skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Are you saying we should not listen to instructors and don't bother reading books that are being written by someone who haven't "produced" anything in its respective industry?

That might be going too far, but if someone presumes to teach others a subject, should they not have something that supports their authority and gives their advice some credibility? A track record of doing the job successfully themselves makes pretty solid case in that regard. Another respectable possibility would be having studied the work of others, if the teacher is presenting arguments based on careful observations of that work.

However, most of the Agile consultancy crowd have precious little personal track record and precious little empirical data to back up the things they recommend either. Instead, they tend to rely on selective evidence, unwarranted extrapolation, over-generalisation and crude insults as their debating tools of choice.

Unsurprisingly, there is also data available that contradicts some of the consultants' favourite arguments. Typically, they ignore such data in their own presentations. If challenged with it, they usually try to hand-wave it away by reinterpreting something they have previously said or conveniently redefining their terms.

The trouble is, given the high profile that these consultants maintain, a lot of impressionable new starters in our industry read their writing and do take it as gospel. Then they start working with other people, and their managers and mentors and colleagues have to waste a silly amount of time undoing the damage.

I've been that undoing-the-damage guy on way too many occasions. I have absolutely no doubt that people like Robert C. Martin are harmful to our industry. I wish he would keep the preaching in church and leave software development to people who understand that professionalism does not require blind faith in whatever he happens to believe himself.

I realise that I have myself indulged in a bit of character assassination without evidence here. This is already a rather long post, and I don't want to double it with all the examples I'm thinking of as I write it. However, if anyone is interested and not familiar with the typical criticisms I've alluded to, feel free to reply and I'll try to back up any specific claims I've made.
If it's any consolation, I've often been asked the same questions, with the same suspicion bordering on hostility, when I traveled to Europe, including France (and I also speak French with almost no foreign accent -- was working as an interpreter at the time). This is the job of the customs agents. I don't think it's something unique to the US.

I will say that Canada for the most part has unusually welcoming customs agents (my wife is Canadian). So you may be "spoiled" by living in Canada. Unfortunately, even Canada's openness seems to be changing a bit now, based on my experiences over the past several years.

I'm guessing that you are too young to remember traveling through Europe before the Schengen treaty took effect and opened up the borders in 1995, but as someone who studied in France and traveled across Europe in 1991-1992, I can assure you that you would have been subject to the same treatment back then at the German, Spanish, or Belgian borders. The job of the borders guards is to be suspicious, and 9/11 has only solidified those tendencies.
I tend to agree that autonomous vehicles will revolutionize not only transport but society. That's how big I think they'll be. Say goodbye to the vast majority of automobile deaths every year.

But that still doesn't address the problem facing most large cities: gridlock. Whether the cars are automated or not won't drastically change that (although it may well reduce arterial traffic clogs due to accidents and rubbernecking) because there are still more cars than the roads can handle.

I really don't know why California is pursuing this. Planes are entirely valid solution to the problem of travelling between LA and SF. Why spend billions on an alternative that's going to take twenty years?

If anything, spend the money on public transport to reduce reliance on cars. The situation is decent in SF, poor in the Valley (Caltrain covers a limited area and runs quite infrequently) and woeful in LA. The 101 out of SF tends to be a car park at certain times (although not as bad as LA).

The big problem is that LA isn't really space-constrained. It has the ocean on the west but has sprawled far north, south and east. People like their big homes and that's a recipe for disaster when it comes to public transport. The only places public transport seems to work at all are those areas densely population or that have existing infrastructure (eg the commuter belt around NYC). But Dallas? Atlanta? LA? Chicago? Very limited public transport.
This is very interesting.

Is this how capitalism starts? You can't call this China's Silicon Valley (for manufacturing), can you?
I think you're right about the basics of what a CDS is, but this doesn't really cover it. You also need to understand how the price of a CDS moves and why. Which can lead to much more complicated systems.
Is it strange that all of these newsletters are searchable in Google? Or is this a feature that you can disable in the verticalresponse.com console?

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahosted.verticalrespon...
Some fun dired examples to blow your hair back if you're used to TextMate: http://denverdroid.blogspot.com/2011/07/cool-things-to-do-in...
When Ubuntu moved to Gnome3/Unity, I did the same. I tried Kubuntu, but found KDE far too different from what I remember back in the KDE3 days to be comfortable with. Then I settled on Xubuntu, which gave me Gnome2 familiarity with XFCE.

Then, I installed Bluetile (http://bluetile.org/) which is a tiling window manager that functions well in desktop environments. It lets me use several different tiling layouts and different modes including tiling, full screen, and floating. Everything can be done with the keyboard or the mouse (there's a narrow pane on the side of the screen with all the functions available as buttons). I've still got window dragging, resizing with the mouse, minimize, maximize, etc. buttons, and a host of new features to play with. I find Bluetile to be the best of both worlds for me, and not much of a compromise at that.
Its the critical thinking aspect that hasn't been traditionally seen in any discipline except engineering.
Thinking in Java is nice start. I was also in same position as you [student trying to enroll in class that has Java knowledge mandatory]. Start writing simple programs and you can pick the nuances along the way!
Easier said than done. Most upper management will always see it as a support for the company like HR. I don't think that will ever change in the future.

Moral of the story. Don't work at an IT department, work at software companies.
Anyone know where I can watch this interview?

I'm not in the US...
They seem to have little in common, aside from the fact that both get people from A to B with relatively little attention required on the part of the people.

High speed rail is:

(a) Vastly more efficient

(b) Much faster (SF -> LA in < 3 hours, versus ~6.5 for a car)

(c) Not subject to traffic (which can greatly increase the latter time)

(d) Much more comfortable (compare Amtrak to a private automobile)

How do autonomous cars overcome these deficiencies?
inspiring and interesting. would make a great movie.

"Mr. Greek, 49, a computer programmer who for years, before receiving medical treatment, had delusions of meeting God..."
Since when does hacking involve following rules and buying the fanciest equipment? Isn't it usually the opposite?
Actually, the robotic car will make for very cheap cabs that can be much smaller. Most will only need to carry a passenger and can have a much smaller engine without the need for speed that human drivers have.

So, smaller vehicles almost always moving and not parking will take up a lot less room per person-mile.
Why`s Poignant Guide: Classic and rather odd Ruby guide. I especially enjoyed this resource, and the crazy stories really helped make things sink in.
http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/

Mr. Neighborly’s Humble Little Ruby Book: Another Ruby guide. I really recommend this one. The information is laid out really well and I found it very easy to read.
http://humblelittlerubybook.com/book/hlrb.pdf

Rails for Zombies: This was my first dive into Rails. They are basically instructional videos with interactive labs at the end of each tutorial. I spent a long time doing these tutorials, pausing frequently to google stuff I didn’t fully understand.
http://railsforzombies.org/

Ruby on Rails Tutorials, by Michael Hartl: The most comprehensive of the resources listed so far. Again, I took my time working through this one, and it really paid off.
http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book

Agile Web Development With Rails: But I’ve only just order it! This is the resource everyone seems to recommend. It’s also the only one I’ve had to spend money on so far. Not finished it yet, but so far so good.
http://www.amazon.ca/Agile-Web-Development-Rails-Ruby/dp/193...
Sure. if you don't care about the environment, are willing to pay more (for petrol) overall, have enough roads that everyone can have their own car, and can put up with the inevitable congestion....

Although I'm sure the present-day 'business case' agrees with you, I don't think this means it is necessarily the right thing to do.
Pakistan orders Nato and US review after deadly border strike ~ Daily World News
Most people have no idea because most people do not make any decisions based on interest rates. It just isn't material in their decisions.

If you tell me next thursday it will be rainy, I'll remember to bring my umbrella. But tell me interest rates go up and it doesn't really affect my decision to get a mortgage or not. Either, I've found the perfect house with a mortgage that is affordable (in which case I sign) or I haven't. At no point does knowledge of the interest rate make any difference in my decision.

I think the real reason its reported as its a nice round figure that is a barometer of sorts on the economy. Great for providing some meat around a story. Bonus points for sounding like the sorts of thing smart and respectable people would want to know. I'd be interested in your opinion about why changes in interest rates are so important for the press.
"NASA began planning Curiosity's mission — which is officially known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) — back in 2003. The rover was originally scheduled to blast off in 2009, but it wasn't ready in time.

Launch windows for Mars-bound spacecraft are based on favorable alignments between Earth and the Red Planet, and they open up just once every two years. So the MSL team had to wait until 2011."

I can't imagine how agonizing that decision to delay the launch must have been. "Do we work our asses off to try and meet the launch, and risk 1.5 billion usd, or wait two extra years?" Managers nightmare!
You're right, of course, but my point (and maybe I didn't make it very effectively) was that to acquire a similarly thorough understanding of macros would require way more information - I wasn't trying to make the point that a complete description of CDS could be given in a couple of paragraphs.
I should also point out that there is this on going debate about whether it is better to learn Ruby before diving into Rails, or just learn them at the same time. Personally I tackled them both, since I could plug what I was learning into a web application project. I learn much better by doing.

Hope this helps!
Epic's software looks and (according to the doctors that have to use it) works like a bad 1990's database program written in Access. I work with a hospital that has it implemented. It's inflexible crap, where their idea of someone using it on a tablet is "get one with windows, or here's a RDP session you can get to through a VPN". One doctor I know said it took him 17 clicks and both reading help and contacting the help desk to enter simple information, which turned out to be in a totally nonintuitive way.

We need the SMTP of medical communications, not the Microsoft Exchange. Epic's system is very like the latter.

All medical software suffers from the problem of all software where the end user and the creator of software isn't the same person - it just doesn't work in a way that makes sense.

The problem, for medical software at least, is that once you've one of the very few people who have a medical degree, you're often in demand to the point that deciding to 1. write software at a competent level and 2. have the business moxie to turn it into a decent business, the talent pool is basically nil.
Online Jobs Earn $1000+
at some point most Americans are eligible for one program or the other if for no other reason than the good fortune of old age. (or poverty)

Those lucky duckies! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_duckies
I agree with all these. I would however recommend getting Agile Web Development With Rails directly from Pragmatic Press as you can be certain you're using the most up-to-date edition (4th with Rails 3.1) and can purchase solely the ebook if you want to save some money and/or trees.

http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-r...
Public transit: more efficient on the macro scale, but less on the micro (individual) scale. Close that gap and you'll have me, and probably a lot of other folks, and not before. As others have mentioned in this thread, perhaps robo-cars can fill that role.
> Items in lists must be objects with fields because it is always decomposed, and there is no way to get a handle on the list item itself.

{{%IMPLICIT-ITERATOR}}
{{#foo}}
{{.}}
{{/foo}}

But...Handlebars.
Because SF is more important than LA, in terms of wealth generation.
One can probably presume by the time autonomous cars are mainstream that all of these might all be the case. Fully automated highways will probably have vehicles that look and feel nothing like the cars of today.
>Planes are entirely valid solution to the problem of traveling between LA and SF

The problem is that LA and SF-area airports are almost at capacity and increasing that capacity through adding runways or building new airports would be a significant undertaking (several 10s of $billions) that would face a number of hurdles. Air travel is also affected by weather issues that don't affect HSR.
As someone who teaches beginning Ruby and Rails workshops. I often find the limiting factor in getting to where students want to go is comfort with Ruby itself, Rails automates so many of the early details that knowing a little bit more about what Ruby is doing can be phenomenally enabling.

By all means learn both at once, but stay just a little ahead in your Ruby skills.

The Ruby Koans is great for solidifying Ruby concepts glossed over in Rails.

http://rubykoans.com
Yes. Corollary: if you (must) work at a company that has an "IT" department, try to find out where the programmers on the profit center (the "business") side work. Odds are, their jobs are way more interesting and pay way better.
If SF is the center of the technology universe, it would make sense to make LA the place where you live and SF where you work.

This is why the Japanese commute to Tokyo by trains from the suburbs.
Trains and buses suffers from last mile problems on each end. And you sometimes/often have to share an air space with rude, dirty, sometimes crazy people. Not so with individual vehicles. Now make them electric (to reduce pollution and enabling the getting off of fossil fuels) and automated (to reduce frequency of accidents, and wear-and-tear caused by aggressive driving, etc, etc.) and the trade-offs can look attractive.
Bill on Millionaire Matchmaker
Linx Dating www.linxdating.com is a network in Palo Alto where We Pay is located that represents hundreds of guys like Bill as featured on Millionaire Matchmaker and introduces them to very smart and attractive women in San Francisco who are frustrated with the dating scene.<p>I am really surprised that a company like Linx Dating doesn't have their own TV show especially when they seem way more legit as compared to cheesy Millionaire Matchmaker.<p>I am a former client of Linx Dating and met a fantastic guy who I am still dating. He is a Mountain View based engineer and someone I would of absolutely never had met if it wasn't for Linx Dating. I am based in San Fran and would have never thought to meet a guy in the Silicon Valley.
The problem with these laissez-faire systems is that there is no regulation. Wenzhou is known for speculating a lot in housing and real estate, which has pushed development of the Chinese property bubble.
Sure, some of it is resistance to change, but that's not all of it. It also has to do with users, particularly power users, having their workflow broken. That was essentially Linus Torvalds' complaint about GNOME 3 being a mess, and why he's now back on GNOME 2.
I have a design suggestion: make the "triumvir8" at the top all one color and the same font -- preferably black. The brown and yellow clash with the rest of the site.

Also, a few typos under "What is this", somehing > something and tiumvirate > triumvirate

One suggestion on the site's tagline: perhaps "find something, make something" might work better than "get something, make something"??

My only others suggestions are to remove the "leetspeak" from the coder description (most coders I know over 16 avoid it like the plague, even in jest) and to make e-mail addresses optional.

But I really like the site layout and the icons you used. And I like the focus on the three major elements of most good tech projects: design, coding, and ideas. I really hope it takes off.

Idea men: here's your chance to pitch to at least two developers.
Perfect, thank you!

Selecting the right terminal if I have a bunch open is still a little awkward, because I can't just cycle through the ones on a single workspace. I'll switch to unity for a little while and see how much that actually bothers me.
Hackers linked to terrorists arrested in Manila.
Not exactly, stepping back is part of it, thinking outside the box is not.

It means overcoming preconceived ways of thinking, ways that you would tend to think given limited information or denying contrary evidence because it doesn't fit what you think ahead of time -- fitting facts to a theory (bad) rather than building a theory based on facts (good).

For example (and to use a constant source of flame wars here on HN), suppose I'm a huge Apple fan. Apple announces a developer policy change, say, 70% of all app revenue goes to Apple instead of the smaller percentage today.

If I have a cognitive bias (Apple can do no wrong), I might think that this change would only increase app quality since high quality apps already sell a lot, and the change would drive out low quality (low volume) apps that confuse the competitive marketspace and thus increase sales for the high quality apps.

Since I'm biased for Apple, I'm preconditioned to think that anything Apple does is good (even when it's not). I may even go through all manner of fact dismissal, evidence twisting, etc. to make sure Apple comes out looking good over this issue in my mind. In other words, I have a theory and I'm making darn sure the facts fit that theory.

See pretty much any Daring Fireball post for an example of some of the best textbook cognitive bias I've ever seen in print in the tech space.

If I'm able to overcome my cognitive bias I might see this for what it is, a money grab.

Now going the other way, say I'm preconditioned to dislike Apple. In this scenario Apple may announce a new device, say a watch that understands voice commands and has a pico projector so I can see things on a largish screen, the iWatch or some such. I might make remarks that this will be a failure because, who wants to watch movies on their watch? And the Timex Datalink was a huge failure. And as everybody knows voice command of computers sucks. But I'm biased against Apple and will try to find a way to hate anything they make.

Now if I were able to overcome this bias, I might be able to come to the conclusion that it's not a bad idea, but I don't have enough information to come to a judgement so I'll wait, read reviews, try it out a bit, and if it's cool and useful maybe get it. If not, I'll ignore it and move on.

It's about critical thinking and rational thought and is one of the hardest things for people to do, even when they think they are.
Key Features of Learning Management Software
Wow, how did I miss this?

Thanks for the heads up.
I thought the UK wasn't part of the Schengen zone.
Note the city they move to isn't the one mentioned in the article, its http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou

But I still also highly recommend this movie.
You can bet that there's no better simple solution. This problem has been analyzed extensively by groups with lots of resources (intellectual and monetary).

Besides the other commenter who mentioned the size of the lift surface, think of the mass requirements, the variable atmosphere density mentioned in the linked article, the need for an autonomous lander (because of light time), and the small amount of time you have to land.
A US ratings agency also downgraded the US. Also, the US can inflate its way out of debt, the individual European countries can't because they don't have control over their currency.
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You're right, you'd have to get creative with some of the sorting algorithms, but something like Merge sort would be perfectly suited.
It doesn't have to be an either-or situation, they may be able to coexist together. For autonomous personal vehicles, you get an end-to-end solution that is infinitely flexible, but may be subject to congestion, parking and ownership problems. For HSR, you have higher speeds between metro areas without having to worry about parking, fuel or weather, at the cost of not having a door-to-door solution or the flexibility of a personal car.

Depending on your trip, one method may be more desirable than another. In October, I made two trips from Western MA to NYC. The first time I drove - my schedule was unknown, I had a lot of baggage with me and I wasn't staying in Manhattan so it made sense to drive. The second trip was for a day meeting in mid-town, so taking the train made more sense.

There is single perfect mode, diversity in transportation matters.
Except there's no logic in the language itself, from the perspective of Mustache what you're doing is purely declarative.

Adding an explicit "if" operator does introduce logic into the language, and may very well make the language sufficiently expressive to be Turing complete.
You should read his biography (by Walter Isaacson). The intersection between arts and technology was a huge point of focus with Jobs.
They had been working 24 hour shifts for weeks to make the prior deadline. The delay was mainly due to a problem with the reliability of the mechanical actuators used by the robot. This happens, but it was an embarrassment to all concerned.

I just found a good link to the story:

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1319/1

The amount of planning and risk management for large projects like this is amazing. I remember seeing the chart of subsystem deliverables and dependencies for a medium-size instrument (~100M$, far smaller than MSL), printed out from a large-format printer, tacked to a hallway wall. It was about 20 feet long by 4 feet high, printed just large enough to read.