skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I thought I'd need a cofounder with Django/Python experience - I found some developers to contact either on the djangoproject website or djangogigs - they were listed by geographic region - and made contact from there
Python is a much larger language than javascript with a lot of edge cases in the rules and is highly introspective. This means that any work building a next gen VM for python is considerably harder and requires more work. PyPy adopted RPython (a restricted subset of CPython) to make up for that. You also need to be compatible with a large amount of standard libraries to be useful to a decent amount of python programmers. The end result is that we are going to see javascript environments pass up the various python environments (ironpython, psyco, etc.) before too long.
He subverted a poorly designed password retrieval mechanism.

Even better way of putting it, thank you. By all legal definitions this kid should get off scot free but he wont.
Rails Debug Bar
Wrong on many accounts.

1) McCain won't even remotely attempt to tie this to Obama. Even despite the recent negative turn, this campaign has been fairly civil. Just as Obama passed on commenting about Palin's daughter's personal troubles, McCain will not blame this on the DNC. (Michelle Malkin might be another story, but she doesn't influence anyone whose vote is up for grabs.)

It was the college-age son of some state politician who will probably publish remarks condemning it. That'll pretty much be the end of it.

2) In America, the rich old white male (especially one who doesn't know how many homes he owns) is never seen as the underdog to the young black man, even if he is.

3) Most of our worst leaders weren't noobs. George W had more executive branch experience than anyone currently running, and in his second term (which a lot of historians believe to be the worst in history) he'd already had 4 years of trial under fire as President.

A lot of times, experience just deeply ingrains one way of doing things and inhibits the mental flexibility needed for such an intellectual job.

(And don't get me wrong, I'm terrified as shit of having her as President, but it's not due to her inexperience).
The part I find ridiculous is that we're just giving the money away. Fact is, these institutions would collapse without a bailout- thus becoming effectively worthless, ala Bear Stearns.

If we're going to bail them out, we should nationalize them, that way we at least have the potential of making money from the upside.

Otherwise it's just a continuation of our current fiscal policy: socialism for the rich.
Stem cell therapy curing paralysis and limb death in animals
James was also an evil fascist. Hitler hated smoking. See the pattern?
If you can convince the third party site to adopt OAuth, do that.

Otherwise, one technique you could use is to encrypt their password using a key derived from a hash of the password they enter. When they log in, set that hash as their cookie. Each time you need to use the third party password, read that cookie and use it to decrypt the stored password.

Since you don't know their real password for your own app (as you only store a different hash of it), you won't be able to derive the hash used for the decryption process (note that this means you need to store a hash of their password for your own authentication using a different salt from the one you use to protect their encryption).

With this technique, having access to your database is not enough to decrypt their third-party password.

Unfortunately none of this resolves the root problem. Firstly, by asking users to trust you with their passwords for other sites you are teaching them to be phished. Secondly, if you turn evil (or someone evil acquires your site in some way) the server-side logic can be changed to steal the user's password.
Higher consumer debt per capita, and growing faster:

http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2006/11/brits_against...

Surveillance cameras in all public places:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6108496.stm

Harder to start a business:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/

And worse weather. ;-)
I'm pretty sure that "the lock was poorly designed" has never successfully been used as a legal defence by a burglar, and that "but they were so easy to fool" has never successfully been used as a legal defence by a conman, so I'd be surprised if a poorly-designed password retrieval mechanism could be used as a defence in this case.

If nothing else, the kid committed some kind of fraud by telling the system he was Sarah Palin when in fact he wasn't.
Wow.. just wow, there is so much I can say about your comment that I'm curious if you're just trolling. I'll answer you anyway.

At what point have I ever said (or implied) I was anti-American on this site, or any other site (I use a similar handle on every site, so it can be verified) or for that matter EVER. The answer? Never, because I am simply not anti-American.

Your kind of insular attitude proves exactly what I'm saying.

EDIT - For the record: I thought the Americans and the Aussies were allies? Why else were the British and the Aussies the first 2 countries to sign up for the coalition on the willing and along with the American and British the only countries that provided significant military presence in the gulf (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2862343.stm)

Didn't we also send troops to Afghanistan?

Both of these military actions were unpopular in Australia from day zero and both of which hurt trade agreements in the middle east for us (depending on who you talk too, some have suggested it has increased our chances for retaliatory terrorist acts, I simply don't know though), but we went anyway.

Also, moving away from military alliances, we only had a change of Government last year so things have changed since but for a while, both the Americans and the Australians were the only 2 countries to have not signed the Kyoto Protocol. This was mostly due to Howard wanting to not have the Americans as the only country as not having signed (he was very pro-american).

Within a week of a change of government, Rudd had signed and it was well received by the public.
Erlang's Mnesia no longer has 2GB storage limit
A Language Detector for Java
Marque Lawyers Launches World’s Worst Website
Another downside of this approach: should they change their password on your site, you'll have to ask them to re-enter the password for the 3rd party service.
First, I think the idea of you making API requests using your users' credentials is a bad one from the start. If the third party in question wants to allow requests-on-behalf-of, they should provide a proper API for it; if not, you shouldn't be working against their wishes by impersonating your users.

That said, if you really really have to do this: Have your users provide you with their username and password; generate a random symmetric encryption key; store (username, encrypted password) on your systems and send (username, encryption key) to the user as a cookie.

This will give you safety against an attacker who can steal your database or the user's cookies; it won't give you any protection against an attacker who can steal both of those (that would impossible), nor will it give you any protection against an attacker who controls your server at a time when a user tries to use your service (again, that would be impossible).

But I still think this is a really bad idea.
1) McCain won't even remotely attempt to tie this to Obama.

I don't think that is necessarily true - even if McCain doesn't directly comment, that's not to say that other's wont (I'm fairly sure Bill O`Reilly will have something to say for example).

The Palin email hacking was a big news story in the US but barely registered in the news media in other countries around the world (even those that do follow the election closely).

2) In America, the rich old white male (especially one who doesn't know how many homes he owns) is never seen as the underdog to the young black man, even if he is.

Absolutely agree, but have you looked at the trends data of McCain/Palin/Obama lately? (http://google.com/trends?q=obama%2C+mccain%2C+palin&ctab...)

Palin is more of an underdog than Obama, the people are more interested in Palin at the moment than either Obama or McCain and the republicans know this. Why else would it have been suggested that McCain and Palin campaign together even though traditionally the Pres/VP candidates for each party campaign independently.

3) Most of our worst leaders weren't noobs.

I would never suggest that McCain isn't a good candidate, as that's simply not true... I just think there were more qualified VP candidates than Palin and I think it was an irresponsible political stunt.

(And don't get me wrong, I'm terrified as shit of having her as President, but it's not due to her inexperience).

Agreed. It was 4am when I wrote my original post, so perhaps I should have left in the original bits I deleted about my thoughts on Palin's stance on creationism and banning of books

Anyway, I've said what I thought, I expected to get downmodded to hell but I'll leave it at that and head to bed.
Store it encrypted on their computer then decrypt it each time it's sent to you? Maybe I'm missing the problem.

One way or another you're going to have to hold it as plaintext to submit it to the other site. It's nice to hold it only in RAM, but the vulnerability is always there.
Thanks for the symmetric key idea. Yah, I don't like the idea of storing a user's credentials for a 3rd party service. Unfortunately the 3rd party requires http auth to access their api, and the app I'm working on interfaces with an individual's account. I wish the service had something like Flickr does for their API. The user could allow my app access 1 time, and it could work seemlessly without having to throw u/p back and forth.
If you are going to go into town anyway, why not just go to the library and use their computers?
What does all this have to do with the mortgage crisis? I believe that the mortgage crisis is essentially my experience at JPL writ large. Both situations were produced by a set of rules that produced perverse incentives that rewarded people for acting contrary to the greater good. In my case, I was rewarded for publishing useless papers. In the case of the mortgage industry, banks and brokers were rewarded for making bad loans. And in both cases, if push came to shove, the government with its deep pockets was there to foot the bill.

when you hear the truth it rings like a bell.
Exactly, and use public key crypto:

1) Generate public/private key pair for user.

2) Send public key to client.

3) Encrypt PW on client, store as cookie.

4) Store (user, private key) on your server.

5) Client now sends the encrypted PW whenever it is needed.

6) Server decrypts on demand, but does not store a local copy.

Since you never relinquish the private key this is pretty much unbreakable for spyware going through a client's cookies. (Nevermind key loggers...)
1.5) ensure the coffee shop has no security cameras
it's the same mechanism by which propellers spinning at certain speeds appear to be moving slowly, or even backwards.
Because the library is more likely to have their computers controlled tightly: they may keep a record of who requested to use a computer, use some kind of logging proxy, keep a copy of your ID, and you leave finger prints etc.

Also, a library may not let you install the tools that you need. If you bring your own laptop then you can do whatever. Also, a busy coffee shop offers more anonymity than a library most of the time.

Additionally, explaining why you went to a coffee shop may be easier than explaining why you went to the library (if you are like most people). Having to explain why you diverted from routine is what gets you caught.
Michelle Malkin might be another story, but she doesn't influence anyone whose vote is up for grabs.

I thought in the US system, swinging votes don't really matter. Those fence sitters aren't confident or interested enough to vote anyway. I thought the only thing that mattered was preaching to the choir & getting them to vote at all. Hence scare tactics.
Good point.

But if there are a lot of laptop-using customers even a security camera shouldn't be too much of a problem. After all, just being there is not a crime in itself. And wiping your system will delete all evidence that could link you to any log files.
And of course their intent with the word "hack" isn't even close to the original ("Hacker News") sense of the word.
Or devise some system that can autonomously sniff from inside a laptop.

Even better, use a tiny embedded Linux device like gumstix (http://www.gumstix.com/). You could even hide it somewhere and leave, let it do it's thing, and either pick it up later, or have it transmit it's findings to you over the net (through some anonymous proxy, of course)

And this is why SSL is important.
Porting X-Plane to the iPhone took only 14 days!
1: The Palin email hacking wasn't a particularly big story in the US media either -- I don't recall seeing it as the top story on any newspaper, although admittedly it hasn't exactly been a slow news week. Overall the incident is a net win for the Republicans (it could easily have been a net loss if anything really incriminating had been found) but it's a small story in the scheme of things, and it'll drift into the background noise as soon as next week's minor (or perhaps major) political scandal happens.

2) If google trends were a good indicator for elections, then our president would be "britney spears naked pictures" with "generic viagra" as her VP.

3) It's possible you might have heard some of the many false rumours about some of Sarah Palin's positions -- doing a bit of research might put your mind at ease on some of those.

In particular, she never supported putting anything other than evolution on the school curriculum, and she never tried to ban any books either. (Oh and while we're at it, she doesn't support abstinence-only sex education and she didn't pose in a bikini holding a rifle either.)
AFAICT, what we know at this point is that Palin's email was hacked and somebody claiming that Kernell's email address was theirs claimed to have done it on 4chan. I think it's a little irresponsible to have a headline that shouts "Palin Hacker Caught" when he hasn't admitted to it, been convicted of it, or even been charged yet. I'm not saying he didn't do it, but internet trolls have been known to attribute their actions to others before.
Exactly.

If neither of these behaviours are 'disgusting,' what is? IE if you don't find these disgusting, then you probably think that no business behaviour qualifies for this title.

In that case, that comment is out of place. Why say 'why is this disgusting?' What you mean is 'There's no such thing as disgusting in business.
HFM also makes a point of looking for those with mental agility and intellectual interest outside of a desired application field.

This and the "paradigm shift" are two great insights.
In the situation we have today, where people have made bad investment decisions, where people built houses they never should have built, there’s a misallocation of resources. The loss has already happened. The loss isn’t what happens on a balance sheet: the loss is what happens when someone cuts down a tree, makes cement, builds a 6,000-square-foot house in a place it should never be built. So the loss has already happened. The question is: How do you allocate that loss? And if you don’t allocate the loss, if you pretend it isn’t there, then this has really baleful consequences for the economy.

I would invest my money with this guy. most people in the financial sector don't seem to realize the real life consequences and causes of the markets they manage.
> the victim of evil attacks by the democrats (even though it was his son, and I'm sure his son has little political preferences yet)

Why would you be sure of that? In the US, political preference is typically passed down along family lines. While there are exceptions, this is especially true of politican's families. Above the state level, it's fairly common for one or more kids to go into the family biz. (The Kennedys are merely the best known example.)
Would love to investigate this for you -- please contact me directly -- garry [at] posterous.com.

Thanks!
It's an abomination on so many levels.
ASP.net MVC in C# I believe
Progress and its Sustainability
2) If google trends were a good indicator for elections, then our president would be "britney spears naked pictures" with "generic viagra" as her VP.

Yet you have Arnold Schwarzenegger as Californian Governor?

In countries where voting is compulsory, it is generally the more "visible" candidate that wins. So visibility is definitely a factor in politics. Politics is all about perception.

3) It's possible you might have heard some of the many false rumours about some of Sarah Palin's positions

I never said that they were true (I had actually written it but removed it because it would have tilted my argument more towards Palin bashing and less about the general argument I was trying to make)- Politics is all about perception, that's why there is a lot of mudslinging and misinformation.

doing a bit of research might put your mind at ease on some of those.

she never tried to ban any books either.

She may have not formally instigated a process into banning books, but that doesn't mean that when she spoke to Ms Ellons (the Wasillan librarian at the time) about how she should go about getting books banned and then threatening to fire her for not having full support that it wasn't an issue.
Doesn't sound very "girls only" to me...
There's no such thing as disgusting in business

No, there isn't. Business is amroal for the simple reason that corporations are not people.

However, there is such a thing as disgusting when people make business decisions. The fact that someone owns a business or works for a business does not relive them of personal moral responsibility.

A business is perfectly correct to decide that offshoring shoe manufacturing to copuntries with child labour is the right choice. A business is perfectly correct to decide that offshoring chemical manufacturing to countries with lax safety standards is the right choice.

The people working for those businesses, on the other hand, are not off the hook. They cannot invoke the Nuremburg defence, for can they assert that since the business is devoid of responsibility, and they work for the business, their decisions while on the job are devoid of responsibility.

Thus, speaking to another post here, I have no ethical problem with a firm that exists to commit patent extortion. However, I find the actions of its founders and employees disgusting.
> At what point have I ever said (or implied) I was anti-American on this site

My apologies. I didn't intend "you" personally, but the "It's just that there is a growing anti-American sentiment in the rest of the world" (as I quoted).

> Your kind of insular attitude proves exactly what I'm saying.

Huh? You said that there was a growing anti-American sentiment. While I agree, how does what I said prove that?

Or, are you saying that I proved something that you didn't state explicitly? If so, what?

> For the record: I thought the Americans and the Aussies were allies?

So?

Your strongest argument would be that Australians are probably Americans' most popular "not Americans". (Canadians have gone with a curious mix of invisibility and defining themselves as "not American".) And, you seem to take care of them yourselves.

However, that doesn't change the fact that much of what the US sees overseas is folks with their hands out. We also see folks screaming about the US "doing it wrong" when they're not doing it at all. Maybe we're incorrect, but I'm talking sentiment, as you did.

There is no shortage of problems in the world. Surely some of them can be taken care of by someone else. Rwanda was well within the capabilities of many other countries. Somalia is as well.
Wonderful book. As many good ideas as most authors would put into a lifetime of work.
If your team is comfortable with Microsoft's stack, why force them to learn Java/python?

Well, they other options are open. So it might make sense. :P
I'd like to second that.

I'm for punishing the kid just the same as if he had stolen checks and started writing checks against somebody's account.

My concern is that this will be a special case -- either giving the kid more punishment than normal or less punishment. Just guessing, I'm thinking a white-collar crime that involved no use of violence? 6 months to 2 years maybe?

Now is there an additional crime for political espionage in the course of trying to throw an election? I believe so, or at least that there should be. I think if you commit a felony in the process of trying to sway political opinion that should pump up the punishment some. As an example I use the Watergate burglars, who were anything but run-of-the-mill crooks (and got punished more than first time burglars as well, if I remember correctly)

Crime with deliberate political implications, whether violent or not, should be treated more harshly. Perhaps this kid didn't break into Palin's account to sway public opinion. I don't know enough about the case to determine that.
I agree with you. The title comes from the author unedited.
> She may have not formally instigated a process into banning books, but that doesn't mean that when she spoke to Ms Baker (the Wasillan librarian at the time) about how she should go about getting books banned

That's not what she asked. Moreover, why should librarians be the last word on book selection? (Librarians are political creatures too.)

> and then threatening to fire her for not having full support that it wasn't an issue.

Palin fired the librarian for supporting a political rival.

Politics isn't bean bag.
With what was Stock Overflow built?
> I thought in the US system, swinging votes don't really matter. Those fence sitters aren't confident or interested enough to vote anyway. I thought the only thing that mattered was preaching to the choir & getting them to vote at all.

Not at all. While you don't have a chance if your base doesn't come out, they almost always do. As a result, swing votes typically decide US elections.

There are, however, two kinds of swing votes. One always votes, but switches. The other shows up occasionally.
Apple Rejects Another iPhone App For Competing With Apple
Ask HN: Stormpulse valuation
We are looking to place a value on our startup as we seek a round of funding. The startup was seeded on sweat and roughly 50k, and we expect to take 300k-500k to expand our coverage and services and work on the venture full-time. Coincidentally, PG defines this as the median range of investment for startups coming out of YC in his "Why There Aren't More Googles" essay.

I will try to be informative but discrete. We had between 1 million and 5 million unique visitors to our domain between Aug 15 and Sept 15. Our map is used as an embeddable widget on 400+ other sites, many of which are well-trafficked media outlets, and our map has been used on CNN during their hurricane coverage. O'Reilly also happened to mention our site during his Web2.0 keynote. Also, we have received hundreds of voluntary tips, donations, and thank-you emails.

So what percentage should we expect to hand over for this size investment?
... half of which were spent in Cupertino with Apple engineers catering to the developers' every whim. That probably helped speed things along.
Whereas technology is constantly changing, the principles of business really haven't changed at all (business is business).
As long as we're being pedantic:

With what was Stack Overflow built?

:~)
The term “hacker”