skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Not unless the hardware fails. The conditioner is a simple, bulletproof feedback loop. (I think it can be done with two resistors, a transistor, and a capacitor, with one internal state: moving towards 0/1 balance.)
How much RAM does a web server need waiting for socket I/O? Not a lot. For most typical web apps, an instance of web frontend consumes a small fraction of the system's total memory. You could fit a surprisingly lot of such instances into a modern machine.

Big consumers of memory tend to be caching layer, which could (should, actually) run on different machines and bill based on memory usage.

I have to admit scheduling CPU and memory is an issue, but that shouldn't be the excuse to adopt a model that discourage optimizing for CPU usage.
Congrats on selling TinyLetter to MailChimp!

[1] http://tinyletter.com/

[2] http://blog.mailchimp.com/mailchimp-acquires-tinyletter/
Cheers for the coupon dude. Just got the ebook :)
How to Get Your Computer Infected With Malware
Thanks for this book. Just purchased it. It gonna be useful for my future web apps.
Microsoft's grinning robots or the Brotherhood of Mac. Which is worse? (2009)
The fact is that Apps necessitates multiple accounts. If you want to receive email at both example.com and ycombinator.com, you can either pay $50 a month or use two accounts.
I had no idea. But I guess Isaac Newton's later religious ideas were the product of a wondrous intellect gone astray.
Can others here verify if the bug exists for them? I just updated Firefox again and now I get different textarea behavior:

1. BROKEN: textarea in a Disqus comment editor (as suggested by a comment on the bugtracker). Cmd-left and Cmd-right go back and forward in browser history, unless there is no history in that direction, in which case they go the the beginning and end of the line.

2. BROKEN: gmail compose textarea. Cmd-left and Cmd-right do nothing at all.

3. WORKING: textarea for Hacker News commenting. Cmd-left and Cmd-right work as expected, moving to the beginning and end of the line regardless of browser history.
Except that it's not just their most recent massive service. The constellation of services and notifiers and tools that they produce, none of them, whether they are new releases (in which one would think they would be aware of the existing difficulties apps users have) or older systems with more storied release histories, give google apps users a fair shake.

On top of that their migration plans for moving from apps accounts to full accounts are unclear and continually moving targets.

It really is awful.

And who gives a fuck how much swearing a post has? :P
Not just that, but I find when I switch back and forth from Apps to non-Apps accounts, I get randomly kicked off the one I just signed into. Often mid-email.
There's no need for the bits to be truly random. In fact, if you ever want anyone to replicate your simulation, you'll need to provide them with the prng algorithm and seed used.
Here is a follow up. judge for yourself.

http://ittybiz.com/sometimes-the-bad-guys-win/

http://letterstodavenavarro.com/ MeanSite1

http://saltydroid.info/naomi-dunfords-death-threats-and-hate... (This is MeanSite2)

http://saltydroid.info/letter-to-two-dave-navarros/ more background

I stand behind my comment. Her account was fictionalised to the point of not being recognisable. The other side of the story could have be its own fiction for all I care, but this isn't about a strong successful woman. It's about some fundie religious guy stalking his brother to prevent a divorce caused by allegedly falling into the "internet marketing lifestyle" that MeanSite2 rallies against.

Internet drama is a great way to relax at night.

Edit: And after upon further reflection this Dave Navarro fellow didn't like his life and found a new family unit online, which includes our heroine. Not agreeing with the fundie's methods (which do seem psychotic) but it does seem this guy ditched his family for the fast and furious world of internet marketing.
Well I guess one difference between what he's proposing and mysql is that mysql forces you to write data abstractions that can fit into mysql. Same goes for NoSQL DBs. Using his approach you don't have to worry about that.

Not sure that justifies dumping DBs altogether, but it's still an interesting advantage.
You only need a little "grade-A" random to seed an appropriate high bitrate algorithm from time to time.
Startup Quote: Jason Cohen, Founder, Smart Bear Software
Storing all necessary data in the URL
I had this idea a couple of weeks ago that it would be interesting to build web services that rely on storing any data necessary in the URL of the webpage. I thought of a small experiment and ended up building http://giveacolor.com/ There, you can select a color, add a short message and send it to anyone. All data is then stored in the URL which ends up looking something like this:

http://giveacolor.com/view/666666236666363630304861636b6572204e6577732023464636363030

Sure it's not the prettiest link but in return, I have basically no requirements on the server side and no database hassle.

It was pretty interesting to develop, since there's a few limitations that I needed to find workarounds for:

Facebook and Twitter sharing disregard any content in a URL after a hash. I had to write a modRewrite rule that would translate the fake /view/ subdirectory into a # in order to create URLs that could be purely parsed on the client side. An idea I had to discard later anyways for other reasons. In the end, I settled for passing the data as a php parameter.

Apparently, Facebook and Twitter are also pretty picky when it comes to special characters (even percent encoded ones) in the URL that you want to share.

Since I wanted this to be UTF-8 compatible (even more special characters), I ended up hex encoding my relevant data. Nothing much can go wrong with letters and numbers. It's pretty simple to encode/decode hex on the client side and I had the added benefit of masking the content of the url in order not to give away the message.
This was actually the first time I successfully got UTF8 vom JavaScript to PHP and back to JavaScript that way (more by luck than by skill though)

Try it and let me know what you think!
It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.

- Jason Cohen (@asmartbear)

http://startupquote.com/post/9655587170
Yeah -- it was about as textbook as it gets. I respect the guy to no end, but this "article" was pretty absurd. Four-some-odd paragraphs of the author explaining how flabbergasted she was by Job's presence in _her own neighborhood_ and one beyond-cliched moment in which Steve Jobs is -- GASP -- proud of his child.
Faster Pathfinding using Empty Rectangles
Silver fashion jewellery
Is there a sense in which software is what is holding back robots? We have all watched pretty cool robots in videos rolling around, walk on two legs, etc. What we need is awesome AI to put in the existing hardware. Any experts want to chime in?
Have you checked recently? I'm familiar with the sentiments you're echoing but I think they're beginning to address this issue. The GitHub repo is seeing some activity at the very least.
I set my birthday to April 1, 1911 on March 31st, making April Fools Day my 100th birthday. However, when Facebook hid my age and just said "Today is your birthday" I was disappointed and changed it back.
An HN-Twitter mashup? Sign me up!
Microsoft's Touchscreen Revolution Now Not Quite So Revolutionary
I don't yet know enough about the single founder bit, but there is one unrelated sentence that you write that gives me great pause in the way you chose to write it:

"But, if you want to do something big in the tech sector, you absolutely must be in SV for the connections, money, talent, etc."

Really? You "absolutely must" be in SV? Seems like Groupon, Foursquare, Groupme, Bitly, Grubhub, Gawker, Gilt, Kickstarter, Amazon, Tumblr etc etc etc are doing just fine not in SV.

Great companies can be started in many places. A critical mass is helpful, as is money. You can get money from anywhere. I'm from Pittsburgh. A company there (Dynamics) just raised a $35 million series B. They are doing great on "connections, money, talent, etc" in Pittsburgh. Several of your YC batchmates will leave SV for other places. They will be just fine on all those things too. You might not have been fine in NC, but there are many places you would be able to raise money, find talent, etc. We ended up rejecting some VC's that wanted us to be in Cali but ended up with terms we liked from investors we like. (We're in Chicago) I have occasionally given thought to going back to SF/SV but for our business there wouldn't be any impact other than we'd have to pay higher salaries and rent.
Ok Point taken. And lesson learned. I take what I said back. Security is important.
I wouldn't call a root exploit inevitable just from user count.
Lean Startup Machine London
I've always wondered why these aggregation sites need up and down voting at all. Can't we just compare the number of times the link has been displayed to users with the number of clicks on the link?
The Wisdom Of Crowds Turns Into Madness
How do you handle branches which require DB migrations?
I've actually tried that. It's not sustainable for me, personally to have that attitude. There's just way way too many people in this world. I just don't care about 99% of the people in this world.
This is interesting... how long ago was this?

If you look at the app posted by OP, you'll find that it is a blatant copyright infringement (its god damned PIKACHU for crying out loud). This was posted in April 2010.

Perhaps you were unlucky, or they have updated their review process.
I don't disagree with your statements. I guess I just reacted by not using Google Apps and transitioning my users back away from it. While I do understand that that's not possible for businesses that have committed on a wider scale (and with less tech-savvy users), I guess I'm trying to remain optimistic that Google is sincere in their efforts to blur or eliminate the distinction between Google "proper" accounts and Google Apps accounts.
Actually I omitted friends because I don't believe most friendships are that tribe-like. Friends rarely have stake in each other's success, and they don't share suffering together in each other's failures. Most friendships wither away easily as a result. What I'm aiming for are "tribal businesses" where everyone works together to make a living together.
Mac OS X Can't Properly Revoke Dodgy Digital Certificates
Also, in the mailing list thread, someone actually went back and verified the contents of all the old tarballs and compared them to the bits from Git, since otherwise someone could have changed the tarball releases.
I was going to respond in horror, but I figure somebody else will get to that.

Instead let me say: I think it is awesome that you are even asking these questions. That makes you a step ahead of most everybody you are working with. Good for you. And good luck getting a better job. :-)
Where to Find Unclaimed Monies?
> The topic seems to be one of those where on average the strength of people's opinions is inversely proportional to how much they've studied the problem.

For me, at least, the experience has been the reverse: I used to think the patent system was basically sound with only a few problems, but the more I've read on the history of patents, the more I've realised how broken it is, and has been for a long time.

For example, in the 18th century James Watt used his patent to stymie development of high-pressure steam engines.

In the 19th century, there was costly patent litigation over barbed wire, which benefitted the economy not one jot. Nor did the sewing machine patent thicket and ensuing litigation benefit the consumer.

A patent is supposed to teach people how to make an invention. But in the 20th century, Frank Whittle wrote his patent application for the turbojet several years before he had actually made one. His patent couldn't teach people how to make a turbojet, because at the time of writing he didn't know himself! -- it took Whittle several years of hard engineering before he built a working jet engine.
Generic platform? Who do you think is buying that?
At this point I'd probably bet 10:1 against the Higgs, even taking into account risk aversion.
Fine, so it's a (n/p) times 1% tax, where p is the average chance of victory and n is the average number of years in court for each suit. This doesn't seem to change the structure of the incentives at all; it's just a tax on patent infringement damages.

I find the non-retroactive possibility much more interesting.
I don't know if it violates his privacy, but it sure doesn't respect it. Retelling personal moments such as Steve watching his son graduate (while essentially putting words in his mouth) basically makes her a paparazzo.
AT&T said yesterday that it was surprised by the government’s lawsuit ...

So now we know where Saddam Hussein's publicity man went.
Where has this guy been for the past 20 years? I was child of the 80's, and a teen of the 90's. And it has been pretty clear to me for a long time that the concept of cyberspace and virtual reality would be the eventual endpoint of the computer revolution. Robots always were a 60's thing, even in the 80's.
What version of IDEA do you have? The latest version 10.5 works with the new version of the python plugin (which is basicaly pycharm) and auto completes right away when you start typing.

I really don't like having to configure the interpreters but it's also nice when you're using project based virtual environments.
Clenbuterol – The Mystique of Proactive Way to a Healthy Life
Since Time immemorial man has always been on the hunt to find new ways to stay Slimmer, Healthier and Stronger. It was during one of the researches conducted that the modern day Rishis called as scientists created Clenbuterol. This creation has come to change the lives of many for a better way of maintaining a healthier body, mind and soul. This Mystique pill is filled with many positive elements.
Localizing Language in the Brain
This is an even sillier question, but how exactly do you keep track of all your ideas? A special notebook? Spreadsheet? What have you found is the best way to keep track of all your ideas on the go, while never losing track of them, etc?

Thanks!
Google is not just the one large site, they are also the site that is actively pushing other sites to use google services. Before, I could have 4 cookies for 4 sites each running whatever flavor of squirrelmail suited their fancy. After the gmail assimilation team sweeps through, now I have 1 cookie.
It's also a very useful primitive for people writing shared data structures, like concurrent hash tables or multiple-producer, multiple-consumer priority queues.
(I couldn't find a good summation, maybe there are more substantive m-list threads in internals:

http://groups.google.com/group/scala-internals/browse_frm/th...

http://groups.google.com/group/scala-internals/browse_frm/th...

http://groups.google.com/group/scala-internals/browse_thread...
This has been the source of much pain on my part on more than one occasion.
It's not "using Apple's APIs", though. It's emulating the hardware of an iPhone, and then running an unmodified iOS on top.

Also, unless this thing (which is really intended as a development and security testing tool, not a user-facing product) "takes off" (and even, possibly, if it does), they will simply not care. I have apps in Cydia — hell, I've written part of Cydia itself — and they have no issues (so far) with my App Store apps. I really don't think they'll have a big issue with this. Maybe they'll block it from the App Store, etc, but I doubt they'd do anything more than that.
I don't claim to be an expert, but from what I've seen there's a typically a huge gulf between the software and hardware.

Until recently, it's been difficult to put a lot of CPU on a mobile robot, so the software developer really has to be a programmer with an embedded systems mindset. For instance, the Arduino is a relatively recent phenomenon, and that's seriously under-powered if you're interested in high-level planning, or vision. But the GumStix or BeagleBoard look interesting, since there's a pretty accessible tool-chain available.

On the hobbyist front, most of the people setting out to build (for instance) humanoid robot kits have a lot of fun with getting the hardware together, but realize that dabbling in software really doesn't get you very far.

For the software-mindset hobbyists (like me), it's a lot more practical to do robot experiments virtually - since as soon as one gets out the soldering iron, the whole weekend disappears instantly.

"Hardware is tough", and (unlike software) iterating the design/plan is extremely time-consuming. OTOH, once a few decent platforms appear (in the $1000 ballpark), I guess software people will swarm in and push things into exponential mode, rather than what seems like linear mode right now.
Please keep in mind that asking these questions can put one in peril. There are political consequences to trying to create change in organizations that are this far behind -- no source control? Bwah? -- that imply that the managers are not doing a very good job.
It could, and today it does. But back then it didn't.
Can android development pay for my beer habit?
The scientific sensibility
Meanwhile my Roomba is doing a great job vacuuming my carpet every day while I'm at work.
Teagueduino Teaches You How To Bring Your Ideas To Life | PCWorld
> In an open source project, you don't pay people in money.

I'm not sure if Ehsan is or isn't paid, but many open source developers are paid. The Mozilla corporation itself has over 200 employees, although I'm not sure what percentage are developers.
Sure, if you want to examine companies over 15 years (as in your list) you can find companies with big VC in many different geographic locations. That doesn't chance the fact that most such companies are in the valley. I find the idea that you should be in the valley if you want big VC relatively straightforward and uncontroversial.

--

Sidebar: Of course, if you're going to go for a different type of startup than YC's particular brand, you can do it from anywhere (central Japan, for instance). The article refers to such startups as a "lifestyle businesses". I find this terminology hilarious considering the most prominent example of a "lifestyle business" in our field has funded a racecar build by advanced beings for one of its founders.
RIP: SubStr(char far* cTheString,int iStart,int iWidth)
While helping a friend tonight with a program I written in Borland C++ 5.X a long time ago, I run across this function I developed, not the most elegant but still being called years later.

Anyone else remember those days where you had to write the most mundane functions?

////////////////////////////////////////
// LAST MODIFIED: RWB - 07/09/1995
////////////////////////////////////////
char* FAR _RWBDLL
SubStr(char far* cTheString,int iStart,int iWidth)
{
int i = 0;
char* s = cTheString;
char* d = cTheString;
if(cTheString[0] != NULL){
for(i = 0; i < iStart; i++)
s++;

for(i = iStart; i < (iStart + iWidth); i ++)
*(d++) = *(s++);

*d = NULL;
--d;
while(*d == ' ')
*(d--) = NULL;
}
return(cTheString);
}
If you're yet to see /r/AskScience check it out ASAP. One of my favourite discoveries this year. The mods are generally pretty merciless when it comes to memepushers.
I intend no ill will with this response, but it is worth pointing out that "the first two" "bigger issues" have nothing to do with your revision control system.

Lack of builds is something about which you and your CI server need to have a chat, and refactoring is something about which you and your people need to have numerous chats before, during, and afterwards.
You'll have to define 'dumb' and 'truly intellectual' first. One might define a 'dumb' person as one who is incapable of enjoying 'truly intellectual pursuits' (whatever that means). In this case, no it's not possible but it's also pretty meaningless.
150 years is still far from 969 years ;-)
Thanks God my officemates don't read HN news.
1. Do you use source control?
Ans: NO
...
9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
Ans: YES

I'd love to know what "best tools" they are spending their money on.
That's one of the reasons I can't stand using Firefox on OS X.

The funny thing is that even if the problem lies within XBL, it could be easily fixed for 99% of the cases through a small JavaScript code injection...
Why bother SEOing for Bing? It's only 0.4% of our 118k/m SE referrals
Wide Number of Colleges Now Starting With Online College Degree
The world has developed a lot in each and every aspect and has resulted in a simplified life living. For people everything now is very easy as compared to olden times. Even getting quality education is now very easy for each and every one with the introduction of online education.
Article Trader view profile of simplyo265
This is a pretty cool article. The key point as I understand it is that the bank is ISO 27001 Certified, but doesn't have testers, source control or a list of bugs. (The rest of the Joel test isn't as big a deal, but these are kind of big ones that indicate cowboy coding and not any sort of process at all.)
Twitter to add in-stream ads from accounts you don't follow
Cryptome has the password and a link to the leaked file at the top of their page.
I'm curious just how bad the situation actually is within your organization. Is the bank actively against using source control, bug tracking, etc. or is it just neglect.

If it is the latter, why not start doing these things on your own? "Backup" your code with git. Make a form that saves to an excel document for tracking bugs.
In what way is randomness on a GPU hard? The nVidia SDK apparently comes with a few of them, and you can implement an LCG in handful of arithmetic operations. If you need a seed feed it in from the CPU.

I don't see the benefit of having a high-cryptographic-quality RNG for rendering.