are near unfair use of a monopoly situation here. Such a thing is good first for consumers, but once the companies own the monopoly, they own the pricing and can charge more than the former competitor used to, while customers becomes slave of one single monopolist.
Sales tax is usually not applied to supply in the US. Most people who buy product to resell it are exempt from sales tax in most states.
I've recently looked at Instagram, and the ratio of ads is shockingly high.

WhatsApp is still ad free, let's hope it stays that way (and if not, that people migrate away).
Non-English Speakers Learn a Crazy Grammar Rule You Know but Never Heard Of
If you have generic "Get Started" cta type buttons on your site or service it is also important to offer a simple way for existing users to Sign In.
People said seat belts were more dangerous. It wasn't true, they just didn't want to wear them. Ralph Nader got his start on politics on car safety.
The mobility of labour has some part to play in it. A lot of younger folks move to where the jobs are, and start their families close to their work. But their parents don't move with them since their current home, which they've lived in their whole lives, is too familiar and comfortable to leave. Just living in the same neighbourhood dramatically increases the chances of meeting up.
He's right and wrong at the same time.

If I pay above market rate I'll attract better devs for sure, and the caliber of folks in my hiring pipeline will get better. It's not obvious at all unless you know where to look. College is the prime example of that. If you pay better you'll have more new grads applying and they will prioritize you over other offers (unless you are an exceptionally prestigious employer). But even then, you'll never talk to the student who interned twice at FAANG and got a firm offer a year before graduation. You can get that guy only if you are willing to employ him at FAANG salary for two summers.

Employing these guys won't make my existing hires any better than they are in the immediate future.

However

Better hires leads to better teams. I find that certain developers have a multiplicative effect that applies to other devs. They mentor, document, review and help everyone grow. That might actually slow them (taking half a day to explain high level architecture to a lowly junior coder) until you realize the junior coder is now capable of answering questions from his teammates.
https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/people-think-netflix-kill...

Heh, ironically, Blockbuster was almost never profitable either :)
I'm inferring that you, like me, are a longtime emacs user with some inertia.

I used to not use daemon/emacsclient until it got annoying to have multiple emacs windows popping up, then I switched. Nothing to be impressed about it; even lazy ones like me eventually get there.

I'm also surprised about the vi keybindings, but not at all distressed. If there are a lot of people out there who are accustomed to vi keybindings but found reasons to want to use emacs, that's a good thing.

I don't use org-mode daily, but I do edit my todo list daily. If it ever gets deeply nested I'll switch it over to org mode. And I suspect that's what all the people using org-mode daily are doing -- todo/idea lists.

I should start reading /r/emacs every few years to catch up on new things.
In a sense, sales tax benefits giant factories, and VAT promotes small businesses along the supply chain. It's possible for a solo trader to optimize one operation to compete with a giant factory, but not all operations.
> Well, Apple has had obvious flops over the years, specifically because the price didn't match the features. The HomePod, for instance.

I would not argue with this and in fact I specifically addressed the does-the-market-actually-exist concern in my comment.

> But if you claim that Apple made a product that sounds better than Bose or Sony's counterparts, and has better ANC, that is not verifiable, at least not until there are in-depth reviews out there confirming it.

I don’t claim any such thing. The point of my comment is that the parent comment implied that there is no real difference, then said that even if there is a difference who cares because does anybody really need better sound anyway?

So my point is, what is the point of that comment? What is it bringing to this discussion, suggesting that Apple’s new headphones may be overpriced wrt. their sound quality, and if not then they’re overpriced anyway? Good sound is something some people care about and will pay for.
> an industry's version of 'ranking'

Citation needed. "Ranking" in plain English is practically synonymous with sorting, and it's no different in computing, unless you're in some very specialized pocket where they've twisted it. The difference is that it's possible to show different posts first within the same set and IMO that's not particularly problematic. What's problematic is when Facebook selects a different set. Those posts I didn't ask for shouldn't just be at the bottom of the list; they shouldn't be on it.

In an infinite-scroll world these phases do get interleaved a bit. Query, sort, show top N, repeat. Some posts might get dropped in the "show top N" part, but the point is that those posts I didn't ask for should never even have come back from the first query. In SQL terms, it's the WHERE that's broken, not the ORDER BY or LIMIT. (Yes, I know it's not SQL. I could tell you exactly what it is, but I'm still bound by a legal document that says I shouldn't.) It's really not that subtle or unusual a distinction, and I'm sure most people understood it. Why are you so invested in a weird definition?
> whether it is dramatic is another question.

I thought that _was_ the quesiton: you seemed to imply the graph not starting at 0 was the article editorializing in some drama. My point was the situation is indeed dramatic (perhaps "significant" is a better phrase?) on its own, and they weren't unfairly exaggerating it for clicks/attention/fearmongering/whatever.

It makes sense that 'absolute deaths' would rise as a function of absolute population size, but that's why this data is important to pay attention to: if our death rate is climbing more than expected, there's problems we should probably pay attention to.
I think the post COVID-19 phase will actually be good for them in that regard. Companies switch to remote, at least a bit and cities will empty a bit more. This might make some more space for permantent tenants. But could be also completely wrong about that.
> I'd argue maintaining clunky legacy systems requires more passion for software.

This is one of those things that is easy to discuss in theory, but in practice it doesn't work that way, at least not in most cases. And in my experience working with COBOL at a bank: no, the employees weren't passionate about it. In fact, the only passionate employee was an old guru who wrote assembly code for the bank's mainframe.

You could take it to an extreme, and argue that working with malfunctioning computers, using only BASICA.COM for DOS, writing accounting software and getting paid mere cents for it, requires more passion -- after all, who would want to work like this if they didn't feel passionate about it -- but of course it isn't.

It's great to work in challenging or atypical projects, maybe with tools that are not the easiest or more ergonomical, but there's a baseline of comfort below which you're probably not passionate, just masochistic.
It's a bit dismissive of a response. The job market isn't horrible in tech and FB is a highly desired resume entry.

A nice cozy breakfast is table stakes. I want to make a difference in a good way; I'm sure these folks leaving are no different.
It got more upvotes because of the errant Show HN than it would have otherwise. More significantly though, this doesn't feel very on topic for HN—more like a joke riff on a cliché category of article. Am I missing something?
Only the ones who join now. I am sure the pre IPO employees are more than happy.
Is it necessary though? The biggest American companies 50 years ago:

1. IBM

2. AT&T

3. Kodak

4. GM

5. Standard Oil of NJ

6. Texaco

7. Sears

8. GE

9. Polariod

10. Gulf Oil

Not a single one of these companies is in the top 10 today. (Edit: correction, one is: Exxon.) Many of the current top 10 didn't exist at all 50 years ago. Thankfully our economy seems to be dynamic enough that companies must continue to compete or lose marketshare organically.
Reader mode Firefox is my tool for that (on mobile too - never "upgraded" to Fenix).

I often open a news page or something and it's completely blank at first because so many scripts and assets got blocked by uMatrix. Before I actually unblock any domains, I try toggling reader mode on - a lot of times it's enough to let me read the plain HTML text which I actually wanted.
> That seems like something I could learn in a week.

So why not learn it in a week then apply for the job?

I would suggest the reason is... because you cannot learn it in a week.
I have not yet seen a business that can comfortably survive long term with the “make a single donation” model. Recurring donations are something that can work, however.
PWA won't give you access to random device APIs that you didn't open up for a specific use before needing them, which e.g. cameras, payment systems, etc often need. All that still needs to be native, and that can be substantial in some cases.

If it does, say you made a generic shim, you're effectively downloading and executing dynamic code. Maybe not by a technical definition, but that's not the point of Apple's rule, nor will they care about technical arguments when they reject it. There are plenty of examples of this happening in practice, I'm not talking hypothetically - it's why they have a carve-out explicitly for education apps. Even if you don't do stuff like that, and stay entirely in the webview, PWAs (unless it's actually being run in the browser, of course) are not allowed to make significant changes without going back through review.

edit: you can absolutely shrink your binary size with a PWA or similar though, yeah. There will definitely be other tradeoffs you have to make though, I'm not deeply familiar with those. Performance and integration with native libraries at the very least (e.g. map rendering).
I think what makes Org special—just like Emacs—is that it's a small system that can grow. You can customize it however you like, and it's easy to add functionality on top of (or into) the core system. In practice, would standardization hinder this property? It seems like the cost of evolving org-mode would become much higher if there were a formal standard and a number of actively used implementations—we'd have to worry about backwards compatibility, inconsistencies between systems... etc.

As it happens, I absolutely would love better support for org-mode workflows in other systems, especially on mobile. (I use Orgzly on Android which is fine but also limited and inflexible.) I could also see a native org-mode implementation making core operations much faster, although the EmacsGCC work is making a real improvement on that front already.

But I worry that supporting that would sacrifice the very properties that let org-mode evolve into what it is and to continue evolving even now.
What are you talking about? "Censorship" by corporations has an extremely long history. This is in no way new.
> None of those are the government, sure there are radical citizens (domestic terrorists),

“Radical citizens (domestic terrorists)” and “the government” are overlapping groups. For instance, most people would agree that armed public law enforcement agencies are very much “the government”, but:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/27/white-suprem...
Not just long term adoption but short term retention. The ads and forceful promoting of crypto and Brave services while browsing are distasteful enough that it leads me to question the validity of the premise on which I first picked them up.

Brave Rewards is a nice idea. But I'm not interested at all. So continually trying to put it back in my face means I trust them less as a whole.

Personally, I'm uninstalling as soon as I shrink the open number of tabs down to zero (which does take me some weeks sometimes!).
if you have users that can post content, you need something like this, and the old "don't be evil" versions probably don't cut it today.

This depends entirely on the kind of culture you want to foster. If you chase advertising money then sure. But the Parlers and 4chans of the world are doing just fine.

I think that's key here in this conversation. The only reason this is being done here is because it helps make them money. It does so by avoiding pushing away advertisers.
People who are into conspicuous consumption don't show off by buying Apple. $550 is on the low-end of luxury pricing. Think Givenchy, Cartier, Theory etc.
The property tax system of funding schools is not a good system, but it's also not truly racist. Yes, there are urban schools which are underfunded and disproportionately affect minorities, but there are also rural schools in predominately white areas that are also underfunded. Look to much of Appalachia and some of the south as examples. So in my opinion, property tax funding of schools would fit more with the "rich get richer" paradigm.
There must exist a sweet spot of engineers/MBAs ratio. The question is: is company X higher or lower than that sweet spot?
I disagree that there is an equivalence.

For example, I actually think that anyone who doesn't believe that the election was legitimate - i.e. that no meaningful fraud occurred - should be banned from the HN community.

Their "arguments" are full of shit and are a bunch of pseudo-philosophical, pseudo-analytical, pseudo-objective cant.

Their "evidence" is literally disinformation / propaganda. They're uninterested and in fact dismissive of real, actual evidence and facts as examined in multiple court cases - and they refuse to accept the validity of the outcomes of those cases.

They wish to overturn the legitimate outcome of the Presidential election. Full stop.

They act exactly like those crypto-racists who know that their true belief would be deemed unpalatable or unacceptable by the community so they'll blow as much smoke around as possible without ever stepping out to say what they're actually driving towards.

I don't see anything remotely equivalent to this happening on the other side of the fence at this time.

I've never seen anything like this in the United States and enough is enough. It's clearly dangerous to allow these views the shroud of legitimacy by giving them space in the public square, because it's gone so far that anything other than a total rejection ends up functioning as an implicit legitimization because the claims are so untrue, shocking, and destructive.

By allowing the lie of election fraud to be presented as just another thing to be discussed on HN, HN is enabling those people and their cause, which is to overturn the results of a legitimate election.

And I think it's unfortunate and wrong that I probably have a better chance of being banned from HN for this comment, than someone who is obviously attempting to undermine people's belief in the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election, which is to say, undermine small-d democracy in the U.S. and advocate for an authoritarian, one-party state.

Which is literally what they're doing. And no, the Democrats or anyone else on the Left are not doing anything remotely equivalent to that right now.
For better or for worse, manager's productivity is normally taken from the developers/engineers the manager manages, namely the team's overall productivity, so we're back to the same problem of how to measure developer's productivity
Saying that companies don't pay VAT is not entirely accurate. Technically companies pay VAT but get it rebated when they need to send the government the VAT that they have collected.
I love the effort, but I have to worry about biases in the sampling procedure.

18% of emacs users use doom-emacs, a project which started in 2014?

Nearly half use org-mode daily?

80% of users visit r/emacs???

Because of the sloppy survey design, it is pretty hard for me to interpret these results.
it's not like they can just ask any price they want. they have to negotiate with the initial investors. if they have no investors then there is no IPO. plus, the IPO consisted of only 7% of shares right? they prob have a lot more to sell if they want, at the higher price.
>Without this exception, we’d probably have a crazy economy where manufacterers sell directly to consumers.

What is the problem with this?
Oh no!!

Anyway
Glassdoor Becoming Less and Less Useful
As a German it's a bit annoying to keep reading this kind of stuff when it's just flat out wrong.

Right now there are still 6 commercial fission reactors running in Germany [0]. They are slated to phase out at the end of 2021 and 2022, but I really wouldn't be too surprised if they reinstate the running-time extensions that were revoked after the Fukushima disaster.

The nuclear phase-out, that was decided and ratified back in 2001/2002, was backed by the first green electricity feed-in tariff scheme in the world. In major parts responsible for Germany's massive renewable capabilities because it also utilized Germanys leading position in renewable tech back then.

Germany is also a major player in nuclear fusion research, being home to the largest and most advanced stellarator [1] and a major contributor to ITER [2].

It's also been at the forefront for hydrogen research and application, which has very real potential to be the green fuel of the future: Using the abundance of renewable energy for electrolysis of hydrogen, which can then be stored.

Yet whenever "German energy" comes up, all that's brought up is this flat out wrong "Germany doesn't do nuclear! It's all coal or Russian gas!" meme.

[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Kernreaktoren_in_Deu...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
> Good luck hiring an engineer with advanced compiler courses knowing any of this.

Have you tried raising the level of compensation you offer? There are engineers elsewhere doing this at other companies you could presumably get if you put your hands in your pockets?
It's not Escape Velocity, but Maelstrom was open-sourced [1]!

A while ago I forked a version and changed the braking power-up to be controlled by a button press, instead of always active [2]. It was cool to fix something that always bugged me in a game I played when I was a kid.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom_(1992_video_game)#Le...

[2] https://github.com/richardjs/maelstrom
edn seems like the right solution, then.

https://github.com/edn-format/edn