skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> What happened next was a hard wake up call for two young entrepreneurs who were
> ready to start working on their startup and something I hope any entrepreneur,
> parent or kid never experiences in their life.

Oh come on. The death of one's children is something to hope nobody experiences. These kids got a little rejection therapy and didn't even have to buy the set. You hope nobody learns the value of persistence in the face of adversity? Do you expect them to be able to go through life always getting exactly what they want?

A few years down the road, maybe you'll be chronicling a 15 year old Ben asking Susie to go on a date. Will Susie's rejection be a hard wake-up call that you hope nobody ever experiences in their life?

Instead, pull them aside and offer a little bit of mentorship. Tell them that this is exactly the same thing that white men with MBAs go through when they come up with an idea (it's the next Facebook!) and no hacker joins them either. Show them this site, where we developers mock rich privileged kids who think their ideas are zomg awesome: http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/ Teach them that ideas are a dime a dozen and that if they can't code and they still want to prove themselves, then they're going to have to roll up their own sleeves and get to work showing people why they theirs should be taken seriously. Teach them that they're NOT entitled to automatic help because of their age and skin color, but that they need to earn it.

But hoping that they never learn any hard life lessons? Ridiculous.
US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant
Interesting quote from article:

The hacker ethos is also classically male. "Being concerned with appearance, shopping for clothes and decorating your house are feminine values. Tech millionaires see that type of spending as silly and frivolous," Marwick said.

"It's more important to have the freedom and the independence to build something for a huge audience."
The Power in a Tsunami
Really? Well in that case, why are we even having this discussion?

Damn you, internet!
Redbox launches $2 per day video game rental service
Redbox on Friday added game rentals to its arsenal at rental kiosks across the country. Video game rentals had previously been available for some time at approximately 5,000 Redbox kiosks spread throughout the U.S. in a beta phase.
But... you missed the point entirely. All those points apply symmetrically to my platform choice. Sure, I could use windows or a mac, but it's a pain just to get the stuff I have out of the box on my preferred OS.

Use what you like. Just don't use your personal preference for specific software (which is all that blog post is about) as evidence for failure of the "Linux Desktop" or whatever.
I'd start with thanking Mozilla, since if they didn't create the potential for a vendor-neutral web then Safari and the iPhone's compatability issues (which were already substantial, since they actually followed standards) would have been insurmountable and the hegemony of IE6 would have continued to this day (and incidentally prevented Apple's resurgence which was partly built on iPods, but partly built on having a semi-compatible version of IE and Office, then Safari after IE got killed.)
This is such an old project. Myself and a group of friends cooked this up some time around late June of 2010, but once the novelty wore off, we realized it probably wasn't feasible. Like a few people here have stated, wifi repeaters simply can't provide enough range and transfer speed to reliably cover more than a very small area.

I'm not sure how you dredged this up, but I'm flattered. Maybe someone taking a whack at a similar project can learn from our approach.

- Michael, OmegaSDG
Rebol is a fascinating language, well worth a look if you are a language-geek.

Also, it's creator Carl Sassenrath wrote the Amiga Computer operating system kernel, the first preemptive multitasking system on a home computer.

http://www.rebol.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sassenrath
Reminds me of an argument Plato (or was it Socrates?) made 2300 years ago. Essentially, he thought that all "unjust" people believe their actions to be "just" - they themselves thought they did the right thing.

As such, these unjust people should not be punished for their lack of knowledge, but instead educated or rehabilited, as their unjust actions were simply a result of not knowing what the "just" really is.

A modern metaphor for this might replace "knowledge of the just" with "biology that can resist impulse," or something similar. The problem, which was just as valid in Greece as it is now, is the question of "What is just?," or "Is a non-impulsive brain chemistry desirable?".
Hot new browsers extension 
Your Browser could Be Better!
Hot new browsers extension
no matter if which browser you use,
there are pleny of great tools for all of them.
Check out Woolik Blog
"[there's no doubt that] he committed the crime. And, in that case, our legal system says you should find the defendant guilty"

And what legal system is that? Grade 11 law class: both actus reas and mens rea are fundamental (and equally important) elements of guilt.
I have one, but I was thinking about creating a second one for the strong AI I dream to create, after I create it :).
The money is not free. This guy has an interest in you raising money, because it means that he owns a part of your company.
I can't speak for Django but I've just begun learning Rails as my first web framework and its been a pleasure to use. It's DSL is incredibly expressive and offers great power with little effort. Aside from the expressiveness the TDD integration and conventional project structure are big wins too.
It doesn’t seem likely to me that they jury was in any doubt whether he committed the crime.

Well, it hinges on exactly what "he" means, doesn't it? Clearly his body and brain took the criminal actions, but apparently the jury believed that the "person" wasn't responsible for what the body and brain did.

If we based the consequences to the criminal of crime on restitution, taking the considerations of deterrence (including rehabilitation) and punishment out of the legal system proper, I think these problems would be clearer. If my brakes fail and I hit someone, I would still be on the hook for the consequences, without regard to whether I was blameworthy, and instances where a person's brain "fails" seem similar to me. Of course, killing is a problem area for restitution-based legal systems...
Nice writeup. Thankfully doesn't have a clear bias like most of these type of comparisons! A powerful Django feature (the admin) is rebutted by citing plugins in Ruby; I think that the fact that it's part of Django really makes a difference, with the smallest Django test project you can enable the '/admin/' and use the models. Either way I agree with the conclusion: for webapps you really can't go wrong with either
Great idea :).

Labels on horizontal axis need fixing though (eg. 6-10, not 6).
Can anyone provide a more credible source than a Pakistani newspaper? I did a quick scan on Google News and couldn't locate one.
I've picked Django because it can be run with pypy (jit python) and makes it very fast. I prefer minimizing server costs.
> People have a reason to use their accounts on Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail/Live, Facebook, Twitter, and etc. […] As long as OpenID remains just an identity provider, it will continue to lose ground.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. TTBOMK, Google, Yahoo!, and Windows Live ID are all also OpenID providers. E.g., the Isotropic online Dominion server allows users to “log in with a Google or Yahoo! account” with an OpenID backend.

So if your thesis is that people reject OpenID because they can't extend their identities from those existing accounts, I don't see how that's the case, unless the OPs have restrictions I'm unaware of. (People might not know they can identify themselves with those accounts, which I think is a real problem, but a separate one.)
Software extrae la ubicación en Twitter, incluso cuando está oculta
You should start a poll with this.
Ah OK. I mistakenly assumed that iTunes had them all.
I found a bit more analysis here:

http://techyum.com/2011/06/no-fly-zone-level-4-emergency-at-...

The NRC reports are all on their site as well.

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/e...
Maybe it's about filters that create a bubble of Internet space for you, that contain only the things you like and nothing else? I think the image they use as a logo and used on TED talk is a pretty good visual analogy.
I don't see a freedom listed anywhere in these comments that doesn't come down to the ability to make a choice. In fact, I think a pretty good working definition for "a freedom" is "the ability to make a choice".

Furthermore, the government plays a big role in _increasing_ the number of choices available to people in the first and second income quartiles, as Steko suggested. Looking only at limitations that government places on freedom reveals your bias.
This article is sourced from Sorcia Faal (http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/) who have an interesting set of 'news' articles.

They're also claiming that the US released a bio-weapon in Germany, so take with a pinch (small asteriod) of salt.

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1494.htm

From reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/i345g/us_orders_ne...
The second half of the article (about Obama's attack on the coal industry and that all Americans will suffer from higher electricity prices) seems very biased, which makes the first half (about nuclear power plant melt down) not very credible. I too would like to see more independent reports on this incident.
Ask HN: Would my signing-a-contract checklist be better as a FAQ?
A couple of months ago I put together a short e-book, Signing a Business Contract? A Quick Checklist [1] for Greater Peace of Mind. [2] The current version could be thought of as an MVP.

I have in mind producing a series of similar books, using materials I've written over the years and/or taught to my 3L contract-drafting classes.

QUESTION 1: Would the existing book be more likely to appeal to business people (including startup founders) if it were structured as a FAQ document, instead of as a checklist?

QUESTION 2: What other practical law-related subjects would such readers like to see covered in similar e-books?

Thanks in advance.

[1] The checklist itself is at http://www.ontechnologylaw.com/the-checklist-from-my-e-book-before-you-sign-a-business-contract/ - yes, I know, I'm giving away the core content of the book ....

[2] The book ($12.99 at this writing; pricing suggestions are welcome) is available from e-junkie.com via http://www.ontechnologylaw.com/before-you-sign-a-business-contract-a-five-point-final-checklist-for-business-managers-and-executives/ - eventually I'll work on a proper landing page instead of just a blog posting.
This is interesting. Do you have profiling information about Rails vs. Django in general and Django on PyPy in particular? It would be very curious to look at it from a performance point of view.
It seems like you can have the best of both worlds if you hire someone to take care of the support issues for you. The primary developer of a game as successful as Battleheart should not be wasting his time manually issuing refunds for users.
I think filters are only making formal what most people do anyway. The Internet enables people like myself (and probably many here at HN) to find other viewpoints with little effort.

What counts is who is using viewpoint filters and how often they go outside for a look at the world. That's policy makers (who tend to stick to one of three cable networks), CEOs (CNBC is probably a main news source), and advocacy groups (think tanks and political niche sites).
Well, in the TED talk there was example of two queries about Egypt made at the same time from different locations, and the first results page from one was completely missing information about unrests that were going on at that time. It's a little bit scary to me.
What's the absolutely coolest thing you could imagine working on? Spend some time figuring that out. The most kick-ass, killing it, totally awesome thing?

Then start a side project doing that.

Notice all the "but... but..."'s in your head. Ignore them.

Also: http://www.google.com/search?q=cognitive+therapy is good for addressing thought processes.
Reflecting on ways to bootstrap a startup
This may explain why they don't want people touching the river (from 6/13):

"OFFSITE NOTIFICATION DUE TO SEWAGE SYSTEM RELEASE

"At 0500 CDT, the lift station #4 sewage system, South of the Fort Calhoun Station Administration building, was released to the Missouri River. The release was a mixture of ground water and sewage; samples were taken by chemistry but dilution concentration is unknown. Approximately 105 gpm release started around 0500 on 6/13/2011. This condition is being reported pursuant to 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(xi) for an event related to the protection of the environment for which a notification of governmental agencies is required. Applicable governmental agencies have been notified per plant procedures."

The licensee notified the State of Nebraska at 1200 CDT. The licensee also notified the NRC Resident Inspector."

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/e...
Nebraskan here, in Omaha. People are advised to stay out of the river due to the raw sewage being pumped into the river, with the processing stations at capacity. There is little to no concern (in the area) of anything radiation related.
Of course not, there's a media blackout!

On the other hand,

http://www.ketv.com/r/28281114/detail.html

Ockham's Razor, plus the fact that it would be pretty freaking coincidental to get two very similar nuclear disasters within the space of a few months, plus the fact that the government really doesn't have any incentive to try to cover up a nuclear disaster, plus the incredible lack of actual action at the plant, makes me think this is a totally made up story.

In fact I think I'll flag it.
It wouldn't surprise me if they tried to cover it up. After all, even the Japanese tried to cover-up how bad the situation really was. Since USA is a lot more invested in nuclear energy (and weapons) it's easy to see why they wouldn't want the media to make a big deal out of it whether it would be deserved or not. And since Obama is planning on adding 2 more nuclear plants, that would make it very tough for him to defend his decision during the election campaign.

But this is why I'm actually somewhat glad that a disaster like in Japan happened. If even with something like that it's hard to break the status quo thinking that "nuclear energy is the only thing that can replace coal energy", imagine how hard it would've been without that. It could've been a few more decades to really change the focus to something else. It took almost a century for people to focus on something different from gasoline to power cars, not because nothing else would've been technically possible (especially if they really tried), but because nobody would've used that technology in their cars even if it was possible.

Related to this:

http://www.solarplaza.com/article/10-myths-surrounding-solar...
What exactly is the point of submitting a simple introduction-to-bitcoin story to HN? People here have seen, uh, a couple of bitcoin stories already.

If the point is driving people to buy some bitcoins, then this is not the forum for that. And people really need to be aware of simple-minded manipulations that can be and are played with the bitcoin market.
Having a drop-in development IRB console for your Ruby server process
that code isn't semantic!
I didn't do that at all. Linux is doing fine as a niche desktop, and my post doesn't say otherwise. The point is that it's going to stay niche in its present state. All the hundreds of millions of people currently not using Linux don't have a reason to use Linux, and will continue not having a reason.

Whether or not this matters to you depends on how far you want Linux to go as a desktop operating system.
I cringed when I saw him installing Django with yum. That's the surest way to end up with an ancient version.

You let the package manager manage whatever you are not very interested in (something you don't care with recent version you are running). I'd never let it manage something I can manage better.
The singularity is not near.

Kurzweil continues to pitch his prognostications for strong AI so that he can sell more books and speaking engagements. Despite experts in the fields of biology [1] and cognitive science telling him that we just don't understand these things very well, he professes that the key discoveries lie just around the corner and that we should just wait. You know, there's probably a business in selling some of his followers rapture insurance...

I'm a systems biologist who is at an intersection of some of the various fields where Kurzweil makes his boldest predictions, and I'm willing to place some bets. Before we see this ludicrous explosion in technology and AI that he describes, I think we're much more likely to see all of these:

* A cure for AIDS.

* Whole-genome sequencing for under $100.

* A scale up and widespread use of tissue bioreactors.

* Identified causes and cures for neurodegeneration.

* Effective treatments and diagnostic tools for many or most forms of cancer.

* Artificial hematopoietic cells approved for human use (no more blood donations, etc.)

* Designer babies with hundreds if not thousands of selected markers.

These problems are easier than human-surpassing machine intelligence. While I don't have a problem with believing machines will one day be smarter than us, I find it offensive that this guy continues to sell us on it happening within our lifetimes. It almost certainly won't.

Kurzweil has almost no appreciation (and I would argue he has little understanding) for biological systems and their complexity. [2] We can barely understand a single cell, and yet we're supposed to understand the brain in only a few years!

The best part is, when is is called out on this argument, Kurzweil admits it. But he then proceeds to tell us silly biologists in the errors of our ways--that we are missing his point entirely. Strong AI doesn't need understanding from the field of biology in order to happen. Consciousness can't be that hard.

In closing, SMBC's take: http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100114.gif

[1] PZ Meyers vs. Kurzweil - http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/02/singularly_silly_...

[2] http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/08/18/reverseengin...
The thing I don't like about Kurzweil's singularity prediction is it kind of sounds like predictions in the 1960's that we'd all be living in space by now. Yet, here we are 50 years later still burning gas in our cars but we have phenominal GPS technology in our phones. People (even scientists) tend to overestimate the "deepness" of technological advancement and underestimate the "wideness". I predict that by the time a singularity occurs that it'll be much farther out in time and may not even be a distinguishable event.
Article says: "Many economists put at least part of the blame for the severity of the Depression on the strictures of the gold standard, as countries clung to gold and put off stimulus."

Many economists disagree, for example George Robinson who wrote "Monetary Mischief" in 1935. I'll summarize his arguments.

First: the gold standard was not overly restrictive. People routinely did business in gold contracts, and there was plenty of liquidity. It is false to think that you must have "enough" money to equal the total amount of economic activity in any given group of people. Money is traded at the margin, e.g. if I pay you a dollar, and you pay someone else that dollar, we just did two dollars worth of business with only one dollar.

Second: "Stimulus" is what caused the problem in the first place. The Fed's policies enabled the monetization of the WWI Liberty bonds, and the monetization of common stocks, which led to rampant speculation and malinvestment. When the policies were finally removed, and they had to be removed eventually, the economy shriveled and suffered from its malinvestment (in stocks such as GE and Consolidated Gas, in Florida real estate, etc.) More stimulus is not the answer to a problem caused by too much stimulus. That's like prescribing a heroin injection as a treatment for heroin withdrawal. It "works" in a sense, but postpones solving the actual problem.

Third: the U.S. economy suffered a monumental crash in 1921, but that was not followed by a prolonged depression. That's because the people were allowed to suffer and sort out the consequences of their previous malinvestement and put their future affairs on a more solid footing, without relying on that next heroin injection so to speak.

A quote from that 1935 book:

"Our present difficulties sure did not arise from any scarcity or failure of gold, but, to the extent that they had monetary origin, sprang from monetizing property through the banking process at a very high price level, which had later to be demonetized at a much lower price level. We tried to make gold too efficient. In this we undertook a form of managed currency. The Federal Reserve system had an opportunity to restrict the money supply, but did not understand the matter, and failed completely."

Another interesting quote:

"Now of course it was all done in the name of necessity, as such things usually are. In his radio address on the subject the President said that there was not enough gold in the world to satisfy all the contracts made in its name, quite as if gold were only a medium of exchange and payment, and our only medium at that, and not at all our standard or measure of value."
What struck me while reading this article, is thought that modern society will be seen as barbarian 100 years from now - it seems very likely to me that people will see imprisoning (of person with brain problems) as something cruel, similarly that we are disgusted by concept of cutting off thieves' hands. Also this implies that there are many behaviours in our society that will turn out immoral some years later, which is rather uncomfortable thought.
What's the point of submitting stories about security problems? What's the point of submitting stories about Google? What's the point about submitting stories about Rails?

People are interested in it and that's why it gets upvoted. If you're not interested just don't read it.
Nice hack! I totally forgot about CSS animation with keyframes.

The YouTube custom progress bar for the Nyan Cat video made me do a double take too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4
If you're starting with Django, use pip + virtualenv, it seems to be pretty standard within the community
Awesome. Checking out DOM Monster right now. Thanks!