skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
RabbitMQ Add-on Now Available on Heroku
One of the interesting things is that there is some really high energy particles running around in space. If you have a lot of shielding, you risk these particles hitting that shielding causing a cascading effect making things worse (My father designed satellites and we used to chat about this stuff when I was a kid).
Sebastian identifies a key problem that underlies a lot of how society works: lots of people effectively have motives to avoid things they want. But I'm not sure he's right about his reading of why the problem exists. As nice as it is to think of this as some kind of trade-off, I'm not sure that most people gain any normalcy or understanding, at least not in any positive way.

Think about his friend, the one who's big goal is financial independence. It's his primary first-order objective, and he's being shown a plan to pursue it. He's not afraid to pursue it because he thinks it's going to cause him to be less understood (at least one of his friends, Sebastian, will probably relate to him more). He just flinches at the thought of really going after what he wants.

The million dollar question is the right one: why do people get anxious and self-sabotage when a path to success is put in front of them?

Unfortunately I think the answer is that most people have a lot of psychological conflicts around being happy/getting what they want. Why this happens is probably some complicated mixture of neurology of and pain acquired in childhood, and how to fix the problem is one of the central aims of psychology and psychiatry. The behavior Sebastian describes in his friend is a great example of one's ability to function being impaired by his psychology.

Hopefully we'll get even better at fixing these sort of problems, but in the mean time, hopefully more people will understand that these problems aren't inherent to living life, that there's no sad tradeoff to going after the life you want, and thus be comfortable seeking treatment. You don't have to be crazy to pursue psychological help, you just have to notice that your feelings sometimes get in the way of you functioning the way you want to.
Borsada Köpek Balığı Tekniği + Plus İle Borsadan Para Kazanın
Minix 3 isn't (intended to be) a joke. It's supposed to be a reliable, self-healing, UNIX-like operating system.
> Are there any race conditions with merging to master? I'm assuming that only one head is allowed in master, correct? So that before a pull request is accepted and merged into master, the latest master must first be merged into the feature branch and have CI run all tests successfully on it before the pull request can go. Does GitHub stop you from merging into master if someone else just merged into master and you're about to create a new head?

One useful thing to keep in mind for this explanation is that GitHub doesn't do anything really, it's just one more git repo with a bunch of sugar.

Yes, there is only one HEAD for a branch in any given repo. When you push it expects that your local HEAD is a direct descendant of the remote HEAD. If this is not the case (due to someone pushing since you last pulled) then it won't do anything (you can force it, but that's almost always a bad idea). In practice though this is not a big issue. You don't have to remerge into the topic branch. Instead you can just reset your master HEAD to origin/master and then remerge the topic branch into master and then push.

If you are just working on changes locally directly on master, it's even easier, you just do git pull --rebase and all your local changes are rebased to the latest HEAD.
The Post-PC Era
That was a fantastic story; I'm wondering if it was completely true, or just an awesome metaphor? Either way, very nice and rather inspiring!

Has that been posted to HN yet? I'd love to see it on the front page!

Edit: I submitted it just to be sure (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2946884). I think many will really enjoy it. Cheers!
I configured an interpreter and things started working in IDEA (I don't have PyCharm).

However, my assessment remains the same because now that autocomplete is finally working, it's still not as good as VS in my opinion.

1) VS shows documentation for each function in the autocomplete list. (Seen here http://i.imgur.com/wQpZZ.png ) IDEA does not.

2) VS shows type information where possible. IDEA does not.

3) VS shows the autocomplete list immediately after I type the space in "import ". With IDEA I have to hit Ctrl+Space to get the list.

4) The VS Python plugin worked with zero configuration. I had to configure an interpreter for IDEA and then wait a while for it to index everything.
The History of the Freedom of Information
I don't hope for or care for a total re-write; that's up to them. But they should be able to cache all resources with AppCache. They should be able to cache recent messages with LocalStorage. These are not new technologies; they've been around for a couple of years at least. Here's Google discussing their use of AppCache in Mobile Gmail well over 2 years ago.[1]

[1] http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2009/04/gmail-for-mobile-html...
Moving a Boat - a story about what it takes to start a company.
You can download it for free. As far as I can tell, the only difference in the unregistered version is that it frequently pops a box asking if you want to register.
I tend to do a lot of work upfront (without committing) and then go back and split the work up into smaller commits with "git add -p". I commit often, so it's never a huge list of changes I have to split.

I do this so I can cherry pick commits into other branches (e.g., fixing a bug in my current branch and merging it back to master).
> I don't need to implement any caching because I already have sufficient resources.

Define "sufficient resources". It might be enough for your normal traffic, but without caching those blogs will crash from the /. effect (unexpected traffic spike).
Agree. Can one say Mediumly Typed? To me a strongly typed language is very stern - you trade some slight annoyance for some slight sanity checks. For example strong typing would not let you say 5 + 5.0 because float <> int.

>> Type inference fills in the gap between strong and weak typing so that you can still write sloppy code, but reap some of the speed boost.
>I don't even know what to say about this. Following this faulty logic might lead one to believe that Haskell has type inference to make all that sloppy Haskell code perform well. Type inference doesn't have anything to do with strong and weak typing, it has to do with manifest and implicit (or inherent) typing.

I'm not sure even manifest typing would be the correct term as he mentions performance. So it looks like he is looking for static vs dynamic.

Dynamic typing but inferring types statically where possible. It is interesting that type inference in a statically typed language leads to less noise and type inference in a dynamic language leads to some speed boost.
I actually just wrote up a blog post as well about why I don't like feature branches: http://www.pgrs.net/2011/08/29/why-i-dont-like-feature-branc...

My main reasons are that git history gets messy, builds don't run on feature branches (although github seems to have a work around here), and refactoring is harder.

My opinions are largely based on working on larger projects (more than 10 devs working in the same codebase).
Yes, however the only factor here that implies never working off master is the peer review. If one dev can take responsibility for the stability of a patch, then it's perfectly okay to work off of master locally and push when it's stable. If you need to put this work on hold or it grows into something requiring a topic branch, at any time you can simply do:

git branch new_topic_branch && git reset --hard origin/master
The analogy that clicked with me is that Win8 is to Win7 as Windows was to DOS. It will always be around for legacy purposes but if you're creating an app today, you'd be crazy not to use build for Win8. And existing vendors will eventually migrate their existing Windows apps.
One box is the master; the others are slaves. And yes, the easy way to do this is system having single write lock.

That seems ridiculous if you are thinking like databases do, in terms of taking away the pain of all those disk seeks needed to write something. But if everything is hot in RAM, executing a command is extremely fast. Much faster than a database.

If that still isn't fast enough, you can split your data graph into chunks that don't require simultaneous locking and have one lock per. For example, if you are making a stock exchange like the LMAX people were, you can have one set of data (and one lock) per stock.
Of course, filesystems are a kind of database as well.
Funnily enough, that definition (whether applied to static or strong typing) would exclude Haskell, one of the most strongly and statically typed languages known to man.
Your argument doesn't fly - in the link you claim that wireless service is expensive because we're building multiple redundant networks when we really only need one.

It's a nice theory that works on paper, but doesn't stand up to scrutiny outside of the USA, where people do have incredibly affordable (and quality) cell service in an environment with many players.
Reputation is more than karma, how can we represent that in threads?
There are some very reputable people around HN who aren't on the leader board. norvig, F_J_H, paulirisch, jeresig, for example.

There are also folks who game the system for their own purposes (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2946470), though perhaps not be in keeping with the guidelines (http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

How can one show readers more of this in the threads? Should it be shown? I understand the "level playing field" argument, but it seems like karma and reputation are not convergent.
He just wants money, and it's not even clear why. I don't think that's a healthy way to live, that's all.

Reminds me of Ecclesiastes... "Whoever loves money never has money enough..." The entire book is full of wisdom on chasing the vanity of material goods and all that is "under the sun".

By all accounts, Solomon was a man who had everything the American dream could ever hope for - money, possessions, women, power, prestige... And yet from his position on high, he realized it was all meaningless. Pretty powerful.
Indeed. I'd love to hear the details on this. I was considering CI Joe for a project.
Deletes on enterprise SQL systems are usually prevented (the preferred pattern is "mark for delete + purge" similar to a VM's garbage collection). The Application ignores "marked" data as deleted.

That leaves tracking the remaining inserts and updates, which is a well understood problem. It's called Auditing. Here is a simple script that will auto-audit a SQL Server database... variations in other SQL dialects are likely just as straighforward.

http://www.geekzilla.co.uk/ViewECBC0CC3-1C7E-4E7E-B243-F2F25...
For the past couple months, I've been trying to move from ST to vim, but couldn't get over my love for goto-anything; the usefulness of the minimap; and all the little details that made ST a great editor. This is great to hear.
Apple Should Kill Off the iPod Touch
To avoid being too self-serving, I won't link to my own firm ;-)

Most of our projects, come to us after another group (another firm, or an internal team) has been unable to deliver; we then deliver. Therefore, I suspect the answer to your question "how" is "usually, not very well".

My suggestion is to look for good references, good case studies, etc. You want to hire a firm which has a proven ability to meet its customers needs over time.
Anybody had the same experience? Anything else to add?
While coding a small project is a good idea time constraints can often severely limit what you can do. The reason companies ask a series of micro-questions (like Fizzbuzz or "implement a linked list") is that it lets them test a wide range of areas that they're interested in. If you're swapping that for a bigger project there's the risk you might find the candidate spending a lot of time doing one thing without testing them in other areas.

The particular way they're doing it is also a legal nightmare. If they use an applicants work there's a good chance that applicant current employer might have a claim over that code. Even if they don't use the work, but later build something similar themselves what's stopping the applicant suing them over it ? - it's not going to happen today, but if your startup is successful one-day you can bet you'll face lawsuits. Essentially you should avoid having the candidates work on something directly related to your product.

Also if you're going to take this approach it's a good idea to have a standardized project that every applicant does, both because it ensures fairness when you're comparing candidates and because it's much easier to defend if you face a discrimination lawsuit.
I'm shocked, shocked to find that Lodsys disputes Apple's claims.

What do you expect? "Sorry, we realize now that our entire reason for existence is void, so we'll just go away now."
Yes, definitely nice if you can make your commits atomic changes. The more easily able to right a nice summary line (50 chars please!) the better.

On the other hand, some changes are big and messy. In this case I sometimes do intermediate commits, especially if it's at the end of a day just so I can keep yesterdays changes conceptually separate from todays. In the end I may rebase -i the whole thing and clean things up before pushing, but only if there are some obvious and quick ways to split it up.
Out of curiosity, why was Vista such a big disappointment?

It was years after schedule, there were broken promises (which end users weren't aware of) and ugly is subjective, but I never found it to be slow.

Windows 7 only seems slightly faster than Vista, but is much, much faster (both in GUI responsiveness and disk/network IO) than Snow Leopard and Lion on the same hardware.

It seems like more than actual disappointment in Vista, people didn't really see a pressing need to upgrade to Vista, as XP, with all its warts, worked fine for their purposes.
I'm actually kinda surprised they did such a big revamp of Blogger, when I thought in some ways they wanted to position Google+ as sort of a replacement - being able to create public posts that are as long as you want, follow people without them following you back, etc. I wonder if there will end up being some cross-over between the two applications.
I'd love a 7-10" tablet that had an e-ink screen on one side and an lcd on the other.
Yeah, but it's easier to just hate the whole thing. Similar to McDonalds- the Ronald McDonald Charity is associated with the fast-food giant, so obviously it is deserving of our disgust. [/mockery]
How To Get An Extra Paycheck Every Month - Legally
downvoters: If you disagree, at least tell me why...
Does anybody know of great examples of moonlighting success stories? I only know about plentyoffish.com
I think this is a satire:

* The survey lists it's purpose as identifying trends in software development. Hardly, as this will outline just what a small subset of trends on HN (and HN is just a tiny, itty bitty subset of all softwate development). Since HN is primarily web and mobile development, you won't learn about any trends in game development, for example.

* 'Unbuntu' listed as an Operating System. Misspelling aside, Ubuntu is not an operating system.

* GNU/Linux not listed as an operating system. Especially among developers, it's a popular choice and i'm surprised to see something like ChromeOS listed while GNU/Linux isn't.

* PHP and Javascript listed in both "alternate technologies" and in programming languages.

* MySQL but no other databases. I'd venture a guess to say that Postgres is just as common among HN users, if not more common, than MySQL.

* No blackberry under mobile phones while Symbian and WebOS are listed?

* Minix as an operating system..?

* Only two web frameworks listed under additional technologies. Not the biggest problem, but a bit funny.

* I'm unaware of Ada being used for anything currently.
I'm curious about this too. I know Jenkins has a rest API; maybe it's attached to Github web hooks.
> U.S. companies would not invest $70 billion (yes, that's the size of TV's ad market) in something they thought didn't work.

Advertisers sell advertising first, products second. It's not implausible to think they are better at the one that pays their checks.
When the headline is meaningless it doesn't make me want to click off.
HealthBox Accelerator is Better Than Y Combinator
3+ hours seems like a very short time. Everyone nukes the tower trying to call after a disaster, not to mention there might have been actual damage to their equipment.

Reception has been somewhat poorer since I switched from AT&T, but price and customer service and much, much better. In particular I appreciate being off contract.
How do you see the web changing because of the freedom of movement that mobile provides?
Why would somebody downvote this?
> However, there's very little (economic) incentive to innovate

In the economic sense, that might be true, but on the contrary, patents prevent (or hinder) people who might have good ideas from innovating - and I'd wager that those people are way more numerous than the lot of people who wouldn't try to further advance current technologies (or invent new ones) just because there suddenly is no more economic incentive to do so.

> By filing a patent, you're telling the world how to do something (allegedly) new.

I don't want to be told how to do it, and then be told that I have to wait 20 years until I can use it. I want to use it now, and I want to build on it now. So does the rest of humanity. 20 years is way too long, but so are 1 year, 6 months, 10 days or half a minute. It's plain and simply ridiculous - as well has highly paradoxical - to stop progress (even if only temporary) in the name of promoting progress.

There is only one alternative in this entire mess - abolish patents, completely. They never fulfilled the purpose they were intended for (even historically they caused quite the opposite, see Watt and the Steam Engine), and serve the few powerful and rich to the detriment of humanity as a whole (again, see Watt).
We teach this class formally in one semester at the Colorado School of Mines, where it is now a required part of the CS curriculum.

I use both Code and TECS books together. It is an incredibly effective class. I've found many students in CS curricula "drift" through the topics without really grasping anything, only to graduate feeling they haven't really learned much.

This material takes the essence of numerous CS topics and educates the reader by doing and building, rather than only reading and theorizing.

If you are a developer and don't know what happens when you execute a program, you really need this book (and CODE by Petzold).
There is a big difference. The experiments showed that the ether didn’t exist. But there is no experiment that shows that there is no Higgs boson. IIRC the expected roadmap is to find the Higgs boson in 3-5 years (from now) in the LHC, so don’t expect to see it sooner. (It is expected to see it in sooner in 2-3 years in the Tevatron, if it were kept open.)

The experiments show that if the Higgs boson exists, it is not very heavy (not heavier than 145GeV). And there is some indirect and inconclusive evidence that it exist and the real mass is near ~120GeV (probably +-10GeV), but it can be a statistical fluke, so we have to wait a few years.
The idea is nice, and can work for startups and small companies. However, the companies that interview several hundred people every month (think Google Microsoft, etc.), I am not so sure if this would work.

One way this would work in large companies is if they give the hiring power to individual teams/groups, and then those teams can conduct interviews like this on need to hire basis. But this would require a major shift in how hiring is done in large companies these days.
There's not a word for it, but I'm pretty every business ever anywhere would benefit from someone who "increases LVOC numbers". And the best business won't be stopped by the lack of a buzzword.
Maybe they just want a solution that people can use RIGHT NOW. What's wrong with that?

I'm thankful for Google providing this solution though I'm hoping for a better one in the future.

Calling it a massive failure is just mean-spirited.

You call yourself an "aspiring entrepreneur" but I don't think you understand what it means to be one and actually build stuff. If you do, you wouldn't be making comments like that.
Does Paul Graham Get What He Asks For? [infographic]
(Offline Gmail team member here)

The primary reason this is Chrome-only is because other browsers don't yet have complete implementations of relevant specs (for example the FileSystem API: http://dev.w3.org/2009/dap/file-system/pub/FileSystem/). I can't make any promises on the team's behalf, but I personally would like to see it working on Firefox as well at some point.
Because in Win8, Metro is a completely separate shell that exists independently of the existing Windows shell.

In Lion the new iPad-like interfaces are directly integrated into the existing OS X shell.
So is there a separate Jenkins job per feature branch? How are these created?
I find it odd that they are reaching out to the developer community rather than strictly taking a legal course of action. Why communicate to the public at all? Its not like they are trying to foster a customer base and I'm certainly not going to feel better about getting extorted by them because I've heard their point of view.
A lot of small businesses do seem to do the brand-awareness thing as well, but on a smaller scale, e.g. local TV affiliates. One classic is the annoying/insane mattress salesman with a ridiculous ad that replays constantly, not really to get you to go buy a mattress now, but to build name recognition so that the next time you do need one, you remember that Crazy Uncle Bob's Mattress Emporium exists.
What do they use for a CI tool?
The difference is that Apple isn't shipping Lion on their iPads; they're shipping iOS. This is significant because it forces developers to write iOS apps for the iPad, and Lion apps for laptops and desktops, both very different usage contexts and user expectations. This means that any app you run will have been written specifically with your particular type of device in mind, typically leading to a more efficient and effective experience.
Thank you. This always bothers me in discussions about success. It seems that everyone equates it to being rich.

For many of us, it simply means having the bills paid and being able to do work we love, on our terms.
MailChimp Buys Phil Kaplan's Tiny Start-Up, TinyLetter
This is exactly the approach that I would take if I needed to hire someone.

We need to realize that the 20-year old process designed by MSFT of hiring has been gamed and is no longer useful. Interviewing these days in the Valley seems more like a cat-and-mouse game where interviewees memorize answers to as many algo questions as they can, and interviewers try to one-up candidates by asking them increasingly harder and more ridiculous questions.

Interviewers claim that they care more about how a candidate thinks through a problem, but I know this is bs, since I've talked to people in my company who have interviewed. If they ask a question, and the person doesn't know the answer right away but 80% of the others do, the person already looks deficient in their eyes.

The process that the article talks about is probably the best way to identify good candidates, at least until this is gamed. Hopefully if designed properly though, it will be much harder to game, since you can always change the nature of the project.