skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Also, due to UI issues, it's aggravatingly easy for iPhone users to accidentally vote on a comment. I've become incredibly paranoid when reading HN on my phone these days just because I've accidentally driven so many commenters ballistic with random downvotes. Getting mad over one or two votes just doesn't make sense, even less than getting mad over HN votes in general makes sense.

(Incidentally, and ironically given the subject matter, this problem doesn't seem to exist on Android. I wonder if Apple has a patent on forum rage.)
I think it's fair to say that Xerox seriously undervalued their IP, but that was a well documented failing of their management who didn't see the potential that Jobs did in personal computing.

Arguably we're fortunate that he struck this deal and brought these ideas into production much more effectively than Xerox was doing.
Whilst I'm not pulling, for a couple of months I've decided not to push them there.

This whole cloud of uncertainty needs to go away.
You might like this boilerplate SASS file that I made to handle a bunch of this type of thing: https://github.com/mgeraci/Sass-Boilerplate

I also see this post explaining the presence of the -webkit-background-clip (http://tumble.sneak.co.nz/post/928998513/fixing-the-backgrou...), but I don't see that behavior in Safari 5. Potentially fixed? If not, I would certainly add that to my boilerplate.
If I write a great piece of software, patent it, then run a business selling it, then that patent does me (and my family) a lot of good. I worked hard to create the software, and I should reap the rewards.

If software patents didn't exist, maybe I wouldn't have based my business on that software in the first place because I'd worry that somebody else would notice that it's profitable and use it to run their business. Patents are necessary to encourage people to innovate, though obviously some patents (that probably shouldn't have been given in the first place) have stunted innovation.
The 45334824923049203492th social network. Congratulations!
How to effectively communicate with busy people
That's the theory of why they might be good in principle.

I think the original poster was asking for real examples of how they have been good in practice.
Find some music you like that has contemporary lyrics in that language, and listen to it a lot.

"Tune your ears".

In addition to working to pick up the semantics of the lyrics, different languages emphasize different frequency ranges and sounds. You do need to literally "tune" your hearing to better perceive these.

Music you like turns this from a chore to a pleasure. Also, with music, video, books, etc., you start to pick up some of the culture, which helps you to become more "native" in your approach. There's also a lot of "slang" and contemporary word usage and dialog that will not make it into a text book.
Apple is using the patent system exactly as it was intended. Apple has been researching personal computing since it was founded, and invests heavily in figuring out exactly what works to make viable products.

The patents are broad enough to affect any smart phone and many other mobile devices. Context-specific actions based on local data[1] and real-time data processing[2].

The first question isn't whether or not Apple is a troll (they are clearly not), the question is: are they using patents in an anti-competitive manner. Do they have valid IP claims whose cleverness deserves protection from copycats or is this just kneecapping the competition?

Both patents cover technology that is obvious (today, they were filed 10 years ago). Neither has anything to do with what makes the iPhone special. And they are targeted at Apple's biggest competitor. So the most obvious conclusion is that this is a strategic move by Apple using IP that has no real merit.

To reiterate: This isn't using the patent system as it was intended. Apple isn't protecting the Apple-ness of their products from copycats. They are using their strong patent portfolio against competitors with weak patent portfolios.

1: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...

2: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...
Lol a social network where every users name is anonymous. What a great plan ;)
Invite all your Facebook friends to Google +.
A local college partnered with a local bank for some time to offer a Debt Card/Student ID which I missed out on but would find extremely useful since I proffer my driver's license every time I hand over my card.

With that said, I have no answer to your question, although I might come Monday if I get the time to call and find out.
So what did they do before (software) patents?
How do you explain that other countries without software patents still produce great software?

My opinion is that patents stop innovations rather than encourage them.
Hmm that's weird, I thought you need some kind of ID with picture on it if you want to withdraw without your PIN
As a student at the University of Waterloo taking the bus is standard. You are able to text the bus stop number to the bus company number and then it replies with when the next 3 (ish) buses are coming. I wish you were able to find out more information then just when the next few buses are coming like when is a bus coming at 4 o'clock, or some real time data about buses running late. No smartphone is required which is a bonus as it is for public transit, and on a side note I like that you can text Google and get search results texted back to you.
On the same note, look at the differences in the actual manipulation of the UI elements between the Macintosh and the Xerox workstations. The differences are very interesting.
Similarly, Max Planck's academic advisor said to the young would-be physicist that going into physics is a bad idea because all of the big discoveries had been already made and that physics had become a science concerned mostly with details.

Considering the direction physics took in the 20th century and the direct impact Max Planck's work had on it taking that direction, this anecdote, if it is accurate, is just mind-boggling.
Automating tasks allows us to work on tasks that we don't know how to automate and leads to innovation.
How cum laude is awarded differs somewhat between universities, but the University of Maryland, for one, does not confer latin honors to any student below the 10th percentile in their college. Here are the GPA requirements for this past semester for the college of engineering:

GPA Ranges for Latin Honors: May 2011

Summa: 4.000 - 3.976
Magna: 3.975 - 3.912
Cum Laude: 3.911 - 3.825

This is still well above 'just above average.'
Possibly the most critical code in my application:

#Non-destructive. Returns the input array/list in randomized order. Uses approximately O(n) time and O(n) space.
def self.shuffle_array(array)
shallow_copy = array.map {|a| a}
shallow_copy.size.downto(1) {|n| shallow_copy.push(shallow_copy.delete_at(rand(n)))
shallow_copy
end
My mom works at Metro, for popular routes the schedules don't change for years and years.
I can't stand the suit.
As I recall now, I once had concern from maintenance that I'd brought in one of the fire-prone halogen torchiere lamps (tip it and "watch the fun"). Once I showed them that it was a 15 watt compact fluorescent, it was no problem.

(Hmm, though I suppose that, these days, someone might worry about the mercury. Proper clean up of a broken bulb is supposedly quite expensive.)
How about a time machine so Mr. Clinton can go back and stop himself from signing a lot of the legislation that made this disaster possible in the first place?
SetDirectory[ToFileName[({"FileName"} /. NotebookInformation[EvaluationNotebook[]])[[1,1]]]]

Mathematica code. Sets the CWD for file operations for a notebook to the same directory the current file is in. This is not default for Mac OSX.
I think we lack ambition as a civilization more than as individuals.

Being more efficient means that we have to do more. When agriculture was mechanized, we went from a population that was half farmers (or more!) to one where less than 1% of the population farms. The remaining 49% of the population was not unemployed for the next century, nor did they all get work building mechanized farm equipment or drilling oil. They did other stuff, like build internets and go to the Moon.

Being ambitious as individuals is not enough; we need an ambitious civilization which is constantly trying to do more than it was before, and is endlessly hungry for more workers. Or else we are doomed.
To repeat my and others' question: What's in it for them?

Nothing tangible. Just good will and (in some cases) a clear conscience.

I asked this question because I wanted to get a feel for whether my expectations were right or wrong. The clear answer from the community is that the etiquette for leaving is rather complicated and that two weeks is not unreasonable at all. I also accept that the failure to retain this gifted employee was my fault (that was not in question). So it was helpful to read the comments as it tells me I need to do a lot better the next time around. Thanks.
The request was for an actual example, not a hypothetical scenario. Also, you seem to grossly misunderstand the function of software patents. You don't patent a piece of software; you have a copyright that provides the full and appropriate protection of law. In contrast, software patents apply to general processes, use cases or algorithms, as opposed to specific implementations.
Twitter Negotiating data sharing deal with Microsoft’s Bing search
> Back in the 80s, the Commodore C-64 had an intelligent floppy drive, the 1541, i.e. an external unit that had its own CPU and everything.

I remember by the time I got a floppy drive for my C64 it was twice the price of a new C64, $400 vs $200. It was a real luxury item in those days.

Obligatory link to Michael Steil's The Ultimate Commodore 64 Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsRRCnque2E
Biz, Ev and Goldman are looking for awesome people to work with them
In many instances, if you fail the exam you are booted from the Ph.D. program and given a "terminal" master's degree.

In many others, if you fail the exam (or exams - in my case they just rolled this into the quals) you are booted from the program _without_ a masters degree.

I once spent a month teaching someone topology from scratch so that he could pass a qual he needed to get a PhD in combinatorics.
One positive example I can think of is that Stanford's computer-music research center, CCRMA, was funded for years from the royalties they got by licensing synthesis techniques they invented to synthesizer companies like Yamaha. In that case, the incentives seem to roughly line up as intended: significant new computational technique was invented and patented, and researchers who did so get royalties to fund more research in the area.

Though even there, it mostly looks good if you look at the patents with a higher bar for innovativeness. Inventing something like FM synthesis entirely (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation_synthesis) is a bit different from patenting the Nth variation on some well-known synthesis algorithm.
Finished a project, looking for more, feel free to email me or drop a message below.
Maybe if they blocked their ads on the internet, but it just doesn't seem like there is much difference in blocking bing from advertizing on google.com and facebook blocking ads for google+. I think Facebook has even more market share in social than google has in search, and both are decisions about advertizing on their own destination pages with their own in-house advertizing systems.
What's a tool library? If it were something that gets damaged in use then yes I'd buy it, but a swagging tool can't get dull, and the bolt cutters I used to cut cable wire like butter didn't dull either. The closet entrepreneur within me would never allow myself to buy a tool I only need to use once. Gotta make little cuts to save money here and there, capitalist style.
This is exactly how I feel. I can't really take a lot of credit for thinking practically or rationally when I chose my profession. Just like everyone who studied history, philosophy or nothing at all, I am doing the thing that appealed to me most. Of course, not everyone is like me, but in talking to other programmers whom I respect, the vast majority are doing this because it's their passion.

The fact that it happens to align with a huge economic need, and that it's an amazing profession from every possible vantage-- that's just pure luck and historical happenstance.

Of course there are others who did go into programming for purely practical reasons. I had a colleague once whom I regarded as kind of a mediocre and passionless programmer. He was a cool guy though, and we got to talking one time. I started asking him about programming stuff and he stopped me. He said, "Man, I do this because it pays the bills and provides a nice home for my family. I'm a painter, not a programmer." To be honest, I had a huge amount of respect for that guy after that.
Under Texas law it likely will take 10 years for the squatter to acquire title via adverse possession.[1][2] In the meantime, whoever is the true owner can sue in civil court at any time to have the squatter evicted.

I can see why the police didn't want to get involved when it was only the neighbors who complained. If the record owner were to complain (the one who walked away), the police might well arrest the squatter for trespassing.

[1] http://www.lonestarlandlaw.com/Adverse.html

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession
A little bit of python that makes it easier to do shell-style scripting.

def call(cmd):
args = shlex.split(str(cmd))
p = Popen(args, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
text = p.stdout.read()
if not text:
text = p.stderr.read()
return text
"Please tell us about the time you, Kenneth Robinson, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage."
It wasn't half farmers, it was like 95% farmers. And despite nearly everyone engaged in food production, people were only one bad year away from mass starvation.
Cute. But I wrote the email under discussion in 2005, and the first version of signatures was not released until 2008.

I still think that my email was accurate as of 2005.
Or they could support existing open source social networking projects, instead of, once again, reinventing the wheel.
Apparently you will seen be able to mark circles as not appearing in your default stream display. It might not be flexible enough to do what everyone wants by way of controlling the streams but we'll see when it arrives.
The article states that the auto bailout "left Ford and GM as solid companies."

Ford did not take bailout money. It was GM and Chrysler. And I'm not sure I'd call either of them "solid" at this point.
Redhat?
I transitioned from a tech company to a traditional media company. I consider myself an avg engineer at best. The shit that I can pound out (self taught) like wireframes, flowcharts, product plans, marketing plans, automating data collections, in house wikis, usability reviews, is orders of magnitude more productive than the PR person sitting next to me. And these are the people who have jobs. In otherwords, being skilled, at least techincally, really deserves to be in demand. We can always make things more efficient. That's always going to be in demand.

My advice is to always think about your career a little strategically. Your skills should transcend your company and your vertical. Never give up looking at ways to be better and always be willing to learn. I see very little of that from coworkers. And after a while, those types of employees build up an impedance to being an autodidact, which imho, is career suicide. That's why I love meeting coworkers who are interested in the stuff I do and want to learn. I show them how easy it is to learn new things, and that there's tools that always make your life easier. Then their eyes light up. love that.
There are a few spelling and grammatical issues.

"in a fun, and harmless way": comma isn't needed. "There # Number: You probably want "their" (ditto for 'There Email') and "# Number" is redundant. Use either the pound sign or the word. You also probably mean "phone number."

How are you making sure your service won't be abused?
I must say, I did a double-take when I saw the front page of HN today.

I get that it follows the theme of Django and Sinatra. But Brubeck is not a very common name (the musician Dave Brubeck is my second cousin) and I don't normally see the musical Brubecks intrude into "my" domain. :)
I don't understand how this is an advantage for Verizon. It would seem that it would be easier just to tell the person what the bill is for. Court must be much more expensive.
How long until their domain gets seized?
Around here a major project had to be shut down simply because the contractor could not find enough welders to do the work.
signing of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm–Leach–Bliley_Act

repeal of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass-Steagall_Act

Although, looking back, President Clinton and the Republican Congress of the time at least had a clue about debt spending.
Visual Search for Twitter BETA
An American Profligacy with Credit is the Real Crisis
I don't know that they do. I keep getting an advertisement for "alternatives to adsense" in my Google ads.

The only exception, such as it is, would be that Google booted Copiepresse after that company sued them. They claim to be required to do so by court order, though Copiepresse disputes this. I haven't read the court order myself, so I don't know, but I can easily see it being badly worded.
Thank You, I'll fix that asap.
I realize that 'shitloads' is a imprecise measure but there are significantly fewer travel agencies today than there were 10 years ago (as an example). If you were to break it down into 'single propieter' / 'corporate agency' you would find that single proprietor agencies have been reduced dramatically.

For me the argument is convincing when technology changes the growth rate of a particular industry (in terms of jobs provided) to be negative.
Interesting historical note.

The original importance of Euclid's algorithm was that it made calculations with ratios easier. And the reason why that was important was currency conversions.

It is used today in cryptography, which is used for online financial transactions.

One way or another, it all comes down to money. :-)
Project Photofly: Create 3D models from photographs using the web.
Hopefully you've since migrated to Array#shuffle.
I don't have the exact example here, but I have a PHP function which takes a (newly deprecated) mysql result, and returns an array of rows as associative arrays with the keys lowercased.

I particularly like an alternate version I wrote of that which returns an associative array keyed by a given database field instead of a regular linear array. I don't need it as much, though.

(If this is still active on Monday, I'll post my real code)
I don't understand the point of this article (or why so many people are up-voting it).

The article says that unemployment is high and then it says:

"Maybe something is missing in the Valley and surrounding tech communities and that’s a stronger sense of responsibility to make sure that the vast majority of the country isn’t left behind by all this cool technology that we’re building."

I'm curious, what should the technology communities do? As far as I can see, by expanding their firms and hiring additional employees these companies are already doing the responsible thing for the national economy.

I realize that TC is not an economic journal, but I think that it is reasonable to expect a slightly more informed discussion of this issue without so much hyperbole.

The currently high unemployment rate is not due to the technology industries growth, and, as a matter of fact, it is the expansion of the technology industry that will likely provide one of the avenues that will assist in dealing with the high unemployment rate.

Just a few references:

- http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2009/03/how_much...

- http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1928261,00....
It is a forum.
Ah. The former model is what I suggested in my original post. I must have worded it poorly. I too, will not use ad-supported apps beyond testing functionality. It drives me crazy when there is no paid ad-free version.
I wrote a C#/.NET function (extension method) called `Becomes` that I use as a replacement for the various `TryParse` methods.

Example:

let n be an int
n.Becomes("2") //returns 2
n.Becomes("sdfsd") //returns n

0.Becomes("12") returns 12
0.Becomes("sdssdf") returns 0

Non-contrived example:

var person = Person.Get(0.Becomes(Request.QueryString["id"]));

Basically, given the expression

n.Becomes(SOME_STRING)

if `SOME_STRING` can be parsed as whatever the type of `n` is then it returns the the parsed result, else it returns (the value of) `n`.

More technically, `Becomes` returns a `ParseAttemptResult<T>` that is implicitly convertible to `T`. It also has `true` and `false` operators so that it can be used in an expression expecting a `Boolean` (e.g. `if` and the ternary operator`?:`).

Github Repo: https://github.com/noblethrasher/Parser-Helpers/blob/master/...
i think you can only remind someone once over a period of time
Full text = "Testing, Testing...

1 year ago we tested the first photo upload to an app we called Codename. A little less than 3 months after that, in October, we launched Instagram to the public. Now, 9 months later, over 6 million people have shared more than 100 million photos with one another on Instagram. Thanks for being a part of the Instagram community, and here's to 100 million more photos!

Sincerely,
The Instagram Team"
Why shouldn't we be buying content direct from the creators (or from the company that funded its creation, more accurately) rather than worry about what "channel" it's on? It seems weird to think about paying Disney directly for Disney content but that's only because we're used to paying for channels.

I prefer buying hand blenders from Amazon, instead of from Braun, because when it comes to the online shopping experience, price, delivery and customer service, Braun will not come near Amazon's quality in a hundred years.

As content creation is further accelerated, aggregators will have a more and more important role. The internet is creating more specialisation in commerce overall, not reducing it.
Show HN: My first WebGL demo, the first self-extracting PNG ever?
a little more explanation: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.os.dragonfly-bsd.kernel/142...

EDIT: from early point in development
In multiple languages (perl, haskell), I find myself writing a function that runs a system command and returns False (or sometimes, throws an exception) if it failed nonzero.

Also, in haskell I use these frequently to have monadic versions of some common flow control functions (some nonstandard libraries have similar functions to these but it's easier to write my own):

whenM c a = c >>= flip when a
unlessM c a = c >>= flip unless a
(>>?) = whenM
(>>!) = unlessM
-- low fixity allows eg, foo bar >>! error $ "failed " ++ meep
infixr 0 >>?
infixr 0 >>!
Letting the neighbors know and a sign or two is probably plenty for that. Once you meet the requirement anything extra isn't contributing.
I like Tatas better
You're probably going to get sued or shut own for harassment.
Programming isn't that hard to you, it's extraordinarily hard to a large percentage of the population. There are plenty of things I perceive as hard that people who specialize in it do not (I can't draw for the life of me!).