skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Why fund the estimated lifetime costs of health care that will not be provided for maybe 40 or so years into the future? Why not fund a moving window of ten or twenty years of obligations instead?

Because it has incurred those obligations and nothing that happens in the next 10-20 years will make those obligations go away. However, 10-20 years from now, it won't have today's revenue to cover those obligations. In addition, ten years from now it will be incurring additional obligations.

Those obligations have a net present value. If you don't fund them now, you have to fund the remainder later out of future revenues while you're also trying to fund at least part of the obligations that you're incurring then.

Let's assume steady state. If you always fund the net present value of 10-20 years of the obligatations that you incurred in the past and present, you'll eventually end up funding the equivalent of the obligations that you're incurring, but you're behind by the amount that you didn't fund during the ramp. You have to make that up in addition to the equivalent of just funding NPV of what you're incurring.

Do the arithmetic over time - funding the total net present value of future obligations is only sustainable way to handle said obligations.

A pension promise is not like a mortgage - it's just a debt with no collateral; there's no equity to sell if you can't make the payments.
Site seems to be down right now?

Here's a cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.y...
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I heavily recommend to watch the talk, 15 minutes packed with insights for the sysops. Thank you for posting the link!
GetMint.com and TheFacebook.com, both made deals to buy out the domain iirc.
whats the space? think of an alternate name.

Is the .com you like doing the same thing as you?
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Oh excellent. I only looked at Net::GitHub initially, but Pithub looks more interesting.
I miss the old firmware PowerMacs. You could reprogram the firmware to lock the boot sequence with a password. Unlike BIOS the firmware was NVRAM so popping the battery and resetting the PRAM wouldn't change much. The only way to get past the firmware was to replace the motherboard.
> If you’re anything like me, you probably wondered why you were the only stupid person on the planet who didn’t intuitively get Git already.

Spot on! I really thought I was the only one.
You're linking to commercial services touting them as examples of Amazon being more open than Google? Services linked to are: MapReduce, S3, EC2, SQS, SES and MechTurk.

sigh
Why?

Seriously - there are a number of sites that have attempted this, but none have the influence of TechCrunch.

What is it exactly you think these sites should do differently?
> A debate is an artifical situation where "scoring points" with a variety of dubious tactics e.g: attacking the person (or his style, or his mannerisms) are valid tactical maneuvers. Scoring points is more important in a formal debate than exploring a topic or seeking nuance and truth. [...] Most normal life conversations, including internet conversations are not formal "debates". Especially here.

Debate is about scoring points via dubious tactics? Says who? You? I don't mean to be a burden to talk to, but while you're presenting the noble argument that HN community is a pack of discerning, objective truth-seekers, what you've said is patently and unquestionably wrong, and if you get upvoted, then the real message that I should take away is that such dubious and pandering tactics are only acceptable in contexts where the community agrees with you a priori.

> Debate training helps you in a formal debate. It isn't meant to be the guide for generic "speaking or writing". Do you speak at the dinner table or to friends or family "in the manner you were trained" for debate?

You're wrong, and this is wrong. The point of debate is to learn to build consensus in an audience in a variety of scenarios. If you're talking at length, or writing an essay, you will change what you do to be more effective in those cases. If you are answering questions in cross examination, or shouting over someone in a crowded room, then you will again alter your presentation accordingly. And generally, if you were trained properly, then you will have developed a specific communication style for a huge swath of activities that require it.

Including conversation. Including letters. Including posts on the Internet. If I'm wrong, it's in practice, not form, and to dispute this, you have some heavy lifting to do, particularly in the first passage I note in this post. The fact that you are well-spoken and well-adjusted in the community is certainly appreciable, and while your advice is probably not completely wrong, that doesn't make you right either.
A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom
Are libraries illegal?
Libraries lend out movies, music, and nearly all other forms of information on a daily basis and I believe they're allowed to do it (at least so far -GOD help us when the RIAA or MPAA turn their wrath on libraries, could be soon!).

Take the library idea one step further... I am, personally, more than willing to lend my music/video compilations - small as they may be - to as many people as ask for it. Am I breaking any laws by do so? What if the people I lend them to copy them, did I break some law or did they? Can I be sued for lending my music/video discs to people who then copy them?

Unfortunately for the RIAA/MPAA music and videos are now firmly seated in the digital realm where "lending" means to making them available for downloading. Unfortunately for us there is no digital equivalent to "lending" a physical object, -ie I give the disc, the borrower takes the disc, I no longer have the disc. In the digital world giving implies making a "copy" for/by the borrower.

But, isn't this like playing the music loud so more than one person can hear it? Would all the listeners be hearing the original music on disc or are they hearing a "copy" of the sounds as they propagate through the air. Are such "copies" to be made illegal too (don't laugh, wireless signals work the same way too and you can be sue for "listening-in")?

Perhaps we can find a way to make sharing digital music/videos that conforms, at least in principle, with the way libraries and friends share the same.
I can think of at least one way to do it, and it's a side effect of a project I'm working on with some friends.
Anyone with ideas about how this might work?
Fact: In Seattle, some of Microsoft employees start working for Amazon for 1 or 2 years, then they want to come back.
If you find the system interesting, do read up on LETS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Exchange_Trading_Systems ), which I believe are a similar idea but taking the dollar out of the equation.
Three Leading NFC Mobile Marketing Firms Form Global Alliance
Microsoft lines up its big swing at tablets
Will Microsoft hit the tablet market too late?
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Like I mentioned in an earlier post on Yahoo's selection process, most companies in India are very biased towards your certificates. The other thing that seems to really push their swing is their insistence on company loyalty. They come at you with questions like why did you quit after 2 years? Simple answer:no growth inside, better growth outside.

In fact entire teams of HR thrive on being able to say "We havent found anyone yet." Despite HR, I 've managed to look outside the box and instantly gotten the kind of people I wanted to work with. They havent been blue-chip grads or people with 10 years of PPT pushing experience in a large firm. They have been people who have been enthused by a good problem. There is a ton of talent out there on the streets of Bangalore, they dont all have certificates, but many seem to have demos of products they have built. In my rule book, thats good enough. If you look for designers ask for an online portfolio, if you are looking for devs, ask for side projects, if you are looking for sales guys figure out if they understand tech well enough to sell. In short I need to see demonstrated value.

If you are big company, hire all the certificate holders and thank you for cleaning up the streets.
There are two different angles in this story: Google is "elitist" and Amazon empowers its users much more than Google.

The elitist part is, I think, irrelevant, difficult to prove and ambiguous. "Google has invented something very cool, but they won’t show it to you unless they think you are among the world’s elite engineers." Would it be better if Google was only willing to show the best of its technology only to beer buddies of the janitor? Then it wouldn't be "elitist" (maybe) but it still would be pointless.

The problem here is that Google's blog post does not discuss how "petasorts" benefit Google's users; an engineering feat, certainly, but why should we care? This sounds a little like Microsoft R&D of which very little ever came out (at least in proportion to the hundreds of billions poured into it).

In contrast, what Amazon does is always, always geared toward its users / customers. The thing is, Amazon HAS customers, and serves them well (they answer to email, even pick up the phone).

I don't think Google thinks about their users as customers.
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Your writing style is awesome, especially from a fellow developer's point of view. What are you currently doing now that this startup has failed?
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When will we dump server side web frameworks?
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Just a friendly heads up:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2521763

links to:

http://blog.pud.com/post/5239917032/users

Which gives a 500 internal server error.
TC was one of the few rags which seemed to care, at all, about the financials of tech companies - whether they could actually turn a profit.
When I used it about 2 years ago, it wasn't very good back then.

Recently I also tried Double Commander, Krusader, Tux Commander and a few more.
Double Commander is quite good, but it's still a little buggy and missing some features.

I currently I use both MC and DC, each for it's own purposes. MC is an excellent file manager, it's only downside is the GUI.
> This is why I question the rationality of handicapping the USPS with the responsibility for funding far-future liabilities based on those projections.

You're ignoring the fact that those liabilities are being incurred today. If you can't pay them with current revenues, how are you going to pay them with future revenues that also have to cover the liabilities that you're incurring when you're receiving said future revenues.

I'm sympathetic to the idea that there's no way to properly estimate the NPV of this sort of open-ended liability, but that's an argument for not incurring such a liability. It's not an argument for paying less than your best guess of said NPV.

> Even if you ignore the opportunity costs of this fund,

There is no "opportunity cost" in not paying NPV now.

Suppose that your landlord offered to let you pay each month's rent starting 1 year from now and over the 10 succeeding years. How much should you set aside? The only answer that keeps you solvent is to set aside the NPV of the payment stream for each month's rent payments each and every month.

Do the arithmetic. After each month, you've got a new liability that you're going to owe after you stop receiving any corresponding benefit. At the end of year N+1, you're making payments on N years worth of rent (capped at 10) and those payments will continue for 10 years after you stop renting. (Yes, they'll decrease over time, but since you won't be getting the benefit of whatever you were renting, it's unclear why you're happy paying for it with "new money" that you probably need for replacement digs.)
I'm going to give you the award for least fun person on HN tonight.

You responded to an entirely reasonable, good-natured post with impressively sniveling pedantry. So rather than try too hard to be constructive, I'll give you simple but important advice. Just, you know, chill out.
Playing devil's advocate, but as a startup founder who's strapped for time and money - isn't the pragmatic choice to be "inspired"[1] by designs which work?

When big companies have done all the hard work to prove that a certain design works (with millions poured into usability studies and what not), maybe it's ok to piggyback on their coat-tails?

[1] Obviously there's a difference between inspiration and plagiarism.
Sounds very interesting. Just wanted to know how key is the gaming experience for the product management gig and also if you are open to H1B sponsorship.
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From the Paper:

Unfortunately, within 30 seconds of the heads being loaded a high-pitched whining noise began to be emitted from the drive, implying a potential head-to-disk contact was taking place. The drive was then powered down and the disk pack and heads were carefully examined. Thorough examination revealed that Head #4 on the drive (which reads the bottom surface of the lowest data platter) had 'crashed' into the disk surface and scraped away a concentric ring of oxide material, permanently damaging the platter. This is a good time to point out the advantages of not experimenting with your primary source material when performing digital archeology experiments!

Src: http://www.archive.org/details/2011-cdc-disk-archaeology-fen...
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1. Set a Firmware password. They will be unable to reinstall the OS or flash the HD without opening the case and messing with hardware. With a MacBook Air it is essentially impossible.

2. Create a Guest Account. This prevents you from using FileVault.
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I'm also looking for a non-technical co-founder to do business development. If you're a developer or a designer with spare time on weekends, let me know as well. I'm at: david@openstarts.com
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Now every model that caches the old name needs updating and you need to make sure there aren't any overlapping saves in any of those models that'll overwrite any items in your bulk update. If a single linked model has the wrong old-name cached, your data update process is buggy.

Well, that sounds like the kind of stuff I'd like the other guy to talk about. How does he avoid the bad sides of having all your data in a key - value store?

How would/do you?
The real selling point of Dropbox, for me, is the ability to just drag and drop files to a folder in Windows and have them be shared.

I can also create a subfolder--then I can hit the Dropbox website and type in an email address, and voila, my files in that folder are shared with that person.

I agree with Dropbox having security issues and would like to see a replacement. I hope this project implements the drag-and-drop functionality cross-platform. Then I could really recommend it to non-technical users (or some enterprising soul on HN could use it to build a more secure Dropbox clone for non-technical end users.)
In defense of the article's author, it may sound like blasphemy but he brings up some very good points about job creation.

The problems with the USPS might not have begun with email, but email will probably be what kills it (and the fax machine is doing a pretty good job as well).

Automation is a reality we are going to have to face. At some point, it is going to kill almost every manual labor job in the world, probably within our lifetime (IMHO). What do we do with "unskilled" labor then? As I see it, I think living will probably be more or less "free" in the future. When automation is so great that it can rely only on the earth's basic resources and natural energies, food, utilities, and basic housing will probably be affordable enough for anyone, if not outright free.
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> though I am somewhat dubious of IIT grads being better programmers than the average tech talent even in Bangalore.

I believe it's more like given a choice between someone `who is most probably a good athlete and may or may not be a good footballer`, and another `who may or may not be a good athlete and may or may not be a good footballer`, you would go with someone who is most probably a good athlete.

The ideal way would be to test them on the soccer abilities, but the volume of applications a company like Google does, and the percentage of people who claim to be programmers, but aren't really good, forces the use of heuristics. It will be simply impractical to test candidates for the actual programming the job entails.

Also, IIT grads do well in traditional interviews. You are more likely to get a dynamic programming solution from an IIT grad for a subset sum problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subset_sum_problem than from a normal college grad - not that it has a high correlation with programming abilities, but traditional interviews focus on these kind of questions.

I did my bachelors from a simpleton college, and I was considered a good programmer, because hell, I could code up a vanilla binary tree in C++(no string attached - a binary tree with inorder traversal - that's it) from scratch in a lab test in under 45 minutes - that was as hard a problem you could get to solve in a lab test.

I would have to be admit I will be negatively biased towards people graduating from that cadre of colleges. Not that they aren't good programmers there - it's just that you will have to dig through a lot of not-so-good to find someone good, and it's not a worthy investment of time.

The kind of questions that are asked on tests will make you puke. We had a AI course, and we were following AIMA(I believe you were maintaining the Java code at that time) - the questions that were asked on the first test were essay questions viz. "How do you design a better computer"(from introduction chapter which wasn't much about designing about a better computer), implementing A* search was considered outside the scope of the course(implementing anything from the book was considered out of scope)...I could go on an on, but you get the idea.
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"git commit -a" actually does not add every file in the directory. It only adds those that are already in the repo.
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Mercurial is written in Python - as a Python developer I can attest to the phenomenon of Python developers preferring software written in Python. Part of this is rational, part of this is pure "my tribe" bias (by the way, I use and like git, don't know Mercurial at all.)

PHP developers are less likely to be affected by that.
It's interesting to see the range of proposed solutions to this issue. Here's a few from memory.

Koenig's C Traps and Pitfalls does the opposite of what you'd expect by making the recursion work with negative integers and reducing the positive case to that. That in turn exposes the issue of C having an implementation-dependent meaning for x / y and x % y when x is negative. But he works around that in the usual way.

This solution doesn't assume 2's complement, but it does assume that the negative range of integers is at least as large as the positive range. This works with 2's complement, 1's complement and sign-magnitude, so it's pretty damn bulletproof. It wouldn't work with a hypothetical representation where the positive range was larger than the negative range. Making this fully portable to any ANSI C conforming system is possible (work with either positive or negative integers depending on which has the larger range) but it involves the chicken-and-egg problem of portably determining whether INT_MIN or INT_MAX is numerically largest. Here's one way to do that (untested):

div_t quotrem(int numer, int denom)
{
div_t d;
d.quot = numer / denom;
d.rem = numer % denom;
if (d.rem < 0) { d.rem += denom; d.quot--; }
return d;
}

int abscmp(int x, int y)
{
if (x == 0 && y == 0) return 0;
if (x == 0) return y > 0 ? -1 : +1;
if (y == 0) return x < 0 ? -1 : +1;
div_t dx = quotrem(x, 2), dy = quotrem(y, 2);
int r = abscmp(dx.quot, dy.quot);
return r == 0 ? dx.rem - dy.rem : r;
}

That is purely an academic exercise in theoretical portability wanking, of course.

Hanson and Fraser's A Retargetable C Compiler does the inner loop the usual way with positive integers but using unsigned arithmetic. They specifically handle the INT_MIN case with code along these lines:

if (i >= 0) u = (unsigned) i;
else if (i == INT_MIN) u = 1 + (unsigned) INT_MAX;
else u = (unsigned) -i;

Thus it assumes a 2's complement representation.

Here's another solution I just thought of that should be portable to any ANSI C conformant platform. Write the usual divide-by-base-until-zero loop but use this function to determine the right digit to put into the string buffer:

int digit(int x, int base)
{
div_t d = quotrem(x, base);
return x >= 0 ? d.rem : base - d.rem;
}

This works for either positive or negative integers. That's the key. You don't need to normalize anything to either positive or negative values in your inner loop.
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