skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Your comment is true to a point, yet it avoids American responsibility on several key points:

* Afghan government was corrupt, but its corruption paled compared to the corruption of contractors.

* What caused collapse however was less corruption, more the utter dependence of the Afghan army on US and airborne logistics + a defection spiral once the Taliban was seen as winning.

Ultimately, what happened was a choice, even given a withdrawal decision. Had the US bothered, it could have kept supporting the Afghan airforce and paid off enough to prevent defections.

The real lesson other countries should take is not to discard US credibility because it abandoned Afghans (these types of cynical actions are typical in the world as it is, and we got it the admin doesn't care about Afghans at all), instead it's that the US is too self-absorbed to be relied on.

Both the initial invasion and the withdrawal were ideological decisions related to internal US dynamics. The US had a lot of options, and a non self absorbed country would have done much better whether it stayed or left.
Lovely Weather Defined California. What Happens When It's Gone?
I just discovered that the other week when I was looking for a KML plugin for Leaflet. Windy maintains one!

https://github.com/windycom/leaflet-kml
Which itself is a child of an even grander daddy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSIC-N

You can hear some recordings presumably made with these programs on this release: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Music-From-Mathematics/relea...

Some of it is gimmicky, some still kinda rocks.
In 2010 Notch said he'd probably release Minecraft as open source within a few years. I was rather looking forward to that.

Jason Rohrer releases all his games as open source. So there are mobile ports, spinoffs, etc. With the latest game you basically are just paying for a multiplayer account, the whole game is on GitHub.
Over the weekend, I got 2 phishing text messages about 2 bank accounts, at banks I actually use, one of which is a local bank, not a national chain.

One said my main checking account bank access was locked out due to suspicious activity just minutes after I did something I might expect a bank to flag (paying an individual via PayPal and multiple charges at a single gas station). I wasn't in a position to verify it at the time (I don't do bank stuff on my phone, and I certainly wasn't going to click the link), so I switched to using another card while I was out. A few hours later, I got another phishing message about the card I had switch to.

I don't get many phishing attempts on my phone and they've always been for banks or other services I don't even use. I'm really hoping it's just coincidence that I got 2 semi-believable attempts in a row because the alternative is that they're able to see what I'm doing in real-time.
Logarithmic method can transform static structures (what you call read-only, which means high cost of change) into dynamic ones.

Examples include B-trees (log structured merge trees, the most famous example of application of logarithmic method), kd-trees, sorted arrays (cache oblivious lookahead arrays - COLA) and more.

Usually, some variant of merge operation is much more efficient than application of changes. It is obvious for sorted arrays (merge sort). It is true for kd-trees - they can be efficiently constructed from sorted data and it is easy to fetch sorted data from kd-trees. It is also quite true for B-trees. B-trees degrade when under random data load (and hugely so), but they are doing well when changes are in order. Log structured merge trees make static (under random data load) B-trees dynamic again.

The merge operation for learned indices is, well, learning from two sources and merge information. My not so big experience with machine learning tells me that adjusting model is easier than training it anew.
I wonder how pervasive this actually is. I've worked a bit in retail technology and we put some sensors in live stores. Tracking dwell time and pings of wifi access points. They generated a ton of noise and almost zero actionable data. Every attempt failed to be deployed to a second store. We had some success with facial recognition but only in really funneled spaces where we could get a customer to look at a camera on purpose. And it was still only about 90% accurate.
If all the leaks accumulate we’ll just have one giant global lookup table with SSNs, names and addresses.
US Senate bill would legally require Apple to build a backdoor into iPhones
> Apple does email a receipt for the subscription to the card holder... so the privacy excuse was pure bullshit.

I called Apple support today for an unrelated issue and verified that what you say is true. That truly is egregious that they're hiding that information, and you have to notice it via your bank statement. At the very least the primary account holder should be able to see that an unspecified member of their family account has a subscription to an unspecified service, and have the ability to summarily cancel it. It's not unheard of to imagine that even with the "Ask me first" feature enabled to allow members to make purchases, you might accidentally click yes while trying to click something else - I've unintentionally answered incoming calls that way. Granted, there's likely a confirmation prompt, but between having your fingers fly across the screen from muscle memory, and having FaceID enabled - it seems like even with a confirmation prompt it would still be possible to inadvertently approve purchases.
Vaccines are highly, but not perfectly, effective. The definition is the same, it's the adjective that's changing.

For true immunity without anyone else needing to be vaccinated they'd need to be perfectly effective. Since they're not, more of the community needs to be vaccinated. The less effective they are (or the more widespread or infectious the virus is) the larger the proportion of the population that needs to be vaccinated becomes.
They've ended up with most of the Christians, most of the guns and most of the money on their side.

I deplore everything else about them but I have to respect the effectiveness of their propaganda.
I think that's a bad take.

Take Switzerland, for instance, or Austria. They were first-world countries before they were part of a trade federation. And, in fact, they were invited into the trade federation because they were first-world countries.

(Yes, Austria was part of an empire. No, Switzerland wasn't.)
Help open-source contributors escape Afghanistan
Then you get to learn 5 different systems with dark patterns
DVA Claims for Compensation
The title is probably clickbait, as the article starts:

> Update: It appears this bill, first proposed last year, is no longer likely to proceed.

The article was published today, though, and seems to be riding the recent wave of criticism of Apple's on-device scanning "feature".
Couple that with making engineers liable for what they build. Just like we do with physical engineering - build something that knowingly harms people? Get sued.
There was no right way. Anyone who thinks a different outcome was possible should watch the Vice documentary “This is What Winning Looks Like”. The Taliban was going to take over no matter what we did. If we couldn’t create a stable government in 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars then it simply wasn’t possible. It was probably never possible. The only alternative was to do what Obama and Trump did which is to kick the can further down the road at the cost of more American lives and dollars. The Biden admin absolutely did the right thing and the best that can be done now is to accept refugees.
Set my voice mail message to a modem carrier tone. Does not help too much with the spam calls, but no political calls anymore.
Leaflet works as it is in Sciter[1] too. SDK sample: https://github.com/c-smile/sciter-js-sdk/tree/main/samples/l...

So it can be used in pretty much any native desktop application. Including desktop games that use DX11, DX12, Vulkan or Metal graphics.

[1] https://sciter.com
Endless Sky: an open source space trading and combat game
I think we had the same book. I remember laughing out loud when I read on the back "Dyslexics of the world, untie!"

I still run Slack today, by far my favorite distro; as they say the most *nix-like distro
Poynton has a pretty plausible-sounding explanation here (https://poynton.ca/PDFs/Chroma_subsampling_notation.pdf):

"The commonly used leading digit of 4 is a historical reference to a sample rate roughly four times the NTSC or PAL color subcarrier frequency; the notation originated when subcarrier-locked sampling was under discussion for component video. Upon the adoption of component video sampling at 13.5 MHz, the first digit came to specify luma sample rate relative to 3 3⁄8 MHz. HDTV was once supposed to
be described as 22:11:11! Since then, the leading digit has – thank-fully – come to be relative to the sample rate in use. Until recently, the initial digit was always 4, since all chroma ratios have been powers of two – 4, 2, or 1. However, 3:1:1 subsampling has been commercialized in an HDTV production system (Sony’s HDCAM), so 3 may now appear as the leading digit. By convention, a leading digit of 2 is never used."

And here is lots of detailed history: https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/techreview/trev_304-rec601_wood.pdf , including a lot of debate in the late 70's about "three-times sub-carrier
(3fsc) versus four-times sub-carrier (4fsc) sampling." The victory for team "4" is, I think, why that's the leading digit, even though they ended up compromising on not-quite-4 in the end.
I’ll believe it when I see it. From what I can tell, Tesla has made no progress at all in three years. I just drove my buddy’s 3, and it was still diving to the right when a lane merges and the line disappears. This drove me nuts when I test drove years ago. Other cars do lane keeping so much better than Tesla at this point.
> Then you're telling me it not actually illegal?

There is a regulatory category called “Bait advertising” created under FTC’s legal authority related to deceptive advertising, and various legal causes of action (mainly fraud and breach of contract, but there are others) that each cover some part of what might be described as “bait and switch” in casual conversation. “Bait and switch” is something that different people will have different boundaries around and has no hard and fast definition.
Ask HN: Anyone have experience writing assembly in a spreadsheet?
I'm planning to participate in LangJam: https://github.com/langjam/langjam

The theme hasn't been released yet, but since everything compiles to assembly eventually, I'm already planning on building a new macro assembly assuming assemblies will be relevant no matter the theme.

I have ~2 months in a ~15 year career doing assembly, so it's way outside my sweet spot. However, I think I have a unique perspective, where I'm approaching all languages now as ones that can be edited in a spreadsheet GUI (as well as plain text editors and IDEs). If you want to see a (crappy—my video production skills need work) demo of what I mean, one is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l2QWH-iV3k

I've done some Googling around, and found this thread on HN where apparently Sony was encouraging devs to use spreadsheets to write better assembly for the PS3: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12294685

Was wondering if anyone out there has experience with things like this, and could share some more leads?

Also, if you like PL design check out LangJam this Friday! I'm excited for it.
We may be in agreement and only categorizing 'stable' differently. Of course you want a single-coherent world view. What doesn't work well is if inferred or partial-case knowledge is committed as rigid facts that are incompatible with new information.
Reducing entropy.
Economic costs of war
I don't know. I'm over 30 & I think the punishments aren't severe enough for repeat offenders (maybe T-Mobile falls here?) or in the face of egregious violations of best practices & incompetence (Equifax). I think firing the board of directors & instantly selling off the shares of the majority stock holders on the open market might be better measures, but it requires the government bringing lawsuits & that's not popular in the US anymore.
There's a specific list of countries you can't travel from. Spend 2 weeks in any country not on that list and you're allowed in.
Interesting that Windy uses a version from 2018. (v1.4)
Doing that has “economic costs” too. I have seen both the models. In the US, you can walk in to a dealer and walk out with a car. Elsewhere, you usually get your preapproval before you start car shopping. Then usually you have to go to the bank to close the paperwork and get the car in a few days to a week. It’s for the best in general. But it’ll make people make more informed decisions and that’ll reduce the spending.

And proper identify verification - like looking at the document in person - also has downsides. It still can be forged. Just a little harder than what we have. (Other countries with mandatory physical KYC and a wet signature still have fraud issues)

Overall I think it’s a lot of added cost and inconvenience for a slightly better benefit.
Also moral hazard, kinda.
Cesium.js: a JavaScript library for interactive 3D globes
Also relevant and a personal favourite even for the name alone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Burning_ROM
What % of your life right now is determined by external factors and pressures? Are you truly living this life right now for yourself?

It seems to me that you do have ideas of what might make you happy, but there are quite a few blocks, the most apparent of which is that you don't seem to believe that it is possible. But, it is fully possible to start designing a life that works for you. Millions of people have done it, but you will need to really look inside and listen to yourself.

Don't look at what everyone else is doing, or have done. If you consider what everyone else considers, you might as well continue to play a sort of video game where the rewards are determined by whichever bubble/society/conditioned norms you are surrounded by, and end up spending 90% of your time living a the collectively conditioned life. 90% of your life stressed and unhappy.

If you out in the garden and observe, you might notice how unique each plant is different from the other. The century plant (agave) likes dry conditions and blooms once every 10-30 years, but Hydrangeas need shade to thrive and bloom only once a season.

You are a completely unique individual, and what makes you happy will certainly be different from other people. Perhaps financial stability is important, but you've recognized that traveling/meditation/learning other stuff brings you joy also.

As a start, think about what your ideal life might look like. What would you be doing day to day? Give yourself the space to imagine something different, it might seem far from where you are now, but you need a direction to start moving.

When I was working in animation, there was an engineer who would work for a couple years at the studio (ultimately burning out after "crunch time" like everyone else), quit, then spend a year trading stocks in New York to recover from burn out and make up for the $ lost working for a studio. Then he'd come back to LA and work on the next production.

That was so fun and inspiring to me. What a creative way to make things work!

I'll end by saying that part of my vision was to live and paint in Hawaii (I also studied cs/did research). I was also thinking that maybe I'll have to wait till I'm 50 to start living my life. But this past weekend, I was out here with my new easel painting Kaneohe valley ;)

It took me 2 years - many small but significant steps along the way - being very honest with myself at each step. I did take a bit of a paycut/maybe sacrificed a promo, but I am 100% happier where I am now, doing what I am doing now, spending time on things that truly matter to ME. And, there are tons of people I've met here, who've done the same and took charge of their lives in the same way :)

Give yourself the permission to go after the life you want.
Yeah I saw Trump basically as a product of the shift of politics to a celebrity reality show, not the reason for it. This has a clear lineage going back at least to OJ.
Yeah, "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make"
Have you checked for depression? Sounds like one for me. BTW what's your partner's story so far? Sounds like he is not eager to leave London.

BTW I'd say don't compare your parents life with yours. World was different back then.
Haha, this took me a second. http://progressquest.com/faq.php

> Q: Everybody on the forums is talking about 3D mode, but I can't seem to activate it. Is it all bunk?

> A: The shading around the progress bars and buttons and so on gives them sort of a 3D feel.
I used leaflet for a previous project involving maps of users (https://tagmap.io/tag/slatestarcodex is an example of one), and my experience with it was wonderful; I'd be happy to use it again next time the need arises. The best part about it for me was perhaps how easily configurable it is, including easily adding additional plugins (for example, we used one called MarkerCluster to cluster markers for users if there were hundreds or thousands in the same area. Changing the style of markers, adding new ones, and so on, was also trivial). Nice library and experience in general.
Exciting news! I’m waiting for the day when it can operate for a full minute. That will be a big moment for the world.
Roast Me: Way to boost free to paid conversion at some scale?
I've long struggled with my retention rates. Especially for the free to paid retention rates.

I've tried in-app tutorials, email welcome sequences, and trying to arrange calls with customers.

Just so I could try to build a relationship so they could ask me questions and I could get them onboarded properly... But none of these was a home run.

Then I had the idea to create a way to send personalized thank you videos at scale.

Each time a user signs up for your app you get a to-do item to send them a personal video which gets sent to their inbox. The user can then click an email link to a webpage with your video. A new one is recorded each time so your new users each get an ultra-personal email right in their inbox.

With everyone being flooded with generic emails (just using their name at the top isn't enough) you can really stand out and show your customer that you're here for them.

Imagine getting a personal thank you from Jeff Bezos every time you sign up for AWS?

I think this is a really cool idea. But who knows, let me know what you think

BTW I created a landing page to catch any of you that would be interested: https://signup.thankyoureels.com/saas/beta
I love this game and I wish there were more people playing it to make it easier to find an online game maybe that will change now thanks to HN
That's your problem right there. You're going to therapy due to lack of self confidence. Your intentions for that are good, but women hate men who are not sure of themselves. You have to find a way to fix that.
It's all marketing and image projection.
This looks pretty cool. It's nice that it doesn't start with programming right away. The first level just gets the child used to interacting with the blockly editor, by moving shapes around.
LeafletJS is great! I've been using it successfully with multiple tile layers and a few additional plugins as well (such as leaflet-ruler[0] and RotatedMarker[1]) as the foundation for the map display in my virtual sailing project. Here's a sample of what that looks like: https://i.postimg.cc/8z7DMz3T/leaflet-sample.png

[0] https://github.com/gokertanrisever/leaflet-ruler

[1] https://github.com/bbecquet/Leaflet.RotatedMarker
38 is prime-time, buddy. If you can't see that, turn in your d___ now.
Except plently of people do wear jeans, tshirts, and sneakers. And probably don't get scrutinized like that. I would consider other factors like cleanliness/neatness, grooming, haircut style, watch & phone styles, etc.

The difference between a mullet and stains on your shirt versus a nice haircut and an apple watch on your wrist.
Unfortunately you're both right, and companies are making huge profits at the expense of their employees typically measured in time and mental health.
I'm curious about those tests, do you have a link? I'm also curious if there's been any attempts at open-source versions of more recent supermemo algorithms.
I'll have to read Simon, but I'll be looking for some stable types of responses to uncertainty, not rational but adaptive: reversion to past/training, confusion, overreaction, etc. ie something prevalent enough that it can be reasoned about.
Security doesn’t appear on a balance sheet, but security expenditures and related depreciating assets certainly do appear. A classic example of measuring the wrong thing.
The FBI is accepting tips on such stuff. Even if you are not a US citizen. With enough data (domains, IPs etc.) they could do that job pretty fast.
> That's fair. But the difference between Aurora-2018 vs Aurora-2021 is huge.

It is, yes. But none of that difference reflects badly on this new product line. It just reflects badly on Intel in general.

Xe hasn't existed long enough to be "always 2 years away". It's had a pretty steady rollout.
really, it's about division of labor, aka "allow someone to become much, much better at making chairs than you, a non-chairmaker, will ever be."

When you get so good at making something that it takes you 0.1-0.5 of the time it takes someone less experienced/skilled, the cost of your labor becomes an diminishingly small part of the overall cost. That makes it ever more difficult for the unskilled person to ever be able to make it "cheaper", even if they consider their time to be free.
Yes. There’s a reason some of the most often needed groceries are almost always at the back of a supermarket.
Also lack of isolation of critical systems, the biggest fault honestly. Basically isolate all PII and other systems from each other.
Building and Tearing a Flesh Portal for Diablo IV: By Three They Come
> The amount of privacy a rich man will get by paying $1000, a poor man can get it for $1

No, privacy is not autographs. Thats not how this works.

The rich man is paying a private shopper to use the PS's face in the facial recognition system and card tracking system. the PS gets the ads, but not the rich man. The rich man's habits are still tracked (by proxy, assuming PS doesn't shop personally at same store). At best, the rich man gets his habits co-mingled with PS to get slightly higher anonymity.

> The same can be said for loyalty cards. The one who can afford not to use loyalty card will earn the shop more profit (because no discount), meaning that it can offer bigger discounts to others.

Hmm makes sense at face level, but why would stores offer discounts to their worst customers? My credit card offers discount to those who spend 10k+ on private jets presumably because those people outspend enough to justify the cost
> An interesting thing to note here is the >. This is Alda syntax for “go up to the next octave.”

Whyyy?

You are going up an octave. The notes/pitch/frequency are going up. The subsequent c is higher than the preceding b. Why the hell do you notate that "b > c", not "b < c"?
Conspicuously missing from this piece is that the major reason[1] California fires are so bad now is that they were artificially suppressed for the last century. California is repaying the debts of a hundred years of nicer-than-natural summers.

[1] This is not a climate-change-denialist position. For example, Scott Stephens, Professor of Environmental Science at UC Berkeley, recently said this:

>I think climate change is no more than 20 to 25% responsible for our current fire problems in the state, and most of it is due to the way our forests are.

Source: https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/08/09/how-wildfire-restored-a...