skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I won't judge siri, as I do not know the details of technology or the machine learning algorithms used by it, but I would say this much: your one line pitch might just impress some businessweek readers but I don't think a really cool technology needs punchlines like that (..apple II..) - your article sounds like its coming from a non-technical observer for a non-technical audience - and that would be okay if the product had passed the stage of hype into early stages of common usage.

At this stage though I am more interested in how is it different from 100s of other AI applications that failed to take over the world or become the next big thing.

My need to criticize primarily came from your last paragraph where you are appealing to developers to jump in without realizing that that segment of your audience looks not very respectfully at phrases like 'buckle up' and 'amazing ride'
How many of these guys are GPS satellite engineers? It sounds like they falsely assumed that the GPS system would take care of all relativistic effects and they can just use absolute time for measurement.

The GPS system was not remotely designed for this level of accuracy. The issue here could really be a misconception of how well GPS works and what it was designed to do. GPS, like all technology, has a distinct difference between theory and practice and is also engineered for certain use cases. It may be that no one really thought about this stuff until now because we're talking such tiny increments of time over such large distances.

Regardless, its early in the game to know whats going on, but I'd be really surprised if suddenly neutrinos were FTL and no one noticed until sometime this year. This is starting to look like another case of super-smart over-specialized eggheads making assumptions and not seeing the big picture, like when NASA/Lockheed lost the Mars Climate Orbitor over imperial to metric conversions.
If I had to do accurate calculations from scratch, I would probably used fixed-point or arbitrary-precision math, talk to an accountant about industry standards and carefully cover my edge-cases for rounding and the like. More practically I would try to use a well-established library. I can't recommend anything specifically.

It's not impossible to do accurate calculations in JS, but my main point is that since the only built-in way to do math is floating point it's a bit of a minefield to go with a naive solution.
for somebody who went to college, he sure does have a simplistic outlook on the problem :)
Well based on the article leading with the virtual desktop as a reason UB is 'better' than OS X, you'd think that someone obviously didn't know. Lion came out almost 4 months ago.. UB isn't breaking new ground with that feature.
The 4-byte (SMTP-command-style) lookup:

if(*(u_int32_t)cmdword == *(u_int32_t *)"EHLO") {
handle_ehlo();
}

The "extern inline" idiom for forcing inlining, which I picked up from Mike Stolarchuk.

Passing and assigning trivial structures by value instead of fiddley pointers.

Arena allocators.

Not so much a trick, but: you can safely free() NULL, which saves a conditional. In the same vein: not only is there no point to casting malloc()'s return value, but there are (admittedly rare) circumstances where doing so can be harmful. So save yourself the typing.

assert(!"message") instead of assert(0).
Neutrino's are hard to detect and even harder to generate in detectable quantites. So for now we have exactly one location and one path in the world where we can both generate and detect them at a reasonable distance.

Also, GPS satilites don't orbit in one direction you need 3 to quickly get an accurate posisiton so they use a wide range of orbits to minimize the number needed. http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/ Which is something the article seems to miss.
This is a good start, but it's all analysis from the outside looking in. The author is probably right about the overall structure, but there are already a few things that have come out since he posted this (it's dated last week, probably right before Steve Jobs' passing): Relationships, such as "my wife" are not actually something you type into new fields in the address book. You actually tell Siri yourself, in what appears to be a sort of natural-language @define statement.

Once a much larger audience has been playing with Siri for a few weeks, we should start to get a much clearer picture.
If it's write heavy, more than the app server, it will be the DB that will be more important to you. If it's purely I/O bound, node.js might work out fairly well for you. Perhaps you could hook it up with mongodb and it will be pretty. :)
I read about Cake Health, apparently the Mint.com of health insurance. It basically pools all your data, and all the line items, from your insurance provider.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/cake-health-the-mint-for-he...
I think that was clear from the article. What jenius, I think, was saying is that you don't offer much support for this claim. How, for example, can startups get on the AI-as-a-service bandwagon without having the resources and experience of a company like Apple?
And mission control is even better -- especially with dual or triple monitors.
It really is an issue that most backup providers do not offer a Linux client, I am also bound to S3 at the moment, I have been tempted to try out the windows clients in wine, but It would be great if someone would offer a good(cheap, reliable, non evil =D ) backup service with linux support, even if its just a commandline. Actually an API would be fantastic.. let the openSource community build you a client.
I chose to write my own terminal emulator from scratch because after trying various existing open source implementations (including the one in Ajaxterm) I decided they were too slow, buggy, or incomplete. I have old versions of Gate One that used a modified version of Ajaxterm's emulation, Termemulator, and one other that I can't remember right now.

The biggest reason of all was the speed. Gate One needed to support multiple users running multiple terminals. Every terminal--when the screen is updated--needs to be converted into HTML and sent to the client. I wrote terminal.py to be as fast as possible with this purpose in mind.

For reference, I hadn't heard of pyte until I saw your link just now. I'll definitely be checking it out.

Having said all that, now that I've already written my own terminal emulator for Gate One, it includes some additional features that only Gate One is suited to take advantage of (special escape handlers that only terminal.py would know how to handle--for plugin authors to use). I don't think it would be practical to use something else at this point.

--
Dan McDougall - Author of Gate One
I've heard good things about http://rsync.net/ .
He read the article. He's implying that we were on the way to anthropogenic global warming, and then Columbus and those who followed him inadvertently put a stop to it.
James Gosling on Ritchie - I've run out of adjectives
I love how I'm being downvoted to oblivion when nobody is able to produce a single example of what Siri does that other products don't. That's my entire argument, that the technology already exists and is not some major revolution. I guess no place is impervious to Apple fanboyism, even HN.
This is great. I could see us using this library at Forbes.
I don't think he meant that the password is stored in a reversible format. He meant that the e-mail is sent out before the password is encrypted and stored.
New book: Markets Not Capitalism
At some point, someone is going to have to put serious money into desalination plants.
It is not "supernatural shit", but it is Pascal's Wager. It takes the same form and has the same flaws. It is an invalid argument.

By paying $25k to be frozen, you also get a nonzero chance that you'll be revived and live through thousands of years of torture.
So: Why would you like to drop ~native~ clients?

I use SecureCRT (not free). Really good software, has tabs, a ton of features. However ...

1. I have to install it on every computer I use. It's not free or cheap. If I re-install OS, I have to re-install it. It is supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux, but if I need access while using my tablet or phone ... I'd need to install something else.

2. I use many servers and it doesn't synchronize settings between computers. I want to have access to all my servers whether I'm in the office or using my laptop at home. Not an issue with a web based system.

3. I make web based software, so ... it only makes sense that I support the ecosystem =)
Thank you, at least someone else in this thread understands. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills in here.
Here's a 360 player: https://github.com/hi-res/360player
Here's another way to look at it...

Cosmopolitan magazine is bought almost exclusively by women.

Cosmopolitan magazine always has women on the cover and they are always attractive.

The point is that not only men are motivated by attractive women to spend money.

Your analogy to men is less relevant because attractiveness in men depends less on physical appearance.
Code bulk is an indicator of complexity but it's not the only one. In some cases it makes sense to build a system with "less architecture" even if this means "more lines of code."

It's a situational thing, and it's particularly true when you (i) need to develop a quick prototype, and (ii) don't understand the problem very well. Sometimes there's no more efficient way to learn about (ii) other than doing (i). In a case like this, however, you are "building one to throw away.

Overall there's a balance between systems that have (A) "lots of pieces that have simple relationships" and (B) "a few pieces that have complex relationships".) Type (B) systems are more reusable, but introduce the risk that bad architectural decisions are going to be made. Adding time to the schedule, which is spent on thinking about design, can sometimes lead to a good design, but with some teams it leads to overengineered systems that have fundamental design flaws that prevent project success.

Early confrontation with reality is important, so early phase development should focus on resolving risks.
Most definitely. There's another really good doc on Super Mario World that compares a lot of similar chunks of code to their counterparts in the Super Mario Bros. 3 code, which SMW was based off of.
Interview about FireMonkey (cross-platform language)
I used to feel the same way a few months back. However, due to some personal reasons, I had to be more or less completely offline for two weeks. When I came back, guess what, I realized I hadn't really missed anything major.

There is an insane amount of news getting generated - but most of it is just noise. The trick that I follow is to pick a few areas that I am really interested in and find good sources/websites where the signal to noise ratio is low. Even good blogs don't produce useful articles all the time.

Another thing that I do is - every morning I quickly scan and stash off articles I want to read, and then I read them up properly later in the day. Trying to read everything will just not allow you to get any productive work done!
If you DID quit your job. What would you do on the first day?

Would you go into coding furiously, look at how to attract customers? What's the next step that requires your full working week?

It's very tempting to just throw all your spare time at a project, convinced that it needs more time, when all it needs is more progress.

Maybe spend the odd vacation day on it, like a 4 whole days (Friday to a Monday) see what you get done and how it feels.

I quit my perm job in 09. Currently contracting and working on my side project on eves/weekends.

I've made much more progress since I started to structure my mini "working day" for when I get home. I cross off a couple of tasks in my notebook and I know when I'm done each day.

I don't think you need to quit yet, focus on getting more out of the hours that you already have.

You can then enjoy the rest of your free time and spend important time with your son & family without feeling that you should be working still.

I'd be interested to hear what industry your project is in, There are plenty of folks here that will help if they can!
Quality, Quantity, Speed (Pick 2)
Actually, mission control is a giant step back. Spaces prior to Lion were actually more useful and usable. Now they have turned to a gimmick to impress the clueless in the apple store. This is one of the many reasons I have not updated my macs to Lion, and if they continue this way I may just install Ubuntu on them.
Until the faster than light result can be recreated in an independent experiment, I am treating this like cold fusion. Neat result and absolutely deserving of further investigation, but not definitive.
Besides what the others have stated (which are some really great reasons), Gate One will resume your sessions if you lose/regain network connectivity, close/reopen your browser, reboot your computer, etc.

Also, there's compliance (Gate One can be configured to log everything every user does--even to a central log server), the awesome bookmark manager, and then there's the fact that it is pretty much your only option if using a Chromebook :).

Side note: Gate One also has an interesting feature in that you can kill the Gate One daemon, start it back up, and everyone's sessions will be restored. It does this by way of the dtach program. This feature is actually the groundwork for some big things coming in the future for Gate One. Features that will likely make the front page again =)

--
Dan McDougall - Author of Gate One
Be Authentic When Someone Asks How Your Startup is Going
Bullshit - Siri has some special loops for recognizing questions about date, location and the weather. That's it. It really is not more advanced than "call xyz", except it not only uses the address book, but also the calendar and the weather service.
Fair play. I definitely wouldn't feel good recommending money.js for any application where people live and die by the 8th point of precision on an exchange rate, if you know what I mean - but it's a solid solution for estimates, price conversions and most enterprise software - provided that appropriate disclaimers are given (i.e. "converted prices for informational purposes only") - everyone should cover their arses.

I agree with you though, that there will be the 1% of cases where something a lot more reliable is needed, but I imagine that's when you call in the CS heavyweights.
> Virtually everything we call “AI” today is either a theatrical display of essentially scripted behavior (that’s how most game AI works), a massive database (such as Google Suggestions and expert systems) or a vague and decidedly unintelligent jumble of neural networks and genetic algorithms.

Okay, I can understand the first two being less attractive, but evolutionary neural networks-- really? I mean, what more do you want than an artificial brain created through simulated evolution? What characteristics would satisfy people like this that something is "AI" [1]? It seems a bit like the old saying that once it's discovered, it's no longer AI.

[1] It's worth noting that I'm strongly biased since I work in the Neural Network Research Group at UT Austin.
RollerCoaster Tycoon (released in 1999) is well known for being written almost entirely in x86 assembly.

http://www.chrissawyergames.com/faq3.htm
Shootout At the Hadoop Corral
Every time someone analyzes an AI system, they invariably conclude that it isn't really AI, but rather just a complicated system of different, strung-together technologies.

At what point do systems of sophisticated text-to-speech and grammar analysis technologies actually become AI?
Que Negocios Son Rentables - 4 Opciones
This has happened to British Agents before in WWII. I remember seeing a documentary about training British agents to infiltrate France. While in France one agent got caught out by asking for a black coffee. This was the default coffee at the time in France, people would just ask for a coffee and expect a black coffee. This made him stand out.

There are similar stories like this in movies, such as the Great Escape, when one of the escaping prisoners is dressed as a civilian and is boarding a bus in town. A German Officer says in English "Good luck", the prisoner replies in English "thank you" and is caught.
Carbon nanotube artificial muscle mimics elephant trunk
Man-in-the-Middle Attacks on Voting Machines
It all changes when you have kids...or at least it will if you want it to.
Perhaps it relies on using obscure information that the messenger already knows, but not telling the messenger which random fact will be the significant one.

For example, you could authenticate my brother by asking him to complete this song title: "Fleshy _______". Yet without knowing what question he was to answer, he could never retrieve the password.

I suppose it's not exactly true that he couldn't remember it-- it's in his memory, but he doesn't know where to look. Actually, the idea is basically asking someone to dereference a pointer to their childhood. Most people will segfault.
Interesting. I've read a few stories about spies being discovered due to their habits, so this is somewhat related. For example, table manners are different in Europe and the US (the way you hold and use a knife and fork especially). Also, since people in the uk drive on the left the way they look for cars before crossing a road is opposite the norm in countries where they drive on the right. Apparently Americans will rotate a piece of pie or cake so the point faces them before eating it.

It should be possible to specifically train some habit or combination of habits that is within the norm but notable enough to use as an identifier if known (much like baseball signals).

In short: behavioral steganography.
As long as the use was strictly internal to your organization the only people you'd have to give the source to would be the users. This includes 3rd party companies you might have a business relationship with (though I doubt they'd put such a pressure on you =).

The bigger concern with such an integration is if it ever gets exposed to the Internet at large. Then you'll need to distribute the source or be in violation. Why risk it? Licenses will be pretty cheap for such one-off situations. Everything is negotiable regardless.

--
Dan McDougall - Author of Gate One
Gamedev is simpler today than it was by then, but games (we are talking about AAA titles, as Metroid was at the time) have escalated in complexity by several orders of magnitudes.

Today is simply impossible for a single person/small team to create a rival to Call of Duty 4 or Fallout 3, while back then it was relatively simple for someone with the skills and talent to emerge.
Do you work out to the point of muscle failure? Do you maintain a speed so grueling that you literally can't row at all after a certain point? That's my interpretation of "forced," at least as experienced in my PT. Granted, I don't know what "forced" meant in the context of the study being talked about in this article. Accordngly, I can only guess at it. (No desire to play "No True Scotsman" on this, I assure you.)
Except Siri doesn't do anything of the kind. It would be trivial to build "take my taxes from this PDF and put them into a spreadsheet" into Siri (or indeed any speech recognition engine). But that would only be one more special case. The code is literally "if (recognizedText == "take my taxes from this PDF and put them into a spreadsheet"){writeExcelSheet(parsePDFTable("taxes.pdf"))}

That's nice, but it is not AI.
Running Ant build targets in Eclipse outside of project builds
I notice you don't yet support smart http(s).

I wrote (well, update/adapted actually) a plugin for Redmine which allows hosting of git repositories (https://github.com/ericpaulbishop/redmine_git_hosting) and I integrated Scott Chacon's "grack" code so that it will support smart http out of the box.

If you're interested this feature it may be helfpul to check out the code in app/controllers/git_http_controller.rb in my plugin. Note that the rails user needs to have access to the git repo directory for this code to work. I handle this issue using a sudo configuration, which is an extra setup step for users, and requres them to have admin priviledges. You may want to handle this differently.
or skype name will be changed to, microsoft windows video and call manager.
Mini Seedcamp Prague teams announced
Why not use something like rsyslog and have it transfer the logs via udp to a centralized rsyslog server? Very easy to setup.
NYU is a great school to start a startup right now. This month alone we have:

> Fred Wilson speaking on campus about biotech startups,

> NYU Startup Week, with discussions on raising investment, working at a startup, etc,

> and a hackathon sponsored by hackNY[0], a fellowship for students interested in founding or working at a startup.

NYU is also 10 minutes away from General Assembly[1], possibly the largest tech co-working space in Manhattan.

[0] http://hackny.org/a/

[1] http://www.generalassemb.ly/

Disclaimer: I'm a grad student at NYU, and I actually chose this program over others because of the startup environment in New York.
The dilemma is deciding whether to take on a business specialist partner (with all the right qualities) and hire out the development, or keep looking for the perfect match in a technical co-founder. I have many hacker friends who are ready to pitch in and I trust them. We've worked together for many years. But no one that is in a position to leave their day job. I do have a few leads through my network and am still scoping things out. I wanted to get insight from this forum though and glad I did.
Tarsnap? I haven't used it personally, but the guy seems open and honest about the product. It's open-source and runs on Linux (but you have to compile).
1% Tax Me Occupy Wall Street Protester Girl Found
If your replicating in the wild your basically stuck with organic chemistry as building blocks (C,N,H,O) plus a few 'exotics' when you really need them. Add to that the need for a plentiful energy source to replicate rapidly. We may be able to improve on some things and make a better form of chlorophyll etc., but as long as we are using organic chemistry it's going to be very hard to create something that does not quickly end up as something else’s food or host.
>>Thank your for the harsh words.

Welcome to the Internet. Back on topic, I think Google started the A.I. revolution with their search.
Hah, nice find! You'll be interested to note that I am the author of both Escape From The Web and Gate One. Once WebSockets became generally available I decided to write a new application from scratch in order to take advantage of the technology. The primary motivator was that I wanted a web-based terminal emulator that could support multiple terminals (among other things).

Also, the two work on completely different principals. EFTW uses long-held HTTP streams (which differs from Ajaxterm's long-polling method) while Gate One uses asynchronous WebSockets. WebSockets are vastly superior to the old AJAX methods in that they're much less bandwidth/CPU intensive and provide an order of magnitude less latency.

--
Dan McDougall - Author of Gate One
I'm struggling with this idea right now. Some background: I was laid off recently and am torn between getting another coding job or trying to build a business. I'm a bit older, married with kids, and only have about 9 months of savings ready.

So I'd normally never consider starting a business because of this long ramp-up time, but the "gold rush" of mobile apps is still very appealing. It seems quite easy to ramp up quickly there. I know a lot of apps linger in obscurity but I think I understand social / viral marketing well enough to do some decent app launches. I don't need a big exit, just enough to support a family.

What I can't shake is the persistant question of "why isn't everyone doing this?"
Sweet - I'd love to hear if you do!