skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You're likely not going to have a business situation which requires an employee to code a solution in 5 minutes. Even if you do, the team + collaborative environment in that situation vs in this present interview situation will make a major difference in the employee's performance.

You obviously want to hire people that can handle stress and perform well under it, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to create these unrealistic situations to test how well a candidate might perform on the job.

I'd recommend informing the candidate upfront that the interview will be taped. Then give him the problem and come back in an hour. Make the candidate provide you with all the scratch sheets / work and use these in conjunction with your tape to evaluate his/her performance.

I realize this may not be realistic, but it is possible and I think it would lead to some interesting and useful results.
Honestly, didn't think about it as "advertising" or getting exposure through tweets. Didn't really think about it at all, just went with my instinct.
Are we really moving away from multitasking on the desktop?

Yes, mainly because we're moving away from the desktop. Lion is largely designed for iOS users and laptops.
Text Slang for Baby Boomers [Humor]
'Text Slang for Baby Boomers' is the new 'Texts From Last Night'
Improve JavaScript error reporting with TraceKit
Cool side project? Hacker News is news in any sense of the word "Hacker". That can mean Enterpurnial News for any type of business. Or it can mean Show-Off-Neat-Side-Project News.

The one thing that it doesn't mean is One-Person-Or-Group-Only News.
Odd that the article is missing any of Gordon Moore's quotes on mistakes:

“One thing a leader does is to remove the stigma of mistakes. People who are afraid of making mistakes all the time just don’t try anything.”

and my fav

“If everything you try works, then you are not trying hard enough.”
Here in Australia you can do that with government blessing. Great service! http://www.deewr.gov.au/Employment/JSA/EmploymentServices/Pa...
Reading things like this is like playing Chinese whispers ("Telephone" in US-ish).

As opposed to the usual situation where the writer knows what the article is about and is struggling to explain it to the audience, in the average New Scientist article we have a situation where the writer doesn't really grasp what the article is supposed to be about either, but has a deadline and a certain amount of space to fill. So you'll see detailed explanations of the bits that the writer did manage to understand combined with quick handwaving and quote-insertion for the bits the writer didn't manage to understand.

The net result is something that contains all the right words and sounds sufficiently clever for laymen, but doesn't make much actual sense. Still, it fills in pages and sells magazines, so it's good enough!
FYI - there's a potential defect there - keys are not required to be strings so you should lookup the value before you cast.
Thanks for the clarification - I think to some extent we're arguing on the same side. Points about traffic I would certainly agree with, and to some extent it's as much about attraction as about increasing conversion metrics once obtained.

I'm not sure I'd agree with the last point about time - I think that balancing business generation, expansion and refinement is possible - but perhaps not so much amongst startup size businesses, which is more HN territory. In that case it should certainly be looked at as "is it better to try and get 0.1% more people to click buy or 20% more people to arrive" - or whatever you think your likely ratios are, hence cost/benefit call.
I agree with you. Do you know of any non-python answers?

Edit: why the downvote??
Surely Digest Auth is a UI ontop of HTTP authentication?
The browser does the work - there is absolutely no need for millions of hand rolled web login forms.
I'm a total physics newbie, what book(s) would you recommend picking up?
could also do something about www.house.gov
I started using TextMate recently, and I absolutely love it.

Care to share any interesting TM bundles that you like a lot?
That's absolutely true. My comment was more on the immediate mindshare issue.

My wife and i actually gave a talk at Rubyconf2010 about nutrition stuff and the engineering mindset (http://confreaks.net/videos/459-rubyconf2010-healthy-hackers ), and got some positive feedback, and got a few requests to continue discussing the subject online but my wife has been busy w/ school until this past spring unfortunately).

It's definitely good to see more food/culinary content moving online.
Kanye's Life-As-A-Service
Google's Universal Search sure sends Google lots of traffic
I would love to see something like this on the new Switch bulb coming out (supposedly) this fall. More info on the Switch bulb: http://www.slate.com/id/2298444/pagenum/all
Why post it here?

Maybe because you can find likeminded who appreciate and understand what you are doing.

I sure hope stuff like this is allowed even if it isn't applicable to a business. Who knows it might inspire someone.

Why the attitude?
Nice list there. How do you use Terminal to boost productivity - is it only when your working with code?
I've been frustrated for a long time by the lack of browser support for strong authentication with a good user experience. Form-based authentication always felt like a terrible hack. That's the only dog I have in this fight.

I certainly didn't want to frustrate anybody by posting what I did. If you like, I will delete what I posted on the StackOverflow page. Just say the word.
How many users also access the web via their cell phones
When your city doesn’t have a lot of ‘startup talent’
Windows Phone GM leaving Microsoft, with a rallying cry
I haven't really used Ruby much until recently, but what's wrong with just setting the GEM_HOME environment variable?

Wholeheartedly agree with not using sudo if not necessary, though. That seems to have become a bad habit for a lot of people.
So what you're saying is that pivoting is different than thrashing about?
Probably so you know that the output you received is definitely an IP if egrep returns 0. The script on the server could fail or return unexpected non-IP output.
Dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2859871
On the contrary, "by definition" has a very clear meaning in mathematics and logic. On HN and other forums with logically-slanted people, it's used to reduce ambiguity in drifting debates like this one.
For those who don't know Charlie his contributions include (as listed at http://www.liveside.net/2011/08/08/charlie-kindel-to-leave-m...):

- Founded Premier support

- Built ActiveX and DCOM

- Shipped Internet Explorer 3.0

- Drove the development of the home networking features in Windows XP

- Founded eHome and shipped the first version of Windows Media Center

- Drove the invention of Windows Smart Displays and Windows Media Center Extenders

- Served Bob Muglia as executive technical assistant as he ran the Enterprise Storage business through to him running the Server and Tools Division

- Was the driving force behind Windows Home Server

- Led the design and development of the Windows Phone 7 Application Platform

- Drove the Windows Phone 7 application platform ecosystem development and evangelism effort
i would love to create a text with pictures.. But I would be glad just to see a list of common pitfalls..
Lightning takes down Amazon and Microsoft cloud services
Submitted this and found out I was beaten by less than a minute :)

Charlie is an extremely famous figure at MSFT for everything from COM, Windows Home Server to WP7.

The first time I came across him was when I was in high school and I knew him as the guy behind COM (sorry, Charlie :) ) who wrote the funny foreword to Don Box's book. It is surreal to think that I actually met him and got to know him. This is a guy who knows how to build stuff. Big loss for MSFT.
Digest authentication isn't a UX change to HTTP Authentication; it's an inferior mechanism to protect credentials in flight (most real web apps use TLS to do this now, which is vastly superior) that happens to mandate weak password storage on the serverside.
I see these have a yellow filter on the outside. That means they're throwing away light to get the right color. I think that's nuts, considering how hard it is to get that much light out of LEDs to begin with. I hope they make a version without the filter.
He also know that sometimes the form is the function
If you're a paid developer, most of the time you'll be fine with the simulator. I haven't tried the app, just suggesting.
Hell of a lot of components for a light bulb. The joys of achieving feature parity with the (150+ year old) incumbent product/technology.
Public market newcomers getting crushed in sell-off
More importantly: Entrepreneur receives data from people voting.

You are signing up with Facebook Connect in order to vote. Which means he will receive more data to add to his companies database. I think this kid is to smart of HBS! He is outplaying everyone who is voting and not realizing that they are providing him datasets.
No, I'm just ranting, because HN is where I rant. It's good that you care about this stuff. If anything, it's the crazy SRP stuff in the original proposal that really sets me off. It is, in the end, frustrating that nobody (myself included!) wants to buckle down and write up all the boring details of how to do secure authentication today.
Is there a similar extension for chrome / does chrome allow such modifications?
Nurturing new open source contributors
congrats, sam and luke!
Why I Can’t Stop Redesigning My Website
Yes it is. You get downvoted here if someone doesn't like your post for any reason whatsoever.

And now that nobody can see any numbers, they can't tell if you've gotten massively upvoted or not, either. In the past, I'm sure they'd have gone 'meh, no votes, don't worry about it' but now they can't/won't take that attitude simply because they don't know. So they downvote. It doesn't cost them anything and they feel better for having tried to silence an opinion or fact they don't like.

Now, I'll be downvoted for being off-topic, and that's a whole 'nother story.
Did anyone else notice that points 1, 2, and 3 in the article sound like really good things? People saving more, employees being employed more efficiently, companies not being over-exuberant (which is what leads to bubbles in the first place.)
> HTTP auth doesn't make backend authentication code easier to write.

It makes it easier to shove into a library or middleware.

Most of the issues you list are UI problems that could have been solved with a non-modal login prompt, a "remember this login" option, and a "stop sending the Authentication header" button.

My point isn't that existing HTTP auth schemes are great, because they're not (even if they weren't saddled with a terrible UI). It's that migrating from those mediocre schemes would have been easier than migrating from the mediocre schemes we're using now will be.
By responding continually in a reasonable manner, did notch inadvertently make Bethesda's case easier, because now they can show that he somehow agrees with their case?

I'm not saying he does, at all. Just that when lawyers are involved, there's usually a good reason the first advice they give you is to keep your mouth shut.

FWIW, I never made the connection to the game "The Elder Scrolls" until it was made explicit. Shows you just what a weak case they have.
I suppose it shows that the LED has similar color characteristics to incandescent.
Three Potential New Dwarf Planets Discovered Near Pluto
Your state 3 should be "Has opinion B but has been exposed to a node in state 1". In that state, the next exposure to different node in state 1 would change the node to state 1b. True believers win by being immune to contrary opinions.

I doubt the researchers were motivated by headlines. Rather, they put together a simplistic model and got a simplistic result that is surprising only for the consistency of the tipping point across their chosen variations of the model. For example, other (field) research shows that the common reaction to opinions or facts that contradict one's opinions is to argue, which tends to cement one's opinions further. This doesn't necessarily imply one starts out committed. It also ignores confirmation bias, which limits exposure to contrary opinions. Etc.

As others point out, if their model was accurate, there could be no long-term stalemates, like progressive vs. conservative, both of which have significantly more than 10% true believers. Nonetheless, it is suggestive, particularly as it describes relatively isolated communities and as it implicitly distinguishes between belief systems which insist on absolute commitment (e.g., Evangelicals, Tea Party) vs. those which are satisfied with mere agreement and tolerate dissent (e.g., Ecumenicalists, Independents).
Ask HN: Why hasn't HN been converted to a social network?
(1) Many people here want to network
(2) Styles of thinking are clearly on display in pseudonymous comments, already making it more "social" than other places
(3) Many are addicted to the site
(4) People pay for a HN iphone app, so why not for value-added features here?

I just realized I have no idea how to message someone unless their contact information is available in their profile. I could put in a throwaway address myself, but I'd rather just click on a "message" button.
Does the use of connectors imply that users could replace failed LED boards instead of trashing the entire bulb? Or even upgrading to more efficient LED boards?
#nymday: Name Sovereignty Day
Yes, computers can make mistakes propagate faster. But its also true computers allow you to correct many mistakes very easily and therefore free you to take action because the cost of mistakes is much lower.

In the days before word processing, for example, if you left out a word on a page, you pretty had to retype a document. Now, you can make a thousand changes before you decide to print. And now you don't even have to print most of the time.

Think its tough dealing with a software bug? Fix it and everybody downloads the fix. Make a hardware mistake and millions of machines need to be taken apart one at a time.
I'd be interested in seeing what lightbulbs looked like if we designed them from scratch today -- without, as you note, 150+ years of expectations and needs.

What could they do that the traditional old incandescent can't? What would they look like?

On a more general note, does this "design in a vacuum" have any valid applications? Can this lead to ideas that we can use today, or is it just pie in the sky thinking?
As I recall, the fluorescents I like best usually have color temperatures in the 4000K - 5500K range. Anything below 4000 is too yellow. The 6500K bulbs I don't like as much, though this may have more to do with their low CRI than the color temperature.
Those lights look like they have been specifically designed for catching snow. Move the glass in front of the lights to the end of the tubes, problem solved.
Looking forward to the Switch company's LED bulbs. http://switchlightbulbs.com/

This was mentioned on HN a few weeks ago.
I think you've redefined the words intelligence and knowledge to mean things other than what Kay and others use them to mean. If you use a private language, it's easy to win any argument. I don't disagree that there are useful distinctions to be made between facts, concepts and wisdom; but I used the word knowledge to encompass all three.

I strongly disagree with you that "true intelligence" (a true Scotsman?) is a synonym for genius; both words would be hopelessly ambiguous in meaning if that were the case; and I also disagree that understanding is required for intelligence. Rather, some intelligence is a prerequisite for understanding, and to some degree intelligence is a measure of the rate of change of understanding when presented with novel situations - the first derivative, if you will.

If you meet someone who is quick on the uptake, who learns quickly; and contrast them with someone a bit slow; what are you to call that quality of them if not intelligence? This quality is not reliant on character or understanding, but rather the reverse.

And I still think that if you use the words as Kay meant them, you would not disagree with him. All the more so, since you emphasize the synergy between understanding and smarts.
Sure, the photo tells you that both would look very similar to your eye. It’s certainly not an worthless exercise to compare with photos, I think everyone knows what incandescent light bulbs look like.
16 Old-Skool Tablets Rocking It Before the iPad
The admissions guide to your nearest major university.
Show HN: Twitter API Helps Track Nefarious episod
Coursekit's new visual identity
Check out our new logo.

Incredible work by Ed Nacional. Joe does a fantastic walk-through of the design in a post on the Coursekit blog.
No, Chrome's extensions are basically the same as GreaseMonkey scripts (at least, that's the frequent comparison I've heard). Firefox's extensions have the full power of XUL and can radically change the browser.

engage beating a dead horse here

The lack of functionality in Chrome extensions is why I (and judging from the comments I've seen in most Chrome vs Firefox threads, many other HNers on Firefox) refuse to switch to Chrome despite its much touted speed. Until I can get Pentadactyl and TreeStyleTab, its just a downgrade in usefullness.
Where LED is valuable for me is in the dimmable category. I have "dimmable" CFLs and they are terrible, they barely dim and if you lower the dimmer too far they either blink or go off entirely. CFLs are just not dimmable.
I would hope that certificates are also paired with USB encryption tokens, and I could insert the one from my (physical) key ring and access the mail as usual. And once I'd withdrawn my token that access would be denied as expected.
From the website:
The draft versions of the license currently published are practically unreadable. An updated and vastly simplified draft will be published within the next couple weeks.

And at the bottom:
Last Modified on April 27 2007 08:01:26 UTC
If you alternate between being able to afford a coffee and not being able to weekly -- then you are not able to afford a coffee, period.
TLWIR 12: Libreoffice 3.4.2, NASA, and the Asus X101
Just a fun little side I made while playing around with the Twitter API, nothing special.

For those unaware, Twitter's platform/API guy @episod changes profile pictures very frequently, so I decided to index his profile pictures to see how they get cycled out or change over time.
Cool article. In addition to point 9, I would add that mistakes typically have consequences and sometimes those consequences are pretty tough. I think a fear of these consequences is why a lot of folks try to dodge blame. However, like the article says, accepting responsibility with humility and bearing the consequences (sometimes over a period of time) is the right course of action.
A Big Passion For Fashion
That may be hard to figure out at first -- but if you figure that out: you're pretty much done.

It's really not that hard.
This is a great example of why people shouldn't give up and "fail fast". You need to work on your marketing copy. We just launched LazyMeter on Friday after months of questionable data - especially when we first went into beta, we easily could have decided our idea was a failure. Eventually, we realized our users had no idea what we were trying to do for them. We designed a new website and wrote new copy (nice theme by the way! heh). We launched on Friday and converted over 1/3 of our visitors, achieving thousands of users on our first day. Keep at it!
Google+ App for iOS 1.0.2.1966 Updated | Google Plus Users
I agree - it's best to not let your enemy frame the debate. And agreeing to points is certainly not going to help your case.

That said, there is lots you can say. This is my favorite example of a great smackdown response from a small cable manufacturer to Monster cable who claimed design infringement. Turns out the owner of the cable company was a retired lawyer. It's long - but educational. Here's a sample of what's inside:

"If you sue me, the case will go to judgment, and I will hold the court's attention upon the merits of your claims--or, to speak more precisely, the absence of merit from your claims--from start to finish. Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it."

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-str...
If you're up for a real wild ride and have some time to kill (no, seriously - the thing is over 1000 pages), Roger Penrose's The Road To Reality (http://www.amazon.com/Road-Reality-Complete-Guide-Universe/d...) actually covers this stuff in a reasonably accessible way.

I can't say how it would read to a newbie, but ostensibly he wrote that book to be aimed more at the smart but uninitiated pop-sci audience than the practicing physicists. I'm not sure he hit his mark, quite, but when I was a second year physics undergrad I found it pretty easy to get through at least the first half (though I had worked through MTW's Gravitation first, so I wasn't totally new to the material - also an excellent book, if you've got months to spend on it and some more lightweight general relativity books to look at as supplements).

It probably depends, though - when you say "newbie", do you mean "F=MA means nothing to me and I barely passed single variable calculus", or "I got straight A's in vector calculus and excelled at freshman physics through basic quantum mechanics but never took more"? If it's the former, you'll want to grab Feynman's freshman lectures first, they'll get you thinking right about this stuff if you make it through them, and later you can start to worry about stuff like tensor calculus...
We did cut that. Where the cuts will come is not yet decided, but that they will come has been finalized.
The extra parentheses around the evaluates are not necessary, except in the last line. I'm fond of this pairing heap in F#:

type 't heap = Empty | Heap of 't * 't heap list

let findmin (Heap(x,_)) = x
let merge h1 h2 =
match (h1,h2) with
| Empty,h | h,Empty -> h
| Heap(x,h1s),Heap(y,h2s) -> if x < y then Heap(x,h2::h1s) else Heap(y,h1::h2s)
let deletemin (Heap(_,hs)) = List.fold merge Empty hs
let insert h x = merge h (Heap(x,[]))
He's not 'crowdsourcing' his decision. Their final tally is not binding on him, and it doesn't have any immediate effect. Instead, he's simply asking for opinions.

I think it makes for interesting data, but let's call it what it is.
The Big Mac index: Currency comparisons, to go
Since you're an EU citizen I think it should be quite easy actually to move and work in Norway. I couldn't find any information about starting a startup instead of working, so you should contact UDI (The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration) for more information.

http://www.norway.org.uk/Embassy/visas/work/eea/

Aquiring citizenship takes several years of living in Norway, likely 7.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_nationality_law

Check out http://http://www.udi.no/, The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration's website, they have a lot of information.
PS: Can someone please design some more SaaS wordpress themes? This is getting ridiculous.
I'm confused. Aren't password fields treated differently than say, my zip code, when stored by browsers? Firefox and Chrome have pretty sophisticated credential storage facilities with syncing and master password protection.

Can you really even call browser password storage "autocomplete"? Doesn't the browser see a password field and use the credential storage mechanism?
Well, I would have answered Linux on that poll, because I use it as my primary work environment. But I almost exclusively use Windows for web browsing. Maybe I'm atypical though.
Short haircuts with bangs| short haircuts for fine hair
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