skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's a joke, he/she is playing ignorant for humorous purposes. I smiled. :)
Chrome OS hacked, extension vulnerability exposed at Black Hat 2011
That clip shows that he hates Christians, not that he loves science.

It's not even accurate (to the extent that any counterfactual can be considered accurate). If Christianity had never existed, would that have prevented the fall of the Roman Empire? Unlikely. Even if it had, were the Romans in the 3rd Century AD making huge strides in science before Christianity came along? Nope. And you'll note that when modern science did eventually arrive, it showed up in the Christian part of the world rather than the other 90%, which suggests Christianity can't be retarding scientific or technological progress that much.
there's the saying that any publicity is good publicity, but I still fail how funny posts or things like this really help people differentiate and want to use your service, as a mobile cloud computing company. Yes I know about your company and the name, but you still haven't convinced me to adopt.
Aug 6 Independence Day in Jamaica- Nanny, The Maroons, Counter-Economic pioneers
The Win32 subsystem certainly does enforce, at least in a default install, a lot of conventions that allow the system to maintain backwards compatibility with a long, long, MASSIVE legacy of software. Many, though not all, of them can be changed or disabled. That includes the command processor that interprets the batch language. If you think thats the only shell interpreter that is available for Windows, you should have a look at PowerShell. It's not too shabby.
Sorry, I didn't notice the filter. If/when you update the app I'll be glad to usability test it again. Just let me know! (jay@jayfuerstenberg.com)
Me believing in your startup is included in my rate. So is passion. If you're going to nickel and dime my rate, both will affected.
That's correct. On both of these sites, I may use C, C++, C#, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, or Perl. On Interviewstreet I may also use Haskell. On Codility I may also use Javascript, Pascal, or VB.NET. "The language of your choice" would probably include Algol-68, Lua, more than zero Lisps, D, and Brainfuck.
> “I’m really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here,” said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. “If I can’t pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors’ prison.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/world/middleeast/12dubai.h...
You may have misunderstood my comment. It's not about having a brand. It's about having a professional reputation. Professionals who are of the "excellent" caliber that this service purports to represent usually develop a professional reputation naturally without even trying.

This happens even if one is fairly isolated doing "heads down coding" for much of the year. There are times when you meet with clients in meetings, or talk to customers, and talk to competitors at industry conferences, standards meetings and the like.

People who are competent recognize other people who are also competent just by talking to them. People either know what you are talking about and can respond intelligently, or they don't. When people don't know what you are talking about, you downgrade the conversation and talk about gardening, the weather, sports. This is just normal everyday human interaction. It's strange reading some of the replies here, it sounds like some of the people on this discussion board don't know about how that is done. They seem to not have face to face interactions with other people in their field.

In the cases where you connect with someone who is likewise competent, you both remember the encounter. You trade business cards. And if you have an opening at your job for the sort of work the person does, when the position is mentioned, you pull out his card and say "What about this guy? I met him at the XYZ conference. He invented the ABC protocol that is used in GHI devices, just like the thing we are looking to get into."

Connections made don't have to be with management. Typically it is another engineer, a peer relationship. If you know what you are doing, then you get recommended when there is an opening. That is how most jobs at good companies get filled. It's not "nepotism" as someone below claims (apparently he is lacking a dictionary.) I have never worked for a relative. If I do in the future, they will have tried to hired me not because I am related, but because I am the best. And should that happen I would turn them down since I wouldn't want to mix up family relationships with work, that can be a disaster. In any case, if you are good, even the most reclusive and introverted developer/designer/inventor is going to have some people he talks to. And if he is good some of those people are going to talk to others about his work. If that is not happening for someone, the likely reason is they are not all that great. There is no shame in being incompetent nowadays, but the article under discussion is about hiring "excellent" people, not incompetent ones, so it is relevant for the specific topic at hand.
Interesting that it still ship/s|ped/.

I am wondering why drive letters still exist. Was there a need for continuity across Windows platforms with different bases (3.1/NT/9x) or was the mania for backwards compatibility such that the model needed carrying forever?

Surely it is trivial enough to abstract \hd0 as C: for legacy applications.

This comes to mind because of the irritation of assigning a drive letter to a SMB map only to have it usurped by some multi-card reader USB thing which nabs drive letters up to H:

Surely a case for a class-based VFS - \hd, \usb, \opt(ical) ;)

edit I had momentarily forgotten about the 8.3 PROGRA~1/ mess. Please disregard any misguided attempt at an elegant "out" ;)
When you connect to any other wireless network, there a chance that your traffic is being sniffed.

When you connect to the wireless at DefCon, the only real question is how many people are sniffing it, and for what. :)
I really wish he had been a little clearer on what these patent trolls are and why they're bad. I'm sure most people here on HN understand what's going on, but this article is little more than preaching to the choir without that extra clarification.

As it stands right now, this article has sort of a whining feel to it. "All my companies are getting sued because we're infringing patents, and I'm sick of paying for it! The only way to stop them is to similarly arm yourself with lots of patents so you can sue someone just as hard as they can sue you!"

I'd like to see more detail from him about how most of these patents are obvious and non-innovative, and that the idea of patent troll companies who do nothing with the patents but sue for infringement of them. I think that's what he was getting at with these lines:

> I’m not talking about a new company that had an idea that someone beat us to. No sir. I’m talking about companies that have been doing business the same way for years that are getting hit by patent trolls.

...but that could also be read as "we've been infringing these patents for years, and I'm pissed off that someone noticed." We all know that's not what he meant, but there's a lot to be said for clarity, and clarity wasn't a major component of this article.
I just uploaded your docs folder to pastebin #sorrybro
http://pastebin.com/MH0KYGTi
What's wrong with that? Big-O notation is fairly universally relevant so it seems not unreasonable to expect a programmer to be able to talk about it a little. I've seen exactly that be a strong indicator in the past - a candidate not being able to recognise that the code he'd written ran in O(n^2) was a significant negative sign.
I wonder if the live tiles may confuse the average user. It may be that what people come to expect from a smartphone is the icon grid.
Are you sure? I'm fairly certain that if I accumulate savings in the form of some non-debt-backed currency and keep it buried in a box it won't be the same as debt.

If we still want to regard that as debt, I could instead buy commodities and keep them in a warehouse, but I think there would be some temptation to say that "they are not savings because they are not currency."
64-bit Windows 7 has no 16-bit subsystem, so it cannot run command.com, nor any DOS application. Old games and the like need to rely on DosBox or Windows XP Mode or similar virtualization approaches.
Shooting Sherriffs Saturday: Anon & LulzSec dump 7GB of law enforcement info
How Technology is Recreating the 21st-century Economy[video]
So Google gives away Android for free because of a great heart, right?

Google essentially gives Android for free. Just yesterday I saw Nexus S "free" (with 2-year contract) on main Google page!

You can argue that any kind of software is better off free. More people will use it sooner if it's free. But I don't think this model fits everyone. What if you don't want to get outside investors right away and don't have deep pockets?

I did not know about Android phones not tied to Google search. I understand that you can switch your default search engine to something other than Google, but most people use the defaults. Windows users could have also deleted IE and installed Netscape. But with free IE pre-installed and working, most did not bother. Netscape got killed.
Q&A: S&P's downgrade of the United States
There are important reasons why filenames can't be safely made longer for older apps. One of the best things about MS is how well they've focused on backwards compatibility ahead of "technically correct" that works well for nobody but pedants. But for applications that want to opt in to longer paths, they can use '\\?\' prefixes on their absolute paths, and have up to 32K UTF-16 characters.
> WP7 + Windows Mobile is probably still growing in absolute numbers, but just being outpaced by Android and iOS growth

My guess is that it is shrinking, not growing.

The only way to be sure would be to see sales numbers from Microsoft. The fact that Microsoft hides those numbers is telling.
I'll pass judgment on Austrian economics: it's terrible. It's just tarted up right-wing politics. They start with the assumption that free markets are magic and from that they conclude that free markets are magic. Seriously, they're against empiricism. They assume they're right and don't bother to check their work. That's why as a research program it's never gone anywhere.

Austrians are just rightwingers who chose an economics to suit their politics. If people want to be rightwing that's fine. There's no reason to drag bad economics from the 1930s into it.
IANAL, but I believe that in writing the cheque and giving it to the other person, you are acknowledging the debt owed.
Looks like a good opportunity to relegalize mining and do a responsible job of mining it out. This kind of wealth could really help repay our debts and help our economy improve. And possibly make things cheaper to make microcircuits here, rather than in China (where they'd love to sneak some malware into our government/intelligence agencies).

Nitpick: Sounds like they're "sitting on" rather than "hiding" the deposit.
I have been told - first by the CEO of a retail chain [1] - that 'a college degree' isn't so much for talent, or fit, as a proof that the applicant can stick with something for a few years.

He proved his point by hiring me [2] for a job. At that point in my life I had no degree, but I had just spent eight years in the Marines, and had done everything from programming computers (badly) to micro PC repair and LAN administration.

[1] Who was, improbably, interviewing me for a job. Long story.

[2] Sort of. He called me back said he _would_ have hired me but the company had just gone into Chapter 11.
I'm very interested in how these are being gamed as well
What to do with these 632 domain names?
What would you do with 632
domain names that end in "find.com"?
I don't think it is sad, or even true for that matter. It is just the talk of someone who treats a programming language as a religion.

Why would Yahoo want to keep this one property written in Lisp around while the proficiencies within the company (and the general talent pool outside the company) did not include Lisp?

It has nothing to do with being "afraid" of Lisp, it simply didn't make sense to have one random Lisp property. I am pretty certain if Google made this acquisition, the site would be rewritten too.

edit: typo
10 people who don't matter (2006)
Alan Kay's praise of Bob Barton in this talk inspired me to do some googling, and I ran across an extraordinary thing: a transcript of an oral history conference from 1985 that reunited Barton and the team that built the Burroughs B5000. Here is what Kay says about Barton and the B5000 in his talk: "In history you can find really incredible geniuses like this man, who anticipated so strongly that we can only emulate his ideas in software today. Intel hasn't gotten around to understanding them yet." "The hardware of today is not as advanced as this machine was."

When not only Alan Kay but Chuck Moore as well describe your work as an epochal influence, it must really be something.

In 1985, some wise people got the B5000 team together and recorded them talking about it at length. The transcript exists online, and it is a remarkable document. Among many gems, Barton says: "I just thought of this morning a way of characterizing what I've been doing for 30-some years. I'm an industrial saboteur." Also: "I have never been able to work with devil's advocates". And here is something that is reminiscent of Kay:

"I was interested in small machines. In my view, the machine got too big too soon. All the experience we had from working with very small machines, particularly the 650, only indirectly with 205s, was in the direction of simplicity and operating systems and engineering out as much as possible all the incidental red tape that was very common in those days."

Also, it's noteworthy how frequently [Laughter] annotations appear in the transcript. I've long felt that the best teams are also the most fun ones.

http://special.lib.umn.edu/cbi/oh/pdf.phtml?id=21

Edit: it deserves its own post, so I put it up at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2855508.
Microsoft has a hard road ahead. HP has arguably better software with WebOS, plus bucketloads of cash. And I wouldn't count RIM out either, even though they are losing market share and don't have any technological advantage.
Think of all the jobs required to fight these patents in court.
All right, so we all agree that software patents are a problem. So what do we do?

A). Abolish software patents. Existing software patents, or parts of patents that govern software, are nullified.

B). ???

Personally, I'm fine with A, but I would like to hear a really good B. Anyone?

Bonus points: Provide a list of ~5 software patents that are "good" software patents. Something were granting the patent led to innovation, or where the technology would not have been developed without the existence of software patents. Actually, I would be happy with just one patent, so I know what it looks like.
Comcast's Internet Essentials offers $10 Internet access to low-income families
How Technology is Recreating the 21st-century Economy
http://www.parc.com/event/1499/how-technology-is-recreating-...
Who stole the Mona Lisa?
I was thinking of building something similar. The benefits of client-side encryption is that the message is entirely encrypted until it reaches the destination. Even if the cryptocat server was compromised, the message is still "safe".
Oral History of Bob Barton and the Burroughs B5000 team (1985)
Online security doesn't exist
I started reading Graeber's book [1] 3 days ago. I'm only about 1/3 into it. The author is an anthropologist and tells his story from this perspective. So far, If I understand correctly what I'm reading, I think the author would not agree that 'savings' is the opposite of 'debt'. I also don't see the author as trying to get the reader worked up. Its a very interesting and though provoking read thus far.

[1] - http://www.amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1933633867
At this point I would be fine with starting with the baby set of killing any patent that implements a business process. It would be a good start, simple to explain, and kill off a goodly chunk of the trolls.
I alpha tested the product and I love it.

It's good for it to have a memorable name because it kicks ass and has some killer candies. It shows how simple the cloud computing on mobiles should really be.

I'm looking forward to use Fukime Candies, regardless of their name.
Follow-up to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2855500.
"Let's not legalize marijuana. Think of all the DEA agents that would lose their jobs!"
Google essentially gives Android for free. Just yesterday I saw Nexus S "free" (with 2-year contract) on main Google page!

You can get similar contracts with the iPhone. That has absolutely nothing to do with Google, and everything to do with carrier subsidies for phones.

I understand that you can switch your default search engine to something other than Google, but most people use the defaults.

The default search engine for Windows phones is Bing. The solution, if there is a problem, isn't to make Google charge manufacturers for Android. It's to make all phones ask which search engine should be used when you first power up the phone, just as the EU did with web browsers. I still don't see how that relates to the patent issues at hand.

Windows users could have also deleted IE and installed Netscape. But with free IE pre-installed and working, most did not bother. Netscape got killed.

This isn't very relevant, but with the level of integration between Windows and IE, it was not possible for the average user to delete IE.
I don't know, I thought he cut right to the chase:

> Google just spent $900mm buying a patent collection. Other big companies are spending the same way. That is money that for many companies would have gone to job creation.

That's exactly right. That money is going into the pockets of $500/hour lawyers instead of creating jobs for people that produce products. Just the public patent deals of the last few months amounted to billions. And there is a lot more we don't know about.

He could have explained more about how the vast majority of software patents are dubious at best, etc., but that takes more explaining, it's complicated. Focusing on the direct link to job creation is more straightforward.
Oracle and Google keep wrangling over Lindholm draft email
I strongly, strongly agree with everything you're saying and second it wholeheartedly, but I want to add that there is a class of people in our field that can talk brilliantly about what they've worked on, who have resumes with key roles on shipping products on them, and who will absolutely flatline if called upon to code. There is a logic to some level of programming quiz. You really want to verify that the person you're hiring is capable of sitting down, focusing on a problem, and turning out some reasonable facsimile of good code.

That said: this site clearly doesn't look like the right way to do it.

Here's our hiring process (we're hiring!):

http://www.matasano.com/careers/

I think we're extraordinarily careful to be respectful of people's time. We've learned through difficult experience to put practical problems in front of candidates, but to avoid Aspie-type alpha-geekery in those problems, and to be appreciative of the time people give us to go through those problems.

Running the puzzle gauntlet doesn't sound respectful to me. There are great programmers who get off on solving puzzles and this process may not weed them out, but there are lots of other great devs who will walk if they see something like this. Caveat emptor.
I suspect the overall decrease is because the growth of Windows Phone isn't as strong as the decline of Windows Mobile.

Overall I think it would have been a good idea if Microsoft had done better in separating the brands. Right now its to confusing for the average user if reporters can't get it right.
I think a reasonable "B" solution would be to require that any company engaging in patent litigation would have to show that they had actually been using the patent in a product; that their product had a record of sales and use in commerce; and that the allegedly infringing party was directly affecting their business.

Of course, this alternative would have to be specified in much greater detail to be effective, and have safeguards against further gaming of the system.

But it's a reasonable start, particularly as the patent trolls are buying simply to sue, not to produce a useful invention for sale.
feefighters is a 'fun' name, fukime will be seen as a 'rude' name. You are right that your company name doesn't have to be a boring corporate name, but I think naming it something that has negative connotations is a bit different to naming it something that is fun
According to Wikipedia, Mark Cuban has $2.5 billion.

If he thinks the patents are bogus (which I totally believe), why not fight a high profile, precedent setting case?

If he thinks the law is broken, why not lobby for patent reform? Or a loser-pays system?
Exactly. If you're in business you need to have a solid team around you. That includes a lawyer you can talk to. It's important, for just these matters.
I get a login screen from that link...
While we are patenting every line of every software program ever written, we should also patent colors, smells, tastes, sounds, sensations, thoughts, individual words, photographs, individual syllables, and visual/body language gestures.

How come lines of code fall under the category of 'invention', But English sayings, phrases and quotes do not?
I see that now. Their statement is "We promise we'll get back to you as soon as we can. When we do, you'll receive notification." A proposal was submitted, and if its approved I will put an updated link. In the interim, putting a post saying that you would be interested in donating would help :)
Awesome Healthcare Startup Looking For a 3rd Co-Founder
Hey HN,
We are Thirsty.com and we are launching a really awesome healthcare startup that were hoping will make a huge difference in the consumer healthcare space.

We are looking for someone extra to help us out with either front-end or back-end work.
One of us is mostly focused on the front-end and design and the other back-end. Our app is built in Rails.

We will be raising money very soon, we just think that a really cool 3rd co-founder will be nice to have.
Please be a passionate guy, that likes to shake things up.
Email me at: michaelabehsera@gmail.com

Thank you :)
Perhaps these patent deals that are putting a price on inventions (particularly at the billion dollar valuation level) will encourage companies to spend _more_ on R&D - hiring more highly skilled workers - because they can create relevant patents more cheaply than they can buy them.

The suggestion that abolishing patents will cause companies to spend that money hiring people instead is not intuitively obvious to me. It sounds a lot like trickle-down economics, which may be intellectually appealing but doesn't seem to have worked out as originally expected.
I've heard that argument and I just don't know how to respond to it. Why would you ever want to _create_ jobs. People don't need jobs. They need food and cars and what not. To my way of thinking jobs should be actively destroyed.
Learning to Cope With a Mind’s Taunting Voices
"English sayings, phrases and quotes" would come under copyright law instead of patent law, but can still enjoy IP protection.
Except that the encryption is handled with javascript (obviously). I wouldn't use this for anything serious.
I see the $99 developer fee and the closed ecosystem is keeping out the riff raff like it's supposed to...
Thanks for posting this. By far my favorite is the Facebook versus MySpace. It's amazing how quickly things change.