skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> proper function arguments

my ($a, $b, $c) = @_; # this works

Or I can do things like

my ($first, @rest) = @_;

giving me features which require all manner of annoying syntax in Python.

> exceptions

http://search.cpan.org/~nilsonsfj/Error-TryCatch-0.07/lib/Er...

or just eval and see what the output is.

> objects

Edit: I was being an asshole Perl has a decent object system out of the box and Moose for those times when you want type constraints.

package MyClass;
use base 'Parent';

sub new { my $class = shift; bless { prop1 => undef }, $class; }

package main;

my $obj = new MyClass;

> etc

Lexical scoping, anonymous coderefs that can be passed as data, modifiable syntax, reference semantics, and the regex engine I see other languages comparing theirs too.
I would LOVE to backward-engineer Siri's speech-analysis algorithms. Confidence scores help, but it doesn't look like any other modeling data is available?
Rent top50 supercomputer for under $2,600/hour
Amazing. I'm so glad someone coded this. The price is a bit high for our institution(a struggling community hospital with 10 ICU beds) but hopefully I can get IT to consider it in our budget. The machine we use is a one-off and rarely works properly. I'm embarrassed to say that most of the time we avoid communicating with patients that are intubated. Coding a replacement has been on my to-do list for the last 2 months and I'm happy to strike it off.
Can you pay instantly with it, just like with a card?
In Germany (and most of europe) credit cards arent used very much. I can wire transfer money inside the country for free, i can pay in alot of Online Shops by direct debit who get the money directly from my bank account. In stores i use a card associated with my bank account (not a credit card) to pay which also lets the merchant get the money directly from my bank account.
I am suprised that the US doesnt have a similar system, no wonder everyone uses credit cards there. Thats also why i think Square wouldnt be very successfull over here.
Wow, you left this comment two hours ago, and the site is still down. I see you are hosting on Rackspace. Something going wrong?
Our average individual software engineer salary is around $10k/month, not factoring in insurance, payroll taxes, office space expenses, etc.
Frank Miller against Occupy Movement
Why “Just Store the App Data on Dropbox” won’t work for RSS readers
If it makes you feel any better I wrote another simple app and have only made $15 from it.
I remember a broad campaign of website blackouts, blue ribbons, etc, to protest the DMCA in 1998. Which accomplished approximatly nothing except raising general awareness I'm afraid.
My girlfriend (non-coder, but she's done Matlab before) tried out Ray's free tutorial when you sign up for the newsletter because she wanted to try making an iPhone game. She really enjoyed the tutorial, and it had everything that she needed to understand the topic, and the screenshots covered what to click on in Xcode. She didn't ask me anything related to the tutorial, which I think really speaks to the quality of the tutorials.
If you like to scroll checker board, then yes, the 1st gen iPhone is very smooth.
Adobe releases Photoshop Touch for Android devices (iOS soon)
Rackspace. It's taking forever to resize. Site isn't _quite_ down. Just super slow.
Please get in touch with me (nathan@thinklegend.com).
Watch_r.js: beter recursive file watching for node.js
UNDERSTAND 9/11 VIDEOS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
WP Engine Raises $1.2M from Silverton, Automattic
May I ask you why, being an experienced developer with an autistic child that know the actual state of the industry, you overlooked this opportunity?

It's a genuine question, because I do it all the times as well and then, when I realize it to late, I wonder why I didn't think about it in the first place. I would like to know if there is a pattern or something.
Here's a Haskell version that uses a single loop to do the normalizing, and has a main that doesn't use do syntax. This was mostly a nice little brainteaser:

https://gist.github.com/1367709

mapNormalize takes a function, and produces a function that runs that function with the normalized input. It runs in a single iteration, rather than 2 maps. Credit to `dylex` for much hand holding on a single iteration normalizer :)
I don't really have the perspective to comment on how common they are, but they do exist. Ruby is full of little things like this, which one of the things I simultaneously love and hate about Ruby
Your understanding is incorrect.

California has the constitutional right to regulate commerce within its borders. When a California resident in California signs up for a service, even a service provided by a company in another state, California law applies.

In this case particular case, California exceeded its constitutional bounds by passing a law that claims to regulate commerce nationwide. Whether or not you agree with that, the exemption order that my company received proves the interpretation.

Either way, Dwolla is not registered as a money transmitter in California, has not applied for a license, is doing business with California residents in the state, and is in violation of the law as a result.

New York used to have a physical presence requirement as part of its money transmission statute; those companies without a physical presence in the state were not required to obtain a license. As of September 30, 2011, that changed: all money transmitters with New York customers must obtain licenses, whether or not there is a physical presence. With the advent of the internet, states are realizing that "presence" does not necessarily have to be physical in order to claim tax revenues or license fee revenues.
Costumers don't pay fees for having a CC. They pay fees because CCs exist, regardless of whether they have one or not. Which means using Dwolla or a CC is irrelevant in that regard.
I think in practice this wouldn't look all that different from the way things are today.
PaperEclipse llc
Putting Medicine in the cloud through emr placement & security
Not necessarily , the specs do confuse but that is mainly because the computer market as it is at the moment is confusing.

Just to pick on the example you used, let's say I want to write a novel and create a flyer for a local charity event. These are "creative tasks" how do I know if this computer will be able to do that, do I really need a $2000 Mac Pro for these?

It is big, but how big? Will it fit into the cupboard next to my desk?

Computers have a huge number of use cases that will continue to grow rather than decline, listing the suitability of a computer for each one of these would take far too much space in a brochure if it didn't computer manufacturers would have been marketing this way already.

(Edited for reply to next post)

I think my point is that it would be very difficult , almost impossible to write comprehensive reviews without any specifications to work from, especially brochure/advetising which needs to be very short.

Essentially a good spec is the normalization of a description of it's suitability for different use cases.

For example a computer which can run Angry Birds happily but not Call of Duty MW3 at all.. Would you describe this as a "poor games computer"?

If all I want to play is Angry Birds (and similar games) then it may be a fantastic games computer , if I want to run COD then it isn't a suitable games computer at all..
At least a spec listing allows me to look at the minimum requirements of the software I want to run and know whether it is suitable or not.

Video rigs would be overpowered for other work, but we only know that because we understand the requirements of video editing on a computers hardware. A layman will not necessarily know this but they will know that their computer meets the recommended requirements for Microsoft Word and Publisher but not for Final Cut Pro because it "doesn't contain enough ghz".
Also, a programmer who can't design is able to release an ugly, but functional application. A designer who can't program will only make a beautiful but useless design. In this case I think the programmer has the advantage.

Though my philosophy is to learn both.
...and thus IQ is a poor indicator of success. People should get over the high scores others can get on tests and focus on something more substantial.
Right now I am on Concerta, 54mg. I have tried higher dosages, but the drowsiness and inattentiveness came back. This is what originally lead me to believe that the effects (stimulant or depressant) of substances are relative to the person's dopamine reception. At a higher dose of Concerta, 72mg, I figured I'd end up being superhuman, but, surprisingly I ended up back where I started - inattentive and unmotivated. At Concerta 54mg, I've noticed marijuana will often push me over this threshold as well, causing the marijuana to act as a depressant where it was otherwise a stimulant.

Ritalin, while chemically similar, doesn't seem to provide the same benefits from those who've disclosed their experience (again, anecdotal). Concerta is once-a-day release-controlled dosage.
Yes, on the mac it seems only menlo renders it correctly, (vs all the other fixed with font families that bork the rendering in various ways)
While i respect your decision, I'm not really sure why you didn't stay in Mexico, I think your article needs more details about what type of Help you got from the Mexican Gov., and what was the difference in Chile what did they offer?,

My big question would be, is it a totally different Market as you would expected to be? if so, what did you had to change on your business strategy?
Nice Analysis of Various Text Extraction Algorithms
It almost sounds like RSS feed sync needs to be a "common good."

It's rivalrous - as more people sync feeds, the cost of providing the service increases (servers, bandwidth, etc)

And (to a lesser extent) it's non-excludable - Feed sync is only useful if many/all apps can use it. And to get many/all apps to use it, it needs to be free.
There is some evidence that methylphenidate (ritalin) effects wave activity (synchronization/latency) see eg (not paywalled): http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v21/n2/full/1395347a.html

For some background see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P200
for testing, someone invite me to a hive so we can mess around and test.

bzupnick[at]gmail[dot]com
This surely hasn't been a major problem since probably the 14.4k modem stages for typical sites, and, even if it was, wouldn't limit accessibility (except in the sense that it'd delay viewing by a few milliseconds->seconds). Especially when the majority of the bandwidth cost will be data that has to be sent regardless (maybe with a necessarily increased amount of metadata).
My HP-41C has made maybe $5 so far.

ROFL!

edit: Just adding the name in case anyone wants to buy it; Calc41C. The source is up on github.com/watmough
Thus far I see quite a bit of projects looking for UI, Designers...
The EFF "hollywood" page has a link to contact congress:

https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?...

Edit: I posted a direct link to the page: http://news.ycombinator.com/newest
I've learned to immediately divert those questions by asking what they want to do with their computer instead. And if they can't answer that immediately, I ask why their current computer isn't working for them (which usually nets an extremely specific answer before the question even finishes).

Diablo 3? $++. Pong? $--. Non-work-related and no high-gpu gaming? Size--.

Non-techies tend to fall into one of these groups, and computer manufacturers (except Apple) overcomplicate the choices to such mind-blowing degrees that it's impossible to determine between HP36Q9X and A95i, and even if you could you couldn't state your decision because it's impossible to remember or even pronounce. Buying computers is such a horrifying experience, I really can't blame people for remaining ignorant of the reasons behind things.
PaperEclipse llc
putting medicine in the cloud through emr mgmt & security
I would much rather kids make stuff that is cool, rather than stuff that is useful. They have 60 years after they leave school to make useful stuff (probably for other people).
Stronghold Crusader and Stronghold Crusader Extreme Full Rip Skullptura
Here in Portugal some charge for Internet initiated transfers, but not if you do them through the ATM. Don't ask me why, though.

It's still nothing close to $25 - I pay 34 cents.
But he is working on your terms. It's a choice between working at home, without a boss, on anything you like. Or working for someone, on a specific project or piece of code.

Also, I doubt you would pay a guy just getting started learning objective-c $10k/month :)
My guess would be the size of the collision space. Bank account numbers tend to be shorter, and depending on date of opening and institution, may have been sequentially assigned. It would be much more difficult to accidentally enter someone else's credit card number than someone else's bank account number. In addition, if you accidentally sent $5k to 61-019341 instead of 61-018341, chances are the recipient would be less than willing to be a good citizen and admit it was an erroneous deposit.
This is how you contact Congress to object to SOPA
Ok, more responses:

> i can't say i love the language at all

That is a sample of one. Try visiting a YAPC and you'll see a sample of 1000+ that is opposite to your's.

>> often can find the core developers in charge of some code

> i browsed a lot through CPAN and a huge part of modules hasn't been touched for years

What you said has nothing to do with what you quoted. CPAN allows you to email those authors and the vast majority will reply happily. And even in cases where they don't, it's easy to go on irc.perl.org and ask around in #perl.

> the IRC channels i know are more idle then other languages

You're not in the right channels. Try irc.perl.org or #perl on freenode.

> it's really untrue to say "there is nothing like it"

It is perfectly true. See this post for elaboration: http://hackerne.ws/item?id=3238662

> often enough i think "mhh, should i even use this module? Nobody seems to care about this anymore"

Did you try asking around? Look for alternatives? Often that is because the remaining bugs are no dealbreakers (license nitpicks anyone?) or the modules have been determined to be crap (XML::Simple).

> But it tries to solve a problem that shouldn't be there in the first place.

I fully agree, but quite frankly, if you view this as a downside of Perl then you're just plain being short-sighted. The problem was created over a decade ago, at the conception of Perl 5; yet it is comfortably fixable without even changing core. And additionally, there is active work on fixing this issue in core:

https://github.com/stevan/p5-mop

> Want to have exceptions in Perl? Turns out the language doesn't have them.

Valid complaint. Exception::Class is a good tool for this, but i'd also like to have them in core. So far there has been no concensus on how to do it properly though without breaking backwards compatibility.

> The number one google hit

Google's search results for Perl are terrible and do not reflect the state of the community. Try searching for exception on CPAN itself.

> Perl thinks it's ok when you read an uninitialized variable. Want the script to terminate when this happens?

`use warnings FATAL => 'all';`

> Want to know if an element is in an array?

`my @hits = grep { $_ eq 'dogfood' } @array;`

Alternatively:

`use List::Util 'first'; my $has_dogfood = first { $_ eq 'dogfood' } @array;`

And this is in core.

> Unicode Support is horrible

I'll have to post this twice because you're so wrong:

http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2011/07/ms...

> My fun fact on Perl:

{{citation}}

> When your script/tool exceeds 100 lines of code, don't use Perl! Atleast not if there is the remote possibility of another human being having to understand or maintain it. Please!

Well how nice to show at the end at least that you're a troll.
why not make a "one vote, one cause, one day" type of widget that can be easily added to any website( configurable to square, horizontal rectangle, vertical rectangle, etc...). Similar to the HN forum, you can create a 'cause' thread, design a logo/message for that cause, and the cause can be voted on. The highest ranked cause of that particular day is displayed for 24 hours, then reset back to 0 votes to even the playing field for other causes. Is anyone else starting to see my vision for this? Does this already exist?
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And luckily there are quite a few of them on WH :)
VNC on the Raspberry Pi
A static site would have saved you here, particularly if you are using something like nginx. Even with apache, you'd still be fine.

Wordpress cacheing HN traffic should do fine too. There's something else going on here.
I edited my post to better reflect what I know for sure.
What are the Risks by the Foreign Exchange on Forex?
> they are going to go somewhere else where it is easier.

Not necessarily. They're more likely to go somewhere else where it is easier.
this so called 'new hypothesis' has been around for more than 50 years. It was just not written about because people couldn't accept the consequences have accepting that it was a possibility.
I pulled in a good amount as a lead designer at a software company (though not 10k/month). You are absolutely right that the success of OneVoice is not enough for even a small company. But for my tiny company it is good.

Also my Objective-c skills are not worth anywhere close to $10k per month. Though someday I'll be a good programmer.
I’m a terrible review writer, really. Don’t judge me.

When I say specs I’m mostly talking about internals. Size and weight do matter very much and those are also two things people actually understand†. CPUs, GPUs? Not so much.

Other than that you need only a better description. Video rigs are overpowered for other creative tasks, the review wouldn’t read as I wrote it.

—

† And now you can argue whether it’s better to actually write down numbers or to compare devices with aircraft carriers and football fields. I think both can be appropriate at times.
It's a scam. Look at the domain name icashblog.com. Pretty pathetic.
We interpret it pretty loosely. Don't get too hung up on the terminology :)

I have had 200 projects through and 600 pledges of help. Most of those I have asked have been positive. I am simply connecting people, the rest is up to them.
Pythonic Maybe/Null class
Google adds verbatim search mode for your exact search terms
While I like S-Expressions for computers, even in that small example the parenthesis are a bit excessive. Keep in mind that mathematics is mostly written by hand on a black board.
I think you mean:

print @a;
Check the Who's Hiring threads:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3181796 (November)

This is such a long thread that it is actually paginated so make sure to go the next page via the More link at the bottom and search each page for intern/INTERN.
How does the language you're using handle datatypes? Will your equivalency test assume Null == False or will it do some internal conversion.

libmysqlclient does some unique things regarding numeric fields - converting to the ascii representation, requiring the language to convert it back to a numeric representation (if the programming language you use supports typing).

It does the same with boolean versus enum versus tinyint fields. If you only have one tinyint/boolean field and are using MyISAM, you're sending a byte anyhow. You won't save 7 bits being sent across the wire because you used a 1 bit field.

Each is transmitted as a single byte in mysqlclient (at least in 16) and the bit savings are reflected on disk, not communicating that result across the wire.

The overhead you might save is based on how the programming language you use interprets and converts the data from libmysqlclient.

The other aspect to consider is the guy that needs to maintain the code after you. Deleted (0|1) or (Null|1) might yield some confusion. Does 0 mean the record is deleted and needs to be removed or does 1 mean it is deleted? Null might mean the field is never set. True/False or Y/N might make more sense for maintenance down the line.
Please don't restrict this to web developers. This could be useful for lots of other fields:

- Academics: This data just got published, let's analyze it!
- Native app programmers: Open source application X lacks
feature Y, let's add it!
- Embedded system developers: The arduino/mbed/BeagleBoard lacks
a driver for this system, let's write it!
- Physical constructs: This seniors neighborhood in Grand Rapids
lacks wheelchair ramps, let's build some!

Some would obviously be location dependent, and you'd be much more dependent on tags to filter content (which is OK, as long as you have a good system to manage tags), but this could be much bigger than it currently is.

With sufficient size, you could probably get some good advertising revenue - users are willing to tell you precisely what they love to do, and I don't think they'd mind a few ads on these topics. I'd definitely go for the ad-supported model for this one.
Google Announces “_nomap” WiFi Opt-out Option, Wants Other Providers To Go Along
I love Arduino. I picked up a Starter Kit over the summer and it's just so easy to get things going. So far I've built a current sensor ( http://trafficlightads.net/2011/09/06/an-arduino-current-sen... ) and a photo booth that integrates an Arduino, my Canon 20d, a Linux PC and a Staples Easy Button.
Michal Zalewski's new web app security book, "The Tangled Web", available now
W3C drafts New Web Privacy Standard based on early Mozilla Do-Not-Track
Wow, it lines up almost perfectly with Montreal's rather askew grid, what a coincidence.
Get the ebook now; print books will ship out the week of November 28th.

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Before the iPhone, every iPod used on PCs had to be formatted with FAT, so it's fair to say it didn't work until iTunes had a critical mass.

If it's hard for Apple, you can imagine it's much harder for everyone else.
I've used the "plumber" term to refer to my own deeds, if only because they don't resemble the shiny and showy stuff which is out there. I don't make games, and I don't generate graphics. My stuff tends to be the glue which makes other things happen in the first place.

I'm far more likely to write the server underneath that huge multiplayer game and deal with all of the systems stuff, in other words. The actual gameplay, graphics, sound, and user interface? That's someone else's realm.
The Five Most Popular Movies in History
I was hoping this was going to be about programmers that moonlight as plumbers on the side.
I took my GCSE IS (Information Systems, IE 'computing'/whatever) in 1998.

I remember failing the mock examination because I kept making reference to the Internet, World Wide Web, etc in my answers and I was told that as our syllabus pre-dated the Internet I was not able to use it as an example even though I was correct.

I was encouraged to use "Prestel" (if anyone remembers that) as an example of an interactive system via modem rather than the Internet. :/

For 'fun' I also completed A Level Computing in 3 months at an evening school (usually you would learn it over 2 years) just to prove I could do it. I got an overall B because I couldn't complete all of the coursework in 3 months, but aced the exam.

If I ever have kids and raise them back home in the UK, I'll teach them ICT/Computing/whatever myself and encourage them to take something else that I can't teach them personally (like Drama, Music, etc)
What's their initial production run going to look like? There's a whole lotta geeks who will want this - and at that price, they'll want 10. ($250 for more computers than I'll know what to do with? I'll take 20!)