skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
For an example take the "Loading Screen Game" patent (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/loading-screen-game-pa...)

> According to the law, a person isn’t entitled to a patent if the claimed invention already existed when the application was filed or would have been obvious to someone skilled in the relevant technology area.

This usually is completely overlook in patents. So, patents are ridiculous, they overlap and create a legal minefield for any small developer. Patent trolls exist because the patent system is so easily exploitable.

I am not against the concept of patents, I see the value of allowing some corporation to regain invested money. But, it needs to be for real inventions that took time and effort to develop thru costly processes. Meanwhile things like "one-click buying, is the technique of allowing customers to make purchases with the payment information needed to complete the purchase having been entered by the user previously" are accepted. Patents are a useless joke, at least in the software industry. And its only goal is to increase the power of already monopolistic corporations.
...but there is a huge percentage of the population that doesn't like / play video games.
That would depend on the government to notice and take action. I imagine if one person left and the company put a suitable replacement in, it may not be noticed and wouldn't likely draw any lawsuit. But swapping in a "D team" as described would likely provoke a response.
Apple could do very, very, very well if they targeted the nintendo switch level of 'serious' gaming. And there are many very good games for that segment. They also have all the kids already with iPads & Roblox. There are way more iPads & macbooks out there than there are nintendo switches, and if apple actually made a set of dedicated serious gaming hardware & efforts for the platform they would wipe nintendo on the floor.

TBH the macbook air would make a better switch than the switch as far as multiplayer portability goes. The switch screen is too small to play something like smash bros on it with friends, and the 'travel dock' solutions are too clunky IMO.
If Bitcoin did 50,000 transactions/second it would be impossible to keep it decentralized, since the size of the blockchain would be prohibitively large for most people to store/validate locally.

So being slow is actually a good thing to keep it away from centralization. Things like Lightning on top of Bitcoin can manage day-to-day micro transactions.
I really enjoyed reading this. Very well written. At companies I worked teams can never read data from the DW btw.

My experience with A/B tests is that they are way overrated.

On the poor data quality. You sit on a product like a call center. Frontend developers thinks it is an excellent idea to store all data in some doc db blob. Then business wants stats about number of calls based on users...

Be careful when putting tabular data into doc dbs.
One word: mobile.
Its frustrating that it often costs the same price as its alcoholic counterpart. In many countries the tax on alcoholic drinks is taken as a acceptable reason for the high prices in bars. But when the non-alcoholic versions are just as expensive, it feels like robbery. There seems to be huge interest from customers but bars and govts haven't pulled the right strings to enable a change that would benefit society in general.
Yeah this is the crux of it isn't it? And it's not just the problem of manufactured consent either, there is also the problem of mistaken consent that grows organically out of human frailties like our cognitive biases and appetites for drama.
It should be taught somewhere at school that if your job involves lying, there is probably something deeply unethical about it.
There's certainly a fairly steady diet of musicals/plays on Broadway/West End that are adapted from popular films. And, while many are well done, they also just feel utterly unnecessary in most cases. (There are exceptions--Network for example.)
In those cases the customer has to approve the replacement (within reason). Comes with a price premium though.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but non alcoholic beer tastes like crap. Ive tried to “quit” alcohol in the past and tried drinking NA beers: Lagunitas NA IPA (disgusting taste), Odoules (meh), and Athletic Brewing (one flavor was drinkable).

Heineken 0.0 was the best tasting NA beer but still, it just felt like I was drinking sugar for no reason.
Probably the best way to evaluate people, I guess it just doesn’t scale that well…
Yes and no.
There are countless innovations that have been lost over time (I.E. Ancient Roman's had stainless steel but it was lost), some were rediscovered some weren't, patents hope to prevent that by giving some incentive. This hasn't always worked though, for example Philo Farnsworth basically invented the modern TV but the large companies just waited for his patent to expire before moving on thus making it so he never really got paid anything but to contrast that the expiration on patents for 3D printers is what's causing so much innovation in that space today.

The main problem is when stupid ones (like the same thing as before but now with software) are granted it drags everything down, and the very concept of patent trolls is a destructive force not contributing to humanity at all.

Combine that with how most patents are forced through by submitting it until it sticks and it's a pretty broken system tbh.
She was an Executive for 2 years. 10 years a go she was a Product Marketing Manager.

She's had a huge swath of press over the last few years for not 'apparent' reason, meaning it's likely she has been a 'chosen one' from some inner circles, probably Sandberg herself who's been putting her name in when People, Chatelaine etc. and the ladies magazines come looking for a 'Rising Female Star' to profile.

It's a paradox with these kinds of companies because you don't want fully 'tried and true' you still need the dynamism of startup leaders. But usually going to an IPO they get someone Wall St. will rely upon.
Check out Partake’s IPA - up there with Athletic but 10 calories
I tried to find the source for this claim too in the past. The nearest I can find is that it implies the HVAC system is sized correctly: if the system is optimally sized, it should need to run most of the time to stay at the desired temperature. If it changes the temperature too fast, then it may end up with wild temperature swings that overshoot the desired comfort level and waste energy that way. In certain situations, with good insulation and building design, this waste can apparently exceed the savings from a few percent lower degrees for part of the day. If I understand correctly, this is a bigger problem for heat pumps that take a long time to spool up/down so simple bang-bang hysteresis control has poor performance in this scenario.

Edit: as another poster mentioned, for heat pumps (like AC, but frequently not furnaces), it is also much more efficient to run them when it is cool outside (the morning), and then maintain that temperature through the day as a cold reservoir, than to try to expel the heat when it is hot outside. Which is probably a better explanation for the effect.
Have you tried looking for it? It definitely exists.
And a perfect example of how regulatory capture works. I don't have a solution, but I am convinced that over time this is the end result of ANY regulation. It doesn't matter what the original intent is/was.
Australia and Europe do not recognize them either. Australia is pretty innovative in the software industry considering its small population (which is less than 1/10th of the US).
Introducing something into an existing team and starting a project or team are very different things.

But I share some of your reasoning and am curious how this actually plays out (I haven't seen any examples so far). One project I worked on, when starting they wanted to do Clojure and they ended up using RoR because everyone was using it and Clojure was a hiring concern. In retrospect RoR fell out of favour, there's a bunch of vacancies for it but it's not very hot so it's hard to find devs and they are forced to take "learn on the job" just like with Clojure, plus you need to compete with a bunch of employers looking to support their projects in now out of fashion stack. I think using Clojure would give them a unique candidate pool and be a hiring differentiator. But that's just speculation. I haven't actually seen how this choice works out in practice.
Do you still use Apple laptops? If not what do you use?

Are Apple laptops higher quality, compared to competitors (despite design issues)? My current Macbook had the screen laminate peel off after a few years. To Apple's credit, they promptly repaired the machine at no cost. But I've had friends with similarly priced laptops (XPS, Razor, ...) who encountered similar build-quality issues, but did not receive the same level of support. Granted, all this evidence is anecdotal. I am curious to see across the board comparisons.

Plus, I'm in the market for a new laptop anyway, so this would be a valuable data point. :)
You are right in asking that question. What just happens that when there are thousands of small violators, it's not easy for lawsuits to proceed. When there's a central entity involved, Github in this case, there is someone discrete to be challenged or talked about.

What Github has done is that they have not claimed rights over the generated code, and have passed on the responsibility to the developer/entity using the generated code. In other words, they are supplying tool that can make copies, not necessarily violating the copyright themselves {Foonote 1}. So the Betamax ruling can come into play here, AFAIK.

What's thereby needed is that the developers now need to be educated about it, which is what the articles like the OP will end up doing. The developers often aren't well-educated about this stuff themselves, and presume that using generated code is just fine. See how I was downvoted here, as an example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27735484

{Footnote 1}: Whether the Github CoPilot model itself is violating copyrights is another matter. If the training data has included AGPL-licensed code, even that may be an violation. However, several other licenses would not be violated till the model is "distributed".
Really wish Mac would support Vulkan. It kinda works with the moltenvk vulkan to metal translation layer but it’s not ideal.
Ask HN: API Design Courses?
I'm struggling to find a good course that focuses mostly/soley on API Design.

What I find is a ton of courses on creating an API in language 'X'; that's not what I'm after, I understand the nuts-and-bolts of creating an API (primary C# Web-API if you're wondering). I'm after a course that covers the design of the API before you write any code.

BUT if you do know of an excellent API Design class that's also happens to be C#/Web-API focused, please send that along too!

Thanks!
I don't think that's the lesson. The problem described is with maintainability. That's not political; that's technical. (It just looks political, because people say "No, you can't use that language" after they've seen the maintainability problem a few times.)
M1 is basically a beefed-up iPhone SoC. Give them some time.
Reading all comments here I'm not sure what kind of typesystems you are refering to. (you mention static typesystems but the discussion seems broader than that)

They come in different forms. Some can rely heavily on inference (Typescript) and some need to be very verbose (Java)

There are structural typesystems (Typescript) and nominal typesystems (Java)

In a structural typesystem the contents of a type can be compared to another type and match, whereas in a nominal typesystem it has to be the same type id to match. The former is more dynamic than the latter.

I don't like Javas typesystem but I like Typescripts typesystem because it's more flexible and doesn't force you to be verbose (you can for example only type function arguments and let it infer the rest)

One benefit I haven't seen mentioned here is the ability to refactor code with confidence and less need for unit tests.

For example comparing Javascript to Typescript; If I change a functions argument that is used in many places, the typesystem will give me a list of other code where the function is used I need to change in order for everything to work again.
>If your complaint is “what? Sushi again?!”

None of the cartoons were saying that though, were they?

>You should have some perspective.

Should my perspective expand to include straw men?
I can't think of a single patent in software that actually had a positive impact on the industry. Copyright provides enough protection for any actual investment in software.

Other industries where R&D cost is high and the end result can be very compact (a chemical formula, a new material, etc.) can benefit from patents, but that R&D cost needs to be verifiable and substantial.
to make a related point, I think that notions of programming (e.g. scope, types, awareness of Hungarian notation) should influence how we write math more. I do not think the goal can be to make code look like "math" completely because there is so, so much punning in how most people write math.
Funny how they ask it now that China took the lead in patents.

Why does US only recognize a bad idea when they end up on the receiving end?
Lulz?
finally a sensible comment
Just watched this video [1] by someone who got sued because his "android app uses a license server".

Those patent troll shell companies sue one victim after another and forward the incoming money to other companies. So there's no use in going after them directly. The victim can negotiate better terms if he signs a non-disclosure agreement. The patent trolls are protected by politicians, judges and lawyers.

[1] https://youtu.be/sG9UMMq2dz4
Not quite there yet but I've heard good things about https://www.ritualzeroproof.com/
> Two ways to solve this: 1). limit transferrability, for example: patents can only be owned by natural persons and cannot be transferred to other persons or legal entities; 2). making it very expensive to keep the patents.

Or require active productive use after a certain time period to maintain the patent, at least for certain classes of owners [1].

[1] ...because small-time inventors will probably have more trouble putting their inventions to productive use, and you don't want to disadvantage them w.r.t. some big corporation (e.g. if all patents expire in five years without use, the corp may just decide to wait instead of paying). This probably could be phrased as an exception to a general rule for entities that only control a small number of patents.
"higher tier content" is one way of describing the world's oldest profession
I haven't seen beer that low, but here in Ontario a number of breweries started offering beer around the 3% mark. I really can't handle anything much above 5, and these are good breweries offering a nice alternative from their usual boozy, hoppy IPAs.

Of course, a lot of American beers are around that percentage point, but the ones I'm talking about are a bit higher quality in my opinion :)
Well my Mac book pro (2018) battery has started to expand and bend the case. To replace the battery according to ifix it is very difficult. So I effectively have a paper weight with a high performance i9 in it because Apple couldn't make the battery removable in a device that isn't even waterproof. Even Apple them selves say a battery is a consumable. Then why do we have to deal with this garbage?
Yes. But it's an easy fix:

* Anything that is copyrightable cannot be patentable. That should be obvious. "inventors" must be forced to choose one protection

* Software should not be patentable in every circumstance: It's well established that math cannot be patented. It's well established that business processes cannot be patented.
The difference is that Electron guarantees you're always using a known version/engine. With Tauri, you'd be using whatever is installed, and that engine may behave different from what you are used to.

So basically you get all the drawbacks of developing for different web browsers, without really any of the benefits a cross-platform GUI gives you.
> A part that 90% of people probably already own 10 of? Sounds like 10% more packaging and 90% less e-waste?

No, not everyone has those parts since they purposedly changed the way the part works. I mean, look at Apple, chargers used to be USB Type-A -> Lightning and they the included cable from USB Type-C -> Lightning.

Move also made no sense since these chargers usually may not even outlast the person's device. In the end of the day you're causing more waste.

And yes, they do accept devices for recycling, what they do with them its unknown.
At the top end of the market the amount of money involved means it's often more economical to focus on maximising occupation, rather than minimising initial costs. My apartment, for example, is worth around £1m and has around £10,000 worth of furniture in it provided by the landlord: if during the lifespan of the furniture the convenience of the apartment being furnished reduces tenancy voids by a total of 3 months then the furniture pays for itself.

I don't want to expose my address but you can browse "London" on the UK property website Rightmove and find comparable apartments (same building, same floorplan) with furnished/unfurnished prices that are no different.
How do you figure? There's no offramps from Drive or Docs into Search as far as I know. Are you saying that because they're subdomains, it somehow works to get you to ads?

Docs and Drive want to sell you storage and collaboration capabilities. Not ads.
Cloud Native Software’s Technical Debt Is Growing
I think "Movies", as we remember them from the decades of yore, will have a resurgence in the near future due to 2 things:

1) The demand for movies outside of what the streaming services are making.

2) Most aspects of movie production go completely digital to bring costs down astronomically.

The easiest way to embrace digital is to just make an animated movie that looks animated with some interesting cool art style / rendering techniques. Maybe the boomer generation doesn't respond well to animation, but Gen X and Millennials are fine with it.

Otherwise, just look at The Mandalorian for an example of what they've been able to do digitally. A huge huge huge Unreal Engine powered screen, instead of your typical green screen. It is linked to the camera so you get proper depth and angles as the camera moves. The lighting is realistic since the screen is actually shooting light onto the actors and props. And the director can see the composition of the shot in real time.

As more aspects of production will go digital like this, costs will go way down. And hopefully we can have our "movies" again =)
Because it's difficult to write large amounts of reliable code with c++.

Yes, it's easier with modern c++, but it's still significantly harder than with, say, rust or ada (or java for that matter, which is not slow, contrary to popular belief).

Furthermore, in the Facebook case, it's about cost : you save money by being faster, but you don't want to lose money because you're tracking overflow bugs in c++. If you can have both execution speed and development/maintenance speed , it's much better.
Not a great link, but this covers the gist of it:

https://www.flavorwire.com/492985/how-the-death-of-mid-budge...

It quotes a (clearly a bit exaggerated for effect, at the low end) range of $500,000-$80,000,000 as "mid budget", and gives examples of the category including Blue Velvet, The Godfather, and Hairspray.

It's not that no films are made in that range anymore, just that it's much harder to find financing for a project in that range for a film intended for wide release and any amount of promotion. The money guys want a nothing-budget movie that might become a hit (the startup model), or huge can't-lose projects with likely outcomes that don't include a loss, or not much of one (the formulaic international-friendly [by which I mean China-friendly] action blockbuster that everyone seems to hate, but that nonetheless consistently make piles of money)

It quotes a bunch of mid-budget directors complaining about this, some leaving filmmaking entirely because their options seem to be to go back to making shoestring-budget movies like they did when they were starting out, or start working on projects they don't like (huge-budget films), aside from self-financing. They seem to be concerned about how the next generations of directors will develop their careers, without stable financing for directors who've "made it" but don't want to make Marvel movies and such—IMO we're probably heading back to something resembling the studio system, largely, so the era of lots of Important Directors who Really Matter may be on its way out, anyway, at least for a while.

[EDIT] Also, searching things like "the death of the mid-budget film" turns up tons of material like this.
At least part of the answer is, "more than one team member knows F#". It can't be just one person's pet language; a significant number (half?) of the team needs to be comfortable working in that language.
Security through obscurity. Your crypto is safe :)
Its overkill for microsoft word, but its right in line with workstation applications - engineering,programming,content creation, etc all need beefy CPUs and GPUs. They're not really niche. Workstation laptops do sell quite a bit. Gaming laptops overlap with them.
In comparison, my Thinkpad P1 Gen 3 I bought a month ago keeps the fans running while it is sleeping. The machine is warm to the touch all the time. From what I've read, Lenovo blames it on Microsoft's modern sleep requirements.

This morning I configured it to hibernate after 30 minutes, so I hope that fixes the problem.
Yeah. I don't know if I'd kill for it, but that would be cool. I guess it's easier to take the alcohol out of something that doesn't taste like alcohol (beer), that it is when alcohol is most of what's in it.
Happy Death Day was a great, and unique, idea I loved it. I even thought the second was not bad even if I don’t think they needed to try and explain what was happening scientifically. I forgot about Freaky and will have to watch that.

I actually think TV shows are where good film comes from these days, especially with them not being made for syndication so we now can get 6 episode seasons. Mare of East Town was a great mystery that just came out. It is true that the superhero genre has hijacked a lot of talent.
SLR cameras go back well over one hundred years. For example the early Graflex models. http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Auto_Graflex
Your being sarcastic, right?

A system like patents needs to demonstrate a clear and very large benefit to offset the fact that it removes people's freedom to implement ideas of their own inventions, to implement their own thoughts. That should be a hard thing to take away. I don't think patents demonstrate a large enough benefit to justify that.
> iPhone was a first of it's kind. We had smart phones, we had touch screens, but Apple pushed the boundary. Everyone followed.

I agree that Apple took the lead, pushed the boundary, and that everyone else followed. But I think it was an inevitable evolution in the tech. In the absence of Apple, another company would have carried the torch, maybe 6 months later, maybe a couple of years later. But it was going to happen regardless.
I worked in patents about 15-20 years ago. What I remember in this golden era of patent proliferation was that the US patent office, if in doubt or just by default, just issued the patent and waited for people with prior art to object.

Not sure of the numbers, but I remember IBM would file by the thousands every year for every little thing. Including one for the work that the company I worked for actually did that they caught wind of and decided to beat us to the punch and file. We eventually were granted it, but it was a high legal cost to show we had the idea first.