skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I've always thought that adding subtle bugs that only appear in cracked versions would be a good idea as well but: consider the effect on your product's reputation

No! That is not what I'm advocating! Under no circumstances should you introduce faux bugs. The "bugs" I am referring to are incomplete cracks, and they are only bugs for those providing the cracks.

Disgruntled pirates can give you a real PR headache, since they don't self-identify as anything but "ordinary users" when they post comments to forums.

Forums are a bad idea because they take so much effort to curate. The downside is huge -- to the point of creating pernicious fictions such as this.

(Laura Roeder's take, is that community forums are most often not worth the effort. http://mixergy.com/laura-roeder-interview/ )

If you are in the business of selling software, you are probably not making money off of a community forum. Why have it if it has such huge downsides? Have the community meet only in-game.

The scenario you propose is slander and complete falsehood. If your userbase is so corrupt that this works, then I posit you have the wrong customer base. The strategy I am advocating requires that you can control the message in your userbase. This again fits the asymmetrical warfare analogy. Any group of successful guerilla fighters has a well crafted message. If this message can't be communicated properly, then there is no point to the fight.

Here, the message should be: Those warez guys are providing you defective cracks. Just buy the real game -- it's much less hassle. (Then someone else points out that there's a loophole if you purchase the "competitive upgrade" that will work even with the standard version, and only have to pay 50% of retail etc...)
I think, however, their is still value in their questions. Taking one of their examples, if you search for the "best autism center in montreal," should Google return the a site with good content, or a site or information referencing the actual best autism center?

They also pose a question about utilizing store times when searching from a mobile device, asking whether Google takes this into account.

Google markets itself as more than just a search engine for websites. It's attempting to be a search engine for finding out information. It's the classic "Where are my keys?" I'm surprised they haven't enabled the ability to search for "Where is my phone?" and have that show the location of your phone.

With that in mind, many of these questions become more important. After all, if you are searching for "best treatment for autism in montreal," you're not searching for "best content on autistic treatment in montreal" or "most linked to resource for autism in montreal."
It's funny that Zed threatens to "trash" Ryan, but this conversation really makes him look bad more than anything else.
Was there some dispute I didn't hear about? I'm pretty sure everyone knows that MIT is pretty great. Did Gates just copy-paste info from the recruitment packet?

I suspect that if this was not written by Bill Gates, it would have never made it to the front page of HN.
I had never really thought about it before, but there is such a fuzzy line between so-called white-hat hackers, grey-hat hackers and black hat hackers. In fact the only difference between them is what you do with the information AFTER hacking into a system.

Even if you deduce that there might be a flaw in some web site design, you actually need to illegally hack the site in order to prove such flaw exists. In the article, the author noticed he could associate himself with any company that works with the US government and change their info. To prove that, he broke the law. And is lucky he is not in jail for doing so.

I can see from the company's point of view, from the FBI, from the government, from senators and congressmen writing the laws - trying to find flaws in a system is by definition hacking, illegal entry, unauthorized use. You don't have to be stealing credit card numbers for it to be a crime. Logging in to a computer system you are not authorized to is a crime. Period.

So the moral of the story is, if you want to stay out of jail, don't try to find flaws in web sites. Just don't. Or if you do, have a theory and report it to the company, but don't test your theory.

But I do agree companies should have a way to be contacted about security flaws, and be held criminally liable if a flaw was reported and not fixed in a timely manner. But even white-hat hackers are breaking the law and only by their actions after (reporting it to the company) are they not getting arrested or sued for it.
Nothing bad can come from that bill...

We should make it mandatory that the legislators actually read the proposals and have pop quizes on them. If you cannot pass the quiz then you do not get to vote on it.
Place your bets on the future of payment
1. SaaS
2. Books
3. Workshops
4. Classes

Great, I'm strong believer in diversification. But you haven't launched 4 successful SaaS, and whilst I wish you luck with Charm, it's a bit cheeky to suggest success before success has been achieved!
So this is yet another scheme where bankers grab ownership of fledgling companies at a massive discount because the visionary founders don't yet realize their company is worth far more than is being offered. Meanwhile press releases go out making it seem like it is some sort of non-profit charity that is doing good and the investors philanthropists.
Let's take this speculative legislation down the slippery slope, shall we? Next stop: full-speed collision with the First Amendment!...

Putting the URL in question on a website... but it's not actually a hyperlink, just plain text? Felony or not?

Printing the URL on a t-shirt and selling them? Felony or not?

Passing out pamphlets that list the URL? Felony or not?

Mentioning the URL in a news publication? Felony or not?

Telling your friend the URL? Felony or not?
I have just written a short blog post about this:

http://www.stifflog.com/2011/05/15/why-is-rails-startup-so-s...

I'm not that deeply in Ruby/RubyGems/Bundler internals to be 100% sure, but on the other hand I really can't see how it could work reasonably fast while using the strategy for looking up libraries it uses.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the "best treatment for autism in montreal," you're not searching for "best content on autistic treatment in montreal"comment.

They raise a real valid question.
Ask HN: Feedback on Craigslist idea
Do you look for jobs on Craigslist? Do you search for housing on Craigslist? What about finding that side gig? Don't you hate having to look at each listing, get the email address and contact them each individually?

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a tool that let you browse all the listings in a more efficient way and let you select the ones you'd like to contact? What about having an email template that you can use to send it to everyone at the same time? How about attaching notes and tags to each listings? Keeping track of conversations that happen related to that listing? Well, I certainly wanted that myself. I couldn't find anything out there that did anything like that. You know what they say, necessity is the mother of invention. So I built it myself.

Now, before I go ahead and build a lot of features, I need your feedback on what I have so far. Keep in mind that it's not completely done yet. Some features are already there and some will be released very soon. Here's what I'd like to know from you.

(1) What do you like/not like about this tool
(2) I was thinking about having 3 different type of paid plans. Daily, weekly and monthly. What do you guys think?
(3) How much would you pay for a tool like this?

Thanks again. I really appreciate your feedback!
Interesting. Is there real-world precedent for this kind of thing?

For instance, if I know a real-world address where you can go in order to participate in some criminal activity X, is it illegal for me to tell you that address? For any value of X?
Actually, VMware is more like Palm - they started something disruptive and defined the market, but somehow lost the edge (Cloud Foundry is two years after Heroku, four years after Amazon, etc).
One thing that's always upset me about CMU is how non-entrepreneurial they are. Google has a large presence there, and most major tech companies fly out for the job fairs, but startups are few and far between (Meebo and Palantir were the closest I saw 3 years ago).

I think a lot of it is a byproduct of their location: Pittsburgh is many years behind the valley on investor terms and incubator programs. As a result there are few startups there. Valley startups can't really afford to head out to Pittsburgh to recruit or promote entrepreneurship, especially when Stanford & Berkeley are a car ride away (ditto with Boston/MIT).

There are many great people working on this problem inside CMU, but it's an uphill battle. I'm curious what the terms of this investment will be. The worst thing CMU can do is try to force entrepreneurs to stay in Pittsburgh. Fix the attitude, then the location will fix itself.
Short Hairstyles Pictures
There are many different styles of short hairstyles that are out there.If you are interested in short hairstyles you probably first want to know what your choices are and go from there to find the best options for you and the haircuts that fit you the best.
Bleed Nude
I wonder what Stallman thinks of that.
Hey, if you think these companies are being bought up at massive discounts, why don't you go to Pittsburgh and put your money where your mouth is? Invest 'em in yourself, at twice the going rate, and I'm sure the founders will be happy to take your money.
It can be.

I had jury duty for a case that involved an undercover cop asking a man on the street where he could buy crack, the man asked for money, the cop gave him some, and then the man pointed to another man down the street. The original man was on trial for conspiracy to distribute drugs, even though he wasn't actively in league with the actual dealer.
A video is available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-T53xP6SIM
Here's one:
How do you express the number of digits that exist in any given base, in that base?
Decision Trees in Games
The Point of the Internet
As a student, I agree that recruiting is a huge problem. Most CMU students have jobs by October their Senior year, and startups can not afford to make offers that early, or even pay for a booth at the job fairs.

It doesn't seem like this fund forces people to stay in Pittsburgh. I do think it is important that the school continue to encourage people to stay though; SF and Boston shouldn't have a monopoly on entrepreneurship.
I'm absolutely confused why you have such hostility. Did you forget the premise of the organization that hosts this news board? Also, did you read the link? The funding is coming from Jon Kaplan, CEO of Pure Digital Technologies and creator of the Flip camera, not "bankers."
If your intent is to encourage the criminal activity, yes. That's what they got Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on.
It reminds me of a Point/Counterpoint from The Onion:

"Why MIT Matters", by Bill Gates

vs

"MIT Sucks and Everyone Who Goes There Is A Huge Fag, lol" by A First-Year Engineering Undergrad at Caltech
The fact that these legislators don't see those immediately-relevant cases you mentioned as being enough gray area to put doubt in their mind as to the effectiveness of the legislation really doesn't speak well to their comprehension of how the internet works. It's really sad.
Mens Rea.
It's MIT's 150th celebration now. It's why they have been so loud as of late.
Probably a good way to get the donations to come in.
Sounds to me like it's 100% minorities.
I do have a schedule work-wise to keep, but it's not enough that it informs the rest of my life-style, I think. I work three days a week (nights, actually) for about twelve to fourteen hours. I telecommute, so it's not a huge deal and I could technically do my job at any time, but various persons have come to rely upon my availability during those odd hours to sort of bridge an informational gap across geographies if something comes up.

Part of the reason I spend more time in my own basement than any other room of the house is that it's dark down here (I've covered up the windows with blackout fabric) and it's very quiet. I don't hear the neighbor cleaning his RV or someone mowing their yard or loud cars going past.

I know it's unhealthy, but I don't really know of another solution (and from what I understand, it isn't enough to have a schedule - but you need to have a schedule where you're awake during the day and getting sunlight).
As I am in this year's graduating class, I was immensely excited to hear this news. Carnegie Mellon's greater fostering of entrepreneurship through initiatives such as this and the relatively new Engineering and Technology Innovation Management program (masters program with classes in Tepper, one of the top graduate business programs, and a required internship at a startup) will prove very fruitful. If we could just also get Google Fiber to come to Pittsburgh, it would be possible to start to see another great entrepreneurship hub form.
Interesting to see the Khan academy tackle this subject. But his numbers aren't anywhere near real world. Five million for an idea, is this 1998? Maybe that's possible in life sciences or energy but certaintly not in IT.

Getting the basics out there has great educational value but I'd like to see it redone with a more real world valuation.

It's going to frustrate a lot of people thinking they can raise money with just an idea. It can be hard raising angel money if you have an idea + working prototype + launched + traction.
> Is email something social? I'm not sure of that.

Of course email is social. It's used by people to communicate with other people.
To go completely off topic and into a semi-rant, the only good answer to that query is a page advising you to leave Quebec and it's awful, disgraceful, disgusting so-called 'treatment' for autistic children. When doing the search myself, I got lots of great 'content,' but their is no treatment that could qualify as 'best.'
The end of promotions or contests run on Facebook?
It sounds to me more like the javascript specification has a bug or design flaw, rather than saying as a blanket statement that JSON isn't really part of JS. Ideally, javascript and JS implementations should fix that flaw, rather than parsers having to work around it.
I hope Google doesn't respond to this. It's like asking Google : "I feel my competitors outrank me in results, and I deserve to be higher! Can't you see they are clearly cheating?"

I too am tired of people trying to game the system to their financial advantage. Build a good business and serve your customers well. Stop worrying about "some other guy" who may or may not have bought a link on some high ranking web site. Wrong focus!
I went to high school with Austin. He usually hung out with the stoner crowd. And while his accident was certainly a lesson in irresponsible teenage drinking/drug use, I'm really glad to see he's found the right people and turned his life around.
I must admit, I expected better from Al Franken.
It is indeed, awesome suggestion
and while we are at it, dont change it to "something"-ly
At the risk of sounding like a plug... Xirrus can do this. They kept up at interop just fine this year.
Would love to know the hardware they were running and their monitor software.
I already have a job that I enjoy. But thank you for the suggestion.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me, Jason!
Alternate headline: Senators do not understand the first amendment, and should be fired.
AlmostFamous.com Get Discovered
do you know how to spell optional?

its not Opcional
Id love to do that, once my skill level allows for it. Thanks for the suggestion.
people would up-vote a bowel movement if "MIT" was in the title.
be thankful that uncle Rockefeller has allowed you yo use internet so far, he said internet should have never existed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct9xzXUQLuY
Many self-described SEO experts get paid a lot of money and produce nothing of value. The same can be said of programmers, and virtually every other white collar occupation.

Quality predicts salary like quality predicts SEO results.
30 Best FREE Project Management Software
What's comical about Google's plan of action is it's exactly what they did with GoogleTV and that blew up in their face.

For those who don't recall GoogleTV initially allowed users to view web video (like Hulu) on their TV. Google gave users this functionality against the wishes of the networks and the studios. So once GoogleTV was released the networks and studios blocked their content from being viewed on it.

Putting aside whether that was right or wrong Google should at least realize that's what happened and not treat the music industry the exact same way.
It's obvious in retrospect.

Microsoft was about taking over people's hardware (i.e., protecting Windows' installed base), VMware is about helping people utilize their hardware to its full potential. It turns out that one of the fundamental thing we want to do with modern workstation and server hardware is run multiple OS instances on it simultaneously.

This surely sounded subversive, scary, illegal, and weird to MS leadership who expected users to do web, games, mail, and office apps on their hardware. MS required a per-instance license anyway, so how could they lose?

That said, I've heard good things about MS's virtualization technology, aside from the little problem of it requiring Windows for the base OS.
This is the original paper and submission here:

http://www.mightbeevil.com/securedocs/

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2529505
I might be wrong, but haven't there been some talk about MIT not getting the funding they used to?

I.e. maybe it's not aimed at the already converted?
The problem is that if your event only has 100 people, that means that every attendee has to be willing to pay an extra $50 in order to have someone guarantee that the WiFi will work. That's why most event organizers just take their chances.
I've started a sample Rails 3 application here: https://github.com/joevandyk/slow-rails

Other than a fairly standard list of gems in the Gemfile and one Model with two columns, the application is empty.

On my machine with Ruby 1.9.2-p180, it takes 20 seconds to start. And the application is empty!
sounds like a paid version of http://builditwith.me/

also, ditch the name, it's terrible if you have to spell it for people to get it.
My experience with git in windows has been great. It just works, and is no slower than Linux machines. I use msysgit and tortoisegit on large and complex projects, with no issues.
Mastering Recursive Programming (2005)
almostfamous.com is a cool start up for artist, need beta testers.
Feedback on my Craigslist tool
Hi guys, I need your feedback on this tool I'm building. It's for everyone who uses Craigslist. I was getting tired of browsing each link one by one and getting the email address and contact them each individually. I wanted the ability to browse the listing more efficiently and select the ones I'd like to contact. I also wanted an email template that I can use to send it to everyone at the same time. I wanted to be able to attach notes and tag the listing to make it easy to find them later. I also wanted to keep track of any emails that were going back and forth related to the listing. I couldn't find anything out there that did anything like that. You know what they say, necessity is the mother of invention. So I built it myself.

Now, before I go ahead and build a lot of features, I need your feedback on what I have so far. Keep in mind that it's not completely done yet. Some features are already there and some will be released very soon. Here's what I'd like to know from you.

(1) What do you like/not like about this tool (2) I was thinking about having 3 different type of paid plans. Daily, weekly and monthly. What do you guys think? (3) How much would you pay for a tool like this?

Thanks again. I really appreciate your feedback!
"Piracy concerns were raised because Music users may be able to upload music they'd "stolen" to Google's servers in the same way as legally bought tunes, and the labels wanted to prevent this and also persuade Google to unlink piracy sites in its search pages"

Unlinking search pages and disallowing one of the core pieces of functionality of the product sounds exactly like "unreasonable demands", at least from Google's point of view.
He was on trial because he solicited a fee. If he'd told there would be no conspiracy. His act constituted a "finders fee" for criminal activity.

The irony here is that if the man actually was a front, he would have likely told the cop to fuck off as soon as the cop was willing to pay. Druggies don't have the cash to pay 'fees' to find dealers, most don't have the cash to pay for their drugs without stealing.
yep. what hardware you guys used ?
"I understand how it works internally but I have trouble remembering the unnecesary complex command to do simple tasks"

I would like to know more which commands these are. Is there something other than push, pull, commit, add, branch, checkout for 'simple' tasks? Or are we talking about syntaxes for setting up like init or doing origin-master stuff?
I'm afraid it isn't, because the given notation

a*x^2+b*x+c = 0 -> x1 = (-b + sqrt(b^2-4*a*c))/2*a

uses "->" which means implication. So it says:

From "a*x^2+b*x+c = 0" follows "x1 = (-b + sqrt(b^2-4*a*c))/2*a"

indicating that the second part is the only solution.

Strictly speaken, since no equivalence has been used, this even means that there is either no solution, or if there is a solution, it must have the form "x1 = (-b + sqrt(b^2-4ac))/2*a".

However, I'm willing to admit that this is nitpicking.
Polluting the namespace like metawhere does is a significant problem.

We use datamapper on our app, and were looking at doing some of our analytics on mongo at one point, but since both mongomapper and datamapper both define 'helper' methods on Symbols, they can't both be in use at the same time.

If we _really_ wanted to use mongo it would need to be from a completely separate codebase either talking to the db via Sequel or something, or talk to our main app via REST calls - neither being a particularly pleasant solution.
However, Google still has no idea if the link was purchased by the website the link points to or if it was purchased by a competitor trying to get the website penalized.

Out of curiosity: how often does this happen? It's a really common problem--hypothetically. I've heard all kinds of warnings about how people could buy links to a site and report it, slamming the site's rankings. Could.

It would be interesting to see how often this actually happens, and how Google responds.
ECMAScript was standardized over ten years ago. The specification has been publicly available and (as far as I know) every implementation has treated line terminators equally. We can't just change 5+ implementations of JS to make it compatible with a some tiny data format that works fine 99% of the time anyway.

I'm not saying that JSON isn't a part of JS; of course it is! I'm just saying that it isn't a strict subset of JS and that you can't depend on eval() doing the right thing.
Individualized Health Guidelines Outperform General Guidelines
Sad that we can't take time - even just a moment - to appreciate nice things. Is the default really to assume a conflict? It's like the internet really is a fifteen year old - highly opinionated and easily slighted.

I've been affiliated with MIT for three years. I hope to never leave. I wish I appreciated education as a kid and I might have arrived much sooner.