skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
From wikipedia:

> Deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.

Examples from Deathly Hallows.

Having no idea how to proceed on your quest of finding and destroying Horcruxes? The only soul who was there with Voldemort when the locket was planted, happens also to be magically bound to Harry and have obligation to obey Harry's every command.

Need to impersonate someone? Just pick a hair off your cloak for the potion.

Don't know where the next horcrux is? Immediate vision from Voldemort's mind to help you.

A character who has crucial information is killed? Well no, instead of using a spell like any other time, Voldemort decides to leave Snape to slowly die giving him just enough time to share his memories with Harry.

Need to check if your mortal enemy is really dead? Don't verify yourself but send the only person in the group who has any incentive to lie to you about it. (And you're supposed to be able to magically tell when people are lying by the way).

The way to destroy a horcrux is hidden in a place accessible only to those who speak parseltongue? Nope, Ron can just guess his way into an ability that was previously established to be hereditary or transfered through magic.

I could go on... the point isn't any single one of these, it's more about how they accumulate throughout the book.
Question and Answer Series_4
I disagree with what you say in the second point, unless they've forgotten what odd and even mean in that sense. You aren't taught that 56,437 is odd, it just is.

IMHO this isn't a thing that needs to be/should be remembered. It isn't about being taught if zero is odd or even. This is more about people understanding the world around them, people integrating math and science into their world view, instead of as a separate thing they had to do back in school.
How to Create Flame Animation Using JavaScript and CSS
I forgot to call out velocity sensitive. It's a must but I thought it's almost a given today but its not.

I got a Cassio CPS-85 over 20 years ago. It was $900 bare minimum for me at the time and I still think the weight of the keys is a bit light. Still, that was my minimum and it still is though something like that should be cheaper today.
Generally the entire exterior walls of a tower now needs to be removed and replaced. While residents remain resident in the tower. It’s not easy to cheap to retrofit the buildings.

Or maybe it is and the building industry is run by scumbags who having created this issue, are now double dipping.

Or maybe it’s a little bit of both. I don’t know myself.
iPhone definitely did. It was months between the announcement and an actual premiere, and people were very hyped.

Apple’s M1 and iPad as well.

Arguably, SpaceX and Tesla.

Also arguably, Facebook. I remember thinking it was overhyped at it’s initial IPO valuation.

Oh, and of course Internet - it was massively hyped up 1996-1999.
SolarWinds updates flagship software in bid to block second hacking group
>"Diaconis didn't even own a computer. (He still doesn't. He says he got sick of adjusting to new operating systems and noted, after not using computers for several years, that "nothing bad happened to me. And I said, 'Well, I could either learn the current system or learn differential geometry. I think I'll learn differential geometry this year.'")"

Good for him. He made the right choice I think.
Lebron James. I thought for sure he was gonna crash and burn after the absolutely insane hype.
Children of Time is awesome. I haven't read the sequel but the prospect of intelligent octopuses certainly whets the appetite.
This take does not make any sense to me. The scientific community is responsible for peer reviews and journals can operate however they’d like. Google is responsible for google and can submit/censor/only pay for research that they want to pay for. Good luck finding any academic that is not beholden to their source of funding.

Academia is not the “uncompromised land of science” that it may seem to be. What google is doing is par for the course. I have about 50 other complaints about academia before I get to my complaints about private companies censoring research (which I believe is a very harsh take on the situation at hand.)
The final battle was great. One small thing that I wish they did better, was not to butcher the African language that they used. Whenever they spoke, many of us cringed. Small thing though, Chadwick still won our hearts.
I don't understand why this perfectly valid comment is getting downvoted.

It is not like BMW sold the item and only then decided to start charging. When you buy it is up to you to understand all the up front and delayed cost. Most people prefer delayed costs.
When writing a terminal emulator for my editor/IDE last year it was impossible to find a standard. I implemented the classic vt100? standard but nothing worked. The standard is basically "what xterm does" so i had to check what xterm does for the same command sequence and then mimic that.
> Getting into jazz early can be tough

I think that depends. The student may have been listening to jazz for their entire grownup life. To them, starting with "Jingle bells", etc. like some piano methods do can be very boring or off-putting.
lol 92 could lead to some pretty weird situations
Started learning clarinet in my 30. The internet was full of advice against learning clarinet without a teacher. So I took lessons. It surely helped but it did not feel like a great accelerator. Most gain came from practising almost every day for about three years. After the birth of my daughter I stopped taking lessons because I did no longer have the time to practice and to drive to the teacher's home once a week. I wonder if anyone has experience with online teaching? Commuting to a teacher's place won't fit my schedule anymore. But I wonder whether a teacher can really be helpful via a standard webcam.
I was thinking VSTs as well. It's kind of funny, I truly dislike the UI of most VSTs I use. Cluttered, hard to understand, many hidden features and menus, and often rampant unhelpful skeuomorphism.

But also there are a few which are remarkable: the 3 synths from Madrona labs, the prosaic and convenient UI from Valhalla's plugins, up to the complex patchbay interface of something like VCV Rack, for instance.

VSTs balance a number of interesting perspectives in their UI. They are facing a very challenging domain (audio synthesis, analysis, manipulation in creative and often real-time interaction), have a complex user base (ranging from pros who really would prefer to be using their actual rack effects, to audiophiles who are pretending they've got a garage of classic synths, to modern electronic musicians who are digital natives), and have essentially zero strong UI non-skeumorphic conventions (knobs, sliders, presets, A/B switches, modules).

It's totally the wild west of UI.
The Wire.

I'd tried to watch it a few times, but only a few months ago actually got past the first two episodes. I think it helped that I quite quickly saw it as a morally ambiguous discussion of the institutional ineptitude of conservative western cultures in mitigating the effects of crime, rather than a typical 'good vs bad' cop show.

With that mindset, the possibly-underwhelming finale of S1 is much more effective, and the sudden pace-change in S2 is more meaningful.
Facebook removes Australian celebrity chef's page for Covid-19 conspiracies
Maybe I am misunderstanding how the system works but I don't actually want that kind of Excel-like eager behavior like 90% of the time. Sure it's neat for simple computations but some cells take hours to run in my workflow.

Give me an indicator that a cell is stale but I don't want eager execution on all the time.
Nuro set to be California's first driverless delivery service
From what I remember last time I looked into this there is a tradeoff between using CPU and GPU rendering. GPU is usually faster, whereas CPU produces better quality. See this question for more details: https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/14656/why-processo...
because the GP asked for a method that would teach them based on a genre. If I teach you to play something that sounds jazzy I have not taught you anything about jazz.
Signed distance fields (SDF) is very cool and easy for great text rendering. I've been on and off working on a text based graphics engine in Common Lisp using SDF to get smooth text at any size and effects like glowing. There was a post here a few months ago on some excellent ray marching lighting effects (soft shadows) using SDF for text as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24569542
It's quite interesting how irrelevant interview skills are to the actual job.
Mr. Robot's entire final season. Especially the last half.
2021 Corvette Stingray (6.2l V8), 2021 Dodge Challenger (6.4l V8), 2021 Camaro SS/ZL1 (6.2l V8), 2020 Mustang 5.0, various trucks - there's still plenty of modern car with V8, often even N/A V8s.

People buy cars like that because they like the V8 rumble. I have an older 3.0l N/A I6 BMW (N52), and not because I couldn't have gotten a more feature-loaded Honda for the same price.
https://imslp.org/wiki/First_Lessons_in_Bach_(Bach,_Johann_S...
Worked with both, only on the opensource version.

I agree that scylla shows a lot more promise than C, but we hit (different) instabilities and gotchas on both

All has its place. I am not saying C or scylla should not be used. I was just pointing out that the basic ideas and the CQL language itself is designed to trick you in in doing a lot of things that turn out to be really wrong on the data model used by these software.

It's not an implementation thing. Should I consider only that, scylla'd be really good (provided you have the correct hardware) and much better than C*. Still, the issue (IMHO) is with the theory and the fact that the actual correct applications are much, much narrower than the initial impact lets you believe (especially due to CQL)

--edit:
Kudos on scylla btw, but basically I am doubtful how much it's possible to overcome that legacy without going really incompatible even on the API
Looks amazing, thanks for posting / working on it / making OS :-)
No. This shows a very narrow regime of experience. Testing is not the only way to verify software additionally the error surface area of certain languages is simply much much smaller in most languages outside of c++.

This had nothing to do with a language saving your arse. This has everything to do with the simple non-existence of a type of bug in other languages, for example memory safety in rust and python.

Additionally c++ often simply does not tell you where an error occurs and you have to use a coredump to figure everything out. It's not an offensive programming strategy by default. Python on the other hand makes every single type of error read like a c++ syntax error giving you a line number and an error type by default.

Another thing to consider is raw speed and lower memory requirements. These are the only advantages of c++. If your hardware isn't strict on the above requirements consider micropython.

I'm finding c++ programmers have this very narrow and cocky view of the world. They turn their nose up at languages like python without truly experiencing how much life is easier and more productive in those worlds.
Geographic variation in neurologist density and neurologic care in United States
Marginally so, under certain use cases. Unfortunately, it suddenly becomes worse when you want to steer AND accelerate. And, much like AWD, it can give you a sense of confidence in your ability to move that is not matched by your ability to stop.

If you live somewhere that snow matters, get good tires.
I bought a weighted Yamaha Arius e-piano (YDP-163) about 3 years ago and am very happy with it! (Cost was around 1000$ I think, but there are also cheaper models.)

I had a very cheap children's keyboard with non-weighted keys before. It was totally frustrating to play on that. Weighted keys made a world of a difference!
The Roadmap to Mediocrity
Too many in cities but in rural areas, there are never enough. And they are never close enough. Lots of those places, the volunteers train once a month and carry a pager. They are all spread out over the county. When the page goes off, they leave work or home and go to the scene to be useful.
I swear half of the Twitter posts I see are just people disparaging Twitter... I hope your downvotes are just for tone, not content.
If that's what you want to do, that's nice and go ahead, maybe the app is the cheapest way to get to that point. My point is that people who use them should be aware of their limitations, and compare that with what they want to achieve.

PS: the weighted keyboard thing is actually important. You can get cheap weighted keyboards for less than 200$, maybe even less in second-hand market. A non-weighted keyboard will limit your playing a lot, even early on.
This is the uncanny valley between dystopian and genius. My vote goes toward dystopian because no doubt extremely targeted billboards or even posters are on their way.

What happens when phones are constantly broadcasting your unique advertising identifier and everyone knows what you’re looking for before they even lay eyes on you?
Yeah, but they still exist and you'd be surprised at some of the models with this deficiency.
Allowed or not they’ve been doing this for decades. When I was tending bar in the 90s they split the tips this way: one guy got fired for pocketing some of the money in his tip jar.
Brightness is by far the biggest factor in perceptual differences and perceptual color spaces are approximations.

Also LEDs don't typically flicker unless a dimmer is on the circuit and their PCB isn't made for that. You might be thinking of florescent lights that are pulsed with a ballast.
But again, it depends what sort of information is broadcast. If the bilboard says "hey, driver of BMW reg number EK16 WHD, your warranty is expired!" then that's definitely a problem. But if all that happens is a generic BMW warranty bilboard appears whenever an out-of-warranty car drives past "hey, is your BMW warranty expired? Extend today!" then it's probably ok legally.
who doesn't have that cash laying around just to try an hobby?
The point is the lessons as a standardised tool work quite well in producing results.

The variation in results is much higher if you go off the well beaten path.

Secondly, if you think learning piano is comparable to programming or art then you are completely mistaken.

Edit- added here since HN doesn’t let you comment anymore if you get downvoted too much.

With programming, the feedback is immediate and accurate. You know if your code does compile. You know if your logic is bugged or if your algorithm is too inefficient. If the code you write doesn’t work, somebody can give you their code to bring you up to speed. This allows you to immediately address your issues.

With piano, (at least in the beginning) you are not qualified to judge if your hand position is right, if your posture won’t give your RSI in the long run, if you are even playing the right notes, if your rhythm is off, if you are reading the sheet music wrong, if your pedal is timing subtly off or if your legato is correct. You can practice for hours on playing the wrong thing. A teacher can help you get this stuff to get fixed. Secondly, unless you started ear training as a child you won’t ever be able to develop absolute pitch. Your ability to discern pitch and listen to the very music you are playing is already at a disadvantage. You’re basically blind and deaf and you have no idea what progress should look like apart from superficial judgments.
Wait this seems like an argument for subscription. If the product is changed with an update you don't like, or becomes incompatible with your new phone, or an update to your phone, or stops being useful to you for some other reason, you can stop paying.

If you pay £2k up front for CarPlay as an option and then Apple changes the protocol and you can't use it you're stuck with a lemon you already paid for. As a subscription you can stop paying.
The Good Place has the best ending of any show that ever got created, i'd say yes it lived to the hype.
Alibaba being investigated by China over monopoly tactics
your last point is spot-on; I have a decent yamaha electric piano and the action is quite a bit heavier than my sister's Boston acuostic. It's not suprising but still notable how much more fatigued you feel after an hour of playing mine vs. hers.
Edmund M. Clarke, Turing Award winner, has died
What to Do If Your Investor Outreach Is Not Working
Drum Synth for the Browser
Happy user of their main app, Koala (a sampler).
I was speaking in the context of the piano.

I'm told it's easier to self-learn the guitar, but you're working against your own interests if you're violently opposed to the idea of a teacher, no matter the instrument.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9tif_and_Guelma_massacre
I think the problem with whether zero is even or not lies partly with the fact that if I have one apple and you take one way I have no apples. Most people wouldn't say I had an even number of apples when I didn't have any at all.
Czechoslovakia is not a country and hasn’t been for 28 years.

Mapy.cz uses OSM data worldwide except Czechia, where they have their own dataset.
Starcraft 2. It's not perfect, but it's an excellent successor to the original 98 game.
Johnson about to speak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC7ofw33XbQ
SolarWinds: The Need for Persistent Engagement
What novel software features have Uber and Lyft added in the last two years?
I'd venture a decent percentage of HN was born after 14.4k modems stopped being popular.
My Facebook Android Interview Experience – Preparation Strategy
Proton - Valve's branch of Wine is probably your best option for running Windows games on Linux right now. That is of course unless you also want all the security that comes with Qubes. If you want to use a VM, VMware had a reasonably well working implementation of 3D acceleration when I last tried it 4 or 5 years ago.
Mapy.cz is not free software.
Germans tell me that they also want intimidating cars for the left lane of the Autobahn.
What to expect when you’re NOT expecting (transcript)
Advanced XXE Exploitation
The reason is simple: you don't get 5G nanobots in your bloodstream via naturally acquired immunity
> Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism.

Can confirm. BMW used to be quite innovative, at least on the scale of German automakers, with their connect services. We have a fairly well equipped and fairly new BMW which includes those services. Not only can they get quite expensive (especially their incredibly pretentious concierge service), but their smartphone integration is awful at least (CarPlay is a subscription). The only connected drive services that could be remotely useful are so bad, they're basically unusable.

> It’s starting to happen and will get even worse, BMW will have a tough decade at least.

The only innovation BMW was able to come up with in the last few years is increasing the size of the front grill. I am not sure if BMW is incompetent, ignorant, uncreative or if they're just aholes (looking at managements behavior during the pandemic, that's certainly the case).

I doubt that BMW will be able to maintain its independence as a car manufacturer in the long run, unless there are some dramatic changes in line. My guess is that they'll be acquired by some other car manufacturer, maybe Daimler (although they face similar challenges), but more likely some huge Chinese company.
Brexit: UK and EU reach trade deal ending months of arguments
The Brio's price isn't purely on the camera quality, a decent chunk of that price was the integration with Windows Hello. Now, of course, that doesn't matter if you're not using Windows, but the market it seems designed to cater to , is Windows users.
CSS Hack: Print Repeating Headers and Footers in Chrome
There's no need to pay 10x when you can buy Dacia Logan. Yet people still paying it to get something they don't have in Logan. Big bad engine is one of those features I guess.
That is not really fair to whoever actually owns those billboards. Those poor things won't last a week without being hacked or remotely disassembled. How much do those billboards cost?
Enterprise startups that will soar in 2021, according to venture capitalists
Building a Better U.S. Approach to TikTok and Beyond
Being "called John Smith, living at 12 High Street and having an interest in titty bars" is a boolean too. I'm not sure I'd want that to leak out though, ..., aw crap.
It's a common misconception that PyInstaller is something that creates an installer.

Scoop and Chocolatey are nice, but you'll still need something like PyInstaller to bundle your Python app into something that can be installed by scoop or choco. (source: building ActivityWatch [1] which is bundled by PyInstaller and available on Chocolatey)

[1]: https://activitywatch.net
What about SWEs who work on surveillance tech and despite knowing all the privacy implications, they just don't care to protect themselves?
I think a lot of people want to protect their privacy, but it just takes too much effort and people prioritize more immediate needs.
Can’t speak to the technical argument. I can agree with you that my dads Lexus sc400 from 2000 had a great sound and super smooth driver (v8). That engine was a workhorse... over 500k km and still rocking. The rest of the accessories were falling apart (door handles, leather) but that engine was rock solid.
I look forward to paying a monthly fee for using Bluetooth in my car.
Chess is an amazing game. It has personality and if you know a bit about the game it has infinite depth. Players have playing style. There is a rich history going back hundreds of years.
Warranties are fear-driven anyway, the expected value has to be negative for them to turn a profit. With CarPlay, you're not missing much. I had a Golf R with it, pointless.

I badly wanted a 1M when new but it seemed like a horrible financial decision (even though it wouldn't have been!) and I'd have had to have let go of my Z3M Coupe that I still have today.
I don't think it's the same person, but "OldSkoolCoder" streams a lot on twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/oldskoolcoder) - a lot of disassembling and reverse engineering Jeff Minter games!

Another great resource if you're looking to learn C64 assembler is https://www.twitch.tv/shallan50k (Shallan also has a great Discord server too).
December 2020: OpenSMTPD 6.8.0p1 released – poolp.org
The illustrative tangent is far more disturbing. It suggest that ~80% of people have no clue what causes the seasons to change on Earth. Small wonder most people believe anything on social media.
Absolutely, like I said, I'm working on stuff like this right now. Having said that, perhaps it's a combination of my own personal trauma from originally being taught in a very rote way and thousands of hours of helping students learn to read, but I have an aversion to not knowing what you are doing. I remember looking at stacks of chords 3-6-9 to 7-3-5, or even trying to read a basic root position C7 chord with the RH doing stuff on top and feeling really hopeless to get my LH to fall into those shapes. I've also seen this with many students. Chords are hard if you don't see them as words and try to look at every note every time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I personally know an engineer who started his own recruiting firm and is making much, much more money than he did as an IC engineer. He also has built a business that he can sell one day.
GNU/Linux phones, Pinephone and Librem 5. Even though they aren’t daily drivers for everyone yet, they are truly full computers in you pocket without stupid restrictions of the duopoly.