skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Software patents should be abolished
The working theory is that RSA retained information on the crypto "seeds" used to initialize the hardware tokens at the factory. When this database was hacked the attackers obtained a copy of this seed material. This was enough to duplicate the code sequence displayed on the key, though possibly in conjunction with a phishing or social engineering attack to obtain the target user's serial number (or a few current codes).

That's the theory anyway. Not everyone agrees that it's the Chinese-attacking-US-defense-contractors story again.

What everyone does agree on though is that RSA is withholding critical information about the severity of the compromise, or maybe even being a little disingenuous about it.
50 cent army much?
Effective Java is the best book for general Java that I know - http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-Programming-Language-Gu... It's not a tutorial, but a collection of recommendations that could take you from just-learnt to competent.

Very slim, and very good - Javascript: The Good Parts http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockfor...

For a C reference, Harbison & Steele is excellent - http://www.amazon.com/Reference-Manual-Samuel-P-Harbison/dp/...
More:
http://codio.com
http://techtestnow.com
http://codility.com
http://codeeval.com
I appreciate how Google stopped pursuing face recognition technology. Even for the tech-savvy, technology can sometimes become scary. Nice way of sticking to the "Don't be evil."
Russian who buried himself alive dies by mistake
jhartman -at- linkedin dot com works!
Bridging the gap between our online and offline social network
If HP wants to go this route it should completely open source webOS. Even then HP will need to give away buckets of hardware to developers and pay top developers to write ports. Android took this same approach to grab the lead from Apple and it has a huge head start on HP.

Honestly, if webOS went open source and came on hardware from multiple vendors I'd buy it over Android. But Google makes most of its money from Android with ad revenue. How would HP make as much money by giving away webOS? It probably can't.
Thanks for the link...I'll be checking that out.
Heh, that'd never work at Cheeseboard. They make great pizza, actually, but:

a) They only make one type of pizza per day,

b) You stand in a line which always goes out the door in order to order it

c) Same line for eat-in or take-away.

They have a constant stream of pizzas coming out of the ovens and getting cut up. When you're standing in line all you're waiting for is for the guy at the front to find out how many slices everyone wants and to take their money.
I do understand what you're saying. However, the fact that AAPL shares are more liquid than AirBnB shares makes a difference to the way I think about valuations. APPL could be up or down tomorrow based on the example you just described but the same won't be true of AirBnB. If they IPO'd tomorrow, would they get a valuation of $1B? I don't know.

I'm not disagreeing with the definition. I'm trying to point out that even though the maths might be the same, I see a difference between startup valuations (based on funding rounds) and market caps (shares * share-price) of listed companies.
I figure it's got to be the fanfiction aspect of it. I've wanted to make a Starfox 64 prequel with Fox's father, but to spend that much effort in the Silver Age of indie development on something you're not even going to try and capitalize on seems wasteful. Might as well just write the fanfiction if you want a plot. The guys over at http://www.shadowsoflylat.net/ have been busy for a long time, it's sad that they won't be able to sell the end result.
The ironically named 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/technology/10privacy.html

the government does not notify people that they are searching their online information or prove probable cause, and if the government violates the law in obtaining information, defendants are generally unable to exclude that evidence

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/google-microsoft-ec...

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/cloud-content-warra...

Since the "Patriot" Act was renewed without discussion or change, there is little hope IMHO that the 1986 law will be changed (except maybe make it worse).
Previewing Windows 8 (Video)
TL;DR - Shack designers who submitted for the competition failed at "customer development". They didn't ask how the customers use cheap dwellings now (store tools, build stuff, & upgrade).
The reason was that IBM bought the rest of the chips "as they were" from Intel, so all the logic that they made themselves ended in the in-house keyboard controller. x86 had an external interrupt line for reset, and an io pin in the keyboard controller was tied to this. That was a reasonable way to get true hard reset back then.
Google’s Schmidt Says He ‘Screwed Up’ in Social Networking
thanks. i didn't know that. given how famous the other essay is, he should really update it...
Only if it involves QR codes, NFC technology, and group buying.
This could also be an awesome way to disrupt the courier business in cities.

e.g. sender logs a job online (& provides payment details), sender prints a barcode sticker, sender drops off package with the building doorman/concierge and/or walks to designated quadcopter landing zone adjacent building, outgoing package scanned and loaded onto quad-copter, quad-copter delivers package to recipient's landing zone, quad-copter/system sends notification to recipient to advise that package has been delivered, recipient goes to quad-copter landing zone to collect package, recipient scans barcode or provides electronic signature to acknowledge receipt.

Terms & Conditions: Anyone who implements this idea (or minor variation) must give hook and I a $1 royalty each for every job logged ;)
Is it secret? If so, how do you change it if it gets disclosed? If not, how hard is it to make a fake eyeball?

How do you know the user's actually being authenticated and it's not just a replay of a previously captured image? Do you require a trusted hardware scanner now? If so, how do you deploy it to all your users? How do you keep the attacker from taking it apart and reverse engineering it?

But most of all, how do you know the user is actually intending to authenticate the thing that is being authenticated? E.g. the user is wants to open door A so they put their eyeball up to the scanner, but the bad guy has installed a skimmer (like on ATMs) which replays the users retina and lets him into door B.

Biometrics usually raise more questions than answers IMHO.
pg doesn't describe YC as being worth 5BB, he says the projected value of all startups are in that ballpark. The question was How is YC doing? and the answer seems to be: pretty damn good. As in they are doing something right, not as in "our valuation is around 5BB".
Still waiting for that price drop. I understand if you have to wait a few weeks, to appease the buyers.
I read it a few times before I replied. Andi was making a comment about the costs of energy for us and for future generations. Andi was saying that ignoring the cost for future generations is typical behaviour of people "who see technical progress as a kind of god given fact or as the natural direction humanity must take." You are mistaking that as an argument against all future technical development. It's easy to see that better technology can be more efficient.
I disagree that pollution and energy use gets less with better economies and technology as a rule, even if there has been some progress as you mention.
EU, US and Asia are all guilty of creating percentage wise more pollution and using percentage wise more energy over the last ten years, have a look at the PDF.
Interesting analysis but the statistic I find most disturbing (and selective) is the "average" value of startups funded. What would be more informative is the mean value. I'm guessing the mean value would be extremely lower since most of the total value is made by a few outliers on the top end.

By taking the average value in this case, it's likely giving an inaccurate picture of what the average YC funded company is actually worth.

Just a thought. I could be wrong assuming most of the total value does not come from outliers but my sense is that I'm right based on the news I've seen around YC companies.
I wouldn't do anything until I've seen the exact patent application. He's probably just playing safe and letting you know beforehand.
Business guys- how not to annoy developers
Wow, great answer. I would love to read more about the psychology of this. Does it differ across cultures?
Just out of curiosity, when is the last time you talked with your representative in Congress? (I know, I'm assuming you are based in the USA)

I ask because I find a high correlation between this particular point of view : "entity 'x' whom is unassailable, is corrupting the politician I voted in to represent me." And people who have neither voted, nor talked with any representative who was either elected or was trying to be elected.

Here is my idea on 'what to do' here, let me know if it sounds reasonable or not.

My idea is that a group of technologists work with Congress and the Patent and Trademark office to take a look at the existing processes and goals and then put together a program for moving the existing patent law into something that makes sense and serves the needs of inventors without creating opportunities for commercial extortion.

Worth a shot?
Sounds like HP (Palm) WebOS, apps are built in html and javascript. Of course, WebOS isn't built on IE. Not that I know if Windows 8 will be, but just guessing.
Biggest part of announcement was the HTML+JS part. Let that sink in- HTML+JS is now the premier way to write Windows apps. Who would have thought this day would come?
That was somehow sorted out by the Mythbusters (Season 1, Episode 8). Or is news of Russians burying themselves a meta-urban myth?
I had a very hard time taking the article seriously after reading "penii". I hate when people try to sound smart by incorrectly pluralizing this word.
Looks like it. 1 comment (the grandparent), account created 69 days ago, shilling for the Chinese government.

For those who don't get the reference, here's an article that explains it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/22/chinathemedia.ma...
Expertise:

I'm a software engineer. Strongest languages are Python, Ruby on Rails and Javascript. I can do front end web, and web design if my life depended on it, but it's definitely not my strength.

Desired Skillset:

I could do with another back-end engineer, especially someone with experience developing iPhone apps, or a business person, but that business person has to be saavy with internet consumer products and social media.

My Idea:
I definitely have an idea that I am working through right now. Already paid 50% of the web design costs, and have been working on it since 2 months ago. I expect it to be fully launched by the end of this year. I'm serious! =)

Areas of Interest:
This idea is based on tracking fitness and nutrition with a twist. Having asked several fitness geeks whether they'd be interested, most if not all have been very enthusiastic about what I was gonna build. As an engineer, I know the technology is not the hardest part, it's the marketing. So, right now, my focus is on building a pre launch mailing list, and connecting with bloggers RIGHT NOW before I need them.

My email is info@dailysnap.com.
The silo parks in USA are still nuke-proof. Because they are far enough apart that you can't get more than one per hit, and it has to be a low or groundburst, but close enough together that the first hit causes a cloud of dust that the subsequent missiles would have to go through to hit their targets. And a nuclear warhead in re-entry has no chance of surviving hitting that dust cloud.

This means that the silos are protecting each other -- you'd need to wait hours between hits to be able to land nukes on all of them. (Or hit them all within the minute.)
I'm happy about this, and let me clarify that I love shopify and their product. However, I think they might not be aware of a disconnect in their support offering (which hopefully this would make more obvious). I've had multiple weeks go by without any response to my emails and posts on their forums. (Other times, I've gotten responses in 24 hours, so it's not consistent). I hope it's because they are so successful that their support team is being crushed under the weight of their growth.
LESS Griddy - LESS/CSS Dynamic Grid
What are your criteria for best? Do you want something extremely fast? Do you want ridiculous battery life? Do you want an extremely light and portable machine? Do you prefer large screens or small? Extremely high resolution or the standard (which seems to be around 1366x768)? Extremely high durability, so that you can throw it at walls without worrying? SSDs go without saying, of course, but aren't hard to swap in after buying a machine, so can be ignored somewhat.

Using my criteria for all of that, the best windows laptop is probably either Asus's U30Jc or U36Jc. I'm a fan of Asus, though, so that might just be because of that bias.
I follow approximately 500 accounts, so that can be a bit hard to manage. However, I've found that the Twitter lists feature has been pretty good for keeping up to date with the people whose updates really matter to me.
After watching the video you'd come to the same conclusion. Doesn't seem to have anything to do with the product
..and so they code..
Mashape video is out Take some popcorn. - Mashape's Voice
Don't for a minute think this means that this means platform-neutral apps.

HTML+JS calling into Windows APIs, is more likely what this is, rendering rich widgets ala ASP.NET controls. I'm willing to bet money on it.

And at that point, who cares? Different development toolset. Same lock-in.
San Francisco, CA - Fulltime - WiseView Research (http://www.easyshiftapp.com, http://www.wise-view.com) - RoR Engineer (or anyone that can code and is smart)

We're a funded startup located in San Francisco working out of the awesome Rocketspace co-working facility (http://www.rocket-space.com). We recently launched our app in private beta and will be rolling out nationwide later this year. Competitive salary, meaningful stock allocations and full health benefits.

Contact me at brian@wise-view.com if interested!
There is a video on youtube for user interface of windows 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I
> I don't believe there's been a single successful western land invasion of Russia since the Vikings.

Not considering the first World War as a successful invasion seems rather unfair. After all, Russia did get knocked out of the war and ceded huge tracts of land.
That is very impressive. [little tough to read though]
Thank you.
China, Russia India and France have stockpile of supersonic cruise missiles. India is mass producing hypersonic cruise missiles, while Russia and the US are prototyping.

In comparison, most of the cruise missiles we hear about (Tomahawk for example) are subsonic (though the US does have a few old supersonic ones).

The effectiveness of missile defense systems isn't 100%. It's hard to shoot something travelling at 3600mph. It takes a lot of power, a lot of accuracy, generates a ton of heat, and a requires dash (or two) of lady luck. The defensive system can be overwhelmed for a fraction of the price.
Considering that I've worked with dozens and have known hundreds of serious computer professionals and have yet to meet a single one that supports software patents (including many who have them!), and I suspect that I may never meet such a person- I have to agree that there is some public support for this issue.

Admittedly, we're a small percentage of the general population, but we are certainly influencers. I believe that askforit.com is specifically trying to overcome the issues that snopes talks about (and even if they don't, it's silly to think that that will remain the "last word" on the issue- it's relevant for late-90's early 2000's technology). Secondly, if you were to pull 'Big copyright/DMCA' and 'Non-computer-related IP like pharma' out of 'Big IP' you'd be left with a peppering of small disreputable companies (that are really lawyers and not technologists) that actually attempt to make a little bit of money off of software patents, and big industry that use them as a form of mutually-assured-destruction - who are more or less ambivalent toward them but have to have them as insurance.

So in short, I'm not totally disagreeing, but instead of the implied "tiny group of HNewsers vs. Every big corporation" I think it's more along the lines of "pretty much everyone that does anything serious with computers vs. general apathy and a small smear of vested interests."

What would prove me wrong: Is there even a single currently reputable/established company big enough to lobby congress that has software patent royalties as a significant revenue source? If so, are there several of these? I'll be impressed if someone can think of one... but is there really some hidden computer software industry perhaps deep in the bowels if the fortune-500s that I somehow just never hear about that actually use software patents in the intended way [i.e., not for insurance against competing patent claims]?

EDIT: I'm responding to you and andrewvc at the same time- sorry if it countered arguments that you actually didn't make.
Why must they expire?

It is strange to think that a man, like any other man, so becomes singular in life and work in that work is his life and life is his work, to the point that such a massive passion grows for what they do that nothing else has any meaning.

That probably is simply because of a turn in life they made. If they are smart enough to be basically performing functioning humans, then the end of it would be a shock to the system, but which can be overcomed. So why must they expire?
A single supersonic or soon-to-exist (india is mass-producing) hypersonic missile might get through. But yes, even if 1 doesn't, 100 easily will.
Dashboard (HTML & JS) for OS X never really caught on. I wonder if this will do better.
A fingerprint reader is probably more secure, but actually wouldn't solve the "smudge" problem. You've most likely left latent prints all over your phone. These can be used pretty easily to create a fake finger that would probably fool the sensor.

Additionally, the history of swipe sensors in laptops is a mixed bag as far as this sort of solution goes. They are in almost all laptops, but almost no one actually uses them. Most people perceive them as too much of a hassle compared to the standard username/password setup. Maybe if phones start holding data that people value more (like digital money) they'd be willing put up with the additional work of using the sensor.

The ultimate solution would probably be something that grabs the biometric data without the user having to do anything special. This would make it easier to use and more secure. Apple actually already has a patent on this: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/27/recent-apple-patent-filin...
I think it looks a lot nicer in motion. Though switching between desktop and tablet modes could be a bit jarring.
funny you mention that - I just came across a chrome bitcoin extension about an hour ago: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hhbhfoohbnjkdcndbh... - but the publisher name (bitquux) does not fill me with confidence... use at your own risk!
These are misguided statistics. I can envision a scenario where using average numbers give you completely the wrong picture.

For example, the majority of the total value comes from the few outliers (AirBnb, Heroku, DropBox) and the other 80/90/95% of companies contribute relatively little to the total valuation.

So let's say they still own 6% of these outliers. Great! That's still worth a lot. But how much do they still own? Have their shares been diluted? Did they have to issue new shares due to further financing? Has that 6% turned into 3% or 1.5%?

I'm not an expert but it's quite possible that their initial 6% has been diluted.

I think the picture looks good, overall, for YC from an investment standpoint. I think avg. value is not a great metric by which to value the "average" YC company since my guess is that the majority of the value is on the top end.
Nuclear watchdog says Japanese 'underestimated' risk of tsunami
And it also likely introduces them to using much more robust editing tools that just a text editor.

You can learn programming badly in any language or environment. So it depends far more on the curriculum and the teacher than the environment itself.
> being willing and able both to retreat nearly 1,000 miles from your starting position

The Russian army did not do this in WWII -- the Russian army that faced the Germans at the border was entirely annihilated. Those who didn't die at the front mostly died in German POV camps. The Russians won the war because they had the manpower and industrial capacity to raise entire new armies to fight the Germans at a rate faster than the Germans could destroy them.
He believed in this. His wife presumably knew he did.

I salute them.

Now could we please get the hell out of their personal decisions? Seriously. I'm not comfortable with HN acting as if they're entitled to judge his and her choices. I doubt any of us would want our community to judge ours.
Microsoft's own campaign to rid the world of IE6
Good news! These Russians are remaking the HOMM3 engine: http://forum.vcmi.eu/portal.php
I'm in the recruitment process right now, the signal-to-noise ratio with recruiters is so low that I've basically stopped paying attention unless they are an internal recruiter.

Is it just me, or is it far more productive to simply make it known to your network that you're looking, and let companies come to you? That's what I'm doing this time and it seems to be working quite well.

For one thing, my friends won't refer me to bullshit positions, and more often than not I'd already know someone working there, or formerly worked there, who can give me some inside scoop about the work environment and any gotchas.

I honestly can't imagine trying to find my way through the meat market that is Dice and Monster.
+1 to Go. I am not aware of any books on it. But between the spec, Effective Go, and the tutorial you can learn the entire language in a matter of days if you have serious project you want to work on.
Luckily Google has decided that the entire rest of the world doesn't have to wait for every bureaucracy to upgrade their antiquated systems in order to make progress.
Ok, just to be sure I understand that correctly - Microsoft has invested quite a lot of money into developing Silverlight and WPF and then promoting those technologies among developers as the best thing since sliced bread (not to mention the only way to write applications for WP7) and now they are doing that? How is that for the coherent vision and a clear message to people who'd like to write for their platform?
Yeah, I'm not sure. That's the "unstable" version, and it looks like some of the chapter's are missing (everything after part 6).
As someone who lived 2 miles from the Cisco and NetApp campuses in RTP for over 10 years and now lives in SW Florida, Miami is not "driving distance." I live on the quiet side of Florida and will definitely be interested in this conference. Maybe I'm not the usual techy conference type but I have no desire to travel to California(for any reason) or to a typical conference location such as Las Vegas. I spend about 3-5 months traveling abroad every year and the West Coast of the US just doesn't do it for me. I appreciate the conference organizers for choosing a different area.
> These can be used pretty easily to create a fake finger that would probably fool the sensor.

At this point aren't all bets off? If a person is willing to do that, I would think they'd also be willing to disassemble the phone and extract the information that way. You would need a sort of whole-disk encryption too.