skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Dan Sugalski wrote a post on the Parrot blog a couple years ago that I thought was pretty thought-provoking. In a nutshell, it was:

"I think we - compiler and VM writers - have definitely been on the wrong track all these years. Instead of looking for ways to squeeze that last instruction out of a function, we should be looking at memoization, lazy evaluation, and other ways to avoid whole chunks of work."

That squares with my experience (as an application programmer, not as a compiler writer). When I've been able to get huge, 2-10x speedups in my programs, it's always been through doing less work, not doing the work more quickly.

At my first job, there was an issue with the communication protocol between the UI and a proprietary database. The engineering department spent a month redoing the protocol with batch calls that fetched data with one command instead of individually retrieving each object. They ended up with about a 5% speedup. Then I looked at the logs and saw that a certain very-common API call was actually making two requests to the database, and the data from the second one was not needed in 99% of cases (it was a holdover from when the product was intended for a totally different market). So I changed the API to lazily fetch the extra data only when it was accessed, and within an hour we had a 2x speedup.

So yeah, existing optimizations have probably reached a point of diminishing returns. But that doesn't mean that new approaches might not result in big speedups.
That's an intimidating list of questions, to me at least. Maybe something that takes you through the motions first, then allows for some expandability?
Can't do much to answer the questions, unfortunately, but if you're familiar with ruby, RAD (Ruby Arduino Development; http://rad.rubyforge.org) might be interesting for you to check out.
It is. I happen to be working on a small demonstration of one. I'll post the code for reference when it's done.
This looks interesting from the expandability front: http://ucontroller.com/ (N.B.: I have never used one)
Google Celebrates 10th Birthday, Gives Away Money
A newbie like me would like to do some basic and interesting stuff like controlling a robot or using it in a robot and then move on to complex activities like audio processing etc. But the choice would surely be a board/kit that's 'expandable' by addons.
Cloud + Client
You think Google using its influence to go against Proposition 8 is something, I don't want to know what you think about individual Mormons donating $6.4 million dollars to support this nonsense proposition. I'm not even beginning to count all the other donors. Also let's note how none of this would be an issue if some people would just STOP pushing their beliefs on others..that would be tens of millions of dollars that could go elsewhere.

Compared to orphans in Africa, yes, I'm going to sound rich and spoiled, but Proposition 8 is here now and it needs to be dealt with now. There are other NGOs and others trying to deal with crises worldwide (and I do donate as much as I can in every way to them), but I have to do my own bit to get rid of this deranged proposition November 4th because I really, really want to have the ability to get married to another woman and still have the same rights as, say, my heterosexual parents do. So forgive me and lots of others (Brad Pitt? Ellen DeGeneres? Steven Spielberg?...) for caring so much about something that affects us deeply.

For what it's worth, I may have access to world class healthcare, but it's costing me an arm and a leg. Should I be unable to afford it, well, I don't even want to go there.

(In the end, I'm not really disagreeing with Matt here. I don't think they're exclusive of each other, but I think Sergey thought Prop 8 was a way more pressing issue that could potentially end soon, and Google's support could only help. I would not mind seeing an easier way to adopt children since I plan to do so in the future, but honestly Google isn't gonna turn into an adoption agency anytime soon and I'm sure many people already use Google to find out more about the whole adoption process to begin with.)
I know a few people that carry two cell phones... It's a technicality but you can have more than 100% market penetration. Does that count?

"Luxembourg racked up 158 mobile subscriptions per 100 people, closely followed by Lithuania (127) and Italy (122)." Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7116599.stm
he is absolutely correct, and it will take out more than just startups

we were told that reflating the dot-com bubble on the back of real estate as opposed to letting a recession clean out malinvestments would be bad. we didn't listen

we were told that low interest rates at the fed wouldn't help, just make commodities more expensive. we didn't listen

we were told that $100 billion in stimulus checks would not have a measurable impact on the economy. we didn't listen

now the kicker is that the $700 billion dollar near-nationalization of mortgage lending won't help either. in six months people will wonder how $700 billion could seemingly vanish with no positive results

people are really bent on this idea that things will be fine by mid 09

next to go is whatever is left of the dollar. at some point people will realize the dollar has become a black hole and they will evacuate it. i would suggest that the dollar is already dead, no fiscal restraint can save it now

US dollar gone by 2025 -> USA gone by 2025
Oh no! 100% of those running startups today will be dead in 95 years!

Wall Street != Main Street != Startup Street
$deity forbid gay people have the same rights as married couples without calling it a marriage. I have a feeling some people would still be offended like their own personal marriages would be under attack even if you removed all trace of "marriage" for gay couples.

Don't forget that couple that got offended at the removal of "bride" and "groom" on their wedding license: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1239279.html
Some projects to get you into electronics:

Building a 555 timer circuit.

Build some basic amplifiers.

Build some basic filters.

Building a basic AC to DC convertor.

Controlling stepper motors with your USB/parallel port.

Building an A2DC convertor.

Building a USB controller.

Connecting a Wii controller to your PC.

Build a basic robot.

Lego Mindstorms - play around with this kit.

Build CERN.
Yup! that's expandable and sounded good. But LOL,
that ucontroller it seems has to be programmed by Machine Language. I got a hint on their tutorials page.
What's CERN?
Googling CERN leads me to CERN an organisation related to nuclear stuff. European Organization for Nuclear Research
No. Google would have to tell people to stop being racist, not to vote for Obama, for that to make any sense.

Also, my sexuality SHOULD have nothing to do with my work, but if I were affected adversely by this or other similar discriminatory nonsense, it would most likely affect my work. I daresay the same would apply to anyone regardless of sexuality.

Prop 8 is about more than just marriage, it's about what comes with marriage.
If software engineers in gay couples are discriminated against in California, they'll go elsewhere. I know of at least one case exactly like that - they moved to Canada.

I guess that this provides the cover for Google to discuss these issues in an official channel.
Even Disney has gay events at their parks. It doesn't get more corporate/"family friendly" than that.
Full automation will eventually be cheaper; right now it isn't.
Companies do this all the time, directly and indirectly, i.e. on gay rights, what kind of benefits to extend to gay employees (see http://www.hrc.org/issues/workplace/cei.htm). Why is Google and Sergey's public announcement of this so surprising?
Seems that people read his stuff anyways, does it really matter in the end? I am sure they are way better ways to say his is stupid then correcting is grammar.
Another way: If you have a scroll wheel you can middle-click on a link to open in a new tab.

I totally agree about the "New Tab" button being up by default. It's the first thing I do when I'm on another computer without it.

Edit: But that would only work if it was an actual link. Plain text doesn't work obviously.
If he doesn't know how to do the jobs, you are correct, he's screwed unless he hires someone who does, and the median Sr. SysAdmin in this area is paid $140K (full load) per year. The market tends to agree that an experienced SysAdmin is worth a lot.

However, if the original poster does have someone on staff who knows how to do the tasks in question, but lacks the time, (and enjoys and is good at teaching) then there is value to be had in Jr. SysAdmins.
by extension they are claiming that everything you know about the world before you are twelve comes from instinct.
Compuserve, Prodigy, and AOL is to the Internet
as The Apple iPhone is to _____________
Thanks for the link!
I found it a very refreshing essay.
Might kill off 50-80% - might also foster a bunch of new ones.. Maybe even ones that have better fundamentals than the ones that died.

- e.g. market analytics, risk reporting, compliance... Or startups that drive efficiency and productivity gains - companies will be desperate for these kinds of ideas in the coming 6-24 months.
Forget the last one. Don't try to make that project for a while - its the end boss.
I was in the same position as you a while ago..some people I know were buying some Parallax products and wanted to know if I were interested in joining them to get a volume discount, so I got some of their products..I'm not sure what kind of stuff you wanted to program, but I've done some small but cool little toys and projects with their propeller and javelin microcontrollers - and they had some intro sets too I think. Lots of extras you could add on like GPS and bluetooth (for $ of course).

I've really wanted to check out the Arduino boards, but no time, so I couldn't give you any sort of comparison I'm afraid. Might as well take this opportunity to purchase one while I still remember, too ;)
"The dust was so abrasive that it actually wore through three layers of Kevlar-like material on Jack's boot,"

they talk about this in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.
Redundant. I only downvote posts that I think are outright flames, or otherwise completely counterproductive to conversation. Downvoting is not a way of saying "I disagree with you," it's a way of saying "You're detracting from real conversation." Explaining downvotes only adds to the noise.

I do, however, upvote to agree. If I disagree but I think it's a legitimate comment, I don't do anything.
The best is the enemy of the good - Voltaire

Comparing someone's efforts with what they could have done is a way to deflate and discourage them. While I don't think Sergey will care about your attitude (or even be aware of it), I care.

It's not that Sergey can only ever make this one comment in his life, and he has to pick the very best use of it. He can support more than one cause - and perhaps the journey of a thousand miles starts with the ground under your feet?
When is the last time you saw Chick-fil-A write their political stance on their corporate blog?
Carbon nanotechnology in a 17th century Damascus sword
Can you please list the Parallax products and a few projects that you started with? Anything related to robots (to keep myself interested as I'm fascinated with robots). Would like to start with simple robots that can move :)
CSI Miami Wont Get Fueled Again 7×2 Episode De
“Won’t Get Fueled Again” - When gasoline gets so expensive that Miami’s residents are literally killing for it, the CSIs come face to face with one of the city’s most sadistic crime rings
I think it would be neat if downvotes took a point of karma away from the downvoter as well.

That would provide incentive for the downvoting user to comment so that people would have a chance to mod him up to recover it.

Yes, yes, I know "don't pay attention to your karma", but it's one of the primary pieces of information about our posts/comments that we're given by reddit/this system.

The site would function identically if article, comment, and user karma values were all hidden. I wonder what the impact would be on the dialog.
Hmm, it's been a while, and I only have a dismantled bot right now sitting on my desk as a paperweight..

I'm not sure I actually did anything with the propeller chips, but at Defcon last month I saw a project by Kingpin that interested me (it's NSFW but the website is at http://www.bsodomizer.com/ , having to do with displaying a BSOD/goatse via a hardware-based vga passthrough device) that I might use it for as a joke on friends.

The javelin and basic stamp ones I used with the board of education (that's what they called it I think?), the BoE bot kit. Mostly messed around with that and one of the bluetooth accessories to navigate around (it's probably a lot simpler than you're thinking it is). At some point I had the brilliant idea that I could use my then-Pocket PC to control it, but that didn't go anywhere. I wonder if my now-iPhone could handle that..

Depending on your wants, I'm not entirely convinced parallax products would be right for you. The arduino boards look cheaper and I bet they're a lot simpler to program. I about wanted to rip my hair out dealing with the BASIC stamp from parallax since I couldn't stand the language.

edit: I might note my friends and family were way more impressed with the tank treads I got (a lot more stable than the wheels) than the bluetooth. still they thought it was cute I mounted a small iSight and a long firewire cable to watch them in another room. iSight wasn't sending video to the bot itself, not enough bandwidth. Although I do think parallax sells cameras that could.
Is there a good online introduction to Erlang, like Dive into Python or _why's poignant guide to ruby?
The flash viewer is neat. Esp beause its keystroke activated (arrow & ctrl/shift). Why there is no keystroke for the default viewer? (or is there?)
I have seen such tools on real estate sites (360˚ view). This one looks very neat though.
Erlang solves a problem that's currently very difficult, namely massively concurrent, distributed, fault-tolerant systems.
Honestly I find discussing this topic (regulating forum karma) pretty interesting. Granted, articles that are toned to imply someone's whining about being downmodded are kind of frustrating, but I don't think the overall idea is any less "relevant to hackers" than any number of other things that are accepted here.

The various approaches to karma, when well applied, have the ability to mitigate some pretty challenging social problems (trolling, etc). Math applied to meatspace issues seems like a geeky topic with the power to make a real difference in peoples lives. To wit: http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html
Essential Math for Games Programmers - One Day Tutorial
Prop 8 is a "way more pressing issue" than AIDS orphans? In what sense?
Need a rockstar UX/XD/UI person
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Then don't invest in Google, if you don't like how it's run. Buying a couple shares in a company doesn't mean you get to set the tone and policies of it. If enough people feel like you do then Google will suffer, as it should. I suspect this kind of unconventionality is a big part of what has made Google so successful. That's the primary reason I like this.
I've read Brave New World. And yeah, most work in society is mindless. Ideally, I don't think people should have to work at all anymore, but there are a whole lot of problems stopping that from happening.

Really expanding on this stuff takes a lot of writing, I'm not quite up for it yet (but I'm working on it).
This seems like most things Calacanis writes, there's about 3 lines of argument, and 200 lines of self-promotion. He manages to get Mahalo, Silicon Alley Insider, TechCrunch50 and his BA of Psychology into the piece. But my favorite part is how the Holocaust is used as a leadin to his experiences in the first bubble.
Video of the Maltese Falcon in SF Bay:

From small boat #1 (0:14):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3nASo9FB78

From small boat #2 (0:35):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP3YPxEpXNA

From small boat #3, chasing astride with horns blowing as Falcon transits under bridge (1:58):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OENpqkU6Ihs

From Marin Headlands (with song Hotel California) (3:29):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhMYfIZWbJw

From the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge (1:52):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWp-sqM2tDM

From small boat #4, with view of helicopter (1:04):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuCUhs45Udw

From small boat #5 (0:19):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHfLC2SMaE
www.iphonehacks.com/2008/06/lego-nxt-robot.html
That link which I once read(although I don't own an iphone) tells how to control a Lego Mindstorms with iPhone.

I checked the Mindstorms website too and was confused what to start with. It mentions all about Indiana Jones and Batman and Bionicle but nothing about what should be bought to build these stuff.

Anyway, since you mentioned the Arduino boards (which also is the apple of my eye since you mentioned it is cheaper), I chose a seller from Austrialia, that is close to my country (all other retailers have websites in Japanese or languages that seem like Japanese to me). Here's the link to the retailer's Arduino products page.

http://www.littlebirdelectronics.com/collections/arduino/

Can you help me choose the components I can start with? I saw something called "Bare-Bones Arduino Kit". Seems like I have to choose that. Or any other components?

The one in my region is Flexi(India) http://www.techsouls.com/projects/flexi/

They have been listed on the Arduino site as an Arduino compatible or Arduino similar hardware. Would better if I can choose hardware here.

"...used to display a fake BSOD..."
That BSODomizer cracks really me up!

Sounds funny but a really cool weekend project I can try out soon. And how's that BSOD pronounced? B-S-O-D or Bsod?
Word of advice: Check out searchyc.com and rehash your post. Using the word "rockstar" will likely prevent a large portion of the community from even considering sending you an email.
The ideal solution is domestic partnerships at the federal level -- for ALL people, regardless of their combination of sex. However, the federal government is never going to relinquish the power of marriage. We're stuck with the state regulating a religious issue. Within this framework, the difference between domestic partnerships is mostly emotional. It is incredibly insulting to suggest that something "separate but equal" is a good solution. Beyond that emotional issue, it is unlikely that something intended to be different in name only would only be different in name only.
Yeah, my point is not that there's anything wrong with being edgy or allocating brand for some public good. Look at Bono and the One campaign for example.

The point is that Sergey has many "public good" issues to choose from. Some issues will have far greater impact on relieving suffering in this world - especially for those who have little or no voice themselves. Some issues will have a much smaller impact, especially for those who already have a lot of power and are wealthy and very vocal about their issues. Some issues will be very divisive among Google shareholders and users. Some issues will be very uniting.

It's really a matter of choosing what to do with your resources - and Google is a public company now - not a privately owned company by Larry and Sergey. Employees and shareholders are on both sides of this issue - what may be 'obviously the right thing to do' for some of his shareholders is 'obviously the wrong thing to do' for others. This is a divisive move for his company on an issue trying to help already very powerful and wealthy advocates. To spend brand capital so heavily and unilaterally like this when you could be doing so much good elsewhere and at the same time build unity among shareholders and strengthen your brand - just seems like a poor decision.
If you want a real introduction to electronics, try this:

Run 9V backwards across base and emitter on an NPN transistor while pinching it.

I still have the scar on my thumb.
I want to buy this man a copy of Strunk & White. Does he think the way he writes is a style, or does he just not care?
Because it's outright discrimination right here that voters in california need to deal with in November that could most definitely have an effect on other states and maybe eventually countries in removing discriminatory practices: a set deadline to deal with an ugly issue that if enough people vote yes on, will mean that everyone on all sides will waste more money and time trying to fight (and oh man, the money going into these yes and no on prop 8 campaigns..). Not that that won't happen if this prop is defeated, but it would be less of a mess than it would if it were not. California's potential impact on this situation is huge. It's a start.

Now, if we were talking money, which afaik Google has not donated to any no-on-prop-8 campaign, then I would agree with the open letter Matt wrote, but a public statement? From Google?

I'm not saying AIDS orphans aren't a pressing issue as well, but organizations and companies better fit to attempt to make an impact on that and many more humanitarian crises are working right now to do so and have been for a while, and I really don't think Google doing what they did for prop 8 for AIDS orphans instead would change much. Google did something like "Donate to $x charity!" link on their frontpage for previous crises like hurricane katrina and the recent devastating earthquake in China, and I bet that would have a larger impact if said charity were one like MSF etc. working to treat and stop AIDS or some adoption agency specializing in AIDS orphans. Or to AIDS research. Or something. Feature a new one every week. Sponsor a child. Adopt a child. Anything. Now that's a cool idea (although one would have to wonder how many people would pay attention, what kind of usability impact it would have on the site, and how many people would just see if they could remove that on their personalized page..).

The world sucks, honestly, but just because one problem is a lot worse than another doesn't mean that the lesser problem should be pushed aside for the sake of the larger problem. They're not exclusive, and some entities are just better fit to help on one than another.
Yeah, I agree. I lurk on your site too. Also great quality subs.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=298768

Charge money for voting. For example: every 2 votes costs 1 Karma point.

There are lots of other interesting Karma suggestions in the main Requests thread:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363
> It's probably just a matter of processing power needed to find that number(s).

It's just a matter of strength and technique to run a world record 100 meter....

It's not just processing power, although it was a large amount of processing power, it was knowing how to use it.