skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm releasing the first version of PickHealthInsurance today. It helps you compare health insurance plans (individual, not group) in the US.

I put this together over a few weekends. My COBRA is about to run out and I found it exceptionally difficult to compare plans and prices with the existing sites. This is the third time I've had to buy individual insurance and I finally decided to do something about it.

Things crystallized for me when I almost bought a plan that claimed to cover maternity, only to discover late in the game that it had a separate $20,000 maternity deductible! What a mess!

I have a few goals with PickHealthInsurance:

- start showing approximate rates almost immediately, don't pester me with a bunch of questions

- explain confusing terms like "coinsurance" and point out the difference between a PPO and a POS.

- show plan stats up front, not buried deep within the bowels of the application process

- make it easy to use and blazingly fast

Built with:

- Rails 3.1 (HAML, Sass, Coffeescript)

- Twitter Bootstrap CSS

- Deployed on Heroku/MongoHQ

What do you think?
Watch TC Disrupt SF 2011 Live Day 2
Mashable Expanding Its Coverage
Linear algebra is one of my favorite subjects. Of all the math I used while still in physics, linear algebra ended up being the most practical for solving everyday problems in other fields.

A person can do a lot of damage armed with a good grasp of linear algebra and fourier analysis.
App Store - Turntable.fm
OMG! $1,500 a day? Yes please. I'm am seriously undercutting myself at this rate.
Yes. I would be very surprised if there were thousands of original articles.
> please install Microsoft Silverlight

Nah, I'll pass...
Beyonce diet,Beyonce Diet Plan Revealed
Looking for the best resources about the beyonce diet? You've come to the right place! You'll find great information about her diet plans! The Diet Solution Program promises a complete and comprehensive weight loss program that will not only help you lose body fat, but guarantees you increased energy, health and vitality all at the same time. This is the closest diet you will be able to get like the beyonce diet.
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I have no way of knowing, I've just tried to provide you with a more concrete place to start.

Find a customer.

Go and talk to someone you think has the problem you're trying to solve. Find out what they do now. Show them your solution. Get their reaction and build on it.

Sell your product.

This is hard work, but unless you actually sell your solution to someone, anyone, you won't know what your fit is.

Find a potential customer and talk to them.
man bites dog
It's conceivable that they don't store passwords in plaintext. They could be hashing the last 4 digits separately... but they are probably store passwords in plaintext.
Eric Wong's new mailing list about Unix systems programming for Rubyists
I'm surprised the author didn't mention the Smith chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_chart
Yes, which is an advantage, if you're of the opinion that the existence of a variety of engines (and the corresponding existence of a variety of bugs) is a hassle that's hurting the web.

That's not my opinion, mind you.
Telefonsex mit sexy Girls
Wer geile erotische Momente genießen will, auf die er nicht lange warten muss, der ist beim Telefon Sex immer perfekt bedient. Der Sex am Telefon bietet live private Kontakte - live am Hörer kannst du hier die schamlosen Frauen treffen, die immer zu einem Flirt bereit sind. Schau dich einfach mal auf dieser interessanten Telefonsex Seite um - da erreichst du jede Menge geile Hotlines. Such dir deine bevorzugte erotische Richtung aus, wähle die passende Telefon Sex Nummer, und erlebe dann beim heißen Sex am Telefon, wie alle deine erotischen Sehnsüchte wahr werden. Beim Telefonsex findest du immer, was du suchst, und zwar ohne Wartezeit und darüber hinaus total anonym.
Yes, it is just a modification of http://chats.io/ running on my domain.
That and anyone who has a stalker, or is not out of the closet, or is a political activist in a non-democracy, etc. Google doesn't like those people.
@cleverjake, M.O. = modus operandi = 'way of working', i.e. how they did it. You answered why, I think. Then I read on to 'indiscriminatory' and gave up on the whole thing. ;)
OpEd: Protect Our Right To Anonymity
Windows 8 Details Unveiled in Preview Event
My only response is that the email box is below the fold. I see "Stay Tuned" at the bottom of the page, and have no motivation to scroll down.
Why Journalism Education In India Isn’t Creating Journalists
Emacsrookie.com - Hints about the emacs text editor
Today I launched emacsrookie.com. All about emacs and the hidden treasures. Enjoy
Social Or Market? Where does your product belong?
For me, as ex freelancer, all clear:
$10-20 for so called programmer from Asia(China, India)
$20-$30 for russian or east European programmer with CS degree
$60 for programmer from England
>$60 US
PS: prices for Ruby devs, it can be different for iOS or Java
EC News adds tags similar to subreddits
I'm not really interested in live streams of events like these (I'll just read the summaries, thanks) but the scant details I'm seeing about Windows 8 really do look pretty good.

I've played around with Windows Phone, and I intend my next phone to be running it- if you haven't, you owe it to yourself to try out the UI, it's really something else. Integration with the Zune Pass is a killer feature for me, too.

The unanswered question is fitting Windows 8 into tablet form and keeping it running at a good speed. That remains to be seen.
sales would almost certainly be higher, but revenue may not. it's a less convoluted version of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve>laffer curve</a>—the argument for lowering taxes to raise revenue. i think holding off on price changes for at least a week would be, as GHWB might say, 'prudent'. without that data, how can you know where you are on the curve? and how can you know if changes in price are the reason for more sales? i am not sure that 'impulse purchase' is where this app needs to go.
This is why we have statistical inference
ISECOM: Hacker’s Profiling Project (HPP)
Windows 8 for tablet hands on
PEBKAC 404
UT-Austin's machine learning beats hand-coding in World RoboCup Championship
Thank you for being rational rather then being distorted to one view or the other.
Which startup technology awards should you focus on?
But that is still not an accurate view, since the number of independents, democrats, and republicans aren't the same.
At least when I've done affiliate sales for information products, the cut is generally 51% or higher (since each sale costs you nothing, and the affiliate is driving you traffic you wouldn't have otherwise). For recurring income, it's usually 35% or so.
Thanks a lot cleverjake. I'm still running the anti-malware on my mac, so I'm not ssh'ing into the server. Am I being paranoid?
FYI - It is on shared hosting.
Also, this might sound stupid - how do I DM you?
It's also worth pointing out that Apple does have a program for recycling their equipment, and they'll even reinburse you with a gift card for certain things:
http://www.apple.com/recycling/

They're not unique in this respect, too. WEEE and RoHS compliance is basically mandatory for Europe, so that requires manufacturers to have a safe disposal system in place for their electronics.

Samsung has a program with several local partners(http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/citizenship/usactivit...). Motorola(http://responsibility.motorola.com/index.php/environment/pro...) and Nokia(http://www.nokia.com/environment/recycling/where-and-how-to-...) also have programs to recycle your old electronics.

HTC does not seem to have a consumer recycling program in place, at least with the quick Google searches I've done.

EDIT: I have been corrected, as my Google-fu is weak. HTC does have several programs in place. Thanks!
Well, sure, that's impressive in and of itself. But this contest is ultimately about the game, not the code.
Why Google is stuck at 65% of the search market
Unfortunately it's browser is unusable, in my opinion. Until someone ports webkit or gecko to WP7, I'm staying away. And then only if it allows you to change the browser default.
For reference, the Indie film movement is focused on disruption, it's a fascinating time for experimentation.

An example: http://www.sellingyourfilm.com
(The PDF version is free)
> charge your phone in your car

That's not really outsourcing, unless you get free gas. When you're using more energy from the battery, you're adding extra load to the alternator which increases the drag and therefore using more gas.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991756
> original iPhone supported for less than 3 years

The original iPhone got all updates released for 3 years from its release date.

> 3GS supported for ~2 years

So far, as far as I know iOS 5 runs on 3GS. The 3G is the only one which got a slightly reduced support life so far (no iOS 4.3, for pretty obvious — to 3G owners — hardware-related reasons)
BARCELONA VS MILAN live stream
I hear Haskell is especially "math-y" (which sounds great to me). Can you suggest any resources for learning Haskell?
Has this guy disassembled and come to understand the inner workings of the drill he used? Because that's the deep tool knowledge in this analogy, not the insight into the interaction between hole position and ball/player performance.
The browsers are getting better at optimizing memory use for small closures all the time, but there's still a long way to go. Here's a screenshot of the Chrome heap profiler for both cases:

http://cl.ly/A5NX
Using Jekyll and GitHub Pages for Our Site
I like the idea, but I would expect to see a lot of very confused users when that error message is displayed.

Any feedback on that from your users?
link: http://EmailMeButton.com
Exactly... in this case, the functionality of Artist() is a subset of the functionality of str(). In Python, you would just name the variable "artist", assign a string to it, and be done with it.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has interpreted the prohibition of discrimination based on conduct to include discrimination based on sexual orientation.

http://www.opm.gov/er/address2/guide01.asp

Currently the Employment Non-discrimination Act of 2009, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, is being considered. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has been introduced in Congress to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Neither of these acts has been passed, yet - there is still no federal protection against sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace.

Almost half of the U.S. states, including the District of Columbia, have active laws that prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in both private and public workplaces. These states include

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin

Additionally, a few states prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in only public workplaces, such as for state employees: Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, and Pennsylvania.
Lessons Learned: The Lean Startup Book Tour
The course is taught by Gilbert Strang, who has written an excellent introductory textbook on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Linear-Algebra-Fourth-Gil...
I am wondering if anyone here worked for the man and decided that wasn't for them. Thus you went the freelance/consulting route? If so, how and where did you get your clients? Also, are you able sustain yourself, do you ever struggle financially and or you are able to make more money being independent?

I'm just starting out on this route and seeking advice overall on this.
It's not just about volume discounts. In part, it's about not having to know exactly what you want. Your company doesn't have to worry about how many watts the PSU should be, or who to buy RAM from, or whether the case has enough cooling. You just pick between a few hard drive technologies, a few different CPU's, and how much RAM you need.

It's also much easier to keep your server room homogeneous when you use off-the-shelf machines. As a custom builder, your parts will necessarily change over time as this or that part becomes unavailable, but goliaths like Dell can keep the exact same machine available for purchase for years.
That'll eventually be a non-issue, as js libraries arise that abstract away all that stuff.

Right now it seems we're in the phase of tons of scattered libraries, all with their own pros/cons, often written by just one or two folk. But eventually something awesome will appear.
Default has a pretty loose definition, but what will most likely happen is some kind of debt restructuring (which people will interpret as a default), e.g. extending the maturity on bonds, writing off some parts of the debt, paying out a lower coupon rate, etc. Basically, german and french banks (who hold a big chunk of the debt) will lose a pile of cash.
I don't think IBM targets the enthusiast crowd with the Power6, so there are not as many knobs. I don't even know if windows supports Power6, which is standard platform for hardware enthusiasts.
Also, unlike astrophysicists, climate science has some very vocal critics trying to keep current policy decisions intact. The result of these decisions can ensure billions in corporate profits over the coming years.

And so, as you say, we don't get to have dispassionate debate in the facts, as the stakes are extremely high and incorrect conclusions can have disastrous consequences.
Unlimited Rest API for File Sharing
OpenCPN -- open-source chart-plotter and GPS navigation package
Nail Fashion Promoted Via Online Store by Nail Arts Queen
Unintended Consequence: Will Public Cloud Diminish IT’s Influence?
I don't get it. What does this do other than move a tool from being a 1st class gui member to relegating it to inside of gmail?
This seems like a sort of failed attempt to apply the "released but cannot associate with [previous associates]" bail condition to the internet. The first attempt was: can use the internet, but can't post on social networks; and then that was narrowed to, can post on social networks, but can't post with your 'normal' identity to your existing networks.
I checked the zone-h database.

http://www.zone-h.org/archive/notifier=T0xic

It appears it's the usual mass defacement, so they are probably exploiting a well-known vulnerability.

You are not the only one, I checked for other domains hosted with webfaction.com (Which seems to be a re-seller hosting service using linode, I could be wrong):

eyetraveldoc.com*

themediashow.net*

These were also defaced (these are using the same IP as yours), so there is a high chance that your hosting service is running a vulnerable kernel, service or the node you're on is. So notifying them and continuing from there would be a good start.

*They have been restored, but a mirror is on zone-h
I think this is an important indicators of whether you should be an entrepreneur or a software developer. The best developers are fascinated by the processes that animate their work; sometimes they can't dig down all the way given time constraints but I find that they (and I) could happily analyze (and ideally rewrite) the entire gordian knot of a complex system.

Entrepreneurs have a totally different profile. Instead of the "how" and "what" of the project, they focus on the "why" and the "who cares". Will this project be valuable? Should I pivot this idea? Who is my first customer and what do they want?

These tendencies don't coexists very well -- they both want to be priority 1 in my mind. While I've been writing code, polishing scripts, reading kernel code, and accumulating my 5000 lines of emacs-lisp hacks, my friends chose different routes and started small businesses or pursued influence and high salaries. Now I'm a super-wonky developer and they're much better at sniffing out the real value in the world. Each of us has our place and on some days I'd rather be them. Somehow though, and somewhat mysteriously, when it comes time to choose I'd rather be rewriting the low level than pursuing meaning at the high-level.
Windows 8: Microsoft's first browser-based OS
Why designers need to know about evolution
A video of the overclocking for those who are interested: http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/13/amd_bulldozer_fx_model...
Best of Open Source Software Awards - 2011
2 cores only, which I feel is cheating.
There is a really good exception to this rule. When you're only conveying two options in a pie chart it's much easier to discern a winner then in a table or in a bar graph.
Not sure what you mean - if code is statically type safe, it will also be dynamically type safe. Moving from Scala to Clojure is not really affected by the type system.
IE10 really isn't a bad browser at all.

But as a web dev, I agree that there's something deep set within me that makes me uncomfortable about using IE for day to day browsing. I'm not even sure what MS can do about that.
direct link here: http://miners.github.com/MinusAPIv2/
Have you used IE9 Mobile ?

The initial version of (pre Mango) of mobile internet explorer was pretty poor (though I wouldn't call it unusable) but the Mango update comes with IE9 and it is quite good.

Edit: Still can't set any other browser as default however.
http://groupcommute.com/
Agreed, a bar chart with two items that have a very similar score are very hard to read.
There's a new version in the Mango release.
I like the simplicity of it, but who do you think will be the target market? Most out-of-the-box website solutions have some sort of contact form built in (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal, etc.) and I would think someone who can build a simple site themselves wouldn't need this.

As an aside your product has me reminiscing about 1995. Back then I was able to charge a flat rate of $150/contact form -- those were the days.
This looks fantastic. Seriously, really good.

I'd love to be able to specify the number of children I'd be putting on my plan (maybe not on that first page, but on an internal "refine" page?).

Also, it'd be great to have checkboxes allowing me to select two or three plans, to then compare them head-to-head.

But, again, this is an excellent first version. I look forward to seeing where it goes.
> I like Scala. I'd hoped it would become my company's "One True Language".

With all of these exciting languages that target the JVM, I think it makes a lot of sense to have a company's "One True Language" simply be the JVM itself.

That allows a programmer to use Scala, Clojure, JRuby, or Jython to initially write software quickly. Anything that becomes a core library can be rewritten in Java for efficiency and so that bindings can be added for all of the high-level languages. Then projects themselves can be written in whatever language best suits the individual employees.

Does anyone use this approach?
This is a great post. You should submit it to HN so more people can read it. Thanks.
Wireless Home Cinema
Details, news and reviews about wireless home cinema systems.
Four minute explanation of how barcodes work
- It saves the trouble of setting up your own irc server & asking your colleagues to log in to irc client everyday.

- It is inside Gmail and the entire server is specific to your domain. So you could create permanent (or) throw away chat rooms of specific context ( #devteam, #ops, #qa, #yournewfeature)

- GMail doesn't offer chats on email threads, this is an alternative to it.
Depends on how much respect I have for the tool.

The TCP/IP stack: strive to understand it.

Random Java SOAP abomination: get in, make it work, get out.
> the desktop that you've grown used to in Windows 7 is still present, albeit as an app

Interesting parallel with the introduction of Windows. Windows 3.1 still ran entirely on top of DOS; but DOS was demoted in Windows 95 and replaced entirely in Windows NT, from which point it has run as a VM on top of the OS.
Remote Debugging with Pastebin and Automatic Logging of Errors
I really like I see so far (in the tools demo currently).

- The Metro tile UI is fundamentally different from any other tablet UI out there. The lock screen password gestures to unlock, the live tiles, etc are all pretty new and different.

- I really like the 'docking' and running multiple apps on the same screen at the same time

- Really like every app being able to act as a data source through a standard API, act as a search provider, as a share provider (through those 'charms'), etc.

- Watching the tools demo, like the common Windows API across JS, XAML+.NET, etc. Haven't seen anyone else do this.

This is the first conference from MSFT I'm watching from the outside for a long time - and I really like what I see.
I do on-site SysAdmin/tech work for local businesses at $65/hr. That's in West Virginia.

BUT, I'm undercutting. I have a day job that pays me significantly less, but affords me plenty of PTO to do work like this.

I've done work with a local company that charges $95/hr. I've also been told by businesses that they pay $75-150/hr with other consultants/businesses.
when I am working on my own project I try to dig as deeper as as I feel like. If I am a working on a client project I try to dig only as deep as I need to (with limited success)
I also love how , as a recruiter, he is also apart of every Developer association out there.
We joke at Ginza that there is a direct correlation between the usage of pie charts and software revenue.
johndcook's post is about numerical linear algebra.

The recommendations given here so far are for intro/abstract linear algebra texts.
Looks great, Clean UI and fast. Give option to compare plans side by side.
the source :
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/median-male-worker-makes-less-...
I agree. It's fascinating to take pretty much any device on your desk, and think, "How would I build a machine / process to build 10,000 of these a day?" Manufacturing engineering is something I have a great deal of respect for. Lots of hard problems, infinitely changing constraints, many challenges - and then marketing fucks it all up. :)
Great job, much easier than ehealthisurance.com when I used it a couple years ago.
Internet Marketing Services East Coast
Looks great. You should create a template out of it, many Mac app devs (myself included) would buy it.
For me, it's kind of the default state of mind, building models of reality, and I can go as far as doing it unconsciously. Just a few hours ago I was in a friend's office talking to him about 3D models and through no conscious decision of mine I started twiddling around with a perforator. The point where I realized what my purpose had been was when I broke the flow of the conversation with the complete non-sequitur, "oh, now I know what that twiddly part on a spring does - you pull it and lock the perforator making it more compact".

I know other people that do that too. For some of us, the immediate reaction to a new thing is "ooh, shiny, how does it work? Let's run some experiments." The scientific mindset is useful, I think, no matter what you wish to exploit.
Even the most trivial of applications today will depend on an incredible amount of carefully crafted, clever to genius code (operating systems, databases, compilers, VMs, ...). I'm always deeply humbled when I think of all the engineering smarts and effort that went into the stack I'm working with every day.

There's no chance in hell to understand all the tools. It's quite possible to understand the concepts and general principles these tools are built around (i.e., all the stuff you get taught in a proper computer science course), which I think is what one should thrive for.

Note that even understanding the concepts will not even nearly equip you to (easily) understand and re-implement these tools, there's a lot more to any properly crafted tool than just the rough concepts.