skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm about 75% through his Python book, and I have to say I like it. He assumes you're an absolute beginner, and I'm not, so I can't really give it a fair appraisal from the perspective of its target audience.

That said, the book definitely makes learning fun. For the first half of the book, you have a really quick learn-reward cycle. The exercises are short and to the point, and he makes you type in the lesson and run it. This means that you type a few lines, then immediately get to see what it did, on your computer. It very much reminds me of when I was in grade 10 and we were doing simple stuff in QBasic. It would definitely grab and keep the interest of an absolute beginner dipping his or her toes into the programming pool for the first time.

From the perspective of an experienced programmer - a term I apply to myself with some trepidation - things move a bit slow, but the experienced programmer is definitely not Zed's target with the book. Even being on the slow side, the exercises are quick enough that you can knock out a bunch of lessons quickly if you're so inclined, and I've definitely skipped over a bunch of the "Extra Credit" stuff because of that.

I actually did spend the "recommended" week doing Exercise 37, which is sort of a "learn at your own pace" exercise. You're given a list of operators, string formats, keywords, etc. and asked to spend some time looking into them, defining them for yourself, and playing with them. I spent a good amount of time reading into the way Python's floor/integer division and modulo operations work / differ from other languages and why (if you're interested, Python floors towards negative infinity, not zero, and performing a modulo on negative numbers takes the sign of the divisor, not the dividend, in contrast to some other languages), and spent time toying around with decorators and lambdas.. I kept a spreadsheet of everything I was supposed to learn and my description of it. My interpretation of that lesson is probably a lot different from a beginners, but I think it's a nice example of "you get out of it what you put in."

Zed also likes to shove you into the deep end and let you learn to swim. The extra credit assignments don't have answers, they're all about making you play around and learn on your own terms. The lesson above is a good example of "here's a bunch of terms, now go play on your own for a while", which was an interesting change of pace. Also, he gives a solid emphasis on reading other peoples code. There have been at least two lessons so far dealing with that, and I've read over a bunch of reddits code and learned a good amount from that - this was during the first "go find some code" exercise, where you only know the bare minimum of conditionals and looping, so there were a lot more scary "i don't know what that code is doing, but I'm going to find out!" moments, which I found helpful.
Current U.S. immigration policy can be summed up as: The only way you can immigrate is to be a bitch for an approved company for as long as it pleases to keep you as a bitch. If you are a good bitch, i.e., will work long hours and sleep under the desk without whining for janitor grade pay and no equity, and don't quit on getting a better offer elsewhere, you will be promoted to the next level: government bitch, where you can have the pleasure of paying taxes without any representation.
The damage has already been done! The private email, made some rather valid point which after looking through Scala are pretty evident now. So unless you have an existing founding team that is rather versed in Scala, it probably you should be avoided.
I wouldn't bet on it. According to Anandtech Cortex A15 will be around Core 2 Duo level of performance, with more or less the same power consumption per chip as today's dual cores and quad cores (Tegra 3).

Dual core 2 Ghz Cortex A15 chips will appear first in Q2 2012 from Samsung (Exynos 5250). Is Brazos or Atom at the level of Core 2 Duo performance yet? Nope. And they still use more power than Cortex A15. In the mean time, ARM chips grow in performance faster than x86 low-end chips drop in power consumption every year.

By the time Atom or Brazos achieves the same power consumption, high-end ARM chips will have first gen i3 or even 2nd gen i3 performance (a couple of years). Atom won't even be fanless until the end of 2013.
Per the other big thread of the day, such a lifestyle is reducing Amit Gupta's life expectancy.
Apple TV and its strategy
From my perspective, the main Dropbox feature that all the "thin layer on top of VCS" clones miss is the conflict-resolution behavior of Dropbox. If both you and someone else edit a file called "stuff.txt" at the same time, you'll end up with two files: "stuff.txt" and "stuff.txt (other guy's version)". Neither person's changes are blown away, there's never any merge conflicts, and the history remains linear.

I'll have to see if Gitdocs does anything like that.
This is a great, relevant quote.

It generalizes my original point better than I did: with classified material, the secrecy is always because of the how, not the what.
MV:Justin Bieber Duet with Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
How to Communicate Your Software Needs to a Developer
Removing Conditions On Residence
Could this enable more powerful, android based games consoles? I'm just imagining a console based on an i5 and one of today's epic NVIDIA/AMD chips, with dev's already able to develop using the SDK/NDK, could be pretty amazing. (Web developer, not hardware or GFX guy here :D)
I just registered at one of the last minute donor drives in San Francisco. The form is rather daunting, as they request your Social Security Number and your Driver's License number.

Either way, I am glad to help!
- a south asian
Ah, okay. Yes we support custom DKIM for all accounts.

We do not allow newsletter (or any bulk style) sending - I explained our reasoning behind separating and only sending transactional email through Postmark - by definition of transactional, the recipient is expecting the email and it is a custom response to an action.

Edit: typo.
I've Officially Lost Faith in Facebook, and It's Not Because of Privacy
Israel’s army of tech start-ups
ramchip, you are correct.

With respect to "telling something to some of your friends", and attempting to do so "privately", there are certainly ways to do this without using Facebook.

However, that was only a specific example I chose, in line with veb's example of telling people you rub lettuce on your face, to use to illustrate to scott a point about whether only large networks could be useful in order to stay in touch with a small number of people, i.e., your friends. In theory, I could use any online activity or any service/protocol as an example to illustrate what the "solution" (a small private network) aims to achieve.

Talking (VOIP e.g. SIP), smtp (email), IRC and http (web forums), to use your examples, are examples of services/protocols that can be run over a network. Of course it is not an exhaustive list.

You could run them over the open internet, i.e. a very large, public network (of networks).

You could also run them over a small private network to which only a selection of people belong, e.g., your friends.

In theory, anything you could do with your friends on Facebook you could also do with your friends on your own small private network.

Multiplayer games is something for which this idea of "being on the same network", all at the same time, is well-suited. This is not a new concept. It is a very old one. Consequently, it's time-tested.

But playing games is only one example of what you can do.

The internet supports many services.

Theoretically, so too can your smaller network.

An obvious difference between doing things on the open internet (Facebook) and doing them on your own network is: _privacy_.

You do not have to invite advertisers and countless others to your private network if you do not want to. Might this be important to some people? That is an open question.

_Privacy_, of the kind discussed in the Facebook context, is the goal which the "solution" we are discussing aims to address.

Not simply "private mesaging" but privacy in everything you do with your friends online.

Rest assured, even if such a solution did exist and could be shown to work (NAT and whatever other issues you might predict have been solved), all the Facebook-type user interface doo-dahs are noticeably absent.

As such, it is a non-starter for any friend who cannot use a command line, unless some very good user interface developers got behind it.
The "Artificial Mind" - Venture into the logic behind how to create A.I.
He has two points with which I agree:

(a) many investing strategies which rely on frequent trading or high leverage are not available to retail investors because of commissions, spreads, or taxes;

(b) (i) mutual funds etc. are poor investments because of the fees they charge; and (ii) because 401(k)s often force you into mutual funds, 401(k)s are often poor investments.

Of those, I'm only angry about (b)(ii), because the government forces me (with tax incentives) to put money in my suboptimal 401(k).

The rest is just a question of understanding what game you're playing and acting accordingly. I don't see why I should be offended that somebody else gets better access to the markets than I do, any more than I'm offended that my friend who works at the donut shop gets free donuts.
FWIW, I'd prefer Microsoft to dominate than Apple. Apple is far more controlling. As such, I prefer Google attacking Apple rather than MS. But I'm not sure that there is a distinction in the kinds of moves Google can make. It's all about marketshare: developers and users; and as such, it's more or less zero-sum. Yes, you can technically grow the market, but you can't grow marketshare without eating into the competitors' marketshare. And in the tablet space, Apple is the one with all the marketshare.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

--Upton Sinclair
The  EDDM Retail service helps in sending mails and posts on time
This service is quick and reliable service as compared with regular mailing and posting service. This service is suited best for small to medium sized businessmen. This EDDM Retail service helps in sending mails and posts on time and that too efficiently.
Open source projects that deserve your donation
FileLab: Edit Media Straight From Your Web Browser
I wonder if Stephen Colebourne or Alex Blewitt will write a news story or blog post about this response. They've certainly not hesitated to spew out the following garbage, all in the past week:

http://blog.joda.org/2011/11/scala-feels-like-ejb-2-and-othe...

http://blog.joda.org/2011/11/scala-ejb-2-feedback.html

http://blog.joda.org/search/label/scala

http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/11/scala-ejb2

http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/11/yammer-scala

In his first article, Alex even had the gall to reference himself twice without mentioning the fact, all while still writing in a voice that pretended to unbiased reporting. That seems very unprofessional to me!

http://alblue.bandlem.com/2009/08/modularity-for-scala.html

http://alblue.bandlem.com/2009/10/scala-is-still-not-enterpr...

No, actually, I don't wonder at all. When I read the Harry Potter series, its portrayal of media as corrupt and sensationalist irked me as unrealistic hyperbole. No one could be that biased in their reporting, could they? Yet the conduct of these two lately conjures up in my head an image of Rita Skeeter sneaking about, spreading rumors and twisting truths into half-lies. At least they've made their irrational anti-Scala bias clearly manifest, so the rest of us can ignore them now.
I don't understand how obesity is a drain on 'society,' except through state-financed medical care. I don't suffer anymore because other people are fat. Why should I be able to control what they eat?
If I was building a new console I think I'd just use straight Linux; what value does Android bring?
My 13 year old son is working through Learn Python the Hard way. He likes it a lot and is building things that interest him. He will spend the whole day fiddling with Python working on a text based choose your own adventure game that one of the chapters had him build.

He's approached programming a couple of times before, but LPTHW is the first time he's really stuck with it.

In that regard, I think Zed is doing an awesome job. I'm looking forward to the REGEX book and want to work through the C book as well.
> What are you trying to prove?

What are you?

Seems like every comment I see from you the last couple weeks is exceedingly angry rants, and half of them constitute the very metadrama you're calling "dumb". What's going on with you?
A lot of people have this in-built sense that lying must be illegal and it mostly just isn't except in very specific circumstances. This is a clear cut example of lying for a good cause. I do empathize with the refusal of a lot of gay people to subjugate themselves for the sake of a broken system.
Ping Pong
I have just found these amazing ping pong paddles. check out these ping pong stuff dude. Amazing Christmas Games for all the family, which also make the best Christmas Presents and Gifts.
Better title:

"Anonymous Internet commentator: Here's a bunch of common knowledge you can glean from any basic investment book. I'll omit the half that makes my argument look bad. Also, I can pretend to be someone who wouldn't naturally agree with you."

I don't know why the Internet eats this stuff up. It might be fun to go to conservative-monoculture forums and start posting: "I am an OWS organizer. I'm only here to appear more virtuous than my friends, and also to sleep with girls who have weird piercings and tattoos."

Politics articles in general are an utter black hole for intelligent discussion, but this one is also a portal into a completely new dimension of pointlessness.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Biss
Hmm...would the right answer be to get the patients to sign a HIPAA privacy release for purposes of answering any reviews left of their practice?

From WikiPedia:

"A covered entity may disclose PHI...if the covered entity has obtained authorization from the individual. However, when a covered entity discloses any PHI, it must make a reasonable effort to disclose only the minimum necessary information required to achieve its purpose."

Seems doable, and reasonably fair -- if you're going to slam someone in a review, it only makes sense that they should be able to respond in their own defense. In this case the "minimum information necessary" could be something like (I'm making this up!) "My fee for coming in on a weekend day is $2000, and that was the only appt. time available" or "He is misrepresenting the services performed, and his insurance denied coverage" or some such.

In this case the dentist may not HAVE a valid excuse of course; just pointing out there MAY be another side to the story that we're prevented from hearing because of HIPAA. Food for thought anyway.
Sorry kevinqualters but it sounds like you need to spend some time researching what he brought up before you call it horseshit. You had no specific examples why it's wrong because, well, obviously you don't know what actually is right.

But trust me, like you, I sure would prefer he were wrong...
Ask HN: Solving the "chicken and egg" problem...
So I've scoured the internet for solving this problem and it seems there are many sort of solutions but mostly for b2b or a few multi-sided platforms. I've also seen some talk where Paul Graham talks about it but it was mainly in his "office hours" series where there wasn't enough time to address the problem.

So here's my problem. I'm launching a social travel planning website (Live My Journey) to help users discover things to do at their destination and plan and organize their trip.

One of the main components is this feature called Favorite Travel Moments, where users submit their favorite travel experiences of places they've been to or currently live. Now a user can search for a location and see things people have submitted to say "Oh yeah! That sounds like a cool thing to do".

So when I initially launch, how do I solve having barely any data because there aren't enough users? I'm going to be going into Beta first but I am trying to find out what else I can do to solve the "chicken and egg" problem?

I'm also looking for a tech co-founder in case you or anyone you know are interested. :)

- Amit
Just curious, why you have opted for Python when your primary goal seems to be scalability?
There's a lot there that's emotionally stated and designed to draw ire without actually being correct, alas.
Hi Richard, thanks and good luck to you!

A couple of thoughts on things I would love to see.

First of all, if research papers could be associated with discussions that would be great. The arXiv is great for math, but you can't ask questions other than e-mailing the author. Imagine that someone posted a paper, and you asked some question "Doesn't XYZ also relate to ABC"?, etc., etc. There is some of this on people's blogs I know but it would be great if there was a lot of this in one place.

You might also read http://meta.mathoverflow.net/ -- MathOverflow (mathoverflow.net) is great, but I feel there are a lot of pain points you'll notice there, and there is room to do things which are outside of MO's scope.

Also, check out Tim Gowers's blog -- http://gowers.wordpress.com/ -- even if you don't know abstract math, it's well worth reading. His math posts lead to the kinds of discussion I would love a more systematic venue for that is not run by a single person.

I can more or less speak for my discipline (AMA), but I understand different disciplines have very different cultures! Even CS is quite different from math from what I've heard.

Again, good luck to you!
Wow. That leaves Windows Phone and Bada as the only mobile OSes where no Carrier IQ references have been found so far.
don't most 401ks offer index funds?
Apple: The Most Under-Valued Large-Cap Stock
When a "journalist" says "there is a rumor that X", is it even false? After all, once a journalist said it, the rumor exists. Bad PR is easy to generate and if media consumers are stupid and lazy enough, they'll buy it.

The Potterverse is a tale of what happens when there are no adults in the world at all - when all people behave like twelve year olds all the time. Annihilation of all life on Earth is prevented by authorial fiat.
Has anyone compiled a list of devices confirmed with CIQ, confirmed not to have, unknown and suspected?
Did you miss tokenadult's list of many technologist politicians? Also, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Biss
VCloud Connector 1.5: Public and Hybrid Cloud Access
Sony Xperia phones first to support WebGL
Watch UBS Hong Kong Open Live stream
I started reading this, then skimming, then came to "You have better odds going to a casino and playing slots, the worst-paying game in the house, but still better than the stock market" and decided that this piece is a rant by an ideologue.

That statement is just flat out wrong, and ridiculously so.
Durable iPhone 4S Ultra Thin Hard
Sony KDL46NX810 Best Features and Reviews
Find out where to get the Best Price and Deals for Sony Bravia KDl46NX810.
401(k) accounts amount to an enormous subsidy for the financial industry. The whole system is structured to discourage competition and funnel money to the largest financial services companies, because employers require you to use a specific company with a limited choice of investment options. Health insurance being tied to employment causes similar problems there. OWS should be rallying against stuff like this instead of police brutality, which seems like the current focus.
Security procedures don't apply to you once you no longer have a clearance. Except for, of course, revealing the protected information until it is declassified.

Yes, the security structure can seem a bit artificial at times, like:
- During cleared professionals-only job fairs.
- Leaving a cleared job and all of a sudden there are no reporting requirements or security procedures. It's as if the gov't refuses to acknowledge that sensitive info is still in your head.
Kind of. It's not been found in the actual Android operating system, has it? Only in carrier- or manufacturer-modified versions correct?
"You have better odds going to a casino and playing slots, the worst-paying game in the house, but still better than the stock market."

I can calculate what the odds are for slots, but I would love for someone to post some real numbers for what the stock market odds are.
Companies love data. Every last of one of them from your local grocery store to Apple. Love it, want as much of it as possible. Heck, most of the major publicized features of iOS 5 put your data on Apple's servers (iMessage: your texts and MMS; Siri: pretty much every thing including searches, calendars, and email; iCloud: it is called iCloud).

Long and short of it is that if you want privacy beyond "I'm boring, so no one cares", a device that holds pretty much every important bit of info about you made by large corporations that is nearly always connected to the internet via carriers isn't really for you.
Staples Promotional Codes
Post and share Staples promotional codes, Staples.com coupon codes for best discounts to save money while shopping online. Get Staples Office Supplies coupons online at Couponpundits.
I think you're missing out on the term 'in the closet.'
Ask HN: I've been offered some equity for work as Employee #1
Hi HN,

This is a throwaway account as I'm pretty sure the people who know me knows my user account here.

I'm kinda in a weird situation right now. I'm actually a freelance Rails developer who have been taking on projects from startups.

I've recently been approached by a local startup to help with their Rails development and I have been heading down to their office to do some pro-bono work for them (I don't often do this but I found myself having some kind of rapport with the founders).

The startup is still in its pre-seed stage and I'm currently advising them on the technical aspect of their startup.

They have two founders, 1 a Business/CEO guy who has 17 years of experience and a technical guy who has no working experience.

During my short time working with them, I found myself teaching/mentoring the technical guy most of the time.

The guys recently approached me to offer me to work with them.

I would be working:

4 days a week and I can take 1 day off to work remotely from now till the start of Jan.

From Jan to Mar, I'll be working about 14 hours+ a week as I have an existing commitment with another project.

In return, I'll be given 10% of the equity at the end of the 4th month, USD$933 (converted from my local currency) for working in December and USD$465/month from Jan - Mar.

The project I'm working on from Jan - Mar would give me about USD$3.1k/month. Normally, I'd earn on average of USD$27/hour for my freelance work.

I obviously earn much much less than I normally would if I were to take on freelance projects.

I kinda like the team but I feel that the amount of compensation doesn't make sense. I have some faith though that the CEO guy would be able to secure some form of funding and probably maybe even attract angels.

Does it still make sense to take the risk of equity over cash compensation or how should I renegotiate?
NYTimes.com now lets trusted Readers moderate Comments
Your posts reeks of fanboyism, instead of addressing their points, you ignore them by claiming the posts are garbage.
It's not the same kind of mechanism, so you can't really provide odds.

I guess you could look at the S&P as an average measure of return.
More detailed info here:
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/social-media/15...
correct, which means that the Carrier, AT&T originally made it part of its deal with Apple..
Not to nitpick a point that's essentially irrelevant, but he's totally wrong. Slots are often among the best paying games in the house. On the Vegas strip it's not hard to find ones that pay 99.9% back, and progressives with a big jackpot pay over 100% frequently.
Oo. Great idea. I'll add that.