skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Just want to mention that I re-watched Being John Malkovich on Netflix a few weeks ago. This was the movie that made Kaufman famous (along with director Spike Jonze), around 1999.

It still holds up! Great movie. To be honest a lot of movies can't hold my attention these days -- they're "thin" and contrived to elicit certain reactions in the audience -- but this movie did after more than 20 years. I rarely rewatch a movie; it's usually one and done for me.

This brings to mind this observation by PG: Novels seem so impoverished compared to history and biography. But reading Austen is like reading nonfiction. She writes so well you don't even notice her.

http://paulgraham.com/heroes.html

Basically I have a hard time with a lot of fictional movies and fictional writing because they seem "impoverished". Kaufman sets up absurd situations, viewed from absurd angles, but they have a realistic texture that you get something out of.
Show the votes. Why were they hidden in the first place? You can see someone’s karma, it seems strange to hide comment vote numbers.
How many articles mention those companies actually doing anything about it?

My concern here is that when literally everything is an outrage (including doing the right thing, but methodically and not instantaneously), there’s no actual incentive to do the right thing.

What articles like this do is remove the incentive to actually try to be better by saying that nothing anyone does will ever be good enough. At least recognize when a group is putting the work in; otherwise why do it?

This is ultimately a marketing expense for them and their shareholders. If you destroy the benefits of that marketing to generate link clicks, you also risk destroying the benefits that arise from that marketing.

It’s kind of like all the hit pieces about nuclear that completely ignore the thousands of people killed by fossil fuels each year. Perfect is the enemy of good.

And no, I’m not personally invested in it. I own no Apple stock. I do have an iPhone but I also have lots of gadgets and other consumer goods made with actual slave labor, conflict minerals, sweat shops, and much more serious labor violations; I’m sure you do, too.
> Things like them embracing Linux

Have you seen the WSL2 DirectX support?[0] They're extending it, too!

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23241040
That's just an inflammatory reply that does not bring anything to the discussion, tbh.

I believe I made a point that is relevant and that has also been discussed in the media this year. A condescending attempt to dismiss it is poor form.
For complicated situations like this, nothing beats MacPorts. Where brew is generally based on recipes (read: collection of bash scripts) that may or may not play well together, MacPorts is a package system with well-defined dependencies. The drawback to MacPorts is that everything is built from source, and nothing previously installed on the system is utilized -- so installing Python for the first time may take 30-60 minutes. But the next time is 5 minutes, and you can install all the versions you want, where they'll live side-by-side in peace and love and harmony.

MacPorts is slower, but offers peace of mind -- 'cause when I'm trying to develop something, the last thing I want to worry about is dependency issues (gross)
There's more info at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55500238

> There are thought to be more than five million doses of the Oxford vaccine in the UK, but only just over 500,000 are ready for use.

> That is because vaccines have to be put into vials and batched and certified.

> Sources at the NHS expressed frustration at the situation. "The NHS is ready to go, but we can only go as quickly as supply allows," one said.
It's not hypothetical. General Flynn alleged that prosecutors threatened to prosecute his son if he didn't plead guilty. Those allegations are unproven, but that is how our justice system usually works.

> Former prosecutors say such hardball tactics are routine in criminal cases.

> “I can say with great confidence that kind of pressure is pretty common,” said Shanlon Wu, a former federal prosecutor who now is a defense attorney.[1]

And it is true that Flynn's son was a "subject" of the investigation[2], then General Flynn pled guilty, then nothing happened to his son. Even before Flynn made the allegations, NPR said: "[the plea deal] also apparently avoided prospective charges for Flynn's son."[3]

1: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-30/flynn-stil...

2: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mike-flynn-s-son-subjec...

3: https://www.npr.org/2020/05/08/852582068/mike-flynn-pleaded-...
I've been using conda for quite some time, maybe version 0, I forget, and this has never happened to me. I hope you submitted an issue.
I think you're misunderstanding my point.

The "risk" mentioned in the quote a few comments up, and in the context of the post by MSRC, isn't about the risk of leaking Microsoft IP. It's about the risk that Microsoft customers might have been affected. Whether or not MSRC found evidence of a breach of customer accounts/data is a related but separate question.
Ask HN: What is an unthinkable idea worth considering?
This is a scenario planning exercise. The question is about the black swans, the "unknown unknowns". A nuclear bomb going off in a crowded stadium is an unthinkable event worth considering. A worldwide pandemic. Etc.

What unthinkable idea do you think is worth considering?

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9i_16eKvdc&list=PLUX-sja_eqhTwFEdyu9bBTeWgo3FTxFDz&index=1
So today, if I want reliable messaging, I use asynchronous, non-blocking functions. Like async/await in .NET. If I want guaranteed delivery I write logic to provide that. Again, using .NET. If in-order delivery is required, again, .NET.

Of course .NET can be replaced by anything that supports async, non-blocking functions.

If instead I used message queuing instead of writing the code myself I'm adding yet another configuration item to my system, replete with security holes, patches, operational management, and sourcing the skills to procure, install and run it. Of course each has idiosyncracies you need to learn and understand - like Rabbit's memory-based queues. When the instance goes, so potentially does reliable messaging.

I'm very much not a fan of message queues. Haven't been for a good many years.
> Every year from all people in the US aged between 75 and 85 about 5% dies.

Keep in mind that right now covid-19 is the leading cause of death in the US.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201217/covid-19-ranks-as-a...

Unlike cancer and heart disease, covid19 can be prevented or even erradicated with small behavioral changes.
Hitler set the law. He made things that were illegal legal. Nintendo is just a company that adheres to the laws of democratic countries, and if what Nintendo is doing isn’t considered illegal by those countries, then I’m fine with it.

Also, things get better over time. A hundred years ago, many racist and sexist things were probably legal but aren’t anymore. That’s good. The laws have gotten better. That’s my point. Laws need to evolve with the times. If what Nintendo is doing should become illegal, I am fully on board. If not, then I don’t care.

You can’t have it both ways. Either disallow it, or accept that it’s happening. Nintendo’s brand is too strong. No criticism from the public will affect it.
What they described isn't different of how it worked in my previous two companies that used Jira...
I think the big leap will happen when a "regular" developer (as in doesn't need to have any specific know-how), when they can just call simple APIs that hide all the complexity, Same way we don't need to know how a GPU works to render a red square in a browser window.
I think most people understand how to google around for recipes or quick youtube lessons. The real challenge is googling to first gain entry-level vocabulary and understanding of a complicated topic so that you can then google for what you really need. Learning to break a complex task into a series of manageable steps to be queried is a valuable skill. Googling until you actually know what you don't know can save a ton of time. Sometimes it requires googling the same thing many times with only slight search term changes, comparing different sources, learning to tell expert from amateur opinion, and knowing when you are being sold something.
Yes, people still thrash Microsoft because many of their business practises and products are thrashy, even if it needn't be.

Windows is a great example - forced updates, forced ads, forced data-ming and spying, stupid UI changes etc. all make an otherwise decent OS a real pain to use and a must-avoid for the privacy conscious. These are easy to fix for a company like MS, but they do not.
There are two aspects to the comment though:
1. Did they access services/data as part of this?
2. Can/did they use what they got to impact customers/gain access to customer data.

The comment in the article speaks to #1. And of course, we have to take that with a grain of salt. I doubt any company impacted by this would be fully honest if there was a customer breach. Regardless, you also can't prove a negative. So all they can really say is what they did. Which doesn't mean services/data weren't compromised. Given the size of Microsoft, I find it hard to believe that every service running there has the logs/audit trail to know whether they were inappropriately accessed.

But I took the OPs comment to be focused on #2 as well. There is a very real possibility that having access to the source code could help the attackers attack customers. Having access to the source code can help in locating vulnerabilities that allow future attacks against customers/services.
> while a “timer” is one that counts down from a preset amount (for cooking or whatever)

I can see this POV, but this isn't really how I've thought of a "timer" myself.

I've always thought a timer was just a thing which kept track of time elapsed (up or down). For example when I'm doing metrics I've always used "timers" to measure how quickly a program runs. I would never call a function which measures how long a process runs a stopwatch function, it would be a timer (or timing) function.

Until I owned an iPhone I've always thought of a stopwatch as the literal physical thing.
You may feel that, but there’s a ton of research on this.

But I suppose that’s where you can try convince governments to do away with capital gains and tax very differently. I don’t think you’ll find any countries that do this or do it efficiently. The growth of capital is really important to long term improvement, and even pretty “socialist” countries like the Scandinavian nations encourage capital growth through their tax policy.
It could a number of reasons. We are human, after all, and as such we cannot be trusted to logically and fairly evaluate anything. Better to let the computer stop us from suppressing speech simply because we (insert emotional response here).
You can split the prize money with u/p2tp2.

I legitimacy want to see this. Hire some film students, have them embed with some teams for some sprints, post the footage.

If Atlassian really does walk the talk, why aren't you already bragging about it? I just peeked at Atlassian's YouTube stuff. Nicely produced. So that's something.

I'm not even going to move the goal posts, or play No True Scotsman. Show how any team actually using JIRA, like a Twitch stream or something, and I'll cheerfully send you $100.

Forgive me, but I'm struggling to accept that anyone creating and maintaining and supporting JIRA and Confluence could abide by them. Sure, I've worked on crap products before. In anger, under protest. I never accepted it.
There are a lot of purported uses[1] for algae. The OP talks about oxygen generation[2] and food[3]. I've personally been really interested in cultivating algae as a source of carbon neutral jet fuel[4], specifically for personal energy independence. And, finally as fertilizer[5]. I haven't had time to do any experimentation yet but I'm excited to see that a DIY approach is so accessible.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae#Uses
[2] https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/scholars_day_conference/202...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_(dietary_supplement)
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaweed_fertiliser
Then we should be rewarding good engineering.

The basic principles of human-applicable science have been mostly solved the last century according to the standard model.

The hard part is building difficult things, i.e. precision engineering, computer and sensor architecture, etc.

Why don’t we have robots picking all of our fruit? solve that.

Why can’t we image every cell in your hand? solve that.

Why can’t we make high quality low cost modular homes? solve that.
Happy new year everyone, this little community has made 2020 that bit more bearable for sure.
> was able to insert a subtle bug in the Linux kernel.

... was able to insert a bug into a mirror of the kernel, which was caught in short order.
"Dropdown with multiselect" is addressed by adding the "multiple" attribute to your select tag. Which has been possible since the 90's.
So true. There’s this funny line in one of Paul Graham’s essays where he says something like “making the wrong technology decision can doom your business - like choosing Windows in the 90s” I got such a kick out of that because I worked for CyberTrader in the 90s; we built our whole platform around Windows and wiped the floor with our competitors. We ended up the top day trading company in the US and were acquired by Charles Schwab for just shy of $500m. But at the time, you pit Windows NT with IOCP against anything else and it was game over in the low latency trading space.
We take our dog to a park where dogs are permitted but must be leashed. Signs are posted that the “leash law is strictly enforced” but it’s not, and in fact has never been.

Most dog owners follow the rules but there is a small cadre of regulars who don’t. These people are aware of the rules (I know because I’ve sometimes reminded them of their existence) but choose to ignore them.

Now, who cares, right? What does it matter if some people choose not to follow this nanny-state rule?

Well, here’s what: once or twice a month we’re forced to end our walk early when someone has an unruly dog off leash in the direction that we’re walking. We’ve spoken to others who have had the same experience.

The park has a children’s playground and multiple sports fields. Many of the regular users are elderly and they choose this park because the path is paved and level. Not everyone appreciates being approached by an off leash dog.

So the off leash dog owners either don’t care about or don’t comprehend the effect of their actions on the rest of the community. This is a minor example of a lack of duty contributing to a “tragedy of the commons”
> I feel that Jira's configurability makes it like desktop Linux 20 years ago. Everybody swears it's rock-solid, beautiful, and easy to configure. Then when you ask anyone to have a look at their specific setup, they'll cover the screen with their bodies and panic, "ah no, I kind of messed everything up recently, haha, but you can't really blame the software for that, can you? Everyone else's installation is super clean though". After working with ~10 different Jira installations, I'm still looking for one where that's true.

I kinda feel this way about every project management tool, be it a personal or professional one. You're always chasing the dragon for how clean it was when you originally configured it.
Doesn't mean they don't deserve the criticism or thrash directed at them for their products or business practices.
If my mother is no longer competent to reason on her own, it is my responsibility as the eldest male in the family to take responsibility. Is it not? This is the job of the middle-age: the turnover point where the children begin to take care of their parents (instead of parents taking care of children). As the elderly lose their mental capacity, it falls upon the shoulders of my generation to take care of them.
I've had a better experience using Conda for just Python and Pip, and anything Pip doesn't handle as I wish, then using Pip for the bulk of the dependency tree. Pip's new resolver should make this even better.
This is the type of rant that only a techie dork could right. It smacks of everything that Bay Area locals hate about tech workers. Reductionist / solipistic world view? Check. Smug sense of entitlement? Check. Total lack of self awareness? Check.

Was Sonny Barger a geek? How about Huey Netwon and Bobby Seale? Shrimp Boy? John Beam? Mickey Moe? Marshawn Lynch? Chauncey Bailey? John Burris? The Riders? Did these people emerge out of nowhere? No! They were all members of the community going about their daily lives like everybody else.

The culture and character of a community is created and sustained by the totality of body politic. Certain products of those communities rise to prominence. When enough of the body politic is displaced fast enough, the character of the community changes. The people who remain bear forward the collective memory and their particular piece of the culture.

Fyi, the artists were the first wave of the invasion. They were generally much cooler than the subsequent waves of colonizers.
I'm ok with them only taking an oath to the US if that means they won't mess around with the rest of America
Totally. I actually don't know how people that work in big enough organizations can possibly not like Jira (or a tool like it).

I would go crazy with the amount of things I would have to remember, their status, how to prioritize, how something was previously done and when, etc.
Is this a covid skepticism thing? Because it sounds like a covid skepticism thing.
Why is it safe for adults?
FDA Fining Distillers for Making Hand Sanitizer
Is there a way to see medium.com posts without the login-wall?

Medium is awful - why do people choose to use it? I'd like to read this article, but it won't let it to me without signing up or installing an app. No thanks.

It would be nice if HN blocked articles that required installing an app or paying a subscription etc to view.
Jira is typically not slow. It's usually the plugins you have installed.

Some plugins like big picture even have their own databases that need to be updated separately from the plugin, and can cause performance issues.

Start jira in safe mode and check the performance. Then check your plugins one at a time until you find the culprit.

They also have some nice built in tools that often help you find the source of these problems.

It's a product, but it's also a platform, and sometimes the stuff that is built on the platform causes the platform to buckle.
Happy New Year!

Very proud year for me on HN. Two of my posts made it to the front page. One even reached at the top and stayed there for a full 8 hours!
Typically how I've seen this work in high-functioning environments is that devs aren't scheduled at 100% according to JIRA. They have time set aside in their schedule for work of this nature. They'll fix the bug, create a JIRA for the commit/PR, and get on with things. The coworkers on PR reviewers and get their notification that way or in standup. If it's more than 30 or 60 minutes they might log some time against it.
I think karma should be hidden too.

Once you give people a number, they'll start to game that number, leading to low quality karma-farming comments. When a measure (in the case of karma, of quality) becomes a target, it ceases to become a good measure.
I wish that modern oaths also had curse clauses. It seems oddly common for autocrats and kleptocrats to have no problem screwing over millions of people, while still being terrified of religious or superstitious wrath.

"So help me god" is not enough. How about, "And should I ever violate this sacred oath, in thought or in deed, may I be forever cursed and damned."

Anyways, the US military already takes those sorts of oaths to refuse and report illegal orders, but they still commit plenty of war crimes.
I chose specific examples because this is no longer abstract to me.

* Is COVID19 a hoax?

* Is Obama a Muslim from Kenya?

* Will Hydroxychloroquine save you from COVID?

* Are the November 2020 election's results under question?

Quit hiding behind the "unreliable sources" excuse. We have actual issues at play here and ultimately determines the course of my family.

Lets put it this way: do I go to New Years celebration or not with my family? Do I follow them to Disney World next month? How much should I work to convince my family that flying on an airplane is a bad idea? Do I just watch them recklessly endanger their lives to see Mickey Mouse?

What I'm finding is that cutting myself off is counterproductive: they'll continue to perform recklessly and I simply lose my ability to communicate with them. A degree of balance is needed. But the lies perpetrated in the media are not helping me at all.

"Shamelessness as a strategy". The lies perpetrated by those in power have an effect on my family. Politicians are shameless about it: they don't care about the personal effects its having.
A restructuring of commercial office real estate around coworking spaces, etc instead of offices dedicated to a company. In the short term this will be disastrous for traditional office real estate.

People still wear masks quite a bit.

Parents of children in closed school systems in the suburban US will get even more outraged as schools stay closed into 2021, with dramatic political consequences.

Finally the US succeeds at anti trust for some big tech, though not for more beloved brands like Apple

Post COVID, Massive explosion of travel and restaurant visiting causes tons of demand that the waning industry can’t meet.

Major industrialized countries have better surveillance for potential pandemics. It’s taken much more seriously.

The major issue shifts to something completely unexpected (not Covid) by years end
Just don’t click “save” - you can still read the article.
>I'd be interested in seeing an update to this piece. Doubling down on shamelessness got Trump the second most votes ever by a presidential candidate but lost the election. Doubling down on shamelessness might still cost the GOP the Senate.

I would hardly qualify that as a strong rebuke of the idea so far
Goodbye Flash, Goodbye FarmVille
Anyone claiming the Russian bounty program was a certainty or a hoax is misinformed. Some credible agencies had a high degree of confidence; others, such as the NSA, disagreed [1]. “Can’t be corroborated” reflects the NSA’s view, but not the CIA or NIC’s, who found it “credibly sourced and plausible, but falling short of certainty.”

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_bounty_program
Debating statistics and measures is hard because of the sheer quantity of slightly varied information. And even if numbers were universally agreed upon and understood, and it were as simple as 10% greater risk, we can’t make decisions by a show of hands. If 60% of people were willing to take the risk, are the rest supposed to suck it up?

> Compare also the 480000 US deaths yearly from tobacco, which could be prevented much easier than corona.

Tobacco is an epidemic too, but given that it spreads via psychological and sociological factors rather than virally, I’d make the argument that it’s actually much harder to combat.
That might be because hydrogen DRI is something that nearly exists already. Modern DRI plants using a mix of H2 and CO as the reducing agent. Going to 100% H2 is basically a shift in process without changing the fundamental technology.

What Boston Metal is proposing is completely unknown to the steel industry. And I seriously doubt it could work without some miracle discovery in material science. Directly electrolysis of iron ore at 1600°C with no attempt to contain the pure oxygen bubbles sounds like an engineering nightmare.